Entries from October 21, 2007 - October 27, 2007
Enter sand man
So the Coloradans will have their fill of sand this weekend given the races locale: The Boulder Reservoir. Brian H and the BoulderRacing.com crew will be out there in force to get course dialed. Bring your Stans however given the unbelievable amount of goat heads on the course. Last year, Chris G literally swept and raked every square inch of the course by hand to free it if the spiky race ruiners.
My run today was unbelievable. One of those absolutely picture perfect fall mornings. I couldn't believe how well I responded back to the running after doing so much of it to prep for 'cross (~ 3 x per week). I felt light and the legs turned over good. I will be missing this weekends beach frolics as I'm heading east for the family fun. Then back to help Chris G set up for the UCI races coming next weekend. This race and a re-emphasis on running will help as training for my Mol trip.....which will have monster sections of sand and require power and running savvy. John Suzuki, a CA based 'crosser captured some great pics you can see here:
Needless to say, I will be found at the Rez days in December getting the whole sand thing dialed for January 19th 2008.
'Cross on, peeps.
The Wed Morning Cross World Championships...2007 No. 8
Yes sports fans, the Wednesday World championships were in effect this AM! Gotta love Boulder. We went from epic 30 degree snowering on Sunday to 65 and sunny today. Gorgeous.
Today was the typical ENORMOUS field of cross enthusiasts. Literally, we have doctors, lawyers, technologists, general worker bees out there. Each punching holes in their schedules as the Wednesday throw down is not to be missed. WAY too many ego-based bets and shit talking going on that people live for week after week after week. Today, lots of the strong men and women out. No Sager (where were you man!??) but lots of the top shelf was there including B-money, Danny "I'm going to own Juri Adams in 08" Summerhill, Colby and more.
Special guest today: My boy Timmy "The Truth" Faia. Don't ask me why I called you The Truth Timmy....it just came to me. Thanks for making the trek from Breck! Hey, that rhymes...
Session 1: Elks. The bag-o-barriers made its debut again and we had a great course set up. Plan was to slow burn into this session instead of shooting all the bullets in one fully automatic spray and I felt very fast. Not quite fast enough to stay with Brandon, Troy and Danny, but fast enough for like 5th I think in the 25 minute heat. The WB and I rolled very nicely together trading some work which felt great to do with him as we've had plans for a while to try our tag team! Ha!
Session 2: Valmont. The Parks and Recs folks came to 'greet' us and we complied nicely. They were not psyched but the work folks like Cat Johnson has been doing was all front loaded today and they knew we could be there. We stayed on the perimeter of the grass and monitored the large gate so as to not let the disgusting disease infested death varmints in or out (Boulders sacred and protected prairie dogs). Thanks all who looked after the gate for the rest of us! Session 2 for me was about 'completeness'. I wanted a good workout and rolled evenly through the thick grass. I stayed in the front 1/2 of the large field and just put in some attacks to work on some sharp end intervals. The body is still feeling the cold I have but definitely dissipating. All in all, two good deep sessions today.
No racing this weekend at the Boulder Rez and all its lovely goat heads. Good luck with that boys and girls! Traveling to see my family and looking forward to some rest and home cookin'.
Sorry not a lot of pics today as I was busy getting in a work out or two. Some digital celluloid:


Climbing intervals. Yum.
I'm getting back after it today. The WB and I did a nice recovery spinny spin yesterday but today I needed to get the engine ramped back up. The head cold is dissipating and the neck lymphs are going down. Good times. I will not be racing this weekend so I am getting in a bunch of heavier training which I am psyched for. All that climbing this summer seems like a distant memory but it comes back right quick when you hurl yourself up a mountain. Feels good.
I jammed some Lee Hill repeats today. Lee Hill is literally next to my house and is a well known training 'institution' here in town used to bench mark fitness. Big Mig himself came here in the 90's with Banesto and used Lee Hill as a training simulation for (I think) the 1994 TdF's uphill time trial. If you stop by U-Bikes here in town, they will give you the low down on his visit.
So, climbing this AM got me to thinking. What is this hill? What do I feel like when I am trialing it for bench marks? Let me sum it up this way:
Wednesday World's tomorrow. See you there!
Boulder Interlocken Pics by Mark Wollcott
Some "odd" scoring at Boulder/Interlocken on Saturday
So, investigating the 35 Open results from Saturday, there are some obvious scoring errors going on. Yvonne from the ACA is looking into it but due to the huge fields, dudes who got lapped (including one of my team mates!) got lumped into the top 20. So three places will likely get relegated. Am I being an anal retentive beeatch? Ha! I guess so. You can call me a chump the next time you see me.
Nice pic from Ward's 'A' bike yesterday after the Open race in Evergreen. Epic say he and Boups: