Ready to Rock (Ride the Rockies)

One week from today I'll be boarding a bus from Denver to Durango, Colorado, headed to the start of Ride the Rockies 2008. After putting in 265 miles on the road in the past week, my legs are feeling good and I am ready to rock!

One week ago I averaged 16.0 mph on my ride to work and 14.5 on my ride home (net elevation gain on ride home). My previous best was 15.5 and 13.3, respectively. I felt great about the steady progress I had made since getting back on a bike on March 30 after a seven month hiatus.

[Above: the view of Mt. Evans from the E-470 trail on my ride to work]

But this week I made a quantum leap. Riding to work Tuesday I averaged 17 mph and turned around and did 14.5 on the way home. I was pumped. I had "found my legs" again and not a moment to soon, with Ride the Rockies less than two weeks away. But then I kicked it up another notch. After taking Thursday off to rest my legs, I rode to and from work yesterday (25 miles each way) averaging 17.5 on the way in and 15.6 on the way home!

I'm psyched. Last year I didn't find my legs until after Ride the Rockies. I was training hard for the Vineman Ironman 70.3 and just didn't get enough miles in the saddle (less than 500 miles). And I paid for it. I'll never forget climbing Independence Pass feeling like my legs were spaghetti. Not this year. Since March 30 I have logged 833.61 miles -- 280.37 on my CycleOps Fluid2 trainer and 553.24 on the road.

But that wasn't the real highlight of my week. Yesterday I had my three-month checkup following my collarbone surgery in March. Dr. Loucks (at left) was pleased with what he saw on the X-ray -- a large mass of new bone forming in the gap between the shattered pieces of my clavicle! If you look closely at the X-ray below, you can see an oval cloud of white bone cells. This is new bone. Lots of it. As Dr. Loucks said, my clavicle is going to be as large as my femur (the most voluminous and strongest bone in the body)!

After seeing the X-ray Dr. Loucks gave me the go ahead to do Ride the Rockies...and just about whatever else I want to do except "checking somebody into the boards" (he's Canadian and plays hockey). I told him that wouldn't be an issue!

So I'm off to meet my Team DFL friend Patty for a ride. It's a beautiful day in Denver. Life is good!

Ride on!

Daren