Thru Endurance We Conquer!

Every rider knows the feeling. That sixth sense feeling that something is wrong and something bad is going to happen. It's like being in the middle of a train wreck and not being able to stop it. The question becomes - once the train wreck has happened, what do you do? Saturday night, at the starting line for the first race in the Leadville Winter Bike series - my personal favorite The Tennessee Pass Night Jam. The full moon was hidden in clouds and snow was piling up on the groomed trails. It was going to be a epic race and a fun ride. I was eager to start, a little nervous and ready to see how the new tires handled the fresh snow. It was a record crowd for the race and everyone was raring to go. The symphony of fat bike brakes filled the air as Sterling called us to the line. This was the only part I didn't like - the downhill start followed by the sharp right turn for the start loop. It made for great spectating and a spectical of lights flowing down the hill. But it alw...

Back in 2012, when Nick and I were visiting his parents in Tucson prior to racing 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo, we got punked into riding La Milagrosa  - one of the most technical downhill trails in the Tucson area. I walked most of it back then - both the AZT portion and Milagrosa proper. So when we made plans to head down to Tucson at the end of January to visit his parents again, Milagrosa was high on Nick's list. I'll admit, I was also looking forward to once again trying m y hand at that trail. Would I be happy and having fun with the advancement of my riding ability for that kind of trail or would it be mental break down? Only one way to find out and that was to head up Mount Lemmon and take the chance on the miracle trail. I thought that we would ride the road at a comfortable pace. And by comfortable I meant my pace. After all, it was about six miles of solid climbing and Nick wanted me to be all A game for the descent. So it would be an easy ride up the road, right? We...

It was a shorter trip then we had originally planned, but we still made the trip down to sunny Arizona for a short training camp aka visit Nick's parents trip. Nick's parents are huge horse riders and January/February is usually a great time to be in Tucson for riding. And since they have friends who live in Tucson now, it's even more convenient. We took a day after the hut trip to clean up, wash clothes and get ready for some sun and dirt. The first stop was Red River for some skiing. Not a bad hill - lots of carharts and camo. I'm still not sure how some of those skiers manage to keep their nice Stetson hats in place while they are flying downhill! The skiing meant for a long last day of driving and we finally pulled into Tucson about midnight Saturday. Ugh. That's the hardest part of going somewhere in the winter - it is such a long drive to anywhere dry! Sunday was more a recovery day from the driving. I did a long run in Fantasy Island while Nick rode. My opi...

Time for an escape and unplugging from the world. No better place for that then a hut isolated in the snow globe high up in the mountains We decided to try a different hut this year - Fritz's Cabin, to the North East of Aspen. We were able to book the cabin for the nights we wanted without any issues and because it was during the week, we were the only ones there! It was a small group - Nick and I, Todd and Amber and Ian   Since it was a fairly long haul into the hut (6.2 miles, 3000 feet of gain), we decided to stay in Glenwood Springs Sunday night. Might as well get the drive done with Sunday so we weren't rushed Monday morning. Amber had the great idea of going to the Yampah Vapor Caves after we checked into the hotel and managed to convince everyone that we really needed to go. Nick is always up for steaming hot but Todd and I were a harder sell. In the end, it was a great start to the trip.   We started the trek up just after noon, not really realizing...

I'm sure it's something on many bucket lists - shutting the bar down. Hasn't even been on my list of things to do before I die - after all bed time is a sacred thing to me. So when Nick and I headed to Fieldhouse Brewing Co for the third annual New Years New Beers party, I figured we'd have a pint or two and then head home and go to bed. I did have a race the next morning after all! Well, with a list of beers that made even me excited and with two new ones for Nick, my first half pint quickly became a few more. Everything was just so good and there were so many cool people! We watched one, then two, then several more of the 10 new beers tap out as we hung out. Soon enough, it was midnight and Happy New Years! And then Ben was rolling the empty kegs out the door... whoops! Way past my bed time and I had a race in the morning! Another first - showing up to the first race of the year still slightly hung over... we parked at the Stables so I could get a bit of a warm up i...

Or where do I see myself as an athlete? At first, it was a marathoner - maybe not the fastest, but consistent. It was what I loved and something that I thought I'd be doing forever. But the compass shifted and I reinvented myself as a triathlete. First on the road, then on the trails. It was an interesting journey as a triathlete and I learned a lot about resilience and persistence. I also got a good lesson in reality on many occasions. Which brought another swing of the compass towards the endurance mountain bike world. The riding, the racing and the preparation - all up my alley. Again, not the fastest, but consistent and always ready for whatever conditions the race would throw at me. I felt sure that I'd found my north and the compass had found it's resting point. But... Daydreaming returned the compass to the original direction - back to running. One of my ultimate goals was always to finish a 50 mile race and I was able to do that this year. I found myself pondering...

It is very common to see amateur athletes of all kinds with more logos on their kits then a NASCAR driver. Everyone is looking for the deals and the ability to say they are a sponsored athlete. Companies see the influx of people willing to hashtag their lives away just for a few pennies off something and take advantage of that for some free marketing. There are entire websites dedicated to helping athletes find sponsorships of some kind. But there really isn't a relationship between athlete and company that works for the benefit of both. The discounts offered aren't usually worth the effort and it's difficult to really promote a product that the athlete doesn't believe in. It's even harder to believe the quality of the product when you see athletes jumping from company to company and each one is the "best they've ever used." Or when you are told that such and such is actually better, but I'll use this because I get a discount. No brand loyalty at a...