J&A Adventures

Maui video

2011-12-18T20:00:00.007-07:00

Here's the video from the Maui trip. Didn't do a short version for blog visitors so you get the full family archive edit which is a little long. The dolphins are at the end, around minute 16 or so if your wanting the main highlight. Very fortunate morning at La Perouse Bay where we stopped to find people with binoculars watching dolphins about 3/4 mile out. We grabbed our fins and masks and headed out, only to find nothing once we got to where we thought we needed to be. We'd started back when they popped back up - about 14 total that stayed in smaller groups of 3 or 4. It was pretty surreal being out in the open water with them, they stayed around for about 15 minutes without ever acting like they were very interested in our being there, but always keeping about a 10-15 foot space between us. We were mesmerized.

Our soundtrack while on the trip was Xavier Rudd, so his music naturally made it's way onto the video. You're welcome if you're not already familiar with his stuff - exceptional.

Some brief color commentary on a few highlights and the vid:

We got into Maui around 9:30 pm, and rather than drive over to Lahaina and then back the next morning, we just headed straight up to Haleakala to catch the sunrise. We went about 2/3rds the way up the volcano, pulled over next to some cattle, and dirtbagged it in the car to sleep for the night. In the a.m. we were fortunate to get the cloud carpet below the peak that makes for quite a spectacle when the sun makes it's way up the horizon - can't do it justice trying to describe it so won't, nor does the video capture it, but totally unique from anything we've ever seen.

Stopped for a quick hike/run through the Redwood forest on the way down - we were needing something invigorating after the flight out and the early morning, and this did the trick nicely. The Redwoods there were relatively young, so big, but not huge. Cool trail, several transitions from alpine, to rain forest, even some real dry, high desert type terrain on the northern edge.

We had dinner that night with Earl and Sandy. Got a table next to the ocean with a fortunate view of some whales jumping out of the water a ways out - that was a first for both Annie and I. Wasn't a close up view - but amazing none the less to a couple of kids from Utah.

We went pretty hard the rest of the trip - tried to put a little bit of most of it on the video. We rented some bikes and made an attempt at going from sea level to the 10,000 ft summit of Haleakala, but hit cold and weather a little past 6,500 ft' that we weren't prepared for, so abandoned and rode back down. Blow holes, snorkeling, swim approach bouldering, waterfalls, mountain/rain forest hikes, caves and lava tubes, Hana, paddleboarding and surfing, could have used one more day to relax - we came home tired. But truth be told, that's how we like it.

One of our favorite trips ever.

Huge thanks to a couple of our favorite friends - Earl and Sandy, who provided their sweet digs to serve as base camp, thank you again, we absolutely loved it!

Late summer through UTCX #3

2011-10-14T19:28:00.001-06:00

You ever go a while without cleaning up and you end up with a pile of dirty clothes, etc... sitting in the corner of the room. That's what this post is, that pile - a quick and dirty clean up of the last month or so....

Annie raced and won the USCS Draper SuperXC - hot, hard day. She won her sport class, and collected another big check for fastest overall sport time. She also ended up winning the series for her class. Fantastic rookie year for her on the Mtn. Bike. She capped the summer off by taking a digger while out riding with her girlfriends, led with her face and head, smashed her lip open, chipped a tooth, and concussed herself pretty good. Took a while for her head to get back to feeling normal - but she came out pretty good for punching a rock with her face/head.

Next up was a Euro trip to Vegas to celebrate our anniversary. Swung through Valley of Fire on the way, where I stalked-ok, guess I can't call it stalked if he's looking right at me, we'll call it chased-this sheep to get within photo range. They grow em' big in the protected parks.

We also did our first hike in a sweat lodge, minus the lodge part - check out the temp. Little excursion to some little water hole out in the sandstone. We had visions of jumping into it until we saw it - putrid.

Here's the euro part of the trip - took a Fiat out for the long weekend - sweet, fun little cars. Think it paid for itself with the savings in gas - don't think we spent more than $100 bucks in gas down and back.
Kids started learning to fish a bit....

Brock finally paid a price for one of his stunts - gutted his arm just under his armpit jumping off a playset where a screw hooked it. Came in crying, didn't pay much attention to him until he pulled his shirt off and saw the hamburger hanging out - then out to the car pretty quick. He'd stopped crying on the way down when I began the pep talk about getting his first stitches. Spent the rest of the ride down listening to him insist he just needed a band aid, to turn around and take him home so he could get a band aid. I love his Rambo spirit.
Next up was Xterra - I had a comped entry for the triathlon, so did the short course. My swim was slow, but a success as I put an entire swim together without resorting to rolling onto my back or breaking form, that's a first for me, baby steps. Rode the bike well, than had the traditional melt down on the run, it was brutal. You probably won't want to watch the entire clip, but here's on board footage of the bike course from a slow swimmers perspective. They've widened the singletrack since I last did this race, so traffic, although it was there, was not the time penalty it used to be, plenty of room to ride around it all the way up. It's a really great course.

Annie raced the 10k trail run, and true to form, landed herself on the top of the podium.... she's ridiculous. This one was literally done with about 4 weeks of total inactivity after the concussion.

This was my favorite pic of from the Xterra weekend - amid the serious game faces prepping for the start, she's right in the middle being a total screwoff. The dude won it though, so she picked a winner.

CX season: Two races the first week at the state fairgrounds. First day was rough for both of us. We'd done some handling and skill practice in preparation, but no top end effort type work. That's never going to feel good, and it didn't.

Day two was more of the same for me. Annie came around a bit and put a better race together - seemed to be back near where she was at the tail end of last year, which bodes well. Decided over the next few days that we'd bump her up to the A flight the following week. UTCX #3 was at one of our favorite tracks, Ft. Buenaventura in Ogden. I raced dramatically better, had some rider error type things - dropped my chain twice and totally hacked the barriers the first lap through, but put in a good start and felt like I was able to ride hard the entire race. Wasn't sure that was going to happen all year after the first weekend.

Annie went out with the A's and got exactly what we were wanting to get from it. She rode hard, paid attention to how things transpired a little differently in that group, and held her own just fine. She also looks very good thanks to our friends over at DNA Cycling. Turns out their women's stuff goes perfectly with her fave helmet. I've got one of their skin suits on it's way, and can guarantee you I won't look as good in their stuff as Annie does, but looking forward to it nonetheless.

Happiness

2011-08-22T23:30:00.002-06:00

Took the day off for the last hurah of the summer with the kidlets before they head back to the classroom. I gotta tell ya, these jokers are my favorite people in the world, don't know how a guy can be anything but happy being surrounded with this kind of stuff.

Now that's the best kind of stuff - but not far behind it is watching your wife win a tough Mountain Bike race a few days prior. More on that later.

Heck of a bookend to a heck of a summer road tripping with the clan, we're run down and haggard, but in a good way. Getting back into the rigid schedules of the school year will take some getting used to, but Annie and I are thinking it will feel like a nice break.

Pierre's Hole 100, or 50, race

2011-08-16T16:00:00.004-06:00

Quick recap of the Pierre's Hole race the weekend before last.

Aside from plate #1, which signifies that either 1 - you've earned it and are the designated guy to beat, or 2 - you were more anxious to sign up for the race than anyone else at the start line, (only the former applies here), the most sought after plate number in the field is this one.

....and I was handed this number at the check in under the oath of representing it the way your supposed to - by riding with the strength and gumption of 3 men, a six pack of balls if you will. So how'd I carry the banner......

I cut it off half way through, had run plum out of fun and didn't have the head to keep grinding. That's not to say that the course and terrain aren't fun - they are, very much so. 100 miles on it was just more than I had the fitness or the gumption for. Annie had been warned earlier in the week about the high likelihood of that scenario, so her bike made the trip up as well, and despite the extra mojo bestowed by the race plate, I pulled the plug and we swapped pedaling and kid duty and let her go out for a lap that would be more enjoyable than had I gone out for another.

However - there were a few men who rode with six packs, and who made the fun and excitement build all afternoon as they kept knocking out mile after mile.... check it out below.... it was a pretty electric scene as they finished.

Congrats to Brandon and Gordon - huge respect for those rides!

Tushar is the Crusher

2011-07-20T23:33:00.005-06:00

Will try to be brief in saying how great I thought this race was. Burke is on to something really, really good here, and I hope he ride's the wave he created into adding another date or two next year and putting together some kind of series of these (Moab/La Sals is first to come to mind but that may be hometown bias, regardless, plenty of mountain ranges in Utah or even just across the state borders in a few directions). And if he does do more, I hope he can bring the same crew of volunteers to them, they were the stars of a knock it out of the park production that Burke put together. Type of people you wanted to stop and get to know. I'm taking tips to hand them next year - they were better and more attentive than any waitress I've ever had. The pre race buzz was exceptional with all the puzzle solving going into bike choices. I think people loved the chess match that took place before we even toed the line. I was a little late being able to commit to the race so missed out on a lot of that, and had a quick process of elimination that landed me on the Mtn bike at the line. The big post race question has been did we choose the right bikes? In hindsight, the Mtn bike was exactly the bike I needed to be on that day. Were I to line up with a little more preparation both with bike set up and conditioning, I think I'd make a few tweaks to the CX bike and give it a run, but it would have been wrong for me at this years race - I think.... see that.... you seeing the magic in this puzzle of a race course Burke's created? It's rad.

So the race started in Beaver, with Bruce setting the tone for one hell of a day with one hell of a countdown - never seen anything like it... not sure I will again without significant intoxication - it was great. I'll get brief with a few highlights from here. Felt great through the first 40 miles - the first climb went by quick, felt like I paced it right for what I had in me that day, and enjoying the heck out of racing on dirt roads up in the mountains. The day started to get long for me not far out of Circleville. Was by myself on that windy flat stretch of road, and that's where the fading started ever so slightly, then when we turned back on the dirt road, the fading began in earnest. Had felt good enough earlier in the day that I'd fueled maybe just a little light, but the time between stations had been quick enough that it was going just fine. That being said, I learned a serious lesson about bonking at last years Park City point to point, and have since been fairly attentive to catching it early if I get a little behind. By the time I got back to the intersection where we doubled back, I was needing to get some more fuel in me, not desperate, but in a less than ideal state, with nothing to correct it. I spent that stretch of pavement leading to that monster of a climb thinking about how best to approach it. By the time I hit the beginning of the dirt, I knew it needed to be a walk if it get's strenuous type of thing, I couldn't afford to rev it very high. So, about that strenuous thing.... between the pitch and the wind, I did a lot of walking, like damn near the entire thing. And it was slow walking.... I turned the music off for that section of the video to help give a good picture of what that was like... the signature climb of the race, and I was off the bike walking. Pathetic, but necessary to make sure my day extended beyond that climb. By the top I was getting a little more desperate - i'd done what was needed to keep the exertion in check, but the course had been exposed and hot for a while, and I had taken a long time to get up there. I felt some things similar to the park city lesson, and shut it down. Found the first shady spot I'd seen for a few hours, sat down, then lied down. Then I heard someone holler at me - Jon James rode by and shouted J-dub. I opened my eyes, sat up and said hi and told him he was looking strong, sat for another minute, then jumped on the bike and got moving again. Didn't think I'd been there for more than a few minutes, but John had probably saved me a lot of time by waking me from what was as best as I can tell from my race data, about a 15 minute nap. I was still in bad shape, and was fortunate that the roving support was bringing drinks back towards the KOM. Got a coke from them and proceeded to the last aid station before the home stretch.

I spent about ten minutes at the last aid, the first five piling in food, the second five catching up with Sam and Jamie, and then we were back off. Jamie made it 50 yards before he started puking. For me, the resting had worked, I'd gone from the brink of a point of no return bonk, to feeling as fresh as I had all day for that last 10 miles. Leg's were good, head was in a good place, rode with Sam whom I hadn't seen for a while so it was good to catch up with him... was just back into a real good place to enjoy the last stretch. Have never gone from so bad to so good in such a short period of time before - continuing to learn lesson's the hard way about staying ahead on the sustenance, but learning them none the less. Only hiccup of the day aside from the poor management was a random flat while rolling across those golf course like meadows - that's the origin of the tube ornament I'm wearing at for the finishing clips in the video. Shannon come by during the pit stop on her way to a 2nd place finish. A support truck also came by with Jamie sitting in front, I was heartbroken for him that he'd fought that far only to have to get in with just a few miles to go, then the truck pulled over to let him out for more hurling, and it was obvious he needed to not be trying to finish. Just as we were flipping the bike back over Joe came by. We jumped on with Joe and the three of us rode the rest of the way in. There's a little joking left in me at the end, but my favorite is Adam - you'll see him at the finish when I rolled through - I want you to pay attention to his expression when I say he's probably been there for two hours... turned out my two hour guess was within minutes of being correct, but he was too humble of a guy to affirm it. He rode a great race, along with numerous others. Also on the vid are the Zeph, Banks, and Gordon finishing up. Gordon rode the Crusher with a pretty serious shoulder separation, and get's my tough guy award for the day. Enjoy - and if you missed it, you need to make sure you don't miss the Crusher next year - it's absolutely a can't miss format and race.

Ride data - http://app.strava.com/rides/953455

Park City 50

2011-07-18T22:19:00.006-06:00

Did the Crusher in the Tushar this weekend and my head is swimming with stuff from that race that I want to get up, but here's a quick post on the PC50 - also a fantastic race and a significant day for the White clan. Annie and I both went up to this one, and it would be the longest Mtn Bike ride she'd ever been on, not to mention it being a race, along with a whole bunch of climbing thrown in the mix - makes for quite a bit to bite off for a first go round with endurance racing.

Quick recap of my day: It was fairly uneventful. Got about what I could get from what I brought to the game that day, no mishaps, flats, or any other problems with the bike. Brief fueling deficit a bit past mid way that I recognized quick and nipped in the butt by sitting down for a few minutes and putting in what food I had, felt good the rest of the way in. It was hard, but fun.

Annie's day went a little south early on. She had two flats early in the day that required some assistance and consumed enough time that it nixed her chances at being in the mix at the front of her group. Huge thanks to Lyna Saffel and the Bike Fix crew that offered her some help - it was a less than ideal start to a hard day, and their kindness helped salvage a race that otherwise would have been really disappointing for her. But alas, it wasn't. Annie's got a head for racing - and the legs I might add - but she's very efficient in managing herself above the shoulders through the various peaks and troughs of a race. After the slow start, she got settled in, worked her way through a course that's was a little rougher and more technical than anything she's ridden more than briefly, fueled herself nearly perfectly, and finished her first endurance race. 50 miles is a long way, and covering them by riding up and down bumpy ski mountains on her mountain bike isn't a "testing the water" kind of way to do it for the first time. I'm telling ya, I think there's some significant racing in her if she keeps having fun with it - and I think she will. Here she is wrapping up her day - man I dig this chick!

Best outing yet for the Suncrest gang - everyone got er done, a feat that's evaded the group numerous times in the past. Kingdon got into a similar situation to what I got into last year on those same mountains - bonked to the point of no return early in the day - hat's off to him for grinding it out - takes a lot to do it when it gets like that. And Banks, what can I say man - think I was happier for your race than I've ever been for one of my own... way to rip it man!

Sun Valley and Sawtooths for the 4th

2011-07-10T20:36:00.008-06:00

Headed north for a Sun Valley/City of Rocks 4th of July weekend, but ended up staying at the former once up there - too much to check out in the few days we'd allotted for it. Not the slightest bit sad that we'll have to make another trip up to get the climbing in at City of Rocks.

Few pics in reverse order of the trip....

We wrapped up the weekend in Hailey for the Independence day festivities - they make a great day of it up there. There's something about being in a small town for the 4th that I like a lot, think we may make an annual tradition of heading to a different little place every year for that weekend.

The two youngest raced their bikes just prior to the pro crit that immediately follows the parade. Here's the 4 yr old after what might be his last race on the Spiderman bike - he's outgrowing bikes about every six months it seems.

The kids favorite was the shootout show just prior to the parade - bad guys robbed the Mint building on Main St.

Rare scenes when candy wasn't being chased down and gathered during the parade. Think they outdid last years Halloween haul at this parade.

Made an excursion further up into the Sawtooth range one day. Impressive mountains, rugged....
Spent some time relaxing and paddleboarding at Redfish lake.

Spent most of the weekend in the Wood River Valley in and around Ketchum. Allison Krauss & Union Station (a band with some good banjo ranks high on my list of enjoyments), bike riding, kids first night hike, walkie talkie games in the woods - all part of a great and patriotic weekend with the family in Sun Valley and this great Country we're fortunate to live in.

Wife's on a tear...

2011-07-05T20:50:00.001-06:00

Playing catch up as usual. A few weeks back we jumped into a couple of firsts.

I did my first SUP race - it was a lot of fun. Couple of points of comedy from the morning. The first is my vessel. One of my first observations upon arriving and getting checked in, was that no one else was having to inflate their paddleboard. The second was my form, which was actually ok, assuming a guy knows which way his paddle should face, which would be a fair assumption unless I was the horse you were betting on. Turns out you hold it different than you'd think, and I paddled the whole race with it backwards. The fun didn't suffer one bit from the rookie mistakes, and we had a great time meeting new people in a new to us sport. Not ready to run out and buy a race board, but will do more of these for sure.

After the paddleboard racing at Deer Creek we buzzed over to Park City to get Annie ready for her debut Mountain Bike race in our home state. I'd stuck her in a Mtn. Bike race at the Teva Games a few years back, which was her only previous experience racing a Mtn Bike and was a less than ideal course for her to cut her teeth on. Have been looking to get her going again, so, thought Bob and the Utah State Championship gang's race at Round Valley would be a can't miss event to make sure she had fun and a course she could manage. I also thought I was pretty sure how she'd do, and turned out to be correct....
Similar to her CX season, new and learning the technical stuff that comes with racing on dirt, but it will come. In the meantime, she can pedal pretty damn hard, even for a girl. And I must admit, watching her race from the sidelines ain't half bad. The 8 yr old did a flawless hand up of a bottle, and yelled at her to go hard. So how'd she do? She won her sport class, and even won the big check for the fastest overall womens sport time. Makes a guy kind of proud to get to hollar "way to bring home the bacon" to the chick of the house at the awards ceremony.

Here is also probably a good spot to give props to the Utah State Championship promoters. Aside from the big checks, which is a fantastic touch and a fun little extra something to race for, they put on a helluva race - they're a really great addition to the racing scene here in Utah.
Now, back to scheming how I'm gonna keep up with this gal.....

2011 Teva Mountain Games

2011-06-22T06:12:00.004-06:00

After leaving the Ironhorse Classic in Durango, we dillydallied our way towards Vail where Annie and I would partner up for some racing there the next weekend. In between, we hit up a few places that we hadn't been before, a few nights at the Pagosa Hot Springs resort, Great Sand Dune National Park, a few nights camping, and then wrapping it up with some R&R (racing and relaxing) at the Marriott Vail Mountain resort for the weekend's events at the Teva Mountain Games. Will detail the in between stuff in a later post. In the meantime, here's the detail and footage from the Teva Games. I suckered Annie into doing the trail run, making a solid case that it would be best for the team - she'd seen me running around without my shirt off at the hot springs resort the few days prior, and quickly agreed that yes, it would indeed be best for the team if I didn't do the run.

Kayak - This went smoother this year, in large part to having done one prep outing on the Green River with some of the guys a few weeks back and having to execute a few rolls in some fairly large rapids on that trip. Wasn't near as sketchy as a few years ago, and had some confidence that I could keep it upright, and even if not, could get back up right without having to bail out. The only problem with the kayak leg this year was fitness. I've mentioned on here before that unlike some of the endurance type stuff where you get some decent crossover of fitness from discipline to discipline, the only way I know of to get into decent paddling shape is to paddle, a lot. I paddled hard for about 5 minutes, and was blown, completely, shoulders and arms. It was to the point of being concerned near the bottom end of the course that I wouldn't have the strength to paddle away from holes/obstacles if something came up that needed to be avoided. You'll see the soft paddling at the bottom of the course in the video, my strength was reduced to the consistency of wet bread. Side note - the Stand up paddle boarding seems to be catching on fairly rapidly, lot's of them there this year. I have since entered my first paddle board race - coming up this weekend....

Mtn Bike - They had to keep us a little lower on the mountain this year due to snow, which cut out some sections of both the Mtn bike course and the run course. Among the sections cut out of the bike course was most of the more technical downhill stuff, and some climbing mileage that they seemed to consolidate into a nasty pitch that capped off the climbing each lap. The kind of pitch that required you to slide up and put your seat tip right where the sun don't shine, and try to keep momentum just high enough that you don't stall out and tip. Missing or hesitating for even half a pedal stroke on those steeps meant you were off the bike and walking. I was actually able to race hard that afternoon, and the race was short enough at 3 laps just under 5 miles each, that the lack of training and fitness didn't get a chance to manifest itself to the extent it had the week previous at the Iron Horse. Came away fairly pleased and a little surprised.

