Weekend in Durango

I've already talked about the Iron Horse but the weekend definitely wasn't a loss. I love Durango. The worst part about visiting Durango is knowing that sooner or later we gotta go leave. This was my 5th year doing the IronHorse and our weekend is typically the same year after year. Friday is usually reserved for recovery from the drive, packet pickup, and a short ride to loosen up. Minus the pouring rain, Friday was pretty normal. I've already discussed what happened on Saturday, so we had Sunday left to enjoy.

Here's the start of Ryan's Kid Race. Largest turnout yet!!! Coby cruising towards the finish line.

We always spend our entire Sunday downtown for the kids races and the criteriums. My oldest son has done the kids race since he was 5 years old. It's amazing to see how much he's grown. Our youngest is now going on his second year racing. This was his first year without training wheels. I was super impressed at how well both of them rode. Ryan (oldest) had to compete on his mtn bike which surprisingly wasn't all that bad. It was all mtn bikes that took the first three spots. Next year though he'll be racing a road bike. It's been ordered but didn't arrive in time for the Colorado trip. We've got a local race coming up that I'm hoping he will be able to compete in. It doesn't give him much time to train though.

Ryan waiting for the pre-race instruction.

Criteriums

Being that the road race was cancelled, I think that lead to a greater turn out for the criteriums. Cats 4 and 5 were a big group but I think the 3's were the funnest to watch. They were hauling butt. There's a 90 degree corner and the bottom of the hill and they were hitting it full blast. There was only one small tangle when one guys pedal was caught up the bottle cage of another bike.

Cat 3's were super fast!

The highlight of the criteriums is the Cruiser Classic. This event brings out the crazy ones. It's hilarious what people think of. The best group this year was 3 kids all dressed as Elvis playing yukeleles and riding unicycles. The were awesome. Then there came the Super Family. This guy has been in the ride before but this year they included a trailer attached to a two seater, elevated seat, bike. Remember the 90 degree corner......well the trailer (and it's rider) didn't make the corner. The trailer went rolling and so did the passenger. They were all dressed in Superman outfits and what I thought was the guys boot falling off.......wasn't. After rolling from the trailer he went to stand up. His left leg just buckled. It was truly an amazing (disgusting) site. What I believed was his boot facing sideways from his leg was actually his foot. It was 90 degrees from the direction it should have been. He just dropped and laid there. Fortunately the ambulance was sitting on that corner. His family was staying at the same hotel we were and told us the next morning that he broke both his Tibia and Fibula at different levels. He had surgery that night and went home the next morning. Amazing medicine.

Here's the Cruiser Race!!

Super Family before "the corner".

And...After

Hotel
We stayed at the Iron Horse Inn which was very convenient. The cool part is that our room was 100 feet from the railroad tracks. Now for a typical train that would really suck because of the noise but this is the Durango/Silverton train. It only runs twice a day 8:15 and 9:15am. So every morning you would find my boys searching for coins to put on the track. I'm still amazed at how heavy that train must be. You couldn't flatten these coins that much with a sledge hammer.

This is all right outside our door.

Any cyclist would love Durango. When the shoulder on the highway is as wide at the car lane, you know they care about cycling. For the most part everyone is very courteous to cyclists. I'm sure that if I lived there I would think otherwise but for now I'm pretty impressed.

Last year I did the Durango Fall Blaze which is a 100 mile bike tour around Durango and surrounding area. It was this ride that showed me what a beautiful place it is. There is such a diverse population. You've got your cyclists, both road and mountain. You've got your hippies and tree huggers. Property in Durango is outrageous so you surely have your rich folks. There are hay farms and horses throughout so you have your cowboys and western folk. And of course you have your good ol red necks. It's just a cool place, no matter what you enjoy. Every morning I'd walk out the door of the room and look over the valley. It was so lush and green. If I had a million, I'd definitely have a home in Durango. For now though I guess I'll enjoy our couple of visits a year.


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Cancelled!!

For the first time in 37 years, The Ironhorse Bicycle Classic never made it to the starting line. After watching the weather reports we all knew it was going to be touch and go for the race. Honestly I never thought they would cancel it. Shorten it maybe, but not completely cancel. There is so much time and money involved and people from as far as Australia had come to race.

