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...

PTS updates...

PTS newsleter just out.

Lots of good stuff as always.

Training and Love

nothing major to report.

Training has been… difficult to say the least. Even with the blessing of having plenty of time to train, sometimes mother nature just keeps throwing you curving balls. Last week, my easy week, was beautiful, full of sunshine and enough warmth to finally melt down the glacier on my street. Great weekend of riding, can’t complain there. The group rides are kicking up again and it was still warm. So back to the grind of tiring to get in 20 QUALITY hours and BAM! 15 degrees and some snow. It could have made anyone sit on the trainer for an agonizing hour.

But…

Today is when I realized that I will be successful in my cycling quest. The reason is because I love this. This is a picture of my ride today. The picture is alittle it was brighter than that. Not far from where I live is “Marshal Mesa”. Not a huge area but big enough to keep me and my cross bike busy for 90’. Then off to a climb near my house to push out my strength intervals, back around a little loop with a few more minutes of dirt and I was home. A nice quality 3hours. And best of all, I loved it! Tomorrow will be even better I’m sure

You have to love what you do or you’ll never be great at it. Make ends meet, sure. You may have even won a race or two but you will never get to your full potential if you are constantly fighting your self.

FOR SALE

fell free to send me an e-mail on anything that I have for sale if you have questions. I also have more stuff that isn't up right now, clothes, winter jackets, etc..

Bike
Pedals. I have another pair too!
Wheels

Winter training in full affect

***For Sale***

can't beat this!!

***OR This!!***

This is what many of my rides have looked like since… ahhh November!
But all is moving along pretty well. The cross bike and tires have defiantly paid off. I can ride almost any time in any conditions. When the roads are real bad I head to the dirt roads (or snow roads in this case) add in some X-country skiing and this year some more down hill skiing. I grew up down hill skiing but haven’t really been hitting that hard in the past years. But with places like copper, winter park and Vail so close it would be a sin not to.
Which brings me to a quick note on Cross Training. Cross training is something other than your primary sport(s) that works areas, skills and or weakness that may not be primary to success but will help.
Cross training is also something that, like all training, must be consistent! Going hiking one weekend over the winter ravaging your legs, making your lower back and hip flexors feel like veal is NOT cross training. You don’t have to be a master at this activity but just effective enough to get positive training effect. Not injury your self , be able to repeate once a week or more and of course not take away from your primary sport training.
Jan newsletter from PTS is up and always full of good stuff. Also an article by yours truly.

Happy training!