Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Week

7 days- dang.
Day 1- Valmont CX Race in Boulder. A small fight with Amy and she won. I was second and pleasantly surprised!
Day 2- Chill, pack, teach a CX Clinic in Boulder.
Day 3- Fly to Vegas, build bike, and melt and cramp while pre riding the CrossVegas course.
Day 4- AM- Interbike- Sign posters and be nice to people at the NOW Energy Bar booth.
Day 4- PM- Race CrossVegas with friend and teammie Pups (Robin Farina). Holy crap, I had the CX race of my life and got 3rd. I couldn't believe it- still can't. Fricken amazing. Yep, that's right, I have impressed myself.
Day 5- Work NOW booth and fly home.
Day 6- Drive to Crested Butte with friend and fellow ALP athlete Liz. Pre drive/ride parts of the CB 100 course.

Day 7- CB 100. That's right, a 100 mile mtn bike race in Crested Butte. 11,000ft of climbing all above 8,500 ft. 10hrs, 11 min, 1 rear flat, 1 new course record, and 0 crashes. Again, I'm impressed with myself.

Thanks Eszter Horanyi and Mountain Flyer for the sweet photo.

Actually, I was more impressed with Liz than with myself. She finished only 4 min behind me and saved me with a CO2 on the Dyke Trail. Watch out mtn bike world, she's gonna kick your asses in a couple of years.
Day 8 (I know, 8 days is one more day than a week, but oh well)- Amazingly awesome mellow mtn bike ride in CB with Liz. Yes, we were tired. Yes, we probably shouldn't have ridden so much, but we couldn't resist. When in Rome...


Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Time Out

No racing. No traveling. No training. For the past three weeks, I've had a time out and it's been awesome. I've gotten to hang out with friends. I've gotten to ride bikes with He Who Must Not Be Named. I've gotten to hang out with my family. I've had big, awesome, bike rides.

See, not all time out's are bad.

Top of Mammoth Gulch- one of the big bike rides
 The cows cheered and moo-d us on.
 My friends. Every Thursday we ride bikes, drink beer, whiskey, and be silly.
 My Family. The start of my first ALP Cycles Athlete Appreciation Ride. The ride was a giant success, mostly in part to my parents. There are more pictures on the ALP Cycles Coaching FB page.
 Our Aid Station in Granby was my former high school- Middle Park
 The leaves are changing and it's beautiful. It's also getting chilly (I had to use the seat warmer in the car this morning).
 Lucy Dog keeps me company on our let's go poop walks. Moe Dog is probably pooping.
 He Who Must Not Be Named.... is the best. And he makes me happy. (Yes, this was a Thursday ride and we dressed up like Germans and rode bikes).
 It was fun!
For now, Time Out is officially over. I have 2 weeks of crazy. 2 CX races (1 finished. I got 2nd), 1 100 mile mtn bike race, 1 trip to Vegas (I'm here now), 1 trip to Crested Butte, 2 trips to Vail,1 TT and 1 Crit.  I'll need the whole month of October to recover from that.