Vail

We decided we needed a colorado weekend. So vail it is.

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Where to??

Looking to race this weekend but nothing is real close. Its either north to Nebraska, West to Cruise the Blues, or further west to Copper Mtn. Hmmm. Been to Nebrasaka twice this year, did Cruise the Blues two years ago and not sure im up for 6 hours again, or suffer at altitude for the third time this year????

Watts, Watts, Watts

Everyone seems to be talking about watts lately... Todd Wells isn't sure if he had a good ride on the trails in Durango because his Powertap isnt uploading, even people who are against structured training like Adam Craig can't learn from his race at Windham because his SRM is out of commission, Adam Mills has a whole website devoted to watts where he posts information about people he trains.

When I went out to ride today I had decided that I'd do an interval at 1000 watts to see if I could do 28 seconds like Shad Smith does according to Mills. As I started the interval thinking that I'd be happy to get to 28 seconds and I'd quit at that point I thought about a conversation I had with Steve Tilford one day on a group ride from Lawrence to Topeka. Tilford was asking me about my Powertap and he was saying that he didnt like to use them. He especially didnt like the idea of racing with them because people get caught up in the numbers and dont listen to their bodies. He was basically saying that if he knew he could only sustain a certain wattage for a certain amount of time he would be tempted to back off when that time expired. If he rides without one he just goes as hard as he can as long as possible and could be doing much better than his training suggests he can. Basically he was worried that he would never have that awesome, record breaking day if he worried about the watts. So could I have done more than 28 seconds at 1k watts today?? Who knows. Ill blame the powertap for the couple of seconds I was short.

Royals

Went to the "K" last night to see the last place team in the division play the next to last place team....We were not disappointed, as it was a pretty slow game and when we finally left the Indians scored a bunch of runs. Not too many people out at the stadium at all. Had a some bbq that was pretty good, so that was a highlight. It was perfect weather too. Had an off week last week with little to no riding until the weekend. It was great, got a ton of stuff done including some much overdue yard work. Went to the Carnecuceria (mexican meat market) on sunday and picked up some carne asada, porko somethingo, chorizo, and a bunch of tortillas. We will be eating authentic homemade mexican all week. yummmm.

Windham

Half way through the first lap and only a few bike lengths from Decker, Wicks, and Shultz. Still in front of Max Plaxton and Rotem Ishay. If only I could have stayed there for the whole race.

Heres some pics from Windham last weekend. We had a good trip but I had some bad luck in the XC. Katie was in NYC all week which made it convienient for me to come in Thursday night and we got up early so I could go into the city for my first time. Pretty cool place, we were only there for a few hours but was able to take in a bunch of the sights. In the XC I was in a good position at the bottom of the first lap when my rear tire went flat. Rode about 3/4 mile on the rim and then put some air in it. Rode another 50 ft and it was flat again. After some inspection I found a nail sticking in one side and out the other. Put in a tube, borrowed a pump in the tech zone, completed a slow change and eventually got going again. Rode as fast as I could as I knew I would likely get pulled next time through the start/finish. I caught a good 10-12 guys before the inevetiable happened. Ended up 54th or so.

Short track went much better with a 26th. Almost made it to the 3 laps to go sign. All but about 10 guys got pulled by the time it was over. We had to pack up the bike quickly, jump in the rental and drive back to NYC to catch our flight home. Windham is about close to Woodstock and the 40th anniv. stuff was going on up there. Those New Yorkers are a different breed.

Had a lot of mechanicals, crashes, injuries, and plain bad luck this year at the USCUPs. Broke a skewer, had a flat, and had a huge thorn in my hand. This seems to happen every other year, so next year should go much smoother.

Nail

Was riding in top thirty when I got a nail in my tire...got going again after a couple stops to put in air and eventually a tube. Passed a bunch of guys but got pulled in 54th place. Could have been in top thirty as good as I felt. Short track tomorrow.

Just in time

A week after discovering my bike was broken I have a new one. Just in time too as they finished putting it together about 15 minutes before I needed to leave for the airport to go to windham,ny for the uscup. Giant and Capps came through but I was getting a little nervous.

Chad's blog

Katie's cousins boyfriend was in a pretty bad motorcycle crash a few weeks ago. He seems to be doing pretty well and is blogging about the recovery process. http://righthandsidecurve.wordpress.com/

Psycowpath

Kate and I got up early and drove up to Omaha for the next round of the Psycowpath series. We got there to find out it was hot there too, 100 degrees. The field was big and fast as usual. The start went okay, as per plan I got on the wheel of Kent Mcneil and Cam Kirkpatrick and planned on staying there as long as possible. That wasnt long. I was having more trouble than I should have staying on Kevin Limpach's wheel as the heat started effecting me too quickly and I started fading fast. By the end of the first lap I was gapped from the front group and guys started going by as I was cramping and feeling sick. Then I would recover, make up some ground, only to almost come to a stop again. I felt tired, which led to gels, which led to upset stomach, which led to almost stopping. Felt better the last part of the last lap and passed one guy and almost caught another to finish somewhere around 7th or 8th I think. The results were a little different than usual for a nebraska race I think, with Kevin Limpach taking the win, Kirkpatrick in 2nd, and maybe Mark Savery on his singlespeed up there was well. At least thats what it looked like when I could see the leaders. Racing in Nebraska is fun as there are a bunch of fast guys so you always have to be on the gas or someone will come by. Midwest Cycling community, Rassmussen, and Monkey Wrench make up three bike shops/teams that are really dedicated to MTB racing which is cool.

After working outside in the heat all day friday, I think it was a little too much to try and race in it on Saturday. Hopefully it will be a little cooler this week.

After the race we picked up Mr. Leinwetter and headed to the Davis Bachelor party. Those guys were a little to raucus for me and I called it a night at about midnight after checking out the Power and Light District for the first time. That is one of the coolest things that KC has probably built in a long time.

Giant problem

Time for a new bike...this ones way over a month old anyways.

Gravel Road Rash

Decided Sunday to head down to St. Louis for the Castlewood Mtb race. I figured they would have a good field and they would be on their home trails for once which would make it fun. Everything started out pretty well, Breslin took the lead and I was more than happy to follow as I figured I would have some trouble on the descents with a hurt hand. Soon it was Breslin, myself, Ploch, and John Schlotter with nobody else in sight. We were cruising along at a nice pace when Dave flatted which put me into the front. I picked up the pace a bit on the next climb to see how the other two were feeling and then we rode together for the rest of the lap as it was mostly downhill and I felt like I was holding the local Ploch up. We hit a flat fast section at the bottom and were cruising along, then a right turn came up and I found myself flying over the bars with Chris ramming into my bike. I untangled the bike and checked out my injuries as the other two rode off. After figuring out that everything hurt except my hand, I decided to continue. I rode a decent lap, just having fun, hoping to catch up later in the race when I went around that corner again, and again, found myself flying over the bars. It was a rock on the outside of the trail that my pedal kept clipping. By now I had gravel road rash from my shoulder to my knee and was hurting pretty bad. I stopped at my cooler and planned on quitting. The entire field went by and I decided I might as well do another lap to get in a workout. Turns out my pedal was broken and I couldnt clip in, plus the rear der. was bent and I only had a few gears. I worked my way through the entire field, back up to 3rd and then called it a day so I could start with some injury recovery. Too much crashing lately. Ploch won pretty handily. Castlewood's trails are pretty fun, lots of little climbs and descents with some fast singletrack, ive been there twice, and never finished a race yet.