Sunday Ride

Went out for a nice easy ride today on the single speed cross bike on a 22 mile effort heading South of Rico. The legs are certainly tired after the 12 hour effort in Temecula last weekend and not giving them a break at all during the week as I have kept up my marathon running training program throughout. Time to ease back a bit on the training. Vegas in 2 days for the Turkey Day vacation. I cannot wait. The weather here has been cold. At 2pm in the afternoon it was 42 degrees. It's not even winter yet. Are you kidding me!!!????

Phil's and Sand Canyon

Sand Canyon Ruins. Many on the main Sand Canyon Trail.

The Jabberwocky.

Sophia negotiates a techy turn.

Sophia descending down West Rock.

Laura descending down West Rock.

I was a busy person on my 3 day weekend. Friday I had to drive over to Dove Creek to register one of our cars which is a 70 mile drive one way. Damn county lines are jacked up around here. That's what I get for living in hill jack country.

Also on Friday I attempted to ride Phil's but only did the first loop as the snow and mud were bad in spots and shouldn't have been ridden on. There were a handful of cars in the parking lot and most people just went for it regardless of the damage to be done to the trail. I had heard the high school bike team was out there and rode on it. They should know better. The trail was pretty damaged in spots from the many bikers riding on the trail and I decided to get off the trail and head back to the car.

On Saturday Applesauce (my wife Laura), Pork chop (my sister-in-law Sophia) and I went out to Sand Canyon to ride. (long story on why Sophia is called pork chop) It was perfect weather and the trail dry. Sand Canyon is located about 12 miles West of Cortez on the Airport road. There is about 15 miles or so of single track and reminds me of Sedona single track. Pretty fun. I rode the Vassago Jabberwocky single speed with a carbon rigid fork. Day 2 on the rigid fork and I am trying to get used to the way it feels. It has been 2 plus years since I rode with a rigid fork on a regular basis. Rode my Ti Airborne with a rigid Ti fork 2 1/2 years on the KTR. That was rough. Anyways the ride was great.

Afterwards Laura dropped me off at at the end of highway 145 coming into Cortez and I ran to Dolores; a 10 mile jaunt. Took me 1 1/2 hours to do this and I felt worked. It is mostly uphill to Dolores before the drop into Dolores. about 1000 feet of elevation gain. The marathon program has me doing big miles on Saturdays and next Saturday is to be a 12 mile run. I will see how that works out as we will be on vacation and doing a lot of bike riding in Vegas and Southern Utah.

12 Hours of Temecula Race Summary

Well, it's been almost a week since the race in Temecula and I'm still stoked I took 1st place in the solo single speed category. With the shorter daylight the race ends in the dark. 9am to 9pm. So I ended up completing 10 laps in 11 hours 14 minutes. 2 laps up on 2nd place. The climbing was pretty tough for a single speed......10.5 miles with 1300 feet of climbing; with most of the climbing in the first 3-4 miles. I was running a 32x20 on the 29er Airborne. I was able to ride about 99 percent of everything until lap 6 and needed to start walking the steep stuff. By lap 8 I was well tired but needed to keep pushing as I was in 1st place and hadn't known where I stood all day until Matt gave me the good news. The whole day I hadn't seen a single speeder go by me or me pass any; the only exception is when Matt caught up to me on lap 2 while I was taking a nature break before 'the damn climb'. So Matt and I started climbing together but I ended up in front of him on the climb and for the first 4 laps we were only a minute or so apart until I found out later he had stopped after lap 4 due to some issues. So as in any multi lap race you just keep pedaling and moving until you have to stop or the race is over. The last lap was great as I was able to ride with Keevin Blue and his girl Heidi. That was fun and kept me motivated to push through that last lap. Thanks you two!! And thanks to Matt for the fast pits at the end and the cold beer and Rubio's burrito after I was cleaned up. Pretty awesome!!

