Slow Motion with D

I say week 1 because I guess some of my random riding could be considered base.  Although I only rode 5 or so hours last week, they were all quality, controlled, mid-high intesity efforts.  I’ve learned a few good ways to pull together a little fitness in a small amount of time over the last few years.  Unfortunately the fitness is still a bit behind and it doesn’t do anything for my endurance.  Oh well, like I’ve said, baby steps.  Well, this last week was a bit different.  Somehow, 20 hours on the bike snuck up on me.  Now, I’m not complaining, but it wasn’t planned, I just couldn’t help it. 

The week started off busy with the vid store and getting things ready for Sea Otter.  By Wednesday, I hadn’t ridden at all.  I made myself go out for just over an hour before work on Wednesday and that got it going.  Thursday was a set of maintenance intervals and Friday was 2.5hrs of  mountain biking.  I also met with my coach Bart Bowen to talk about training for the year.  Not too many races to mention, but I will say that I’m gonna try to get fitness for Elkhorn and Cascade (not peak, but be fit), as well as the summer run of crits before cross fires up full time.  I’m excited, super excited.  I really want to put a full year together of training without things getting in the way (does anyone actually accomplish this?  Ha!).

This is where the week got good.  That 70 degree weather we were forecasted to have…even better.  75+.  So nice.  On Saturday, a small group of us…lets say 13, went mountain biking out at Smith Rock.  Lets just say it was like a post card.  I’ve been out there before to climb and ride my road bike past, but I’ve never taken the mtb out.  You see so much more and everything is picturesque.  Amazing.  It was also hard.  Big climbs and steep, lose descents.  Awesome.  Add to that a big group of friends and it was a great way to spend the morning.  I also brought my road bike out and after the mtb’n, I loaded up and went to Prineville.  It was a little further than I thought it was, so round trip was 2.5.  I was pretty bonky and glad to be done after 5.5 in the saddle.  Sunday was also nice, but windy and cloudy.  Don, Mike and I went out Alfalfa and came back on Hwy 20.  Not that exciting of a loop and because of the wind I was stoked to have the good company of the Sunnyside boys.  More road on Monday and another mtb on Tuesday before driving to CA, pushed me to 20 hours.  Nice.  I took a few quick falls over my bars on Tuesday and my body was a bit stiff after the drive to Monterey.  Good times. 

Base one, week one down, and only 6 months till cross.

P.S. My boy Doug is in Georgia.  My Pedro’s boss doesn’t like my Rock Racing hat.  Weak.

I got to see Big Willy Clinton speak here in Bend.  Pretty impressive.

Please vote.

Is great. I got 4 days in on the bike last week. So what if it was only 5 hours total, I was still on my bike!!!! Got out today for another hour+. Baby steps right? I’m feeling the need to log some hours now, so….yeah, you won’t see me racing at Kings Valley this weekend. It’s supposed to be 70 here. I’ll believe it when I see it. I guess our temps are 15+ degrees colder than the average spring temps for Bend. It’s lame. Soon I’ll probably complain about it being too hot while I log all my cross base miles in the Summer. Not riding this winter has made me a wuss though. Usually I’ll ride no matter how cold it is, but this year I seem to be shying away from the cold. I need to harden the F up, especailly if my winter cross plans pan out.

Don’t be too jealous of my sweet jacket.
Instead of logging big miles this weekend, I spent some time in the kitchen. Jamaican beans and rice, chicken stock, meatloaf and zucchini bread were on the menue. Tasty.

Wanna try something different for a, “diet?” Check out Nourishing Traditions. Deliciousness and not what you would expect for an athlete to use as guidlines, but lots do. Buy it from your local book store, please.

Tyrone at Left Side Ride in Colorado Springs painted this window. Buy local. It’s more important than you probably know.

Ciao

D

So, I finished up my first Colorado swing of the year in style, in Boulder. I did a work swing into Grand Junction, Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder. Good times. A buddy flew in to Denver to visit family and then spent a few days with me. We tied it on a few nights and even found a dance floor on a Tuesday night. Rowdy’s in, Colorado Springs, is a good spot for cheap beer and good tunes. Careful though, looks like some fights could break out… Even closed the night out with some country line dancing. Shhh, don’t tell anyone. I got to see a few good shops and Pedro’s is popular in Colorado, so it’s always nice to see our stuff on the walls and work benches. The only negative to Colorado would be the food poisoning I picked up in the Springs. Not fun being uncomfortable (if you know what I mean) from 6am-3pm. Went to the grocery store after the vomiting stopped and walked, er shuffled, around like an old man looking for fluids. Good times. Here are some shop highlights:

Campus Cycles in Denver loves Pedro’s!

If you’re in the Springs, stop by Left Side Ride. You won’t find any Dura-ace, but you’ll get straight up honest talk about downtown and local Springs businesses. You’ll find some sweet tee’s and shoes too. I scored a pair of sparkle silver Vans. Pimp.

