Video!

U.S. gran prix of cyclocross from Jim Fryer/BrakeThrough Media on Vimeo.

Cross Session #1

Had my first training with the team today. The session was taught by Brandon...holy cow there is a lot to learn! We started with the basics of course...like dismounting both with the foot on the outside and the inside (into a stride where the right foot goes on the inside between the left foot on the pedal. We then moved onto more advanced stuff like shouldering the bike and picking up the bike like a suitcase...all interesting and new. I have been practicing the dismount most of the summer which helped but i never really knew how to correctly pick up the bike and certainly did not know how to shoulder the bike correctly where the right hand holds the handlebars after hefting the thing with the right hand on the downtube while still moving. Honestly I felt confident with most of the dismount stuff but really struggled with the shouldering and the proper method to get the bike off the shoulder and on the ground without dropping a chain. Man, this is so different than anything I have ever done... My HR was pegged doing these drills up and down a soccer field. Unbelievable. We also did mounts of course which were hard and then culminated with starts and then work with the cross props barriers. I am definitely glad to have had a some instruction before just jumping in without knowing anything. Can't wait to try this in a race without more practice of course. There is another drill session next week (north boulder about 20 minutes from the house by car and 40 by bike) and then after that there is a fast group that practices by the house on the local cross course (where i did my short track race this spring). So, one more week of drill and then fast race laps trying not to get lapped! Sounds like a plan.

Cyclocross / Veldrijden : UCI World Cup & World Championship

Lick Skillet to Gold Hill

Lick Skillet Road off of Left Hand Canyon by way of Lee Hill. Lick Skillet looked real interesting last week and after a bit of research discovered that the road ended right in Gold Hill. This little mining town had been on my list to visit since moving to Colorado over 10 years ago. Would not have know that it would be via bike that I first checked it out.

The ride up Lee Hill was as tough as it seemed from riding down it last week. It is a lot longer than Old Stage overall and Lee’s first pitch is definitely as steep as the steepest part of OS. Overall climbed fairly well up Lee, kept the pace fairly consistent most of the way up. Never had to stand much to keep things moving, just a steady incline.

After landing back on Left Hand I could definitely feel a little bit of fatigue in the legs…took about a mile or so to shake out the lactic. After a few miles finally hit Lick Skillet. At the start these is a little sign that warns of a “narrow, steep”dirt road. I was a bit worried about the traction as I had my 700x23 road wheels on the bike. However, these proved no problem on the fairly packed dirt road. The incline seemed fine for a bit right up until the one and only real switch back. At this point the road just became ridiculous. I was starting to think that it was not my day as I had to take a couple of breaks on the way up as well as some traversing back and forth…even with the 34 little ring coupled with the 32cog. What I latter discovered is that this road is the “the steepest county road in the United States” according to Wikipedia. It climbs just under a 1000 feet in a mile and a half for an average grade of 15% for over a mile…and all this on dirt road. So, after finding this out after getting home I felt a lot better.

Overall this was my hardest ride to date and it was just at 43 miles! Finishing, I returned home feeling like I had run 15+ miles in the heat…really just tired and whipped. I wonder if this had to do with my choice of calories for the ride other than the climbing of course. I gave Hammer Perpetuam a try using one of the single use packets. Based on my current weight I needed to do about 8 table spoons of mix for one bottle. Mixed it up and I was off. I definitely like the convenience of just sipping from a bottle rather than sucking down a gel, however I did notice that my stomach was a bit ugly during parts of the ride and then after the ride I was definitely uncomfortable for a few hours. So, I am thinking that the gels work better for me at this point. I do still need to try coach Keith’s method of a NUUN tablet coupled with Carbo Load (sp.) in a bottle. I do know that the tablets work great along with gels, so we will see if his mix is better than the Hammer Stuff.

Ride Summary:

Ward recon #1

Did a Ward attempt today. Never really thought I would make it given my current speed and the time I had...especially starting and finishing from home.

