Monday, August 24, 2009

Albany Road Race





I races this weekend in Albany Minnesota. It was on the coarse of the state champ. road race last year. It has one big climb and a few rollers so the race comes down to the one climb with the finish line at the top.

My race didn't go very well... just not my day I guess. It was 3 laps and I dropped out at the end of 2. A team mate and lost touch with the main field going up the climb the second time and struggled to catch them on the second lap but by the time we got to the climb to go up the third time we were blown and decided to call it.

Why poor performance? I have no Idea..... just one of those days.

I have the potential to do 3 mountain bike races before the season is up. I am going to try to do some of them. So there is still time to end on a high note.

Then plans are a couple weeks off and start base training for skiing. I am ready for a break in training. It's been a long haul sense february.


Friday, August 14, 2009

Ragbrai 2009

Ragbrai 09

I'll keep it brief as I've covered this relatively well in the previous two years. It was great as always. Jillions of people and 7 days on the bike. The only noteworthy difference this year was I went into the week really really over tired. By the last couple of days I was out of gas and was ready to go home.

One thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is what happens away from the bike has such an huge impact on how things go on the bike. Not bike may be as important as bike. I think this basic formula applies to all sorts of things one wants or needs to do in life. This years Ragbrai was a great example. All the work I had done on the bike all spring and early summer was nearly mitigated by over work and stress in the week before the event.

Cycling has always been a tool for examining/testing assumptions and personal qualities. Cycling at a high effort level draws ideas into fine contrast to make them easy to see. Press hard this way reveals a great deal.

I think what has been drawn if finer detail this year is that a seemingly separate areas of life are connected whether the links are visible or not.

So this is every town, infested with cyclists.

Tent city... one of many

Some of the gang at a beer stop

Balloon race as we roll out of the first town on the first day.

The gang at camp.

Group shot

Loin cloth guy... sheesh


The finish

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Banff

Ok let me first say, thank you Canada!

I had a great stay in the Banff area last week. We had great hikes, mountain bike rides, food, Beer...... The beautiful mountains and being among them for 5 days really did rejuvenate me after an unbelievably difficult july. I am not going to go into the details of july ( too Boring ), but by August first I was a cooked and really really needed some fresh air and to be waaaaaayyy out of cel service. I got both in buckets full and am energized and centered again. Phew.


This is the trail from banff to canmore and back 40K, 6000 feet of climb. What a great trek. mostly fire road and double track, not technical at all, with stiff climbs and fast, fast, descents, crazy fun. You'll notice in the garmin data, we took our time up to the last half hour, then I couldn't take it anymore, I had to let er' rip. It was cycling glory. There are those rare, rare days when you can go as hard as you like and your body says "more please". I was soooo lucky to have a magic day fall on a day I was in such a beautiful place. This may have been the best ride of the year. A "10" for sure!

http://connect.garmin.com/player/11047867

This is where we stayed.

We hike up to this lake, had the place to ourselves.. amazing!

The main lodge

View from the lodge.

This is Chip, he/she really liked trail mix!

I did a touch of rock balancing just for good measure.