ST's Blog

More Musings

2008-03-03T23:44:00.002-07:00

OK, third calender month - third blog entry. I have a lot going on! Some updates -

I'm still teaching up at Loveland and I still dig it. We have another month until the Ski School closes. We've has some incredible snow this year and so April ought to be some awesome skiing if I can get up there a bit. I've learned so much from the instructor clinics - not only about teaching skiing, but skiing itself; the techniques, the models, etc. I'm a much better technical skier now than I was 4 months ago. I don't have time this season to attempt to get my PSIA Level I, but for sure next November I'll wrap that up. I think we get a big monster raise of about 1-dollar per hour if we are level I certified. But, nobody teaches for the money I suppose.

I've been very busy coaching, and as of now I am basically booked for the near future, as I just don't have time for more athletes. Now, hypothetically, if I did not have a 'real job' I could coach full time, shlep bikes, and a few other things to make a buck. I've done the math, and the math works. Hmmm.....more on that topic later.

I have a full suite of races planned for 2008, and I'm training hard, despite some minor setbacks here and there. Recall my broken ribs a couple months back, and most recently I've been out of commission for a bit due to an illness I hate being sick as anyone does, but for me, now, so close to the racing season..its really a pain.

What else? Soccer starts in a couple weeks and ST Jr will play again on the Sharks U-4 team. he is looking forward to it. We'll see.

For now, that all.

Thanks for reading.

Update

2008-02-07T23:13:00.000-07:00

Yikes....I am flailing on my goal to post more in oh eight! OK so get off my back about it already sheeeesh!!

Lets see......

I'm training hard, havn't missed many days at all, and I still feel good about the 2008 racing season. I did miss some time due to my broken ribs and my knee...but as of about mid-January Im back in the saddle full time. I am slowly getting closer to the race shape I want to be in, making good progress, and am am really looking forward to the season.

Im still teaching up at Loveland - Ive taken a couple more clinics from a few of the senior instructors and Im really re-learning how to ski properly after...35 years of skiing! Im bummed that due to work obligations I will miss the instructor NASTAR race tomorrow because I am skiing really well, very strong, and possibly am skiing better than I ever have. The race is a mandatory part of my PSIA Level I requirement, and I am certain I would easily hork a Silver if not a Gold. I have a ton of NASTAR medals and from my racing background, and in my age group..its a sort of cake walk really. But..I dont need the Level I until next year, and we have about 8 more weeks of the 2008 season for me to finish my other clinic training, so it's all good for now on the ski instructor front!

Last night a bunch of Ride Againt The Machine MTB-ers met over at Pleskos house to get the new kits. They look cool, and Scott did great job wiht the design. Very cool kit. Since I am on both a USAC and an ACA team, here in Colorado, and wil race on the track and road (or any other permitted sanctioned race) for those teams, I am not sure where I can wear the kit except for the trainer and possibly a few non-sanctioned MTB races such as MTB. But, in any cae the kit looks cool

Speaking of cool...my new ACA team, Defined Fitness Training, appears to have bloomed into a huge success for my friends Megan and Rob. Megan bailed on her corporate job and is now training full time and managing the details of DFT. She has an eliet womens team, here in Colorado, and then has opened the team up to a bucnh of other racers as well. I am really looking forward to racing off the track as often as I can in the DFT kit. This coming Sunday is our Team Photo day and it ought to be fun. I guess folks are riding afterward. I will roll with them as a warm up, but then I have to do my own CP-ATP sprints on SUnday so I need to get those in on my own. After a decent warm up, I'll bail the ride and go do my intervals. he weather is looking good for a good day.

Work? Work bites monkey balls right now. I hate it. Hate.....yep. I hate it. I want out. Its unhealthy and its no longer worth the stress to keep cashing the paycheck. I will stay there through the summer, and posibly thorugh next fall, and then revaluate the potential for me to make it on my own . The math doesnt quite workout in my favor yet for me to bail the 'real job' but its close.....real close. Some day soon.

Lets see...what else. TaeKwonDo is going well I am re-learning everything Ive forgotten, but as I knew would happen, the speed and focus and power is coming back. I love TKD. One of the most pure martial arts and its SO good for you.

Um....185 pounds this AM. After I broke my ribs I got lazy for a few weeks and then gained a couple pounds back. I never got over about 188, but I did get a bit lazy. But..things are good again, back on track the last few weeks, and slowly but surely leaning out. I was 198 at Winter Park KOTR last September. I'm sort of hoping I can get down to 178 or 179 by Cherry Creek in early April, and then maybe 175 or so by Masters Natz in September. Thatd be really lean for me, and a huge accomplishment. And really...at this point, not even all that far off.. Im done over 15 last summer.10 more is sort of reasonable. We'll see. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading

2008

2008-01-01T11:21:00.001-07:00

Wow I havent posted in a while. I intend to do a better job in '08. The last few weeks have been busy, but good. So what have I been doing?

