The Wash

Today was the first REALL race in the Boulder area. Well… second but the first I did not attended no training nicey nice racing today. 500$ payout. pouring rain dirt roads the Belgians would have loved it! I however did not. Like my teammate and buddy says, “some times you feel like nut!, and some times you don’t”

Check out the race report!

not my new kit here obviously but its coming!

ups and down's

Been supper busy lately. My Buddy would ask "good busy or bad busy?" This has been good busy.

The Program is full on now. And it is kicking into high gear. racing is kicking into gear and my A race is getting creeping up at an alarming rate!

The other day after a horrible threshold test I was riding around doing some easy climbing and was getting even more upset about how slow I was going. I stopped at a cafe in the a small Mt. town of about 12 people. I had no cash and asked if they tock C.C. knowing it would be a no.

"No", the nice lady said, "we take cash, checks, and IOU's" I laphed and started my way to the door. "you sure you don't want anything?" "I’m OK, thanks." "i'm serious! we take IOU's! what do you want?" she was almost insisting now. looking for something to break the rhythm of my non rhythmic training session I had a coffee. It was an average cup of Joe but the purity of the woman and this town made me realize all the things that pop into my head when I get selfishly down. My life is good and I am one of the luckiest people I know. It also made me think of a quote that Coach Gordo seems to live by and I believe in it more every day.

"We can not build a complete race, without a complete life"

I had a conversation with a teammate the other day about just that. I feel this is one of the most important things for any and every athlete to realize and accept.

Tomorrow I am riding with a client and going back to the cafe. I have a bill to pay and they have homemade sticky buns there! Love the sticky buns.

Let it Begin

Sorry for the lack of updates. Things have been busy but not interesting busy. Training has been good. The weather has been on and off but my east coast skin has been keeping me warm. Big day yesterday. This is a pic from the top of Big Thompson canyon. A long and beautiful climb. It tops out above Estes park. After a short decent into town I was ready for some food. After some serious coffee and calorie intake I was ready for the trip home. we had already be riding for over 3 hours and put out around 2500 kj’s. another climb out of the park, the screaming decent into Lyons and we hit some tempo for the last 30+' home. Need ess to say 3800 kj’s and 6 hr’s later I was pretty worked and very concerned about the first training race the next day .

The Stazio training series is a 3 series race in March. In Boulder races can vary like any p-1-2 race. but here the “local” pro’s are Scott Moniger and the BMC pro team. and it seems that everyone and there brother is a cat 1. I have recently noticed/ learned the difference between cat 1 and cat 2 out here. It is far to complex for me to explain here and I’m just to tired. But assure you it’s a big difference.

Base training from me has come to an end and there are a few things I have noticed about this year I thought I would share. I have done more cross training. More x-county skiing and more down hill skiing. And if you read my article on cross training you will already be saying Down hill skiing isn’t quite “cross training” EK… and your right. But hey I am in the Rockies and the skiing this year has been unreal. Plus spending 3 weekends at 10,000 plus feet doing jump turns all day and ripping non stop don run that drop 3,000 feet can’t “bad” for you. Right??

also my HR and intensity has been a bit higher during endurance rides. why? have I been pushing to hard? Am I just able to push more power longer? I don't really know. I feel good and this wasn't a contious thing it just seems to have been that way.

Any who. Here we go... a quick note on the race in the race reports, check it out.

I'll give you a quick play by play from... not the frount.

Stazio #1

The race was rather difficult and tricky with a heavy wind on the hill and decent and the fast (53-12 fast) on the flat finishing straight. After a long pull to bring back an early move I was too far back when the hammer went down. I made my way into the second group then went to work on the front. After a bit I was really feeling the hill. I moved back a bit and road into the finish. I was a bit disappointed but after seeing more and more riders on the side of the road every lap I figured I wasn’t so bad off. Good riders too. Slipstream riders, etc. “did they just come to watch? Did they get dropped from the group I was in? no I think many got dropped from the lead group and pulled out after that. Lessons learned. The wind out here is a HUGE factor. It can ruin your race, or make it, good positioning has never been a strong point of mine but if I want to do anything out here it is going to have to become one.

Scott Moniger moved away from the front group with 2 other guys and just road away I guess. He looks really fit. Nothing but muscle and a bike. And that look of his. He can’t be more than 140 lbs and 5’8” but when he looks at you in full kit you’d swear he’s 10 feet tall. I swear bike helmets and sun glasses where made for this man.

I had a rowing coach tell me once before a race. “Guys, don’t be distracted out there, BE the distraction” good advise.

...ride safe everybody...