ride

Great ride today, fat tires with a little bit of snow last night made the trails perfect today. All the dry stuff from last week was gone. All of the photos are within a few miles and 45 minutes of the others. Riding alone let me think about how lucky I am to have this right out my door:

xmas

Christmas in May, well just about June. Woke up to 6 inches of fresh, budding trees and snow all over. The hummingbirds that were around at dusk last night survived ok. I felt bad for the little guys but I know they wouldn't live here if they couldn't handle a bit of weather. Got out on the road bike after mid day errands and had a great spin, I wanted fat tires today but didn't want to rip up the trails after the snow. Special treat tonight, Starbucks Java Chip ice cream, mmmmmm ice cream. Life is good, the kid is recovering really well from thursday's surgery.

Wrong

I was wrong about Simoni, Cunego is the new King.

The Boy

Me and the Kid.

Odd

GIro starts in a few minutes. Can't wait to see who comes over the Gavia first. I think Simoni is going to kill it today and put them all to shame. Cunego will get second and be the next "camponissimo."

Better

Two good days on the bike and one more good day of rest. Riding Vail Pass last night was good. I was able to climb at a steady clip and push it if I wanted to, nothing too high end, never red zone work but good steady climbing. Mtb season is close, I think that I'll go well, body is coming around and for the first time since 2001 I have a granny gear for the hills. I'll sharpen up the form in the next week and hit next saturday's prologue with good legs and open up nicely for wednesday's first xc race. Tonight was good, climbing even better than last night. Looking down and across the valley, taking in the view it was perfect. Good selection on the youpod, Starting with Arco to Neutral Milk, mellow introspective music fits well with the effort.

rednecks

i have a bit of anger directed at those who don't pay attention to the way the world should be. of course i realize that my idea of the way the world be should differs from theirs. the idea of motos on trails that should be for bikes and hikers, or motos in general ripping up fragile sections of established multi-use trails really pisses me off. why can't the rednecks get it? go where the trails are ready for your gasoline powered male enhancements. i don't ride my bike on trails where it is too wet and i portage over muddy sections or go through the middle, not widening the trail. read the frigging rules, i'm sure they can be conveyed in a nascar friendly format so they all can understand them!

home

my bout with fatigue is fading,i guess maybe i just need to make sure i'm always eating, not that i wasn't but it just makes for a better body. yesterday tim and i fixed up the wtb, new cranks and it works better than it has in years. the ride the other night with the guys on their fancy double-boingers made me realize that my bike is just fine, sure a new fork would be great but the article our "journalist" wrote nipped that in the bud. my old fork is fine and i have a heavy little rigid fork waiting in the wings for when i want to go full wood. blair witch loop last night out in the elk habitat, no wildlife but the trail is midsummer-dry. a bit scary but we are 100 years into a 50 year burn cycle. maybe this will be the year? enjoy it while you can. the bike and body just clicked, two hours of singletrack with the long climb over the ridge to get home. happy to suffer up the climb, focused on the next little rootlip. i love this stuff, we rode through the section where i almost got shot last fall, this time not gliding through 10 cm of fresh snow but a dry, rolling, terracotta ribbon through the woods. i even made the seesaw. good day.

why

as i read the article it made me confused, if a rider would rather have the simplicity of one speed and the lack of a fancy fork requiring more maintenance than an f1 car so be it. i raced a few seasons on a rigid fork with gears just to prove that it doesn't matter, i was happy doing it and it made a good challenge. if race promoters are accommodating enough to give singles a special class i think it's better for our sport, i stopped going to the "big races" because of the lack of camaraderie among racers and the local/state level brings me all of the that and more. riders looking out for one another and giving each other the support an NCS event never did. singles certainly have that covered. singlespeeding is one more incarnation of the mtb that will bring more good people to the sport, who cares if they race or not? our so-called journalist here isn't seeing the big picture, ride your damn bike, whatever new/old/cobbled together bike it may be just ride and be happy. look at the scenery not at your $600 fork. maybe our writer missed the integrity part of journalism school.

