INTERMOUNTAINCUP #2

So Brandon Firth and I decided last minute to go down to Hurricane and do the Cholla Challenge. It gave me a good excuse to get out of work Saturday night and so we left early Saturday towards Hurricane. We made it just in time to sign up before they closed down same day registration. We even had time for a 10 minute warm up. I was excited because it was the first time that I was able to race my new Cannondale Taurine. It's Cannondale's carbon hardtail version and it's super light. I rode it the day before for the first time and it climbed like a mountain goat, no excuses if I didn't do well in the race.

The gun went off and I actually got the whole shot, unfortunately I only lasted up on the front for about 30 seconds. I didn't even feel too bad on the first climb, but after about 20 min. my body just shot down. I really haven't bonked that early in a race, but that's what happened. I started going backwards. I couldn't get myself out of the hole and even mentally I was totally fried. I just couldn't get any positive thoughts into my head so I just pedaled half heartedly around the race course. I came sooo close to dropping out but at least I hung in there for a good training ride. I got passed by a good amount of expert riders that started a few minutes behind me and I think I finished about 20 min. down on the winner's time. I haven't sucked that bad ever since I started racing. Well, it'll give me some good motivation to train harder. I don't want to disappoint my new team, Mona-Vie/Cannondale, especially since we're getting great support this year. Hopefully next race report will be more positive!

1st mtb race at St. George

So I guess I haven't updated my blog in a while. Lots of stuff going on, nothing really to write about. I am fortunate this year to ride for a great new team. I can't wait to get my new Cannondale Taurine, it'll be a blast to race on. This past weekend I decided to go down to St. George and ride a mountain bike for the 2nd time this year. I was lucky enough that Matt O had a Rush that I could borrow, since I haven't gotten my new Taurine yet and I just sold my old mountain bike on ebay. Brandon Firth and I decided to take the drive on Saturday morning, we wanted to leave around 6am, but by the time we got started it was a little closer to 7. We made it there on time, though, enough to mount a bottle cage on my bike and get a 15min warm up.

The course is a lot of fun, the climbs are rather mellow and the downhills are just pure pleasure. I haven' t ridden a full suspension in 4 years and the Rush sure felt different than what I am used to. It was actually really nice on the climbs, but it was absolutely brilliant on the down hills. I can't believe how well the lefty absorbs the bumps, yet stays so true to the line. I felt like driving a Cadillac around on the race course. I hope I'll get a chance to race that bike in a Super D race.

Had a really bad start and thought of throwing up due to a cold I've been fighting all week, but kept riding and actually started to feel better as the race went on. I couldn't catch up to my new team mates Jason and Bart, but was able to take third to make it a 1, 2, 3 finish for our team. Big thanks to Matt O for letting me use this cool new bike, personaly I think everyone should have a Carbon Rush in their garage.

Now I hope I can get back into a decent training routine and have a fun season. I feel like the ski season is coming to an end, I sure will miss the skate skiing at Soldier Hollow. Well, it'll only be a year 'til next time. Actually can't wait for the bike season to really kick off.

getting started for 07

I'm in week 2 of my 07 training program and I'm getting excited about the upcoming season. Looks like I'll be riding a Cannondale this year, can't wait to get it and give it a good test ride.

Besides skate skiing and some work inside on the trainer, I was able to get outside on Saturday for a good mountain bike ride in the snow. Sager has been grooming the trails on his bike in Round Valley so they would be nice and smooth for the rest of us. We had a great group of riders and it was a blast riding in the snow. Now it looks like the temperatures are nice enough to ride the road bike outside. Maybe not in Park City, where the Sundance traffic would turn you into road kill in a second. I guess I'll just stay in the valley.

Testing with Testa

After not riding my bike since Dec. 9th, I decided to visit Dr. Max Testa in order to do a lactate threshold test and develop my training zones for the next few weeks. He moved from California to SLC not too long ago, and he is working for the TOSH now. When I entered the "human performance lab", I saw him talking to Dave Zabriskie about his training plan etc. It was kind of cool to see

a) Dave Zabriskie with a full Santa Claus style beard and
b) being tested by the guy who has been working with such great cyclists over the last 20 years

The test starts out at 100 watts and kicks up by 40 watts each 3 min. It doesn't feel like much at first, but it doesn't take long before you start breathing hard. I stopped after completing the 380 watt stage, with 9.6 mMol/L of lactate. The last stage was certainly hard and over my threshold, but it actually felt good to get in a hard effort on the bike after not doing much the last 3 weeks.

It was great to talk about the test results and training zones etc. with Dr Testa. You can tell right away that this man knows a LOT about cycling and training. So now I have my next few weeks of training in front of me, can't wait to get back in shape and ready for a new season.

biking's done for 06

One last Cyclocross race in Ogden, it was muddy and fun. Didn't really have a lot of punch left, but I had a great time. Lots of slippery mud. I still haven't cleaned my bike yet, I figure the mud will preserve the parts well.

I went skate skiing Sunday and Monday, legs are really tired today. The skiing is pretty good at Soldier Hollow, thanks to some good snow making. Looking forward to doing some more skate skiing this year, maybe I'll even try a race or two.

After a good month or so of eating bad foods, I decided to go to the University to have a Body Composition Analysis done. Turns out I weigh in at 163 solid pounds, 11% body fat and 89% lean body mass. (that includes everything but fat) I guess it could be a little better, but considering the time of the year, I'm quite ok with that. Having a lot of austrian chocolate in the house really doesn't help loosing weight, but it sure tastes good. Now I have to go wax my skis for tomorrow.

Snowshoeing

Since riding my bike outside is pretty much done due to the temperatures, a few friends of mine and I decided to go out for a snowshoe at Deer Valley. It was a full moon, and we started from Silver Lake Village towards Park City. It was great, DV hasn't opened that side of the mountain yet, so there was no grooming going on. Also, the mid mountain trail was in great shape. Plenty of snow to make snowshoeing fun, but you could still see where the trail was. I found some pics from last weekends CX race, hopefully this weekend will be just as much fun.




See you in Ogden on Saturday!

Getting close to the last race of the season

One more cyclocross race down, one to go. It was a fun race again in Ogden, finally we had some different conditions. The course was a mixture of hard packed snow, ice and mud. I didn't know how I would feel, not having ridden my bike all week. I felt good, though, not much different than usual. I had an ok start, after lap 1 there were 2 groups of 3 in the front, I made up the rear in 6th. In lap 2, things started to speed up a little, and I was able to move up to 2nd, 8 seconds down on Bart when we came through the start/finish line. Art O'Conner was right on my ass, and he did so for the next lap. In lap 3, Art came around and I was happy to see that, I thought it would be good to work with him, maybe even get closer up to Bart. But then, on a fast sketchy downhill, I lost control and went tumbling into the snow. The snow certainly softened my fall, but my handlebars were all twistet. I rode a 1/2 mile or so, but had to stop and straighten out my steerer. That cost me some time, and I found myself in 6th, with Jason Sager and Jon Gallagher righ in front of me. By the end, I finished in 4th, behind Bart, Art and Chris Pietrzak. The race was fun, the course was a blast, only one more to go and then it's time to get fat. Actually I've been working on that already. Went skate skiing for the first time this year on Sunday. Legs felt a little tired and technique certainly rusty, hope I can improve on that over the next few months. We'll see.