Come on down!!! Jeff and I will be talking about endurance riding and pretty much whatever you want to talk about. Format is open discussion. See you there!!!

Jon Krakauer had something when he wrote his book. I didn’t even get high enough to be half the elevation of Everest, but getting there! Trail Ridge Rd in Rocky Mountain National Park is the highest continuous road in the United States, with a good portion of it between 11,000 and 12,300′! When riding up that high, the altitude must be treated with respect. Weather can turn in the blink of an eye from a bluebird sunny day to an utter nightmare with lightning, snow, hail, and hypothermia. Fortunately, today was nice for the most part.

Mr. Kerkove got me out of bed at 6 AM (again) today and we headed out to Estes Park (via car). I was admittedly a bit cooked from the high altitude suffering the day before, but still more than willing to get on the saddle and go! I had been up on this road once in a car, and was excited to make the voyage on my bike. There were no words to describe the views.

Jeff rode with me for the first hour, and then had a mission to accomplish and headed up the road. I met him at the car 4.5 hours later.

Then it was just me and the quiet, patient giants.

I actually do ride my road bike sometimes.

My legs started to feel just fine after about 1.5 hours. Amazingly, the altitude wasn’t really bothering me as far as breathing. I didn’t feel short of breath, but I did feel like I couldn’t push. The summit was 12,300′ and it was incredibly windy. I was jerked around by the wind and had to go pretty slow on the DH to make sure I didn’t get blown off my bike. I could feel myself get a bit panic-y about it, but was able to chill. It was also about 40-45F up there!

Before getting to treeline. The ride started at about 8000′.

The snow wall was pretty tall in some spots.

Pano. Watch out with your computer volume – the wind is loud.

I went up and over the summit, and down the other side toward Grand Lake. Once the road flattened out a teeny bit, I decided to turn and go back up.

And finally head back down…

Ride stats – 4 hours, 53 miles, ~6000′ of climbing. It was a good day, and I even put in a few short efforts. I did stop to take a lot of pics though, and the rest can be found here.

Tomorrow is Monday… and yes, I have a feeling I will again have a case of the Mondays. (Office Space, one of the greatest movies ever)

I may have said this before, but I am not a morning person!! Like in the morning, when I’m making my oatmeal and coffee, my roommate, bless his heart, will come downstairs all cheerful and yell, “HEY!! HOW ARE YOU?!?!” and start rattling on about all kinds of things really loud and start asking me questions. Finally I said very nicely, “I don’t want to talk this much in the morning!” Shocking – me! not talking. I know. So you can imagine how it was peeling myself out of bed to head out to Winter Park this AM. Once I get over the first 15 minutes of it, I’m ok. Mr. Kerkove makes it much easier to rise and shine.

After some eggs, toast, and coffee, I was fully awake and excited for the little 5.2 mile hill climb(it is all a dirt road). It started at 9,000′ and ended up at 11,200′. We took the scenic 1.5 hour ride up to Winter Park. I have to say it, the Berthoud Pass road ALWAYS has some kind of traffic obstacle. This morning it happened to be a drunk guy pulling a boat, driving all over the road. This afternoon, it happened to be some older people on 3 wheel motor scooters going infinitely too slow.

Hey!!!! Let’s go ride bikes!

I rode about halfway up the climb to warm-up. They started the pro and expert women together, and there were some pretty strong expert women present who probably should upgrade to pro. Basically, Eszter and I rode together for a short while and she went up the road and kept opening the gap on me to 1 minute, I rode my own pace and rode away from the field as well. I had my HR between 187-198 for the race up, up, up! About 20 min in is when I felt the best. At mile 4, Jeff was waiting to cheer for me and to tell me my split from 1st place.~ 1 minute. So instead of maintaining my pace, I tried to stand up and give ‘er. I ended up exploding up there at 10,500′ and slowed down. Woops. I still finished solidly in second place, had fun, and felt great about it! Plus, I got a KILLER work out! It BURNS!!!  After that, Jeff and I rode singletrack until the awards ceremony.