Skiing - Ive been working hard up at Loveland still..instructing on the weekends and some other days. I still dig it, its a lot of fun. I picked up my first couple of paychecks for the season and they totaled about 220 buks! Haaa! I think I made more as a paperboy in 9th grade! But..I've skied about 20 days so far this year, Ive been able to take some instructor clinics, and scored some pro deals on some new Nordica racing skiis. Which are SO fast, that I crashed last week on them and broke ribs, and tore an MCL. Fortunately, as has been the case all my life with literally every sports injury Ive ever had, of them are serious at all. My MCL tear is a Level 1, which means...basically..nothing. Shut up and train, is what it means. And then my #8 and #9 rib on my back left side, snapped against a rock. I should maybe get the ski patrol to move that rock, now that I think about it, before some other dude snaps his ribs on it. Ah...we've had so much snow that by now, its buried. Anyhow, breaking ribs can be a bad deal if one end punctures an organ, but thats not the case. Basically just deal with it and train, same as it always is. So, I missed 5 days of saddle time because It was basically so painful to move around that I just sat in bed for two days. But, I'm back at now. Today is day 7 and its only just mildy uncomfortable is all. Basically I'm trying to be careful how I move for a few weeks so I dont jack up my knee any further and to let the ribs grow back stong.

I have been reminded of a good frind of mine, fellow triathlon coach and Ironman triathlete who broke two ribs 10-days before Kona in 2005. He raced and did fine. So, Im on day 7 and IM at least back on the bike, I figure that by this Saturday (Day 10) Ill be good to go.

Little Steven skied with me twice so far this year and is doing well. Santa brought he and I some skateboards for Christmas and were heading to the skate park in a couple hours . Assuming there is no snow there, we wil ride a bit. I have to admit..its been 20 years since Ive skated, and the equipment has changed a bit, but surfing and skating as a kid...like riding a bike. How hard can it be? I'll report in later. Maybe I'll bust s'more bones...who knows.

We had no hockey game last week since it was Christmas week, but we do have one this week. I'm not sure if I shold play or not.... hockey is not a priority to me - bike racing is. And I dont want to ruin my chances for a good strong year in the saddle when some NHL wannabee checks me into the boards during a coed roller hockey game. Believe me...some of the guys on some of the teams take it WAY to seriously. I'll see how I feel on Friday morning.

OK more later. Stay tuned

ST Lives

2007-12-14T00:28:00.000-07:00

Wow no blog updates for a month! Yikes!! I dont know if I should appoligize to the blogosphere (as if anyone even reads my blog), or thank myself for being so productive as to not have tme to blog!! ANYways.....so much has happened. Lets see....where do I start...

Ive been working up at Loveland as a ski instructor! I love it! It's everything I expected and more. Primarily we teach kids the first year, but I did teach one adult class. As a moderatly-fluent Spanish speaker, I was able to teach a husband and wife couple how to ski on my first day. It was a challenge, but I loved it! The rest of my classes have been kids from 7 to 12 years old. I LOVE teaching the kids! They are all so different, but each of them has some wonderful unique characteristics! Some pick it up very fast, some need a bit more time and attention, some have to much self-confidence, others have just the right amount. Some don't pay attention, others are glued to my every word! The challenge of ski instructing is not the skiing or the teaching - I'm good those things already. The challenge is figuring out how each child learns and then providing that child the tools he or she needs, while providing a second shild in the same class, wiht a radically different direction. Not easy to do...but I really love it. I so look forward to teaching every day! Aside from my time with Steven Jr. it has become the highlight of my life. I am working Saturday and I cant wait!!

OK what else..Steven turned 4 a couple weeks ago (on the same day I tunred 43, as we also share birthdays, in addition to names) we all had a party at Chuck E Cheese and it was a ton-o-fun. 7 or 8 kids from Stevens day school showed up, and his mom and her boyfriend Wade were there. We all had a great time! Steven was stoked to have a party and scored some kick-ass toys!

Last night was the Christmas program at the day school, and Stevens class sang three songs! He did so well...he was super enthusiatic and happy and he did so well! I was very proud of him! He is growing up so fast and I miss him when he is at his moms house. His mom and her boyfriend Wade take good care of Steven, and I am satisifed that he is in good hands there. He speaks positively of his time when he is not with me, and that helps me relax a bit.

What else? I just found out today that Hammer Racing Team (my cycling team) has just been awarded the USACycling Track Team of the Year for the FOURTH straight year!!! WOW!!! I am so lucky to be associated with such an incredible group of people! Our 2008 kits are in and they look great! We are all meeting at Ken and Kimberleys house in a few weeks to distribute the kits.

Training has been going well, I've been lifting, riding, following the plan, loosing a bit more weight, and staying generally healthy. AND.....I got a huge bonus at the firm last week for kicking ass on some stratigic business development initiatives. Life is good!

Lastly..hockey! We had a few weeks off but are back playing every Friday. Last week we won, I socred once, got one assist. We are playing tomorrow night, and I'm really looking forward to it!

Updates, Junk and Stuff

2007-11-10T20:10:00.001-07:00

Scott has some funny stuff on his blog lately http://rideagainstthemachine.blogspot.com/ I dont know where he finds some of it, and the rest of it, is just junk in his life. I had lunch with him and Brevoort the other day, and we were talking about the email scam reply thing that Scott did. Go to his blog and scroll back a month or two.Its classic, and super funny. He joked that he should start a website just for these things. That would be very funny! I encourage this kind of dumb stuff. Why not? Dumb stuff rocks.

The new kit for Ride Against The Machine is on Scotts blog...it's very cool. I'm happy for the Wednesday gang that they all will look 'pro' next summer. They look so cool, I can kiss another 20 bucks goodbye just so I have the kit.

For 2008, I have joined Defined Fitness Training for my non-track racing. Check out the cool kit Megans' team wears at http://www.definedfitnesstraining.com

Training is going well, Ive been consistent, the power is coming up, and I'm slowly leaning out.

