I'm the only one who actually looks forward to Mondays

Its Monday, so that means its not only my day off, but the one day a week I can splurge.

I got my training program for February today, and I can honestly say it got taken up more than just a notch, more like it skyrocketed. Its all good though, I am going to need some harder training to burn off all those cookies I ate.

Ouch

Coach says......long ride today.

I say.....okay, then four and a half hours later I say Ouchhhhhhhhhhh.

Five hours of hammering 25+ into the wind for a couple of hours, up hill a couple of hours, then a death march back to the apt.

Sucks while your suffering, feels great once you're done, cause you know next time you do it, it won't hurt nearly as bad as it did the first time.

Weather changes faster here than Texas

Yesterday was an interesting ride. I knew a storm was going to be coming through the front range later in the afternoon, so I figured I would get my ride done early in the morning. About 25miles and 3,000ft up Lookout Mtn. the black clouds moved in and began to dump some snow.

The wind kicked up to 40 and gusting even higher. So I decided it was time to turn around and make a run for it back down the mtn and back to the apt. Lets just say descending along the side of a mtn in 40+ gusting winds isn't very fun, you start to fear being literally blown off the side of the mtn. But I made it alright, and by the time I got back to the apt, the storm had passed and it became sunny again, just my luck. 

I hope these are all legal

Its starting to feel like my apt is turning into a drugstore. There's pills to take with breakfast, some powder before and after a ride, pills to take with lunch, and then to top it off another round with dinner, and some more powder right before bed.
They seem to work though, you train hard day in and day out your body is going to need some help recovering and maintaining itself, but the sad thing is, I should be taking even more than what I am, but I don't think I can stand to take anymore right now. 

I'm Jinxed

Just great, as soon as the snow melted here my apt showed the signs of a leak in the roof. It really isn't that bad, but it just sucks that it is coming into my bedroom.

This isn't the first time either, a year and a half ago, in another apt in TX the roof leaked and it too was in my bedroom. I've just got some bad luck with apartments. 

Since I made it, you can't call it a Snow "Angel"

I just couldn't resist.
 

..................

Today was another one of those days that you have to give in to the weather and just ride the couch. But the conditions did clear up this afternoon so I ventured up Lookout Mtn in the car to see if the roads would be clear enough to ride in the morning...
....there were just a few sketchy spots but it should be fine.

Not just to waste the day away, I figured out my expenses for this year racing NORBA, and it's not pretty. We will just have to send it to the ole team director and see what he thinks, if he says "I don't think so" then I might be in the hunt for another mtb sponsor. 

Automotive and Lingerie

Isn't that what every guy wants to see...
...Clear Bras what a great idea. 

Starting to look like CO

Well, it's another snow day, but unfortunately today was not supposed to be an off day...

so that means I have to do the supplemental indoor torture on the trainer.

I always knew that a thesaurus would come in handy every once in a while, even if it is just to prop up the front wheel.

Now I am just waiting for classes to be canceled this evening, but I don't think they will, which means a long icy drive into downtown.

The Primus Mootry

It is an amazing process behind designing a custom built bike. First you get on an adjustable stationary bike that it connected to a computer. Then you make adjustments until you feel comfortable and the computer shows that you are putting out higher wattage than other positions. Then you take all the measurements from the stationary adjustable bike and put them into a program that gives you a CAD picture of your custom bike (the colors are not the official, I am hoping for black with white oval decals). Now you just sit back and in about two weeks a custom built bike will show up at the shop personalized with your name on the top tube.

To match the new bike, I just had to get the new carbon fiber kicks and pedals with very little (almost none at all) float.

I am buying up Campy Record components to equip the new bike with only the best. Every little bit helps and a custom bike should take it to the next level.

Anyone want to come over and hang out today

This how I plan on spending the rest of my day...
Not just because coach said to take the day off, but because it looks like this outside.

I don't even know what day it is

Thank goodness today was only a two hour day since the wind sucked (well actually, I guess it blew, but you get the point). It felt weird on the bike for the first time riding it after getting it adjusted, but it did make me feel stronger.

After the ride I planted myself in front of the TV for some R and R, but the quality of programming on was a little lame, especially for ESPN 2.

If I knew that was a sport I never would have became a professional cyclist, jump roping is my true passion. 

Yepeee it Saturday

Well it was yet another Saturday of adventure riding once everyone gives up on the group road ride. Today we found this beauty, a dirt road that just keep going up and severe angles. How severe you might ask, well the rest of the road in this pic just drops straight down, but we came up it.

This afternoon was a bike fit (cad pic yet to come) for a new custom built bike, with some drastic positioning changes that should give some extra wattage, but some new sore muscles. 

I love CO

What more motivation do you need to get up and get on the bike in the morning than awesome views like this.


