I am starting this blog as a chance to log my training rides and show some of the amazing places I have ridden in my new home, Colorado. Please excuse my poor writing skills.
I'm currently training with The Champions for Children cycling team with the goal of riding the Triple Bypass on July 12th. The rides I am doing now are climbs to prepare for the 120 mile ride through the Rockies.
Last weekend was the first weekend I've ridden without major I.T. band pain. Turns out you should stretch those muscles when you ride up mountains as fast as you can (thanks Brian from Kaiser Medical). You would think with Google I could have found out how to stretch my I.T. properly and saved myself the doctor visit.
The ride started in north Boulder at Left Hand Canyon road. It's really a pretty easy climb and doesn't get steep until the town of Ward. There were almost no cars and tons of cyclists. I recommend this ride! I thought it would be hot so I wore my short sleeved jersey and bibs and yes it was snowing hard at Brainard lake. I met a super nice preacher from Arvada that asked if I wanted to ride with him to Brainard lake even though the road was closed because of snow. He was a cool guy and let me use his sweat cap and long sleeved Pearl Izumi jersey before I died of exposure. I hiked through three foot snow drifts and finally got to just snow no pavement and decided to turn back. Every time we came to a new snow drift he would say "lets keep going it's just around the corner". For those of you that don't know, cycling shoes have holes in the bottom perfect for packing snow under your toes. I'm glad I kept going because there was a clear view of the storm blowing over a 14,000 foot peak I believe Brainard lake is at just over 10,500 feet. It was so cool looking and I have never been blown down a mountain faster than when we turned around to go back. It felt like God grabbed a hold of my seat and pushed really hard. It was fun!
When we got back to Ward I met up with Scott (one of the guys from the team). He used the "f" word about 20 times to describe his troubles on the climb. When he was done I introduced him to my new preacher friend. It was pretty funny. You shouldn't cuss. You never know when you are talking to a cycling preacher.
We then started our descent. This ride is great for descents! After the first few, super scary wind blowing from every direction hard and gusty, it becomes a calm, smooth, crap free tarmac perfect for making your eyes tear.
I got passed by a woman on the Vitamin Cottage Cycling Team (I think) on a super crappy section of road with the wind doing things to me and my bike that were terrifying. She fearlessly blew past me at a speed that I would never attempt. I was able to catch up to her on the smoother less scary part and watched how she took corners. It was really cool to learn from someone that good. There are some super talented women cyclists that can kick my butt up and down these mountains and I think that's pretty cool.
I always clean my bike after a ride because it freaks me out to see dirt and sweat all over it. This time I noticed what appeared to be a crack right under my seat mast on my brand new Trek Madone 5.2 . After a period of shear panic and nausea I took it to Bicycle Village, a bike shop where I've made friends with the mechanics and found the best fitter in my opinion Jerry. I guess they set the seat too high when they fitted me last and it compromised the seat mast. I hope they are able to get things worked out with Trek and help me get back on the road. I'll let you know as soon as I find out what they have decided. I feel like I'm in "at fault limbo" right now. The 5.2 has been nothing but amazing so far... I'll let you know how that goes.
If it isn't your I.T. band it's your new fang dangled integrated seat mast. There's always something.
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