I missed the CVA Annual dinner last week, but was reelected to the board in absentia. Huh...go figure! I am really looking forward to next summer down at the track. ST2 should be old enough to hang out safely while I ride or train, and unless my body fails me, things ought to go well.

Today was the first day of instructor training up at Loveland. It went well. The entire instructing crew seems to be a very cool, close-knit, professional family. The patrol guys as well. I hope I fit in well, because its something Ive been needing to do for a long time. Today we did some safety stuff, general orientation, and got several hours of skiing in. Day two is tomorrow.

And lastly, Happy Birthday to the USMC on this Veterans Day, 2007 - 232 years old today! Thank you gentlemen for what you do.

Time to Ski

2007-11-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

I need to update this blog more often. The last couple weeks Ive been very busy with training and other stuff. Ive been stcking to my own training plan very well since October 1. The last five weeks have been the most consistent start to any training year since I was in school, and Im feeling good.

Last Friday we had a good game at roller hockey. We won, and played a solid game all around. I didnt score, but I had some good shots on goal, played some good defense, and am skating better. We have a bye week this week.

Saturday morning, I was up at Loveland for the pre-season instructer interviews, which went very well. We skied for a few hours in the afternoon, and then I was asked formally to come back to the instructer training class next weekend. Of course I acccepted and I will be up at LOveland from now on most weekend days.

Saturday evening, I jammed up to Grand Couty to join A.D. and Jon for third season. They hunted all weekend and on into Monday. I only had time Sunday morning. A.D. and I worked an area above where we usually hunt, and in an area we have hunted grouse. We know the entire area very well now and are gettign much better at reading sign and formulating an attack plan, based on elk movement. This year for whatever reason, the elk are not moving. Its warm, there is little snow, there was a lot of hunt pressure in Season 1, but almost nobody there in Season 3, so they are either not moving, are have moved on down into the low run. We just dont know, but one thing is for sure, everyone we have talked to, and based on everything we have seen, and not seen/heard...the Elk are not where we thought they would be. Luckily, we still have meat left from last year!

This fall I have focused my time on training, and pressing my long-term plan to bail corporate America, so I have been unable to hunt much. No worries....next year is always close! For now, I will ski and train all winter.

Post-Moab

2007-10-20T22:04:00.000-06:00

Upon returning home from Utah after Moab, I had little time to get ready for a week in Wyoming in the field. One of my real-job projects up there needed some work done and I left Monday for Cheyenne. As if I havn't driven enough the last few days. ST2 was at his moms for the week, so I unloaded my junk from Moab, reloaded the truck for a week for work, put my road bike on the rack, packed a trainer and was off. I almost always bring a trainer with me when I travel so I can ride in the hotel. I have been on a huge training roll and am not about to take 4 or 5 days off because of my job. As I have promised myself a decent 2008 training year, from now on, the bike goes where I go. We work long hard days in the field and its not easy to ride when I get back to the hotel, but I made it happen each night, except Thursday night which was an all-nighter on-site. Friday I wrapped it up and came home, happy with the week as it panned out. Lots of solid physical labor sampling wells, lots of training.

I got home Friday night, and packed up my hockey gear and headed to the Bladium for our game. I love hockey. I wish I had more time to enjoy all the cool sports I dig, but as it is, hockey will always remain a low priority for me. I just dont have time to play more ofen than once a week. Thanks again to my man Scottie D for turning me on again to the game. I played hard, felt good, but still need to work on my puck-handling and skating skills. Im coming along and learning a lot, but no where near good enough to move up to the intermediate yet. I didnt score, and we lost the game 6-3, but it is so much fun. Its a no-check league made up of co-ed adults. There is plenty of agressive contact at the puck though. I play as hard as I can, and I have no problem with hits at all, but some of the guys on other teams take it a bit to far. Its not the NHL, and we all have to get to work Monday morning, so I try and keep a lid on my aggression, where some other dudes think they are trying out for the Olympic team.

We have some new players on our team this season that are very good and I listen to and watch them play so I can learn. More on hockey next week.

Today I woke up at 188 pounds-the lightest Ive been since pre Ironman Wisco in 2002. Now, I think I could possibly skinny down to under 180. Im not sure. Ive lost about 15 pounds and basically, I dont know what the big deal is...its easy really. Train a lot, and dont eat. Haaa..NOT the wisest way to lose at all, but it is what it is. I have been riding my ass off, and I havent eatin much at all in October. I feel strong though, so I am going to continue limiting caloric intake and sticking to my modified Paleo diet as I increase the miles again in November and December.

Today I headed to Loveland to sit in on a pre-season new instructor meeting. Im going to work there this year as a part-time instructor. I miss it, I'm good at it, and it makes me happy to teach people how to ski. I've been blessed with some decent abilities at some of these sports and an even better ability to teach them to others, so I am really looking forward to teaching there this winter. The mountain actually opend up last week, after the dumping they got the night Dan and I drove home from Moab! I didn't ski today though - the coverage is still a bit thin.

