Getting into the swing.....
I thought of writing this post as I walked outside early Friday morning to the crisp Colorado air in February. I looked up at the 6ish AM sunrise glowing amber on Pikes Peak while my crazy german short-hair continued to make use of the facilities on the 1st thing outside my apartment. I couldn't help snickering about how great my life is and has been even with the ups and downs I've seen. That was odd to think considering I suffered the broken leg last summer and I was actually sick all week after my first race attempt of the season. Yeah that's right racing in February! More on that in a second because it actually wasn't all that bad. Anyways I took a second to be thankful for everything going great in my life....living in CO (although it's cramped and crammed to the gills with toys) with my beautiful girlfriend Heather (although she is stressed to the max finishing her professional degree, interning and coaching lacrosse), working a job I'm passionate about (although the pay isn't making me rich), riding my bikes (alot if you include the amount I ride my cruiser to run the energy out of our dog), getting to the mtns on occasion to hit the snow (not nearly enough to get comfy), and have a small group of friends that I hang out with time to time and ride with as much as I can. I can't really complain and I think this realization is what really keeps the smile on my face and the will to keep on keepin on (as the late Joe Dirt would say). Or maybe, "life's a garden...dig it," if you like that one better. I have so much that is good and so little that is bad and that is why even after I just saw my doctor today for a pre-op apt that I'm still positive. Yep, you heard it. Decided to voluntarily go back into surgery to have all the hardware from last summer's break (no pun intended) removed even when I'd say I'm probably 99.9% fine. I just want it out so I know that my body is just me an that there is no room for complications or irritations later. So as of next week, March 6, 2008, I'll be back under the knife and probably some Dewalt powertools to remove the last of the screws and plates. I think this surgery that I scheduled back in January helped me get to where I'm at now as far as my fitness goes. Since my plan was to hit the training really hard up to the day of surgery, maybe to the point of the bubble of overtraining, and then recover really well while I let the wound heal from surgery. So that is why I raced Valley of the Sun Stage Race with all the MOB Cyclery team last weekend. And I must say it was like good ole times piling 7 guys deep in a stickered up race van carrying 23 bikes and probably 40 sets of wheels. Yeah we couldn't even get out of the side doors of the van because wheels were blocking the way...so we settled for crawling over the cooler and out the passenger doors. Following a good 12 hrs to really get to know your teammates, we ended up with sweet housing in Phoenix is a huge rental house. Good nights rest on a pillowtop paid off as I had a respectable TT finishing 50th, 57th in the RR, and 32nd in the crit. All in all 37th in the GC out of over 100 Cat 2's that started. Although if you look at the results all those AZ and SoCal boys were flyin right now. I guess that's what you get when the weather allow you to train all winter. Not me, I got some nice powder days in this winter in the mountains and I still did fine for Feb. Too bad I came home sick with a flu bug that I fought all week and tried to hack out with two 90 mile days over the weekend. i think it almost worked besides the feeling of a cheese grater in my throat after trying to climb with some teammates at threshold pace. Not the best idea after coming off a sick week. And don't think I am breaking the rules of taking double the days rests of the days sick because I only was sick for a day and then I came off feeling better and just had tons of gunk in my sinuses that I had to get rid of. Now I'm set to hit a few hard days this week and hopefully get to go down with a new training buddy and fellow collegiate coach, Cory Carlson, to NM for the 1st collegiate race of the Rocky Mtn season. I hope to get to help with coaching some of the Intro clinics and get some racing in my legs prior to surgery next week. Heck maybe I can score some Cat 1 upgrade points in the crit if I'm lucky and feel like puttin some on the line. We'll see how it goes!

Spring ramping.....
It's been a while since the last operation comeback post regarding getting back to normal following my broken leg. Well it's now Feb and my leg is healed after the winter and I'd say I'm 100%....except for the fact that I've decided to have a surgery on March 6th to have the 6 in plate and final screws removed. I don't want any complications in the future and I will feel much better knowing that I am supported by my own bone and not some ti plate.

Anyways the winter went well and the recovery was easier than I expected. I ended up running the Rock Canyon 1/2 Marathon with Heather on Dec 1st with only 5 runs under my belt since surgery. Not bad to finish in sub 1:45 for the whole thing when I only planned to just run part of it with her for support. I have to say thanks to Carrie, Heather's training partner, for letting me use her entry since I wasn't even registered, but also sorry that she had to roll her ankle on their final long training run prior to the race.

I also got a chance to race at CX Nationals in Kansas City, KS on borrowed bike (thank T.G.) and borrowed shoes (thanks Scott). It was awesome ripping around in 15 degree weather breaking ice covered ground from the prior weeks Midwest ice storm. I started last row of 60+ riders and ended up racing into 10th place to finish. Not bad considering I hadn't ridden or dismounted a CX bike since 2006 CX nationals in Providence, RI. I wish I could just stick to one discipline but damn I love bikes...period! That also reminds me...since I couldn't race the Leadville 50 during the summer due to my broken leg, the promoter gave me automatic lottery into the Leadville 100 for 2008 (which isn't easy to get). I'm excited about that to do some high altitude trail racing that starts at 10,200 and goes up above 12,000 ft. Woooo hoooo! I hope to prep for it by racin the Firecracker 50 in Breckenridge the month prior on July 4th. It should be a good tuner 1 mth prior to see where I'm at on the mtb.

Now that it is Feb, I've actually logged some good winter miles on both the road bike and mtn bike to keep it fresh over the cold months. Luckily the MOB crew planned a quick training camp over MLK day in Tucson for some warm base miles and I was able to haul down in the team van for 60 deg riding while it was single digits here in CO. That sure was nice to get 5 good days of miles and even some intensity hitting up the Saturday morning Shootout, that is coined as one of the fastest group rides in the nation. And I must say for an hour it was a slugfest.

Since then a few weeks ago, I've really been ramping up the training since our team will be racing at Valley of the Sun stage race in Phoenix in 2 wks. Luckily I've got an uber talented teammate, Scott Nagelkerke, that has raced from a Cat 5 to Cat 2 in less than one year to ride with on the weekends. It's nice being able to put in long days and have twinkle-toes push me up the climbs while I show some strength pulling on the flats and downhills.

As of last night I had pull off a makeshift TT set-up on my road bike, since I don't have a true TT bike yet for VoS. I may be getting one but don't want to be setting it up day of the race and I figured some carbon clip ons and some time on it prior will make a huge difference.

I must close with the fact of how fired up I am to compete this year following the broken summer of 2007 and the transition to CO of 2006...both of which put a big damper on racing. This season looks to be totally different!