The weather could not make up its mind this weekend, but I made a point to enjoy the contrast of both days.
Saturday was very warm and in the 70s with sunshine and very windy. I got up reasonably early and headed up to Fort Collins to meet Jeff and Jason to ride. Andrew who rides for Drunk Cyclist came with us for a little while too on his SS.
I went at an endurance race pace effort for almost the duration of our ride(and there was a little bit of stopping). We did a 5 hour mountain bike ride on the Fort Collins trails. I think the stats were something like 45 miles and 6200′ of climbing – and suffering!!! I tried to push it out of my mind when I started thinking that on this coming Saturday, I’ll be racing the Julian Death March in southern CA… and it’ll be double the mileage and the climbing we did.
It was really dry, I think went through 6 or 7 bottles, and the wind (when it was in your face) was definitely something we had to battle.
Chunky!!
Taking in the view at the top!
That guy made us all suffer… I admit to cursing under my breathe. 
Dig, dig dig.
Root beer and salty beef jerky tasted SOOO good after that ride!
So did the mexican food!
I’m glad I was able to get in some training this week. It’s the first week I have been able to really train in sooooo long!
SUNDAY was a whole other story. I got my yoga done early… I like the 8 AM Sunday class because it’s my favorite instructor (Matt), and it is motivation to behave myself on Saturday nights when I’m in town (which actually is not very often) After I had some food, coffee, and my hair dried from all the sweaty fun, I hopped on the bike. The rain and snow beat me to getting outside this morning. It was 60F when I woke up, and 45F by the time I left the house…dropping another 15 degrees up the canyon. It started out as rain, and I SHOULD have started out with fenders and wearing my gortex instead of having my pack stuffed with warm clothing.
I started up Lee Hill when the thunder and lightning decided to join in on the fun. I decided that instead of going all the way up Lee Hill, it’d be safer to take Old Stage into Lefthand Canyon. Then the raindrops turned into tic tac sized groppel.
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The sound in the beginning is actually thunder.
After that, I got completely soaked and frozen, but I kept going up Lefthand. My plan was going to be to go up Lickskillet to Gold Hill. I had a few layers in my pack, but after getting up the canyon aways, I was forced to rethink it. The temperature was continuing to drop, the flakes were huge and wet, and I was completely soaked with a dropping core temperature. Descending from 8500′ was probably not going to be the best option with what I had.
That’s the new Ergon BX2 pack. It’ll be available for purchase on the Ergon website very very soon.
If I had started out with gortex and fenders, I could have easily kept going but I didn’t have enough thermal layers with me, so I ended up putting on all the clothes I had, flipping it and going back on Lee Hill since the lightning stopped.
My legs were sore from Saturday, but I was able to push a decent tempo for the short, 2 hour ride.
I’ve done what I can do for training to start my year. It was less than ideal being sick for a month, and I’m glad to get off antibiotics tomorrow after several weeks. I know I’m not starting my year as fit as I’d like, and I’m trying not to have too high expectations for myself, but I will give the Julian Death March hell next weekend. I will be like the Terminator – I absolutely will not stop, EVER! Tomorrow starts the taper, and we leave on Wednesday for a 2 week road trip to California.
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Bring it Cali!