We are supposed to get some flakes tonight but as of 10:30 PM, no joy. I'm really looking forward to winter. Skiing is another passion of mine and little Steven has been bugging me about it all summer. As he heads into the 2nd year of his ski career, and I head into my 36th, I am amped up to teach him more. I hope he enjoys skiing as much as I have. And if he chooses to race, I'll support him all I can. I raced a ton as a kid and all the way through college, and it was a very good time for me....I'll never forget those days. Skiing just rocks, bottom line. ST2 is very coordinated and has a body type that makes a good powerful ski racer. He keeps asking to go - almost every day now he asks when we are going again. And I tell him "soon dude - very very soon. Be patient and when the flakes fall, we will go make some turns"

Thanks for reading.

The Moab

2007-10-20T20:58:00.000-06:00

The Moab 24-Hour.

October has been a good training month for me, despite my schedule recently. I had two solid weeks in the saddle pre-Moab including some decent adaptation work in the gym. I took the day off work on Friday the 12th to drive to Utah. Snowman Dan Le met me at the ranch house in the morning, and we transferred his gear to my truck and we headed west. We were a bit behind schedule so we got there to late to do a pre-ride lap, but in the end that was fine. We camped with a large extended family of racers on three different relay teams...many I already knew, and others I only just met there. Plesko was camped with his support crew (dad Plesko and wife Plesko) down in the Solo campground, but we were up the hill a third of a mile to segregate ourselves a bit from the general mayhem of the race scene. The Moab is a beautiful place really. One of those places where I think, why bother with travel overseas when God has blessed us with such beauty here at home. Growing up in SoCal, I am familar with the desert and love it there. The Moab is a different kind of desert than the Cali-style, but as a geologist and a lover of any place sans roof, I dig the crap out of the Moab. More visits are in order.

We camped out, talked race, drank some beers, and hit the rack about 10 PM. Saturday AM I woke early as usual, took some food, checked my bike and got ready for the race. There were about 400 teams and Solos, so maybe 1300 racers total, and at least 2000 with all the rest of the folks. Maybe 3000. It was quite a situation really. The race started with the same general insanity as so many other big races I have been in over the years - loud noise, rock n roll, dirt, my kind of place. Sort of like a dirty smoky biker bar without the smoke -in my fantasy world, the perfect place!

I am almost never nervous before a race. Ive been at so many start lines that Ive long ago learned the routine, so to me, it is always just another roll. I dig races. I dig racing. I dig the whole scene surrounding bike racing. Dan took the first lap for our team. He had some trouble and I was way jacked to go for the second team lap when he came in to the relay station. Not having pre-rode the route, I was totally surprised at the insane tech sections. I cant even describe it - just sick. Much harder than any of the front range routes I had done with the Wednesday gang, and mile-per-mile much harder then KOTR. Winter Park is a basic technique girl scout camp compared to the Moab. Soft sand, lots of portages, stupid rock sections, serious drop sections, etc. I took two diggers on that first lap, one nearly killed me (God bless you Mr. Bike Helmet Inventor, whoever you are), but what can you do but mount up and hit it again. The second endo I all but ripped my arm off at the elbow somehow, but as it was still attached and functional, I was able to continue operating the rear brake and shifter. I felt good the first lap, but was slower than I had planned, due to the crashes and uncertainty of the route. No biggie since it was just a fun race. Cory smoked his first lap about 7 minutes fastr than mine, and then Nic absolutely nailed it on her first lap. She is pretty fast and has a huge racing future if she pursues one. All of us had slower second laps at night. I had a flat and some light failures that slowed me way way down, but it was a fun lap and I felt generally good. As one point about 2 AM I rolled up on Plesko who was sitting on a rock pouring sand out of his shoe and he said to me "I am pouring sand out of my shoe" in a sort of half-baked stupor. I guess riding 14 hours by that point in time had toasted him a little bit..but that dude is hard to the bone. Absolutely hard. I went back to camp and passed out until 6 AM, then went down for my third lap. I was stoked to go, but could not make the bike move at all. Oh wait..... I know why, no food! Idiot!! I had bonked before I even woke up like a moron! I flatted again on a rocky section. After some food, I got it going about 2/3 into the lap and nailed the last 5 miles, but my lap time was pathetic. No more crashes though, so thats was good.

We finished with 12 laps, pretty much in the last half of the 50 teams in the coed fun category, which was fine with us really. Nobody went to hard, and everybody was safe. I learned some valuable lessons about 24-hour relays, and I think next year we can get 14 to 15 laps easy if we all buck up a bit more.

Plesko inked a top-10 in Mens Solo with a full 16 laps, which was a huge thing for him. He could have left before noon for one more lap, but decided against it as it would not have gotten him to the podium.

Dan and I hit a Mexican joint in Moab, gassed up and then headed home and we got the Denver about 8 PM Sunday night, after a sort of Banzai run through the first Colorado snow storm of the year. Vail pass was choked and it snowed and rained all the way down the hill.

It was a good weekend, and I learned much. I intend to race again next year for sure, and am confident I can get my lap times down a signifcant amount.

I think thats it for MTB racing until next year, and so now I will simply focus on the long grind back to real bike racing shape for '08.

Thanks for reading.

Updates from The Ranch

2007-10-20T19:36:00.000-06:00

Yikes...over two weeks have gone by and no blog! Ive been pretty busy. Last week was a good training week, and it culminated with an awesome weekend out in Moab. I raced the 24-hour with Nicolette, Dan "Snowman" Le, and Cory. Big Bill raced on a very competitive Clydesdale team agaisnt some hella fast teams. Bills team, Ballistic Stillness, got second with an incredible 16 laps. Those dudes are so fast it boggles me how big guys ride so fast. Ive been trimming down as I start to get into the 2008 annual training plan, but those dudes are way way faster in the dirt. I have a lot to learn and a lot of work to do beofre I am ready for next summer but, im so looking forward to it. I'll write more about Moab later on as I have much to log, and I dont want to forget it.

