Time Flies

Well, it's been two months since I've last been slummin' around these parts.

I guess first and foremost, let's get caught up on all the racing action this summer.  I've taken part in a number of races up, down and around the mountain region of the country.

Of course, I've had to jump into the local Vail Rec District races.  I've managed to make it to three of the five races so far:  Eagle Ranch Classic, Hammer in the Hay, and Davos Dash.  Haven't had the greatest success from a pure result standpoint, but I have been holding my own, setting a PR at Davos (a three-mile hillclimb) by 40 seconds.  Pretty stoked with that one, cuz when you're 6'-6" and staring down the barrel of 200 lbs, one thing you don't do particularly well is go uphill in a hurry.

Also, I've jumped into a couple of Mountain States Cup races - Cheyenne Mountain Explosion, and Rabbit Valley Rally.  Cheyenne was a technically demanding course, but not over the top from a fitness standpoint.  Rabbit Valley Rally found me fighting some nutrient imbalance issues, and cramping out of the race.  Sucks, because I was flat out hammering in that race until I went down.

The Teva Mountain Games have also come and gone.  A lucky couple of days got the course in good prep for the race; and for only using the bottom third of Vail Mountain, my God was that a challenging track.  Steep, punchy climbs that didn't just make your legs scream - they straight up took a chainsaw to them.  Dropped the only water bottle I had with me about 5 minutes into the race...not sure why I even finished that one.  Oh well - if there's one thing I'll say for the TMG event, it's that the swag bag for athletes is stellar.  $40 entry fee, well over $50 worth of stuff in the bag.  Makes just showing up worth it.

Palisade Classic was easily my best race of the year so far.  Which is surprising, because typically I don't hang on very well in longer events.  With a 45 minute climb right out of the gate, a solid 30 minute jeep road descent immediately after, the first half of the race didn't set up well for me.  After holding it together through those two sections, the remainder of the course was flat, sandy singletrack winding all over on the mesa overlooking Colorado's wine country.  Finally - a course that had the terrain that I excel at.  Was able to keep things motoring along over the last two hours of the race, finishing up 17th in the overall standings.

The lower rock garden.  75 yards of hand-built hell.

Finally, we arrived at the USA Cycling National Championships, in Ketchum, Idaho.  First trip to Ketchum.  Definitely want to go back - the place is freaking amazing.  Beautiful vistas, a small-town feel that can't be beat (but has all the amenities you could want), and miles upon miles upon miles upon miles of singletrack.  Ironically, as good as the singletrack around Ketchum is, the race course was iffy at best.  Rock gardens had to be hand-built, the main climb of the race saw 90% of the racers walking due to a combination of steep, loose gravelly trail, large root step-ups (12-18"), and severe racer congestion.  The rest of the course wasn't bad, but didn't give you any opportunities to make up for the poorly constructed climb.  Right at the bottom of the course, in front of the entire spectator crowd to see, was the "Waterfall" - a rock garden descent (of course, hand-built) that fell away from you as you entered.  Imagine as you're riding into this section, you see rock-rock-big rock-nothing.  The trail just disappeared from you.  Interesting, but I got the better of it and crushed it on both laps.  The climb was too steep for me to hold on to the group, so I found myself dropping a lot of time on the uphill portion.  Made up for it on some flat sections - there just wasn't enough of the terrain in my wheelhouse that I could get back into the mix.  Still, I bested my target time, and hung in there with the best mountain bike racers in the country.  Great road trip, heading up with buddy Josh Whitney (took 3rd in our race) and local racer/friend Adam Plummer.  Also ran into college cohort Aaron Elwell, racing the Pro division...always a great time catching up with him.

Climbing off the start of Nat'l Champs.  Road is actually about 18% grade.

The flat rocks were actually was one of my stronger facets of the race.

VRD #1: Eagle Ranch Classic

Vail Rec District XC #1, at my 'home course' in Eagle Ranch. Warmup wasn't going so well...pretty tired still from Sunday's Palisade Classic (more on that later). 'Pizza Legs' as my coach calls them...

VRD races are possibly the hardest hour of racing in Colorado. Heavy hitters - some of the best riders in the state - ramp the pace up to unbelievable speeds on short courses, creating a "hold on or get left" tempo.

This first local race of the season proved no different. The race course sets up as a good early season test of where a racer's riding is at: checks the power with some steep but short climbing, checks the handling with fast darting singletrack, and checks the overall fitness by offering no place for recovery.

Race started with Pros and Experts in one big group. Hot right off the start, and I couldn't muster the legs to go with. Did what I could for the first two laps, just hanging onto give myself a chance.

Someone in front of me stacked it up (i.e. crashed) on the first lap, and the leaders of my race were long gone. Sucks.

Second lap had me falling further off the pace, with no juice in the legs, falling back to 11th or so. The climb up and over Bailey's reaches grades that force you up over your front wheel to keep from flipping over backward. This one REALLY hurt. Good thing it's only a couple minutes long.

