Fitness Training News

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Time for the mt bike

Two mt bike rides over the weekend. No technical trails, just time on the mt bike. Rode up to 9,000. Still have some snow piles here and there.

There's also a lot of snow on the trails up from here. Think it may be awhile to get up high. No worries here as the weather is not very hot right now. Seems spring is late this year. Memorial Day is supposed to have rain which will be good for all of the runners but not so good for the festival. I'm working all day, so OK by me. Means the campers can't set the woods on fire. # posted by Michelle Grainger @ 11:43 PM 0 Comments

Hail in the mountains, worse for the people of the plains

This was nothing compared to what we encountered on our walk with the Girls and what the people on the plains of Colorado got.

As we walked the Girls, it was hailing little pea sized hail throughout the hike. Special K didn't mind so much, as not much ever bothers her. L-Newbie, however, didn't like the hail one bit but we made her go on the hike anyway.

As we headed for the Red Shack the Girls kept picking up a scent of what Steve and I figured was the local bear. Kinda smelly and kept the Girls on their toes. So we decided to turn back and take a different route. No point in following something much bigger, much meaner, and much more adept to the woods.

As we got about an hour into the hike and close to home the hail got much worse. Much worse.

All of a sudden the sky got very dark and hail the size of large grapes began to dump. That's when the Girls decided they'd had enough. They both took off like bats outa h#$% and no amount of calling and whistling mattered. It's also when a huge chunk of hail hit me in the eye. No I wasn't looking up.

Special K came running back but L was nowhere in sight. So I ran down the trail calling and calling.

Only after the hail dropped more normal sizes did she come back, and not looking very good. She hates rain, let alone hail. This was the end of the hike and as it turned out, the beginning of the worst weather to hit the Greely, Ft. Collins, and Windsor.

Working on getting some goods together for these folks and will deliver it later this week. # posted by Michelle Grainger @ 11:32 PM 0 Comments

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Three 50 mile loops up, around and past Ward, Colorado

Last weekend Steve and I met a group of people on the Peak To Peak Hwy to go for a little ride. A little 150 mile ride that had about 16-18,000 feet of climbing. Just a little ride.

Last year I did the "group ride" with Catherine and Steve was able to do one loop, only a few months after his knee surgery.

We all met north of Ward at 6 AM, yes, I can get up early, if I have to. From Ward we rode past the beautiful snow covered mountains, about 25 miles to Lyons.

From Lyons we rode south (mostly up) on Hwy 36 to the turn off of Lefthand Canyon. Once on Lefthand, we headed (up) back to ward.

Lefthand Canyon is so beautiful and you follow the rider for most of the ride up. This year I noticed that the Beaver dams were bigger than ever.

The first loop around was pretty quick and a nice cool temperature. Most of the riders stay together for the first. Most people/riders come to do 1 or 2 loops. Most aren't crazy to do all three. About 4 of us did the entire three loops. It takes all day.

By the second loop we were going pretty slowly. This is the loop I remembered last year as being the hardest loop. It just seems to take forever and it's usually when my knees seem to hurt. And right on schedule, they felt sore this year.

the good thing about going slow is you see more. Like the river depth, the waterfalls, the flowes and all of the other riders.

by about 10:00 or 11:00 Am you see so many cyclists out riding. Today we saw and extra amount as there was a fund raising cycling event hosted by Davis Phinney's foundation for Parkinson's Disease. It was great to see so many people out riding.

By the time loop three rolled around, we were going about the same pace as loop two. Not fast but consistent. we were also about the only riders still out. It's late afternoon and most riders were home drinking coffee, beer, or Chai. We were still riding.

As you get close to ward you begin to notice the things in people's yards.

And you remember why you do things like this. Because we can. And we like it.

We also remember the people that came here before us. The people that didnt't have the time to ride their bikes 150 crazy miles. But people that came here to have better lives and to seek adventure. Hhhhmmmm. # posted by Michelle Grainger @ 5:16 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

240 Miles in 24 hours. Our Fleche.

We started on Sat AM in Louisville. From there went into the wind for the next 120 miles. All the while wishing we were the group from Wyoming coming south the whole ride (little did we know that that group had only one rider that was willing to ride into a snow storm-and well, we also all know that you cannot go as a group of one).

So, off we go towards Ft Collins, meandering our way through the rollers of Boulder County and Larimer, and some of Weld County. Every time we hit a section of road that heads east, we all wonder about the direction of the first half of our Fleche. At least there were these short 1/4 and 1/2 mile sections of no pedaling tailwind riding. At least.... Isn't that what you say as a hopeful rider about to ride 240 miles?