Also, Hockey has started up again. Last night was the second game of the Fall season. I missed last wek as I was in the Moab. I love hockey. Its an awesome game, very technical, and its not easy to be good at it. It has the makings of an ST favorite. I'll post more about that as well.

I was up at Loveland today. They are open with some natural flakes and a bunch of man-made, but I was there at a ski school seminar for new instructors. Im going to work there this year as a part-time instructor...more on that as well. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.

October Training

2007-10-03T21:52:00.000-06:00

I had to work a bit late, and was unable to hit the Wednesday Night MTB ride tonight. I havent really trained all that much since about mid-August - I have trained maybe 30 hours total in the six weeks since then. This off-season period was not really part of my 2007 Training Plan - I had initially planned to peak for Masters Track Nationals in August, but it didn't work out this year. I've had some additional issues with my back and a heavy work load at the firm, so I had to put training and racing aside. But it has sort of worked out well...I've had an early off-season, and now I feel totally refreshed physically, and am very ready to train hard again. October 1 was the first day of my 2008 Training Plan and I'm three days in. I'm going to change some things this year on a tactical level so I can be well trained for Winter Park next summer, but the strategy is the same - the same periodic training principles apply. So as usual, the first few blocks are easy, adaptive, low-intensity periods. I have some goals and objectives that I'll post about later, but one of the main key characteristics of any successful year is consistancy, so one of my main goals this year is a 90% workout completion rate. I just want to get in 9 out of 10 planned trainign ewfforts. Not as easy at it sounds, but easy enough. So, as of now I am 3 for 3 for workout completion! Occasionally, we all have to take a TURD (Totally Unplanned Rest Day), but for this next season I am going do what I can to keep those to a minimum.

Im going to do some creative training this coming weekend in prep for Moab. I'm thinking of doing two 90-minute hard efforts about 4 or 5 hours apart to simulate the race schedule, and one of those efforts will be with the lights at Green Mountain or somewhere. I am really looking forward to racing Moab next weekend. More about Moab later.

Thanks for reading

Soccer Time

2007-09-29T20:57:00.000-06:00

Another good day...ST2's first soccer game. ST2 is a little taller and more athletic than most of the boys his age, and I have encouraged him to be physical. Despite the trips to the ER for stiches, and the banged-up limbs and bumps and bruises...I am still confident the way to parent him is to let him roll. So he is a bit independent, and he has a good amount of self confidence. Im not sure how he will mature as an athlete, but I let him try whatever he wants and we figure that he will eventually migrate to what he likes best. Its up to him.....I dont push him, he just goes! The details of the day arent important really...but is sure was fun. Our team is the Sharks! Today, the Sharks beat the Snakes about 5 to 3, although there is no scorekeeper or goalie or anything like that..its more of a fun thing, trying to teach the kids how to play together in a team format. It's a sort of swarm-ball thing..most of the boys dont really 'get it' in terms of defense/offense, etc. We are in U4 Boys..which are boys between about 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 years old. They dont age-up until next summer. But..they are surprisingly good..all of them! After the game, all the parents on both teams got together and made a big tunnel with our hands and all the boys on both teams (8 on each team) ran through the tunnel! Then, we thought they would run through once..like football players coming out of the locker room onto the field...but no!! They circled back around and went through again! And again!! At one point it occurred to the parents that WE had to stop the tunnel thing, or the boys would just run around for an hour! It was pretty funny. A good time was had by all. ST2 is the little guy on the right.

Thanks for reading.

Track Racing

2007-09-28T19:22:00.000-06:00

OK, enough MTB stuff. Time for some blog from my real bike racing roots! The velodrome!

Track racing is my real bike racing passion. Track and crit racing both, really. I have raced on and off for years, but I always keep coming back to the 'drome. When I moved to Colorado I joined a cycling team here that has since disbanded. But during the two or three years I was active on that team, I became involved with the racing at the 7-Eleven Olympic Velodrome in Colorado Springs. I love the people that race the track, I love the high level of intensity, I love the simplicity, and most of all, I really love the track-specific training. Its something I am half-way good at and its just plain fun! Track is not as popular as road or MTB, so all tracks around the country have a sort of small, intimate social community, and Colorado has some great track racers. And in Colorado, we really do have the best track! ;)

I am fortunate enough to ride the Hammer/TVG Racing Team...the best Masters track team in the USA. I have been heading up the new rider development clinics and classes at the track now for a few years, and last year I was voted onto the Board of Directors of the Colorado Velodrome Association,which is the USACycling Local Association for Colorado. I really enjoy teaching the clinics, and as a longtime racer and coach, it is my own goal to attract as many good cyclists as I can to our track, so they can enjoy racing like I have for so long. In the three years I have taught the clinics, we have had much success - so many of the class participants have gone on to race at the higher skill levels now at our track and in fact, two of them have now won National Champion jerseys!

This year, one of the local road racers that came down to the track to try it out was Megan Hottman. Megan and her husband Rob were already very accomplished road racers here in Denver, and Rob had raced the track before. Megan came down about mid season and tried it out, and picked it up pretty fast, and then just began to crush the womens field. She has done so well, that she is off to Elite Natz in LA next week! I spoke with a couple of the sprint coaches at the 'drome recently who have been helping her with her training, and they feel that Megan has a terriffic chance of doing very well in LA.

