I got behind because my internet poaching skills are subpar, but I got camera happy and took like 90 pics this weekend…so I won’t leave you hanging.
Mr. Kerkove and I headed up to Breck on Friday and rode a little portion of the course to get the legs primed and ready, and to giggle at the buffed out, smooth, delightful Colorado Trail. That was actually one of the first times I have actually ridden the CO Trail (shame on me). I want to go back in the fall and do some epic rides.
Pointing with the imperial finger.
At least the beetles contribute to making the forest more colorful. Not cool.
Working on my video skillz…work in progress, and next time sans girly giggling and screaming.
Ugh. I’m sick of waiting for you. (hehe)
Fahren Die Team Vagen in Das Topeak Ergon Shades.
Coffee and working at 6:30 AM. That’s hardcore. Yes people. He actually does take off the helmet and sunglasses sometimes….
Well I have had a few days rest and a nice long ride today. I’m gearing up for the B-32 in Breckenridge. There are a bunch of other distances like the 78 and the 100, but I think 32 will be quite long enough. It’s actually the second longest XC I have chosen to partake in this year!! (Sea Otter was the longest) This is another training race for me, but the course is going to be super sweet. Who knows, maybe I will continue to feel better on the bike!! I sure hope so. I ate a steak AND took iron today. I’m wondering how soon I’ll gain those 6 points of hematocrit back that I lost this year. Oxygen is useful and good, and my muscles would really like some.
Took a ride today on the token trails in Boulder- Marshall Mesa and Dowdy Draw for zone 2 work and then the Betasso Connector for some serious pain Z4/Z5 pain in the quads! Pics for your viewing pleasure.
Ummm.. moo?
I ate some cow for dinner. He was delicious.
The Flat Irons.
Marshall Mesa
Singletrax!
Connector. FUN!
More Betasso connector. The actual loop at the top is closed on Wed and Sat, so that was a no go.
Well, sorta. After peeling myself out of bed (days after an XC are always rough for me, but in that good happy way), JK and I grabbed some free french toast and headed out for a “recovery ride” to Aspen. One would think that a “rec” bike path would be flat, easy to someone who rides a lot. A) I guess the definition of “flat” and B) the definition of “a lot” would be useful here. Anyway, I really enjoyed the ride, despite having to ride up some pretty serious hills after completely annihilating ever last standing muscle fiber in my legs ! I bet Geckove’s heart rate was 78.
We were bike pathletes for the day….
We were riding to “Someplace warm. A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I’m talking about a little place called Aspen.”
Nature…
and even more nature….
and wildlife in his natural habitat and I quote, “Treeline makes me giddy and I drool everywhere. I need an adult bib that says ‘I heart mountains’”
The course was true to form: punishing as usual… yet utterly delightful, glorious, and satisfying. My legs are starting to improve, but it’s still going to be a few more weeks before my iron is back up to normal. As Coach says, “We are not out of the woods yet…but getting there.” I was happy to be able to finish (especially because I bonked spectacularly on the preride and was slumped on the hot pavement in the fetal position afterwards, getting brain freezes trying to guzzle down ice cold water), to feel decent for most of the race, to rage on the DH, and to feel zealous and stoked enough at the end to keep pushing straight to the line.
I got the luxury of attending the Snowmass with Mr. Jeffrey Kerkove in true Ergon fashion.
Quit taking my picture!!!!! Jeeeez.
I was very good about manning the camera most of the weekend…so since a picture is worth a 1000 words, that saves your eyes from having to read and my fingers from having to type. After all, gotta recover. It feels soooo good to be spent from a race.
Yes Uphill is good. Uphill is recommended.
Giddy on the singletrack. Not smiling is not an option.
Must…find…coffee… my veins need to flow with the magical bean juice.
Post race. Camera is locked and loaded. Look out! This is the face of a super heroic endurance racer who can dish it out in a little XC race and the 13 hour, super epic, 100+ mile mountain bike races. That is raw talent if you ask me.
and he was nice enough to help me make my bike work because I am not bike mechanically inclined.