Trail Run - Despite this course also staying a little lower on the mountain, I'm fairly certain they had that same guy, you know him from last time... yep, that one, the bastard - set the course again. It went straight up real early, just like last time. As in redline walking efforts straight up. Annie nailed it though, ran a great race that included running across and down snow banks, mud, double track, singletrack, and no track - everything a trail race should be, and did so quickly. Her motivation? To hammer my time from a few years back, which she did easily. I told her it was because the race didn't go as high up the mountain this year, but just between you and me, I know better.

Hill climb TT - Very similar time to last time I was out there, which translates into being a little slower this year given my legs hadn't had to do that run a few hours previous. Rode the first 6.5 miles real well, but didn't have the gumption to keep going hard once on the upper section of the route and faded some. But again, was somewhat surprised and pleased that it hadn't been worse. I also enjoy TT's, at least once they're over. Really the truest measure of oneself on the bike, both physically and mentally.

So, once it was all tallied together, team Wasatch Pilates (sponsored by Annie's little Pilates biz) finished 4th of 10 in the coed division of the Ultimate Mountain Challenge. More importantly - it seemed to light a little bit of the spark that's been missing from the motivation this year. We'll see if we can parlay that into some better focus and effort going forward. We're hooked on the team racing - its' a blast to team up with Annie for this kind of stuff.

Spectating - this was the kids first year out there so we made sure to catch a little bit of everything. They didn't get near as excited about the climbing or the slopestyle riding as we did. They're fascination - the dog jumping..., they could have watched it for hours.

Overall it was a great trip - great to get away with the family and just screw off for a while, these kidlets just keep getting more fun every year.

Video hightlights:

1 - my buying a gopro camera, with the kayak race specifically in mind for it, only to reach up and turn it on, I mean off, just prior to going in the water - no on board race footage, notta, nil, zilch.

2 - Brock having a hard time getting going on the kids race. Kid's race was also brutal for the little tikes, hard course for their little legs to climb up, and they all grinded it out - proud of them.

2011 Teva Mountain Games from Jason White on Vimeo.

2011 Iron Horse Classic

2011-06-08T18:31:00.006-06:00

This annual post always starts out the same..... rave, rave, rave about how fun the Iron Horse Classic is. I'll get to that.

As has become tradition, I raced it again this year, but fairly miserably. I began to wonder within minutes of the start, when the pace was already in my brain - Geez, Are we going faster this year, this is causing more distress than usual this early? Hung on to Shalona Hill, then had my answer when I fell off the back rather abruptly. Went really slow for the rest of the race, I mean really slow. Insights? Yes, I have one. Slower is harder. When your going slow in a race, it's generally not because your trying to race slow, no, it's because your genuinely slow - but the effort to go slow isn't any less than the effort to go fast - your just stuck out there longer when the effort generates less speed. It was the slowest and hardest one I've done, with nothing to blame the day on other than my own limited capacity, indeed it was a perfect day for a mountain race. Despite the slowness, I enjoyed the heck out of the classic route from Durango to Silverton.

Mixed it up this year, skipped the other road Omnium events to do the Mtb race Sunday morning. And, contrary to what I expected, had a little more snap in the legs for that race. Finish was still poor, but slowness wasn't the sole factor, this was an important course to preride, and I hadn't. Critical sprint section going into the final stretch of downhill 1track, and here's another insight - when your the last one to know it's a sprint, your not gonna catch it. I realized I'd made a mistake the second the wave came up when we hit the pavement, and there was no catching it by the time I tried to accelerate. Was happy with how the legs and effort felt though, for the first time this year I felt like I was managing and thinking during a race vs. barely hanging on. Small positive from a punishing weekend.

So back to these Iron Horse organizers. Mentioned they added a Mtn Bike race to the mix this year. Good course, nothing great or spectacular......... until the pro race. That's when, after coming down off the mountain section, they moved the fences inside the restaurant, ran a ramp through a window, and detoured the course through the Steamworks Brewery..... check it.....

Course entered through the front window.....

Here's the exit ramp.....
Deadly Nedley in hot pursuit of the 16 or 17 year old kid that won the race.... Ned had his day the previous morning when he won the road race... again....
The kids races were awesome again... Brock's the Spiderman dude in blue, head down and charging like a bull...
Chesney's into the standing pedal lately, and spent a lot of her race out of the saddle...
Along with Kylie who also came out of the saddle to hammer the short climb.
Racing is only half the enjoyment of the Durango trip - simple stuff like setting out nickles and pennies on the tracks to get flattened by the train, and skipping rocks in the river from the railroad tracks are also among the enjoyments. We always love this trip.
In Silverton after the road race... one positive about riding slow is that you don't have to wait as long post race before they open the road back up to return to Durango.

This was the first of two weekends of racing in Colorado, with some touring of the rockies in between.... more to come.

Yosemite

2011-05-24T20:53:00.012-06:00

Had a biz trip to San Francisco a few weeks ago and figured since in the neighborhood it would be a good time to check out Yosemite. Called CA friend Ian to see if he could get a hall pass for the weekend and it just so happened he could. Aside from being a fellow bank dude, Ian's a jack of all trades, from bee keeping to wine making to rock climbing - and knows his way around Yosemite, so aside from having a pal along, I also had a guide.

From the top of Vernal Falls on our way to Nevada Falls - hard to describe the water, never seen anything like it. Will try and add a video that shows the speed at which is was flowing off the mountain - it sounded like a train in a tunnel. A gentleman died in the lower section of the photo above within a half hour of when it was taken - we were rerouted due to the trail being closed when we descended. He was one of two accidental deaths in the park that day.

Down the trail a bit - Vernal Falls in the background.

Yosemite Falls - they say Yosemite is best in the spring during runoff when the waterfalls are raging. It was more impressive than advertised.
This one needs no description.
The trail between Vernal and Nevada Falls.

This is what a mountain looks like when it's watersheds can't hold the water that's on it -
The famous Camp 4 or climbers camp - i.e. dirtbagger circle. Waited in line here early in the morning for over an hour to get a campsite. Demand for any place to sleep in Yosemite far outpaces supply. We had a plan B that we didn't have to resort to, wisdom passed down from veteran Yosemite friends.

The Aahwahnee Lodge - worlds apart from Camp 4, just down the road.

Last but not least - El Cap.... to provide some scale/perspective - there is a climber in that frame.

Here's a closer shot of the climber - see those vertical black streaks - look at the one (black streak feature) farthest right - then just right of the bottom of it - look close and you'll pick him out - I've added an arrow to help. Now go back to the previous shot to put it back in perspective. Yes, it's a massive, massive wall.

We got 1 climb in while there - stuck close to camp on the Swan slab which was a short walk with some quality routes. Unbelievable place, can't wait to take the family and spend more time there, just scratched the surface on this trip.

12 hours of Mesa Verde 2011

2011-05-22T22:05:00.001-06:00

Quick recap and some photos..... behind here and have some Yosemite hiking/climbing and Green River kayak stuff to get up as well.

Instead of bagging one more lap than last year I did one less. Right about in line with where my fitness is this year, riding less than once every other week thus far. First hard riding on the new Yeti - it's fantastic. Rode the course (one of my all time top two race venues) on the full suspension epic last year and was dramatically less beat up after this years race on the Yeti hardtail. Partly due to the lower mileage, but would attribute a lot of it to the big wheeled bike as well, I was late to buy in but there something to them.

Highlight was probably the multiple buck offs. Took two of the worst diggers I've ever taken that day - one on lap one, and the worst on the last lap. Came up with only surface damage from both. The last one decapitated my helmet when the bike came flying by from behind, taking my helmet with it. Despite being fine, had to sit and get unrattled for a minute, it was high speed and easily the hardest I've ever hit. Super lucky to come out clean. Don't know what my deal was, but I had to be the sketchiest rider on the course that day - aside from the two hard get offs, there were several others that were less hard but no less clumsy.

Annie even got lap in for a team with no name - think we'll be doing some duo MTB events in the future, she's getting a lot more comfortable on the Mtn bike.

The kids also raced, and did fantastic - Brock's first race on the big kid bike - he did great. Kylie's about ready to venture out into Corner Canyon.

Followed up the race with a trip out to the ruins with the Banks, Pogues, and Seamon's - fun trip with fun friends - still looking for an itch to get on the bike though, thought it would have hit by now, but heading Colorado for the Iron Horse and Teva Mtn Games later this week and haven't even thought about a bike since Mesa Verde, curious to see how it goes there....

Photo's from the trip...

Crackalackin....

Iron girl Las Vegas

2011-05-11T06:03:00.000-06:00

We were back in Vegas a few weeks ago for Annie's Iron Girl Triathlon. She and a few friends had put this one on the calander late last year and she'd been working hard to get ready for the last few months - yet another practice from the school of Annie that I should pick up on, assuming the getting ready part had something to do with how well she did....

We dropped the kids with Grandma and Grandpa on the way down... big thanks to them for taking them for the weekend. Also saw a certain rider that hangs out in Utah on occasion from team Radioshack with his motorpacing crew out in a place I would never expect to see an elite pro riding - he was way, way out in the middle of nowhere, we spent a while trying to guess where he must have started from, didn't come up with any obvious options.

Some observations from the husband.... and right out of the gate - I must conceed, there are things that suck worse than having to watch a womens only triathlon....

There is a fashion show element at a womens triathlon, can't say for sure, but got the impression that race attire may have been a little higher on the priority list than at a men's race.

Funniest thing we saw was the girl struggling to get her wetsuit on.... backwards. Her guy was there helping her, so we didn't want to interfere and say anything, just watched. Saw her just prior to the swim, still on backwards, fidgeting with it as if it weren't comfortable.

They started the race like a time trial, swimmers going in one at a time in quick succession. Helps the anxiety associated with the mosh pit pack start, but negates the head to head racing in the latter legs where one had no way of knowing who was leading the race or had any idea where they stood. There wasn't a winner at the finish line, it was an unknown until times were posted. Pro's a con's, but most of the girls seemed to like it.

Chicks are every bit as competitive as bro's - saw some serious race within the race battles both at the beginning of the bike leg and the finishing sprints on the run.

This Iron Girl organization is over the top with the body marking. Counted 5 marks in 5 different areas - I volunteered to do fake or real markings....

In case you didn't notice it's dark in the photo above, the day started early, too early. We drove out that morning around 5:00 - race was scheduled to start at 7:00, and they were hustling people almost to the point of being beligerent, to have them lined up ready to go off on the swim at 7 sharp, which was great. But then proceeded to have them stand in said line for about 35 minutes past 7 while they got the course ready. You may also have noticed we had Annie in a down coat that morning - it was cold, especially for the 800 girls standing around waiting. So what do girls do while standing around waiting...? I know what guys would do... we would start bitching, a lot. The girls, they start dancing... and they had choreographed dances for each song that they all seemed to know... it was an amazing sight - like a flash mob, that lasted 6 or 7 songs. And then they were off, one by one, into the water that was starting to churn decent sized waves once out of the little bay they started in.

I love this girl...

Here she is just after finishing.

The swim was a tough one - it was windy, and despite the TT style start, congested. The hardest transition from swimming, to swimming in an open water triathlon, is learning to get your stroke into a rythym with all the variables going on immediately around you. I've never been able to put a complete swim together. Annie wasn't able to either on this day - she had a hard time breathing between waves hitting her in the face, and got a little uncomfortable in a few spots where it bottlenecked. Turned into a survival swim vs. a race swim, and she grinded her way through it. Once out of the water, she turned it on. Her bike split was solid and she ran a top 50 5k. I was a proud husband and foresee more coed duo events in our future. She's diggin the racing, have to thank cyclocross for igniting that spark, and I'm diggin that she's diggin it - it's pretty darn good to be the guy married to her.

Easter at Goblin Valley

2011-05-04T21:01:00.002-06:00

We headed down to Goblin Valley Easter weekend, in hopes of warm weather and some high caliber easter egg hunting. As has been the trend this year, it was cold and rained a lot, we're batting 1000 on hitting bad weather when we get out of town to escape it - those 30% chance of rain days have bucked the odds every time, without fail. The cool thing about the desert? Once the storm blows over it can go from 35* to 70* in about 45 minutes, and it did just that for us on Easter Sunday, providing for a good afternoon in the hoodoos.

The White chicks doing their yoga poses.
Easter morning the kids finished their easter egg hunt and found the booty stash about 45 seconds before the rain hit hard - we spent the next few hours huddled in the tent playing with their new stuff - which turned out to be pretty high quality time.
The day before was Little Wild Horse Canyon with Jeremy and Mandy and their kids who are schoolmates of our kids.

Log limbo near the canyon entrance.

Brock worked on his hatchet skills, still has all his toes.

Last year at Goblin Valley we were treated to an exceptional sunset. This year, for a brief period between rainstorms, we were treated to an exceptional Easter morning sunrise.

Here's the Honda Pilot ad version...

Goblin Valley has officially become one of the White family's favorite destinations. I took the new Yeti 29er bike out on it's first ride away from home, and found a whole bunch of new country to explore down there. Reminded me how much I love to jump on the bike with no idea where I'm going or going to end up, life at it's simplest, not many things better.

Red Rock Rendesvoux

2011-04-11T07:30:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago we all loaded up and headed for the warmth and sun of Las Vegas, a welcome excursion from the cold and snow at home. The Red Rock Rendesvoux is a rock climbing festival down at Red Rock Canyon. We'd ridden our road bikes out there but never climbed, so were excited to get on the rock and also learn some new stuff in the clinics we'd signed up for. but have a quick precursor story. Those who know me know that Annie's a lucky girl - not just because of my looks and figure, but because of my nurturing and put her first nature as a partner - you know, husband of the year type thing all the time. How do I do it - how great is it for her being married to me you ask? Let me give you an example from this trip.

We pulled into the festival around 7:00 pm after hitting the road right after the kids were out of school. The day before leaving, a friend called, and as this small world is wont to work, was also going to be in town while we were down there. I told him I'd give him a ring when we got there, and if things worked out, we'd try and get together for some go fish and old maid.

So where was I - we pulled into the festival base camp out past Red Rock Canyon around 7:00 pm. It was overcast with a little bit of wind, but warm relative to what we'd left in SLC. We got the tent set up, got checked in for our clinics the next few days, met some folks, and had everyone tucked in around 10:30 for the night. All things you should get done before heading out with your friends if your husband of the year type material. So once the kids were down and Annie confirmed she was good for the night - I left to catch up with the old friends over some cards, which may be second only to riding bikes as a means of catching up with people. They were staying at the Palazzo so that was the meeting spot. By the time we packed it in, there had been no "Hang Over" type absurdities about the night, we'd had fun, most didn't leave any poorer, and we told lot's of stories and laughed a ton. I'd had a great time. Then, while walking to my car, I checked my phone and got that husband of the year feeling. There was a text message from Annie. It was short and precise "wind broke tent poles and blowing it down, getting cold, please come help"............. She'd sent it about 3 hours ago.

It was about a 30 minute drive back out there, went fast, and about got blown off the road a few times on the way out - the wind was absolutely ripping. I pulled in, found the station gate into the festival area closed, figured out a way in with the car, and saw the carnage. Tents against fences, tents ripped off half their stakes getting shredded, and some tents holding up pretty well.

I parked and ran over to our tent expecting to find 3 terrified fatherless kids and 1 pissed off wife. The tent had indeed suffered a few broken poles, but had stayed intact enough to serve it's purpose. Sidewalls were folding during the strong gusts, enough to hit you in the face while laying down, but they'd bounce back up and the tents integrity as a shelter was holding up for the most part, for which I was both relieved and grateful - Annie and all three kidlets were asleep. Blow up mercifully avoided, could have been real bad had the rain blown in while I was gone with the car - the only back up shelter we had. My wife is a saint.

Untitled from Jason White on Vimeo.

Wish I could say it got better for the climbing, but it didn't. The winds continued to rip, the rain would come on occasion, and it was cold - not the weather we had hoped for. Our clinics were good. I was taking a trad class, wanted to learn more about protection placement, equipment, and technique. Learned some cool things and discovered a new to me piece of equipment I'm fond of called a tri cam. My instructor was named Malcolm and the guy was a wealth of experience and know how. The guy had founded Trango, a small climbing gear company that he'd sold a few years back. He also climbed on a prosthetic leg. He'd lost the original to frostbite in an Alpine accident, a story you don't get to hear told by the victim very often. Needless to say I was fairly captivated by what he had to say and teach us, despite the poor weather. There were gusts that very nearly blew me off the wall while I was on my route - it was sketchy at best.

The festival was what you'd expect at a rock climbing gathering, a mix of hippies, vagabonds, hobbyists, blue collar, white collar, and just about anything else you can think of. The cool thing about rock climbers is there's no pretense, no ego's, none of the blowhard type stuff you get in some circles. The bankers eat dinner with the hippies and both say goodnight thinking the other one has parts of life figured out better than themselves - it's both a mellow but intense cross section of people - we dig it.

The kids did some hula hooping, slacklining, and tree climbing - they're not as soft as the adults, weather never even crossed their mind other than sand in the eyes. My favorite times with the kids are when we're out in the bush somewhere, living out of the tent, with nothing but their imaginations to dictate how we spend our day.

Not really much about the climbing to talk about - learned some stuff, but stayed off the rock when we weren't in our lessons. Had some climbing pics but can't find the camera I took them on. We headed into town for days 3 and 4, stayed at Mandalay where Kylie body surfed for about 6 hours straight one day. Kylie trying to teach Mom how to time the wave for the best ride - Mom's a little early.

Wasn't the great climbing trip we'd wanted - the weather has managed to conspire against us on each attempt we've made to get away from it thus far this year. Plenty of outings scheduled this year so hopefully our luck changes - great times being had either way though.

Grit 50 race report

2011-03-28T18:00:00.015-06:00

We'd been pretty cold for a while...... somewhere out on Stucki I got cold enough that I thought getting off and walking might not be a bad thing to try and warm up my feet and hands, and it was effective. It was on my walking hill that some of the travel group came back together - Gordon came by, then Banks and Kingdon, and I jumped back on, wanting to make sure good company remained part of the equation the rest of the way in.

Cold is hard to manage on a bike, there aren't a lot of options to try and mitigate it, so you don't manage it, you just deal with it. Annie had my rain gear out at the 2nd aid stop, and I declined when she offered to swap it out for the windbreaker I had on. Would have done that differently had I had another 30 minutes of hindsight available. Soaking wet and cold is a little harder to manage on a bike, and not unlike plain old cold, there also aren't a lot of options to mitigate it, so you also just deal with it - you deal with it a little harder.

That's where we were at the top of Stucki - soaking wet (really, you can't picture how soaked we were), cold, and "dealing" more than racing - but we'd topped out and were headed back down which wouldn't help the cold, but would help progress feel a little faster. That's when we hit it - or it hit us - the mud bog, the first of many, but to give it it's due, this first one was the mud bog. Took 10 yards to gain 30 pds of the stuff on the bike and shoes. It was immediate pushing, then, when the wheels wouldn't roll anymore, it was dragging, carrying, or a number of other techniques I saw to try and get one's self and the bike through the mud bog and the short but steep hill it crawled up. It was here that we started to laugh a little bit, between the cursing that we all conceeded seemed to be more frequent than usual - laughing was the only thing to do really - there are days that are memorable because a trail was great or you felt particularly strong that day, and then there are days that are unforgetable because of the conditions and the amount of "deal with it" required. This day was quickly becoming one of the latter - a day you'd never get yourself in the middle of on purpose, yet there we all were, a raceful of us caught out there in a hard, cold, desert rainstorm, grinding it out.

I thought the cold started to let up a bit, was able to recover some from feeling nothing more than stubs on the end of my arms that couldn't shift or brake without guiding the contact points there with your eyes - but the rain didn't let up, and however poor the condition of the riders at that point, it was those trails that were getting the worst of it. I don't know how long it will take them to be good again, but suspect it will be a long time, they were ravaged. We rode and pushed and laughed and limped along till a race staffer informed us it was over and to pack it in. So we turned and rode back to the finish.