Riding some trails with Jeff right after the race.  I love the riding in Winter Park.

Women’s Podium, now where are those cookies…..

Tomorrow will be riding up around 12,000′ on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park (and another early morning. aahhhh! coffee coffee coffee)

That was me yesterday on my ride. This week I have been attempting to do some upper zone 4 and some zone 5 efforts. Courtesy of Senator Wiens (I swear he’s like the new Chuck Norris, only cooler, so I make up tons of fun titles for him), I had a new workout to try this week called 20-40s. 20 sec as hard as you can, back off for 40 sec. Rinse, repeat. I did that workout on Tuesday. It sounded like 2 sets of 4 wouldn’t be a big deal. It’s only 20 sec after all. Turns out I was shelled by the time I had to go back home. It did me well. Here is an excerpt from the power file. It looks fun.

PUUSSSHHHH. I almost puked once or twice.

I was fully pumped to do the Boulder Short Track Wednesday which was cancelled due to the rain and thunder. Summer isn’t here yet… I am still wearing knee warmers and none of my fun, cute summer outfits.

And yesterday was a fun day at Betasso. It’s one of the few trails in Boulder where you can mountain bike. It is closed on Wed and Sat to mountain bikers as well, so Thursday was a go. I ran into Mr. Keller on the way there and got confirmation that the trails were a tacky delight.

I attempted to some intervals up the connector and felt pretty good riding out to the trail. It must have been the Peet’s New Guinea Highlands coffee blend. I started up the connector and noticed a couple things. My high end power was not really there. I’d die a horrible death, feel sick, lightheaded, and almost puked (again!) If I eased down 10 bpm on the HR (which is around my endurance race pace), I felt fine. There was a huge difference between the two efforts and a fine line between them. After attempting a few times and lacking much oxygen for some reason, I decided I was knackered and had to back off. My body was all loaded up. The trail WAS fun and lush.

I didn’t mean for this to come out blurry, but I think it looks cool.

It feels like I have been living in Seattle for the last month. Not much sunshine and it rains every day. However, I have never seen it so green. BONUS

I came to my favorite DH section, and much to my shock and horror, were children… as far as the eye could see. Just to get it out there, I am 100% supportive of getting kids outside on field trips AND sharing the trail, but seriously! Betasso is closed on Wednesday to mountain bikers, why couldn’t they have been there on Wednesday? There were about 25 8 year olds, all walking along, blissfully unaware to their surroundings. (of course, there were like 10 adult chaperones too). I’d come up behind a kid and politely say I was back there and they wouldn’t notice. At one point I was talking very loud like, “Hi there! Excuse me little buddy!” and the little boys had no clue. I ended up having to get off my bike and walk part of the trail to get around all the kids! Instead of moving over, they would run in front of me for awhile. haha. I tried to laugh it off. Share the trail applies to pedestrians, not only cyclists. At the end of the loop, I ran into Anne Trombley and her group of juniors she works with. I have to say, I am always very impressed with the work that she does. I see her out there all the time working with the juniors and it is very commendable. There were about 10 of them. None of us wanted to do another loop on the trail (the loop is only 20 min) due to the field trip children traffic. I just hope that no other cyclist came flying around the corner, not realizing there were a million kids on the trail, and hit one. Poor planning on the school’s part (and there are a million other trails in Boulder completely CLOSED to cyclists where they could have gone), so hopefully they learned… and I think it’s great that they school took the initiative to get the kids outside. Enough of that rant!!!

Today will be a chill ride in the sunshine – yes, the sun is shining this AM!!!!! Tomorrow is a short hill climb race at Winter Park followed by a few blissful hours of riding the WP singletrack with Mr. Kerkove. WEEEE!

May and June here in Colorado have been some pretty wet, and usually when I want to go out and ride!

Today was no exception. I nixed training this morning because of the Boulder Short Track, which is every Wed. As I sat at work throughout the day, I watched the huge thunderstorm clouds roll in to rain on my parade! By the time I got home, thunder was shaking the house and it was pouring rain. For the second week in a row, the short track was cancelled.

