Last base ride in Colorado

Yesterday was a 4.5 hour road ride. I wanted to get out early before the high winds blew in, so off I went. There aren’t many options in the Boulder area when it comes to relatively flat roads in the winter. They all run the same direction and to the same places, so it gets boring (at least for me) after awhile. I did the same ride as last Friday – to Carter Lake, but I skipped the ugly climb to Pinewood Lake and instead did an extra loop around Boulder when I got back to make the time = 4.5 hours. My legs felt surprisingly good after my terrible day on Sunday. In fact, my power was way up. I was producing “threshold power” in zone 2 for a good chunk of time with not much effort. Then our evil friend, the fatigue gnome set in, and my numbers were back down to what should be zone 2 power. I think the increase in power HAS to be the Haribo bears. j/k

Here are some photos around Carter Lake – a common base ride hot spot in the Front Range/Northern Colorado.

The water looks blue!

After doing some work in the afternoon, I headed to the bus stop followed by the airport to go to NM. When I got my training schedule and saw how cheap Southwest is, I made arrangements with work and am training in Albuquerque for the rest of my base miles – meaning through Sunday. The travel yesterday kind of sucked… the bus was late and it was cold outside at the bus stop. The airport buses during rush hour stop a TON, so the ride took 1.5 hours (is it ironic that the flight is only 45 minutes and the bus ride to the airport is 1.5 hours?), then my flight was delayed by about half an hour which didn’t help. The bus schedule always sucks – you can usually choose to get to the airport way before your flight, or just before so you risk missing it. I ended up hanging out in the airport for 2.5 hours. By the time I got to the Querque, it would have taken the same amount of time as driving. That said, the travel usually goes quicker and plus, my busted ass Nissan Sentra would break down if I tried to drive it that far.

Five more days in my hometown is perfect because man, I think doing all this riding is more mentally taxing than anything. I have to spend 25.5 more hours in the saddle this week and I am home free from base. I can’t wait!!! I have never done this kind of volume in the winter… Coach must have a plan and I trust him. If this is what it takes to get to the top, then I will do it.

And one quick, funny note – I am already starting to get anxious about the Leadville 100 and I don’t even know if I got in! I had a nightmare about it – you know, the kind where you forgot everything, you miss the start, you don’t know where the race course is. haha