Friday

Well, it's Friday and I'm not working today so I will travel south to Cortez to ride Phil's World. The legs are feeling a bit tired from the effort at the 12 Hours of Temecula last weekend and I haven't given them much rest as I have ridden and ran this week. My running program is based on a 16 week marathon training schedule. So, I'm hoping to do a marathon somewhere in early spring. I am in week 5 and tomorrow's run is a 10 miler. That may hurt after a bike ride again at Phil's. And now after doing well in the 12 Hour race I am going to attempt to race all 3 of the 12 hour series in Socal in 2010. The first one is scheduled for January 23rd, which would be a great tune-up before the big 24 Hour solo effort in Tucson in February.

12 Hours of Temecula Photos

Getting ready for the start.


The parade route. I'm in the back.......

12 Hours of Temecula

1st place solo singlespeed with 10 laps. 105 miles and 13,000 feet of climbing.......not a bad day on the bike.

More info later.

12 Hours of Temecula

Heading down tonight to Temecula, CA with my teamie Matt Turgeon to race the 12 Hours of Temecula at Vail Lake. And of course going at it solo single speed.This is the last race of the season so I'm hoping to do well. Keevin, and others from Vegas are showing up to race as well. It should be a great time.

Phil's

I had an impromptu day off this week and took advantage of the weather and went down to Phil's in Cortez. The parking lot looked like a weekend crowd. I guess everyone wants to take advantage of the nice weather before the snow begins to fly this weekend in the high country.

It was also good to get out and make sure everything on the 29er was working properly before the 12 hour race this weekend. Going to run a 32x20 gear ratio and my tire of choice will be the Specialized Captain Control 2.0's with Stans. Everything seemed to be working fine. Here we go!!!

Moab

Sunrise in Moab.

Another great weekend of camping and riding with Laura in Moab. Our good friend Tom Davis drove in from Vail to ride with us as well. We camped off of the Willow Springs Road near the Sovereign trail head. The sunrise on Saturday morning was pretty awesome. Living in Rico we do not have the luxury of a sunrise or sunset like we did living in Vegas or Albuquerque.

We rode the Sovereign Tails on Saturday with a 15 mile loop and rode from the Sovereign Trails to Klondike Bluffs/Babysteps trail system on Sunday with a total of 33 miles on this loop all from our campsite.

Phil's

Laura and I went down to Phil's on Sunday and boy was it a perfect day. Lot's of people were there as well to enjoy the sunny fall day. Met up with Mitch Fedak and his buddy to ride but lost Mitch somewhere by Lemonhead. Next time Mitch. So, I just rode along at a nice pace for the 22 mile ride. Saw some people I knew and chatted a bit along the way.

The Vassago Jabberwocky. It rode nicely.

Nice views along the route.

Phil's

Going down to Phil's World today with Laura to do some fun riding. 20+ miles of fun single track.

Rode from Rico down to Cortez yesterday (Saturday) on the single speed cross bike. It was about 20 degrees when I started and warmed up as I made my way south. Just under 60 miles with no major climbing, just what my legs wanted as they a bit tired. I started running 3-4 days a week and haven't rested much since the Zuni 100 race.

Next race is November 14th; 12 hours of Temecula.

Fall in Moab

That time of year when the snow starts to fly in the high country to get out to other localities to ride. And one place for us is less than 3 hours away; MOAB. Laura and I went out to Moab the weekend of October 24th and camped out on Willow Springs Road located North of Moab and rode the Sovereign and Brand trails. The weather was perfect as far as riding weather goes; around 65-70 degrees and just above freezing at night. The Sovereign trails are a blast to ride. If you haven't ridden these trails it is a must to get out to Moab and ride this stuff. You can start right in Moab and ride the bike path out to the Brand trails into the Copper Ridge Jeep Route and right into the Sovereign trail system. Sovereign is best ridden counter clockwise but any way you slice it is is fun. The best map is the Latitude 40 Moab West version. And the trails are well marked.