PCBT 2014

Twelve years ago, I bought this book in preparation for a three day ride from Santa Barbara to Santa Cruz.  My riding partner got sick on the second day and we didn't finish the ride, but it was still a fun trip and ever since, I've wanted to do the whole thing.  A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to meet someone who was also interested in the adventure of a long bike trip down the coast.  We've spent over a year now talking about it, planning, organizing, collecting equipment and now it is time for the journey to begin.  We're heading out to Anacortes, WA where we will meet up with the rest of our riding team.  Mari, Nora's longtime and closest friend, who is also a bike enthusiast (she doesn't even have a car!) will be riding the whole route with us.  We will begin on July 1st leaving from Nora's parents' driveway to head south down the coast riding between 25 and 80 miles each day, camping and staying with friends and at hostels and enjoying the views  along the coast until we reach my parent's house in Laguna Beach on August 3.  We will post pictures and stories along the way.  It should be quite an adventure.

The Hesitating Beauties take the Mount Taylor Winter Quadrathlon

I was very excited (and relieved) after watching some video of the ski portion of the Quad when Nora suggested that we compete as a team in the Pairs Division.  I could bike and run and she would ski and snowshoe.  The perfect solution and so we became the Hesitating Beauties and we were on our way to a one of a kind event in Grants, New Mexico.
The Mt. Taylor Winter Quadrathlon consists of 13 miles of uphill road biking, 5 miles of running up a dirt road, 2 miles of uphill cross country/back-country skiing and a 1 mile snowshoe to the top of 11,301 foot Mt. Taylor and then . . . you do it all again in reverse.  The pairs and teams took off an hour after the solo competitors and we were a smaller group.  It had been a while since I'd competed in a bike race and I hadn't even been on my road bike in months, so I decided to be conservative at the start.  The first couple mile took us through the town of Grants and out on to the road leading up Mt. Taylor.  The top 15-20 riders rode as a pack which I guess was okay.  I was unsure of the etiquette in this race recalling my triathlon days where drafting on the bike was strictly forbidden.  A few of us in the pack talked about this and it seemed no one was really sure so we just rode on taking turns pulling up front.  Once we hit the hill about 4 miles in, the pack started to split up and I was surprised for a while to find myself out front. As the climb steepened and my unconditioned legs tired, I got reeled in and passed (but not dropped) by a few riders. The climb was tough, but the scenery was nice, the sun was warm and it felt good to be out on the bike and hanging in with the lead group. The last 3 miles were pretty steep and I started to look forward to arriving at the transition and getting off the bike to run. I was the 5th rider in from the team/pairs start, quickly found my running shoes, shed my helmet and gloves, grabbed a cup of water and chuck of banana and headed up the road.

My legs were heavy for the first couple miles, but I loosened up and caught three of the four teams/pairs that had started ahead of me. The run continued up a wide dirt road that turned in to mud, snow and ice in the last two miles. I ran in to the run/ski transition where Nora was waiting and quickly snapped into her skis and headed out on to an icier, steeper and more extreme ski course than anyone was expecting.  

Nora of course took it on like the champion skiier that she is, smiling the whole way. . .  with maybe a couple of falls and some cursing here and there.  After successfully navigating the ski course up, Nora strapped on her snow shoes and raced the last mile to the 11,301 foot summit of Mt. Taylor where she took a moment to enjoy the view before turning around and flying back down the slope to clip back in to her skis.  Downhill skiing is where Nora truely excels and after the race, she modestly shared that she passed 23 other skiers on the downhill.  When she got back to the ski/run transition, I was ready and waiting and took off to run the 5 miles back to my bike.  I was looking forwad to the long down hill bike ride where I could push a big gear, tuck in and fly back to the finish, but I was instead hit with some fierce afternoon headwinds that I fought for most of the 13 miles back down to Grants. 

