Week number 1,034,287

Or whatever week I am really on.  Doesn’t really matter, just how I train and feel.  We are finally into summer here in the high country.  I think that 3 days ago I finally felt that it was warm enough for me to consider it to be summer.  Today the high was 78 degrees.  Yipppie.

So lets start one week ago, the 24th of June.  I suckered a friend into riding mt. bikes with me.  Really it wasn’t that hard to twist his arm.  It was a short fairly easy ride, only an hour and half and my heart rate was low enough that I didn’t have any problems talking and riding the whole time.  I should mention that it is so green and there are so many flowers here that it is hard to not get distracted and just take it all in.

Then Thursday I did a fun run.  We have a whole summer series of fun runs here.  You can get a time but mostly it is a social thing.  So I ran easy, 5 miles in 47 minutes and heart rate never over 140.  I knew that since I was racing on Saturday that I didn’t need to go hard.

On Friday I went to Gunnison with another friend and we swam.  It was the first time for me to actually swim laps and train in the pool (we are the deprived here when they do maintenance on the pools all at the same time).  I swam a little over a mile in a little less than 40 minutes.  I love to swim.  Then a little bit later I spun on my mt. bike for 30 minutes.  We were having the Crested Butte Fat Tire Festival and there is this wonderful pass called Kebbler and they race down it chainless.  Being is Crested Butte fashion most people were dressed up and having a wonderful time.  We spun easy up the road to check it out.

Then on Saturday we raced!!!!  The Fat Tire 40.  40 miles of almost all single track.  It puts a smile on my face just thinking about the course.  I had a little bit of a mechanical at the beginning but once I worked the kink out it was on, like Donkey Kong!!!!  5 hours and third place.  One small crash.  And the best tack single track you can dream up.  About 15 minutes after finishing I was at the Gas Café ordering the most amazing hamburger and french fries.  Took a few minutes to get it and by then I was so hungry.  Did I mention 5 hours on my bike?  It was so worth it.

So on the 7th day I rested.  Ok, only sort of.  I took a photographer from Bike Magazine and rode most of Doctor Park.  A super super duper trail in the area.  I’ll consider it an off day, my heart rate was no more than 100 bpm.  I went home after work and opened a puzzle and kicked my feet up and just chilled.

Monday, ahh Monday.  No blues here, just more sweet single track.  I road with a friend up 401 (could possible be the most famous trail in Colorado without a doubt here).  Since you can’t quite do it as a loop because the top is still under snow we road that as an out and back also.  It was 7 am, not a cloud in the ski, warm (even by my standards), and nothing out there but us, breathing hard and hearing nothing back.  Riding through single track that disappears ten feet in front of you behind walls of plants so green that you would swear they were faked.  And the flowers.  The flowers!!!!  We were out for 2 hours and I think that for the first 45 minutes my heart rate was about 150ish.  I was working moderate.  Not racing but not slacking either.

Then Tuesday I had a massage.  1 hour 15 minutes.  And the sweetness there makes me euphoric.  Yep, I could pretty much walk through walls at that point.  Worked a few areas, I have crashed twice on my right knee and I need a little extra love there.
So Today I ran with a friend and we road our townie bikes out to Tony’s trail and ran it to the Upper to Whetstone through the gold course to the Upper to Tony’s and biked leasurily back home.  1 hour 10 minutes on the run.  A few times (up the steeper parts) my heart rate was 165 but mostly kept it around 150.  Was very thirsty afterwards and had a hard time staying hydrated for the rest of the day.  Now I am making a rhubarb pie that is in the oven as I write.

Race hard and eat pie.  That could be the lesson for the week.

So now I am resting it up for the Firecracker 50, the US national marathon mt. bike championships.  Two laps of 25 miles around Breckenridge CO and we get to start the parade off.  It is my one day of living the Tour De France.  There are 30,000 people cheering you on as you start down the road and enter the 4 and half hours of pain.  I am already anxious for it but for now only time will tell.

I am feeling strong and the races that I have done to prepare myself for the adventure racing season and 24 hour mt bike racing seem to be paying off.  I will know if I have to tweek my training after this weekend.

Keep your fingers crossed and if you happen to have any extra energy Saturday send it my way.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Primal Quest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.