Tucson Mountain Park

Got in a 4 hour mtb ride at Tucson Mountain Park on Thurs with TJ. It was a full day on the bike and we were able to hit Starr Pass, Golden Gate, and Gate's Pass. The trails are pretty crazy compared to back home. Click HERE to check out the Garmin file. Tomorrow is the 27 mile climb to the summit of Mt. Lemon.

Got out for a 60 mile road ride on Wed. The route took me through Gates pass, which served up some awesome riding and views. Still have lots of riding left, including a trip to the top of Mt. Lemon on Sat.

Gates Pass at Tucson Mountain Park

Back side of the pass. Cars are only half as fast as a bike on the decent.

A little broader view

I've attached a few of the rides from the Garmin Below. Nothing too earth shattering on the performance side of things, but the links offer some pretty cool interaction.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/22328521 --- Wed "Big Square" loop

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/22328581 --- Tues MTB ride

http://http//connect.garmin.com/activity/22328622 --- Monday road ride

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/22328641 --- Race

Quick update from Tucson. Headed up to Phoenix Sat morning to preride the course, which went well. Trails are really, really rocky and also pretty technical in spots. Raced in the Rock Crusher sport class and was able to get a podium spot. My fitness on the top end is not where it needs to be, but the season is still very early.

Monday I hit the roads for a 40 mile endurance ride.

Tuesday we hit one of Tucson's premier trail systems for a solid 3.5 hour ride. Hard to believe there is a trail somewhere in there amongst the boulders.

Sample of some of the tricky stuff.

TJ hitting killing the sketchy downhill on his rigid / rigid.

Stay tuned for some more random trail pics. Tx for checking in.

Trainer Bonk

Been down in Sheboygan visiting my parents on the farm where my dad is recovering from his heart attack. Things were a little slow, so I got the bike set up in mom's kitchen on Sat afternoon for a 2 hour endurance ride. It was nice to have a window with a view compared to riding in my pitch black basement. After holding a comfortable 233 watts for the first 90 minutes of the ride things went South in a hurry. I only had water and no solid calories to sustain the effort so the bonk was inevitable, and when it hit is was full on. It is pretty crazy how fast the body can shut down in a situation like that. Wonder if the Sheboygan crew did their breakfast ride.....it was zero out when I woke up.

Click HERE to read a cool article passed on to me from TJ.

Goodies

Out with the XTR / XO and in with the new XX. The SISU hard tail is going in to be Gun-Koted and then built up with the new package. The bike should should be pretty sweet once it is all put together.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Pretty darn hard to have more fun than riding Lowe's Creek with four PUGS. It really dials in your handling skills! The energy it takes to turn out 11 miles of single track on one of these beasts borders on ridiculous.

tis the season

Now that the Christmas holidays are behind us, it is time to get down to work and dial in the training for the 2010 season. I am signed on for another year with power training guru TJ Woodruff, which should be fun in a painful kind of way. My training plan will be geared towards the BC, 7-day stage race, which is held the last week of June. 24 hours of Nine Mile, Dakota 50, Cheq Fat Tire, Ore 2 Shore, a few WORS races and a few road races are also on the books. Most of the training will be done on the trainer until the roads clear, except for PUG night at Lowe's Creek (feel free to join in).

Going to start things off on a good note with a week long training camp in Tucson the second week of January. I have a race scheduled the first Saturday of the trip then a few road and mtb rides and of course a trip to the top of Mt. Lemon. The trip will be a nice way to split up the winter and allow me to stay focused till spring when Jim and I will be ramping things up with some killer weekend training rides on the cold, sloppy roads South of Mondovi.

Gave my legs a little Christmas present after everyone went to bed. Had to make sure I remembered how to spin the pedals. Race form is a ways off, but the legs seem to still have a little Diesel power left. I will try to get some power files from the training rides posted on a regular basis along with some video from the Pug rides. Thanks for tuning in and happy holidays!