Goodbye, January

Since the great training sessions out in St. George last weekend, I've been trying to catch up on school work. Unfortunately, some germs that someone brought to Hotel Harris took me down. Fortunately, my fate wasn't quite as bad as what transpired to a chilled House Finch on a morning that was -6 deg here - this Cooper's Hawk got some warm breakfast:


Today I got out for a very easy 6-hour ride for the last century of the month. Alexis joined me for part of the ride, and we climbed up to Carter Lake and rode some of the beautiful highways to the north.

Also, the rest of the parts I need to get my new rig up and chugging will be on their way from SRAM very shortly. Thanks to both SRAM and University Bikes of Boulder for helping me out!

The coldest and windiest month of the year (at least for Boulder) is drawing to a close. Despite the often less than ideal weather, it was a good month for training.

January training summary:
Hours on the road bike: 31
Hours on the mountain bike: Strangely, also 31
Hours on the 'cross bike: 23
Hours of skiing, hiking, or climbing: 0
Total hours in the saddle: 85
Miles covered: 1040
Total vertical gain: 88,000'
Problems with the body: 0 (other than this brief cold)!
Problems with bikes: 3 flats, 1 dead 1998 XTR rear derailleur, one rear skewer ground to death into the asphalt, 1 suspension fork not holding air pressure

Camp Lynda, over and done

Dave and Lynda's route today was a fantastic beast, and the weather couldn't have been better - 50s and partly cloudy. After 10 or so miles through town, we climbed up to a great overlook of the Virgin River Canyon.

Chris near the top of the overlook climb

Then we dropped back down and struck out across fast desert roads for 20+ miles. Chris and Dan were undergeared on their singlespeeds so we just coasted along with the strong tailwind.

Then things got muddy. It wasn't so muddy that it clogged up the bikes like yesterday, but it was slow and sucked a lot of power out of the legs.


A few miles later we ran into Dave Harris hammering out the loop in the other direction. It turns out our group of three was riding the outer loop backwards, so we soon saw the other ~10 riders over the next hour as we pushed into a nasty headwind.

Climbing over the high point on the ride had fantastic desert views...



And the descent down Blake's was fantastic...far more fun than riding up it like everyone else did.


We pushed a hard pace back west into a strong headwind and eventually caught Jeff Kerkove and Dave Byers. We pedaled on ahead of them and eventually regrouped near town when we stopped for a Pringles break. We cruised back into town together, total ride time of just over 8 hours (somehow we spent 1.5 hours not riding!? Compare that to Lynda's 21 minutes) for 107 miles and ~8000' of climbing.

Refueling some more after going out for dinner

Camp Lynda has now run its course. 3 days, 3 great rides, 17 hours in the saddle, and my bike and body both more or less held together. Now back to reality.

And it's raining yet again. And the forecast for the Colorado mountains is for 1-2 feet of snow over the next 36 hours. That should make for an interesting [possibly impossible] drive back to Boulder.

Camp Lynda, Day 2

Today was another superb day of riding out in the "desert." It rained more overnight, and poured during breakfast. But by 10 am, the rain moved out and the cloud cover gradually diminished for the rest of the day. The technical singletrack just west of town was on the menu for today, and I got in 5 hours of fantastic riding on a mix of tacky loamy sand and great slickrock. It only ended up being ~40 miles, but it was a hard-earned 40 miles with nearly 5000' of climbing. After a buffet dinner at the Golden Corral (which felt a lot like a cattle feed lot in my opinion), I'm refueled and ready for tomorrow's planned 100+ mile day. Hopefully the rain will stay away and the clayey sections will have dried up...

Again, no camera today, so here's a few more stolen photos:

Gas station food is full of calories! (photo by Jeff Kerkove)

Chris and I climbing away (photo by Jeff Kerkove)

Chris climbing up one of the great little washes (photo by Dave Nice)

More fun climbing, not in a gully this time. (Photo by Dave Chenault)

Camp Lynda, Day 1

Chris, Dan, and I drove out to St. George yesterday and are crashed at Dave Harris' pad. This morning ~40 riders showed up for the ride despite light rain and a forecast for more to come. We were turned back by mud a bit early, but still ended up with 40 miles in a bit under 4 hours. I left the camera behind because of the rain, so I stole a few bits from elsewhere on the interweb.

A fantastic photo from Lynda that captures the feeling of the day

And a video from Jeff from toward the end of the ride, my jersey flapping in the wind ...


The forecast is for more of the same tomorrow, so we'll see what condition the trails are in. Then Sunday will be the big 100+ mile day down across the Arizona Strip.

Stupidest road rash yet...

Alex and I snuck off for a few hours of riding in the hills this afternoon when it was in the mid-60s - that was quite a change from the past few days of riding. It cooled off a lot later in the ride, but it sure was nice to be in shorts again.

Alex testing out his new suspension fork

I'm still not terribly fond of this drop

I flatted on the ride back over Olde Stage Road as it got dark. Then riding back through a neighborhood about half a mile from the apartment, I suddenly found my rear wheel drifting to the side a bit. I straightened it out and though, "huh, is my rear tire going flat again?" As I thought that, my rear wheel started sliding away again, and I was then abruptly on my ass sliding very quickly across the ground as Alex pedaled along at the same speed. Ten feet or so later I realized I was sliding on ice! And after 4 days of 60+ degrees?! Sure enough. An awful grinding noise as my bike hit asphalt and ground against it signaled the end to my slide, and I was rudely decelerated. Now I have some mild road rash in places that makes sitting rather uncomfortable.