Regardless, felt good overall starting with a climb up Old Stage to Left Hand and then Left Hand to the 11 mile marker and then back via Lee Hill. The Garmin had this at 4400 feet of elevation gain overall. Not a bad gain really. Average speed of just over 17 for the ride and 11.4 for the Left Hand part of the ride. This pace is significantly slower than the king of the mountains riders who did the entire Ward Climb from 28th to the Peak to Peak in just over an hour...which is of course around 15-16 mph. Wow!

Found a new route for some point in the future. Limonysnick (sp) Road takes a left off of Left Hand and stops in Gold Hill. This would be a great connector to keeps things interesting. The descent from Gold Hill would either be Sunshine or 4 mile Canyon! Pretty cool except for the narrow dirt road condition of Limony...oh well, at least this part would be uphill!

Great ride today!

Did a combination plains route with a bit o climbing up left-hand canyon today. The original plan was to simply get in some miles and hours without climbing...basically to do the 50 miler I did with Mark and the boys a few months ago. The ride was basically out 75th to Lookout through Niwot out to Hygiene and then into Lyons and back along 28th to 75th again. I had hoped to add a few miles by taking a reverse Old Stage to get some climbing in. However, once I hit 28th I remembered that the Centurion was going on. Fortunately I had left the house at 6am this morning and as a result hit 28th right about when the pack was heading off of 28th onto St Vrain for a brief jog. Well, the helicopter overhead and the potential draw of running into/around a large peleton convinced me to take a left on 28th rather than a right into Lyons. Good decision as soon after hitting 28th I ran into a bunch police traffic control locations and I could totally see the helicopter to the East which convinced me that I was far enough in front of them to try for some elevation on Left Hand before being overtaken. I made it just past the Heil Ranch Turnoff before I was warned by a trooper on a motorcycle that pack had taken the right onto Left Hand. Not much after that I was passed by another group of vehicles, motorcycles and the like followed by a really small pack of 3 riders. They were definitely moving pretty fast, probably 18-20 mph at that point. Kept going up another 5-8 minutes or so until the next group of vehicles passed...this time I was not disappointed as I was consumed by a huge group of at least 200 riders. Amazing experience as the biggest group I had ever ridden with was like 30 riders. I kept it slow as to let the group pass me completely so as not to get in the way. This took several minutes and soon I was at the back. At this point I contemplated hanging with the group for a bit, but at this point I had just passed the Ward turn-off which was 30 miles into the ride at about 1:43 and I knew I had at least another 25 miles home. So, I decided to slow up and pull over after about a mile after the turn-off. Wise move given that I had set 9:30am as my drop-dead time to get home. The other problem at the time was the one bottle that I had on me that was getting really, really low. One bottle-cage mount on the Axis is probably the biggest problem I have discovered with this bike (thinking about hacking one on with some zip ties with a rubber-tube insulator...). Anyway, the rest of the ride went ok, a little tight, but the pace was reasonable given that I had taken no real breaks. I was able to get some water at the Boulder Rez Fire Station...and with this H20 influx I made it home unscathed! What an experience, not sure if the helicopter or the Mavic neutral cars with their identical yellow, bikes and wheels mounted on was the best part...for a moment I felt really close to Le Tour!

I would have to say that this ride is definitely on the list for next year. Which of course made me think of the other rides for next year...after a year of building back my biking base.

So, here it is for now...links and details to come

1. Koppenberg Circuit - Early April - as definite as I can be a year away...
2. Boulder Roubaix - Mid April - ???
3. Morgul Bismark - Memorial Day - ???
4. Various Mtn Bike Short Track....and/or CU or Racepace Promotions... - definitely a few of these...
5. Father's Day Century???
6. Triple Bipass - July???
7. Centurion - July -as definite as I can be a year away...
8. Maybe a real Cross Country Mtn Bike race....
9. Good Sam Jam
10. Cross in the fall!

