Very Nice

I tried to ride most of the Gold Dust trail stage today. There are so many trails and with my lack of where they all are it's tough for me to find the correct route even with a map. I do know that the trails I was on were Sweet! The Blue River trail was really fast and flowed really well. If your not grinning at the end of that it's probably due to some head trauma earlier in the stage. Baker's Tank was also really fun.
I ran into a dude at the ice rink that new the Curtes Bro's. Their fame is spreading quite rapidly. I rode down Barney's Ford and Moonstone (acquired my first flat) and then down the switchbacks to Carter Park. A great way to end the ride, other than the flat. More time in the hot tub after eating some food. I'm beginning to really dig the hot tub. My back has felt pretty good so far.
I'm still trying to dial in the hydration. Getting up to pee sucks. I guess maybe cramping is worse though. Tonight we're hitting up the pizza joint recommended by Mr. Larson. Another tongue in the ear hot day.

Good Morning

So here are a few random pictures. When we were in Idaho Springs we saw this unusual fountain. The charebs look so real.



The prologue climbs up most of this mountain. We stop right about where the chimney is except we're actually on the mountain, not in Breckenridge.


Vacation Mode is in full effect. I don't even know what day it is anymore. Ahh, to be independently wealthy and live this lifestyle wouldn't be so bad. Well, I guess I'll go ride now.

Relaxation

Spent the day lounging around. A little bike maintenance here, family walk there, tried to nap but 2 little girls would have none of that. I did ride around Breck for a while with Kylie, ended the ride with ice cream and some playtime at the park. I guess this is how most people spend their whole vacations. Back to riding tomorrow. I think I'll try and get hopelessly lost. Actually I can probably do that without trying.

Re-con

So I prerode the prologue today. It involved some climbing. Topped out at an advertised 11,800 ft. It was cold up there. Saw a few other folks out preriding, too. Holy crap. I'll be dreaming of that climb until the prologue is over. Dreams can be scary, right?
So when I got back down to the Firecracker course part of the prologue there were a whole bunch of people preriding that course. I ended up riding with some other folks for the next 3 hours. We were supposed to be riding the Firecracker course but ended up not on the course after French's Gulch. It was still a lot of fun. 2 of the guys are doing the duo for the Breck Epic as well so we chatted about that for a while. Jeff saved me and shared some water as I was all out. I guess 90 oz wasn't enough for me. We found a couple other lost souls and one of them had an IPhone. He had GPS on it and it showed him his exact location and which direction he was facing. Amazing. That saved us a lot of suffering. Another good day on the bike.

It's been too long

since I was mountain biking in Colorado. We got settled into the condo (which is AWESOME) and then I set out for a ride. Breck is kinda' tore up at the bottom but after about 10 minutes of riding around I found Gametrail. So I rode that up to the top and then continued climbing up to where the lift stops. Elevation was 11,200 feet. Nice. Took Pioneer trail down to Dwight's back to the bottom. So fun. I had the first tracks through the snow going up Gametrail, I couldn't believe it! I've had first tracks skiing or boarding before, but never on the mountain bike. I really need to get a camera. At the bottom I met up with some locals who took me on some trail that goes from Breck to Frisco. Rocky, rooty sweetness. The hardest part of this first week is going to be to not ride too much! Got back to find supper made and chocolate milk waiting for me. I'm not sure what I do to deserve such royal treatment from my lovely wife. She's amazing. So I gave her the lowdown on the trails and she headed out for her ride. I sent her up Dwights and down Gametrail. I hope she likes it as much as I did. The girls and I hit the hot tub and then we plopped down in front of the tube so far. They love it here, too. We may not come back. Gramma could use some more dogs.

Did that really happen?

So we're traveling with the whole family to Breckenridge and as most of you know, that includes 5 and 3 year old girls. Sounds like it could be the trip from heck, no? It was pretty amazing, actually. We made it 3.5 hours before we had to make the first stop. Lisa's walnut sized bladder was seemingly much larger today. We got some food and made it another 3 hours before stop number 2. 3 more to stop 3 and then we got to the Colorado/Nebraska border and the tornado warnings and severe weather. It was pretty sweet. The lacal radio station DJ was taking calls from people about what they were seeing. We laughed a lot at all the contradictory calls. One lady said the wind was blowing so hard she couldn't see. Another kid called and said he saw "a million funnel clouds." Josh the DJ said "We're getting some heavy wet rain right now." We missed most of the heavy stuff and unfortunately didn't get to see a tornado. So we ended up in a motel in Idaho Springs. 14.5 hours of driving and only 1.5 hours of not driving. Pretty solid. Eat us some Beaujo's Pizza tomorrow and then head into Breck. The acclimitization has begun. We're all anxious to get on our bikes and get into the mountains.

Oh Crap!

I was that guy. You know, the idiot that caused the crash. Believe me, it was no good for me either. Not only did I pay for a race I got to be in for 2 seconds, the extra points for the stage race don't happen if you DNF or get DQ'd which I did since the chainring that gashed (I said "gashed") my tires sidewall and gave me 5 little punctures in my back caused me to have to go to the car to get a tube gave me an automatic DQ. Nice run on sentence, I know. So that made Sunday a little less meaningful. I did do 2 laps of the course because it is super cool riding at Mt. Morris and who did I run into but my Lovely Bride Lisa who had crashed out and was just riding to ride as well. Great weekend. Kylie crashed twice in the kids race and swore she would never race there again. We'll see.
Sunday was a little better. I managed to get just over 18 minutes into the 20 minutes plus 2 laps of the shortrack before being lapped by the leaders. The course was fast and fun with the laps being about a minute and a half long. I'm not sure why I like that event but I do. All in all not a great weekend but I did get to race my bike and I can still ride tomorrow so it's not all bad.
Friday we leave for Colorado. Should be sweet!