1000 Miles and Counting!

Actually...1,038 miles and counting as of this morning. I just got in from a brisk 25-mile ride on a cold May morning in the Colorado Rockies. I love riding in morning. It's a great way to start the day (especially burning 1,232 calories!).

[Above: The green pastures and registered polled herefords of Statter Ranch at the corner of Perry Park Road/Hwy 105 and Tomah Road]

I rode the same route last night after work and put in 20 on Sunday, giving me 70 miles so far this week (I count Sunday as the first day of the week). Unfortunately I think that's all I'm going to get this week with work and travel interfering with my training! But no worries, with one month to Ride the Rockies I'm well ahead of where I was last year at this time (about 400 more miles in the saddle!).

After a snowy April and wet start to May (at least on the weekends), the weather finally warmed up enough for a good ride this past Saturday with my new riding buddies from the New Hope Cycling Group (a group of riders affiliated with New Hope Presbyterian Church in Castle Rock). It was bit chilly but sunny Saturday morning as we headed out for a strong 38-mile loop in and around Castle Rock.

Sunday (Mother's Day) turned cold and damp again but I was determined to ride outside so wound through Castle Rock for a casual 20 miles. The time I spent on the trainer is paying off as I finally get back out on the road. My legs feel good.

And my high protein, low carbon footprint diet (lot's of nutrient rich beef) is paying off, too. I've dropped 15 pounds of winter weight (I'm at my lowest weight in three years) but maintaining important muscle mass. It will be nice not to have to carry that extra weight up Independence Pass this year on Ride the Rockies!

Ride on!

Daren

Getting Ready to Ride!

After a few glimpses of spring and summer back in March, April has been a bust for riding outside. Warm weather (high 70s) this week melted the two feet of snow we got last weekend but I was traveling so wasn't able to take advantage of it. Today is a rare cloudy day in Denver and it's been raining off and on. We need the rain so I can't complain. It's just that I haven't been out on the road since mid-March!

I have been diligent about putting in the miles on my CycleOps Fluid2 trainer. I've logged over 800 miles to date...well ahead of where I was last year at this time (following the accident, surgery, etc.). Riding on the trainer is a great workout but can be very boring, especially when my Garmin Edge 305 runs out of battery power (as it did today).

Even though I am stationary so the GPS-enabled functions of the Edge (like the turn-by-turn directions and full mapping capability shown in this picture) are of no use on the trainer, I still use the Edge to track my miles (it has a wheel magnet backup for the GPS), RPMs (the Edge includes a magnet that attaches to the crank and gives a real-time readout of RPMs) and heart rate to make sure I am making the most of my workout. I try to keep my RPMs between 88 and 92 and vary my heart rate between 114 and 142 beats per minute.

Hopefully May will bring warmer, dry weather. I'm planning to start riding to/from work in May (as I did last year). My goal is to log 2,000 miles prior to the start of Ride the Rockies on June 14. That means I need to average about 170 miles per week over the next seven weeks. This should be doable unless my travel schedule keeps up at the pace I've been going!

The sun is peeking through the clouds now so we're going to take Casey for a walk. Maybe it will clear off tomorrow so I can get out on the road tomorrow after church.

Ride on...

Daren

Springtime in Colorado!

It's springtime in Colorado and that means time to get back out on the bike and training for Ride the Rockies, right? WRONG! Springtime in Colorado means unpredictable weather. This weekend it meant over two feet of snow in Castle Rock!

I flew home from Dallas yesterday afternoon and when we landed in Denver it had just started to snow at DIA. By the time I reached Castle Rock (a little over an hour and 1,200 feet of elevation gain later) there was about a foot of heavy, wet snow on the ground that made great material for snowballs (above: the girls wage a snow ball fight across the driveway).

We woke this morning to another six or so inches on the drive and it snowed all day until about 5:00. The girls and I spent the better part of the afternoon building up our snow forts -- so much so that we never got around to resuming the snowball fight!

Haley and Natalie (our neighbor) also created a handsome snowman (at left). Throughout the day avalanches of snow rumbled down from our roof onto our front and back porch and driveway but there's still a lot of very heavy snow hanging overhead!

Leslie finally got to try out the snow shoes I got her for Christmas last year (07!). We haven't had this much snow since the day we moved into our house in December 06 -- the Blizzard of '06 (more than four feet of snow in 48 hours). Frankly, I've been a little disappointed in the past two winters. Snowshoeing on the ridge behind out house is a lot of fun and great exercise.

I was just outside and think the temperature is actually rising (we're supposed to hit 60 tomorrow and 70 on Monday!). I hope the snow doesn't all melt before we have a chance to get back out on the ridge in our snowshoes tomorrow...but I hope this is the last snow of the season. I'm ready to get my bike back out on the road. Less than two months until Ride the Rockies 2009.

Ride on!

Daren