back on the bike :-)

It's been a nice long break but I got back on this weekend for a couple of respectable 4 hour days. On Saturday I did the Oval Ride with Brett, Phil and Kate. We did the short south loop and came back over the hills which felt good.

Then on Sunday Phil and Patty and I rode to Carter Lake and back. It felt good to be pushing myself again.

And to mitigate the earlier hotlinking... check out this new Fort Collins website: The Group Ride for all your Fort Collins cycling needs.

Well this is a stupid invention...

http://www.velonews.com/article/80345/tools-instead-of-water

OK I'm sure someone thought this was really clever and there are probably enough Freds to make it a commercial success. But seriously... if you're doing rides short enough that you don't need both your water bottle cages do you really need that much extra space for carrying tools?

Next they're gonna try to re-market those fancy 1990s behind the seat water bottle cages that everyone thought were so aerodynamic because the bottles "drafted off the rider" (read, *#$@ed up the laminar flow and created turbulence like crazy)

i love going downhill :-)

Wednesday Lee's ride. We went south to Loveland and then came north along Glade road and back over the hills into town. I knew I could ride hard on such a short course so I bridged to an early break in Loveland and started driving it for all I was worth. I was fairly sure we had the group cracked when someone crashed in the main pack (we were going around a hairpin and could see them behind us). We all sat up, frustratingly. Then a few guys rolled away while we were sitting around.

Ride re-started and I got away with 2 other guys from the original break. We were flying into the headwind but then one guy sat up. Two guys in the headwind hurt but we still had a big gap so we stayed on the gas. I just wanted to make it over HTMP before they caught us so we wouldn't have to handle attacks.

We made really good time up the first climb and picked up Don Spence near the top. Then my break-mate hit the bottom of Marina hard and I let him go (rather ride my own pace than crack halfway up). At the south end of the resevoir one guy bridged up from what was left of the main group. He, Don and I rotated, chasing my break-mate. Just before the final downhill I jumped and got a gap. Went through the two corners on the downhill way faster than the other 3 and caught the guy up the road in the process. He was dumb enough to keep riding hard while I sat on him until about 100m to go at which point it was fait accompli. The fitness is definitely coming back.

Hey I finally have something to write about!!

I did the Lee's ride today. Normally I skip this in favor of Worlds but I haven't been riding in a month and Lee's is a little slower and more forgiving. We rolled out with a pretty large group (40 maybe?) and took a round-about loop through Timnath, up towards Wellington, down Hwy 1, then turned west on Douglas road and did the sprint at the cement plant. I felt mildly bonked the whole time which is probably because in my month off I've learned that I really dont have to eat on any sort of schedule. I tried to split the group once but didn't really have the legs.

Coming down Hwy 1 I thought we were going to do the speed sign sprint by the lake so I started jumping wheels to get to the front. But we turned right and all my crafty wheel jumping was for naught. Then I got dropped on the little roller on the north end of shields (~3k from the sprint). I chased back on at the stop sign and clung desperately to the back of the group knowing I needed to move up for the sprint but afraid I'd get dropped again if I tried.

We hit the base of the sprint hill and I was about 20 guys back. I stood up and gave it everything and was suddenly reminded that I wasn't on the oval ride and nobody can suffer worth a damn on the Lee's ride. Both legs were cramping with every pedal stroke but I managed to get around everyone but Steve Shepherd who had a huge gap already by the time I hit the front of the group. I think I'll try to win next week and then get back to Worlds the week after :-)

And this weekend I'm contemplating some sweet hikes. Probably Longs and then a hike up near Crystal Mountain in search of a couple of B-17s that crashed up there in the 40s.

flagstone classic?

My last race as a cat3 was Boulder Roubaix (April 2007). I rode the final 3km like an idiot but came to my senses at 600m and got the job done. (The rider on the ground was OK. The Einstein's rider behind him is about to go over the handle bars... he wastaken away in an ambulance but was ultimately OK)

And I got a sweet trophy...
The trophy has been sitting in my shed for 14 months but I finally set it in the walk in front of my house. The plaque is still attached to the underside of the rock... that should be an interesting thing for someone to dig up someday when they reset the stones.

Boxi is dead

Alas, he came wandering across my desk last night with a leg missing and was dead this morning.

But that's not important now... what IS important is that I'm healthy, not procrastinating as much, moving my circadian cycle backwards (earlier to sleep, earlier to rise) and riding again.

This weekend is Koppenberg. Probably the shortest RR in Colorado which despite it being god-awful hard is probably good for me :-) I don't really know how I'll stack up but with Redlands going on the really fast guys should be in Cali so I'm excited to see what I can do against the normal Boulder cat1s. Also, it is sunny.

My season, thus far...

So here's how my season's gone so far... I train, I get faster, I procrastinate on a deadline for work, I pull an all-nighter to finish the work in time for a demo, I get sick, I don't train, I get slower, I get healthy, repeat.

This is NOT a recipe for success.

Anyway for the last week or so I've been doing a lot of sitting around sick (and working late into the night while sick which is bad) and generally being annoyed with myself for procrastinating last night and getting sick. So this week I'm gonna work consistently and not procrastinate.