The days race turned out to be one against the weather, and only the select few uberfast guys beat it. Hat's off to them. To the rest of us that stayed out till they were pulled off - no less respect, I thought the guts to grind in those conditions was a better satisfaction than anything a results sheet could have provided. I fall into the camp that thought the race promoter did one hell of a job in a situation where it was impossible to make the right decision for every racer out on the course. Have some friends who came out on the short end of the decision, but think it was the best for the most - kudo's to Cimarron and crew - thought they executed really well.

Photo's in no particular order...

The day made for a great commercial for the Look Quartz pedals - use them for both MTB and CX - waited to have a problem getting in/out of them all day but they were extremely efficient in clearing mud - never had an issue.

Don't know if I can attribute the saddle sores to these dirt clods I didn't know I was sitting on, or the lack of saddle time I took into the race, but I've got a few more than a few that I'm "dealing with".

Tyler and his crew along with Banks. Tyler had the toughest go of any of us - snapped his rear derailer off in the mud.

Kingdon - dude rode strong.

Banks and Super Crewer wife Karee. Banks rode strong and kept me positive Post race - Gordon-who also rode like a bull, Kingdon, Banks and myself - it was fun and merited smiles, it was just a unique fun.

The ill fated ride away from the 2nd aid stop from where my wife took this shot - while holding my rain jacket that I'd told her to keep. Less than 30 minutes away from conditions going real south real quick. Next up for me will be Cortez, and have a pretty dramatic amount of bike fitness to gain if that's going to be a good outing.

Dormant

2011-03-07T21:53:00.007-07:00

The blog's been a little dormant, not entirely unlike myself this winter. Haven't touched a bike for a few months, haven't had an itch to, and considering doing a little experiment and showing up 3 months cold turkey at the True Grit 50 down in St. George at the end of the month, just to see how it would go coming off a break like that.

A few years ago Annie and I were at the Teva Games in Vail, and in between our own events, spent some time watching the World Cup bouldering competition that was going on with the games. It spurred a discussion between the two of us that left us seriously considering the following question - "were those the most impressive athlete's we'd ever seen?" We'd been out of the climbing scene since having kids - making a ride into the sunset - last hurrah type of trip out to Joshua Tree with some friends early in Annie's pregnancy with our oldest, and then a weekend trip up to City of Rocks not long after she was born. Got caught mid wall in the worst downpour I've ever experienced on that trip, thought I was going to become the first ever drowning victim on a vertical rock face. Hadn't been back for more than a one off trip to the climbing gym once a year or less for the last 7, almost 8 years. Don't know that we reached a conclusion to that question on the drive home from Vail that weekend, but knowing the question was raised gives you an idea of the impression those climbers made on us - between the puzzle solving in their brains and the subtle finesse mixed sheer strength we witnessed, we came away amazed. And the seed was replanted with that little bit of inspiration.

So, when I started feeling like I needed to mix it up a little last summer, and the kids expressed interest at one of the aforementioned one off days at the climbing gym, I started thinking it might be time to revisit an old flame. So, this winter, the two staples in my car have been my climbing shoes and my yoga mat. I've been spending a few hours a week on the bouldering routes of the local climbing gym, and falling back in love with the sport. And I think we've got the kids hooked too. And so, in an effort to be a good dad and accomodate the kids interest, the natural next step was to use that loving motive to talk Annie into letting me do some interior decorating......

The little guy likes to help with the route setting.

A few more pics from the last family gym session....

I'm wearing my shirt for 3 reasons. 1- they encourage that there, 2 - because I'm still carrying a little extra, which I now think is more punishing on a climbing wall than on a bike climbing a hill and 3 - even if I weren't carrying a little extra, I'm positive the play time I've spent on a bike the last few years doesn't have my back looking like this.....
I know her regimen, still telling myself I need to adopt at least portions of it, and still not doing it. I could watch Annie climb all day.

The kids are picking up little technical type things on their own. They've figured out that they don't need much to stand on.

Really looking forward to a few weekend getaways for some real climbing with the family this year.

Kidlets burn the midnight oil

2011-01-27T07:45:00.001-07:00

We got there at 10:00 pm, they were on the walls at 10:30 after waiting in a line one might expect when a popular band is playing a small club, and they went non stop until 1:00 am when the oldest laid down and went to sleep on the floor. It was late night climbing night at the local climbing gym - 10pm to 2 am. The place was packed, lines 3-4 deep at all he top ropes, bouldering area was shoulder to shoulder - only good place was the one that mattered, the kids wall, so Annie and I just sat and enjoyed watching the rats of the rug work on their bouldering skills.
Kylie is strong, and muscles her way through problems. Her determination pushes her strength hard - watched her cling herself on the wall in some positions that I didn't think she had a chance to hold on to.

Chesney's a little more cerebral, watched her on several occasions stop and think her way through some sequences. Some climbers make it look graceful, Chesney is that type of climber.

Annie working on her ninja feet - soft and quiet. Annie's both exceptionally strong, and graceful.

And then there's Brock - kind of at that age where motor skills and the like start to progress faster than growth in actual size, so when people started gathering to watch the "little boy" who's up past midnight working the wall, with some cheers and gawking, he started to get a little Hollywood on us.

By 1:30 the younger 2 were starting to get dreary eyed, so we packed it up a little early. They've been asking to go again since waking up Saturday morning.

Best & Worst of 2010

2011-01-05T15:31:00.001-07:00

Best family outing - toss up between Yellowstone and Goblin Valley/Little Wildhorse Canyon/Calf Creek Falls trips. Best family adventure year yet, and those outings were easily the overall highlights of the year.

Most fun races - in order of rank: CX races, Adventure race, then 12 hours of Mesa Verde.

Best performance - I didn't have one that went well enough to qualify - but Annie's Mtn bike leg at the adventure race and her cyclocross season most certainly do.

Most painful mistake/lesson - Eating a stupid lite breakfast (as in 1 pack of instant cream of wheat stupid)at Park City Point to Point and getting into a fuel hole too deep to get out of early in the day. Lesson - by the time it hit me and I realized the problem, it was too late to get it fixed. Better to stay well ahead/overdo it on the fueling, than risk getting anywhere near a deficit. Close second is thinking I could run a half marathon on the back end of a half iron man distance tri more or less cold turkey and be ok. This actually hurt worse than the PCP2P situation, but the suffering lasted only about an hour vs. a whole bunch more than an hour at the bike race.

Favorite race - Iron Horse Classic

Favorite new race - had to create a seperate category as favorite race was a draw between the Iron Horse and the Moab Adventure Race with Annie, so we'll call the Moab Adventure Race the favorite new race due mainly to partnering up with my wife for it. 12 hours of Mesa Verde get's honorable mention for favorite new race in 2010.

Monopoly Adventures:

First year I've indulged in what we'll call borderline fanatical behavior - Did some sniffing around about good, stable, and promising places to live and give my kids a good launching pad into their adult lives in a favorable environment to reap what they choose to sow......... outside the US. I'll call this fanatical behavior because I'm a fairly optimistic guy, and think we've got a good chance of things working out ok here in the good ol' US of A - but... certain views and attitudes that seem to have come to the surface during this cycle in numbers I was nieve to bothered me enough that we started to think as deep as plan E and plan F and put some non-local locales on a short list of places that might be favorable in case the preferred place we've planted roots for said lauch pad becomes a less favorable option at some point. No, I'm not calling for John Galt to come and get me and the clan, and that's why we'll call this fanatical behavior, but if it reached that, I've got specific dirt, in a specific valley well clear of the blast zone on the radar.

Top biz enjoyment - seeing some of the high pucker factor decisions made back at the real scary part of this cycle working out ok. These were all relatively small in regards to capital outlay, but did it's intended job of limiting/eliminating damage taken during the initial violence in which the bottom fell out of everything back in 08', so far at least... with an emphasis on so far...

Top biz frustration - aside from going through the weird burnout/funk that seemed to hit 85% of the workforce - mine was spending a significant amount of time doing DD on potential business acquisitions (non bank related) only to not find the right one to pull the trigger on. Not certain that I wasn't just a little late to the game and maybe missed a period of once in a lifetime type opportunities in this regard - but not certain all the opportunities have been missed yet either. Have a few friends who swung at a few pitches we saw and hope they prove me to be a little gunshy, and that they hit it out of the park. Continuing to keep the ear to the tracks in this regard, but maybe not as intensly in the new year as we think we can get back to growing the biz I babysit at the bank, which makes the day job a little more stimulating and fun than the mind numbing water treading it's been through this recession. Close second here is the larger(relative term)investment in the commercial RE project that still looks to be a ways out from getting unsideways. Still thinking we may be able to make it work out real well, but the holding period is, and will continue to be for a while, longer than I'd prefer. Also dealing with some misjudgements on some competencies I thought we had in the group/management that have taken more time/attention than the passive investor position I intended my role to be. Valuable learning going on though, but it's the kind a guy bitches about until your done with it.

Overall the year felt more exhausting than I think it actually was, which I'll attribute primarily to that weird workforce funk I mentioned - weird in that during a period where a guy was happy to have a job, there sure were a lot of us who went through a phase of hating them. And aside from the abnormal amount of time spent in the burnout cave, have to call it a fine year of health and happiness, one we'll look back on as a good one.

UTCX #'s 10 & 11

2010-12-29T22:25:00.001-07:00

Race #10 in the UTCX series was at Fort Buenaventura, and it was prime CX conditions - wet snow that transitioned to wet mud with some traffic, on a course that's fast, and got nice and messy. Which meant one thing for the White's - flailing. I went down hard on lap one -happened before I knew what hit me on a transition from dirt to pavement covered in wet leaves that were slick as hell. First crash I've had in a while that rattled me a bit, took me a lap or so to get my head right again. Eventually got going again and although still a little timid, managed an ok race the rest the way in, with the exception of one more get off on a corner right in front of Alex, who handles his bike well enough to have avoided stacking it up on top of me.

Annie's race was similar - she got bucked off three or four times, kept her head better than I did, and rode her typical strong race. Muddy might be one of her sexiest looks.

Big step: First time she's come in from a bike ride inclusive of crashing with a big ol' grin on her face. Contrary to mine - her crashes didn't phase her.

Brock had his first mechanical - need to make some adjustments to his ride to improve mud/snow clearance. Couple of tire kicks and he was back on his way.

Some of the girls from the B field. Annie, Gigi, Shannon, and Kara - they push each other - hard.

Good indicator you did some rolling around in places the race wasn't meant to go when you have these on your persons at the finish line. Not sure where I picked them up, which means there were more than a few lines I took that weren't the fastest ones.

Only thing to do after a day of flailing is to make uncoordinated faces for the camera turning onto the finishing straight.

The series wrapped up at Herriman, new course that brought with it it's own special feature - high winds. I liked the course, the long stair run up, the teeth rattling section through the frozen post hole countoured arena - didn't really notice we didn't have any barriers till after the race. I still can't ride wood chips worth beans.

Annie went after it hard right out of the gate, and finished up her season with what was probably her best start line to finish line race of the year. Nabbed her first win in the B field. She's really enjoyed racing with those girls and has learned a lot watching them. Figure she probably deserves a new CX bike sometime between now and next season - the hunt is on for another Yeti to go in our garage.

Just ducking out of one of the short sections where the wind uppercuts you right under the chin coming out of a fast corner.

Annie defending her first lead in the B field, she managed it really well, riding hard but smart.

Her transitions off and back on the bike are night and day from the beginning of the season, she's consistently smooth and fast now.

That's a wrap for the year. Obvious highlight has been having Annie take up the sport and do so well - think I've said it before, but can't tell you how much fun it's been having that little lady share in the fun that is CX this year, she's such a great cohort on so many levels, and we just keep adding layers. Also great to have the Zeph catch the CX bug, look forward to next year with him as well. Will probably add one more CX post of a few favorite pics from the season at some point, but if not, thanks to Ohran and the rest of the UTCX crew for a great series this year - made for a hell of a lot of fun!

Need to figure out what to do with Saturday mornings now, but sure we'll come up with something.

2011 Races

2010-12-17T16:33:00.005-07:00

Tentative, with an addition or two of some new stuff still being weighed, and room for crazy stuff the conmen come up with, but pretty similar to last year. Also excited to see what Bob's got in store with his new race series as well.

March:
Moab Adventure race - That great day I said Annie had on the bike at this one this year... now thinking it won't come close to what I think she'll do there for the sequel, perspectives have changed some with her having spent a little more time on the bike this fall.

May:
12 Hours of Mesa Verde - need to nab at least one more lap than I did this year, and lower expectations of how fun the blackjack is at Ute Mtn.

Iron Horse Classic - will do the Road race, Mtb race, and maybe the TT.

June:
Teva Mtn Games - missed this last year with kids year end school schedules/travel overkill, same hurdles this year, but will try harder to make it work, this one makes for a cool weekend of racing and spectating.

Sept:
PCP2P
Vikingman (disclaimer - won't do this again unless I'm at least a little prepared for the run)
Xterra

October-December:
Cyclocross

Two CX photo sequences

2010-12-06T21:08:00.001-07:00

The Dab....

No, the lesson here should not be taken to be dabbing as an offensive means to open an immediate 2 second gap. No, the lesson here is defensive driving - if you get caught with nowhere to go, right on the wheel of the guy who dabs, or on the wheel of the guy on the wheel of the guy who dabs, your gonna have an immediate 2 second gap opened up on you by the offending dabber. The first dab is always the fastest back up. We've all been on both sides of this occurance.

There's a lot to be learned just watching a CX race.

For example: I figured out how to get in Pat's head.... he know's I'm gonna try to knock him over when he rides by...

At this point, he's seen me and you'll notice he's already looking for a spot to land. We both know what's coming. I'm lowering a shoulder.

I've realized at this point I don't need to hit him with the shoulder, and step back to take another pic. He's picked his spot....

After making sure he's alright, I start laughing, fairly hard, and Pat starts calling me names for having gotten into his head so effectively that I only need look at him to knock him over.

To be fair and paint the real picture - Pat's little digger took place on one of the slickest spots on the course that day, it victimized more than a few good riders.

UTCX #'s 7, 8, and 9.

2010-12-01T06:00:00.003-07:00

Let's start with some pics from last weeks race in no particular order....

Was really proud of the girls and Brock who bucked up and raced in the cold, and loved it. CX has turned into quite the family thing this year, increasing the fun exponentially.

Rick Sunderlage, yes he's as fast as he looks...

Chesney finishing up...

Bob, one of only a few to brave the conditions in shorts. In fact, he rode those naked legs right into a 2nd place finish.

Adam - on his way to a strong finish in his field - one of only a few who ran most of the off camber hill succesfully. Shoe traction wasn't superior to tire traction in most of the cases and the falls were more ackward, but Adam ran in to perfection.

Top highlight of the day - watching Matt Bradley sprint up the finish of his first race back.

Eric - the tougher the conditions, the better he is - on his way to a strong finish

Brock hitting the barriers...

Annie ripping through the creek bottom...

Adam before the race - looking maybe just a little giddy to go race in the snow... think he's also one of those tougher the conditions, better he is type of racers.

Annie running the barriers, she's gotten pretty smooth on these....

Some homer that Annie sacks up with....

Pat - you know I have some of you - they turned out well enough that I think they deserve their own post, which is forthcoming.

OK - Some catching up on the CX races.....

UTCX #7 at Draper - Uneventful enough that I don't recall where either of us finished that week, and too lazy to look it up. Nothing spectacular to recount, but nothing bad either, except that damn hill is still beyond my fitness level.

UTCX #8 State Championship - Overtakes week #2 as debacle of the year for me. Worst effort of the year. Got a little greedy on a couple of occasions at sections of the course where I handled it wrong and ended up on my back and in a tree as a result, had some other challenges , and just rode soft overall. Punished myself by jumping in with the B's later in the day to suffer up the hill a few more times, rode about the same, and was sufficiently beat down in both races on the day. That course exploited me in a few ways that give me some good specifics to improve on, so great day in that regard - but that type of great never feels good.

Annie on the other hand rode really well, in fact, she's yet to have much of an off day. She had a podium spot just prior to the barriers on the last lap, but didn't quite have the kick left to match Shannon and finished 4th on the day - was really impressed with how she climbed, she killed the up every lap.

UTCX #9 at Wheeler - We both race in the morning so we'd missed out on some of the previous afternoon mud/rain races - this was our first crack at some good CX conditions on the course this year (Annie's first ever) which was probably 90% snow with a few patches of ice and some pavement. Race dynamics change a lot when the conditions transition from the nice fall weather and tacky courses to the less stable surfaces later in the season. Some of the stuff you work on to go faster up to this point in the year don't help a whole hell of a lot when putting a big load into the pedals is counterproductive. Being able to hammer becomes secondary to being able to handle on days like Saturday. Wasn't my best race of the year, but I rode it smart and avoided trouble - and had a pretty great time in the conditions. Makes a guy feel like a kid again, out trying to ride it right to the edge of being a little wreckless and a little out of control. There were some 50/50 spots out there, and by that I mean you could ride it correctly, and it was still gonna be 50/50 on whether you got through it upright or not. We were the first race out so the course changed a lot, from breaking trail early to having some lines carved into the snow later. Some sections got easier once packed down, some got harder - that's one of the treats of going out first, the course evolves as the race progresses.

Annie rode one of her best races of the year after getting off to a slow start. As mentioned, this was her first crack on a slick course, so she rode a little timid on her first lap. Once she got a feel for it, she rode really great and reeled all but one other racer in. Was anxious to see how she'd respond to the sketchier conditions and she settled right into it, and loved it - she's a true CX chick and has been unbelievable this year - learning some things from and about her in the process.

Last but not close to least, we had a celebrity guest appearance at the race.... none other than evilbanks. Coincidence that the women race harder when this cat's watching??? I think not.

Chicken eggs

2010-11-27T22:42:00.002-07:00

The kids have a new daily contest - it's called "see who happens to find the egg(s)". They managed to do a good job raising their chickens, keeping them fed, watered, and even alive. They've been rewarded the last few weeks with a few of the chickens hitting chicken puberty and starting to lay eggs.

It's still enough of a novelty that each time they find one they come running through the house announcing it. They've stuck with it pretty well, we'll see if that lasts now that the cold weather is here. But it's been cool thus far watching them have fun with them and taking ownership of the work, and dad likes the fresh eggs.

UTCX Halloween weekend

2010-11-03T16:23:00.013-06:00

Matt and the gang's UTCX double cross Halloween weekend is one of the best race weekends of the year. Between the costumes and the already rowdy vibe of the CX crowd, it makes for a fun couple of days. Here are a few of our favorite costumes Alex Kim and one of his teammates raced as waffles - earning Bruce's race within a race status - not sure which waffle won...
Steve was more William Wallaceesque than Mel Gibson
Even the local contaminated meat doper showed up.

Rick raced as a scout, complete with sash and handkerchief.

This was one of my top three for the weekend - lifeguard with nipple problems and a burley batch of hair that couldn't be contained in the nether regions.

Annie raced as Little Red Riding Hood.

Steve Wasmund and his racing companions costumes were secondary to the coolness of doing a CX race on a tandem, and yes, they cleaned the sandpit and were even smooth on the barriers.

Miles running the barriers as cockroach.

Our kids favorites were the Lozon's, who came as Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, didn't get a good shot of them together, but here they are.

The racing was good, really good. Wheeler is one of the best tracks on the circuit in regards to a good mix of fast speed sections and technical stuff that necessitates some skill and attention beyond pedaling fast. The highlight this year had to be the sand pit, as shown in last post's video - which made for a fun new technical challenge. There were two guys on the day, both in the A flight, that I thought stood out as exceptional in it.

Annie and I both raced both days. Niether of us put together a race that we thought was a particularly solid one. Did some things well, but lot's of important and sometimes silly little mistakes and a few bigger one's that make for good lesson's and prevent our racing for the weekend from being qualified as good. Fun factor was through the roof though.

Annie coming off the bridge, setting up for one of the trickier corners on the course on day 2.

We've got two more converts to CX in the house. Chesney and Brock both did their first CX race. Chesney challenged me to a race down the back stretch. She already had me on the rivet after chasing here around the lap, and the photo above captures the drop, the band snapped and I was off the back.

Us just prior to me getting dropped in the photo above, looking over hoping to see her in trouble, and seeing just the opposite - that's when I cracked.

Brock's takeaway from his race is that he wants pedals - said he can't go as fast as he wants on the push bike. Quick vid of the kids race for the grandparents.

The kidlets were lined up giving five's on the course on day two, made for some smiles and a brief respite from the chase when we came by. Hard to beat CX at Wheeler Farm for a full day of fun for the whole family - great time had by all.