When we arrived Thursday night it was already spitting snow off and on. Friday was pretty much the same. It was mostly rain in Durango but there were reports of snow falling at the higher elevations. The car thermometer showed 36 degrees as of 2pm Friday. I always like to get in at least a short ride the day before a race so I bundled up and went for about 15 miles. It wasn't bad as far as temperature but it was cold and windy. Even with the temps, it was rideable, but in a pack of 125 riders it could be a bit dicey.

At registration on Friday afternoon, everyone still seemed optimistic. The Saturday weather report showed only a 30 percent chance of precipitation. They were going to announce their decision on the radio at 6am Saturday morning.

It rained (in Durango) all night long and got down to about 32 degrees. I had no idea what I was going to wear for the race since I had no clue what the weather was going to be. You don't want to be too warm on the climbs, otherwise you freeze to death on the the descent. You don't want to be too cold then the whole race is miserable. You freeze both going up and down, Not Good!! So I had several piles of clothes laid out. Warms coats, gloves, legwarmers, long sleeve jersey, medium gloves, ear warmers, I had it all but no clue as to what to expect. About 9:30 that night a few friends and I drove up towards Purgatory Ski Area to see what the weather was. It was a total white out. The was the 28 mile mark for the race. It wasn't looking too good.

The next morning I got up at 5:30, got dressed in my warmest garb and went out and sat in the freezing car to listen to the radio report. It was big time cold out. The race referee's were two rooms down and I could see them leave on their motorcyles. I can't even imagine the windchill on those motorcycles. Much less, had they hit a patch of ice they were done!!

Then the report came. The Ironhorse Road Race has been cancelled. There was 5 inches of snow on the road at Purgatory and 8 inches of snow on Coal Bank Pass and in Silverton.

Unbelievable!!!

Every emotion possible went through my head. I had just spent the last 5 months focusing on this one race. I've lost almost 20 lbs and drove for an hour every other morning to work on my climbing. All of this to have mother nature just poop on the parade. I was pretty bummed!!

The Bright Side

About 10:00 that morning I opted to ride up to Purgatory. I just drove 6 hours to race, I was definitely going to get some riding in. It was warming up nicely but in Colorado you never take the weather for granted. I still wore my warmest coat and legwarmers. I believe it was about 45 degrees when I left the hotel. We stayed at the IronHorse Inn which is on the outskirts of Durango and right on the main road to Purgatory. It's a very convenient starting point.

I felt good starting out. It's a flat ride for about the first 10 miles. I was hammering pretty good. There were tons of other riders who had the same plan I did, ride to Purgatory and back. I was passing quite few people. Then came the first climb. I believe it is called Shalona Hill. I've always believed this to be the hardest part of the entire ride. It's steep and it's long. Anyway, I thought I was doing pretty good. I kept my heart rate at about 165 the entire time. Passing ALMOST everyone I see this "little" guy in black just flying up the climb behind me. It's at this point you go "holy crap"!!!! You ask yourself "do you look at them as they go by and act like your not hurting??" This awesome rider was absolutely just riding effortlessly up this climb. I look across as SHE passes me!!! That's right, I just got smoked by a 100#, all muscle, longhaired, very fit, Chick! Now I'm not being sexist at all but I was totally impressed. I've been passed on this climb before by Kristen Danielson (man she's a cutey) who races pro but this gal put me very quickly into my place. Better yet, she stops about 3 miles up, I pass her, and about 10 minutes later she blows by me again. This is God telling me, "Rusty, be thankful the race was cancelled". Remember, I was mistakely racing Masters 35+. I would have been blown away.

Training

After getting humiliated on the climb to Purgatory, I thought about all the training that I had been doing. Although I had been doing a lot of climbing, I for some reason didn't feel as prepared as I usually do. I just didn't feel like I had the legs I should have had. One problem that I found out today was that my blood work is still showing that I'm a bit Hyperthyroid. Dropping my dosage a little should help. I also need to work on cadence work. I need to be able to increase my power at a higher cadence for a longer period of time. How do I do this? I haven't a clue but I'll research it soon and find out. I think the most important thing right now it to get my thyroid levels in the right spot.

