Only in Colorado

Its been a few days since my diatribe on Denverites. Saturday was phenomenal with clear skis, light winds, and 74degrees! I was actually sweating sitting outside. I can't remember the last time I had that. Certainly not in San Francisco. In Tennessee, I sweat b/c of the awful humidity. But this is March and I am in shorts and tshirt baking in the sun. Got some nice color to enhance the bike tan i started at Valley of the Sun a few weekends ago. i did a pretty sick circuit course, Left Hand Canyon-Lee Hill Drive-Olde Stage Rd. Its a great circuit of steeps, canyon descents, and long climbs. No stops if you can time the rare car encounter well. Check out the route below. Pretty good profile. The plan was to do as many loops as possible in 3 hours. I rode tempo from the house, did three laps, then tempo home. It was exactly 3 hours. Shawn wanted me to save some ammo for Sunday's, MOB Cyclery, ride out of Denver. Saturday was a day to go long as the future would tell us.

Sunday I woke up early to get fed and to the ride start in Denver at 9am. I wake up with the stars still out but there is something odd. Its dumping snow! Yep, less the 15 hours ago it was 74deg now its dumping snow and already, accumulation is approaching 2". Road riding? No bueno...Kind of bummed b/c i had gotten all prepared to tackle the ground ride. I drank some Pinon coffee from New Mexico and got a little fuel in the belly and set out on the Titus Racer-X. I did some trail researching and opting to try out the Niwot trailhead which is more or less a dirt/gravel multi-use path just out the door. I went for about an hour and threw in some nice hard efforts then came back b/c my hands were pretty cold. Ate some lunch the recontoured my plans for an afternoon ride at the Left Hand Canyon trailhead. This place is just a few clicks away and will be great when its dry. I rode out into the snow and immediately my knobbies are completely covered with snow thus rendering any gripping specialities useless. Should have taken a hint when I realized I had no steering but that would be the choice of the less adventurous. I wanted more, i needed to test myself. Well I pressed on. Spotting some singletrack, i rolled through thinking that the dirt would provide more gripping action. NO BUENO. Strangley the dirt disguised itself. It was actually some ride-ending mud. Basically you would be going and start feeling the mud getting thrown up and it would get harder to push until the drivetrain was completely stuck with mud. No backing up or banging would stop it. So where does that leave me? well about 400m from my Forester and me dragging my previously spotless mtn bike along the trailhead. Yep, i walked out. no other choice. bike was immobile. Ohh yeah, I ate s*** a few times. Thats what mtn biking is all about though. My former fractured shoulder took one spill. Its still pretty sore. While trying to put the bike on the roof, I was reminded of my injury and just the general weakness in the left shoulder. Hopefully strength will come back eventually. But I'm going to be sticking to not riding in the mud for awhile. Its going to take a serious washing to clean that stuff off. But it was fun!

So today, did some "i want to throw up" intervals. Max wattage for 2.5min. Repeated 6x. Finished with an hour of tempo. Of course, the riding could only be hardened up with some nice 30-40mph cross/head winds. Gaining a little experience so when it comes time to echelon the peloton and ride the guys into the gutter I will be ready. Tonight its suppose to snow again before warming up into the 50s this weekend. TT on Saturday, Crit on Sunday.

Today i started my new "youth specialist/personal assistant" position. We went to soccer practice, did some grocery shopping and guy talk...lol. Its going to be a fun gig. Tomorrow I have a busy day of taking him to school, training, errand running, and school pickup with some afternoon activities. Should be good.

Chow,
Matthew