Another friend of mine, also on Hammer, is Randy McLain...he is also going to Elit Natz for the second time, as well a several other local fast peeps! I wish them all the best of luck in LaLa Land.

My friend and track coach Rich Voss knows an absolute boatload about how to make a bike go fast on the track. Rich is a multi-time UCI World Champion in the Sprint and really really knows his stuff. I have learned a ton from working with Rich the last few years, and Im fortunate to have met him. Rich and I, and several of the other sprinters on the team all do our training with power meters. Training with Power has become the 'only' way to train for us, and as we all learn more about it, I cant imagine anyone NOT using a power meter! All of the roadies I coach are on power meters. It is critical in my opinion for the competitive bike racer. Kill your TV? Kill your HRM!!!

More later...its time for a Friday night beer. I get serious about 2008 in 12 hours!

Thanks for reading.

ST Jr. Solos

2007-09-28T01:26:00.000-06:00

As I mentioned, I have a son-Steven Jr. He is now 3 years and 10 months old. Today after work, I picked up ST2 at the day school. On the way home, we usually discuss what we are going to do before dark. Usually we go practice soccer, or we go to a playground, go for a hike, or we go ride bikes. We had planned to get in one more day of soccer drills, before his first game on Saturday, but he changed his mind and wanted to ride instead. I'll write more about him later, because as I was writing this, I went off on a tangent about parenting, my relationship with my son, what we do together, etc. But..that stuff isnt the point of this post, so I've saved it for some other day.

I took the training wheels off his bike about 4 months ago and he didn't quite get it. Had I pushed him a bit more, he likely would have figured it out, but we put them back on. About one month ago, it occurred to me one day that he was ready to have them removed for good, and he had asked about removing them again and so I made a note to take them off next ride. For a variety of reasons we have ridden very little in the last month, but today he wanted to ride, and he asked me to take the training wheels off.

So when we got home, I unbolted the training wheels, he donned his helmet, and swung a leg over with his normal high level of confidence. He just up and started riding on his own, as if he had been doing it all summer. I only gave him a slight push down the driveway and that was it -he was gone. I remember clear as day my first day solo on a bike, with my dad. The scene was very much the same with ST2 today so it was a cool moment for me, and one I had looked forward to for a long time. Its a sort of milestone day for a dad I suppose.

Anyhow, he wanted to ride long today so he asked me to get my MTB and ride with him around. We rode up and down the street, over to the elementary school, and all around there and as it got dark we aimed back home. Much the same as so many other rides we have done together except today without help! He was jumping curbs, sprinting out of the saddle, skidding, making zoomy-zoom motorcycle sounds, all the normal kid stuff - and all with a huge smile. He picked it up so fast that I started to second-guess my earlier decision to put the training wheels back on after our first attempt at soloing, 4 months ago - and that maybe I gipped him out of an entire summer solo. But no...today was a good day for it. He needed the training wheels off, and he knew it...it was his idea today, not mine. When we got home he wanted to share it with his mom, so we called her and he explained what we did. He was very happy today and I hope he remembers it for a long long time. I took some pictures - I'll post one later on.

Definately the ride today with my son was the highlight of my week so far..it beats the crap out of a suck-ass stressful day at the firm. It is a day like today when I think more and more about bailing the corporate slave gig and turning MileHigh CycleSport into a viable supporting business. Thats another topic for another day.

Thanks for reading.

Wednesday MTB Ride Green Mountain

2007-09-26T22:31:00.001-06:00

Another great ride tonight. The group was thin, but solid. So tonight it was Chris and Marni, Whiskey Dave, and myself. Dave and Chris were riding their big fat tire snow bikes! Crazy-looking rigs with large cool-factor scores. I had never seen them, and Chris explained them to me. Chris is an engineer and so I can understand his frequency. I like to know about details of things. Some folks dont explain them well. Chris does. Or at least he makes sense to me. The bikes Dave and Chris were riding were different...Dave goes fixie and Chris is geared, but they are the most odd-looking MTBs. I understand from Chris' explanation that they are sick in the snow - thus the point of the design in the first place. After getting set up, we rolled about 20 after 6 or so.

Dave had some mechanicals and turned around early, while the rest of us spun around at a fairly relaxed pace. Green Mountain is not super technical or difficult. There are a few short steepish sections, but nothing to cry about, really. When we got up to the top of the mountain where the radio tower is, there was an incredible moon rise over Denver. Full moon, or close to it. I really need to start bringing a camera with me. I checked my GPS, maybe 6700 feet up on top. Not a huge climb at all, but the view of Denver is well worth it.

A few minutes into the downhill come-back trail, we hit the lights, and then Chris and I promptly took diggers. Poor Chris...he reaches down to do some adjustment to his light or something and I was behind him, and just at the point he has only one hand on the bars, a large granitic cobble moves right in front of his big fat tractor tire and takes him out. Freakin cobbles, man! Always playing games!

I rolled up on Chris, and he was on his back, sort of contorted on the side of the trail, laughing......usually a good sign that all the body parts are intact. Chris eventually got up after I removed my headlamp beam from his face (sorry dude.....Im new to the night-riding thing, still working on light ettiquete), he did a quick check for limb activity, they all checked out in the 'functional' range, no large pools of blood had accumulated on the trail, so we mounted up and pressed on. Another header, another party. Right?

