more la ruta

Up the volcano today. It's like riding up little cottonwood twice without a a break. Down a rocky DH in the rain. Legs are not great but I plugged along out the back of the lead group. Again mostly alone today but I did pass Heras a few km before the finish, although for some reason the results have him ahead of me today.


Tomorrow to the carribean...

La Ruta

Day 2 in the books. I have had little time for updates so you might want to check Monavie-cannondale.com and cyclingdirt.org for the full race scoop.

For me personally I have been having a good time despite not riding all that great. Day 1 was the hardest day I have had on the bike. Oppressive heat, over an hour of walking in ankle deep peanut butter, and as expected long climbs. I am currently not very prepared for any of the three. But for whatever reason it was kind of fun.

Today was a little cooler but the climbs were even steeper. The 1st climb of the day was 3500ft in about 3 miles. In the 22-34 I could barely turn over the gear even while weaving. Maybe only 10 guys rode the whole thing and it was concrete. My big delemia for both days has been riding alone. I am not strong enough to make the initial selection and the few Ticos that are climbing around my pace get shelled on the DH so I spend the entire stage by myself. It's not even like I am racing at times. Today was about 50km of up and down pavement, mostly up and I had no one to work with. I guess I either need to get faster or slower, non of this no man's land business.

I could write a novel about this race as each stage includes countless stories that are not normally associated with racing. No time now though as I got to be up at 3am.
Volcano tomrrow and it has been raining for the past 3 hrs, does it snow in Costa Rica at 10k feet?

round and round

After a few weeks of cross racing it felt good to get out on the MTB today. Alex and I rode up Parley's this afternoon and hooked up with Ohran to burn around Round Valley. The dirt was great but the afternoon sun was low in the sky and killing our visibility, tough to stay on the trails at times.

All the explosive sprinting over the weekend has left the legs a little sore, taxing different systems is what cross racing is all about. Its good to see the Utah Cross scene getting so competitive. It used to be that I would ride off the front on the first lap and just ride around by myself. Those days are gone and now you have to be riding well to make the front group and then be willing to take chances if you want to win, at least at wheeler and the other flat and less selective courses. Maybe I'm just getting slower but I don't think so, everyone else is pretty focused and raising the overall level.

Leaving for La Ruta on Sunday, the last adventure of the year. Not sure if I am ready but I am not sure you can ever be ready. I guess if over the last few weeks I had been riding 30% grades for hours on end in the heat I would be a little more confident. Will see what happens...

best yet

Sweet Potato Minestrone!

dark thirty

One nice thing about coming home from Brazil is waking up an hour before I need to at a cold dark 5:30, a good time to get some things done.

Home for a day now and trying to catch up before it all starts over again for La Ruta. Kind of hard to stay in shape with all these adventures so I hope to get some riding in as well. I learned a lot in Brazil and plan to share a bunch of pics when I get a chance.

On the flight home I was thinking about all the places I have had the opportunity to race my bike over the years. Cycling has provided me with more cool opportunities than I could have ever imagined.

Utah
Idaho
Wyoming
Montana
Colorado
Nevada
Arizona
New Mexico
California
Oregon
Washington
Texas
Kansas
Missouri
Illinois
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Michigan
Ohio
Indiana
Alabama
Georgia
Florida
South Carolina
North Carolina
Maryland
Virginia
West Virginia
New York
New Jersey
Connecticut
Vermont
New Hampshire
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Massachusetts
Hawaii

Canada
Mexico
Puerto Rico
England
Australia
Fiji
Costa Rica
Panama
Peru
Brazil

Hopefully more exploration in the future, it seems the bike is the true form of freedom.

beating deserved

I got waxed today at the cross race and deserved it. My heart was not in it for some reason, I was content to just ride around with Ali and then race it out in the last few hundred meters, lazy man's racing. My mind was wondering, I was thinking about Monday's trip to Brazil, wondering if Stella's was napping yet (she has been sick with the croup and not sleeping well), and curious about Alex's flat. It's actually a good thing we did not get a chance to sprint due to some lapped traffic because then I might have had a chance to win and I did not deserve it. I had the fitness, the equipment, and the skills but the motivation was missing and motivation is as important as anything. Ali wanted the win more that I did and it showed as he punched it out the corners, took risks at the barriers, and forced the pace during the lulls. Now I did not have great legs or energy today but they were good enough, it was just a matter of focus. I am a little embarrassed about my effort today and congratulate Ali for his aggressive racing, he was a good example to me today. It's to bad we don't race again tomorrow because I would like to redeem myself.