Sly's Cash Zone

2010-10-31T18:52:00.004-06:00

We had a little party down at the sand pit for the Men's A's and 35 A's race Saturday. Ohran and the gang put a great course together at Wheeler Farm. Raucus tunnel of bells, heckling, cheering, and Sly handing out cash and the guy's grabbing it while ripping through 6-8 inches of sand. Enjoy... there are a couple of good tumbles. CX at it's best.

UTCX #'s 3&4

2010-10-25T22:23:00.003-06:00

Couple of quick race recaps to get caught up.

UTCX #3 Utah State Fairgrounds - "roadie" course: Annie bumped up to the B's at this race and held her own just fine. She finished 7th with a good, solid ride, made some improvement to some technique type things, and she's gaining more confidence - the latter being the most important to her continuing to get faster at this point.

My race went fine, rode clean with no major mistakes, top end capacity is improving little by little, and most importantly, having a lot of fun. The new treat at this new course - wood chips. They made for a tricky surface but became more managable as the race progressed, traction became fairly reliable through the woodchip corners after the group cut some lines into/through them on the first lap. Lot's of speed changes with all the corner's - certainly different than any of the other tracks in the series. Didn't blow any air out of tires during remounts, so that's an improvement. Post race meal is probably not an improvement, but mmm, mmm - not serious enough to deprive myself of this kind of stuff yet. Maybe someday, maybe not.

UTCX #4 Weber Fairgrounds - Annie and I split up in the a.m. - she had to teach a Pilates class that morning so I took a car up alone for my 9:30 (C's) race. Was stoked to pack the wet race gear Saturday morning, forcast looked promising for some slop, and looked good most of the drive up to Ogden. But by the time I pulled in, there was a rainbow with a mixed cloudy/blue sky. If it can't be slop, it was the next best thing - same conditions as two weeks previous at the same track - tacky, nice cool weather, just a helluva morning to race bikes.

I botched the start, big time - managed to get myself into what must have been the back 10 spots in a fairly good sized field, which made for an ugly sight when I looked up to see the field strung way out in front of me. Put my head back down and tried to ride hard with a few big digs (I don't have more than a few) the rest of the race, and minus the first 60 seconds, made my best ride thus far this year.

Then there's Annie... After teaching her class that morning, she loads the kids and makes the drive up. Jumps out for a quick warm up, and proceeds to race onto the podium in her 2nd race with the B's. Chicks that ride/race bikes are hot.

She made some significant improvements on a few of those technique/skill things that had her going dramatically faster through portions of her race that had been problematic previously.

Shannon and Kara are a few of several good racers in the B field, and will make good carrot's for Annie to chase the rest of the season. Can't tell you how fun it is to have Annie digging the CX racing, and how fun it is to watch her do so well.

We set up the canopy out by the single log barrier and the kids had a good time ringin their cowbells and building rock piles.

The sky finally dumped a bunch of water right before and during the start of the Men's B/SS race - making for the first true CX conditions of the year. Hard to tell without something else in the photo for perspective, but the above ski tracks were made just prior to the double log barrier, rider had both heels dug into the ground trying to slow/get traction - those skids are about 8 ft long. Only thing better than the slickness was that the guy kept his balance and hopped the logs without incident, although his eyes were big for a few seconds. Completely different ballgame in these conditions than we'd had just hours earlier, with the outcomes being dictated by entirely different skillsets and approaches to course management.

Whole Enchilada

2010-10-22T06:11:00.007-06:00

Behind a few outings on here. A couple Monday's ago we went down to Moab for Brandon's Columbus Day Special ride - the Whole Enchilada down in Moab. Starts up high in the La Sals and after a little climbing to stay warm in the morning, you ride down till you get to the river.

Trent, Dug, Brandon and the rest of the day's crew on the shuttle ride up.

Working our way to the top of Burro Pass.

Looking back from Burro Pass

Brandon and Miles - they were the film crew for the day.

Rob at Warner Lake, with some of the ride's earlier terrain way back there in the background.
Dug working on a move down near the river.

The Whole Enchilada is a dandy, big mix of terrain. Thanks to Brandon for putting the trip together! Already looking forward to doing it again next year.

One last photo - action shot of the guy of portrait fame from Miles blog.

Utah Cyclcocross #2 2010 - rough day

2010-10-09T20:13:00.009-06:00

It was debacle day at Weber for us. Conditions were perfect - tacky, fast dirt. Nice cool temps - just a great day to go race bikes. I went off with the C's - legs felt good and and I'm getting excited to be on the bike again, something that was lacking this summer. Went with the front group on lap one and was positioned well when I made a sloppy remount after the double log barrier and burped my rear tire. Limped it in the rest of the lap to the wheel pit and swapped it out for one of the Stans neutral wheels that are a new feature, and might I mention a really great feature, at the UTCX series this year. It took me about 60 seconds to swap out the wheel, which I think is probably less than desirable and maybe something I should practice. What's a reasonable/acceptable swap time for a wheel - half that?

Going to keep it to one photo from my race - this log is one of the better spectator features in the series, plenty of crashes here - Saw one bad one here in the Mens A race - a guy on a Scott bike landed just a little sideways, taco'd his wheel, which led to what looked like a taco'd collarbone situation - worst crash I've seen at a cross race.

The Stan's wheel held air a whole lot better than my Mavic wheel did, it took the brunt of a few more sloppy remounts with no burping issues. There were a few good remounts as well, felt fast in most of the transitions today, but landing on the bike real heavy on occasion - need to get it to silky smooth. Rode hard trying to make up some ground..... until my chain snapped under some load going up one of the hills, that tickles. There's not a neutral pit to change out snapped chains... I was done. Here's the thing about cross though - despite the debacle, I'd enjoyed the morning's race probably more than I've enjoyed a bike ride since mid July - it's bringing the itch back, bigtime.

Annie lined up once more with the C's to see if she could repeat and validate last weeks win. I was fairly certain she would. It was a race for 1 lap, shortly thereafter she moved into the lead and proceeded to put a gap on her field that was measured by minutes and gobbled up plenty of B racers. It continued to increase until the last lap, when I lost track of her, couldn't see her riding where I thought she should be when I thought she should be there. So I start looking a little more intently, and while doing so, she comes trotting up outside the tape - with a flat rear tire - she thought her day was over. I told her to get back on course and run it in, she turns around, runs backwards along the course for about 100 yards to where she'd left it with her flat, get's back inside the tape, and starts running with her bike - first on her shoulder, then on the ground. She ran, remaining in the lead, until the last few hundred yards of the course at which point 2nd caught and passed her. She ran her bike across the finish for 2nd, but it was a better ride than she put in at last weeks win. She'll be lining up with the B's next race, and I think she'll do just fine there.

The women seem to be in accordance with where to stick Sly's dollar bills, the guys tuck them in their thighs, and I guess the girls could too - but don't - there was lot's of racer girl cleavage full of dollar bills at the end of the womens races.

What's better than watching the crashes at the little log? Watching Bart jumping the big logs - always a highlight at the Weber Fairgrounds track...

White Rim wash out

2010-10-04T22:07:00.005-06:00

Wow - really sad to see this.... Take a look at the former Horsethief road that's served as the finishing climb of RAWROD the past couple of years....

Yep - it's thrashed beyond thrashed. Came across this on the Poison Spider Bike shop blog that provides some detail. Feel lucky to have made it down for Kenny's RAWROD ride a couple of times before this happened, this climb out of the river bottom was one of the top highlights of an epic loop. Sounds like some hike a bike work is still an option, but it won't be the same looking up and seeing that impressive road not there anymore. Hope there's enough hillside left to rebuild it....

UTCX #1 Draper 2010 - Annie wins!

2010-10-02T20:00:00.004-06:00

Good start to the CX season for the White house. My race went well, rode it clean, got a feel for limits and recovery capacity, and had a lot of fun. But to the real highlight in the family......

She woke up nervous - she hasn't raced enough to not feel like a first timer every time she lines up. I told her Thursday I thought she'd win - she told me she wasn't sure she wanted to race. I signed her up anyways so she was stuck. Practice Friday night (her only practice) didn't go well, she was timid which makes a CX bike act more squirly than it already is and she burped her tire completely flat on the first lap - so total practice time was about 8 minutes. She told me she knew she had to just go after it vs. let it psych her out - one of my favorite characterstics about her. She went after it just fine, it was a solid win, and she looks good on the podium. Congrats babe!

She was a bull on the run up - put her head down and attacked it every lap.

She handles the bike better than she realizes. Fell victim to the sand a few times - but other than that rode a clean, steady, fast race. I'm really digging it that my wife's racing bikes a winning races. I told her I've raced just a few more times and haven't yet spooked the front of a race yet. She tells me to do more yoga and pilates. I might start listening....

Vikingman half distance triathlon race report

2010-09-13T19:31:00.010-06:00

Me and the little guy finishing up the day.

His kick was a helluva lot stronger than mine was - he coulda beat me in a foot race at the moment, but he stayed back with me like any good son would.

A little gallery interaction during transition - dexterity was non existent from the cold and getting socks on was no small task - which provided some humor for the spectators.

Race breakdown:

Swim: Cold, really cold. 38* out of the water - warmer in where it was around 62* - still not warm, but ok while in it. Once out running on the cold grass to transition, it got real cold real fast. Spent 35 minutes in the water.

Bike: it was a four lapper. Detailed lap by lap account:

Lap 1 - finding lines on the chip sealed section which felt great on a rigid cold body that wouldn't warm up until lap 3.

Lap 2 - -mind numbing

Lap 3 - mind numbing

Lap 4 - mind numbing to the point of getting stupider, exit the loop, make a wrong turn where a course marshall is standing in the opening of the barricaded road picking his nose, and log a 5 minute, mile and a half (de)tour snaking through an old neighborhood along the river. Motorcycles come and get me back to the course.

Run: Ok for the first 5 miles, then stuff starts breaking down. Walking helps the stuff breaking down. It had gotten painful by mile 8/9, so more walking. The rest of the way in it was probably more walking than running, knew it wasn't the case, but got to the point where it felt like injury pain vs. fatigue pain. Walking felt great. Painful, slow, painfully slow, it was all of the above. Highlighted by the loop taking us out around the water treatment facility, where the flies would sniff out the Gel residue on your dry lips which made the run all the more pleasant.

Takeaways:

1 - Happy enough with my time given the lack of swim/run prep. Mostly happy it was over though.

2 - Got a good idea what my TT pacing should be on a 2+ hour effort, have a little room to go a little harder here.

3 - Can't fake your way around a half marathon. The days running mileage exceeded the previous months, and I was paying for it big time starting around mile 8. As a matter of fact, I'm still paying for it a bit 2 days later.

Anatomy of implosion Ch. 2 PCP2P

2010-09-09T23:47:00.006-06:00

Few shots from the day before we get back to the story...

Pulling into the Park City aid station, real bad shape at this point despite the smile, but it would only get worse.

Dug and I leaving Silver lake...

At the Silver lake 2nd stop, coming to grips with how the rest of the day is likely to be given the hole I've already dug.

Pulling into Silver Lake 2 - no hole is so deep that it doesn't feel good to see your kid waiting with open arms.

OK, part 2.....

Think we left off with me having just stuffed numerous large rocks in both my jersey and shorts to make the Bald Mtn climb - or at least with me starting to move at a pace that resembled dragging a sack full of rocks, which I think is what my ass had become.

That walking that had started near the end of last post, well, it lasted pretty much the entire Bald Mtn climb. I had nothing, and the nothingness had hit 5 minutes too late to have tried to repair the damage/get back ahead of it at aid #1. I knew I was in trouble. Any positive gradient meant dismount all the way up to Nail Driver, at which point it became faster to sit on the bike as it rolled downhill than it was to push it, I know - yet another elite level race strategy you've come to expect from this blog. The death spiral of breakdowns - not the mechanical type mind you, no, the bike worked perfect, absolutely flawless, all day, despite me trying to chew that new rear shock off at one point - nope, we're talking the physical and mental imploding type breakdowns, went like this....

The smallest, most insignificant hills became punches in the gut. It was near the end of the Flagstaff loop that Dug came riding by. This was the highlight of the loop between the Silver Lake stops for me. After catching each other up on who we'd seen and how they were doing, I made the comment to Dug on a little roller type up that those little midget hills were starting to kick my behind. He acknowledged and affirmed as much by letting me know that "yes, your transitions are less than desirable" - he may have even said they sucked. And he was dead on. I was too spent to make the small momentum building efforts to go into even the smallest hill, one of the first of the pain compounding breakdowns of the implosion. This was only mitigated in part by Dug's good company and watching him descend, the guy is just smooth and fluid.

Disconnect between the brain and the body. I'm a moderate in regards to getting caught up in data, but here's a curious observation from the day. Percieved effort went completely out of whack relative to actual effort if heart rate can be relied upon as an objective/neutral marker. I noticed this not long after leaving Silver Lake stop 2 and making a couple of short efforts to try and stay with Dug (unsuccessful efforts, had to watch him ride away). I'd dig until I felt like I was revving to high, and look down to see my heart rate acting like we were on some liesurely ride. I don't know enough physiologically to know if that disconnect is due to the body shutting down a bit when in a hole or if it's the brain making it seem worse than it really is - let's call that being a puss. Pretty sure I don't want the answer to that piece of trivia. Either way, the shortest of efforts would shatter me, over and over and over, it was a relentless pattern of wanting to get going, trying to, and failing, every single time.

Already mentioned transitions, but that issue and my being too weak to correct it paled in comparison to overall deterioration of bike handling ability. There was more than a few times where I'd be riding along one of the MM sections with steep slope on both the upside and downside of the trail, and was apparently really concerned about catching a pedal on the uphill slope, since that would be a catastrophic error. That's the only reason I can think of for why I came so damn close to riding off the steep downhill side into the oak brush several times, and by that I mean more than a few. It was like that dangerous daze you get into when driving tired, and something happens to give you a jolt of adrenaline - and the realization of how close you were to having something bad happen scares the hell out of you - but I'd be back in the daze within a few pedal strokes. I won't even go into the narrow, rooty, twisty section through the quakies - but my shoulders were made to resemble a ping pong ball as I bounced between trees going down that technical luge run. Bike handling skill was nearly reduced to needing training wheels.

Self destructive behavior. You ever have the experience of watching a friend or family member go into a downward spiral with their life in general? What starts out as a poor situation for whatever reason, gets compounded by bad decision after bad decision that you qualify as self destructive because they seem so obviously bad from your seat? I kind of went into that pattern with fueling. For as much of the day as I spent running on empty - I could never make myself eat anything with some nutrient density in it at the aid stations. It was always an Ensure (which actually has great nutrient density, but apparently not enough to dig out of a hole), coke, coconut water, energy drink, and maybe an orange wedge or half a banana. Despite knowing I needed to take in more to dig out of the hole, I refused to do it. Even once I'd finally gotten to the Park City stop and sat down for a bit, refused to eat enough to recover in the slightest, and I continued to pay. I'm actually fairly convinced that once in the hole that bad, there's no getting out of it.

Giving up - after sitting down for a bit to try and put myself back together with Annie and the kids, Dug and Kim, and Erik and Jess at the PCMR stop (Erik was green with stomach problems and Dug was periodically locking up with cramps - although they merit sympathy, it is pretty comical watching pals cramp, Dug was no exception). Dug and I left together again, and riding with him would be short lived, again. Going up Spiro I had to fall back to the practice of walking when the gradient rose above 0, Dug would stay on and row his way up. I'd come around the corner and he'd be leaning on a tree, no question he was waiting. I'd tell him to quit waiting, he'd say he wasn't, then he'd go wait again around the next switchback. He finally rode off. I was reaching the the give up stage of implosion at this point. Don't take that the wrong, not talking about giving up and quitting. No sirree. But I am talking about giving up at trying to do anything well the remainder of the day. I was going to finish, I had just gotten so deep in the hole that I was no longer concerned about doing it with any dignity or respectable effort. Let's just call that being a puss.

That's it for detail on my implosion process, wish I had different insights from my day but it is what it was. Home stretch.....

Ran into Dug again at the Red Pine stop, he was getting ready to head back out as I pulled in. I thought about him on his rigid bike as I came down the MM reroute, kept me from feeling too sorry for myself getting beat up on my squishy bike. I drank a bunch of coke and started the home stretch. Mid Mountain right there around Red Pine is that real nice buff stuff that's a lot of fun to ride, even when tired. Especially once you finally topped out and hit the ripping fast stuff heading back down. Then it got real bumpy again and agitated all the little achy spots. Then, after all the suffering and walking on the climbs looking forward to the downhill stuff, I found myself desperately wanting that downhill section to be over. There's just no pleasing a dude that far gone.

Went around the corner where you got a glimpse of the finish and started the final climb back up the canyon a bit. Not too far on the way up, a break sounded nice, so convinced myself I needed to pee. Got off, stepped off the trail to pee, then stepped back up to the trail and stood there for a minute. Can't remember why I was just standing there, was maybe trying to remember where I'd set my bike down, not sure? Came back to my senses when I hear "Jdub", and look down the trail to see Eric pedaling up. Man, it's good to see a pal in that situation. He pulls up and tells me about his last 18 or so miles, and I'm in a stupor as I half coherently start piecing together what he's telling me, then I look back and see his seat sitting in his top tube, completely sidways. I was too embarrased to say my day had felt hard after seeing his situation, so we got back on and started pedaling. I laughed for the first time in hours when I watched Eric pedal his new setup. With that low seat he looked like a kid lowriding in spandex on a bmx bike that was missing it's pegs on the back wheel, and everytime he'd stand his seat would spin back and forth between his knees. Got to hand it to that guy for finishing that course having dealt with that for so much of it. We cruised down to the finish and I was glad to be done. Nothing more, nothing less, I was just glad to be done, and to see my wife and kids and pals.

Couple of shots from the finish.

Dug wrapping up his day. Credit his smooth riding for his getting home in one piece given a yet to be discovered circumstance.

Eric aka Low Rider and I rolling in.

My oldest with that "good night you took a long time" look on her face.

Plenty of stories of this race being done a whole lot better than I did mine found here......

Sam (who also leaves you guessing on his feelings for the Butte 100), Eric, Brandon, Aaron, Elden, Dug, Pat, Nate

Anatomy of implosion Ch. 1. PCP2P

2010-09-06T22:09:00.009-06:00

Readers digest version: The Park City Point to Point race was the absolute polar opposite of the Butte 100 in how it played out for me. Butte was a day where I felt good but didn't get it done. Point to Point was a day where I got into a dark, deep hole, and drug my sorry behind to the finish. It was a really hard combination of distance, climbing and technical beat the hell out of you type stuff. It broke me, but not to the point of quitting. There were some pretty impressive rides by friends. Mine, not much impressive about it, but I was proud to get it done. The foolish/ironic spin of the story is that my only real goal for the day was to manage myself correctly, knowing I'd be prone to collapse if I made one too many foolish and vain efforts. Detailed version how it went down below......

Start to Silver Lake #1 - Felt really good, in hindsight, maybe too good. Round Valley was really a nice way to start the day - too many people with too little room to do much but just be in line, and the pace was comfortable. Only challenge here were the moments where we literally rode blindly due to the sun-was at the mercy of the trail staying straight at those moments and fortunately it did. There was a bit of an acceleration between the end of the Round Valley lap and the next section of single track - the skid row climb. I came close to earning dips*^t of the day here. It's a flat section and I came up on Sam who was spinning out on his single speed, put a hand on his back to say hi and try and give a little push, and then came real close to going down and taking Sam's rear wheel with me. The guy behind us started praising the save, saying he thought it was a for sure crash, that I was practically sideways. Sam laughed, letting the guy know I was good at those - and I laughed, making sure the guy understood Sam was talking about my skill at getting sideways, not the saves.

We turned off onto Skid Row, and the climb from there to Snow Top was great - felt real good the entire way and was even thinking how great I was managing by not chasing situations early on that I thought were beyond capacity, including watching Sam ride off into what would end up being a really strong day and finish time. Quick praise to the builders of switchbacks up the Pipeline trail - absolute best cut uphill switchbacks I've ever ridden, and one of my favorite sections of the entire day - like that deep woods feeling buff stuff, right up till you see the monstrosity that is the St. Regis. Keyes, Fatty, Jonny J, all came by and rode off around the Pipeline climb, only mention that to admit my lack of sorting capacity at the start line. In the moment, I thought I felt reasonably well from the St. Regis up to aid #1, but in hindsight am suspicious that that's where I started digging the hole. Wasn't fast to aid #1, but was about where I thought I should be for my day. The Draper wives were crewing in force, and had bottles swapped out in no time. I left aid #1 still feeling good, and hit the short steep road leading to the Bald Mtn switchbacks with a little go get em'. That lasted no longer than 5 minutes, and permanently tipped the scale from being ok, to not being ok.

