I paid my dues earlier this week on the road bike. Unfortunately, the fall weather is starting to change my morning routine a little bit. That’s right – my life is slowly starting to revolve around the weather. Planning my training and the jillion other things I do around that. Now, the first thing I do when I wake up is check the weather to see how to proceed with my day.
I managed to get everything done to get up to Ned later on Friday afternoon. Driving up the canyon, the road was soaked from rain. I don’t love riding in the rain, but it does not stop me unless there is dangerous lightning or the trails are so muddy that I do damage to them. Some trails can hold water better than others.
The ride started off okay. I was feeling really groggy and sleepy. The spunkiness I had been feeling for the last week and a half had vanished, but who cares – I was on singletrack! The smell was incredible from the fresh rain. Earthy, clean.
I may be training hard, but not hard enough to miss out on the little beautiful things.
At the furthest point from the car, the ominous clouds proved their point. It got dark, there was thunder and snow. I rarely hear thunder and snow… it was interesting. Normally it’s so quiet when it snows… the kind where you stop to listen to the quiet. The snow was more like groppel anyway.
First time I got snowed on this year…. and will be one of many days.
I had to get back to the car stat because the trail was getting wet, my tires were loading up with dirt, and the temp was in the upper 30s. It was 70F in Boulder! I wasn’t frustrated, but I did recognize how spoiled I get with the warm weather and sunshine in the summertime.
The rest of the weekend consisted of training with my teammates. We went to Jefferson County and rode a bunch of the trails on Saturday. We being myself, Jeff, and Yuki. It’s hard work trying to keep up with these boys. They are laughing and talking, and I’m swallowing a lung and my legs are on the verge of exploding. To make it extra tough, I carried a 20 lb pack for good measure.
SATURDAY
Yuki’s mom and grandparents came to visit from Japan. His mom brought me this tshirt, which is a comic strip of a popular children’s comic. SO COOL!
Jeffco singletrack. rocky, challenging.
We rode Chimeny Gulch, Apex, Matthew Winters, Red Rocks, and part of Mt Falcon before I sliced a huge hole on my tire forcing us to cut the ride short (and short was 4 hours! 
)
Red Rocks. I finally saw the ampitheater.
Boycotted sports nutrition products for the ride and went for the ham sandwich, mustard, and cheese. Yummy. Next time, I’m bringing back the salami!
Here is a video that Jeff made of the ride:
Popout
Topeak-Ergon rides Golden, CO from ergon on Vimeo.
SUNDAY
it was a wet day, but not actively raining. Jeff (my coed duo partner for the Claro Brazil stage race) and I got in a 5.5 hour ride. We mixed it up, taking Magnolia up to Nederland, riding singletrack for a couple hours, and then coming back down.
Heading up Magnolia Road, with averages of 9-13% grade and about 4000′ of elevation gain. Yup, it’s steep.
Recognize this? I have a picture of this same spot from Friday. Those aspens always grab my attention.
Kerkove, my co-ed duo training partner. As usual, I’m sweating and suffering, and my heart is beating like a hummingbird and he is chilling, just riding along. Rawr.
As you can tell, I’ve been training pretty hard. I’m going to take it easy for the next couple of days, and get back at it. I’m also racing a bit of cross this season and getting my bike this week. Stay tuned for more info on that too!
It was great being home for the first weekend in a very long time!
