For those that sit at a desk at work all day, here is something much more fun to do than work :-)
Follow my progress in the Colorado Trail Race. It starts on Monday at 6am. You can follow the action here:
Trackleaders
Race Discussion forum will be posted here (look for CTR 2012 Race Discussion thread)
Bikepacking Forums
Racer hotline (audio recordings of racer call-in's)
MTB Cast
Race Website
Colorado Trail Race
Have fun following the Blue Dots (hopefully 'NW' will be steadily plugging along!) Trackleaders has lots of options for viewing different info for each racer.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Overnight CTR training ride
On Monday I landed at DIA after a weeks vacation with the family in Carlisle and San Antonio. With the girls still in Texas I decided it was my best chance for an overnight bike ride to test out some gear, mainly my lights, sleeping setup and new stove. Also, just to get all the gear on the bike, cover some miles, sleep, wake up and do some more miles.
So I arrived at DIA, went to REI on my way home, got home, worked for a few hours and then packed up my gear. I drove out to Kenosha and headed East on the CT. After a week at sea level I felt pretty good at 10,000 feet plus. And then I just kept riding. Spinning through the North Fork meadows area on smooth singletrack with the sun getting low was spectacular, one of the great sections of trail around here. At the wilderness boundary I hit some forest service roads back out to the Lost Park road and to the Nate Stultz trail.
This trail has given me problems in the past (see here) so I wanted another crack at it. But it is even more overgrown than the last time, very few trail users on this one. After getting lost on the faint trail several times, I finally hit the old road section and pushed my bike up to the High Park meadow area in gathering dusk. This section had dead-fall before, but now it is a nightmare. I spent the last of daylight carrying my bike through two miles of downed trees and yelling into the approaching darkness to scare off any bears...awful!
Finally, it got dark enough to turn on the lights and I was through the dead-fall approaching the high point with a long, steep, fast decent back to forest service roads. But the trail was even more faint on this side, and I got lost in the dark contouring along the hillside trying to make out a trail in the dark. Slipping on the loose gravel and pine needles, not sure if I was too high or too low until eventually I made out the trail. It is still faint but easier to follow. Finally, I was down and back to dirt roads.
Flying down these smooth rolling dirt roads in the dark with my lights and some tunes going was a blast. Wide open country, stars blazing overhead, going 20 mph - exhilarating!
I hit pavement for about 5 miles (not one car out) and then turned off onto another Forest service road around 1030pm. I found a water bottle on the side of the road, and dumped its full contents into my surprisingly low camelbak (which has in-line filtration). That bottle was enough to get me through the night and the next morning! Thanks to the guy who probably didn't have enough water to get back!
I woke at 530 the next morning after some fitful sleep in my bivy listening to snorting elk nearby, and covered another 15 or so miles back to my car on a beautiful blue sky morning. I covered 55 miles total.
Some pics of the trip:
So I arrived at DIA, went to REI on my way home, got home, worked for a few hours and then packed up my gear. I drove out to Kenosha and headed East on the CT. After a week at sea level I felt pretty good at 10,000 feet plus. And then I just kept riding. Spinning through the North Fork meadows area on smooth singletrack with the sun getting low was spectacular, one of the great sections of trail around here. At the wilderness boundary I hit some forest service roads back out to the Lost Park road and to the Nate Stultz trail.
This trail has given me problems in the past (see here) so I wanted another crack at it. But it is even more overgrown than the last time, very few trail users on this one. After getting lost on the faint trail several times, I finally hit the old road section and pushed my bike up to the High Park meadow area in gathering dusk. This section had dead-fall before, but now it is a nightmare. I spent the last of daylight carrying my bike through two miles of downed trees and yelling into the approaching darkness to scare off any bears...awful!
Finally, it got dark enough to turn on the lights and I was through the dead-fall approaching the high point with a long, steep, fast decent back to forest service roads. But the trail was even more faint on this side, and I got lost in the dark contouring along the hillside trying to make out a trail in the dark. Slipping on the loose gravel and pine needles, not sure if I was too high or too low until eventually I made out the trail. It is still faint but easier to follow. Finally, I was down and back to dirt roads.
