Holiday Weekend

It was a great holiday weekend of riding. Got in a 52 mile road ride on the single speed cross bike in Montrose Friday with TR and a nice grunt up to Lizard Head/Trout Lake on Xmas Day. Sunday I went down to Cortez and rode the triangle on the Dean road bike with 43 miles tallied. Santa Claus was good to me and brought me a pair of Specialized Defroster winter cycling shoes. These work great!

Snow Running

Wow; what a busy last few days. Lots of time on the rollers inside due to the weather and lots of time spent shoveling snow and plowing snow amongst my other worldly duties like house work.

I was motivated enough to get out and do a 5am snowshoe run this morning for an hour before work. Snowshoe running is a great work out and safer than running on a snow packed highway with plows cruising by you and the potential for a driver to slide into you. Drivers seem startled to see a bright light pointing toward them when it's on their side of the road for some reason. LOL!! Another 6-8" of snow fell overnight so the depth of the snow was perfect on the snow packed roads of Rico.

I spent an hour plowing my driveway, cul-de-sac area and Mike Guskeas driveway area last night and will be repeating that process tonight it looks like. We have received about 12-16" of snow in Rico since yesterday morning. That is the one thing that took awhile to adjust to living in the high country; lots of wasted time spent shoveling and plowing snow. It is what it is. Only 4-5 months of it to go!!

The Weekend Vehicle

The weekend traveler vehicle is really taking shape as of late. Now during the winter is a good time to really dial it in before our cycling events start back up; which will be soon as the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo is soon approaching. I have recently built a bed in the back of the van that fits Laura and I nicely at a size of 4' x 6'3" and now just received on Friday an awning system manufactured by Rhino-Racks out of Australia. We have been looking around for an awning system that mounts directly to the Yakima roof rack system and Rhino-Racks has it dialed in. Only took about 15 minutes to get it all together and mount right on the crossbars of the rack system. No drilling, screwing, bolting or mangling of the van itself. This awning is 8' x 6'5" and I also ordered the extension that makes it even larger or acts as a wall. Now if the snow stops I can go over to Moab soon and try it out.

It's Winter!!

This is what I went out to on Saturday morning. Fun times plowing and shoveling. Winter has finally arrived in full force in Rico. Usually I would have the Subaru in the garage but I have been working on the van that is parked in the garage. That is the Jeep on the left and the Subie buried in many inches of snow.

2011 Racing

Well that time of year to start thinking of what races to do in 2011. There are so many and so little time. Here are a few definite races early in the year;

February-24 Hours in the Old Pueblo (Tucson)
March-Sedona Big Friggin Loop
Moab Rim Ride
April-12 Hours of Dawn till Dusk (Gallup)
May-12 Hours of Mesa Verde (Cortez)
Grand Loop Race
June-24 Hours Enchanted Forest (Gallup)

There are a bunch of endurance stuff too in between all of these I want to do so I will just play it by ear and finalize races as the months come up. Should be another good year of abusing the body. I may throw in some running stuff as well like a marathon. We will see.

Recovery Time

I needed some recovery time on the bike after being sick so I headed to Moab with my sidekick Nacho in tow for some fun and to meet TR. I didn't feel 100% but as the weekend progressed I felt better and better. Or that may have been all of the beer I drank? Laura opted to stay at home and hang out with the other dogs Lucy and Shady. Both Saturday and Sunday were sunny and cool but perfect riding weather. We were the only ones camped out anywhere near the Sovereign trails. I think the cold weather and chance of rain (20%) scared everyone off as for both days we saw less than 10 people out on the trails. It was like the twilight zone. The trails were all ours for the riding. Saturday was a good day with less miles than planned but after being sick I didn't want to push it too hard. We totaled 41 miles, 5.5 hours total time covering the Sovereign Trails, North on Copper Ridge Jeep Road to Baby Steps/Klondike loop, across the highway to Mill Creek Road and looped around Monitor and Merrimac and back on Cotter Mine Road to Willow Springs Road and back to camp. Sunday was a shorter ride with a loop on Sovereign before heading back into Moab to gather some groceries to bring back home to Rico. Bummer was when I got back that Laura wasn't feeling great and may be getting what I had the last two weeks.






Left the snow for some dry desert.




Nacho on the back bed snoozing while driving to Moab.

A perfect day to be on the bike.

Monitor/Merrimac area.

Nacho looking for some beer.

Van Nation.

On the Sovereign Trail.

