What to do when it's windy in the mountains...

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Last Sunday, I had a bigger ride on my schedule. We had planned on hitting the Big Classic (Shop > Boulder > Shop) loop, but I got a Facemessage from JD at about 05:30 hrs saying that his house was shaking from the wind and that I probably shouldn't make the drive up; riding would not be fun. Instead, I headed up to Boulder and did a big dirt road loop with some teammates on CX bikes. While the ride was not quite as hilly as I had planned, it was good nonetheless.

Flat dirt roads

I was accompanying Shane D. and Mike B, and since there were only three of us we moved along at a decent clip. We never had any paceline going because all of us were mountain bikers and two of us didn't know how to paceline properly. I found myself, as the youngest and apparently the most "roadie," teaching the other two how to paceline. I tried to channel my inner Fatmarc, or Tom McD while doing this, as those are the people who taught me how to ride in a group.

A small riser, only Long's Peak in the background.

Still riding towards Long's Peak.

Obligatory dirt road selfie.

On the climbs, like I was going to do on the longer climbs in the mountains, I rode a solid tempo pace. We ended up putting in just under four hours and just over sixty miles. It was definitely one of my better days on the bike in a long time. By the end of the ride, my legs felt snappier than they have felt in maybe a year. Then we went to Twisted Pine Brewing Company and ate pizzas and beers.

Monday was a planned rest day, so I took the opportunity to clean both my mountain bike and my cross bike (see mud on jersey in previous). I used the chain cleaning technique espoused by Matt on Just Riding Along (a Mountain Bike Radio podcast... if you don't listen to it, you should). So now my chains are extra clean.

Yesterday I had an easy ride scheduled, so I went exploring. I ended up taking a trip up and over Dinosaur Ridge, back down through Golden, and back to the office. This was definitely a fun ride, and definitely one I'll be repeating soon.

The climb is short, but the road is completely closed to traffic.

Ripple marks!

Dinosaur tracks!

Ash layers (glasses for scale)!

Red Rocks!

The weather is starting to take a turn back to winter, so this weekend might be a bust for riding around here. A few 92Fifty folks are looking into some more southern options for riding this weekend; hopefully that pans out.

Laters!

The First Week in Trianing

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Last week I pedaled a bicycle for six consecutive days. This is more than I have done probably since we moved out to Colorado, approximately 1.5 years ago. I didn't do any hard efforts other than my field test on Friday, so my legs aren't that sore; they do reflect the effort I have put in over the last week, though. Especially yesterday's 2x20s. 2x20s are more or less the foundation needed for all types of endurance racing, so while they are not the easiest intervals to do, they are necessary. I don't have many pictures from the week, and those that I took I already shared on some social media, so I won't bother posting them. Let's just say that it was 68F yesterday when I started my ride, and averaged 58F over the almost three hours I was out. Riding in shorts and short sleeves is one of the privileges of living on the Front Range. Everyone thinks that winters here are horrid, but they're really not; there will be a handful more days like today before we transition to spring weather. Plus, even when it's cold down here (up in the mountains is another story), it's not that cold. The low humidity means that even on the coldest days I rarely break out my full winter gear. I usually have stuff with me, but I may only put it on for the longest descent.

After riding Saturday morning, Mrs. Geology and I set out for a night away. We had bought a deal online for what we thought was two nights (it turned out to be only one) at the Claremont Inn in Stratton, CO. Eastern Colorado isn't the most exciting place, it's very flat, and the elevation drops off rather quickly until you hit Kansas, but it does have this place, so it's got that going for it. We enjoyed a wine tasting with very liberal quantities of wine, a fantastic dinner and breakfast the next morning.

I'm looking forward to more riding and training this week. I have a lot of work to do before I take the start of the True Grit Epic 100 in March.

Laters.

Going to Try This Again...

I'm going to try and start writing here again.  After half a year of not writing, the shorter forms of Bookface and Twitter are no longer cutting it for me.  Plus I have a new thing for 2015, or more accurately restarting an old thing.

Starting on Monday (January 12 for those counting), I'm going to be coached by Jonathan Davis, who is the man behind 92Fifty (the team race for) and Elevated Legs.  He is a very experienced 24 hour (former national champion, if I remember correctly) and 100 mile racer, so I'm very excited to be working under him.  He will be working around my busy work schedule, so when I'm travelling I'll be running and doing core work and cross training.  I actually like running, and there are some pretty fun places to run where I usually travel.  After 1.5 years in Colorado and basically three years off any formal training plan, I'm very excited to get at it.  There are a lot of great races here in the West, and I have gotten the itch to explore them all.  To the right of these words is what I'm looking at for this year.  As you can see, there's the possibility of a full NUE season there using none of the NUE races I've done before.  Also there is the Vapor Trail 125.  I remember reading about this race many years ago and thinking that it would be hard; all but the first 10 and last 10 miles of the race are over 8500 ft and you spend a good portion above treeline at night.  JD (who has done many 24 hour solos) says it's the hardest one day race anywhere.  I want to give it a try this year.  My goal is to finish, and hopefully finish strong.  Another big one is the Maah Daah Hey 100.  That is a 105 mi point-to-point singletrack race on the Maah Daah Hey Trail in North Dakota.  North Dakota you say?  You're confused about why one would go to North Dakota for anything?  Well, I can guarantee you that it will be worth it, and I haven't even been there yet.  I'm very excited for both of these races.

Saturday I got on my bike for the first time this year.  I did a short loop at White Ranch because I was heading up the mountains on Sunday to do a 4 hr ride from the Shop down to Idaho Springs.  Saturday's loop was fun, if a bit icy.  I rode early to avoid snowmelt, so everything was still very frozen.  I had a hiker ask me at the trailhead how I did with ice.  I told him that it only made it more interesting.  I think I'm one of those mountain bikers who is not turned away by bad trail conditions (unless I'd damage the trail), so riding on packed, footprint-ridden snow was just another thing.  I doubt many people rode trails that day.  It was a good first ride of the year.  Later that afternoon Mrs. Geology and I went on a walk on some of the paved trails around Golden.

Sunday's main event was the classic Black Hawk to Idaho Springs loop coming back on Oh My God Road and Dory Hill Road.  It was a good ride, but definitely a hard jump into 2015 training.  7k of climbing over 45 mi in 5.5 hrs, but I made it home in good spirits.  Now I'm shoving food in my face and waiting for a reasonable hour to go to bed.

Some pictures from White Ranch:

Hogbacks.

Icy trails.

Tire tracks in big snow crystals.

Good Pivot... stay Pivot.

Denver over yonder, plus more hogbacks.

Until next time...