I've blown myself up plenty of times, cyclocross being the arena of choice for those learning efforts where in trying make a selection you ride your legs and lungs into catching fire and blowing all capacity out of them - finding that line of what I can recover from and what I can't is part of the process of finding and extending limits, a part that I struggle with, a lot. But Bald Mtn. wasn't like that. It wasn't an effort that cooked my legs, I could take as deep a breath as I wanted, but over the course of just a few minutes I went from pedaling hard but well within limit, to soft pedaling, to stepping off and walking a bit, to staying off and walking a lot - I had cracked in a bad, bad way - and while there would be a few brief moments where I regained some focus and ambition, I never regained capacity, and the rest of the day was for the most part a long slow spiral downward from an already bad place. The bigger problem was that at that point, the rest of the day meant most of the day.....

Tic, Tic, Tic, Tic............

2010-09-01T20:21:00.004-06:00

That's the length of the fuse I'm equipped with going into the next two weekends races/ride a longs - 4 tics; and when there's not much fuse to burn, you have to not burn it. Park City Point to Point is this Saturday and following it up with a half distance tri up in Idaho the following week. I'm not ready to race either, haven't had a lighter month of exercise since I broke the hand last year, but think I'll be able to manage some enjoyment out of the Point to Point. The little run on the back end of the triathlon - different story. Hoping to see some friends do real well, and hoping I can ride smart - if not, the fireworks could be spectacular.

Goblin Valley, Little Wild Horse Canyon, and Calf Creek Falls

2010-08-23T22:48:00.003-06:00

With summer break officially ending this week with the kids heading back to school, we hit the road for one more weekend of family adventuring before getting back to the grind.

Stop one was Goblin Valley where the world class scampering among the hoodoos was only outdone by the world class evening and sunset.

Now I'm not sure if there are actual classes of scampering, but if there are, GV has to be world class. Have heard all sorts of great ideas for play down there, from easter egg hunts to capture the flag, and don't know that there's a better place for any of that stuff. Being GV rookies, we kept it simple with hide and seek and some other gimmicks the kids came up with and had a blast. The place set the kids imaginations on fire and made us parents/grown ups feel and act like part of the kidlet tribe.

Watching for inbound pirate ships or something of that nature. At the end of the trip, Goblin Valley stood atop the list as kids favorite place of the weekend - a testament to the theory of whatever inspires their imaginations the most is the best in their eyes.

Day two would be their first slot canyon experience in Little Wildhorse Canyon. It was set up perfectly with the heavy rains a few days prior leaving several good water crossings, the kids got the full slot experience. We had them (sometimes forced them) hike through the water (chilly but not cold) on the way out, then let them do it how they wanted on the way back - the obvious choice was to climb the walls...

Even the 3 yr old figured it out pretty good.

We had to tell Kylie to stay within a reasonable height, think she would have climbed out the top if we let her.

Little Wildhorse was really a great place to give the kids a taste of slot canyons - short hike in and there were some high quality narrows sections that everyone enjoyed a lot.

Around the entrance to the canyon is this little feature that just begs to be jumped. Not posting the rest of the sequence, will let you look at trajectory at the midway point and determine if you think the kids are standing in a safe spot or not.
More shots from the canyon...

Day three was Lower Calf Creek Falls, which also didn't disappoint. ...

The traditional sprint finish that seems to always happen on the waterfall hikes. Once they see it, they're off. The oldest was already stripped down to her swim suit and in the water by the time I got to it. The middle was increasing her gap on the littlest as seen here, he's trying, but just not hangin yet....

It was a little overcast, and the fall itself creates a strong breeze which made it chilly. The water was cold, but my adventure book says you've gotta swim under it for the excursion to count.

The girls wisely stuck to wading and mud pie making on the pretty great beach.

The area even had a place for a workout on the bike. If it looks steep.......

it's because it was... sign at the top of the hill after turning around to head back down.

Fun trip topped off maybe the best summer we've had as a family, the kids are all old enough and plenty capable to do just about any adventure we can drum up. Pretty excited for the next few years while we've got them all in the "sweet spot" where they still think we're cool to hang out with and don't have better things to do with their weekends.

Yellowstone

2010-08-16T18:30:00.005-06:00

So after the Butte Bike race leg of the trip came up short, we pointed the Lampoon wagon towards Yellowstone.
The little guy thought he was half wolf by the end of trip...

Annie and Chesney hamming it up while Kylie and Brock make a teeter totter out of logs.

Ranger school graduation...

Campfire scene

Watching for the elusive freshwater whales...

This ended just as you might assume....

Trying to scare Brock that I'm gonna let him go over the fall while he's trying to convince me not to be a puss dad and let go so he can take the ride down it. Fire Hole Canyon was one of the kids favorite stops.

The SUP's turning into not just a dad toy, turns out the rest of the gang digs it too.

Pretty good hit rate on the wildlife spotting this trip as well - missed the moose, sheep, and wolves was all. You'll notice my significant but unbragged about stalking skills by the range in which these photos were taken. Seriously, the only thing keeping this place from being an impressively large petting zoo is the occasional buffalo trampling and bear scare.... of which there'd been one the week previous...

Wapiti

Osprey

These elk jackasses ruined the only scare tactic that Annie and I have ever been able to use effectively. We, along with the parks warning signs, had the kids completely convinced that they'd melt if they stepped off the paths at Mammoth. The kids first thought upon seeing this wasn't hey, check out the elk, it was letting Annie and I know that they knew that we were blowhards.

Just a canyon here, but not just a canyon - pretty spectacular

The Bison were like mosquitos - all over the place.

Mulies

Bald Eagle - this was actually one of the kids favorite.

Black Bear

Highlight was the grizz with her two cubs that were out of camera range, but fun to watch nonetheless. First time for the entire family to see one in the wild, and the cubs were putting on a good show playing in a meadow.

One of our favorite trips with the kids thus far.... and so good to get away and dumb life down to the simple pleasures for a bit.

Butte 100 2010

2010-08-07T12:40:00.003-06:00

Let's get the ugly fact out of the way right out of the gate - I didn't finish, not even very close, little over 20 miles short. No excuses and no regrets, a few hindsight items that I'd change up. In fact, aside from the overall letdown of not getting it done, I was pretty encouraged about how my day went and how I felt during/post race given the circumstances.

Breakdown of the good/great, and the ugly:

What went well:

*Maybe a foreboding to some stuff below, but while putting the front wheel on my bike before the race, noticed the pin that holds the front brake pads in was missing. Found a regular old twig and stuck it in there, and it worked like a charm all day.
*Energy/Nutrition - hesitate to say that I've got it figured out and completely dialed in for these long days, but on this day I did. Never had or approached that real bad place called the bonk. Managed pace with energy levels real well all day.
* Portions of the course, with a 2nd emphasis on portions. There is some fantastic terrain in Butte for a race like this, and we got to see a lot of it. Bob talked about doing two 50 mile laps in the future, but I really like the setup of a 100 mile race that doesn't duplicate miles or run as an out and back - know it's logistically more difficult from the organizers seat, but it's a superior layout if you've got the terrain, and Butte does. Thought that from Nez Perce all the way into aid station 5 was good, with some being exceptional. Highlights being the CDT, a creek crossing that you realized was a small swimming pool crossing only after committing to it with no room to alter course, rut/endo hill (my unscientific survey was running about 80% of folks going down on that one 50 yard section of the course). The back half of the course also had some exceptional stuff, at least through mile 83/84 which is as much as I saw. It was hard, but fair, with the exception of a few sections that were maybe a little silly that made the other list.
*Riding in the backcountry in a good, loud, thunderstorm. This one's a matter of opinion as I know some of the guys didn't appreciate it, but I dug it. Lightning was noticed but didn't get threatening, plenty of thunder, got a little chilly, thought it provided a nice little sense of serenity and isolation to the overall day and anything to liven up the senses that late in the game is good for the mindset.
*Flirting with chicks - rolled into the 1st aid station and several of the wives had driven out to do some crewing and offer encouragement. I still had a few things in my pockets that I hadn't used, so when Holly asked what she could do, I, completely oblivious, asked her to pull out my banana. She and Jess cracked up, said that didn't sound very appropriate, and then pulled the banana out of my jersey pocket and even offered to peel it. Told her to give Sam my apologies for flirting with his wife, and was on my way. Thanks to them for the laugh, anything that makes you smile during one of these races is a bonus.
*Sun Sleeves - had picked these up the week before and tested them out on the Great Basin ride. They're made for sun protection, but their utility goes much further than that. They were most useful on the Whiskey Gulch section which got downright hot (my Garmin had it at 95* there), sprayed them down with water and they almost act as air conditioners on your arms, especially if there's any breeze, and could stuff ice into them at the aid stations. Seriously, they were really great, swear by them.
*Neon dots - read some complaints on the race web site about difficulty finding feed bags. I try to find some way to let the kids feel like their part of the race other than just being neglected when I go for rides. For this one, that included putting neon stickers all over my feed bags, which made it easy to pick them out from the others right away each time I pulled into a station. Simple triathlon trick of finding something, usually obnoxious, that makes your stuff stand out and easy to find. Thanks to the kiddo part of the crew for doing that.
*Annie - aside from being able to read me dead on during a race and knowing what to say and do while crewing, the real work is the time she affords me before the race to go try and train for this kind of crap while she stays home and manages the parent duties. She indirectly puts a lot of work into these races, and I think about that a lot while out there and am driven by it. She's pretty great, and at one point during the day she got in my ear a bit when she thought I wasn't hustling as much as I could/should. Turned out she was right - hell of a partner and teammate.

The ugly:
*Want to start by being clear that this is not an excuse for not finishing, just a circumstance that led to a puzzle that I couldn't figure out how to solve for the last 20 or so miles of the first half of the race, and that put me into more difficulty than I could afford to get into that early in the day. I've always been in the camp that thought the guys running shuttles with their downhill bikes were a little soft, that they should ride uphill to earn the downhill. The downhill Gods brought me to my knees and forced me to repent of my nievity at the Butte 100. Those of you familiar with the rear shock system of a Specialized Epic will see the challenge right away.For those not, there's a piece that's of some importance that somehow came off.

As a little salt in the wound, that shock is about 80 miles fresh off of a rebuild that wasn't cheap. Not sure exactly how it came off, assume it happened when I let a front wheel slide into a rut and endo'd on the aforementioned hill, but the loss of it changed the bike from a stiff XC ride that climbs great, to a loose squishy that bottomed out with sag with even the slightest bit of torque/power applied to the pedals on even flat ground. I spent the next 5 miles experimenting with every gear on the bike trying to find something that would feel more than 50% efficient, it literally felt like half the work I put into the pedals went to making the bike bounce, and half went to the ground to make the bike go. It was a puzzle I couldn't solve. Got a little panicky in trying to minimize the damage to my overall race that was occuring, ended up settling on spinning a real light gear as any torque only enhanced the bouncing and was counterproductive, but the silly high cadence and silly looking bobbing absolutely sucked the life out of my legs. Couldn't quite tell if it was me humping the bike, or the bike humping me, but I got 20 miles worth of it, and wish I could say it was more pleasant, but it was miserable - felt like working twice as hard to go half as fast. I had resigned myself to being done at the halfway point by the time I got there, knowing there was no way I could pedal that setup another 50 miles, even if they'd been flat miles, and being fairly certain that my shock pump was back at the hotel room vs. in the car with Annie, and not even being confident that one would put a band aid on the situation. To you downhillers, I will no longer question your running shuttles and not pedaling those bikes up hills, I've come to a new understanding - it's flat out stupid. There is a happy ending to this, Riessen, whom I should have expected this from, had a shock pump at the aid station, the shock held air despite the missing cylinder, and I was able to get it rideable again, which would at least buy me a few more miles. *Portions of the course/lack of details provided to racers - may be a function of my legs being overdone by the time I got there, but for me, way too much hike a bike between aid 6 and 7, way too much. Went from thinking we had a cushion to running out of time on this section, which was just really slow going. It was somewhere in this section that I turned to the Zeph and told him I was starting to get pissed. Think I refer to this leg as "silly" in the video below. I let the lack of course details get to me a little at two places: First, looking for aid #5 to be around the 50 mile mark. Again, may be a function of the hurt I was in during that leg, and really just a head game I didn't manage well, but it was discouraging for me from mile 50 to 57 when it finally arrived. Second, finding out that the extended mileage it took to get to #5 wasn't credited to the ledger on the back half. This revelation came at aid #6, where we found out that aid #8 was around mile 92 vs. 84ish and that the race was 106/107 miles vs. around 1oo. Again, me not managing my head well, but having these details up front is useful in managing one's day from a pacing and feeding standpoint. I didn't have a problem with marking as others, many others, did, but having surprises about distances to important checkpoints (aid stations/cut offs) mid race was less than ideal for my fragile brain.

*Low cut socks - had developed a nasty blister fairly early in the race where my socks had crept down below the collar of my shoe, another self inflicted annoyance to learn from - luckily had a longer pair to change into at 5, but the damage was done.

*Location of aid #2 - had they moved this one just another 20 yards down the trail, the volunteers would have been treated to a morningful of entertainment watching the crashes that were going on there. We'd been told exactly what would happen there the night before at the race meeting. Uncanny how many of us it happened to, despite being told exactly how it would happen.

Some photos in no particular order and video of myself, Zeph, Tyler and Brandon finishing our day at aid #7.

Despite not finishing, the kids were still proud of us, or felt sorry their pathetic dad's, can't be sure which. Rolling out of aid #5
Brock helping with bottles at #5

Me and my savior, Erik Riessen at aid #5, his having a shock pump there and Cicely finding it for me (maybe it was the zeph's pump?) extended my day by almost 30 miles. He and Sam were the only two from our travel group that finished the 100. Kenny finished it in what I would call a real fast time. Shammytime Aaron finished 8th in the 50, despite riding a bunch more miles than 50 to get to the finish line.

Not sure what the joke is here, might be that nice rug I'm showing off which I've posted for you to admire.

Great Basin weekend part 2

2010-07-27T17:51:00.007-06:00

We took a day off between the hike and the ride - I had intended to get out on the Mtn bike and do the trail where last years disaster occured the week before Leadville but we took the kids to the Snake Valley Days Parade instead where they rode the fire engine and threw otter pops.

The parade was in Baker, which is also where the climbing starts on the bike ride. But first things first. When there's a parade in Baker your either part of the 50% that's in the parade or the 50% that's watching it. Also, Baker consists of about 2 blocks, so to keep the parade from being an anticlimatic 5 minute event, you do 2 laps around the blocks, you know, to stretch it out a little bit. It's the only option really, if they add more floats or parade participants to stretch the procession out - you start tapping into the 50% left to watch the procession, and then it get's a little lopsided - best to just do a two lapper apparently. I may add a parade post later.

The work starts here at 5,300 ft.

It's about a 5 mile/1,200 foot approach before the real work starts, which is here. There are a few spots where it levels out briefly between here and the top, and briefly is probably overstating how long they last. In about 100 yards, we got buzzed real close, not by a car, but by this dude.....

It was just off the road, and we never would have seen him if he'd stayed quiet, but apparently 3 or 4 ft on a bike was within his personal space so he made his presence known. Annie had no interest in slowing down, I of course, had to turn around and go back for pics and video - will add ride/snake charming video later if I get around to it. It was healthy, one of the larger rattler's I've seen in the wild. Wasn't another 500 yards up the road that there was a bull snake that was quite a bit larger also just off the road - spent the rest of the day riding less closely to the shoulder, didn't see another one.

Maybe 3/4ths the way up at this photo stop, where you can see the road winding up the mountain below, and the straight road where the ride started way down there at the bottom.

Annie working her way up, it was the biggest climb she's done, and thinking it's probably also the biggest single climb I've done, don't know that I've ridden another route that bit off 5,000+ ft on a single climb. Similar total gain of the AF canyon ride from the house, but would have to stick the S. Suncrest climb at the top of the Alpine summit to get a similar bottom to top climb.

Getting closer to the top, with Wheeler Peak in the background.

The signage is almost as if it where made for cyclists. These elevation signs are posted every 500 ft.

And the trail/lookout signs feature the profile of the mountain, not unlike the elevation profiles that cyclists spend so much time admiring themselves for having ridden. Just don't take that profile at face value - those downhill or level sections you see on that sign - non existent on the road.
Descending back down the approach into the town of Baker and the desert. Have to say, riding with my wife is one of my most favorite things, and the fact that she keeps tackling this kind of stuff with relative ease excites me. I'm scheming some adventures we can do that might up the ante a bit.

Great Basin weekend part 1

2010-07-26T08:16:00.010-06:00

As has become tradition, we headed out to Garrison, Ut for a mix of R&R and some late stage training activities the weekend before the big ugly that is the Butte 100 coming up this Saturday. Also worked out that we had some extended family in the area so we camped up in Great Basin National Park Thursday night and joined them for a little peak bagging excursion on Friday.
You get a big range of elevation and climate/vegatation zones out there. The photo above is of the road in, where we're just about to dip below the tree line in the desert. Wheeler Peak, Nevada's 2nd highest at just over 13,000 ft looms in the right of the frame.

And here's the view from the top, way, way above any treeline.

Annie just starting the steeper stuff as we were nearing the summit.

Here we are up top - views were pretty spectacular.

Picture from a little lower down the approach - no Hillary Step, but cool terrain nonetheless. Wildlife that thrives the most up here? Bees and Butterflies, high volumes of high terrain flowers up there.

And plentiful lichen to support the high altitude bucks that hang out up in the sliderock. Got my first lesson on these crafty deer on Mt. Peale in the La Sals when dad had sent me up high (pre gun toting age) to get above them - hiked for what seemed like forever to a point where I was sure I was too high to even spook them back down, and started to traverse, only to hear the slide rocks move another couple hundred yards above me, and looked up to see 7 large bucks, any of which would have been the largest we'd had a shot at for years, working their way around the mountain much higher than I'd ever have guessed they'd go. Saw the same dynamic on the way up to Wheeler Peak.

Mtn. streams are one of life's greatest simple pleasures for various reasons in various circumstances - on this day - a little footsoak while sitting on a log with my pals.

Wheeler Peak's a pretty favorable work/reward excursion. It was high enough I could feel the air getting a little thinner, not dramatic, but noticable - and at 13,000 feet, it's plenty high to provide a birds eye view of the local peaks that look big from my house (Lone Peak, Timp) were they next door. Trailhead sits at around 10,000, where we had camped, and you can be up top in about 2.5 hours - faster if you want, the trail is just over 3 miles. Don't know a lot of peaks that high where you can sleep in, bag the peak, and be back down for lunch. We'll have the kids up there within a few years I think.

Chickens

2010-06-30T21:44:00.011-06:00

So, a few weeks back the kids got some baby chicks to raise and be responsible for. Kind of an odd choice for a kids pet, I know, but we took them out to the ranch last trip to Moab and the highlight for them was gathering eggs from the chicken coop. I remember my brothers and I getting chicks one Easter when we were little, Mom or Dad took us out to show us and the dog had gotten there first during the night - it was a gruesome scene. So what do you do? Head back to the local farm store and get another batch. Don't recall what happened to our chickens, but don't remember collecting eggs, so guessing we didn't do a good job taking care of them and they either died by causes other than dog attacks or the parents gave them away.

So we took the kids down to the local IFA to pick out their chicks, and turned the garage into a barn until the chicks got a few chicken years behind them and were ready to move outside.

In the meantime, coop construction began, not many things better than a little project that the kids can do with me, they helped pick out what kind of coop they wanted for their chicks, and the older two got to use real tools, drill, wire snips, etc.... The little dude made attempts with the real tools and was quickly relegated to the plastic tool belt and tools, and took the too little medicine just fine.

The chickens have been in the backyard for a few weeks now and we haven't seen or heard any predators out there in the middle of the night yet. The kids are doing a great job taking the lead on raising their chickens. They won't lay eggs for another few months so the kids are staying engaged as their anxious for the production stage.

So what's the ROI on a backyard chicken setup, assuming they survive until the egg bearing years of chicken life? Pretty sure there ain't one. What's a dozen eggs cost at the store - a couple bucks? At the rate they lay eggs and the rate we eat them (some, not a lot), your looking at years before they pay for themselves. Nope, there's no economic sense to backyard chickens. The ROI is in the kids learning a little about raising stuff and having a small but tangible return on their work that's fun for them at their age. And while I'm a full bore believer in the free market/capitalist system and enjoy the heck out of the real life monopoly game (even these nasty cycles) that most of us choose to engage in for our living, I don't think it's the only route to being happy, - so, I'm trying to find ways to facilitate them getting some real life understanding that life can be pretty simple if they want to go the route I grew up in, and this gives them a small lesson in self sufficiency and a small return for their time that they don't have to trade in a dollar for. Don't know if it will work, but we've got four chickens named after Toy Story characters that second as the neighborhood petting zoo at the very least.

