Monday, June 20, 2005

Hugo Road Race

This race wasn't meant to be. Where do I start...

A bunch of people from work went to the high ropes course at CSU. It was a great time (I've always want to play on one of those courses), but I hurt my back. :( Normally I would have rested and it would be no big deal, but having a lower back injury makes it difficult to transfer power to your legs. I made a chiropractor appointment for later that day to try to get better as quickly as possible. It was quite helpful and I spent the rest of the next couple days icing and stretching.

Saturday Christine and I got up bright and early at 5AM for the 2.5 hour trip to Hugo (go to the middle of nowhere and take a left). I thought I did a pretty good job of getting everything together, but I forgot one key ingredient: Accelerade. After experimenting with several different drinks, Accelerade is my endurance drink of choice. I can't believe I forgot Accelerade. Not like I would need any endurance on a 60 mile race. Doh! I filled up one of my bottles with Gatorade instead, but it pales in comparison.

So I started the race with a sore back and Gatorade. And if that wasn't enough, about 5 miles into the race I took a sip from my water bottle and choked. On water. I suck. I pulled off the road and hopped off my bike, because I was literally gasping for air. It was horrible. Once I was able to breath again I had the unenviable task of chasing down the pack. It really kicked my butt and I stayed at the end back of the pack while I nursed my new found side cramp. That ended up really sucking, because once we got to some hills I had to sprint around all the people that were getting dropped. I ended up really blowing up by doing that and got immediately dropped.

Christine also rode in this race, and it was another milestone in her cycling career. The 63 miles race was the longest distance she's ever ridden, and it's also a metric century! She struggled, but even though the support vehicles offered to give her a ride to the finish she still rode the whole thing herself.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

30 Days

Morgan Spurlock, the guy who made "Super Size Me", has a new series that premiers on FX tonight called "30 Days".  The gist of the show is that they put people into another lifestyle for 30 days, sort of walking a mile in someone else's shoes.  The premier, for example, has Morgan and his girlfriend moving to Columbus and living on minimum wage jobs for 30 days.  Upcoming episodes feature someone living as a Muslim for 30 days, and a mom who becomes a binge drinker for 30 days to show her daughter what affect her college-induced binge drinking has on people.  It looks worth checking out for at least one episode.

Monday, June 13, 2005

Flagstaff Mountain

Saturday Christine and I met up with Nat and Carolyn in Boulder to do some bike riding. I rode my bike down while Christine drove down with her bike in the car and we miraculously managed to get to Nat's house within minutes of each other. We're good. From Nat's we headed uphill and tackled Flagstaff mountain. Distance-wise it's a pretty short ride, but it's a real leg burner with grades reaching 15% at times. I'm very happy to say the Christine did an awesome job and powered her way up it. After that, the Triple Bypass will be a piece of cake. :)

FYI - Christine and I signed up to ride the Triple Bypass this year. It's a 120 mile ride with 10, 310 feet of climbing! I'm pretty sure there are places to park on the road, so feel free to come by and watch us suffer (and maybe shout some words of encouragement).

Next on the schedule is the Hugo Road Race, where Christine and I will again attempt to win the non-existent couples division.

Tuesday, June 7, 2005

Safest Drivers

Fort Collins is the 9th safest city for drivers according to Allstate Insurance: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/07/safe.driving.ap/index.html.  Suprisingly, Lakewood is number 8.