Apocalypse Now!

Global warming in full effect in Durango.  Rolled 165-miles in the 2 day weekend, keeping up the weekly tally.  All right out the front door.  Hurt bad today, which is good.  Steve and I hit Hay Gulch on Saturday and the early season throw downs started.  Bike has been a steam roller.  I'm letting the mud build up and still no chain lube since November.  And it still runs silent.  Like a ghost.

Birds a plenty were hunting on the agricultural lands.  I saw several red-tails, a couple of vultures, and even an eagle making circles in the sky.  

Mayday in January

Amazing that it is January here - temps in the high 40's, sunny and roads free and clear.  In fact the mud on the bike is from the mud section on 136 from Sunday's ride.  After the climb on 125, I wanted more so I went out to Mayday and up La Plata canyon on dirt for a bit. Gotta go to t-ride for work tomorrow, so no riding - but will be back at it on Friday.  Shaping up to be another great week. 

Big mile week!

With the change in weather and the skiing finished at Hillcrest, I ended up dusting off the Bianchi single-speed cross bike and put in a nice 300-mile week with nearly 20k of climbing on a mixture of dirt and pavement.  I fully expected to be skiing this entire week and with the Alley coming up, I've got to find time to drive up to the Nordic Center.

I hooked up with Steve on Saturday and we rode the East Leg of the Durango Gravel Grinder 160 and the next day I did the West Leg.  It is just amazing that these roads are rideable this time of year when the sun and warmth is out.  For the ride on Sunday I ran into local pro-roadie Anthony Colby at the top of CR 210 and we road up the steep and dirty CR 125 to old Ft. Lewis.  He was generous enough to ride at my pace - nice cat and good conversation made the climb go by really fast.  The ride went great until I hit the mud bogs on CR 136 and for all of ~20-yards though I was able to ride.  Bike and clothes were a mess though. 

Other than Steve and Anthony, though I saw 1 other bike all weekend - but did see some signs of tire tracks on the routes.  With minimal motorized traffic, the remote county roads around here are awesome to ride on. 

I'm hoping to hit the route next weekend as well.  Ride while you can!

Also check out my cousin Mike's son in action.  Nice form, eh?  

Back on the road

So I got home from Steamboat and the arms hurt somewhat from the poling the day prior, so I decided to ride the bike Sunday.  Combine that with some warm weather and we've lost a lost of snow.  I tried to ski Hillcrest Monday but it was a slushy mess with exposed grass in some parts. So again back on the bike.  Some much so that this has been an amazing bike week.  The work from the Nordic skiing is definitely paying off - after being off the bike for ~2.5 weeks or so, and working the heart rate at maximum intensity, the bike workouts have been good 2-3 hour slug fests.  The riding was fun and did not seem like a chore.  Numbers show me good results, very good high intensity results actually.  There is a reason that so many good bike racers also Nordic ski. 


The Tour de Ski is this weekend, but I'm going to ride.  I hope to go to the Nordic Center on Sunday, but we'll see.  I need to get some ski time before The Alley or I may forget how to ski!

I also started using Udo's Oil Blend for recovery in addition to the Hammer Nutrition during the ride.   This is good stuff, but not exactly tasty!

Steamboat Stampede 2011

I had some work up in Steamboat Springs this week and it just happened that to make the dominoes fall in place, I would have to stay over Friday evening.  I did a quick google search and found about a long running Nordic skiing event called the Steamboat Stampede.  Low and behold I skied my first Nordic ski race and I chose the full enchilada - the 42k marathon!

So I had never skied that long before - the DNC has some ridiculous steep hills that all I can ever do out there is 2 laps, before I'm toast.  Try doing 42k at Hillcrest and you'd go insane.  But the course at Steamboat Nordic Touring Center was just perfect for this.

I got there early - 2 hours before and somehow found the time to get distracted, disoriented, and well shoot - I made a last minute decision to switch from bottle to Camelback and before I knew it, I was at the car, jacket off and they announced 5-minutes for the start!   I counted the time in my head, and got down to the snow in about 4 mins and had 1 minute to skate to the start....I got in the last row and 15-seconds later, they yelled start!   Man, not a good way to start...I left the car unlocked and stuff on top of the car....

Anyway, with the last place start on the poling section it put me in perfect position to watch the peloton in front of me.  The conga line was not as cumbersome as I had expected - it's easier to maintain steady pace in these lines than it is on the bike, where motion is just too herky-jerky.

The first lap, I really was not feeling it in some spots.  Feet hurt, and motion through corners - especially downhill was awkward.  In fact, when I got back to the timing area for this four lap race - on the start of the 2nd lap, in front of the entire audience, I landed on my head trying to negotiate a turn.  All you can do is laugh at yourself in these moments, and I said to the trio of spectators next to me..."you didn't see that"...and they replied, we saw nothing!  Funny at the time..guess you had to be there.


I only packed ~42 ounces of Heed flavored water and ran out before final lap.  With no pockets ready, I had no Hammer Gel or back up nutrition waiting for me.  I kicked it back slightly on the pace - especially on the climbs but probably did not need to.  I was in over my head for this race - only hammer head veterans showed up for this race - not a place for awkward rookies like me.  But the endurance thing was there for me, I finished full of energy and though that it would be no problem to keep on doing more laps.  So that's how I finished, fortunately I did not finish last, there were some DNFs and a few older guys slower, but I did take last in my age group...doh!   Ah, we were only 5 deep any way, so no worries.  I'm learning, my interest is piqued, and I hope to do more of these....soon.


I did not recognize anyone there, but it looks like mountain bike legend Jay Henry won the event.  Man, I remember watching him throttle it at the Ultra 100 MTB years back.  I even saw the 40 year old trophy for this event...had Bill Demong's name on it.  I'm not really up on the Nordic skiing scene, shoot Sven Struedellschnapper could be a world champion for all I know.  But I got the feeling that this was a heavy hitters race.   I'm honored to have at least finished.   Working on my 43rd year on this planet and despite having some body parts that didn't make it this far, I did my first Nordic Marathon, and for that I am proud. 

I wish I had some pictures...and will keep an eye out - but I suspect the Steamboat daily newspaper wasn't there for my picture.  LOL.

Precious bodily fluids

I had a Drill Instructor years ago that would belt out "Drink water, 4rth Platoon, Drink Water!" 

He'd make you empty your canteen before you really got thirsty though.  Those water buffaloes weren't exactly placed all over Ft. Dix for refills!

I guess his deal was more career protection than anything - you run a thousand recruits into the ground each year, and perhaps a few of them might die along the way.  Somewhere, someone probably kept mortality records, so he figured he'd rather we drown than die of heat stroke.  Not a bad idea actually. 

So with the x-c skiing, it's a fast, hard, intense effort.  Not like in biking where you grab for a bottle and hydrate every 15-mins or so.  By coincidence, the wonderful folks at Hammer Nutrition sent me an insulated water bottle last month.  It has been perfect for those fast laps at Hillcrest - fill it with warm water and some Heed and stop to drink between laps.  Yesterday over the lunch hour, I got in 3.5 laps, or ~roughly 12-miles.

At the Nordic Center though, those 8-mile laps, with damn near 1k of climbing can really work you.  I had been running without precious liquids, but lately I've worn a camelback.  I've got an insulated one, but may go out and buy a tiny one to stick under the jacket.  

I'm really enjoying this skate skiing.  It does a body good and it gets you great, low impact exercise in a compact and precise format.  61 miles in the last week on top of weight lifting.  No wonder I'm tired right now!

Lotta of dis, lotta dat

Raced with Steve at the Nordic Center on Sunday - nice warm-up loop, then all out for second lap.  Got in 14-miles and was not ready for more.  That's because we did a 4.5 hour crust busting classic ski session up Madden Peak the day prior.  Snowshoes would have been quicker uphill.  Not much high intensity for that, but with crusty topped powder and 3-ft steps in snow, whew that did a body good. Combine that with the classic form show shoveling and the legs were toast come Monday.  Who says winter means less exercise?

Form is improving, really liking this stuff. The disorganized Tour de Ski is on the radar, but the Alley Loop is already enrolled!  The Alley is gonna be a rockin good time - can't wait.  Very professional event. 

We ordered a bulk supply from Coffee and Tea Warehouse and the Fog Cutter has been perfect in the AM.  Ordering in 25-lb quantities means a lot of bean, but less environmental waste.  With some homemade Jeni banana bread, it's been a great pre-ski pick-up.