Official Time Out

Some call it a "post season break". I call it a "time out". Time out from racing bikes, riding bikes, eating healthy, and just plain being an athlete.

I'll call "time in" soon, but for now, it's still time out time. After 9 months of riding my bike, being a bike racer, and thinking about bike racing 80% of all waking time, I need to rest. My mind is cooked, my body is cooked, and the wind has returned (I don't like riding in it).

When I'm ready, I'll begin riding and training again. The unhealthy eating lasted about 10 days before I felt so bloated, fat, and unhealthy that I couldn't stand it anymore. After 2 weeks off, I've started to stretch again (dang that feels good), take longer and longer dog walks, and split wood. A lot of wood splitting. It's fun in a weird way and splitting wood is a great upper body workout. I see Pilates soon in my future, followed by the weight room. No bikes yet. It'll be soon enough when I'm packing on the clothes, filling the thermos with hot chocolate, and riding my CX bike on the snow covered roads. But not yet. And it's windy and I hate the windy.

My race season officially ended in Vail at the Tour of Vail Crit. Robin and I raced and it was the weirdest race I have ever done. Lapped the field, negative racing, small field, giant prize money, and a crash on the last lap. I had a majorly bad feeling that day about the race. I have never felt that way about a race. I knew something bad was going to happen. It did. Major bummer for Robin as she used all her prize money at the ER. Thank goodness she is ok. She'll have another scar on her elbow, but what bike racer doesn't?

Time out.

The Week

7 days- dang.
Day 1- Valmont CX Race in Boulder. A small fight with Amy and she won. I was second and pleasantly surprised!

Day 2- Chill, pack, teach a CX Clinic in Boulder.
Day 3- Fly to Vegas, build bike, and melt and cramp while pre riding the CrossVegas course.

Day 4- AM- Interbike- Sign posters and be nice to people at the NOW Energy Bar booth.

Day 4- PM- Race CrossVegas with friend and teammie Pups (Robin Farina). Holy crap, I had the CX race of my life and got 3rd. I couldn't believe it- still can't. Fricken amazing. Yep, that's right, I have impressed myself.

Day 5- Work NOW booth and fly home.
Day 6- Drive to Crested Butte with friend and fellow ALP athlete Liz. Pre drive/ride parts of the CB 100 course.

Day 7- CB 100. That's right, a 100 mile mtn bike race in Crested Butte. 11,000ft of climbing all above 8,500 ft. 10hrs, 11 min, 1 rear flat, 1 new course record, and 0 crashes. Again, I'm impressed with myself.

Thanks Eszter Horanyi and Mountain Flyer for the sweet photo.

Actually, I was more impressed with Liz than with myself. She finished only 4 min behind me and saved me with a CO2 on the Dyke Trail. Watch out mtn bike world, she's gonna kick your asses in a couple of years.

Day 8 (I know, 8 days is one more day than a week, but oh well)- Amazingly awesome mellow mtn bike ride in CB with Liz. Yes, we were tired. Yes, we probably shouldn't have ridden so much, but we couldn't resist. When in Rome...

Time Out

No racing. No traveling. No training. For the past three weeks, I've had a time out and it's been awesome. I've gotten to hang out with friends. I've gotten to ride bikes with He Who Must Not Be Named. I've gotten to hang out with my family. I've had big, awesome, bike rides.

See, not all time out's are bad.

Top of Mammoth Gulch- one of the big bike rides

 The cows cheered and moo-d us on.

 My friends. Every Thursday we ride bikes, drink beer, whiskey, and be silly.

 My Family. The start of my first ALP Cycles Athlete Appreciation Ride. The ride was a giant success, mostly in part to my parents. There are more pictures on the ALP Cycles Coaching FB page.

 Our Aid Station in Granby was my former high school- Middle Park

 The leaves are changing and it's beautiful. It's also getting chilly (I had to use the seat warmer in the car this morning).

 Lucy Dog keeps me company on our let's go poop walks. Moe Dog is probably pooping.

 He Who Must Not Be Named.... is the best. And he makes me happy. (Yes, this was a Thursday ride and we dressed up like Germans and rode bikes).

 It was fun!

For now, Time Out is officially over. I have 2 weeks of crazy. 2 CX races (1 finished. I got 2nd), 1 100 mile mtn bike race, 1 trip to Vegas (I'm here now), 1 trip to Crested Butte, 2 trips to Vail,1 TT and 1 Crit.  I'll need the whole month of October to recover from that.

How's Your Ass-pen?

Done. The last official race has come and gone. It was fun. It was in Aspen, and it was a great way to end the season.