Sickly

So, as soon as we get back from vacation I get sick. I did feel it a bit during the Thanksgiving break with a bit of a sore throat but nothing major to hold me down from getting out in the cold and riding everyday. Well as soon as we got back I was hit hard. After a couple days I succumbed to go tot the doctor which I never do. The diagnosis was: bronchitis, sinus infection, fluid behind my ear drums and a severely irritated throat (strep throat test was negative). It felt like I was swallowing glass. So I was forced to miss work for a full week. Bummer for sure. Now I'm on day 4 of antibiotics and feel better but the cold symptoms and ears still feel funny. I hope to feel better by the end of this coming week as I tentatively plan on going to ride the McDowell 60 on December 11th. If I go it will be a quick trip leaving after work on Friday and getting very little sleep before the race and returning on Sunday. Burn and turn!!!! LOL!!!

Thanksgiving Vacation

Thanksgiving week vacation was packed full of driving to a few different locations. First stop was Sedona on Saturday and after a rainy night and rain called for all day on Sunday we decided to beat feet to Fountain Hills to see Shawn Gregory and family and to see his 2nd home which happens to be 10 minutes from McDowell mountain park which has miles and miles of mountain biking. It was cold and rainy on Sunday but the granite terrain soaks up the moisture just fine and we knocked out 18 miles on the competitive tracks. The camp grounds are awesome with very little people around. On Monday Shawn and I went out for a 5 hour ride and rode over Tom's Thumb area onto the Scottsdale side and did a loop back over Sunrise and back to the Fountain Hills side. We were short on light for our original ride plan but still ended up with nearly 40 miles and 5k of climbing. Some awesome trails with rocky and technical spots on the Scottsdale side. On Tuesday morning Laura and I did a quick cruiser on the Pemberton Trail loop and ended up with 18 miles total. So, after a few days there we headed over to Las Vegas on Tuesday to spend a few days. We stayed at Dale Savage's house which was our third year at his house and now a tradition to spend Turkey Day there and feast like kings. Dale does an awesome job of preparing a super deluxe turkey dinner with all of the fixings. We did manage to visit with Laura's dad and also her mother. Too little time to do everything. I was able to fit in a single speed cross ride on the road Wednesday with winds and some snow up at Red Rock loop area. Also, as tradition on Thanksgiving day we ride out at Cottonwood Valley. It ended up with just Dale, Laura and me riding the NORBA loop from the Late Night parking lot; I continued onto Blue Diamond where Laura picked me up. It was cold! We departed Vegas on Friday and headed over to St. George, Utah to stay a night with Adam Pace and family to see the new house. Adam and family (he has 3 kids) just relocated from Las Vegas to St. George this past summer. Adam showed us some sweet singletrack not too far from his house. We where also able to squeeze in an hour ride on Friday, just before dusk and a Saturday morning ride at the Santa Clara Preserve Barrel Roll trail system. Great riding for sure on these trails with some techy stuff and good climbing. I'm looking forward to getting back over there soon to ride more of these trails. Maybe I can squeeze in a training trip weekend in December or January.

The following pics are somewhat out of order but who cares!?! Enjoy!




Sedona camping spot on Saturday evening before packing up and going to Fountain Hills.

The rubber duck that was to be hung on the Hung Duck trail in Cottonwood Valley. Compliments of TR.

Laura can sure cook it up while camping. Homemade onion rings from scratch with turkey burgers to follow.

Our camping spot in McDowell Park.

Shawn Gregory enjoying the sun.

Rocky Knob.

On the Scottsdale side.

Laura having fun on the Pemberton cruiser trail.

The singlespeed cross bike on my road ride on Wednesday. Red Rocks in the background.

Laura descending down on our way to the Devils Staircase.

Hung Duck tree.

Views from Barrel Roll in St. George.

Laura having a blast on Barrel Roll.

Adam and I on Barrel Roll.

Laura still sleeeping in the van while in McDowell.

I LIKE MY VAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you tell by my many photos.

Roller Time

That time of year again to start on the rollers. This was my 2nd time in the last week to get on the torture device. Knocked out 1 hour 10 minutes and 20 miles yesterday afternoon. It was my day off and it snowed most of the day. I also got out and finished some wood splitting and hauled it up to the deck before I got on the roller. I hope I have enough to get through the long winter. I can always chop more.



It takes talent to snap a self portrait while riding the rollers. You have to balance yourself as you pedal.

The view from my rollers in my man cave.

This is where it happens with me and the mean Dean road bike.