Into the headwinds and off we go past Carter Lake and onto the small farming roads towards Masonville. From there up we go to Stove Prairie.

Never been there before. Absolutely beautiful.

Here is where I finally realized that having a compact crank set would be a good thing. So much for saying "never"! Steve said he'd trade his compact for a triple. hhhmmmm. At the top we waited for our tandem team. Got too cold, though.

From the top of Stove Prairie we headed down to the Poudre River. That canyon is also very beautiful and I had never been there before this ride.

Here is where the weather decided to turn even worse.

A blizzard began and we had to stop and put on every bit of clothing we had. Good thing we brought all but the kitchen sink. I put on full length nylon rain pants, three jackets (one with a hood), and thankfully I already had my panty hose knee high on to keep my feet warm.

Once out of the canyon we headed to out control at Vern's in Laporte.

I had the best breakfast burrito I've ever had.

From Laporte we headed into more headwinds to get to Wellington. That would be our most northern point and thankfully allow us to get away from the headwind. Well, that's what we thought.

We zig zagged south and east and back west and then south again. Mostly the wind was quieting down and we only had slight headwinds and side winds from time to time. We rode past towns called Severence, Windsor, and Milliken.

When we got to our "dinner" spot, Johnsons Corner, we all decided that we would rather keep riding while we had another hour and a bit of daylight instead of sitting down for dinner. We all grabbed sandwiches, stashed them on the bike for later, and headed for Plattville. On the way to Plattville we turned on lights, put all vests on and changed sunglasses to clear lenses.

After the Plattville control we were happily riding in calmer winds and then all of a sudden one of the tandems pedal flew off. Luckily we found the pedal and ace mechanic Steve was able to piece it back together and secure it onto the spindle. Not sure how long it would hold up but maybe until the hotel room/control.

We made our way to Longmont, the southern end of town, only to realize the hotel was at the north end of town. Oh well, a few more miles. the hotel was a welcome relief, if only for a couple of hours.

At about 3 am we headed for Lafayette to our next control. We were approached by some pretty "high" teenagers that wondered if we were bike cops. Hee hee.

After Lafayette we headed back around Longmont and out to Lyons. The sky was starting to light up now and we could see that it had snowed quite a bit in the mountains. A great backdrop but also a memory of the cold day before.

After the quick breakfast of egg sandwiches in Lyons we were on the last 28 miles or so of our Fleche and we headed around Boulder and over to the Superior/our finish. We arrived with about 8 minutes to spare and waited in the parking lot to cross the "finish line" a 8:00 AM.

A great 240 mile "day" and many thanks to Catherine for a great route and to RMCC for sanctioning our ride.
Cannot wait to do it again next year.

# posted by Michelle Grainger @ 1:05 PM 0 Comments

Way to go James Hatch! Onward to the Olympic trials! James Hatch is an Olympic hopeful. He runs the 800 meter and also the 1500. His goal is to go to the Olympic Trials in June and then on to the Beijing Olympics.

I train James in the gym and also give him nutritional advice. His coach, Joanne, is a good friend of mine and has been working with him on his goal of making it into the Olympics. If you want to watch James’s 1500 meter race from the Oregon Twilight Meet, there’s a great video at this link:
Link

http://www.runnerspace.com/video.php?do=view&member_id=6&video_id=3833

If the link doesn’t work, go to runnerspace.com and click on the featured video of Wheating winning the 1500 meters at the Oregon Twilight meet.

He got 3rd in this race and did a PR. Go James! # posted by Michelle Grainger @ 11:40 AM 0 Comments

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Better photo of the black bear

My neighbor saw the bear before it got to my house. She took a far better photo of the bear, than the one I posted yesterday.
No tag in the ear of this one. Let's hope it stays that way. # posted by Michelle Grainger @ 8:09 PM 0 Comments

Never forget those that have walked with us and no longer can

Clay Rubano
Hhhmmmm.
Today I've been thinking a lot about two people that I loved very much and that are no longer with us any more. It's easy to keep moving on through life without much thought to the things that hurt our hearts. But that's not fair to the memories of others.

Dawne Lowery.
When we think about life it's easy to think about what the future holds, what things to worry about tomorrow and what plans we need to make. It's not so easy to think about today. To think about now and to enjoy it. To enjoy the people in our lives and to live in the present.

My life is really awesome. I don't want to forget how wonderful it is. It is the people that I've known and the people and family in it now that make my life wonderful.

Here's to many and all of the people that shared and enriched our lives. Thank you David, Jean, Scott, Dawne, Chloe, Dawne, Clay, Melissa, and many more. # posted by Michelle Grainger @ 7:54 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Bears are back from winter vacation

Took the Girls hiking today and did the 2 miles loop out to the Red shack, up to the high trail and back down past the Antelope Trail. It was Kayla's first day off the leash in a very long time. Her foot is finally better and although she still wears a bootie, the cut is looking quite good.

