The Blob!

This is what I found in my rear tire. It's a 35 gram, 4 inch long conglomerate of Stan's special sauce that was plugging the 1/4 tear in my sidewall. Yikes! Or, maybe it was just floating around looking to attack a goat head or other unwanted invader. It's now sitting on my treasures shelf, a testament to the sealing powers of Stan's.

Don't leave home without it.

Funny Pic

I saw this on a Realtors website and thought it was funny. Sometimes your the frog, and other times the bird. Never give up, no matter what side of the meal you're on.

3 weeks to Leadville

Flying Dog has it all - beautiful quakies at the the top...

and wide open meadows at the bottom. I love riding these trails.

I tore this tire before riding the White Rim in a Day back in March and it's still holding air! I got my money's worth out of it and now it's retiring.

I was all smiles after only 1 hour of my 6 hour ride. Notice there are no more pics!

I just finished my biggest week of training that I've done in the last 12 months, and I have one more big week before tapering for Leadville. I've decided to go 2 weeks hard followed by 1 week of recovery and that seems to be working better for me. And instead of a 12 week plan, I've done only 10. That was more because I couldn't make up my mine if I want to just wing it on training, or call on LW to do her magic. Being the anal sole I am, I opted on a regimine instead of flying my the seat of my pants (sorry Chris & KC) and I lost 2 weeks of training time. I can't say I'm going to be faster, but I'm sure less burned out than I was this time last year. Hopefully, that will make Leadville more enjoyable and I'll have a better result than 2008.

Another thing I did this year was race less XC events and I rode fewer 100 mile/12 hour MTB races. As a matter of fact, the only mountain hundie I did was White Rim back in March and a road hundie 2 weeks ago. I expect that will help also. That doesn't make sense, does it? I rode 6 hours today in the Flying Dog/Round Valley areas and picked up 5600 feet of climbing and felt better during the last 2 hours than I expected. Maybe things are coming together.

From a fueling standpoint, I've been riding with Hammer Nutrition most of the time and feel I have a good routine that should be simple and effecient and cut down on pit time. I'd like to find a few solids to add, but haven't tried real hard to find them. I'm counting most on Hammer to get me under 10 hours.

So, now it's 2 days off and 5 more hard ones beginning on Wednesday, then the taper. That's the next carrot and I can hardly wait to taste it.

Last weekend

The last 2 weeks have been busy with work, and working out, so posting to my blog was a low priority. Now I have a few minutes before mowing the lawn so I'll give a short recap.

I've changed my training routine around, with the help of Lynda Wallenfells, to 2 weeks on and 1 off. Last year I did 3-1 and it killed me. Seems like I need more time to recover as I get farther away for the big three O. So far, it's working well for me. My knee problem over the winter cut about 4 months out of my riding schedule so I've been on the fast track to get back in shape. Although I'm doing well, I can tell the missing winter base miles are having an effect. Leadville is only 5 weeks away and that's my only "A" race for the year. I'm ready mentally, and I trust the physical will come around by then too.

My last 2 week block concluded this weekend with a 4 hour mtb ride in the Glenwilde area on Saturday; Flying Dog from both sides and some other goodies, and a 6 hour mtb ride on the PC Rail Trail Sunday. That one really challenged me mentally. Six solo hours on a slightly pitched smooth trail in a hot canyon with the wind in my face ought to do wonders for my mental toughness. More importantly though, I learned to drink water! I'm one of the unfortunate ones that does not get thirsty, and I suffer greatly afterwards for it. Eight days ago I did a 102 mile solo road ride and got so dehydrated I was fuzzy for two days after. Really. So yesterday I drank the equivalent of 1-24 ounce bottle per hour for 6 hour/88 miles and I felt great. I got home and drank a bunch more, ate some food and life is good.

I have 2, 2-week blocks under my belt now and the mileage and intensity has been steadily going up. I feel I'm adapting well, but my butt is slow to come around. More Gold Bond and Butt Butt'r will hopefully solve that inconvenience. And I'm thinking about a 24 solo in October!!! Yeah, right. I test (Powertap) again this week on Thursday and hopefully will see a little power gain and then I hit the final 2 weeks before a nice 2 week taper before the Bigee. I think LW has a couple more 7 hour rides in store so that ought to up the stakes a little higher.

In all seriousness, I don't know how I'll finish this race. Ten hours at 10,200 to 12,600 feet just doesn't seem doable. I'm still way off from where I think I should be and I have some minor lingering knee pain that bothers me a little. I really want to break 10 hours in the biggest way, but, I need to be real and be satisfied if I can finish. There's always next year and now that everything is physically in order, 2010 will be a spectacular year.

Have a good week the two of you that read this :-)

It rained yesterday

I decided to ride my trainer today.