I rolled in to the finish for a combined time of 5 hours 28 minutes which seemed pretty respectable.  I found Mike and Jessica in the beer tent and enjoyed a Santa Fe brewing State Pen Porter while I waited for Nora to get shuttled back to the finish.  When Nora arrived, we watched the finish line for Chris and Steph (the instigator of this whole thing) who showed up all smiles after a long day on the race course.

Nora and I checked the results and found that we placed 3rd overall in the pairs division.  We stuck around for the awards and proudly collected our yellow race caps and glass trophies. 

We left Grants victorious and drove two hours to Santa Fe where we showered and enjoyed a delicious Valentine's + 1 dinner at the Blue Corn Cafe.  It was a super fun weekend exploring a new place, competeing in a unique event and hanging out with some good friends. 

Winter Running, Snowshoeing, Skiing, and some changes to the plans

I got out last weekend for my first races of the year, first races since Thanksgiving actually, and now my legs are very tired.  I decided on Friday to drop from the 30K snowshoe to the 11.4 mile race which is an out and back on the Sourdough trail just above Nederland.  I have done the 30K race three times, but this year I really didn't feel that I had the fitness. I drove up to Nederland on Saturday morning with Jessie, who was going out for her first snoeshoe race (and her second time out in snowshoes).  When we got to the trailhead at 8:30, it was already sunny and warm and only a little breezy.  Snow condidtions on the trail looked pretty good- packed down and pretty well covered.  I took off at a comfortable and relaxed pace in the back 1/3 of the pack.  I slowly moved my way up keeping the pace very easy.  It was a really beautiful day out on the trails and I was remined of how much I enjoy snowshoeing.  I felt better than I expected to, so as I got close to the turn around at mile 5.7, I decided to count the runners coming back to see what place I was in.  #1 was a good mile ahead of me, then the 2nd, 3rd and 4th runners came along.  #5 was a little further back, probably only a quarter mile ahead and then I hit the turn around in 6th place in 1:20.  I ate a couple fig newtons and filled my water.  The guy behind me that I had passed a little ways back came in to the turn around right after me, and we left at the same time to head back- mostly downhill to the finish.  I tried to stay in the moment running back and just enjoy the time on the trail.  I tend to spend a lot of time (and mental energy) late in a race or long run counting down the distance to the finish.  Today I decided on really trying to just enjoy each moment of the run instead of only thinking about how long it would be before I was done.  I did pretty well with this for a while and vowed to keep running (and living) in the moment as a ongoing goal.  I took a couple of falls on the way back.  Once I caught my front crampon on a root and later the front of my snow show in a deep rut of snow.  Both times I was able to get back up pretty quickly with no damage done besides another tear in my tights.  The forgivingness of snowy trails is another reason I like snowshoeing.  In the final 3/4 mile, I heard another runner closing in behind me and then I saw the guy that had left the turn around with me on the switchback just above.  I was a little frustrated to be getting based in the final mile, but wasn't too worried about it.  I kept running, but moved to the side of the trail to let him pass, but he didn't.  The trail flattened out and opened up and I picked up my pace and opened up a the gap behind me.  With less than a 1/4 mile to go, I saw the 5th place runner ahead (and apparently having some difficulty with a snowshoe, but still having a good time).  I passed him and ran on to the finish in 2 and 1/2 hours for 5th place.  I was awarded with a pair of socks from the raffle (I can always use more socks).  I changed in to dry clothes then hiked back up the trail a bit to run in with Jessie.  I got back home with time to enjoy the last bit of a beautiful warm January day and take an easy bike ride round Fort Collins.
Sunday it was back in to the mountains for the Frost Giant double in Estes Park.  This was my 4th consecutive trip to Estes in January to run a 5K and a 10K in quick succession.  My legs were tired from snowshoeing, but it was another beautiful warm day and there was a big Fort Colling crew in attendance.  I was considerably slower than last year in both races, but I had a good time and felt like maybe all this running and racing would be a good start to getting back in shape.
I decided not to go up to the Snowys this weekend for another snowshoe race and stayed in Fort Collins instead for some good XC skiing around Pineridge with Nora and Shadow.