Flying down these smooth rolling dirt roads in the dark with my lights and some tunes going was a blast. Wide open country, stars blazing overhead, going 20 mph - exhilarating!
I hit pavement for about 5 miles (not one car out) and then turned off onto another Forest service road around 1030pm. I found a water bottle on the side of the road, and dumped its full contents into my surprisingly low camelbak (which has in-line filtration). That bottle was enough to get me through the night and the next morning! Thanks to the guy who probably didn't have enough water to get back!
I woke at 530 the next morning after some fitful sleep in my bivy listening to snorting elk nearby, and covered another 15 or so miles back to my car on a beautiful blue sky morning. I covered 55 miles total.
Some pics of the trip:
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Colorado Trail Race Training
Finally got into the high country last week on a nice 40 mile training ride on the Colorado Trail east of Kenosha Pass. I tested the rig fully loaded and with a new 1x9 drivetrain setup. The new bags work great - much better than a rear rack system. Everything is snug and not a lot of rattling around. The added weight in some cases makes for a smoother ride but certainly more strenuous on climbs and when pushing. I'm carrying most of the gear I will take on the race, minus the sleeping bag (tarp, bivy, stove, clothes, spare parts/tools, first aid, GPS & Spot unit, knife, in-line water filter, cue sheets, rain gear. Here are some pics:
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| Springtime at 10,000 feet - Aspens are getting green again |
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| Colorado Trail looking toward the continental divide |
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Lower North Fork Fire
The Lower north fork fire is currently at 4500 acres, crazy stuff happening around here. Hotshot crew trucks from all over are buzzing all over the place (Smoky Bear hotshots, Juniper Valley hotshots - some teams from Utah and Arizona, you see a caravan of 3 or 4 of these specialty trucks at once). There are Jeffco Sheriffs trucks everywhere, roads blocked off. A Type 1 team is supposed to arrive on scene tonight (apparently the best of the best when it comes to fighting wild land fires). There have been tankers flying overhead, helicopters buzzing around. I just saw a heli landing site out in Conifer, multiple police cars with lights flashing way out in a field and several helicopters with rotors turning. There is an Incident Command post at the Elk Creek fire station, just a few minutes down the highway from us, that looks like ground zero - news trucks, sheriff trucks, satellite dishes cranked up to the sky, fire trucks and cars and other trucks all along the roads around the fire station.
There is definitely a tense atmosphere in the air around here. We had lunch at a local restaurant today and the owners had been evacuated. Their house was just over the hill and they had no idea what had happened yet, if anything to their home. The local Staples shopping center has become the Large Animal evacuation center, so it is now loaded with big trailers and campers and there is a . Conifer High School is the evac center offering lunch and dinner to evacuees.
We now have smoke hovering in our neighborhood and it smells like a balsam potpourri out there.
Zero percent containment on the fire - doesn't sound like a good number! They are trying to save homes and structures as opposed to actively 'fighting' the fire. They say 3-4 more days - at least - to suppress this one.
FIRE MAP BELOW - We live in Pine Junction Area to the west of the fire
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=206832840823424122921.0004bc2d699364dec554f&msa=0&ll=39.497683,-105.224304&spn=0.166903,0.363579
There is definitely a tense atmosphere in the air around here. We had lunch at a local restaurant today and the owners had been evacuated. Their house was just over the hill and they had no idea what had happened yet, if anything to their home. The local Staples shopping center has become the Large Animal evacuation center, so it is now loaded with big trailers and campers and there is a . Conifer High School is the evac center offering lunch and dinner to evacuees.
We now have smoke hovering in our neighborhood and it smells like a balsam potpourri out there.
Zero percent containment on the fire - doesn't sound like a good number! They are trying to save homes and structures as opposed to actively 'fighting' the fire. They say 3-4 more days - at least - to suppress this one.