First off, our host house ruled. The view was so pretty.

Good kitty.

Not a bad view for our host house Bulls (actually steers but bulls sounds better).

 

 Day 1 brought a ride up Independence Pass- a must do when in Aspen.  Swanny Mike, me, and Rider Who Shall Remain Nameless made it to the 48 degree and raining top. It was a chilly ride down to the coffee shop.

Day 2 was a ride with ALP Cycles Coaching athletes Kelly and Cat, and a pre-race dinner put on by Snowmass that The Mom and Dad came to as well. Good times. 

Day 3, race day. Despite being only a 4 corner crit, it was fun. We raced hard, we raced well and I got second place. Bonus of the day was the Powers cheering section of The Mom, The Dad, The Sister and Niece J.

Post Aspen, we even took 3 more NOW roadies on the steel*wool ride.

Yes, Aspen was super fun, but coming home to JH and silly friends is still the best.

Update

There's been a lack of updates- in case you haven't noticed.

I came home from Cascade and didn't do much. I was tired.

Then it was off to Chicago for Tour of Elk Grove- a 3 day stage race in the burbs. All I can say is I'm glad I don't live in the suburbs- of anywhere. Stop lights everywhere, everything is a chain (stores, restaurant, etc.), and there were no coffee shops (other than Starbucks).

Pretty much, after Elk Grove, the season is now over. Major bummer that Aspen got cancelled to just a crit. Now, I guess it's time to ride mtn bikes and drink margaritas.

I figured, I have all this fitness, I might as well race the North Boulder crit this past Sunday. It's pretty neat because one year ago, at the NoBo Crit, I made my "comeback" post broken 'bow and 3 months off the bike. I suffered my way to 7th place and was so happy and proud. On Sunday, I took it one step further and won the dang race. That felt good. 

Post race Cari, Christa, and I went into the Boulder Creek to cool down. That felt good too.

Today, I got to ride mtn bikes with my NOW mechanic Erik. That was fun- and hard.

I won't lie, now that the season is pretty much over and it's only August, I feel a little lost. What do I do now? Nothing to train for and no trips around the corner. Guess I'll enjoy being home and chill out. I'm excited for it.

Yellow - at last!

 The trip started in Boise. We got to stay in the same host house as we stayed in in May and we knew exactly where the Crux was for our morning ride coffee stop.

After an afternoon of farting around, it was time to race. The Boise Twilight Crit-er-e-um. It had been 3 weeks since I last raced and I felt a little rusty. Then it started to rain, and I felt wet and rusty- also a little afraid as the roads were super slippy (and dirty).

 Post race, Devon looked like she had been to war.

 Anne had apparently been to a friendly war.

I was lucky enough to get second place - in an Exergy sandwich.

 We got a rainbow post race.

 Then it was time to drive to Bend, Oregon. On the way, we passed the cheese mini bus. I found it fitting as He Who Must Not Be Named and I eat this cheese almost every night with our dinner.

 We starting racing Cascade, a 6 day stage race. The good thing about having to go to Bend, is that it's a cool place. Nice scenery, good food, cute town, bike friendly, and good coffee. Yep, found 3 good coffee shops and had as much espresso as I could find time to have.

Another cool thing about Bend? I used to go there for ski camp.

Hello Mt Bachelor.

After Arrrrrmstrong quit the race, I got to wear the yellow leaders jersey. By the last day, thanks to my NOW teammies, I got to win the yellow jersey. Done. I've never won a big stage race like Cascade before. I've gotten countless 2nd's and 3rd's but never have come home with the jersey. This one is special.

 We celebrated by taking Devon out for Ice Cream. I copied Beth and got a sundae. I can't remember the last time I went out for ice cream but it was dang good.

Yep, this bike racing thing can be pretty fun. I'm lucky to have a supportive man and doggies and a great team to travel and race with.

The end. For now.

Break Time

 2 weeks home. 5 more days left. It's been a really great break. I needed it. I was getting tired of power meters, skinny tires, spandex, the race/recover cycle, and being away from home.

I needed to ride my new mtn bike, ride my road bike without worrying about my watts and cadence. I needed to get drunk at steel*wool, I needed to see my family, and I needed to remind my friends and He Who Must Not Be Named that I still care about them and want to hang out.

I needed a break and I got it. Now, I'm ready to get serious again. Time to train. Time to focus. Only 3 more important races left.

 On a side note- I got to do Saturday's part of the MS 150 on a tandem and it was awesome.

 Lori and I kicked ass. We were strong, we laughed, we learned, and we were finished by 11:30am.