One more day here, and then I'm off to Camp Lynda for a long weekend of training with a big group of endurance freaks!

Back to work. For two days.

I drove back to Boulder early this morning. I have two days to get a lot of work done, put in 4-6 hours of pedaling, get my dying mountain bike in decent condition, and then pack up for the trip out to St. George. The forecast looks like it could be a bit rainy out there this weekend, so I'm hoping that the moisture will be minimal. No one likes driving 10 hours to muddy trails. My body recovered nicely over the past week (and I caught up on most of the neglected non-cycling parts of my life). Now this week will see the hours ramped back up.

Here's some pictures from the past 4 days of riding:

Winter maintenance on BLM and forest roads makes life interesting on a cross bike

Fantastic rut surfing potential

Sunset over Blanca Massif

Riding across the vast valley floor. Sanges in the background.

I explored some new roads up into the Cochetopa Hills...lots of potential!

View back toward the Sanges from North Cochetopa Pass.

This pass doesn't even have a sign at the top saying where you are. I had planned on riding more dirt and snowy roads yesterday, but instead found myself on pavement for 4.5 hours. It was a 70+ mile ride, and that feels like a damn long way when you do the whole thing on a cross bike with 40 psi in the tires.

Descending from the pass

The real reason I spent the weekend in such a cold place

Toughen up, cupcake

The past week has been a recovery week with respect to training, so the volume is down to around half of the two preceding weeks.  Short rides usually are uneventful rides, so there hasn't been much to write about.  The weather forecast for the weekend included a string of 60-degree days for Boulder, so I decided to head off to one of the coldest parts of the state for a long weekend.  If I'm not training the legs, maybe I should work on the mental game.  The last thing I want to do is become one a Colorado cupcakes who spends the winter inside on the trainer and only come out into the natural light when the mercury climbs well above the frostbite threshold.  So off to Saguache for some cold-weather fun...

While it was in the 60s along the Front Range, it was 12 degrees when I returned from yesterday's ride.  Today's high in the mid-20s felt balmy.  Unfortuantely, I'm without a USB cable, so photos are stuck on my camera.  I'll post some later.  Basically, picture some of the most beautiful vistas in Colorado, rut surfing on steep, snow-covered forest roads that don't see much use in the winter, crust riding on firm, wind-blown drifts, and cold toes.  After another day or two here, it's back to Boulder to teach one class this week and then off to St. George for a long weekend of desert riding.

Mission completed

This weekend has quickly run its course, and that means I'm finished with my first training block of the year. Two back-to-back weeks of ~25 hours of riding has slowly worn me down, but even today the legs felt surprisingly good. Here's the ground covered in the past couple weeks:

Yesterday I rode east to the South Platte Valley. It wasn't terribly exciting, so the camera remained in my pocket the entire time. I also somehow timed the ride so that I had a headwind 90% of the time. I was out from 11:30 to 4:30; look at how the wind changed from NE to W over that same interval. I knew I wasn't imagining things!

Today I hopped on the old mountain bike and climbed into the foothills, first on pavement, then on jeep trails.

Then I explored some singletrack I hadn't ridden before. It was steep, rocky, rutted, and pretty snowy on the way down into a neat secluded canyon. And if the descent was barely rideable down, then the bike would definitely be riding on my back for much of the climb back out on the other end of the little loop.


But the views were spectacular as the sun came out...



So that's that. And this afternoon I stopped by the shop to get some headset cups pressed into the new frame. I should have a Magic 80 to install within a week or two! Now for an easy week to let the legs fully recover and to allow me to get back into the rhythm of school and teaching!

Moon shadows

Went out for an easy ride under a glowing night sky last evening...

Ram country

Played hooky today and went up to ride the hills west of Fort Collins...

Lenticular clouds over Horsetooth Res

Yes, an ice cream sandwich on a ride in January

3 more days and then a recovery week!

The gates of hell

My ride today was one of the more unique ones I've taken lately and resulted in some spectacular photo ops. North Boulder Valley, a place I ride very frequently, went up in flames in an extraordinary way. As of now, about 6 hours after the fire was first reported somewhere on the easternmost ridge of the foothills, ~2000 acres have burned. Amazingly, only a few structures were lost. Apparently quite a few livestock (horses, cattle, llamas) were either evacuated or set loose. Winds gusting to 60+ mph made the fire appear to flow across the landscape, but the winds have since subsided. The northern edge of town was evacuated, but it looks like the flames won't quite make it to The People's Republic, per se.

I was blown off my bike more than once. I also had to jump a few times as I saw another huge wave of sand and gravel flying my way, about to pelt me and knock me to the ground. The wind plot below is from in town, and gusts were considerably stronger north of town.

Wind-sculpted lee waves over the Flatirons

Apparently the fire started somewhere up on that ridge

This is the view from the houses on the northern edge of town

The evacuation begins