Thursday, July 30, 2009

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.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

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.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

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.

Monday, July 13, 2009

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 :-)

Friday, July 3, 2009

It rained yesterday







I decided to ride my trainer today.