Iron Horse Classic 2010

2010-06-09T14:35:00.012-06:00

Fantastic time in Durango again - if there's a better weekend for both bike racing and family vacation time anywhere else, let me know. Hard to imagine it being better than the Iron Horse in Durango though.

The racing efforts were a small success - went in this year 8-10 pds heavier than last year so wasn't sure how it would go and was a little scared I'd be slower, but went a few minutes faster than previous in both the road race and TT and rode better in the crit. So, either paced a little smarter (less smart on the TT, was late to my start) or am a little stronger. So small positives to take away, despite still going pretty slow. One of our top local pro's, Burke Swindlehurst, won the race - it's a big time event and it's the 2nd time he's won it. Maybe the longest stretch between win #1 and win #2 at the Iron Horse?

Bunch of random photo's from the trip....

Went through here late at night, but, I like these, so seems like it could be a cool town...

Soaking in the hot springs pools in Ouray post race weekend.... soaked for about 4 hours.... still coming unwrinkled.... kids would have stayed another 4 if we let them.

Think I've mentioned before that Durango is a hardcore town when it comes to the outdoor lifestyle. This set up's pretty indicative of the crowd there....

Lunchtime at the Telluride stop on the way home had a place for the kids to do a little scrambling on some climbing features.

The kids dug the free Gondola up the mountain in Telluride on the way to lunch.

They also dug feeding the fish and turtles in the Koi pond next to the hot springs in Ouray.

They also dug the abundance of waterfall hikes in Ouray...

And hiking around the Amphitheater area of Ouray

Here's the crit scene at the Iron Horse... super fast corner and those tires got some action that day. I'm the dude in the middle.

A little earlier shot of the same corner, different lap.

Managed to win the group that got shelled sprint, coming around the muscles in the Jackal kit about 30 yards from the finish.

Brock spent most of his race giving the crowd his thumbs up, which was a nice distraction from him being pissed the only helmet we had that fit him had flowers on it.

Any guesses as to what this is...? And no, I didn't find it in the town of Areola, I mean, Arriola.

Chesney setting up for a corner in her race.

Me and the kids after finishing the race from Durango to Silverton... such a cool race route.

The kids watching the train roll through camp. The Iron Horse Classic got it's start when a couple of dudes decided to race from Durango to Silverton - one driving the train, one driving his bike.

Can't say enough good things about this race and trip - one of our favorite getaways every year, and should be even better next year with a dirt race being added.

12 hours of Mesa Verde

2010-05-10T18:59:00.008-06:00

We pulled into Cortez a little before two, stopped into the bike shop for race check in, hit the local biker (as in Harley's) bar for some lunch, then headed out to preride the course they call Phil's world just outside of town. Home base for the race was at the fairgrounds, a place I had been in my younger years to do some team roping and calf roping on the high school rodeo circuit.

It was a bluebird day and here are Eric and Tyler, getting ready to head out and see what ol' Phil had in store for us. This is the only photo I've got of anyone before the race.

The preride was a riot - the trail is an intense one in the sense that it requires almost constant attention to handling. Banks is expressing his appreciation for a section of trail known as Tuffy's Rim.

This is me after lap two or three. Bill Twinting from the Porcupine club was a few tents down and had come down in between laps and made some passing comment about salt on my face that I didn't pay much attention to. Then Eric told me my face looked like it was peeling off from lepracy. Not sure if that's a function of the XL gas station burrito I had for my night before the race dinner, or a body that hasn't transitioned to working in summer weather yet, but I do believe that's the saltiest crust I've ever worn.
Last of the pics I've got from post race and then we'll get to race details...

Here's Banks at the end of the day.
Here's Tyler, who, given the face he's making, might also be mid sentence in describing his fond memories of riding Tuffy's on his rigid single speed.

So, race details:

The Lemans start was a crack up - reminded me a little bit of cyclocross starts at Wheeler farm. Bunch of bike dudes and girls in cleats trying to sprint for the hole shot, even though there wasn't one. I saw one guy go down hard on the run, 15 yards from the start line - would have been a little comical to see how long he had to stay down while people jumped him before he could get up safely.
Weather was absolutely ideal, could not have been better. Trail conditions were also ideal, maybe the buffest 1track I've ever ridden.
I started the day thinking I wanted to get 100+ miles in, which would mean needing to ride 7 laps. That lasted until after lap 3, when I had 50 miles plus some change on the Garmin, and I was not the slightest bit dissapointed at the revelation that 6 laps would get me the mileage. I'd timed heading out on 5 to leave a half hour cushion to take a quick break and get out on 6 before the cutoff. The idea of doing 6 lasted until just over halfway through #5, at which point I commited to not doing a 6th.
My on the bike pacing was actually better than I expected - laps (riding time) weren't really tight, but tight enough for my first solo effort - Net of pit stop/lounge time, fastest one was the first at 1:34, and the slowest were 3 and 5 at 1:48. Felt fairly good for the first two laps. Encountered some fading at various points on the latter 3. The most bipolar lap was #5, the first half of which I felt the best I'd felt all day - thought I'd really broken through a barrier in understanding my longer distance endurance capacity by feeling that good that late in the day. But you know what they say about endurance efforts - if your feeling either good or bad, don't worry, it ain't gonna last. Well, the 2nd half of lap 5 was my lowest point of the day, I faded fast, and badly.
My off the bike pacing probably needs work. I came in off lap 2 about 45 minutes ahead of pace and wonder if I made a mistake by starting to take long breaks that early. It was that stop that I pulled out the anti-gravity recliner chair and put my feet up for a bit. Don't know that I'd do better if done differently, but am curious if I might be better off just making quick stops and riding until I can't anymore... may be a better strategy than shutting it down all the way and then firing it up again over and over. Don't know one way or the other, but maybe an area I should try and do it a little different next time?
The course was demanding and fantastic in various ways, in it's flow, in it's mix of short hard efforts rewarded with ripping downhill, in it's capacity to deliver physically shattering rugged sections (Tuffy's Rim) then have you giggling out loud minutes later with what must have been more than a miles worth of the biggest pump track I've ever seen - known as the rib cage section. It was also amazingly capable of handling a race that size without getting offensively congested. Even the first lap with the obvious shakeout that needed to occur was better than I would have thought, and by the later laps, it was wide open. Traffic was never more than a minor issue.
I have never been more sore after a bike ride than I was after this one. It wasn't the longest ride, but think I'd call it the hardest I've done. My lower back was completely shot, which I'll blame on the rugged terrain moreso than the short climbs. There is also minor scabbing in unfortunate spots that I thought had escaped being open sores. I was beat down pretty badly. Tyler rode it on a rigid singlespeed, can't post the right comment for what that must have been like.

Takeaways:

These 12 hours of whatever/wherever races make for fun roadtrips with buds. There were people there who had come alone and I'm just not that hardcore I guess - I wouldn't make that type of trip/effort by myself. Going it solo for the first time was a good experience, and I'll do it again if either 1 - I feel I need an unusually large day on the bike or 2 - I hate myself. As for fun, it was riding a bike, which has some fun factor built in automatically - but it was sufficiently hard that fun would not be the proper descriptor for the day. For fun, I think a 4 man team is the way to ride these. That being said, suspect I'll be riding solo at this one next year just to try and exploit a few of the typical hindsight items that one always has after a race.
Before the injury last year, I thought I was ready for the summer's big race, Leadville - had no questions about finishing and had an ambitious goal that I though was within reach if things went well. This year, the big summer race is Butte, and after Saturday, I've got some serious concerns about not just a respectable time, but flat out finishing. Can tell you right now that if that course requires the same amount of handling work to manage technical terrain that Mesa Verde had, along with the additional climbing, then I'm in both 1- trouble and 2 - over my head. Hoping it's feature's consist of more long, steady climbs which would suit my current condition a little better. Mesa Verde required some different components of conditioning than what I've got or get on the stuff I ride a lot-something I'll look to address some the remainder of the year.
Hell of a trip with the guys once again. We haven't solved the economic crisis yet, but we're getting closer, and we always have a heck of a time.

Rawrod 2010

2010-04-27T20:34:00.009-06:00

Pics in reverse order from the trip....

This was year two for me....

Some things were different:

Weather conditions - went from brutal winds last year to near perfect this year. Ironically, this year felt like it was a little tougher for me.
Avoided pitfalls - namely, the ridgey rock sections. Made extra effort to stay off of them all day, and it made for a much more comfortable ride. Note I said more comfortable, which is a far, far cry from meaning it was a comfortable ride.
Familiar course - yep, this helped in knowing to avoid the slickrock stuff. But, it backfired on the psyche. The bluff I was pretty sure was the one that was only a short straightaway from White Crack and the lunch spot at Vertical Void just a little further up the road, couldn't have been much further than only being half way there - which made for a long 2nd half. It was a real grind for me from mile 45 to 60-65 - mostly due to false hope, expectation, thinking I knew what lied around the next bend. Way too many times it was just the next bend.
Tried to do it self supported - fell well short of carrying enough fluid.
Struggled more on the back half of the ride this year, vs. earlier in the ride last year. Still learning how to manage eating and trying to maintain energy levels on rides that long.
Banks made his virgin run around the course and broke in a new pair of shoes, and rode it like a champ.
Tyler rode it on a single speed, and went fast all day - give him the ride of the day out of our travel group. We rode down and climbed back up horsethief when we pulled in Friday evening, and I put my bike in a singlespeedish gear for that climb out and kept it there, just as an act of sympathy towards him. Pretty sure I would have been brought to tears at that prospect at that point on Saturday. Singlespeeders are a different breed, and Tyler's got some of that bloodline in him.

Some things were the same:

Bright expelling large volumes of gasses, this time fueled by what I think was Subway Meatball Marinara, which made it irrelevent as to which end he fired from - potency was equal and the windows went down either way.
Tasty Brats and bread the night previous, courtesy of Kenny and Elden - along with plenty of funny stories from the group of good folks - probably highlighted by the education on chinese massages.
Sore hind quarters post ride, highlighted by literal throbbing that lasted till Green River. Much better morning after feeling though.
The hammy cramp struck again at Ray's, triggered by the exact same motion of pushing my chair out from under the table - only got one leg this year though. I considered laying down and flopping on their floor briefly during the episode.

All in all, as is the case with all road trips with the cycling crowd, it was a great time with great folks, and always a great feeling to ride across the cattle guard back into camp having put in a really big day of riding. Or at least a great feeling within a day or two....

Tour of the Depot recap

2010-04-14T22:54:00.003-06:00

TT - legs were fine, mind was weak and couldn't push past the slightest discomfort. Bike handling a little rusty - overbaked the last corner into a field which provided some humor to the volunteers working that intersection. Midpack finish.

Circuit race - legs were fine, until they weren't, and it wasn't a slow death from the fine to weren't state, it was fine one acceleration, then weren't the next - and it was game over when that happened - I didn't and couldn't recover. Same problem I had with cross last fall after the layoff, but had somehow forgotten it. This was a big reminder, and the most productive revelation from the weekend in regards to what needs worked on. I was dropped real fast midway through the race - no rubber band slowly stretching to an eventual snap - it was a flat out pop off the back.

Road race - Tried to ride smarter, but couldn't resist trying to get into the mix in a few spots that were going to be obvious accelerations and potential selection points in the wind, and same result, went too hard one too many times, and drop city. Fought back on once, only to pop again and get caught solo in the cross wind. Again, capacity to recover quickly was piss poor.

Good weekend in regards to getting back into the race scene. I was slow, no sugarcoating it, but it was productive. Picked up a Powertap over the winter under the presumption that between work and some other potential business opportunities, time may be a bit limited this year and it can help make riding time a little or a lot more productive, and got some good benchmarks to try and train around from the race. Trying not to turn into a data geek, but this thing is kind of fun - more on it later after I've done more with it.

Not sure what's next - may not race again until Mesa Verde... whole bunch of fitness to gain in the meantime.

Moab Adventure Race Report - 2010

2010-03-29T18:34:00.011-06:00

The years first big race/adventure took us to Moab for the AXS series Moab Adventure Race where Annie and I would be doing our first race as teammates, which I thought would double as a funny marriage/social experiment aside from the racing. Both of which went fantastic - no public or embarrasing shouting matches, and a pretty successful campaign on the racing side considering it was our virgin run at this type of race. Race report with more detail than you care for as follows:

Check in: We (Tyler, Jeff, Annie and I) walked into the hotel where check in was taking place, and the first thing we saw were groups of racers huddled around tables and over their race maps. For me, with this being our first rodeo in the adventure racing scene, this was exactly what I was most insecure about, 1- would we be able to plot the course correctly, and 2 - if we figured #1 out, would we be able to stay on course once out there. We got checked in and picked up our race packets, ran into Matt, Laura, and Jeremy, and decided to all meet back at the townhouse to do the mapping together, which I think I was both publicly and secretly grateful for. The plotting exercise was fairly simple relative to what I'd imagined it might be, and I think we were all happy to have the reassurance of concurring bearing points on each others maps to check our work. We had 7 checkpoints to hit the next day, we had them marked on our maps, and from what we could tell, the route followed fairly obvious roads and trails, so the fear of blowing the race due to lack of navigation skill was put to rest that night. Discussion among the group the rest of the evening revolved around how cold the paddle would be, what to wear on the water, transition from boat to bike, where we could ditch the heavy packs without getting penalized, and the climb we'd encounter on the first bike leg up Long Canyon. Then everyone took off and we were left to get the packs and gear ready to go. Race sequence would be paddle, bike, run/rappel, then back on the bike to the finish.

Annie getting tired of checking and rechecking packs and gear, and Brock wrestling with grandma Leslie. My tendency is to overthink the nutrition aspect of these longer races, and I didn't dissapoint - loaded a lot more food than we'd take in during the day.

This is Annie about midway through the paddle, there's a point in all races (if you're really racing) where the race itself transitions from fun to long, regardless of distance. The smile is the giveaway that we're still in the fun stage of the day. We were one of the last to get into the water, but got into a good rhythm pretty quickly. We found the boat to steer better from the front seat, so back seat either skipped a dig for minimal correction, or called out for a sequence change wtih big digs to keep the boat tracking straight.

This is me with my "I'm a bad ass adventure racer who stops paddling to take pictures of myself" look, with the standard Moab cliffs in the background. The river section was all flat water, which is great for a cold morning when getting wet is unappealing. But, the tradeoff of having a calm/dry river leg is having to do a lot of work paddling in lieu of having a good fast current to ride. In those tandem boats, the difference between paddling hard and not paddling hard is somewhat marginal - thinking it will take a few of these races to figure out just how to approach this part of the day. Would call our effort here moderate, and I think it was exactly right for us. It's hard to get in good paddling shape without doing a lot of paddling - and we haven't, so we stayed right where we needed to in regards to intensity. The solo racers with the long creek boats were the exception, they were much faster.

The transition went well, we hit the checkpoint, stripped out of the wet tops/pants, and were on the bikes fairly quickly. First annoyance and rookie moment of the day for me came right away on the bike. I ride a Specialized Epic, which has a fantastic rear suspension setup that can be set stiff enough to darn near replicate a hard tail - it's tuned based on rider weight, and I'd made sure to dial it in the night previous - minus my pack. The pack was enough to make the suspension tune insufficient, and I had that nice squishy sag action that's undesirable in all but downhill terrain going.

Annie as we approach the beginning of the climb, which started at the river and topped out up near dead horse point. It wasn't far from this point that I realized Annie was having a really, really good day on the bike. Should also mention as a side note that her bike is not high end, it's heavy, made from left over tank materials I think - which makes her ride up this section all the more impressive. Long Canyon Road is short for Long, Steep Canyon road - it's a stout climb, with most of the vert coming on steep switchbacks, the kind of stuff Annie's never ridden, for the sole reason of it seeming like a stupid thing to ride up that type of thing on a bike. We tried to get her paced correctly, in a low gear that she could spin without approaching her limit, and I'll be damned if she didn't pedal up the entire thing, at a decent clip, with the exception of one rocky/sandy section that we all walked. Here she is at the top of the hike a bike section, one of my all time favorite race pics of her.

The rappell was just cool, nothing more needs be said. Annie stepped right over the edge just a week after a bout of height reservations on the Angels Landing hike down in Zion.

The run was where the day started to get long, we were fortunate to find out within 5 minutes of starting to look for it that checkpoint 4 hadn't been set out, this information came largely at the expense of a few mens team racers who had gone a mile down the trail before backtracking, thinking they'd missed it. We ran most of it, but true to my running form, I whimpered on a few of the bigger hills and had to slow Annie to a walk a few times. We also ditched off into the trees during this leg, for our one pee break of the day - our first ever tandem pee break.

Once back on the bike, we felt like we were dragging a bit climbing back up to the highway, but tried to push the pace knowing we had a huge downhill run with just a few miles of paved road left back to the finish. Annie saved a huge mistake by calling me back when I'd missed a turn on the paved road, and we climbed the last roller before the gradient plunged back down to the river. The descent went smooth and we spent the last few miles on the pavement recapping the highs and lows of the day, and how remarkably smooth it had gone for a couple of first timers.

In the end, we finished in 7 hours and 9 minutes - or 5th in our 2 person coed team field. We weren't close to the 4th place spot, so no second guessing certain strategies or sections thinking we could have improved our standing, just that cool satisfaction that comes from doing something hard and feeling like you didn't shortchange yourself/each other in the effort.

Post race, flying the Carborocket flag. Brad, that stuff got better and better the further into the race we got. Two bottles of highly concentrated pink lemonade combined with about 60 oz. of water in the pack worked for the entire day without a glitch. Annie loved it too, and looks even better in the jersey.

Takeaways from this one are:

1 - I dig these adventure races, will do more of them for sure.

2 - Would recommend doing your first adventure race with a teammate - can't say for sure, but I think it would have seemed like a lot longer day doing it solo. Although I think I know another who might differ on this opinion.

3 - Annie completely blew me away in regards to her performance. Funny that we're in our 11th year married, and she shed an entirely new light on her physical determination and capacity. It was not an easy day, and she lit it up.

Recent introductions

2010-03-07T19:11:00.009-07:00

Going out to the grandparents is always a big treat for the kids, it's out in the country where adventures run aplenty, especially when you're a tike. They're getting old enough now that they've got the capability and the brains to get a crack at some stuff they haven't ever done before. Here are a few recent ones.

Misc. firearms:
There will be a few who read this who if you don't already think I'm irresponsible, are gonna come to that verdict in the next few minutes... I'm ok with that, won't hold it against you for too long, but here's the deal. I grew up on a ranch, where life was simple, entertainment consisted primarily of stuff that took place outside the walls of my house, and guns and hunting were something I was never introduced to - it was just part of life from as far back as I can remember. And here's the next deal - I'm fairly confident that that's the best way to make sure a kid isn't scared of, nor ever has an accident with, a gun.

So, Grandpa the cop went through the safety demonstration and the kiddo's fired they're first shots recently - even the two year old. And they loved it. And Annie and I loved it. And Grandma and Grandpa loved it - kind of a right of passage type thing for the kids. They know that guns are a serious thing, not toys - and it was a perceptible boost to their confidence when they realized we were really letting them in on one of the bigger people activities, and even bigger boost when they were successful with it.

And Annie - she took her first shots with a big kid firearm that didn't have a stock on it: It was a little bigger than anything she'd shot before, and she'd had enough when it scuffed nail polish or something on the second shot.

Kylie cracking a few shots with the littler guy gun - they were a little small yet for the pistol.

Have to exclude Brock from the notes on confidence and self esteem that came from being trusted to a big kid activity, etc... he hasn't reached the stage where he's not full of it yet - he squeezed of his 3 rounds in about 1.5 seconds.

The oldest is ready for rabbits

And the next introduction started the same day, when they surprised us with their competency in scrambling up this slab of rock, before we could tell them to wait for help.

So, we decided then and there it was time to introduce them to a little bouldering and wall climbing.
And they were awesome...

Couple of notes to self:

1 - There were a few activities that Annie and I enjoy that have been pretty non existent since starting our little family - rock climbing and kayaking being the primary losers. Rock climbing looks like it will be coming off the DL within the next year or so, kids are looking to become one of the drivers to get out vs. an excuse not to.