ride

i kind of feel pretty tired but with the weather as good as it has been i rode the mtb again, really fun stuff and me on my little hardtail hanging with pro downhillers. not that i was pushing them but i wasn't holding anybody up either. the trails are so dry in the horseshoe that you'd never know it was may and not september. too dry to be safe for "mud season." now the bike just needs some tuning and it'll be ready for the denver in a day ct epic (170 km) around the solstice, and then maybe some other cool trips too. no matter how tired i get the bike is never a bad idea, maybe tonight i'll sleep 12 hours and wake all caught up! good night

old

this is piece of a short story i was trying to resurrect: A few weeks ago after a good nights sleep I vaguely recalled a dream that reminded me of a night in high school. John and I had gone out and after a hour of looking for stuff to do we ended up just listening to music and driving around. Nothing overly memorable but good mellow classical from the radio. Not really recalling what happened next I decided to call John and find out what happened next. Since we still live in the same town it was no big deal to call and ask him if he remembered that night. I gave him all the details I could recall. We talked for about an hour and he had absolutely no recollection. Another few details and still nothing! I tried and tried but no memory of the night came to him. I got off the phone and tried to remember if that really happened or if it was a dream. I got to thinking and never moved off the couch all day. I thought about the music and the driving and how we just sat there silently and listened. I went ot sleep thinking about that night. Now it has happened again! Another dream about a night in college this time. A little more memorable this time. Joe, Smithy, and i went to the bar and met these locals who swore that they could drive all the form the bar across town to the bowling alley backwards! So after much coaxing we convinced them to give it a shot. They had an old pickup that would blend in with the other cars in our little college town. Out of the parking lot they went up the street, the driver with his arm over the seat as though he were just looking to parallel park. All the way across town until the cops saw them going 45 backwards! The chase was on! The amazing thing was the locals in the truck never spun around to go forward! They just kept going thru town until they made a wrong turn, they meant to go left and went right, probably confused from going backwards for a few miles! Well, they flipped the pickup and spent a night in the hospital. Nothing serious, just a few scrapes and a scar on their driving record. I looked up Joe and Smithy, feeling nostalgic for a second day in a row. Once again after an hour or so on the phone, nothing! They weren't too hard to find, a quick e-mail and a fast reply, revealed that they didn't remeber this night. Now John not remebering Our driving night was not hard to take but this night was a bit more memorable, and nothing again. I was losing it! I tried to get in touch with friends but all the sudden all my memories were dreams. Only they had recollections that I recalled after prodding but they didn't remember any of the ones I brought up. I was just a witness to their memories, not them to my own. My dreams were getting more and more vivid, I had a whole other life in my dreams, a whole other set of friends and a whole other place to live, to eat, to work, everything! My waking life lost appeal, I wanted to sleep all the time. That life was so much more exciting, I was the center in that life, the one who had memories that others recalled. Things were more interesting in the sleeplife. Nobody forgot what we did in the sleeplife. I could say "hey remember six years ago when we went to Dorney Park and rode only the loop and spinny rides to see who could puke the most?" The whole group would remember every little detail, and add on to the story details I had forgotten! As I fell asleep I could pinpoint where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do, and who I wanted to see. I took another job that would allow me to make enough to eat and pay rent. I only needed to work a few hours and that was all I needed. Everything else was taken care of in the sleeplife. As long as my waking body was nourished and housed I was fine. I slept about 18 hours a day, and worked three days a week. All I wanted was sleep. I lost touch with the waking world, It was only work and food. i hope it makes some sense. thanks for reading.

fts

my first real mtb ride on a single, hogsback-red rocks-morrison slide trail. fun trails, my skills were ok, also the first real mtb ride on dirt since fall. it's good to be back! i hope to ride more trails soon, the word around town is that a lot of the ct is dry so maybe later in the week a bit of recon to see how it is. good day on the fat tires. i want a single speed of my own!

b's day

b-day for b! he had a great day, it started early, about 3 and then a bit more sleep before the regular am start time. he hung out with shaubie and the grand p's while i went and suffered a bit at the koppenburg circuit. not a bad day but the flat legs from lack of sleep and lack of high end on course relegated me after about 45 minutes. before that i was drilling it hard on the front, pushing it and moving really well on the dirt sections. the road sections were harder for me, the old guys throw it out hard on there, i can't always match the horsepower of the old pros. i was out of there pretty early and made it home by 2.30. getting home to set up for the fiesta made me happy, little b just is the most fun thing i can ever dream of. he is so aware, when i see him and he smiles it warms me from the inside out. shaubie set him up in the cutest little b day outfit, linen pants and shirt to play in the front yard. he was sitting in the wood chips in the beds and giggling, then the neighbors little toy car was a hit too, he sat there and pretended to drive it, so cute! soon though it was bedtime, he was a bit overwhelmed by all the people and attention. what a day, one year on since the biggest day.

holding on

winter just doesn't want to leave summit county. riding yesterday to get in a few miles after work before meeting up with shaubie. rolling down the path in the wind i thought about the giro and how its been warm and rainy and beautiful in italy, i don't mind the weather it just would be nice to have some variety. how about warm and rainy or cold and sunny? i know i should stop complaining. i get to ride, that's all that matters. the cold weather makes me feel better about myself and my riding, i know i'm doing it when others maybe are not, a strength to draw on when the hammer falls. bed time.