I have to thank the guys back in Lubbock for THIS

I had my first round of Conconi Aerobic Threshold Testing this morning and I am relieved that the test shows that I still have a lot of untapped potentional and am doing damn good where I am at currently. 

:P

What will they think of next...
An apple that tastes like a grape. It really does, when you first bite into it, it tastes like the fake coolaid grape then it is just an ordinary apple.

Colorado has also been having some wildfire problems just like OK and TX, this fire was just a few miles from my apt in Golden, the black along the road and up the side of the mtns are the burnt remains of vegetation. But they did get control of it before it destroyed too much.

Riding was low today, a lot of wind. I keep telling myself I am saving it all for tomorrow when I get my tests run to see what my wattage is.

I love lazy days

Today was a pretty relaxed day, just an hour on the trainer and then some grocery shopping. I've had a pretty sweet tooth the last few days, so while at the store I figured I would cure it with some cookies. It was the Pillsbury pre-made dough so all you have to do is cook it, but I figured I would just eat the raw dough, its better that way.

So as I was eating I started to ready the back panel of the package where I stumble across this little bit of information about the product... (start reading the bold words beyond CONTAINS)

....but what I really want to know is what do they call excess consumption, because when I have a sweet tooth I can polish off a whole package of these things. Since I really didn't want to find out what the limits were, I just ate half the package.

This afternoon was student orientation in the building where I will be spend the rest of my time in higher education (3, 4, 5 years who knows). The only bad thing was, who thought a simple hi how are you and welcome from the faculty would take four hours. I should have just done the lazy thing and stayed on the couch.

Damn wind

It started out being a road day, but the forecast predicted strong winds all day, so.... it became a mtb day. Out at Green Mtn trail there is a wicked dirt road climb.
For some good strength training I have been doing it in the big ring. Going up, but slowly....
At the top all the pain you just went through goes away and I thought well maybe I will do it again.... someday. From the top you can get an awesome view of down town, it looks so small, but then again I am pretty high up too.
And unfortunately the forecast was right. After two and a half hours on the bike the winds began to gust, which made it almost impossible to stay on the trail on the way back to the car. It sucks that the day had to end short because of the weather, now what to do with the rest of the day...

"Hey this dirt road looks like fun..."

Another Saturday group ride that starts with 20 people and reduces to just Seth and me as soon as we go up hill, they don't turn around, we just go up hill faster.

Seth
So once it gets to just us I hear, "lets try this dirt road.....I think it loops around and comes back to this road farther up the road." So I think alright I am up for it.

We go up the icy dirt road.....
...and it pays off with an awesome view....

and then we go down some more icy roads.

It takes an hour of dirt before we finally make it back to the paved road. The dirt was fun, but parts were so steep and icy that you could not get traction, but we did end up making it all the way staying on the bike.

A good five hour high intensity ride and I call it a day, time to hit the couch.

Ski day

It's a wonderful feeling, you wake up at eight and feel the need to go skiing, and within a hour you are one the slopes of Keystone. I would have pictures, but I was trying the camera on my new phone since it is supposed to be great.... yeah right. They all came out so blurry you could barely make out the outline of the mountain.

The snow was great. Skied for about 5 hrs and called it a day when I came across the ski medics on the slopes helping someone on the ground. Then I realized as I passed by that the white on the black surface of her pants was a bone and the red on the snow was blood..... that was enough to tell me to pack it up for the day.

Mountain Bike day

It was such a great day here it was time to hit some of the mtb trails and see what they had to offer...... which was ice.

Yes, that's right the sky and roads were clear, but the trails were covered with ice instead of dirt.

I was out with the mtb bike and all dressed and ready to ride so I figured a little ice wouldn't hurt, but it did. No matter how much balance you have you can't keep a mountain bike from sliding on pure ice, so you put a foot down to re-gain control, but your shoes don't give you any advantage. However, your butt helps you stop sliding once you fall hard on it.

I managed to find some semi-clear trails to ride the rest of the day, but I think I will wait until late spring to revisit some of these areas.

Estes Park or Bust.....

Today started off with a great idea, lets ride to Estes Park. Okay, only 100 miles round trip no big deal. Seth, Randy, and I started out at 10 from Boulder climbing in some awesome canyons up the mountains.

(They decided to keep riding while I stopped to take a picture, big mistake, next time they are stopping with me, it took too long to catch back up to them) We made it about 35 miles into the mountains and almost to Estes when the winds decided not cooperate. With the thought of our safety in our minds we decided to turn back instead of getting into it any worse than what it was already. But before you say that we are wimps, comparing the winds to West Texas winds, these put old Tejas to shame. We made it back safe though, and still got about four hours in. It was a big milestone too, I kept it in the big ring all day on the climbs, it feels good to get some physical reassurance that you are indeed getting stronger and all the pain is worth it.

Time to get dressed and down to Denver for two dollar taco night at Lola.