I'll post more later about this weekend. Even though the race was cancelled we had a great time.

Thanks for Reading

We Have a Winner

The first annual Alpha Oxy-Med Weight Loss Challenge is finally over and though participation was small we have some outstanding winners. When I first started this I thought I would easily beat most, but I was poorly mistaken. Big & Beautiful and Pissy kicked some major butt. Now get this, I can usually have the luxury of leaving the office for an hour to go on a bike ride. These two are pretty much stuck in their offices all day and we all know how that can effect your fitness. When I used to walk in the office of B&B and Pissy I would usually find some kind of sugar snack. Now when I walk in, I see fruit. I was hoping to be the motivator here, but these two have really motivated me. Big and Beautiful lost a total of 27# which equated to 13% of her original weight. Pissy lost 26# which was 12% of her original weight. I found myself in third place with a loss of 17# which came out to be 9%. Onecoplover, whom I still don't know, lost a total of 10# which came out to 7% of her original weight.

I learned a lot from doing this. Dieting is hard!!! You can't look at it as a diet. You have to consider it a lifestyle change. You really don't realize how unhealthy you eat until you start watching what you eat. As I've mentioned several times before, Cancer scares the heck out of me. Cancer rates in America are skyrocketing. Why??? I'm not sure, but everything I read comes down to diet and environment. Look at all the crap they put in our food now. Half the stuff you read on a food label you can't even pronounce. I'm guessing that if you can't pronounce it, it's likely not good for you. If it's whole food and free from pesticides, hormones, etc, it's gotta be good. We as Americans are so spoiled and yet so blind to what we do to our bodies. I'm just as guilty as the next guy. It's crazy how little we care. Until something hits close to home. Whether your diagnosed with diabetes, obesity, etc then we seem to take notice.

Just minor small example. I quit coffee on January 1. My only reason for quitting was to help lose weight. On the bike I would always get this major epigastric burn when I held a high heart rate for while. Since quitting coffee, the burn has gone away. What other unknown ailments can we help by just adjusting what we eat or don't eat?

I'm hoping we can get a greater response with next years challenge. It's so cool to see the success of those that stuck in out. They are both out buying new clothes since their old ones no longer fit. That is Awesome!!!

Thanks to those who competed. Hope to see you involved next year. Keep off those lost pounds and keep losing.

Thanks for reading

Count Down

The countdown is on for the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic. What's weird is I think I've trained more than ever before yet I'm more nervous than ever before as well.

Saturday was my last hard day. I drove over to Eagar and did the Big Lake climb 3 times. It's a 7 mile climb so I got in 21 miles of climbing and 42 miles of total riding. It takes about 45 minutes to get up so I'm happy with that. I've been having problems with my back though. It causes my left leg to tire quickly and starts feeling a bit numb. It's sort of like a sciatic type of pain and may be, but it's a little bothersome. I'm hoping by taking it easy this week and with lots of stretching, it will be better by Saturday.

I'm also doing another no no. I ordered a new supplement that I've yet to try and will try and use it during the race. It's the Hammer Nutrition product called Race Caps Supreme. Since having by thyroid destroyed, I've never felt like I've had the legs I used to have. I'm not sure if the two are related but I'm willing to try the Caps in hopes of feeling a difference. They should arrive Wednesday, so I'll have 3 days to see how they make me feel. We'll see.

The weather is supposed to be cool which will be nice. Silverton is supposed to see a chance of snow on Thursday. We've been snowed on twice during this race and it is not fun. Very cold. I'm hoping the warm front will take over by Saturday. I guess the descent into Silverton is pretty trashed from the harsh winter. Snow plows have a nice way of putting huge holes in the road. It has been bumpy every year but I guess this year it is even worse. I'm not a fan of descending at 50 mph especially on a rough road. I'm going to try and ride the descent on Friday just to see how it is. Nothing is worth crashing though. The uphill will be hard and the downhill will be cautious. There will be lots of prayer between now and then.

Thanks for Reading

Coaching Isn't Easy

We're half way through the Little League season and after 8 years of coaching, I think this is the most difficult time I've had.

First, though, I have to say that yesterdays game was one of our best. We lost to the only undefeated team by one point. Finally, the kids are starting to swing the bat and have a little more confidence at the plate.