????

it wasn't the nicest day of the year, sleet and snow. full raingear and my stuff was still soaked by the time i arrived. bummer when the roads are this warm, the snow hits and just makes sloppy thick water. i still can't believe it, one of my co workers who lives ACROSS THE STREET drives to work! literally a three minute walk but she chooses to drive. i bet it takes more time to get in the car and start it and drive one block than if she walked. i'm clueless. it doesn't bother me too much, after another afternoon riding in the snow/sleet i'm used to it. good bit of work to stay warm and make riding in the weather worthwhile. i got home put on my sweats and napped in a perfectly quiet house watching simoni kill it on the corno alle scale. cunego is worth his weight in gold!

wasted words

i know some who read this would think i run off a bit but at heart i am a minimalist and not too much of a slob, i think. when writing i think often of my second biggest critic, my college writing professor who was a big fan of "economy of language." i try to do this and not write to see words on the page but to write what should be said. tuesday worlds, silly in the crosswinds. not many know how to ride in that stuff, and not many know how to ride well anyway. calling somebody on their poor riding is wasted on most b/c they think they know better. i've been yelled at by the best to ride better so i guess on some plane i think i know. whatever it is i try to get my work done and go home. especially when the snow was falling and i was getting cold, long trip home into the wind. plowing my furrow...

we learned about trees today, we touched and looked closely at lodgepole pine and aspen trees. beckham had a blast giggling with delight at the rough bark of the lodgepole and the smooth paper-like feel of the aspen. touching the bark and sap coming through made the our little nature class better. i can't wait to take him to other eco-sysytems and show him the trees there. i really enjoy my whole days with b. we get into things that other days we don't. we build stuff and knock it down and then build it again. play games, hide and seek is especially popular. working on my mtb a bit over the weekend made me realize how much damage i did to it over the winter. commuting is tough on your stuff, little bits of riding on either side of the commute add up and it's not lack of maintenance but actual broken things. result of crashes and whatever other trauma the bike went through over the winter. now i get to raid the extra parts bin to replace and ready for the season.

rest

the last bits of a rest week, it feels good to watch the giro in the am without the guilt of not ridng in the pm. little b is napping so i may cut this short and nap too. the body is slowly coming back to life, i really overdid it, a big block without realizing what i was doing. it feels very good to relax, and know that my form will return. to race with enthusiasm but not pressure. i'm 35 now and pressure on the bike is behind me, being your own worst critic is a killer. no outside pressure to ride away from, just the pressure from myself to go better and be faster and win more. you can't hide from yourself! thankfully the love of the bike in all of it's forms never leaves, i still feel like that twelve year-old riding out of sight of the house with nowhere to go, getting lost and finding my way back by dinner. i still want to explore on whatever bike is closest. still love to pedal. what could be better, playing with a toy that takes you to such cool places under your own power.

maybe i will get less lazy and take more pics and load them on my page. today is one of those days, i hope. timmyp does a great job posting pics, i lack the motivation to get that done. today i'll take some photos and get them on here. yesteday was good, fun little co-ed group ride up to copper, i had b in the burley so i did a fair bit of work but we had fun and shaubie got in a great training ride, as she starts her program for the triathlon. now with my rest week waning i need another good easy day today and maybe the fire will return, the alternative isn't too appealing. the idea of re-evaluating my race goals is not exciting, maybe an age group commitment would be about it, compromise is key.