I'm starting to feel a lot better on the skis although I still have a long way to go.  When I realized just how far last week, Nora and I decided to do the Winter Quadrathlon as a team instead.  I will bike and run and Nora will ski and snowshoe.  It will be a lot of fun to compete as a team.

Today Nora and I joined the FCRC at Fossil Creek Park for the 5K Tortoise and Hare Race.  It was 0 degrees at the start and pretty icy on the course, but many of our friends were there enjoying the morning and there were bagels and coffee after.

Looking further in to the future, Nora, Mari and I have put together the plans for our day by day route for the bike tour in July.  We'll average around 50 miles/day, do a lot of camping in beautiful places on the coast, stay with friends, and enjoy the journey.

What's Next?

It's been almost a month now since my 91 seconds after the cut-off finish at the Western States 100.  I've rested, recovered and  had plenty of time to think about what happened out there on the trail between Squaw Valley and Auburn.  There are still some unresolved questions, the biggest is, "Will I put my name back in the lottery and try to go back out to California for another shot at the buckle?"  All I can say for now is, "We'll see."  In the meantime there are some more events on the calendar.  Next week, I'm heading to the great Northwest with Nora to visit the Testermans and see where Nora grew up.  It is going to be a fun trip with visits to Nora's family and friends, sailing, rowing, visiting Seattle's famous sites and the flagship REI store, of course, an overnight on Guemes Island, kayaking in Port Townsend with the Randalls, a trip to Portland to visit my friends Ed and Vickie and their new twin girls, Sky and Sylvia and Nora's sister Jill - looking forward to the famous food trucks.  And of course... a trail race.  The day after we arrive, we are going out to Bellingham, WA for the Chuckanut Mountain 30K.  Jill, best friend Mari and I are all registered for this final race of the Bellingham Trail Running Series.  Nora and I thought it would be fun to do a trail race during our trip when we planned it back in March.  Nora's racing plans changed to allow time to recover from a recent surgery and I didn't really count on how little running I would feel like doing after spending more than 30 hours on the Western States course.  I have run maybe 5 times in the 3 1/2 weeks since WS and all my runs have been less than 6 miles.  Well, I'm not really that worried about it.  It is always fun to run in beautiful new places and the cut-off time is generous . . .  I haven't been doing much running lately, but I have gotten out on my road bike a lot more than I have in the past several years.  On the last day of school, after talking with a colleague, Katy Williams, over several beers about the Fort Collins ProChallenge Experience 108 mile Bike Ride, I signed up.  Why not?  I figured it would be a good idea to have something to train for after WS, Katy said she and some friends were doing it and it sounded like fun.  That ride, which is farther than I've ever ridden and includes some serious climbing and 30 miles of dirt roads in the mountains is now 18 days away.  I have gotten out on a few rides in the last couple weeks.  I did the 46 mile Rist Canyon/Buckhon loop on Sunday and this morning I rode a 62 mile loop through Masonville, past Carter Lake and back up through Loveland around Boyd Lake.  With the trip to Washington, I won't get much more riding in, but I think/hope it should go okay.  It will be tough, but I enjoy a challenge.  I do plan to get back to running this fall, and what better race to get back to it with than the trail race that is nearest and dearest to my heart, The Blue Sky Marathon.  This is the race that some Fort Collins Trail Running friends and I dreamed up and started 5 years ago and it is now a staple on many Front Range trail runner calendars.  For the past 5 years, I have captained the Indian Summer North Aid Station and loved it, but this year I am going to hand that task over the the very capable hands of my daughter Maddie (who has also worked this aid station every year for the past 5 years) and my partner Nora who volunteered with me last year.  Race management has been handed over to the Gnar Runners (Pete and Nick) who I am sure will continue to make Blue Sky (Along with the Quad Rock 25 and 50 and the new Black Squirrel Half) the best trail running events in Colorado, or maybe the whole world even.  Pete and Nick graciously offered me a spot to run Blue Sky this year and I am honored to take it.  This event I am going to train for and I look forward to putting in an honest effort at running a race that I will be proud of.  After that . . . I don't know.  Yeah, I think I'll want to run another 100 next year.  I really would like to figure out how to run a good 100 mile race and the only way I can do that is to keep trying.  There's one out in Washington that looks pretty good and so many others that would be fun to travel to.  I'll let you know when I figure it out.  Summer is not over yet, and there is always more running to do.