Mantra for the race. I might start having a new mantra to make me smile through the tough times in the XCs.
Classic…
This is what heaven looks like.
and you wonder why it’s called Aspen, Colorado.
Jeff taking video and riding. who needs to hold on?
I have a new nickname for Jeff Kerkove. It’s Geckove. Now let me tell you why. The man can ride up XC courses and maintain a HR of 100. Reptiles can slow their HRs down, and he wears green. My HR was 170 when his HR was 100. Forget “Mr. 24″, I think Super Geckove is it!
Now just a bit on the race. We did 1 short and 1 long lap. Snowmass always starts out with a gut-wrenching long climb. The course was different from years past in that you got on singletrack pretty fast, rather than groveling up a dirt road forever. I tried to maintain a hard, steady pace for the majority of the race. I ended up riding at about 90% of my max HR (191 BPM) for the 2:39 race. I tried to keep it comfortably painful the first lap and out of the majorly red zone. By the time I started on the second lap, I was feeling it pretty bad so I tried to push it on the downhills and survives the next several thousand feet of climbing. Most of the peeps were at the NY Norba. I believe there were 12 pro female starters. I popped out 8th which I’ll happily take of all things considered.
I was out walking around my ‘hood with my former roommate and one of my BFFs, Miss Liz, the other day. I was telling her how my parents called me a yuppie and was slightly offended because dang it! I’m nice! I always assume yuppie has a negative connotation, but Liz informed me that I am “boulder yuppie.” Just bursting through the door from Snowmass/Aspen, I am now well aware that there are several different brands of yuppies. Liz used to maintain a blog that was one of my primary sources of entertainment and has shut that down the last year. I asked her to do a guest post about The Boulder Yuppie. She clearly did NOT use my life as an example.
___The Boulder Yuppie by Liz Dinwiddie (i.e. Lizzle Dinwizzle)_________
In a town that prides itself on it’s individualism you may be surprised to learn the rate of its occupants turning into a special breed of conformist: The Boulder Yuppie. Sonya swears she knows nothing about the intricacies of TBY so, dear readers, she asked me, Liz, to write a guest post about the details. To give a taste of what Boulder is looking like these days, I will take you through a typical day in the life of The Boulder Yuppie.
The Boulder Yuppie wakes up in their condo, hopefully near the mountains, full of ideals and thoughts on how to make the world a better place. They will make their organically grown, free trade coffee that they got from Brewing Market. If the Yuppie has time, they might check email or facebook on their Macbook and if not they will head to work.
They frequently wear spandex to work. No, not the Spanx undergarments; the kits that allow them to ride their bike to their job. Granted they have fashion sense and they will change into their North Face or Prana skirt once arriving at work. And of course, the outfit will be completed with a pair of Dansko clogs. The paycheck is usually earned in a science or nature related field. If they want extra yuppie points they work in environmental science- something like solar power. If they didn’t opt to ride to work, TBY most likely drove her Subaru. Did you know Boulder has the highest number of Subarus per square mile in the country? Within the city limits is also the largest independent Subaru dealer: SuperRupair.
After work and on the weekend most Boulder Yuppies will be found on the trails. There are various types of trails to chose from, the citizens of the Republic of Boulder made sure of that when they created the Greenbelt and Open Spaces around town. There are mountain bike trails, paved multi use paths, and of course hiking trails. Despite Boulder’s reputation of being mountain bike friendly, there are not as many trails as most mountain bikers would like. The paved multi use paths are more like bike highways mimicking L.A. and the hiking trails are infested with people who start of hiking and end up trail running halfway through their walk.
After their daily exercise The Boulder Yuppie will often head to one of the multitude of microbreweries that dot the town. These breweries have tours and video games. A true Boulder Yuppie will buy the brewery’s shirt so they can receive a free pint at every future visit.
The Boulder Yuppie will ride their bike back to their condo to dream about the many ways they are an individual in this exceedingly conformist, materialistic American society. After reading this full, honest, and totally unbiased description can you think of any bloggers who might fit the Boulder Yuppie profile? Yeah, me neither.