Wanna convert your bike shop into an enviro friendly self power producing machine? Talk to Old Town, also in the Springs.



This is the meter that tells the shop how much energy they are harnessing.
Finished up the week with a 3.5hr ride in Boulder with the Saturday ladies ride. Nice. Fred Dreier of Velonews was out there too. We were like, “one of the girls.” They whooped me as we climbed left hand canyon for most of the day. Beers and college basketball closed out the evening and Sunday I started driving home. The drive home was less than ideal. Worst weather of the year for me driving through Wyoming.

Glad to have made it.

D

Want to watch a good movie?  Give The Magnificent Seven a try, or check out the original by watching Seven Samurai.  Great films.  It was also made into a pretty cool animation series.  Check out how much influence Seven Samurai has had in film.

Went out for a mtb ride after working today.  Rather than ride around loops by myself, stopping at every intersection, I hooked up with a good rider named Dustin, who just happened to be from Silverton.  Small world.  His bro and sis went to OSU too!  It was super fun rocky single track.  Much different than Bend, so a few times I had trouble.  I was pretty happy with how I rode most of it though.  I managed to hit both ankles and an elbow on my two falls.

My new traveling partner.

I spent the day in Grand Junction Colorado.  Pretty nice place.  There are three shops in the downtown area, so I took the time to walk around a bit with the dog before hitting the shops.  Check out the local art.

Tank top, short shorts, flip flops and a bike…my dream girl, you know, other than the whole made of metal thing.  If you know the real life equivalent, you should let me know.

This one has an actual spring for the rear suspension and real brake pads in the disc brakes.  Pretty sweet.

So….training isn’t exactly happening yet.  I just haven’t been able to sneak away from Westside Video too much.  Oh well, it’s good for me to spend some time with my baby.  We even got an article in the Source Weekly.  The story may not be there anymore, but it talked about how we’re the last indi store left in town.  Oh, found it.  It’s a big decision year for WSV.  The lease is just about up, and rent isn’t cheap.  Anywho, I have been doing some other thing to keep my spirits up.  Most people think of Bend and they think of the great mountain biking and the athletes that go along with it (AC, Decker, Jimmy), but there’s another breed and that’s the river floater (Decker is also pro at that).  I’ve decided to start training for that instead of bicycle racing, since it takes way less time.  Until the river gets a bit warmer, I’ll be doing the floater’s equivalent to riding the trainer.

I’m totally going pro this year.

I’ve also decided to fine tune some of my favorite moves.

And I’m still hitting the pool when I’m around on Sundays.

But my true love is the bike, so I’ve got to sneak some rides in!

I got to stay home for a few weeks before heading off to Colorado for some more Pedro’s work. I was hoping to get as many hours in on the bike as possible, but sometimes life gets in the way. I had to do some major video store working while I was home, so the bike had to be secondary. I was able to get some riding in, and even managed some 4+hour days. The most enjoyable was with Don on the lower bridge loop.
(This isn’t lower bridge, but it’s Don from another ride we did)
The sun was out and I shed the knee warmers to work on the tan. I’ve already got the mid-calf tan going, so I’m feeling good.

We rode up to the top of some property for sale and checked out the view. The climb was 22%, but it isn’t called 10 peaks for nothing. We were treated to a full view of the cascades.

(only some of the 10 peaks)
A little rain on our parade was one other bike track at the top. “It’s probably Adam,” I said. It was confirmed later that week that it was Adam that beat us to the top. Boo. Oh, and I’ve been waking up to a lady lately…

It’s Timmy’s sugar glider Peetey and she’s been sneaking into my closet at around 2am. It’s pretty cute to see her all hyper and jumping around. The night time is the right time!

So, California ended without a bang.  The weather was LAME and the riding was sparse.  I thought that I’d be riding like crazy, but a 40min and 3 hour head wind extravaganza was all I got in.  Good times.  For the final day of the ToC, Jason and I went to the highest point of the race for a bit of fun with chalk.  I don’t know if Doug saw it as he rode past, but it was cool to see him leading (and waiting) for Cippo as he crested the peak.  Big Daddy’s car stopped right next to the Doug fan club writing, but I’m not sure he saw it either.  He did, however, look over and give me the devil horn, “rock,” sign when he saw me in my sweet Rock Racing hat.  Moments like that stay with you for a lifetime! 

Oh yeah, I got sick.  Seems like everyone is/was sick.  It’s crazy.  I don’t ever remember so many folks gett’n sick like this.  My plan was to stick around all week ‘cause it was gonna be sunny, but the illness hit and I didn’t want to have any of it.  I pointed the van towards home and started driving.  Every hair on my body ached, my temp was all over the place and I was super tired.  Not to mention a cough and stuffy head.  The good thing is, that when I crossed into Oregon, I started feeling way better.  2 days sick isn’t too bad.  There were some recovery days after, but considering other peeps have been sick for weeks, I felt lucky.  So much for starting to train!