2 - Good reminder to take a break from telling them what not to do and let the rats of the rug remind us that they're pretty damn capable when turned loose, and pretty great adventure buddies to boot...

3 - and to get the pig husband comment in - I really like belaying Annie in whatever pants she was climbing in.

Bootleg Canyon

2010-02-07T09:46:00.004-07:00

Apparently now a snowshoe destination...

2010-01-01T17:39:00.005-07:00

Apparently Suncrest, on top of being a destination for inversion aversion, has become a somewhat found out place for snowshoeing. Took the kiddo's out for a little jaunt this afternoon, sled's in tow - and ran across 30-40 others over the course of our little 2 hour excursion, not counting the 6 dogs - it was nuts. There were 3 cars here when we started, it resembled parking at one of the old WNBA Starzz games (not that I would know) when we got back.

Snowshoeing is great, if for nothing more than the fact that we (Annie and I) can get buy in from the entire gang - no whiners when an outing on the snowfloaters is proposed.

The two year old graduated from a backpack to his own set of snowshoes this year - he's been out 3 times now and cruises.

Annie just claimed to be faster on Snowshoes than Chesney... The tikes were calculated in their sharing of the sweet goodness that is a thermos full of hot chocolate on a snow outing - no fights, but no passing of the cup by my own free will and choice either...
The kids hiked up, but turned into mushers on the way back, piling on the sleds being pulled by Mom and Dad, and yelling at us to pull faster between giggles, all the way back to the car... not a bad way to start the year.

Looks can be decieving

2009-12-21T19:03:00.006-07:00

The commute down the hill to work is pretty most days, but doesn't usually merit having to wait for a parking spot....in the middle of the road....

There's a small village called Herriman under that stuff in the photo above...

And a slightly larger city and burbs somewhere out there in this one... Oquirrh's to the left, Wasatch Range to the right, Draper bench on the bottom.

Woke up to a beautiful morning in Suncrest, and drove around the corner to this stunning panorama - it looks nice and pretty until you get down to about 4,700 feet and take your last big breath before holding it the rest of the day. The illusion of it being pretty had burned off by afternoon and revealed the nastiness that is the valley inversion - which isn't quite so photogenic as to stop traffic. Time to get out the bird flu masks...

Mother of all house forts

2009-12-05T14:33:00.010-07:00

Annie and Kylie flew to Denver for a girls weekend - claim that I'm earning some race equity with the wife for some weekends next year by giving them a break while chilling at home with the two pre k's. Annie would probably tell you she's still got some collecting to do before I start ramping up any equity in that bank. Either way it makes for a fun time for Annie and Kylie, and it leaves me and the pre k's to our own devices. So what do we do????

1 - Pizza and gigantic sugar cookies we decorated with frosting for dinner, late night movies - Rudolph and Frosty - twice for Rudolph, and slumber party in dad's bed where I collected one elbow to the ear and groin kicks - one from each kid - over the course of the night - offset by their being good cuddlers when not kicking.

Chesney comes from Venus - she took her time, put some thought into it, ultimately deciding to not even eat it, preferring instead to save it and show it/give it to Mom and Kylie when they get back.

Brock is from Mars - and said "why the hell waste time putting this on the cookie"?

2 - Padding the race equity account by taking care of some Christmas related returns/purchases that I knew Annie needed done . Not sure what the fuss is about hauling young kids around stores - they were great....... until they weren't. And once they weren't, they never went back to being great. And then I began the fine balancing act of communicating enough violence without inflicting it, in a manner that would convince the kids that the threat was for real and everyone else gathering around to watch that they really come from a loving and safe home environment, mostly. And then facing the unfortunate realization that neither party was buying what I was trying to sell.

3 - Building the mother of all living room forts... Behold....

Materials used - two couches, kitchen table, large ottoman, one spin bike, two kitchen chairs, and some blankets. There is a working stove, bunkbeds, a bag of cheeto's and some drinks, and probably a few more days worth of rations in there. They haven't come out for what's going on about an hour now...

Tentative 2010 race schedule

2009-11-17T18:22:00.005-07:00

Rough schedule of the primary events targeted for 2010

3/27 - Moab Adventure Race: will be reaching back out to those of you that indicated interest on the email thread to get teams organized in the near future. If you weren't on the thread but want to go, looking like we'll have a small group of 5-10, let me know and we'll get you included.

4/10 - Tour of the Depot - Toelle

5/8 - 12 hours of Mesa Verde - Thinking this one could be a fun dude's trip, race all day and then recount stories over some Blackjack at Ute Mountain.

5/29-31st - Iron Horse Classic - Durango: One of my favorite races in one of my favorite places.

6/3-6th - Teva Mountain Games - Vail: Yes, between the Iron Horse and this one, we'll probably just go live in CO for a few weeks. Will also put in some paddle practice this year, at the Moab adventure race at a minimum.

7/31 - Butte 100 - Butte: Thinking I need to go check this one out after Brad's rave reviews of this years race.

8/14 - Leadville 100 - Leadville: Have a score to settle here after the last minute injury this year, assuming I can get in. But, am actually a little more excited for the Butte race I think.

9/4 - PCPP - Park City: Endurance XC Mtn biking looking like the dominant race type on the calendar next year.

9/25 - Xterra - UT: Also missed this one due to the broken hand, look forward to getting back to the Xterra scene next year.

Will fill in gaps with some Icup, additional local road races, probably an additional triathlon or two, and cyclocross of course.

Need to drop about 20 pounds over the winter.... the time on the sideline late this summer/fall wasn't good to me.

Vacation ramblings

2009-11-16T19:20:00.009-07:00

Not sure if it's banking specifically, the economy, missing the best part of the race season with the hand injury, or just a bad attitude in general, but I'd been in the worst funk I can remember being in for the last few months - work had turned into a serious grind, I had little patience and had become short with people, and was just flat out burned out - of pretty much everything, including stuff I usually like. Annie, who's virtues exceed mine by quite a lot, had to have needed the vacation more than I did, but hadn't resorted to being crappy to be around.

So we got out of dodge to get some carefree time on a family road trip. A few take aways from this years trip which included stops at Zion, Disneyland, and Vegas.

I'm very conscious of not taking important things for granted, but one occurrence that happens on occasion is the kids asking me to play, usually in some fantasy world that their little imaginations have drummed up, and I'll either engage them for a few minutes thinking the brief, half hearted granting of my time will trick them into feeling like they got some asked for attention, so I can get back to whatever it is I'm treating as more important - or, I'll tell them just a minute, which, more often than not, is a dishonest way of ignoring their request. The best thing about getting away for extended days off is getting away from those distractions that too often trump the imaginary world my kids invite me into at their age. The kids loved having undivided attention and full engagement in whatever world they wanted to pretend we were in, and I was reminded that there's not a better therapy for a parent than to let their little imaginations teach me how to get away from the grind. It's one of their greatest gifts to me. I've let getting into a rut rob me of this on occasion - good to learn to watch for it and limit it's causing me to miss out on some of this stuff going forward.

Kylie is borderline of having grown past the innocence of the imagination and precious freedom from self consciousness that you get with the first few years. She started the trip being a little too cool for some of the childish fun, but to Annie and I's delight, realizing we were getting some last glances of her most innocent years, reverted to letting imagination overtake self image for most of the trip - we were sad to realize it, she's our oldest and therefore first to grow out of that stage, but sure were grateful for the time away to be able to get just a few more memories and be able to sit back and enjoy Kylie the little girl before she's not anymore.

Really enjoyed the goof off time with Annie, away from the day to day demands at home - can't imagine life without her...

A few photo's from the trip:

Met the Laroza's at Zion for dinner and some hiking the next day - took the kids to the Emerald pools. Passed a youth group on the way back, and heard several of the teens complaining about the distance and percieved exertion required for the hike, and had to laugh as I looked back at Brock, the two year old who had hiked the entire thing himself, declining several efforts by me to pick him up and carry him to speed things up.
One of my favorite things at Disneyland are the Dole Whips at the Tiki room - pineapple ice cream in pineapple juice. Brock discovered that they're also one of his favorites. One of our favorite pranks on the trip was abusing Brock's fondness for the Dole Whip's - did the fakie with the spoon for what must have been 20 reps, and he chased it every time thinking the deliciousness was going into his mouth, only to see it turn sharply into my mouth at the last minute - much to the delight and laughter of everyone but him.
This is my favorite photo of the whole trip. Partly because I'm so photogenic and this is a very handsome picture of me sleeping while standing, partly because Chesney hit the right of passage height to be able to ride most of the rides and this is right after her first run on Splash Mountain, but mostly because it caught the knucklehead doing his thing. He couldn't do the ride, so isn't familiar with Brer Rabbit or diving into the briar patch - but somehow decided to reenact it - if you look closely, you'll see him, at least the bottom 3rd of him, exiting the right side of the frame. It was exactly as graceful as you might be led to believe from the picture.
Here's the sequel - he's shaking out the cobwebs from landing right on his face.
Chesney being trained as a Jedi - she did great till Vader shows up, then she got scared and bailed back to dad's lap.

Had a full 5 days of this excitement and frolicking at Disneyland - it was a really great time. We put Disneyland on a rotation of once every two years, seems to be the right frequency for it to maintain it's magic with both mom and dad, and the rats of the rug. Tried it annually early on, and it wasn't quite as new/good.
Annie and the kids hottubbing and getting some vitamin D intake in Vegas where they had a generous go fish table.

Pretty great what getting away with the family can do for the soul - feel recharged, refreshed, and ambitious again - renewed some perspectives and enjoyed the heck out of the family. Makes a guy feel good.

Rarely discussed race tips - racing off the back installment 2,

2009-11-06T22:12:00.003-07:00

Writing from Springdale, Ut - west entrance to Zion National Park - one of Utah's many crown jewels.

The ever critical start: first a refresher on last weeks tips which included two options here - Either go off the front when you have no business being there, which should blow you up in about 60 seconds, or a more moderate pace of pushing right past your limit, which is also very moderate, by taking about 5 minutes.

Tested a new one last race that also worked real well, if not better. Miss the start entirely. Show up about 20 seconds after the groups gone and then try to catch it. It's great, you get the anxiety of missing it, the panic of running to the line and starting with the running remount rather than on the bike, and then the ensuing redline effort chase - right smack out of the gate. Legs were squealing like they had the pig flu. The problem with being at the back is that they're squealing despite the fact that your not going very fast.

Here's one that may actually be productive: As you break down, and you will (racing back to back days will further facilitate this), pay attention to the sequence that your form begins to fail. Just remember the first few, it will start to snowball pretty quickly turning into not so much a sequence as a total meltdown. I've got some specific spots that will be pin pointed and hit hard with the reformers this winter. One spot that was actually strong before the injury but is real weak now - must be fairly specific to cycling, maybe just at intensity.

Exertion does not equal perception: Had my wife and some friends laughing at me right after the finish for what apparently appeared to them to be joyriding during the race. When I told them I was riding as hard as I could go, they laughed harder. Seriously, some days, your hard effort just ain't gonna translate to looking like one, resultswise or to your buddies. Remember the integrity required to race at the back - better to get laughed at harder for trying hard but still being slow, than to bear the cross of going slow because you cracked and quit trying. If your best that day happens to not be very fast - own it.

Regards,
Mr. still owning it, but trying not to for too long.

Cyclocross weekend photos

2009-11-01T20:51:00.007-07:00

Photo's from our weekend at the cross races. Commentary next post, it's with mixed feelings that I say/admit the I have some more tips for racing off the back.

Rarely discussed race tips - racing off the back

2009-10-27T18:58:00.015-06:00

Last Saturday brought to the surface a reality that I've been repressing for about 70 days. It was the first "race"(I'm excluding LOTOJA as it was only 25% race, 75% limping home) back from the hand injury this summer, that I conveniently managed to use as an excuse to go fairly inactive, gain some weight, and in general, fall impressively out of shape. If there's a better way to expose this type of conundrum than a cyclocross race - I don't know of it.

But it will afford me with what may or may not be some valuable experience over what I suspect will be the next several weeks, if not the remainder of the year, to share some rarely addressed racing tips - specifically - strategies for racing at, and in some cases off, the backside of the race. Or in other words, how to compete for the DFL podium, or if you prefer, the DFL implodium. These will be specific to cyclocross, and I'm anticipating that you can expect a few posts with some decent substance dedicated to this over the next few months.

Tip 1 - Physical output: In managing your effort during the race, it's best to get into position early. Best done by going to deep to early - and by deep, I mean get it to a state that you can't recover from, sometimes referred to as blowing up. I've found that if you can do this within 5 minutes from the start, the next 45 minutes should give you a solid chance to work into position for the DFL hole shot. If it helps the medicine go down easier - go ahead and go off the front at the beginning of the race. You might be able to cut the time it takes to reach said state down to 60 seconds or so, which is all the better - and you'll have the sensation of leading at one brief and early point in the race to be the only memory you take away and tell people about, and use to motivate you for next week. If it doesn't help the medicine go down easier, then stay the hell out of the way and take the full 5 minutes to blow yourself up.

Tip 2 - Race Course Management, or, in laymens terms, don't let a DNF rob you of a DFL: While riding yourself out of your limit, you need to ride your bike within the limits of the course and conditions. There are some who are too fast to heed this tip, and when in position to win the DFL, will purposely DNF. I'm hitting the BS button on that scenario. If your going to compete for the DFL that day - then own it like you love it, anything less is vanity at the capital BS level.

Now - with that having been said, if you've succeded with tip 1, you may very well, and probably should, spend the remainder of your race hoping for some mechancial to cause a DNF. There ain't no shame in hoping. But assuming your not a quitter, your still racing, and one legit strategy of racing at the back is to make sure you ride a clean race to beat those DNFers. If a legit mechancial or crash happens during a legit race effort, then congrats, you lucked out with a legit excuse to bail early, no shame there. But there's nothing more shamefull than an intential DNF to avoid a DFL win. Yes, the DFL ranks above the DNF on the final results - and course managment can mean the difference between the two. Remember - own it like you love it..... but don't really love it. And if you lack the inner fortitude, see Ken Chlouber about a motivational download available that will ingrain the mantra of "I commit, I won't quit" into your race mentality, by the clever method of repeating it over and over, and then repeating it some more, and then lot's more. I think he may have one other title also available, but can't remember it off the top of my head, not enough repeats I guess, or maybe too many.

Tip 3 - Top end work, or maintaining skill while the eye's are glossy: Top end capacity on the DFL end of the race is different than top end capacity at the front of the race. Don't let this dynamic go to waste. Your going to get passed, and your going to get passed a lot. Assuming your maintaining the integrity required for tip 2, and still racing hard, each of these passes presents a good interval opportunity. When the faster guy comes around, try to get on his wheel and stay there as long as you can - probably won't be long, but try. It will bury you deep, and bike handling and technical skill is a little different when you can't see straight from fatigue than it is when your fresh, and... practice in this state translates to improvement just the same whether occuring at the back or the front. So don't get content with winning DFL, always look to improve your capacity to function on the bike when seeing stars.

Tip 4 - Race psychology: If you didn't go off the front at the beginning and get a taste of being the leader - you may have one more chance. There is a magic sweetspot in the race where you can get far enough behind that most of the crowd can't tell that your winning the DFL race, and then... you act like your winning the whole thing. Timing is critical - as you need to be approaching lap meat status at the part of the course where the crowds are thickest and loudest. It's a fine line to balance. With the real leaders approaching and briefly in tow, punch it when riding into sight of the crowd - most of whom, you hope, won't know your fighting off becoming lap meat, and will acknowledge you as the leader who's ridden off the front of a group of real fast guys. You need to look intense here, and be going fast. Take it to another level by asking "how far back are they?" or asking for a time gap while riding through the populated area of the course. If you want to give up, and you will, just remember you only have to hold it until your out of sight of the crowds. There, didn't that feel cool? Don't worry about the next lap around, few in the crowd will notice the change in order that riders come through, most of them are just there to see a crash or two anyway.

Tip 5 - Asserting control on the race: If your cooked, and timing doesn't work out for you to make the glory sprint detailed in tip#4, you can save yourself a lap by finding somewhere else to let the leaders get by you. Remaining laps are based on the number of times leaders have come through, not you, and as crazy as it sounds, the DFL competitors can retain their position while getting away with riding one less lap than the rest of the racers, if they get lapped at some point - absolutely no penalty to official finishing place/position, it's like stealing candy from a baby.

So, there it is, a fairly well rounded basket of things to think about while off the back. More to follow as the revelations unfold.... and remember what Ken says - don't quit, and if you brought your DFL game - then own it - but try not to own it too long.

Sincerely,

Mr. trying not to own it too long

New convert to Cyclocross

2009-10-24T19:11:00.017-06:00

There's a new convert to cyclocross in the White house. Annie rode her first race today and ripped it. Rode a clean race to finish 2nd in the Women's C, passing several B racers and waving to the kids on the way. Check her out....

One of my favorite things about Annie is her desire to squeeze quite a bit out of her life, which is inclusive of trying just about anything. This race made her almost as nervous as her first Mtn Bike race in Vail this year - The course was the scary thing for her in Vail. Here, it was more the bike, which feels a little more squirly on the dirt than her mountain bike. She took her first spill over the bars earlier in the week trying to get used to it. She got settled in quickly during the race, and never looked back. It was cool to see her confidence growing each time she hit the barriers, remounted, and gunned it up the woodchip hill. I'm a proud and lucky guy.

It was fun to be back on the cross scene and see friends I hadn't seen since last season - it's a cool crowd.

I went out with the B group later in the afternoon, and it went as anticipated, I got shelled. The hand was a non-issue, in fact, it was great. But, have lot's of work to do to get back some form in all other areas. No better way to try and race yourself into shape than on the cross course though, and as much as it hurt, it was still a riot. And the new bike - it's awesome! Have a few tweaks to make, but it may be my most favorite bike.

Already looking forward to Wheeler next weekend - and giving the legs another shock session - they had no idea what the hell was hitting them today.

Random stuff & signs of the times

2009-10-21T10:21:00.006-06:00

One housecleaning item. Those who know her know it was a joke, but for those that don't and have commented via email and in person - Annie wants me to make it clear that the deal made for the new Yeti cross bike was not real - it was a play on a forced withdrawal I was under due to a procedure and, had that not been the case, she wouldn't be any more agreeable than I to such a deal, thankfully.

Speaking of the Yeti - it got here Saturday. Here it is getting put back together. I love it. Need to give it the tubeless treatment to be race ready - healthy year for goatheads on the Draper course, and I suspect they'll be thicker at Wheeler - but it's been a joy to ride thus far.

Sign that size doesn't matter: Below is a photo of one of four new tires that the Xterra just got, and one tubular tire for a bicycle. Retail price is almost identical for the two.

Sign the recession has really started to hit home: The following email recieved yesterday from the managers of the building that WF leases my office space in:

"Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 9:51 AMTo:>>>>>>nSubject: New Soda Pricing Good afternoon everyone! Due to the economy, soda will now sell for .75 cents instead of .50 cents. Snacks and waters will be same listed price. We appreciate all your support while we continue to assist you all in every way we can. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance to you! Kind Regards, "

You know that looming inflation you keep hearing about? It's started, with the soda.

Preview of Jamie's Junk

2009-10-12T20:44:00.008-06:00

Went out to poach a run before the bike only signs go up on the latest and greatest in Corner Canyon, Jamie's brainchild that is becoming known as Jamie's Junk. The first half is ready to ride, and for those of you who haven't been out on it yet, here are a few preview photo's to help get you out to ride it before the snow flies. Seriously, even if you haven't made it to a trail work day, get out and ride it, the more traffic and compaction it can get before winter, the better shape it will be in right out of the gate come spring. And it's good - really good. It starts right at the top end of the Clarks trail head.

Hard to tell in the photo below, but you'll get 5 or 6 good chances to work on your cornering flow between where I'm standing and 30 yards down the hill.

High banks, low banks, little bumps and good size jumps (in context of XC riding), switchbacks, chicanes, and plenty of other features along with those yet to be revealed in the lower half will make this a dandy trail to ride, and probably develop your skills some along the way.

Corner Canyon's not a bad place to go for that out in the middle of nowhere feeling this time of year, even if your only 10 minutes from your front door. And worth the drive if further. Sharp corner into a steep drop, fun stuff...
Huge props to Jamie for the massive amount of work he's put into this. If your not already getting emails for trail work days, let me know and we'll make sure you get on the list. Trail work makes you better looking.

That's a BS excuse!