July 7 Training ride with Mike, Nora, Jessica Diana and Lara   Photo by Mike

A Weekend in Leadville

Nora Lee- happy to be in Leadville and ready to ride

With race day a month away, it seemed like a good idea to head to Leadville for the weekend.  Nora and I headed up to the little blue house on Friday at noon with the car fully loaded with food, bikes, running shoes and anticipation of a great weekend in the mountains.  
Within a few minutes of arriving in Leadville and unpacking the car, we were on our bikes to circumnavigate Turquoise Lake.  This was my first time on the road bike in over a year, but I guess it's like they say and you don't really forget.  It was a beautiful afternoon and the ride was awesome.  Some dark clouds loomed over the peaks, but the rain didn't start until we were safely back at the cozy house just east of town.

Saturday morning, after a hearty breakfast of Dutch Baby, we drove back to Turquoise Lake and got on the Colorado Trail just west of Mayqueen Campground (mile 13 of the LT100) and headed over Sugar Loaf towards Fish Hatchery (mile 23.5).    Nora rode her mountain bike over some very technical and often pretty steep trail while I ran and again, we had a great time.  Last year in the 100, it was on this section of trail that I knew my race wasn't going to go as planned.  My legs felt spent, the way you expect them to feel at mile 80, but this was mile 15.  I let go of my time goals and hoped to hold on and finish.  I kept going for another 60 miles, but ran up against the time cutoffs at Fish Hatchery on the way back (mile 76.5) and had to call it a day.  But on this day, I felt great running alongside Nora on the road in to Fish Hatchery and even better after a brief stop by the fish ponds for a light lunch.  We headed back up the Power-line Trail, which was only really steep for the first half mile (Nora crushed this section on the bike), then rolled along at a pretty gentle grade.  Running this section was a big mental breakthrough for me since I had stopped just before this part last year.  We made it over the top and then cruised down the forest road to Hagerman Road and back to the lake just as the afternoon storms came in.  It got pretty wet and cold for the final couple miles back to the car and we were both pretty tired, but it was a great day on the trail and a huge mental boost for my race preparation.  From the point where we finished there is only 13 miles of rolling trails and gentle climbing back up to town and the finish line.

Nora showing off her MTB skills on the Colorado Trail

Nora climbs the Power-line Trail 

Best pacer ever!

Heading back down to Hagerman Road

Saturday night, Nick (who had been out doing some training of his own) and Dana came over with Alistair and Stella for dinner.  We had a nice meal of pesto pasta (made with basil from Nora's back porch garden) and salad with lots of laughs and great conversation about Leadville, college life, travel, kids and good friends.  This was without a doubt one of my best days ever.

Mount Massive summit looms behind us

Sunday had a rough start that included a 911 call and Leadville EMTs and Leadville Fire standing around me in bed at 6:30 am bringing me back from a diabetic hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) episode.  This was the first (and hopefully the last) time this had happened.  It was the result of a careless double bolus (too much insulin) at dinner the night before after a pretty big day on the trails.  It was pretty scary (probably more so for Nora than for me).  Nora stayed very calm, handled the situation with quiet heroics and there is no question that she saved my life.  Thank you again Nora.  I am forever in your debt.
After an IV glucose drip from the EMTs and a sandwich from Nora and a lot of me feeling stupid for putting Nora through this, I was okay and the EMTs left with some encouragement to be a bit more careful with my blood sugar - yes I will.  I don't need to learn that lesson again.  We had a great, blood-sugar stabilizing breakfast (waffles and fruit) and then got out for a bit of a late start on our hike.  We scrapped our plans of bagging Huron or another 14er and settled on a shorter, easier hike up the Mt. Massive trail to a beautiful spot at 12,000 feet with views of Leadville, Turquoise Lake, Twin Lakes and the Mosquito Range.  It was a beautiful summer day and there is nothing like a hike in the mountains to clear the head of a somewhat traumatic morning.