Of course I am speaking about next year, so what about this year? Well, there are still a few events looming. I am definitely doing the Good Sam Jam this year on the new longer route. This is basically the same route as the Centurion 50 and the first lap of the Centurion 100 up to Ward to the Peak to Peak back to Lyons; but starting and ending at EGSMC for about 96+ miles. Should be a nice ride with excellent scenery and plenty of climbing! This of course is an important one as it is a major fundraiser for my hospital foundation and I am now working on the foundation board on the committee responsible for the event itself...which means participation is mandatory! After the Jam then it will be cross season #1 as a member of the Boulder Cyclosport Cross Team. I am not sure how many races I will realistically be able to fit it, but I will try my best to do a minimum of 4 throughout the fall and winter....

That's it for now!

Here is a summary of the ride today:

Denver Century 2010

And beer was their reward!
Clockwise from the left:
Paul
Mark (RV owner and ride coordinator)
Steve
Dave
Mike (the idea man)

More to come...more pictures and a bit more description on the great adventure!

Here is one picture I finally found on the event web site. 

New beginnings...starting from the beginning

It has been a long period of silence for me. For some time I have been struggling with issues documented on prior posts...hips, knees, etc. To be honest it has been very frustrating, has forced me to really figure out what I really want to spend my time doing. I certainly have appreciated the gifts that running has given me over the past 10 years or so; it has been a great outlet for my energies and a great focus for me to distract from all the other stuff going on in life. If anything, running has been a bit too much of a distraction...in fact I once read in another blog or article that the author figured he could run his company if he put some of his focus from training on a marathon towards his work. This has certainly been a bit true of me; i.e. the lack of excitement I sometimes feel at work has been re-directed towards whatever goal I was focusing on for running. The problem is that my running has really lacked real focus now for some time. If I look at the progression of my training since the Denver Marathon of 2008 I kind of think I have been wallowing and a bit directionless. Last summer I had a great couple of races, but none of them were particularly long or difficult to train for; ones I could simply get up and do. I just have not had the motivation to get it going for something like a marathon again, I have started a couple of times on a marathon progression, but something always got in the way whether it be the time of the long runs or simply the barrier of some injury. And, if I think about my summer last year it seems that the runs I did I simply did for fun, i.e. Eldora and Breck Crest; both off road, both a bit of adventure. It would seem that what I really want to do these days with my limited free time are activities that are truly fun for me. For me over the past years, running long distances on the road or slight trail has ceased being fun. The shorter efforts still motivate me like a trip up Green or any of the Flatirons, but simply pounding for 2 hours is not doing it and quite honestly anytime I am hitting 90+ minutes things start hurt whether it be the IT, the HIP, the foot or general knee stuff. More focused runners would certainly get right over to Rodgers or some other PT to get things fixed. At this time in my life I really do not want to do this. I do want to run, but I simply want to run on my own terms under the pain rather than following a structured training program. Maybe this will change, just not right now.

So, now what? Well, I have returned to my roots...biking. I started riding back in grade school following in my dad's footsteps. He used to ride huge distances growing up when I was young...I still remember his old Raleigh with its beautiful, sculpted lugs. This influence resulted in me purchasing my first real bike in high school, a gorgeous blue Swiss bike called a Cilo. It had the lugs, the chrome fork and Shimano 600 drivetrain with tubulars. Wonderful ride. Had this ride until College when I need to sell the thing for cash Freshman year. Summers through college were spent swinging a hammer working for my dad which fortunately resulted in enough money to buy my first mountain bike...a black Specialized Rockhopper. This was fine until I started riding it around the mountain single-track in Southern Vermont and up and down Stratton Mountain....this was too much for its recreational components and resulted in two broken real axels. So, saved up more money for the first real ride, another black Specialized, but the Stumpjumper this time. If you know bike history, you will know that the Stumpjumper was the first real production mountain bike back in the 80's. Anyway, the bike was good enough to launch me into mountain bike racing. So, summers junior and senior year were spent building houses and riding up and down Stratton while racing on weekends. I  was never really good, mostly a middle packer in the Sport class, but I certainly had fun. After college I stopped racing, but kept riding as much as I could even upgrading to a Klein back on 95. This all continued until I was transferred to Cleveland for work. Unfortunately Cleveland is not known for its mountain biking and not really for its road biking either. This is when I turned to running. Even after moving to Colorado in 2000 I continued running and the rest is history. I did do a lot of riding however after moving here. I even upgraded to a full-suspension mountain bike (see above...the yellow tires have been replaced by black ones!)  which has served me well, mostly before the boys were born. The problem was that I always had to drive at least 30+ minutes to get to any of the riding which again pushed me back to running.