2009-10-09T08:40:00.009-06:00

You know how when your wife buys something that's totally unecessary in regards to needing it around the house or in the closet or whatever, and when you discover it and confront her about it she blames it on the deal just being so good that it overtook her? Then you go into the rant about how we shouldn't waste money on such crap, etc.... Annie's actually really great and responsible in regards to this, but it happens occasionally.

Well, I just did that....

I mentioned to her that I was entertaining the idea of buying yet another bike - my excuse when confronted/justifying the deal? Made perfect sense - It has the fork I've been watching for, and am pretty much getting the rest of the bike for just a few benjamin's more.... and, I'll let you ride my old one in a few cross races till you decide if you like it enough to get a cross bike that fits well.... Yep, made about as much sense to her as the 30th pair of shoes made to me - so I offered to not bother her for sex for 5 days and she took the deal... still don't get how she thinks she's the winner???

Say hello to the newest colt to be joining the stable...

There won't be much of a honeymoon - expecting it here Thursday or Friday of next week, and will line it up in Heber on Saturday. The rest of the season will be spent trying to get back into decent enough shape to loosen the reigns and let her run.

Get'n giddy wit it - cyclocross season draws near

2009-09-25T23:06:00.006-06:00

It must be close, theme of the week for the bike bloggers is cyclocross. Utah has a fantastic cyclocross series. Am disappointed to say I'm going to miss the first two weeks with the hand not being quite ready for the hardcore stuff, and another procedure that Annie's got me signed up for - something about cutting my nuts off or a similar effect.

Am also disappointed to miss week 1 in particular, that Buenaventura course is one of my favorites - Sam and I stuck around after that race last year and found the ideal spot to spectate - all you want to see in a cyclocross race - crashes and near crashes, may make the trek up there just to watch that log obstacle again this year.

On the topic of crashes - here's some video from the single log obstacle at the state championships last year - endo's at 1:45, 3:33, 7:49, and 9:32. Good primer for a variety of ways to approach the logs.

Fitness will be a problem for me for cross this season, am back to winter form after the time off this summer. But can't think of a better way to try and regain some of it than the riot that is cyclocross racing.

Good Cyclocross blogging over at Mud and Cowbells.

The longest and luckiest day - LOTOJA 09'

2009-09-16T17:57:00.017-06:00

It was a long day, a tad over 13 hours, which may translate into a long post - be forewarned.

First item of mention, to stick with what seems to be the overriding theme of the race reports thus far - how on earth does an organization that pulls off a massive undertaking in putting that race together, let some ridiculous suggestion at some meeting that all but one person had to have been sleeping at, come to fruition by having boxes full of clothes hangers - that's right, clothes hangers, to hand out to the good folks who had put in a grueling 206 mile ride as a congrats for their finish. Would poke fun at the guy who invented the stupid thing, but he's trumped on the bad idea scale by the guy who bought boxes full of them. Suspect maybe a family favor or something, don't know how else it could have happened. Those things don't even qualify as a decent swag bag item.

But I digress - the ride...

Lined up with the following intent given the circumstances of my summer and the implications they had on this race/ride (see the "gimp" category). Priority 1 - finish. Had no intention of starting and seeing how far the hand would hold up, or how long the legs would last after the month off. The inner argument all week was knowing that if I started I wouldn't quit, and trying to decide if the wouldn't quit part was going to be a reasonable thing to do. Priority 2 - Race it as far as I could, then get home from there.

There were some things that went great, relatively. First, the hand held up really good for about 70 miles, a good bit further than I had thought best case scenario would be. Had guessed it to be 40 miles, so my attitude was that I'd gotten a 30 mile hall pass in dealing with the hand. Part of the deal with myself was to go au naturel, no pain killers or other aids for the hand - let it be what it be, so the 30 mile bonus was a blessing. Second - the legs held up all right for about 50 miles, until the pitch turned permanent for a time. Rode with my start group until then, felt good and was really enjoying being back on the bike. It wasn't for lack of trying that I peeled off early on the Strawberry climb, the legs just weren't there, and probably the more pronounced weakness from the time off, was the lack of capacity to recover - I just couldn't, at all, so when I blew, I didn't bounce back - ever. So that was my race, it lasted 50 miles, and was really enjoyable, and I gave it all I had in me that day.

With priority 2 out of the way, the remainder of the day reverted to nothing more than sticking to priority 1, regardless of how bad or miserable it got.

Steve, Mark and Sam came by fairly early on Strawberry, leading a massive group up the climb. Adam came by not much later, told me to jump on his wheel and come on, and I was sorry to have to tell him I couldn't, and to have a good ride.

For a 206 mile ride, there were relatively few highlights, but here are a few of the moments that defined my limp home to the finish line.

Mentioned the hand lasted till mile 70, from there it slowly deteriorated and had gotten to that worthless state I've mentioned before by around mile 76-77. Worthless may be a little dramatic - I could find positions on the bar where it could bear weight with pretty minor discomfort, so long as the road was pretty smooth. I had lost all capacity to shift, brake, squeeze hard enough to hold or grab a water bottle, or reach into a jersey pocket with the left hand, or hold the handlebar steady with the left hand so the right could grab a bottle or reach into a pocket for food - with the exception of really nice stretches of smooth road - and there were some.

Biggest joke of the day - me having Mussette bags. Rachel had been kind enough to make a few extra for me, and pre race I actually loaded them with my food and intended to use them. By the first time I came up to Annie in Montpelier - I had absolutely no intention, nor physical capacity, of riding through and grabbing it out of her hand - Didn't have a spare hand, and I was looking forward way to much to the stops to waste one. Mark's dead on - if your slowing enough to put a foot down, the mussettes are unnecessary and kind of an embarrasing public display of how much you overestimate yourself. Maybe useful for me in a much shorter race, but plain stupid and vain of me to have them in this one.
I had the completely counterproductive desire to avoid people and ride alone. In part because of handling challenges with the hand along with the accordianlike behavior of most packs I did ride with for a few minutes - the constant surging then braking can be more taxing that riding alone. But it was mainly due to attitude. You know how sometimes animals, when injured, leave the group and wander off by themselves to suffer in isolation and die a lonely death. It was weird, but I get that now, I really wanted to be by myself, so I was, with the exception of the first 50, a few miles coming out of Afton with EB and ER, and maybe another 5 miles of cumulative group riding throughout the afternoon/evening - and for whatever reason, I liked and preferred the loneliness that day.
The luckiest seconds of my entire life....

My biggest fear in cycling is a high speed crash on a descent. What you see in the photos happened at 50+ MPH going down the backside of the Geneva Summit. I had just gone by Taylor Wiles and the three girls she was bombing the hill with when it happened in what felt like slow motion... the sound - It didn't just start to soften, it blew, instantly, tubies are loud when they blow at 160 psi, the realization of what had happened, the immediate fishtailing - you've seen PBR on Versus, the bike bucks just the same at 50 MPH on a blown rear tire - whipping the rear end back and forth, the several things that flash through your mind - a few of which are completely unrelated to the moment - just like you hear in the stories, the huge surge of adrenaline that hits as you prepare for the inevitable - it was surreal, and I didn't think for a second that it would end any way but very badly. And then....... I clipped out and put my foot down as it rolled to a complete stop. I don't know how many, or the summation of all of the things that had to go exactly my way during the episode, but I know a few..... 1 - Taylor and her train, along with the rest of the folks descending that hill doing a hell of a job handling their bikes at speed to get around the guy that looked to for sure be going down, the lightest of contact would have been disasterous. 2 - having tires glued and having them stay glued to the wheel, would have been a much different story had that happened with a clincher. I've replayed it over and over and I still don't know how the bike managed to stay upright, I can't begin to tell you how bad it would have been had it not. That shredded tire will be my momento for this race/ride - not the stupid hanger.

Insult to injury - so the hand was what it was, I knew what it would be going in and was prepared for it. That, along with the sheer distance of the day should provide plenty of suffering right.? I agree. So explain to me why the hell 1 - I even start the day without chamois cream and 2 - how the hell I manage to forget, every time, to tell Annie to bring it to the next feedzone. There were no open wounds by the end, to the credit of Pearl Izumi's fantastic bib shorts, but there was no need to ride that far without the salve either - stupid, stupid ommision and contributor to a long day on my part.
Did anyone still like their shoes at the end of that race? If so, what kind did you ride in? I hated my Nike's by Afton - my feet hurt, bad... sat and rubbed them at every stop from Afton on in.
The road from Afton to Alpine was the roughest part of the day on my hand, and by default, my right arm and shoulder which bore the brunt of it. I felt lucky that the road up the canyon/river was nice and smooth for the most part, I really needed it at that point.
From Afton in, stops at feedzones were measured by remaining time till darkness, not wanting to leave any earlier than necessary, but leaving a little cushion for a brief mishap or two. This was absolutely the right way to manage my day - I think I needed every bit of the rest I took, as much for my brain as for my shattered body.
I made a conscious effort, once we turned off the highway near Jackson, to forget the struggle of the day behind me and try and really enjoy the rest of the ride in. And I did, that tree lined road is a place I'd go ride to relax any day, and in the condition I was in, I thought it was a really great stretch of the course to enjoy at the end of that long day. I was grateful for it.
There was no big sprint, hard push, rush, sense of exhileration, any of that stuff for me at the finish. There was a small sense of winning the contest I'd made up in my mind with the hand and not letting it prevent me from another race/ride, but it was mostly a sense of a really long day, and a pretty pathetic, broken and crumbled man being really glad it was finally over.... and I'm still glad it's over...

Fitness and coming off the sidelines - Riddle me this

2009-09-09T17:49:00.003-06:00

More progress with the wrist/hand on this afternoon's ride - significant in fact, even took the splint off for a good portion of it and was somewhat pleased with how it did. But the progress that afforded more saddle time than I've had in 4 weeks also provided for exposure of additional negative ramifications from this injury debacle. Here's the fitness quiz of the day:

How many minutes does a four week sabatical near the end of the season cost on a North Suncrest climb? And from another angle, by the same measure (time to climb North Suncrest), how many months of fitness gain did the said four week sabatical cost.

And for those of you with some experience with this type of thing - please tell me the fitness comes back faster than the first time it's gained....

Too little too late

2009-09-08T21:55:00.005-06:00

Third installment of the hand saga...
Cast came off on the 31st and replaced it with a small splint, thought I would be home free. Hasn't worked out that nicely for me. Have the expected tightness and weakness in the hand where the hardware went, but have a more severe, and unexpected (by me) tightness and weakness in the wrist, where the time spent in the cast was apparently sufficient to put the tendons and ligaments into lockdown. I've been pushing it hard to regain flexion and some dexterity, but the trade off of pushing it hard to regain the range of motion is that it feels severly sprained under any kind of weight bearing activity, including the bike. It's going to be a game of baby steps, and I suck at and hate baby steps, just not wired right for that kind of process.

Road vibration agitates it badly, and anything more than a moderate bump knocks it off the bar. It's getting better - first big test was over the weekend on the cross bike and it's more forgiving 60 PSI tires, it lasted all of 30-45 minutes each ride before getting to the worthless stage and despite and conscious effort to make the left hand take a normal workload, there was some overcompensation fatigue on the right side, even after such short outings, which meant I wasn't doing very well forcing it to take it's half of the workload. Did a quick 30 minutes on the road bike tonight, testing a different handlebar, and it felt a little better and a little stronger. The reality of the situation is that this damn hand will probably add LOTOJA to it's toll of carnage, I won't start if I don't think it will hold up all day. And, being back on the Mtn bike for Xterra is not a slam dunk. Cross season should be a slam dunk however, and looking forward to it, a lot. Had plenty of fun in my virgin season of road racing and on the Mtn bike this year, but they don't hold a candle to Cross.

Other notes:
* Talked to a couple of local buddies who race as pro's regarding a one week crash course reconditioning plan for LOTOJA before realizing the hand had further to go than anticipated. Two completely different angles in their advice - one said hard intervals for a few days with one long ride, one said several long rides with zero interval work. Both are fast, well respected riders, goes to show how different the approaches can be, even at that level.
*Despite all my moaning about the hand, I've enjoyed the heck out of some positive's that come from the time it freed up for kids, business, etc..., to be shared in later posts....
*Am a Ute graduate and fan to the extent that I dislike the Cougars - but huge props to them for the win on Saturday, didn't hate rooting for them as much as I thought I would. For the record, I'm married to a BYU alumnus... and live around a whole gaggle of them, peacefully.

Wonderwoman

2009-09-01T20:13:00.004-06:00

Can't even begin to tell you how far out of the park I hit it when I married this little gal 10 years ago....

Happy 10th babe - I'm having a blast growing up with you!

Rookie tooth fairy

2009-08-31T22:09:00.004-06:00

All the buzz around the house the last few days has been the race between Kylie and I, and if I could lose the cast on my arm before she could pull her loose tooth out. I lost yesterday afternoon. Couple of rookie questions: 1 - what's the going rate for teeth these days? I don't want my kid talking to your kid and having to learn I underpaid, or worse yet, overpaid. Either way, pretty sure the tooth fairy stage of parenthood is easier on the pocketbook than at Dug's stage, with his rookie round of that right of passage, 16th birthday. 2 -What do tooth fairies do with teeth? Don't know why that inquiry never crossed my mind when I was the one selling teeth. Annie chucked it, against my idea of collecting them and one day making her a mothers necklace, and some matching earrings.

Got the cast off the hand today. Replaced by a real small splint. One of life's simple pleasures taking that first shower and getting to scrub that dead itchy skin off. Hand acutally feels relatively good, but have a little work to do on the tendon's through the wrist, it only lasted 15 minutes on the trainer tonight in a few different positions on the handlebars before getting pretty uncomfortable. Should loosen up in a day or two I'm guessing. Really happy to be past the immobile stage with this thing.

A few random belated thoughts from the sidelines of Leadville

2009-08-28T19:03:00.007-06:00

You need a lot, as in everything, to go right, and pretty much nothing to go wrong, to hit a goal out there. While the dissapointment of not being able to throw down that day was massive, I'll be candid in saying that I'm fairly certain that the race conditions would have prevented me from hitting the number I had in my head the day I broke the hand - and I would have been disappointed at that... I think.

If you lined up finishers 100-1300, and told me to sort em' into groups that finished in 9-10 hours, 10-11 hours, 11-12 hours, and 12+ hours, I would have been wrong no less than 50% of the time. Rick M., Gary and I spent an hour watching people roll in and looked at each other countless times with that "really, that guy just rolled in at 9:30" look on our face. It was really cool every time we saw it happen. Best example of this was one in our own group - I have no problem admitting I played the fool in giving DT a zero to none shot at finishing that course, yet was shocked over and over during the day as he steadily came through the feed zones, and proceeded to do what was required that day to bring home a buckle. Really cool, humbling, and inspiring to watch guys and gals whom I wouldn't have guessed had any business being out there roll in with pretty amazing performances. I'm pretty certain that no one crosses that line having not left it all out on the course, but I agree with Dug, there are more demons conquered in the race behind the top 100 finishers, and that's the part of the pack I thought was coolest to watch and pricked some emotional engagement - you know, like watching the guy push his incapacitated son across the finish line at the Hawaii Ironman. Not quite as heartwrenching, but kind of like that.

Draper is very well represented at Leadville - to the extent that it was heard over the loudspeaker at the finish line "Draper, Ut needs to put together a team for this race" - he didn't connect all the Fat Cyclist Jersey's that matched up with those Draper racers.

Most important item in the support tent for the non SS'ers that day - chain lube. Conditions wreaked havoc on the drivetrains of literally everyone.

Felt sorry for myself due to the injury and not being able to toe the line, but my situation was trumped by Eldon's. He toed the line, got into the flow of the race, was having the day we all wanted him to have - going fast, only to have it pulled out from under him, literally, on an overcooked corner. Having it happen when your having a day is the harder pill to swallow I think.

Armstrong was sick fast.

My friends and their friends are tough folks. Most inspiring part of the day for me was watching friends come through, hurting, fighting the demons in their heads, trying to hurry when the body had little to no hurry left in it, getting a brief break to eat and see and hear some encouragement from supporters, and then having to clip back in and start slogging down the road again - and they all did it, every time..... not one of them let that race crack them. That includes the one who got more than weather related adversity that day, battling butt demons with a few squares and a hat at the top of Columbine. He'd been through a lot when he came back through Twin Lakes, but there wasn't any quit in him, just like all the others, he got back on and headed off by himself, intent on finishing, and I'm certain would have were it not for a tough call at a cut off point. Inspiring stuff, all ya'll.

One suggestion - move the gathering/lecture/meeting place from the gym down to that nice looking new football field.

The runner in the family

2009-08-22T15:49:00.004-06:00

Annie did the Hobble Creek half Marathon this morning - my legs hurt just thinking about it.

Here she comes...

There she goes... looks good from both angles.

Post race with Pilates, running, and Mom friend Carol....

I asked Brock how he thought I might do running 13 miles. He can't translate his sarcasm into sentences yet... so he did an impression in lieu........

Dude's dead on, clear down to needing a diaper...

Upgrade

2009-08-19T18:34:00.005-06:00

Check out the new hardware - should be pretty bombproof once it's back to usable. Hand should be ok by LOTOJA. Form will be the bigger question. I will say this - the repairing of the bone hurts a hell of a lot worse than the breaking of the bone - pretty unpleasant day at the office.

Also have some thoughts and observations about Leadville after watching it from the sidelines this past weekend - will share some next post.

Disaster

2009-08-09T20:24:00.008-06:00

P.S. Just took some snapshots of the computer screen to get these on here. Makes the video a little more tense knowing what I'm trying to wrench back into place. I'm an idiot.

P.S.S - yes, I'm aware my left pinkie may look as bad as the ring finger in the video. It's just fine. It was a dislocation, and also a field repair during a high school football game. First time I've seen an x-ray picture of it and will now admit maybe my alignment might have been a little off.

Started the video camera thinking I may get footage of a cool "in the field" repair of a dislocation. Ended up getting a four/five minute documentary of leadville hopes and ambitions dying on my last hard effort training ride before the race next week. Desperate wrenching on that hand, trying to stay positive in believing I could work it back to being right. Was still thinking it was 50/50 going into the hospital that it would just be a quick jerk on it by the doc to fix it. He knew the second he looked at it, and I was crushed when I saw the x-ray (tried to post it but can't get it off the cd they sent with me). Doc threw a temp. cast on and told me to see a hand guy to get it fixed right, so going to try and get into the TOSH folks first thing in the morning. Think it's more desperation than reality, but holding onto a sliver of hope that they can put some hardware in that would make it stable enough to race saturday. I still can't believe this happened. It's the bone that goes from my ring finger knuckle to the wrist, sheared in half on probably the least violent crash I've ever had.

The problem - part 3

2009-08-04T23:53:00.005-06:00

Thrilled to report that the sister in law has officially wrapped up her Chemo and Radiation treatments for her cancer, and is on the 5 year ticker towards cured status. They've been through hell, and there are still some residual issues to deal with related to the cancer, but the cancer itself looks to have lost the fight at this stage. Grateful to a lot of people, and relieved in a huge way.

8/5 - The relief has been tempered a bit, actually a lot, by Elden's news tonight. What a fight the Nelson's have put up against this POS disease, and can promise you they're not done!

Crank that hamster wheel till you collapse

2009-08-03T18:00:00.000-06:00

Have volunteered to donate a few miserable hours of my body to science for a buddy down at UVU. Figured I could learn some cool stuff, help a friend, and get some data that would be nice to know, as gravy on top. Have done a threshold and V02 test once previously on a treadmill - maybe selective memory, maybe the intrusive tube in the mouth vs. the mask I wore on the treadmill, maybe coming off a few days of being under the weather, maybe treadmill vs. bike, who knows, but this one seemed more brutal.

V02 testing in Pat's lab:

Everything's dandy here on the percieved exertion chart. Remember I had some friends in elementary school that wore something like this at night to get their teeth straight. Yes, the tube in the mouth is intrusive, no, it didn't add resistance on the intake, yes, it did feel like it restricted the exhale, had to push the air out hard once we got going.

May be a limited market or units you could sell, but somebody's gotta invent more comfortable headgear, my horse had it better than this.

Starting to work hard, and trying to quickly devise an additional breathing outlet, maybe my ears. It won't be long for me now...

Can't tell here, but it's taking all I've got left to not tip over off the bike and try to recover enough to lift my eyelids back up.

Couple of more sessions of abuse for Pat to get the data he needs. Got the data I was curious about out of this session - V02max and threshold are identical to where they were January of 08' on the treadmill test. Was hoping to see some improvement, but not the case. Will need to mix up the training a little after Leadville's done. Data is fun, generating the data is not fun.