Rosie on the other hand killed it in her 2nd race, she was motivated and more aggressive and even went out a little hard and faded at the end, that's adding to the bank of experience.

Guys were given it at the start today which forced a few crashes, Utah racing has really stepped up in the past couple years. With 2 big MTB stages races coming up I am not focusing on cross so much this year and plan to do mostly local racing which looks to be more competitive than ever.

So cross clinic tomorrow and then off to Brazil, should be an amazing trip and some tough racing.

If anyone is looking for a complete cyclocross bike or just a frame and fork with some parts, let me know. I have some cannondale's from last year that I need to part with.

clarks tt cx

I have been meaning to get down to Draper and ride the clarks TT on the cross bike for a while. Tanner told me it was in a good shape and prime for CXing. This afternoon I had to ride out to Sandy anyway so I just kept going down to Corner Canyon. The recent moisture has really helped the trails down there and they were all fun even on the CX bike.

I rode up to the bridge, took my LS jersey off and stashed it in the bushes, put some gloves on, and hurried to start so I would not run into the traffic I passed on the way up. Because I don't have a watch or HR monitor with a functioning battery, my new/old cell phone does not have a stop watch, and I don't have a computer on my cross bike I had to rob the one off my road bike and stash it in my Jersey pocket. Worked well other than the futzing around to get it out.

I started slow compared to what you would expect for a TT, just a steady fast tempo for the first few minutes. Because the grade is mellower at the bottom you can't gain much time by starting to fast and you can sure lose some. I never let my legs load up and just slowly let the terrain up the pace for me. Everything went well except about 3/4 of the way up I had that unmistakable feeling that I need to use the restroom, yup #2. Ohran always says that's a good sign of form when you need to poo while on a ride. Anyway, I made it to the top without incident but hit the John as soon as I got back to the parking lot.

My time was 8:24. I knew I was going faster than the last time I did it but unfortunately it's not because I am stronger. Gearing a 34 up front and a 12-27 rear cassette. I used 3 and 4 down for most of it and may have got into the 2 on the steepest part.

Why it was faster:
-The cross bike is better for standing up and pushing a big gear, in a short TT you don't need to spin like I did before. The cross bike is also a little lighter, although I was on my B bike with heavier wheels and tires. I should bust out the carbon tubulars. A rigid MTB single speed set up super light would also be really fast or even better would be a 16.5lb Cannondale Flash. Maybe next spring I will try it on a Flash! A little bigger volume tire would be better, I was worried about pinching in a couple high speed rough sections in the middle and actually had to slow down.

-Negative split pacing is faster. Look at the world record run times, negative split pacing probably accounts for 75% of all the world records, maybe more. Marathon, 10,000 meter, 5K does not matter. Faster in the 2nd half is faster overall. Last time I went out to hard and the legs loaded up early. This time I cruised into it and was never hurting all that bad, I could have gone harder for sure.

-Good dirt, not sticky but not dusty. Smooth with no horse marks, this is critical for the cross bike. When I did it before in June it was rougher and dusty. The MTB may have been as good at that time.

-Cool temps, maybe even a little to cool. My legs got that cold stiff feeling in the shade but it surely is faster than burning energy cooling the engine like in summer months.

It's to bad I live so far away because I would like to do it more often, it's a fun gauge and for a guy that does not do intervals it is a good way to get some intensity in without burning up the CNS.

The ride back on the road was nice and made for about a 3hr ride with a 8 minute effort in the middle.