About 60-seconds later, I go down! A stupid endo, but..I have a really good excuse. Chris was behind me at this point and he has this freakin midnight sun monster zillion candlepower nuclear fusion bomb flood light that casts this insane shadow all over the zip code. So as he was slowly rolling up on me from behind, my own lights began to get flooded out by Chris' far more powerful fusion UFO photon beam. So as he got closer and closer, my light/shadow perception got more and more jacked up (thats a sort of undefined technical term I use often to describe situations that are..........not as they should be), and finally he was right on my wheel and there were these giant bizzaro-world exagerated geometry shadows all over that looked like some kind of freak scene out of Apocalypse Now, and I was watching them and not the trail and next thing I know, Im off the bike, curled up in the middle of the trail hoping Chris doesnt roll right over me with his monster bike! Thank God for disk brakes I guess.

Im all for crashing usually......crashing pretty much rocks (unless you jack up a bone or tendon or something, then crashing blows - see the link to the right to Mike Brevoorts blog regarding why crashing blows) But I dig stuff that rocks. And if the body stays intact, crashing is no biggie - as long as the kit doesnt get jacked up. Skin grows back, free of charge. Lycra is not free. I rolled the Hammer/TVG Racing Team kit tongiht, as I am proud to wear, and I need to keep my stuff intact for next season. I cant be buying new cycling clothes every week. Im not made of money. Note: Dirt endos are reletively safe on the kit - what with the lack of asphalt. The 'clothing success rate' for road endos sucks. Conclusion? Ride dirt more often.

Marni is a very good rider and did not crash! I should also add that she has the same light Chris has and between the two of them, it is quite the daylight out there.

Anyhow, we had a great ride. We saw some deer on the way down the hill, then we met Whiskey Dave back at the parking lot and saw some other folks about to head out for a night ride. Green Mountain is very much like so many SoCal ride areas - it is not pretty or fancy, but its dirt. And Im starting to really like dirt.

Thanks for reading.

Wednesday MTB Rides

2007-09-26T04:08:00.000-06:00

That is a pic looking down on Clear Creek and US-6 from Centennial Cone - one of the Wednesday MTB Ride locations.

I mentioned the Wednesday MTB group that I have ridden with several times. Scott D maintains a web page with details (http://www.rideagainstthemachine.com/). As we get towards the end of summer now, and the available light after work becomes more limited, we have begun to use headlights now. Last week we rode Marshall Mesa up near Boulder, and finished off with about 60-minutes of total night-riding, out of a total two-hours. Erik, Chris, Chris' wife Marni, and I were the only ones that rode last Wednesday which was a smaller group than usual. Typically there are 7 to 8 or more people. Chris is probably the fastest guy in the Wednesday group....hi is a very good cyclist, knows all kinds of places and cool stuff. He races Expert, so he certainly is no slow-poke. He also has done Leadville, and is doing Moab 24-Hour solo, among other things. He also has a great blog about lots of cool junk -- http://slipangles.blogspot.com/

As much all-around cycling experiance as I have, and as much road and track racing as I've done over the last 25 years, I'm a basic rookie to real MTB riding and racing and the group pretty much crushes me each time. I've gotten better this summer no doubt, but MTBing has so many factors to it.....I still have a lot of work to do. I've ridden both road and offroad motorcycles all my life, and raced motocross a bit when I was younger, and have decent natural technical skills, but my downhilling is still suspect to say the least, and I can't clear most of the tech sections that some good riders have no trouble with. Erik and Chris are both very good technical riders and I watch them when I can. Most of the ride group members are better downhillers that I am and so I have much work to do there. I am working on it, and I am not afraid to push the envelope a bit...even though I have paid the blood price for my rookie skills a few times.

Plus, as I mentioned, I have a pathetic amount of aerobic power right now. Its embarrassing really. I peaked out last season at maybe only 225 watts at threshold. That should be over 250 in early season. That sad fact, coupled with my tremendous 190-pound fat ass slows me down a bit. In any case, MTBing with the Wednesday crowd is so fun, I pretty much could give a rats ass right now about getting shelled - its just about the fun.

So this week, today, we are meeting at Green Mountain, which is located on the very west side of Denver metro, in Lakewood. It's a sort of beginners area, and its not near as nice as the other parks we've ridden this summer. We start near the Zorro trailhead at the Rooney Road parking lot, ride up and over the C-470 bike path bridge, and then into Green Mountain park. We can ride there at night legally, unlike many of the other places we ride, and so as we get into fall we are limited to where we can ride mid-week.

Scott D is taking some time off the bike now to fully recover from some soft-tissue injuries so he won't be there. He has a great blog about all kinds of funny stuff...check it out. http://rideagainstthemachine.blogspot.com/

Mike Brevoort wont be there...he is still recovering from a nasty crash at Winter Park King of the Rockies and subsequent surgery to repair a shattered clav. He has some pics on his blog
http://mike.brevoort.com/ I was bummed when Mike crashed at KOTR. He was training well, he was consistent and I was hoping he would have a good race. But, he is a good athlete and in great shape, and I'm sure he'll recover soon enough.

Someone usually brings a camera...I need to post some pics.

Thanks for reading.

