Hittin' the Road

This will be my last post before the 14th annual 24 Hours of Moab. I'm psyched, but also a little nervous and a little anxioux. I feed off of the emotions though. Besides, if you go in to a race like this with a false sense of reality, your doomed from the start. I know what to expect, I know what I'm about to have to endure, and I'm ready. I love it. It's why we do it. It's twisted, I know, but if you're reading this post then you probably understand. If not, well there's really no point in trying to explain it.
The solo field is stacked, 60 + riders. Many of which are elite. My buddy Len sent me an email to wish me luck...well, it was more of a "go kick some ass" email as opposed to a "good luck" email, but he did say something that has really stuck: "you're just as tough as those other cats". He's right, and in 2 days I'm going to prove it.

Dialed

Inside of a week. The bike is dialed, the body is dialed, the mind is dialed.
The weather forecast is looking a little suspect for the race. Honestly though, it really doesn't matter. If it means I have to dig deeper and suffer more, so be it. I'm prepared for whatever comes my way. It's a good feeling!

3am and Chocolate Milk

We're inside of two weeks now. Moab will be here soon! I'm ready. I've trained my ass off, stayed healthy (knock on wood), and now I'm tapering/resting and doing some fun rides to keep the pop in my legs. I'm prepared physically and mentally. I'm ready!

It's a little tough, but very important, to keep things in check right now. My mind starts to race a little when I get close to a big race...and this is a very big race. Lately I've been waking up between 3am and 3:08am and my mind is racing. Part of the reason is work and life in general is a little stressful right now, but part of it's because I'm consumed with Moab. It's all good though. It's an important race for me so I should be consumed with it. It's important though that I use this as motivation and not let it drain me or get me too worked up. The trick for me is to manage the emotions and fuel off of them.

The solo field is stacked. Eatough, Hendershot, Lichtenwalner, Tinker, Tostado, Wheeler...all the big dogs are coming out to play. I'm looking forward to racing against those guys!

Night riding tonight with the boys! Should be fun!

-The pic is from a ride last weekend up at Hay Park. It was pretty amazing up there!

K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the 70’s weekend just keeps on truckin’

If I had to pick my favorite time of year for mountain biking, it would have to be fall. Fall in Aspen is pretty amazing as far as I'm concerned. The air is crisp, the colors are amazing, the weather is usually perfect for riding, and the trails are sprinkled with gold colored aspen leaves. On my last couple of rides, I have literally felt like I'm riding through a painting. I've enjoyed stopping on occasion to take it all in, and as I do I'm reminded of one of the reasons I ride my bike...to have fun! It's easy to lose track of the basics sometimes, especially when training for a 24 hour solo race. It's important to keep it all in perspective. Sure there are days when I really don't want to get on my bike but I honestly can't remeber a time that I haven't been happy about doing it. I've yet to get off of my bike after a ride and say "I wish I didn't just do that ride". There have been days though where I didn't ride and I wish I had...you get my point.

Last weekend was my last big weekend of riding before Moab. I feel like I literally spent my entire weekend in the saddle. Now it's time to start tapering. I'll spend a few days off the bike completely and then I'll ease back in to it. I want to make sure that I'm well rested going in to Moab. 3 weeks and counting. I'm feeling strong and healthy. Anxious for race day!

12 Hours of Snowmass

A few pics from the 12 Hours of Snowmass.

What a week....

Wow, has it been a month since my last post? Yes. Well, honestly I haven't had too much to write about. I've been training, but it's been relatively uneventful. Ive been doing big rides, beautiful rides, fun rides, some not-so-fun rides...a lot of rides.

Last week though was far from uneventful. It was a pretty epic week on the bike. It started on Wed. night when Lance Armstrong showed up to the last Aspen Cycling Club race of the season, a mountain bike race up Smuggler, down to Hunter Creek, up to Four Corners, around Hobbit, and down Plunge to finish back in Hunter Creek Valley. It was pretty surreal to line up next to him at the start and to hammer up Smuggler with him for about 5 minutes before he decided to twist the throttle. Lance won the race, Len Zanni gave him a run for his money and finished 14 seconds back. I finished 5th, about 3 minutes back.

Then on Sunday I had my second opportunity in less than a week to race against Lance. It was the 12 Hours of Snowmass and he partnered up with two of my friends, Max Taam and Len Zanni, to race in the men's trio division. I partnered up with Mike Scanlon and Jason Anderson in the same division. The men's trio division was stacked. Word got out quick about Lance racing and some of the top professional riders came out to race against a legend. Lance, Len, and Max won the race with Weins, Kloser, and Henry close behind. My team finished in 5th place with a very respectable showing. It was one of those Epic days! The course was tough (1500 feet of climbing/7 mile lap), but fun! The weather was absolutely amazing, and the competition was second to none. It was great training for Moab and I'm coming in to it feeling strong!

Emma Roubaix - Feeling Strong

"The weather keeps cooperating for the Road Races for some reason-this could have been a very interesting race if it was wet! For the final road race of the season, it looked like the core SMA group of Wade, Max, Jason, and Len broke away early and worked well together to stay away. With about 4 miles to go, Wade attacked. He opened up a gap and stayed away from his pursuers to take the win. Congrats Wade Newsom!"

I was a bit surprised at how good I felt for Wednesday's ACC race. I had logged some big miles the days prior and my legs felt a little heavy during my warm up. Once the race started though, the legs woke up and I felt great. It was a fun race and I'm psyched with the win. I'm feeling like things are on pace for Moab!