FIRE MAP BELOW - We live in Pine Junction Area to the west of the fire
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=206832840823424122921.0004bc2d699364dec554f&msa=0&ll=39.497683,-105.224304&spn=0.166903,0.363579
Friday, March 23, 2012
Driest March in CO history...so far
If March ended today here in Colorado, it would go down as the warmest and driest March in Colorado history. Been absolutely beautiful...which means lots of bike riding. I've logged over 100 miles already this month on primarily singletrack here in our neighborhood and down at Buffalo Creek which is surprisingly clear of snow for this time of year. Nothing like the tortuous ride I did down there back in January (see Winter Training post) Here are some recent pics of our glorious weather trend...
Fully-loaded bike-packing kit test ride in the neighborhood...already thinking about the Colorado Trail Race
Pine Valley Open Space ranch ride. Wendy and the girls are down by the pond in the distance!
Good old Wisp Creek Trail network - super secret trails right out my front door!
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Colorado Trail Race Dreaming
On Monday, July 30th at 6am the 6th Colorado Trail Race begins at Waterton Canyon southwest of Denver and finishes in Durango. Here are some stats:
I remember reading an article about a race organizer (I think it was one of the early organizers of the Tour de France before it became a big commercial melee and was still held on dirt roads) who declared that the best race is the one that has only one finisher. The Colorado Trail Race (if it could) might respond with one word: Touche.
I have always been a bit restless and always a big dreamer. Probably I undertake 10% of the actual plans I set down in scribbles and scratches in various notebooks scattered around my desk. But maybe that is not a bad thing. It would be worse to stop dreaming.
But this dream is one that I feel I can actually tackle. A goal that I can attain. An epic that I can put down in that 10%. I've done a few bike-packing trips in the past on the Colorado trail and I loved them...some of my most memorable outdoor adventures of all time. Bike-packing combines all the best of outdoor travel: the ethereal beauty of wilderness settings and the unpredictability of the outdoors, the ultimate in forward motion, and the comfort, awesomeness and ruggedness of a fully-loaded, tightly-refined, smoothly-running bike-packing rig!
Am I fit enough or experienced enough or strong enough for such an undertaking. Well, I know only one answer to that question: Only one way to find out. And I think that captures the real essence of any endurance event or epic. For anyone who has gone beyond their limits, physically and mentally, you realize that at some point you break through a barrier, a wall within yourself, and you simply move on. Of course the struggle and suffering prior to walking through that door are monumental. My first bike-packing attempt was a one day ride from Waterton to Wellington Lake...only about 40 miles. But there is some rough country in between and a big climb out of the South Platte up to Chair rocks. And I set out woefully unfit for such an undertaking and highly inexperienced with fully loaded riding. Well, I made it to the top of the South Platte climb, but not before a staggering break-down, an epic bonk, that had me close to tears and throwing my bike down in disgust at my inabilities and lack of strength and endurance - I simply could not put another foot in front of the other (yes, I had resorted to walking and pushing and could barely carry forward with that much less ride). But I got through it, and I got back on my bike and eventually rode on. And I realized that I had pushed my limits out a little further, broken through...and for that I became stronger.
So now I am more fit, and have tackled two multi-day rides and with my new found experience and love of the bike-packing trail I am going to attempt the CTR. If I can simply show up on the start line on Monday, July 30th at 6am I will feel that I have accomplished something.
Honestly I think getting to the start line for me (a husband, a father with an infant and a toddler and a full time day-jobber) will be the big accomplishment. Simply being able to ride my bike for days on end along the Colorado Trail and camp under the stars for a week or more is really a privilege. Yes, it probably will be cold and wet and lonely and exhausting and nauseating and dirty and pain inducing and unending but from where I sit right now it looks like a romantic glorious odyssey into the unknown :-)
- Self-supported ride (no outside support allowed of any kind)
- No prize money, no entry fees, no aid stations, no sag vehicles, no goodie bag - only a route description, suggested start time and your name on a website as a finisher if it so happens.