So we're all coming down off of the trail to the house and I see this rather large footprint. It wasn't there on the way up. Usually I point it out and Steve makes fun of me and says I have mountain lion or bears on the brain. I usually say something like, no it looks much different from a dog footprint. Well, I didn't say anything this time.

We get back to the house and were looking at our bikes and Lucie starts to bark her deep bark like a warning. I kept looking to the driveway to see if someone had stopped by. Then I realize that she is looking into the woods. I ask her what she sees and "good protect"-out command for doing just that.

I look to where her attention is and low and behold there's a huge black bear. It's the same black bear we saw many times last summer.

So I grab the camera and go to the street to take a photo. He's so un-phased by me, my yelling and the dogs barking that he gives me a look and just walks along.

Guess he's pretty hungry and even though it was garbage day, I think he missed all of the trash cans. # posted by Michelle Grainger @ 10:32 PM 0 Comments

Pre ride for the Fleche

So yesterday I rode to Boulder to work (commuted) and rode a long way home. Had to re-test out how my nice 15 pound bike would hold up to a 5 pound rear trunk bag, and 3 pound handle bar bag, 2 full water bottles, three front lights (thanks Cat Eye), three rear red lights (again, thanks Cat Eye), and a few other changes to turn a racing bike in to a temporary Brevet bike.

Well. All went well except my T-bar that holds the front lights wouldn't stay tight. Have to work on that. If I have to get the duct tape out, I will.
ALl in all the bike handled so well. I love it. # posted by Michelle Grainger @ 2:03 PM 0 Comments

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Dry run with loaded bike

Today was the dry run ride in preparation for the Fleche. We loaded up our bikes and headed to Boulder. Steve on his Seven Brevet bike-built to carry a load and me on my KHS Flite Team racing bike. Normally 15 pounds and very fast-now about 8-9 pounds heavier and still pretty darn fast. Man, I love this bike. I just hope it doesn't hate me for loading it down.

First stop on the ride was to watch our friend race in a triathlon. She was faster than we thought but got to see her on her run.

Next stop was a place called Resource 2000. We were looking for doors, windows, and cabinets. No luck but we did run into our good friend John and his wife. They too were taking advantage of the nice warm weather and taking a bike ride.

From Resource 200 we headed through town and over to another friend's house to get him out riding. We brought him along for the last leg of the ride-the ride back home.

We learned a lot from the ride today. My seat had been slipping backward for the last couple of months. I knew it didn't seem right but thought maybe I was mistaken. We fixed that. The bike proved to be a champ. We also added all of the lights and finished the minor bag adjustments.

I think it will be great ride next weekend. Fun, adventurous and a great learning experience. Who knows, maybe we'll do a lot of these and I'll look for my own Brevet bike. # posted by Michelle Grainger @ 11:04 PM 0 Comments

Family day with the Girls

No ride on Saturday for this weekend. Had to write plans in the morning and get more done for the Fleche. But that didn't mean it was a total wash of a day. I got in 2 hikes with The Girls, a play date with their friend Greta and Kayla's brother, Kiptu, and a great dinner to finish off the day. # posted by Michelle Grainger @ 10:58 PM 0 Comments

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Day off on Wednesday and an awesome century

Heading out of town, past Lyons gives us an awesome view. We're heading for Cater Lake, Big Thompson Canyon, and up to Estes Park. We took the day off and planned an easy day to Estes for the last big ride before the Fleche.

We got to Big Thompson in a little under two hours and refueled at the RV park. Good place to get water and food and use the very clean bathrooms. They don't seem to mind and we always buy something to support their kindness.

When you see this, you know you're about to get onto the Big Thompson Canyon road.
Big Thompson is my favorite way to Estes Park. An easy grade and always something to look at. It also has a great shoulder to ride the whole way up. I never seem to notice the traffic, although it can have a lot of it on the summer weekends.

A quick stop top take a photo along the way. Great places to fish, too.

When you get to Estes you have your pick of several places to sit down eat or grab a bite at the local Safeway. If I'm in a hurry, I stop at the first gas station I see. This day, I was in a hurry to keep moving. I wanted to see how fast we could do the ride in.

The only tailwind of the day was out of Estes on 36. The 2 mile hill was so easy it just didn't seem right. Without pedaling too much our average on the climb was about 14/15 without effort. Then we only had a mild headwind back down to Lyons.

Once in Lyons I asked Steve what are avg pace was and he told me it was about 17.8. Well, I always like a challenge. Sorry Steve. I know I said it'd be an easy day but, well, let's get the avg over 18.