The hard part I believe is the age group that I'm coaching. It's mostly 9 and 10 year olds. Typically I coach older boys who are much easier in my opinion to coach. Coaching these younger boys, you really have to find the line between discipline and having fun. You can't get after them too much or they'll just shut down. If you don't get after them enough, you have a team full of chaos and disorder.

Because our batting has been so poor, most of our practices have been consumed with batting practice. This hasn't allowed much time for drills and team building exercises. I think TeamWork is where we suffer most. I've got kids who don't even know all the names of their teammates. To me, that's crazy. I grew up in the town we are in now and it was just normal to know "Everyone". I guess it's just not that way anymore.

Another difficult aspect of coaching is the coaching of your own son. Disciplining your own son is easy and believe me, he gets plenty of it. The hard part is building your own son's confidence. I think he is so afraid of letting me down that he becomes a nervous wreck during games. He is by far one of the best hitters on the team.......at practice. Come game time, the nerves take over. Yesterday he struck out three times. The last inning of yesterday's game, we were down by one, bases loaded, two outs. Guess who's up to bat.

The first two pitches were good pitches, he swung at both and missed. The third pitch looked good but the very young umpire called it a ball. Honestly it should have been strike three. The fourth pitch barely missed hitting the plate and the umpire called strike three. It's times like these that a player has to step up and take ownership of what has happened. My son of course tried blaming the umpire. Wasn't happening!!! I told him that the umpire wasn't responsible for the first two strikes. The problem now lies with trying to build a confidence at the plate that was pretty low in the first place.

I've invited a few boys from both teams (yesterdays game) to have batting practice today. This way the boys can pitch to each other instead of me pitching to them. I'm hoping this will help them build their confidence. Most of them can hit all day long when I'm pitching but when they face a pitcher who is one of their peers they seem to go into panic mode at the plate. I hope this will work.

The coach from the other team is a very good friend of mine and he's also a very good coach. His youngest son is the same age as my son. They're a great family who's friendship we value very much. After the game he had a good talk with my son. I think it helps a kid when all the info isn't coming from dad alone. DJ as I'll call him, is a great coach in my opinion. Though we all want to win, he does a good job and keeping the our goals as coaches straight. He builds really good ball players. If I didn't coach, I would hope that my son would be blessed with DJ. Both of our sons are going through the same "nervous" thing. I'm not sure if it's a dad thing or what but I hope we can help our sons get over it.

Anyway, to all the dads who coach their sons, my respect goes out to you. Both for the time and effort you put into the lives of other young people, it is an honorable endeavor. I'm learning....Have Faith and Keep it Fun.

Thanks for reading.

Mothers Day

It was a good day. We started off the morning by cooking some breakfast outside. We cooked up some good pepper bacon and my wife made some great tasting French toast. It was some special type of bread. Whatever it was, it was great. We ditched church and decided to go on a little family mtn bike ride. I was even able to talk my mom into going. She just got a new mtn bike so what better way to break it in.

My Mom with her new ride.

We went up to the Country Club trailhead which is about 3 1/2miles. Coby, who is 5, did really well considering he was on a new bike with absolutely no suspension. It was a little brutal for his little legs to pedal that far. He's ridden further but not on a rocky trail.

Here is Coby making his way through the single track.

I was very impressed with my mom as well. Not too bad for a woman of 55. At about 2 miles theres a pretty big climb which many beginners have to walk as did my mom, but she said her goal by the end of summer would be to ride the whole thing. I think she'll do it.

Here's Ryan (my oldest) who is a much more advanced rider. How lucky can a dad get when both of his boys share the same interests as him. Ryan's got unbelievable endurance when on a bike. He doesn't know it yet, but I just ordered him a new road bike. He's been wanting one for a couple of years now. I'll be looking forward to sharing a lot more time with him this summer.

The normally 20-25 minute loop took us about 45 minutes but it was a blast having the whole family out there. It's definitely something we need to do more often.

This evening the boys and I took my wife out to dinner. I helped all day trying to clean house so I thought it would be a good end to a good day if we went out to eat. We have a new local pizzeria which all of us love so we opted for pizza. It doesn't help with the diet very much, but some days you just gotta give a little. When it comes to food...I don't mind giving in.