Well, now the kids are older...I have more time (sort of). I also have been very fascinated with cyclocross (check this out as well)  now for some time. Every year there is a cross race right by my house at the Louisville Rec center....it has always looked very fun and very hard. And, a good friend of mine has been into cross now for sometime. So, with the green light from my wife after getting a decent bonus I took the plunge and purchased a cross bike at Louisville Cyclery. And, I have been riding ever since whether it be back and forth to work, around the trails of the Morgul Bismark Look or out to the Teller Watertower. And, it has felt great!

So, the plan now is to ride the roads and trails with the Bianchi as much as possible with a mountain bike ride on the Jamis here and there. Picked up some new cables for the mountain bike as being 8 years old at this point some maintenance is required. There are a bunch of short track races happening on the cross course at the Rec Center I will be doing and then maybe a real Cross County Race at Breck or Keystone this summer for the heck of it. Finally, once the fall comes I will dip my toes into the Cross scene here in Colorado. Who knows what will happen, maybe the complexity and cost of biking will turn me off again. However, I don't think so. It is just too much fun!

More to come!

Time Off....

Well, I am officially taking a week off from running. My last run was last Thursday morning. I have been ignoring my hip now for about a month thinking that ice would magically heal the problem (bursitis I believe as it mostly hurts after the run on the side to partially back of the hip at the top of the IT band). However, it is not getting better (well it wasn't until I stopped running...it has been feeling a lot better through the weekend!). It seemed to hurt more after a hard workout on the pavement, although it is still generally sore after easy ones as well. The groin issue is still there; it just appears and goes away...really just a bit nagging rather than truly acute. So, I am taking a bit of time off while there is still snow on the ground. Bummer as I had a great MAF block that resulted in some steady efficiency improvement.

I am thinking that these two issues got a bit worse when I switched down to the racing flats and really started after I hit 300 miles on the the Precision 10's. So, I have ordered a pair of Elixir 5's which are still very light (under 10oz), but have a bit more stability to them than the Precisions and certainly the Ronin's.

Time to reset a bit...maybe time to reset expectations and plans for the year as well? We will see.

Thursday - 2-11-2010

More progress today; took another minute off of my MAF 5-mile test. Final two miles were exactly at 9:00min miles, decent progress over last week. Funny, I did not expect much from today since I had two days of fairly hard workouts that left my hip and inner thigh sore. But, felt great overall today and the pace was just faster. I did have an un-interrupted night of sleep last night; I did still get up by about 5:20am to bang out some work. 

Ran the same loop in a total time of 43.45 for a pace of 8:48 for the entire run with an average HR of 144 for the entire run.

Here is the progression again:

Week #1 9:14

Week #2 9:09

Week #3 8:54 / 44:43 

Week #4 8:48 / 43:45 (today)

I will be moving back to the HR-based training from RW that I was following before embarking on this 4-week block. We will see...

Details here....

2-4-2010 - MAF

Crappy run today. Started with an erratic HR for some reason, first mile under 9, 2nd mile around 8:24 and then things went downhill from here. Not a great night of sleep last night and took a day off yesterday. So, the problem is either lack of sleep or a day off...answer should be obvious, but I do seem to run better when I run more.

45:41 for the 5 mile course...9:08 pace

Garmin Connect -Activity Details

Tuesday 2-2-2010 tempo today

Did about a 7 mile tempo today after a 5 mile MAF yesterday and an 11 miler on Sunday. Kept the HR around 160 or under for the most of the run...took about 2 miles to get the HR in range. Through this I noticed that my splits were in the mid-sevens...for entire run. I never slowed even with the long stretch up 104th with a slight headwind. Definite progress over the last few weeks. I did this exact same run about 2 weeks ago but average around 8:20 for the run whereas today I averaged 7:36 overall with a average HR of 156 for the whole run. Thanks Lucho! Now, like Zack; I just need to stay healthy and add distance for the next few weeks.