So ride hard we did for the last 25 miles. Every time we got the avg up on more 10th, I'd say, "Ok, now we have to go faster. Again, lucky the headwind back to Boulder was only mild. We kept upping the ante. The closer we got the less distance we'd have to creep the avg higher.

A few times my quads started to cramp and I'd have to let up a bit.

Finally into Boulder and just as we pulled into the end of the ride, Steve yelled we had 18.5. Yeah!

We did a 5.5 hour century. Actually 102 miles. Not bad for all of the time I had to take off over the winter. Now I know we'll be ready for the Fleche. # posted by Michelle Grainger @ 7:08 PM 0 Comments

Almost May and the Fleche is only 2 weeks away

We are so lucky to live here!

Last Sunday Steve and I decided to ride up to Ward and ride some of the Ward 150 Loop. That event is the weekend after the Fleche and we will not have another chance to ride the route. Not really sure how many loops I'll be able to do but will plan for all three. 150 miles is a lot to do after doing 225 miles. Aaahhhh, whatever.

So, riding out of town I knew my legs felt good. A couple of riders caught onto our wheel and in true road riding etiquette, they stayed behind us instead of what some, not so cool, riders do. That is, they stayed behind us, not because they couldn't ride faster, but because it's not cool to ride around people and then ride the same pace. I hate that back and forth game, unless you are with friends and trying to out do each other. Anyway, I knew I felt good and it'd be a good riding day.

We turned onto Lefthand and up we went. The pace wasn't really super fast but a really comfortable high tempo pace. My HR stuck around 150 and occasionally popped to 160. That's moderately high for me as my HR tends to stay pretty low, even with a hard effort. Still, my legs felt awesome. Not like any effort. We also had a headwind. We took turns pulling and whenever the wind let up we rode side by side.

It was a great ride to Ward. I feared having to traverse at the very top because I have lower gearing but I stayed on Steve's wheel to the top. Once we got to the top, we put on more clothes and rode Peak To Peak to Raymond and down to Lyons. I got so cold I couldn't feel my hands.

The temp to Ward had been a very comfortable sunny 62/3 degrees but on the top (about 9,000 feet) it was only about 50 degrees. Too cold for the amount (or lack of) clothes I had on.
Once in Lyons it was warmer and more comfortable.

By the time we got back to Boulder, we were thoroughly trashed. # posted by Michelle Grainger @ 6:48 PM 0 Comments

End of April and lots of work and riding.

Thank you BMA and all the folks that help making mountain bike trails.

First time on the new trail. Well, old trail just open to us.

My good friend Jenn does a great "move" climbing the stairs near Marshall Mesa.

After returning from Desert Camp, I jumped right back into work and getting ready for the upcoming Fleche, now only one week away.

I've been commuting as much as possible. It's a 30 min (all out time trial) to work and about a 50-60 minute ride back home. About 25 miles round trip. A very good workout, especially when I'm late heading to work. I call it my TT or interval training. It keeps me in really good shape.

I like commuting because it's my own little "green" part of life and I also like to save on gas-it's about 47 dollars to fill my take now. Steve has been commuting a lot, too. He gets better gas mileage in his little Honda. We only drive the 88 van on road trips when we can sleep/camp in it and cramming the recycling materials in it. Trying to not be one of the people who say they do all they can to help with Global Warming and then they drive big huge trucks to and from work. I guess you can't just sell one of those trucks right now so maybe it's the only way to get around. I feel guilty enough even owning the van but it is functional and there are a lot of things I can't cram into the wagon. It's pretty tight at times when two bikes are on it, two dogs are in it, and then all of the other stuff brought to town in order not to make more then one trip into town. I guess every little bit helps. So I'll keep trying o commute at least twice a week and not drive on days off.

Two weekends ago Steve and I rode to Boulder to meet up with Eugene for a mountain bike ride. Time to ride some trails we've not been on in a long time. It was also my second mt bike ride of the year. I already have about 2500 miles and all on the road. Time to ride the mt bike.

That Sunday we headed out to Marshall Mesa and a trail I think is called Sparrow, or Something. I can't remember the name. Also to go ride on a trail just opened to mountain bikers near Eldorado Springs. Absolutely awesome!

The open space and expansive views were incredible. We saw a lot of friends out riding and had nice chats about how great our lives are. We truly are very lucky. Lucky to have the places to ride, the views to look at and also the fitness to ride it all.

Showing Jenn how to make the moves up the stairs with out making it take too much energy.

The great single track riding near Boulder Colorado.

# posted by Michelle Grainger @ 6:17 PM 0 Comments

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