Mountain Biking

2007-09-24T21:52:00.000-06:00

A good friend of mine, Scott DeLeeuw (http://www.rideagainstthemachine.com/) is a sort of all-around athlete a bit like myself. He is also a car enthusiast, drag racer, avid mountain biker, general outdoorsman, ice hockey player, roller hockey player, etc. I met him when I first moved to Colorado about 5 years ago on our former cycling team. This past year, I started riding MTBs with him and some of his other friends a bit. I've riddin' with him in the past, but never to seriously. This year, for a variety of reasons, I got hooked on the MTB side of the cycling world. I gave my circa 1990 MTB to a friend at work and bought a 2007 model Giant Anthem from another good friend and bike racer John Barvik at Adventure Cycles in Aurora (http://www.adventurecycle.net/). I rode with Scotts Wednesday night crew after work a few times this summer, and then Scott talked me into entering the final Winter Park Cross Country race in August. I got totally annialated, but it was so much fun, I will have to race the entire series again next year.

This is totally counter to the training I have been doing for the last two seasons..which is purely anaerobic capacity and neuro-muscular power work for track racing. My longest ever training rides now are on the order of 2 to 3 hours max...and thats slow...with the trackies. Any race longer than a kilo is 'long' to a track sprinter. A 25-mile MTB XC race is sick huge - never mind that up until 5 years ago I could knock off a 120-mile Saturday roll, followed up with a brick run effort in prep for an Ironman race as a matter of routine. I am WAY out of that kind of shape now. I've spent the better part of the last few years ignoring aerobic power and muscular endurance, and focusing only on extreme upper-end power, so while I can ride for a few hours, of course, I cant make much power after about 90 seconds. The last few months I am having to relearn how to make aerobic power. I pretty much suck, but from training this summer and fall, I am down to about 190 and change from over 200 at the beginning of the track season this year. I can see maybe leaning out to 180 or so between now and March..but I've never weighed less than the high 170's even at my absolute skinniest as an Ironman triathlete. It will take some time to get back to any kind of tolerable aerobic competitive shape, but by next Spring I can be there. So I have modified my normal annual training plan for 2oo8 to effect not only the high anaerobic wattage numbers I want, to be able to race well on the track next summer, but also the high threshold wattage numbers I'll need to race the MTB well. We'll see what happens.

It makes no rational sense at all at this point however, but I am now going to Moab in two weeks as part of a 24-Hour team. The people are cool, the sport rocks, and I need to race a bike for my own sanity - the format I've decided, isnt important. Its the misery and suffering that I desire. And MTB'ing provides that by the boatload.

More on the MTB stuff later.

Thanks for reading.

Who Am I

2007-09-24T20:12:00.000-06:00

OK-the last few days I've spent some time thinking about the blog. Some friends have given me some good ideas about what to blog about, how to do it, what to do and what not to do. So....I'm ready to begin updating the blog regularly..but first, I thought I'd introduce myself to the blogosphere - without some background...the blog entries will likely be less meaningful.

I am Steven. I am 42. I live in a suburb of Denver Colorado. I love living here and I hope I never have to leave. I have a 'real job' but it is not important. I am a degreed, licensed, professional, middle manager at a Fortune-500 subsidiary firm. But I wont blog about that very much, if at all. It's not really important to me other than as a means to an end.

To wit - my passions and the other important stuff: I am a single parent, bike racer, former triathlete, finisher of over 200 triathlons including many Ironman triathlons, future triathlete, cycling and triathlon coach, roller hockey player, ski instructor, ski racer, big game hunter, small game hunter, martial artist, scuba diver, and a bunch of other things. I have many interests and passions, but most of them revolve around sports and/or the outdoors. I've done all kinds of things in many parts of the world, and I've been fortunate enough to learn about sports and the outdoors from some of the best athletes and sports enthusiasts in the world.

I grew up in San Diego and learned to swim in the ocean when I was very young. I learned to surf and dive there. I learned how to race a bike there, and I did my first triathlon there in the early 80's when that sport was young. I learned to ski at Mammoth Mountain in the Eastern Sierra in the 1970's when I was a young boy, and have been skiing ever since. I've spent many hundreds of nights out doors in very remote portions of the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains - often alone by design. I've solo'd the Sierra, the Mojave, the Tetons, the Tinajas Altas in the Sonora, and Montanas Bitterroot. I've spent many weeks in Baja Norte's Sierra San Pedro Martir totally self-contained. Ive SCUBA'd in Cali, Mexico, Hawaii, and the Marianas. I've hunted Mule Deer and Elk in some of the more remote portions of Colorado. And Ive been fortunate enough to have spent twice as much time in those and many more places with very close friends of mine doing all kinds of fun things. I feel very fortunate that I was born in the USA to some great parents, and have been able to live a very full healthy enjoyable comfortable life, literallly surrounded by incredible people from Day 1. There is no better place and no better time to live than right here in the United States, right now. My ultimate objective in my remaining years is to provide for my son all I can, so that he can enjoy what I have enjoyed in his adulthood.

Now...thats about all that you need to know for now. That will put into perspective the posts that are made here.

Thanks for reading!

My First Blog Post

2007-09-20T15:23:00.000-06:00

This is my first post to my blog! I'm pretty stoked to have this up and running. Thanks to to my friend and training partner, Scott Deleeuw for getting it set up. I'm not to sure what to write about now, but in the future I'll post about my own training and racing, how I came to be associated with so many fine athletes in the Denver area, the efforts and successes of some of the athletes I coach and other friends of mine, my son Steven Jr. and other random musings of no specific nature.

Thanks for reading