Tour of the Gila

Tomorrow morning I embark on a journey to the Tour of the Gila in Silver City New Mexico. I'll be racing 4 stages starting Thursday May 1, and finishing Sunday May 4:

Stage 1: 64 mile road race
Stage 2: 16 mile time trial
Stage 3: 15 mile crit
Stage 4: 72 mile road race

I don't feel like I'm in particularly good race shape, but hopefully I can hang. There will be a lot of people there brining their 'A' game and I feel like I'm bringing B+ at best. Hopefully I can screw up other people's 'A' games. :)

We've got a team of 4 guys in the cat 4's and 5 in the cat 3's, so Blue Sky will be making a solid showing visually if not results-wise. We even got some last minute door magnets for the cars we're driving down, so people will know we mean business.

I'm all set up to post via iPhone to Flickr and LiveJournal so stay tuned for updates.

Fauxhawk

Seriously, enough with the fauxhawk already. If you want spiked hair, show some commitment and get out the razor.

Traveling without a laptop

As good technology addicted people, Christine and I rarely go on a trip without bringing at least one notebook computer. (Frequently we'll each bring one.) On our weekend trip to Colorado Springs, our notebook obsession was replaced by my iPhone. With my iPhone, we could browse the web, check email, and even use Google Maps to get directions or find a Starbucks at 6AM.

Yeah, I'm just justifying my iPhone purchase. :) I will also justify it next week when I can post photos and blogs from my phone when I'm in New Mexico.

Race Weekend in Colorado Springs

Saturday morning, Christine and I packed up the wagon and went down to Colorado Springs for some bike racing and socializing.


We started our stay in Colorado Springs by meeting up with Christine's family at Colorado College (where her cousin is a freshman). After some lunch, I suited up for the criterium. Because of the way the arranged theose categories, I was able to do two races (a cat 4/5 race and a cat 3/4 race). First up was the 4/5. At the start line, I missed clipping into my pedal, but I didn't lose many places. The really killer part of the course was a short steep hill. That thing was surprisingly killer on my legs and lungs. After spending some time on the front and the back of the pack, I ended up finishing somewhere in the middle of the group.

Immediately after the 4/5 race, I had to line up for the 3/4 race. I was too tired for this fast paced group and only had about 15 minutes in my legs. It was killer. I wish I could have stayed in longer, but it wasn't meant to be.

Those were crits 3 and 4 for me this year, which is 4 more than I did last year. I don't care how many crits I do, I'll still be nervous at the start line. I am, however, feeling better during the race.





In a stroke of great luck, Jamie had a birthday party on the same weekend were were planning on being in Colorado Springs. We spent the evening catching up with some people that we don't get to see too often and it was a great time. I hated that I had to get up at 5AM the next morning because I would have loved to stay later.

The race du jour for Sunday was the Air Force Academy road race. It's a great course, and I'm happy they put on a race. My start time was 7AM (ugh), so we got up really early to eat breakfast and get all my crap together. As usual, Christine was the ultimate teammate, pinning on my number and helping me get my other stuff together.

I was able to stay at the front of the race pretty easily. My fitness is better than in past years, but also my comfort level in the pack has improved greatly. When we hit the climbing section on the first lap, we paced picked up a bit, but it wasn't too much of a struggle to hang on. When we hit the climbing section on the second lap, I made a mistake.

For the whole race there were two teams that regularly had 3-4 guys at the front of the group. When the climb really started, those two teams each had a rider attack. I was at the front of the group and decided to sit up and see what would happen with their move. Shockingly, their teammates flew by me and pulled the whole group with them. It's amazing. For those not familiar with bike racing, when your teammate attacks you shouldn't tow the rest of the field up to them.

I misjudged how small our group had gotten, and I soon found myself off the back and not able to accelerate enough to catch back on. Without the shelter of the pack, I was left to fight the wind solo and I could never catch them. In the end, I crossed the line in 20th place. Not bad, but I know I had the legs to do better. It was another good race learning experience.

Next up on the racing schedule: The Tour of the Gila in New Mexico.

SIlly Goose - Part 2

Remember when that goose was pecking my car? It was protecting its nesting area. And today, I saw the fruits of it's labor:


I hate the geese around here, but those baby geese are f-ing cute.

Bring on the produce

For the past couple weeks I've been slowly working on building our garden. It's the same type of planter as we built for our raspberries, but I've been spreading the work over several days instead of doing it all at once. It's all ready to be filled with soil and fenced off now. Sometime in May we'll plant some stuff, and hopefully it will grow. :)

Even if our garden fails miserably, we have plan B: We signed up for a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program. Every week this summer we'll be getting some fresh, local, organic produce. It's going to be fun finding some recipes for vegetables that we wouldn't normally buy. As part of the CSA, we also signed up for a fruit share (peaches, pears, apples, strawberries). It's going to be a tasty summer.

Rules of cycling

Rule number....whatever:
Don't celebrate until after you've won the sprint or you run the risk of being nipped at the line:

Mark Wolcott's picture of the 35+ race finish