At base camp, herein we wait.

Waiting for things
fitness to come, altitude and adaptation
muscle fibers to break down, and persistently return reinforced
ample nourishment to gratify my longing, stars to brightly shine
dawn to warm my sleeping emanation
trails and ever-present mountains to conquer
difficult moments to shine through
perspiration and conquest are mine

That is what I typed after sitting down to write this post.  I am not the poet in the family, but I try sometimes… Click here for the poet in my family – my brother.

Part of the reason that I switched from racing primarily cross country distance is because I love to ride my bike.  Don’t get me wrong, every single XC racer you’ll meet loves to ride their bike.  The difference is with endurance training, you have to race your bike longer, meaning longer training days in the saddle.

This was the first camping/high altitude training weekend of the year.  Camping at 9000+ feet and riding my mountain bike is what makes me feel more alive than anything.

To quote Thoreau in Walden:

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world”

When Mr. Kerkove and I arrived at our campground at the base of Mount Shavano and it was pouring rain.  Fortunately things moved along and we were able to get set up and feed our ravenous bellies.

The hatchet was to keep the man in line.

The CO Trail was within crawling distance from the campground, so we hit that up on Saturday (and also to get some Vapor Trail course recon under my belt since this part is ridden at night). 35 miles, ~6000′ of climbing.

The trail was respectably technical, so I got to work on my skills. My upper body was tired by the end of the ride. Wussy!!!

For extra training, I carried a bunch of clothing (gortex pants, gortex jacket, leg warmers, knee warmers, hat, extra gloves, arm warmers, 70oz of water, food, Jeff’s jacket and gloves) in my Ergon BD2 backpack. It was the perfect size, and with the load, about 10-12 lbs of extra weight to haul. Fortunately, the weight of the pack rests on your hips. Carrying extra weight uphill makes you mucho stronger in the long run.

Campground “drinking water.” Uhhh…what? We brought our own fortunately.

Now this is what I call a “thirst quencher.”

Fueling for recovery…. everything tastes better in the mountains.

And sitting in the freezing creek.  EEEYAAAA!!!!!

Sunday’s route wasn’t as fun for me… we headed up Silver Creek Trail and with all the snow and run-off, we ended up hiking for 1.5 to 2 hours in the snow and slop. Knee to thigh deep snow with cold, soaked feet. Starting elevation was about 8500′. By the time we reached the road to Marshall Pass on top of the mountain, the dark, ominous clouds moved in. The road ended up being totally blocked by snow. We saw the storm coming, and by the time lightning and hail reared its ugly head, we had bounded down the mountain back into the trees.

First we ate.

I put on almost every piece of clothing I had in my pack (minus the hat and extra gloves)

Poor little Kerkove is all wet!!

Hail…

My poor wittle bike!

Fortunately this whole trail will be a descent in the Vapor Trail race.

Some of it was rideable though!!! 🙂

Tomorrow is back to work (booo, reality) and recovery. I am thinking of hitting up the Teva Mountain Games on Saturday for some intensity training….