Now we're all at home getting ready to face the week again. Two more weeks until the Ironhorse and I'm not sure how I'm feeling. I don't really think I could have prepared much differently. I'm going to ride hard this week and then take most of next week tapering down for the race. The only thing I wish I would have done different would be to have some big races under my belt. I haven't ridden in a big pack since my big crash last year so I have a feeling I'm going to be a bit nervous in the pack. There's one big decent at the beginning before all the climbing starts which worries me a little. If I can get through that crash free, I'll be good to go. The first 15 miles is flat with that one big decent, then its pretty much 3 big climbs before the finish in Silverton. It's about 35 miles of nothing but uphill and it definitely hurts. I have a feeling it's going to be no different this year. I can only hope to be better prepared. We'll see.

I'm assuming most have read up on Fatty's bad news this week. I hope you will keep him and his family in your prayers. This is an ordeal I hope to never face. My God be with his family through this difficult time.

Thanks for Reading

Another Eye Opener

Before our little league game on Saturday, I had time to check on some of the blogs try to keep up with. Elden, The Fat Cyclist succeeded at bringing me to tears. His wife has been battling cancer for sometime now and they just found out that the cancer had metastisized to her brain. Their only option is radiation and even then the doctor told them that it wouldn't cure the cancer, but only slow it down.

I'm sitting there worried about a ball game when Elden and his family are facing this unthinkable challenge put before them. Reading his blog really helped me put things into perspective. Between him and Spencer, it's really hard to put any weight on any problems I may have right now.

I frequently find myself failing to practice what I preach. We've got to live each day to the fullest. We truly never know what tomorrow holds. The little things will still be there so don't stress over them. Leave work early to spend an extra hour with your kids. Take a warm bath. Take a longer walk. Sit outside and do nothing.

One of my favorite movies in the early 80's was the Tom Cruise film, "All The Right Moves". It was about the tightly wound teenager trying to do everything right in order to get a scholarship. His free living friend was constantly telling him, "sometimes you gotta say, 'what the fu--!'

So sometime this week when your just fried at work, tired of the grind......just say "what the heck" and go do whatever it is you want to do. Blow off all the demands and chill out. The work will still be there tomorrow.

I hope you will consider this and have a kick butt week.

Thanks

Great Weekend Riding

I didn't get any riding in this weekend, but I had a great time with my oldest son Ryan. He's my nine year old who is playing his first year in Minor League Baseball. He has come so far over the last year. It used to be that I would have to beg him to play ball and now I'm barely able to keep up.

Saturday started off with our second game of the year. Ryan and I got there early about 8:30 with the game not starting until 10:00. Our team got off to a rocky start but finally came through at the end. The boys still don't seem to be very relaxed when batting but I'm hoping that will come around. We won 7-5 in the last inning.

After the game, I took my mom (my son's biggest fan) and Ryan to lunch at our new local bagel/sandwich shop. Then after lunch, shockingly, my son asked if we could go back to the ball field for some more batting practice. Man, this kid knows how to make is dad happy. So we went back to the field for two more hours of baseball practice. I was so proud of how hard he was willing to work. He's been wanting to play catcher for sometime now but I've always had him at second base. In our league, the only time the opposing team can steal a base is when the catcher misses the ball. This rule was created in hopes of making the games a little more interesting instead of just having kids go crazy on the bases. So far, our catching has killed us. I can't seem to get it across that they need to use their bodies to block the ball.

So, I'm going to give Ryan a shot. After batting practice on Saturday, he wanted to work on his catching. We put him in the gear and got busy. He's got some work to do but he's got the desire and the talent to do a good job. Catching is tough for a little guy. It's a long time to be squatting back there for a little kid. After about an hour of working behind the plate, we called it a day. Ryan then suprised me again. He wanted to know if we could come back to the field the next morning. I was blow away.

When we got up this morning, Ryan was dressed in his baseball garb and ready to go. We spent another 3 hours at the ball field. Had you asked me one year ago that Ry would ask to practice this much, I would have never believed it possible. I am truly impressed with his love for the game and his desire to improve. It's going to be a fun season.