a great doctor visit for little b, she saw what she needed to see and not much else. no real red flags right now but perhaps a concern down the road. after the sugery he woke hungry as a hippo, four cups of juice and milk later they released us and we went to wahoo's for lunch, 85 degrees and sunny and we got to sit in the shade and enjoy an amazing lunch, life is good when the boy is good! he was eating black beans like they were jelly beans, and some rice too. all of this about an hour after waking up from anesthesia! we got home in time for shaubie to get a swim before dinner and a little spin for me. a day i was so worried about turned out to be great news! pseudo-fullmoon commute today, pretty amazing this 12 week block on either side of the solstice makes my ride to work so different form the other 40 weeks a year. not needing the lights is so liberating, i get to roll out in the predawn beauty and for a few weeks see the alpin glow on the peaks as the sun threatens to rise, all on my commute! have a good day

whenever i get a chance to look around, i mean really look around i get a chance to appreciate the string of decisions that brought me to this place and time. i make frequent mention of this here but just how lucky i feel to be here. it would have been so easy so many times to return to where i started, to pack it in because it was too much. lucky for me laziness overcame the need to be comfortable. an odd juxtapostion for sure. too lazy to move to be more comfortable, lucky me.

tuesday night worlds or the group race as i call it. rolling out of frisco with a big group made me a bit more motivated to stay up front. not knowing how well most of the people could handle themselves in a bunch is reason enough to stay out of the mess at the middle or back of the pack. amazingly nobody crashed that i heard of, and a lot of people made it out to ute pass. full moon commute. i love when i roll out and don't need my lights because of the moonlight. if the trails were a little drier i would have done the singletrack ride to work but they are still a bit wet. maybe in a few weeks. right now most trails are pretty moist and fragile up here. no way to get in the time in good conscience on the dirt. there are some rideable trails in dillon but that would be a full afternoon's riding to get there. not feasible for me. that, and i refuse to drive within the county to ride my mtb. i heard through the grapevine that the elk habitat trail is dry but i'm doubtful, maybe this weekend i'll give it a look. eat well today, i am. brian is happy!

dog swim was amazing! jackson was so happy and as usual was one of the last dogs out of the pool. watching him swim is so much fun, he maintains this slow deliberate pace, not the hyper-active splashing of some dogs but the slow steady pace of a relaxed long distance swimmer. sometimes he would paddle out into the middle of pool and just do circles, not really worried about getting his ball but trying to get a few balls to return with. three was the most he could get. it's so cool to see all of the other kinds of dogs and how they interact, a few little fights but nothing serious, as usual number one stayed away from it all and swam his laps. little b was giggling and calling out to his brother the whole time. he wasn't quite sure how to react at first and then he was all about calling to jackson to play with him too. i was lucky i got to ride down there and get in some work on swan and three peaks. we had a good little group for the lake loop and then i was solo on three peaks. my tempo on the climbs feels a bit faster, changing my position has certainly improved my power. i wonder how much was lost in the old position? would i have won the race a week ago? does it really matter? no knee pain and good legs are what really matter here. i feel good and i haven't missed a day b/c of injury yet this year. monday was good, i got to ride with b and shaubie at lunch to frisco and then with tim in the later pm. great easy day. not a pedal turned in anger the whole time and today the legs feel amazing. tim and i did a great coffee ride, about two hours, staying very warm enjoying the sunshine on the warmest day in months! an amazing two days off, great salad for dinner with ciabatta bread. life is good. lets see if our good luck carries through thursday exam under anesthesia, just writing about it makes me get that knot in my stomach. not a good feeling.

i will get some new photos up soon, i never really get the chance to take any and post, time better spent riding and living. the weather is decidedly november-like. not the fading glory of ski season but the beginings of another long winter. thankfully it's not but it sure feels like it. another icy commute today. i arrived at work questioning my logic to have one car, that i don't drive. i got on the bike and made it in without the slipping of the tires on black ice. without skidding across the slick tarmac and ruining another set of shorts/legwarmers/shoes. i was reading about alberic "briek" schotte, a racer who died at age 84 about 40 minutes into the tour of flanders in hospital. aside from winning the tour of flanders twice and world championships twice he finished second to the great gino bartali in the tour de france in 1948, epic in that bartali won by over 26 minutes that year in a tour that was over 5000km and his time was almost 150 hours, double the norm of today. to put it lightly flandrian diesels. i love reading about how it was, today the athletes are faster but they don't go as long, a toss up, faster or longer, either way mentally it's tough. the wind is making me very strong, i never seem to get it at my back, i seem to plow a lonely furrow nearly everyday into the wind. i like it, i feel better after a windy ride. the new headphones do wonders for limiting wind noise and giving me motivation. i may ride alone but the music helps.