May is National BEEF BIKE RUNNER Month!

I love May. It's my birth month. May is alsoNational Beef Month, National Bike Month and National Runners Month! So what's not to love?!

Back in 2010 (the year Dick's Sporting Goods designated May as Beef Runners Month), I launched the National Beef Runners Month Challenge to "eat beef and get some exercise every day in the month of May." Only this year I am focused on cycling. So, I an renewing the challenge but changing the name to the National Beef Bike Month Challenge!

Frankly, I don't care if you run, ride, walk or Zumba. The goal is to move for 30 minutes (elevating your heart rate beyond normal activity) and eat at least 3 oz. of lean beef to fuel your physical activity, every day for 31 days. It's a simple, doable, tasty challenge!

My personal goal is to ride an average of 25 miles per day during National Beef Bike Month. That's approximately 90 minutes of exercise each day, so I get to eat a lot more beef :)



This was taken THIS MORNING, May 1, 2013!

My goal is part of a much bigger goal to ride 2000 mile between January 1 and June 8, in training for Ride the Rockies 2013. And I'm behind schedule. An unusually snowy spring in Colorado has made it difficult to log road miles. But I've spent a lot of time on my Cyclops Fluid2 indoor bike trainer, so I'm  not too far behind. 175 miles per week, 775 miles in 31 days. It's a stretch goal, but it's doable.

So what is your goal? Wherever you are in your persoanl fitness journey, I encourage you to challenge yourself this month. If you are doing nothing, start small. Walk for 30 minutes. If you already exercise every day, try something new. And every day after you reach your goal, reward yourself with lean beef, the nutritional powerhouse.

Ride on!

Daren

Ride the Rockies 2013 Preview Day Two: Cortez to Durango

After a fun evening in Cortez, Day Two looks like a good day for a late start. It's the second shortest day of the tour. Maybe Woody and I will stop for breakfast on the way out of town. At only 64 miles and 3,442 ft. of elevation gain, the ride east to Durango looks relatively tame.

I'll probably live to regret those words. It'll be hot or windy (or both). It's never as "easy" as it looks on paper. But the highest point on day two is Hesperus Hill at 8,091 ft. And I don't remember it being much of a climb when we rode this same route in the opposite direction on day one of RTR 2008.



Hitting the road with Woody and we stopped for breakfast in Leadville on RTR 2013.





Ride the Rockies attracts all kinds of riders. There are hard core early risers who break camp before dawn and head out at first light dressed in winter gear. They are the "Early Truck" people . The masses head out between 7-8 a.m. They are the Midde Truckers. Woody and I (and most of Team Bar2Bar) wake up about the time everybody else is taking off. We are the Late Truckers (RTR hauls one bag per person from stop to stop in three 18-wheelers).



Morning at our campsite in Gunnison on the first day of RTR 2012.

 We like to ride toward the back of the pack. When we roll into the next stop on the tour we ride straight to a predetermined watering hole for some liquid carbo-loading. Everybody else heads straight to the cmpsite to set up their tent in the heat of the day then wait in line at the shower trucks (impressive 18-wheel mobile shower units).

About the time the masses head out for dinner (and more lines) we head to the campground and find the perfect spot nobody else took (probably because it wasn't in the shade at 2:00!). We walk right into the showers, change clothes and head back out for the evening (about the time the early risers are headed to bed).

I'm fairly certain the official Team Bar2Bar destination in Durango will be Steamworks Brewing Co. This was the gathering point on the first day of RTR 2008. Apparently I had a great beef philly with pablano peppers that night after the long bus ride from Denver. I don't see it on the 2013 menu (.pdf) but the French Dip with House Smoked All Natural Brisket, Swiss Cheese, House Cured Bacon, on a Ciabatta Hoagie sounds amazing!

After Steamworks we'll probably hit a few more local spots before heading back to camp to get some sleep before the 86-mile ride from Durango to Pagosa Springs. Check back in next Sunday for a preview of Day Three of Ride the Rockies 2013.

Ride on!

Daren

Ride the Rockies 2013 Training Update: It's all downhill from here!

Every time I run a race I figure out the halfway point before I start (for a half marathon, it's at 6.55 miles, 5K is 1.55, etc.) so I'll know when I'm halfway there. There's something about the halfway point that get's me fired up. I get a little shot of adrenaline, like a horse riding back to the barn.

On a typical day on Ride the Rockies the halfway point isn't the mileage. It's the top of the big climb, the highest point on the ride. As we always say at that point, "It's all downhill from here" (although it rarely truly is).


My and Big T at Red Rocks Amphitheatre

Today I crossed the halfway point towards my training goal to ride 2,000 miles before June 8, the start of Ride the Rockies 2013. It was a great training ride for RTR, a 56.29 mi loop with a total ascent of 3,992.78 ft. and a maximum elevation of 7,887.14 ft. (minimum 5,453). We started near Chatfield Reservoir, road up Deer Creek Canyon, through World Famous Tiny Town, Indian Hills, Evergreen, Red Rocks, Morrison, Bear Creek Lake Regional Park and back to Chatfield on the C470 trail.

As we took off on our ride around 7:00 a.m. there were a bunch of hot air balloons taking off from Chatfield Reservoir

After today's ride, I have ridden 1,021 miles since January 1 (most of them on my Cyclops Fluid2 indoor trainer). But that means I still have 980 miles to ride in the next 6 weeks. That's an average of 163.33 miles per week, more than I have ridden any week so far this year.

So, it's definitely not all downhill from here! I definitely need a shot of adrenaline to get me going and maybe reaching the halfway mark will be it. So, how's your training going? Leave a comment. I'd love to hear from fellow RTR riders around the country.

Ride on!

Daren