Legs opened up a little for the last lap, and was able to catch up to fellow Bach'er Tim Mt. Pleasant, put a good move on him, and work my way back up for a 7th place finish, with Tim following up closely thereafter in 8th.

Next up is Teva Mountain Games race next Saturday (we all hope?), with VRD #2 the following Wednesday at 4Eagle Ranch.

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Get Out Expo

Hey Kids!

If you're in the area, come on out to Eagle Ranch Village today to the Get Out Expo!  Bike demos from local shops, group rides (one of which led by yours truly), clinics, and all sorts of other outdoor related shenannigans!

Get Out Expo

Race Report...wha???

Well now.

It's been a while since I've actually done up a proper post.  Call it laziness, or lethargy, or being busy with other things, or training, or whatever.

Anyways, I'm a solid three races into the mountain bike season, so I figured I'd spill it all and summarize how things are going so far.  Let's do this one race at a time, and since one is pretty fresh, we'll hash it out in reverse order.

This past Saturday was the Front Range 60 MTB race, put on by Warriors Cycling.  Known in the past as the "Battle of the Bear", the race is typically a early season race around Bear Creek Lake State Park in Lakewood, CO; this event always brings a number of people down out of the mountains to get some training in as well as thaw out from the long winter.

This was my first year racing the event. I signed up for the "half-marathon" - a 30-mile shorter version of the FR60.  After pre-riding the course on Wednesday evening, I knew this course set up well for my strengths: a lot of flat, fast, sandy singletrack and doubletrack trails, with 5 different punchy climbs mixed in, for a 10-mile lap that was challenging and tactical enough for pro racers, and simple enough for beginners to enjoy themselves and the competition.

Fellow Bach racer Tim also came down from Eagle to race the 30 miler, as did fellow valley residents Jerry Oliver and Tyler Eaton to race the 60 miler earlier in the day.

I realized when I was warming up for the race that there were a number of guys in my age group that actually race in the Pro field for the Mountain States Cup series...there were no "ability" categories.  Mens Half-Marathon, 30-39yrs old.  Yikes...going head to head with some of the fastest guys around.

The weather was amazing all day, with temps starting on the warm side in the morning for the 60-milers.  By the time we got lined up for the 30-mile race at 2pm, temps were pushing 90F in the direct sunlight, with very little breeze.  My body was loving the heat, thawing out from 8 months of winter.  Line up, with Elgee on the mic, and off we go...

Pace was fast and heavy right off the start.  I sat in the group to try to get comfortable and get my heart rate and breathing plateaued off as soon as possible, rather than spiking and trying to hold it.  Our group was split up within the first 10 minutes of the race - the fast Pro guys off the front, and the rest of us just left in a wake of splintered up crap after trying to hang.

About two-thirds of the way through the first lap, the largest climb on the circuit hit like a wall.  While it was only about 300 ft of vertical, and just barely had to drop into the middle ring to climb it, it was in direct sunlight, and completely protected from any breeze there was.  All of a sudden, I'm overheating...no bueno.  Only having a bottle of Infinit drink, I had nothing to effectively cool off.  Fought through being on the verge of passing out, and descended the other side to finish off the lap.

Second lap was really good effortwise - I kept a solid spin going up all the climbs, and was doing work on all the flats, hammering out in the big ring.  Third lap started off well, but heading into the big climb again, my left hamstring started to twinge a little.  By the time I was on the homestretch back to the finish line, my right quad was about ready to sieze completely.  Put the rest of the drink I had in me, limped up the last climb of the day to the finish line, and crossed the line.

Since we were so splintered up, it was difficult to tell where I placed.  I felt like I had a pretty good day on the bike.  I was losing about 5 minutes a lap to the guy who won our group, but kept it relatively close to the bunch in front of me.  Ended up finishing in 2:05:58, which was good enough for 13th in our group of 25.  Didn't quite hit my goal of a Top 5 finish, but given the pros racing in the field, I'm OK with it.  After seeing the halfway times of some of the 60-mile racers, I also set a goal for sub-2:00, which I came close to, but ultimately, the overheating on the first lap and the cramping on the third lap kept me from getting there.

Overall, the course was kind of boring but super fast, so it was fun from that regard.  Not every day you get to big-ring almost an entire race.  Lots of good competition showed, and the event overall was very well organized, run, and sponsored.  I mean, cross the finish line, pound some water, then Oskar Blues Brewery is handing out free Mama's Little Yella Pils, Gordon's, and Dale's Pale Ale?  Come on...not going to do much better than that.

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Snowpack

It's May. The snowpack up here is unreal this year.



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Finally...a Nice Day in the Rockies!

Getting the chauffeur treatment on way to Lakewood - Bear Creek Lake Park for Front Range Half-Marathon race. Should be a good day; 80s and lots of sun. Looking forward to thawing out.





Still lots of snow up here in the mountains, but warm temps and blue skies make it OK.






Ri is just illin'. She loses interest pretty quickly on road trips.

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