Mizuno Ronin flats are working out great even on the long run on Sunday. Love the lack of heal and the close to the ground feel. These are definitely keeping the form honest. Strangely enough I am not feeling as beat up after my runs with these things most because I think my form is a lot better in them. I did feel a bit of an IT twinge on the right side which is typical for me in these longer runs. This will improve as I am able to hold form longer and longer into these runs. This is why I am adding mileage slowly this year.

Average MAF pace over the last three weeks:

#1 9:14

#2 9:09

#3 8:54 / 44:43 

Activity Details for Untitled

Moon Set

1/27/2010 - Progression run

Just over 7 miles. Planned on splits of 9:30, 9:00, 8:30, etc. down to a final mile of 7:00. Basically hit the splits with the HR under 160 except for the last two miles. Well under LT throughout. Felt great overall. Not a real struggle even in the final two miles. Max HR of 173 with an average HR for the run at 151. Average pace of 8:19 for the run.

Definitely starting to feel some progress. I did an 5 mile MAF test yesterday on the Rock Creek to Coal Creek Loop around the hospital. It looks like I took about 27 seconds off of the time from 1/15/2010 to 1/26/2010. Not a ton of improvement, but close to 10 seconds a mile. I'll take it at this point. And today, it look awhile to get my HR over the 145 range... in fact I was under 147 for the first three miles with 147 the average in mile three at a pace of 8:25. This feels like progress.

Day off tomorrow, with a planned 7-8 at work on Friday easy.

Activity Details for 1/27/2010 - Progression run

Thursday tempo run - 5 miles between 150 and 160 HR

Fit in a tempo today, 1st in my four week block. Still a bit sore from Monday's Green, but felt good enough to run in a slightly higher HR range. Overall felt very smooth and glad to be moving a bit faster. Generally running in the low 8's today which is close to what I used to run all of my runs at. HR was generally just at 160 with a max of 163...always gravitate to the top end of the specific range for some reason. Overall solid run counter-clockwise on the Stearns Lake Loop. Still muddy, but excellent to be back out on trail...seemed better than pounding around the Colorado Tech Center.

Excellent comment by Tim on Brandon's blog today on fuel. I will be re-reading this one for sure.

Activity Details

Green with Brandon, George and AK - 1/18/2010

Excellent trail run up Green today for about 2800 ft of climbing. Had to meet Brandon today to pick up a camera I was buying from him...intersected nicely with a run he was getting together with Zack and Tony. Had not met either of these guys in person before although I have been exchanging blog comments with George for a little over a year now.

Naturally I was concerned about being dropped out of the gate never to be seen again. Fortunately I was able to keep George in view mostly because he had no traction and I could see Brandon here and there because he was doing the climb twice and was obviously conserving energy... GZ could not help but comment that was not MAF'ing it today...which was certainly true. Tim, my four week block starts tomorrow since I blew it today as my HR generally hovered between 165 and 170 for the majority of the climb....not LT, but not too far off either!

My main goal for the run was to meet the boys, make it to the top before everyone turned around for waiting too long and pick up my newer Canon Rebel XT. Mission accomplished on all three fronts. Thanks Brandon!

Some great pictures and video at the boys blogs....

http://georgezack.blogspot.com/2010/01/monday-011810.html

http://brandon.fuller.name/archives/2010/01/18/07.33.09/

Activity Details...

Medium run - easy - Sunday 1/17/2010 - 10.5 miles

Ran a loop around Baseline Lake via So Boulder, Baseline and 76. Kept the HR under 145 for the most part; max of 150 with an average of 144. Pretty slow overall pace, but the slight inclines demanded a "slow" pace at this point in base training. Felt real smooth overall for most of the run. No knee pains, just some hotspots on the feet after about 8.5 miles. Not IT issues...even at mile 10.