However, the bipolar mother nature (she must have a mean case of PMS lately) tried to throw me a bone! The sun is now out and I am hoping the roads will at least dry out so I can head out on the road bike.

I feel sorry for whoever Murphy was. He must have had some horrible luck, hence Murphy’s law. I have been kind of feeling like Murphy lately with the crazy weather, but hey, hardening the eff up and getting outside in that stuff only makes you stronger!

I scored the top story with my article this time! Woohoo! I sat down with Dave after the Growler and did a little interview with him for mountainbike.com. Click image below to read it!

Sunday morning was the E-Rock Cycling Festival. It consists of different road ride distances, a 25 mile mountain bike distance, and a 24 hour race the day before. In previous years, I have partaken in the 24 hour race.

Myself, Mr. Kerkove, and Senor Wiens went on the 25 mile ride and got to chat with a bunch of different folks. The ride was paved and dirt roads to suit all abilities. I was admittedly a bit sore from the XC race! I am not used to riding as hard. When I ride harder, my position changes a little bit.

Waiting to get started.

Jeff and Dave

Aide stations were busy, fun, and well-stocked. Great place to chat with people.

Cooookies!

Lots of recreational cyclists out on this ride!

Hey Kerkove! Get up here!

Riding with Dave is always so cool!

Working at the Ergon booth.

A bill has been passed in Colorado, thanks to Governor Ritter and some o the senators that will require motorists to pass cyclists and give 3 feet of distance. The Governor gave a speech…

as did Dave.

Some ominous clouds and wind came from the north causing a lot of us to pack up early and head back (but only an hour early). There were reports of tornadoes in Denver; I’m just glad we missed them.

It was a good time, but now it’s back to training.  Got some harder intervals tomorrow and the Boulder Short Track on Wednesday.  Yeahoo!

Saturday morning came, and Nina and I ate some blueberry pancakes, eggs, and some tasty coffee before heading to Vail. We stayed in Eagle overnight with a really nice couple who offered host housing.

I spent a little bit of time fiddling with my bike because I knew my seat was too far back. The last few weeks, my hamstrings would ache and burn, and my quads would feel like they weren’t be utilized. I really noticed it at the Growler too. Over the course of a few days, I ended up moving my seat forward about .5 inch! I spent about 1.5 hours warming up, and was pretty aggressive with it. I spent only about 15 minutes riding easy, then would do tempo and harder efforts.

I jumped on the course to ride one of the technical sections with a bridge I had messed up the day before. There was a short, steep rise in the trail where if you don’t anticipate it, chances are you’ll be in the wrong gear. Well, I made that part, but I somehow ended up crashing twice in about 3 minutes! It was kind of funny and ridiculous!

I lined up in the second row at the start and looked around me. There were about 30 pro women, and due to the national next weekend in CO Springs, the who’s who of USA XC cycling was there. CO races are already super competitive, but there were strong woman from all over the country. For some reason, I wasn’t very nervous. This was to be my second hard (like superthreshold) effort since Sea Otter (which was my first), so I didn’t have any huge expectations. I just wanted to have fun and feel good. Mission was accomplished.

The race started and I somehow was in a good spot. I managed to stay in 4thish for the first 200 yards or so till I decided I would not be able to sustain.Video -click here.

I was soon swallowed up by the pack and rode at my own pace. I found myself riding around Becca Blay, Kelly Boniface, and Lindsey Bishop for most of the race. Kelly and I were going back and forth in position, and she finally got me in the end.

I am happy to say that my pacing and nutrition was very consistent. Each lap was 5.67 miles, 1000′ of climbing, and I was riding pretty consistently – lap times were 35, 36, and 37 minutes. I tried to ride at a sustainable pace on the first lap and began to slowly pick people off. I needed more laps!!! 1 hr 50min was not long enough. It was great to see all the XC folks who I am so used to seeing year after year, but have not spent much time with this season.

Coming through the finish. Click here.