Pesto, tomato, cheese and egg sandwiches made for gourmet trail lunches 

A nice spot for lunch at 12,000 feet

Nora flies down the Mt. Massive Trail

We finished the hike with a run through the aspens in the rain down to the trailhead.  Back in town, we went to the Leadville Aquatic Center, which doubles as the middle school, for a swim, some time in the sauna, a couple trips down the water slide and a soak in the hot tub.  Then back to the house for an amazing dinner from Nora's healthy cooking repertoire.

Carmelized onion, peppers and swiss chard tacos- a perfect dinner to finish a perfect weekend

Truly an amazing weekend that leaves me not only feeling confident about the big race less than 4 weeks away, but really good about my life and all that lies ahead.  As she was leaving on Saturday night, Dana told me that I must have done something really good in a past life to deserve all the incredible blessings coming in to my life right now. I have to agree.

Spring Warm-Up Ride with Micah

This morning Micah and I rode the Spring Warm-Up Ride hosted by the Fort Collins Cycling Club.  The event featured rides of 12, 26, 43 and 62 miles all starting and finishing at Spring Canyon Community Park (our park).  Micah and I signed up for the 43 mile ride a few weeks ago and I have been looking forward to it ever since.
We got up early and each ate a hearty bowl of oatmeal, put on our cycling attire, filled our water bottles and rode the 1 mile stretch down the street and through the park to the start.  We checked in, picked up a map of the route and were headed north on Overland Trail by 9:00 am.

ready to ride             photo by Ean

The route took us north on Taft Hill through fields and farms on a beautiful stretch of road that I'd never been on.  The road rolled along and Micah and I talked, joked around, discussed the various interesting smells that noticed as we passed horse ranches, cattle pastures and some place that smelled a lot like beef jerky.  We both did really well considering that our preparation for this ride consisted of nothing more that riding back and forth to school a few days a week.

Micah, the careful navigator

After 16 miles, he course turned east and a couple miles after that we reached the first of the two aid stations set up for the ride.  We took a short break to fill up or water bottles and eat granola bars and then we headed onward.  Before long we turned south and then veered east in to Wellington where we stopped at the park set up with the second and final aid station at mile 25.  There was a nice group of other riders here and we enjoyed a slightly longer rest with bagels and almond butter.  The weather was perfect today with warm sunshine and a pleasant breeze.  We talked with a volunteer at the aid station who told us that it snowed on the day of the ride last year. 

The May Team

With only 18 miles to go, we continued south towards Fort Collins past the Budweiser plant where we added barley and hops to our collection of interesting smells of the ride.  Micah and I talked about going out for rides like this more often and maybe looking for a 100 mile ride to train for.  The miles continued to slip by as we rolled back in to town and on to the Spring Creek Trail for the final 8 miles.

racing towards the finish

We were getting tired by this point and I asked Micah if he wanted to take a break, but he said he was fine and we should keep riding for the finish.  Before the ride, we had estimated that we'd average around 10 miles per hour and finish the ride in 4 and half hours.  To both of our surprise, we rode quite a bit faster than that and with only a few miles to go, we could see that we'd be done in under 4 hours easy.

what a nice day to be out ridging bikes in Colorado

We rolled back in to the park after 43.5 miles at 12:45 pm.  There was a great lunch set up with sandwich fixings, chips, veggies, soda and cookies.  We sat down for a nice lunch and commented on what a nice group of people these bike riders are.  Definitely a different culture than out trail running group, but still great people that enjoy spending time together playing outside.

My handsome, talented and wonderful son enjoying the post ride lunch at the park