Activity Details...

31.6 miles on the week in 4:44 hours. Average pace for the week was just over 9min miles compared to my average pace back on the week of the 14th of 8:16. Just goes to show how much I have slowed things down as I try to build some aerobic strength/base. I will be giving this plan a whirl for a few weeks with some MAF tests interspersed to check for progress. Excited to see what happens...if anything.

Great summary of the philosophy I am following on GZ's blog.... Check it out here...

5 miles - Friday 1/15/2010

Ran one of my old favorites, loop out Rock Creek to Coal Creek, under 287 and back...just a bit over 5 miles. This will be a perfect route for an MAF test, a lot less boring than running around the office 4 times. Really, really muddy with some snow here and there. A bit annoying to start, but nice to hit something different today. As usual the HR spiked at the very beginning of the run...this is of course why I need to do a real warmup prior to doing any kind of real workout or interval. Strange.

Here are the splits...notice the HR spike in the first .25, then the settle. Pace was mostly even given the early mud...definitely a bit faster as I got back on pavement with no real pace fade across the miles.

Great feedback from Lucho this week. He took the time to analyze my LT results from my Boulder Center for Sports Medicine test from late 2008. According to the master, I need to be running in the 135-145 range for most runs with a tempo run sprinkled in weekly in the 150-160 range. "Easy" targets to hit, elegant plan for the foreseeable future. Of course I just need to get used to running slow for the foreseeable future as 135-145 puts me in the 9-9:30 range on a flat course. Kind of an adjustment since I have been running in he low 8's and below through most of the fall and early winter. But, I am convinced this is what I need to do now to build my base fitness for what comes next....

Activity Details for 5 miles - Friday 1/15/2010

Steady 4+ mile at projected marathon pace - 1/13/2010

Needed to keep HR under 156, but for some reason the mood struck to run a bit faster than planned as I have been running slow over the past few weeks. Felt good to get below 8min miles for the first time in awhile, but of course I should have followed the plan. Average HR at 160 for the run...still a higher than I used to be able to run at this pace, but not bad nonetheless.

Met Lucho today in person. It is always great to meet someone in after following their blog for awhile. Had the same experience with Brandon last year when we banged out a 10-mile Heil Loop. Spent a bunch of time talking about training and pacing. Got some great ideas for the next couple of months as I figured out whether Colfax is in my future. Step one was pretty clear...run more. This of course is always my problem as I constantly complain about not having the time with work, family, etc. However, Brandon, Lucho and GZ all make it work with multiple kids and jobs...so I just have to choose to make the miles happen. Step two, give MAF a real try. I have basically been doing this for the last couple of weeks after switching to HR-based training by following Brandon's lead. So now I really need to dial in the right HR. I had mentioned to Lucho yesterday that I through my LT was in the 160's. However I dug up my Boulder Center for Sports Medicine data and came up with the following; report states that my LT back in Sept of 08 was 174 not 172 for a pace between 7:19 down to 6:55 for supra-LT. The max HR listed on the report for VOMax is 182. So, the question is if this puts my MAF target HR closer to 150 rather than 145? I think I heard that MAF is between 25 and 30 beats less than LT? Lucho, what do you think? Step three, do two weeks of MAF with a 5 mile MAF test each week to check current fitness and then jump into a 4 week block of mainly MAF with some progression runs and maybe a bit of tempo. This all fits quite nicely into the current RW plan I am following.

More to come...easy MAF run today either at work or after work....

Stupid HIP is still bugging me a bit, bursitis I think. Not a long term-worry, just an annoyance.




Details here...

Easy 6.5 miles - 1/12/2010 - CC Tech Center

Ran an easy loop in the sun...shorts and a long sleeve shirt. Another beautiful day. Felt great overall, kept HR low throughout. Just under 9min miles...not quite progress yet, but close. Left hip is still a little soar. Ice tonight.

Garmin Connect -Activity Details