- 493 miles (300 of which is high country Colorado singletrack)
- 65,000 feet of elevation gain
- Highest elevation reached on the trail = 13,200'!
- Less than 50% of those who start actually finish this one.
I remember reading an article about a race organizer (I think it was one of the early organizers of the Tour de France before it became a big commercial melee and was still held on dirt roads) who declared that the best race is the one that has only one finisher. The Colorado Trail Race (if it could) might respond with one word: Touche.
I have always been a bit restless and always a big dreamer. Probably I undertake 10% of the actual plans I set down in scribbles and scratches in various notebooks scattered around my desk. But maybe that is not a bad thing. It would be worse to stop dreaming.
But this dream is one that I feel I can actually tackle. A goal that I can attain. An epic that I can put down in that 10%. I've done a few bike-packing trips in the past on the Colorado trail and I loved them...some of my most memorable outdoor adventures of all time. Bike-packing combines all the best of outdoor travel: the ethereal beauty of wilderness settings and the unpredictability of the outdoors, the ultimate in forward motion, and the comfort, awesomeness and ruggedness of a fully-loaded, tightly-refined, smoothly-running bike-packing rig!
Am I fit enough or experienced enough or strong enough for such an undertaking. Well, I know only one answer to that question: Only one way to find out. And I think that captures the real essence of any endurance event or epic. For anyone who has gone beyond their limits, physically and mentally, you realize that at some point you break through a barrier, a wall within yourself, and you simply move on. Of course the struggle and suffering prior to walking through that door are monumental. My first bike-packing attempt was a one day ride from Waterton to Wellington Lake...only about 40 miles. But there is some rough country in between and a big climb out of the South Platte up to Chair rocks. And I set out woefully unfit for such an undertaking and highly inexperienced with fully loaded riding. Well, I made it to the top of the South Platte climb, but not before a staggering break-down, an epic bonk, that had me close to tears and throwing my bike down in disgust at my inabilities and lack of strength and endurance - I simply could not put another foot in front of the other (yes, I had resorted to walking and pushing and could barely carry forward with that much less ride). But I got through it, and I got back on my bike and eventually rode on. And I realized that I had pushed my limits out a little further, broken through...and for that I became stronger.
So now I am more fit, and have tackled two multi-day rides and with my new found experience and love of the bike-packing trail I am going to attempt the CTR. If I can simply show up on the start line on Monday, July 30th at 6am I will feel that I have accomplished something.
Honestly I think getting to the start line for me (a husband, a father with an infant and a toddler and a full time day-jobber) will be the big accomplishment. Simply being able to ride my bike for days on end along the Colorado Trail and camp under the stars for a week or more is really a privilege. Yes, it probably will be cold and wet and lonely and exhausting and nauseating and dirty and pain inducing and unending but from where I sit right now it looks like a romantic glorious odyssey into the unknown :-)
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
CTR Training - workouts begin
I had started a workout routine toward the end of last year, but it trailed off as it always does with me. So I've decided to try and step it up and I actually bought some gear at Sports Authority to help me out with some exercises. Here is the setup (yeah, basic and in my downstairs living room!)
Here is the routine (repeat twice):
5 min warm-up (20 drop and flats)
25 push-ups
10 Pull-ups
10 Dips
10 Pillar Ball Twists
10 Psoas Crunches
20 Regular Crunches
10 Oblique Crunches (each side)
10 Side Lifts (each side)
15 Supermans
Pillar Ball Plank Circles
20 Box Jumps
50 Jump Squats (tough!!!)
Here is how I look after a workout :-)
The jump squats are the real deal if you want a brutal exercise! I use my 10 foot long ice chipper (weighs about 15 pounds) and put that over my shoulder, then squat, and stand back up and jump an inch off the floor. Do 50 of those and you will barely be able to stand!
Watch here (the dude can barely make the last few - almost topples): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1twnrgm-1u4
Here is another one - supposedly ideal for mountain bikers - that is awfully hard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u-QOKAfNkU
Now if I can only keep it up!
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