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NBC National News did a cut on how cycling is really good for you. My coach, Sean Madsen, does the fits at Boulder Center for Sports Medicine. Andy Pruitt is also on there too!! This is the fit I talked about back in the spring….
I figured I’d write a quick post while sipping this new coffee I’m trying today. It’s called Garuda but I have not decided if I like it or not. I am sort of a bean neophyte and pretty much drink what Nina tells me is good. I decided that instead of getting Sumatra, old faithful, I’d be a little more adventurous. When I’m busting out some LT intervals in a hour, I guess I really won’t care.
This weekend will be try numbre dos at racing since my season died. Snowmass Mountain States Cup. Snowmass is one of those courses I have done every year I have raced bikes, and sometimes twice when it was a national. I have had MANY ups and downs there… including getting lost in the woods walking back b/c I double flatted out of the race (2 years ago), riding up the climb in a national realizing I was climbing with the best of them, camping in a paintball field in the freezing cold, sleeping in various packed condos, staying at houses down in the valley with groups of friends, and of course, who can forget the Snowmass finals party in 2006… it’s a good place. I love it. The riding is unbeatable too. I wouldn’t miss this race for the world (unless I was in Hawaii like last year. )
My tailbone is getting better, finally. I can stand up and pedal with no pain, and pedal seated up climbs without having to be limited in movement. It makes a difference I’m almost off of naproxen/ibuprofen..still taking it a little bit. It’s going to take another couple weeks for the anemia to subside, but things are on the mend and I’m doing my best to stay in good spirits about it all.
I’m going to miss my Cannondale gals at the NY Norba National this weekend. New venue…so it’ll be interesting.
My Scalpel is calling me, “psssst! Sonya! time to go ride! Seriously!” I gotta go!
I got to go for a ride on the mountain bike!!!!! and I got to do intervals. They hurt really bad, especially b/c I have no power, but I still enjoyed every minute of it. I went to Golden to ride Chimney Gulch pretty early in the AM. After downing a delicious coffee and some oatmeal, I headed out at warp speed (well as warp as my tough bastard car would drive) I like Chimney Gulch/Apex/Enchanted Forest because it’s up and down. I am not a fan of flat rides, particularly flat road rides (which I have to embark on a 3.5 hour one soon…sniff. I’m so proud of myself for not heading up to the mountains to do a mtb ride. You have NO idea how much restraint this is taking…like an 18 yr old boy at the Playboy mansion).
Lookout Mountain…getting my Cannondale Scalpel ready to rocket right off. I love my bike… kind of like it’s a person. Sick. I know. My bike is my boyfriend right now. We have a love/hate relationship and sometimes it’s abusive, but I always keep coming back for more.
Happy/Sweaty Looney on a trail that points to the sky.
Cool shadow…
Liz and I tried to go to Breck to watch Marathon Nationals and check out a music festival. I am a little naive about traffic, being from New Mexico and all. Well, we got to I-70 and moved less than 20 miles in an hour and we were planning on coming back that night. Great reasoning convinced both of our brains that it’s not worth spending more time in the car than actually IN Breckenridge, and we were going to miss the end of the race. We flipped it and headed back to the Boulder Bubble.
….and went to Folsom Stadium instead. I was feeling particularly snarky last night for several reasons, so we had a lot of fun.
Plenty of people to watch…and lots of weird haircuts.
Old Glory
Liz and I cringing at the Woodie Guthrie songs
Aniel on the jumbotron. He is me and Liz’s friend (Liz’s bff…) and plays viola in a number of orchestras, but this one was the boulder philharmonic. They had bright lights on the orchestra, so he was being a goober. Hmmm. I didn’t know Ray Charles was Puerto Rican…or played viola!
Pointing with the imperial finger.
At least the beetles contribute to making the forest more colorful. Not cool.
Ugh. I’m sick of waiting for you. (hehe)
Fahren Die Team Vagen in Das Topeak Ergon Shades.
Coffee and working at 6:30 AM. That’s hardcore. Yes people. He actually does take off the helmet and sunglasses sometimes….