It was good enough for an 18th place finish in a stacked field. I had fun, the course was great, the event was well organized! No complaints. It was better than expected since my A races are 50 and 100 miles this year.

Junko and Sinjin were there at the feed zone. Always so supportive! Thank you!!!! I was downing 24oz of fluid per lap.

Chug the rest down!

My teammate, Yuki, was there too! He did great and got 30th in a huge pro men’s field.

Nina and I! I wish we lived closer.

There were tons of photographers on course, so I’m sure some sweet photos will slowly trickle in! After enjoying some espresso and gelato with Nina in Vail (she kicked ass and got 11th), I headed to the E-Rock Cycling Festival in Castle Rock.

Gelato!! YAAAAH!!!!

These espresso machines are made in Italy, and only 4/year are produced!

Next post: E-Rock cycling festival.

Despite the misgivings about my poor little car making yet another trip up to the mountains, I packed the tough bastard full and headed up to Vail this afternoon. I am happy to say it performed well (so far….!) After downing an iced americano and having a personal rave (minus the drugs!) in my car, I arrived!

Nina was waiting for me! She and I have been friends since I first started racing (in fact, she helped get me into the sport… and into COFFEE!) I think I was/am more excited to hang out with her than to race. haha After tinkering with our bikes and taking in the scene, we hit up the singletrack. It was in great condition other than the few muddy spots. I was gasping for air, the race is around 9-10,000′.

Here are some pics from our ride.

So pretty.

Nina is a total badass.

Asssspen!

Georgia Gould came blowing by our effort on the pre-ride while we were chatting.

I was so hungry I was about to tip over by the end. I hurried back to my car, got the key I had hidden and went to open the car door. My key wasn’t going in, and I was halfway bonking, so it took me time to figure out why. I had taken my HOUSE KEY off my keychain instead of my car key (my usual habit). Where was my car key? Oh, in the car. Did I have a spare? Nope.

I have actually lost a key before on a ride and was traumatized by the whole experience, so I immediately started stressing. Fortunately I have AAA Plus, which has saved my life multiple times. They sent over a guy to pop open my door, and I was so lucky that he arrived in 20 minutes! Nina also saved me with Chili Lime chips and part of a scone!

This cute gentleman came to my rescue.

SUCCESS!

The whole thing was kind of funny, but definitely a rush of unwanted cortisol.

We are staying with some super nice folks in Eagle who offered host housing. Now it’s time to get some much needed shut-eye and hope my body is ready to ride 16.8 miles as hard I can. That was the norm for me for years… now it seems so, well… short! After the race, I’m off to Castle Rock.

Night!

I put my carbon handlebar back on my bike, finally. I was the incredible hulk one day and cracked the ends, rendering it useless for my clamp-on Ergon grips.

BUT! Ergon made a new product that saved me from myself and I can now use my carbon bar again instead of having to just trash it.
The Ergon bar plug!!!! I am pretty excited b/c my carbon bar is wider than the bar I was using, and I could totally tell.

It has still been rainy and cloudy every day here. I think this is the longest string of cloudy days in my whole life!! When I headed out, the roads were dry, but by the time I was doing LT intervals up Lefthand Canyon, the clouds swallowed me up.

Yes, I do ride my road bike from time to time….

I still had fun! With all the rain riding, I guess I’m getting used to it.

I was supposed to do a klinik at REI Ft. Collins last night, but something happened there and they double-booked it with someone else. Oh well! Instead I went to see Terminator Salvation. Despite mixed opinions, I LOVED IT!! I have seen the first two Terminators a million times (didn’t care for the third one so much). And bonus, I picked out all the spots in Albuquerque and other parts of NM where it was filmed. I am always beaming with pride for my home state.

I’ll have a busy morning tomorrow with work and some other things I have going on, and then in the afternoon, I’ll be heading up to Vail to pre-ride the Teva Mtn Games course. The XC is Saturday morning. Right after, I will head to Castle Rock to help Dave Wiens and Jeff lead a mtn ride on Sunday for the Erock Cycling Festival. Busy, busy!