Well…today is the 2nd rest day and to be honest I feel SUPER tired! My legs feel a bit fatigued as I go up stairs but more than anything I am really dragging. I am so glad to have this day off but I just want to crawl back into bed…

Well, today is a rest day. After the last 13 days I have really been looking forward to this day. Yesterday morning my alarm went of at 5:30 and all I could think was that I wanted the next 5.5 hours to be over. I got up, had some breakfast, checked out the weather, applied the sunscreen and hit the road. Boy the weather man was right. It was a beautiful sunny day but at 6am the wind was already whipping. I had a tail wind all the way into downtown where I met a buddy and we headed up Ute Pass. Once in the pass the tailwind was no more. It was swirling and blowing so hard that my legs arms and face were sand blasted by the loose scree that was being blown around. I made it up to Divide and turned around to meet back up with my friend. Unfortunately he wanted to ride all the way up to Divide and I had to high tail it back to meet the group ride to drag my butt back out to the east side of town. I made it just as they were pulling out and was able to hide in the shelter of the group(The picture was taken shortly after I passed Green Mountain Falls). I was surprised at how great my legs felt though. I certainly had no snap in them, which was to be expected after logging 45 hours in 13 days (the most I’ve ever logged in that time frame), but anything at or below threshold I felt like I could hold for days and days.

Well, I am officially in day 11 of on of the larges training blocks I have done in a while. I the past 11 days I have logged 35.5 hours of saddle time. My legs are getting very heavy feeling and the soreness that I am waking up with in the mornings really sucks. It always amazes me though how the legs loosen up after 30minutes in the saddle and you can overcome anything. I still have 4+ hours tomorrow and 5 hours on Saturday though so we will see how things go. This will put me at 45 hours in 13 days and then it will be 3 days of complete recovery. I am really looking forward to that recovery and so is my body!

6 days and 24 hours in the saddle. Ouch, my legs are tired! My dad comes in to town tonight though and we will be going out for some miles. Its always good to ride with him and it should be fun!

Well, this morning was one of those mornings…I had no issue getting out of bed at 5am to hop on the bike but once I got on and got 20minutes in I was DONE! Motivation was certainly lacking. The weather outside was cold(20’s) which forced me inside on the trainer, which as some of you know I loathe. Before I got on the bike I was planning on doing 2 hours. Well, it took me longer to get ready and drive into the office than I expected which had me down to 1:30 by that time and at 1:05 I called it a day. Hit the showers and got to work early. 9 hours in 3 days…thankfully I got a lot more saddle time in on Monday than I had planned/expected and am still at the total time that I intended to be at by today. So i guess all in all things evened out but who wouldn’t want a little extra saddle time? Apparently not me this morning!

Well, this week is a build week for me and I am putting in a lot of saddle time. The goal for Monday-Saturday was 20+ hours and now 2 days in i’ve already got 8 hours of saddle time. 2 more hours than what I was planning on having at this point in time. My commutes have been adding up nicely but tomorrow’s weather is looking like it will have a bit of an impact. It looks like there is a HIGH likelihood for snow and that means I will be inside on the trainer. I loathe the trainer but it’s time to harden up and hit it hard. My legs are definitely feeling a bit heavy and anything above threshold is rough but under that I feel like I can go and go and go. Let’s see how the legs, body and mind hold up!

Here is a quick picture from Fruita, CO. I was fortunate enough to go out there two weekends ago and spend 11 hours in the saddle over three days with the Trek/Honeystinger team. These Pro mountain bikers put the hurt on me and made me realize why I am not at their level but it was a GREAT time and some of the best riding I have done on the mountain bike in a LONG time. Thanks a bunch guys for letting me join in.

The past several weeks of training have been GREAT! I have been fortunate enough to have a very understanding wife who is willing to allow me to escape for hours at a time even though she is pregnant. I the past 3 weeks have been 14+ hour weeks and this week is going to be 12-13 hours. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday are going to be completely off the bike and recovering and then I will hit it hard again. My climbing is coming along very nicely and on yesterday’s 3:30 ride I would say I had a breakthrough. At the end of the ride my legs were very snappy and that is after 4 hours in the saddle on Wednesday. I felt like I was climbing very well even in the third hour and opted for a hillier route than what I originally planned. I would guesstimate that I did over 6,000ft of climbing in 3:30 and today the legs feel a bit tired but nothing that isn’t manageable. Today I am off the bike and tomorrow I am shooting for 5 hours…two hours in the early morning and then three hours on the mountain bike leading a group ride. It should be a great day and i’m looking forward to it! The rain has been coming and going and I have been rained and hailed on but you have to get used to it and ride in what you will race in so HTFU and get out in the inclement weather.

Saturday was a great ride. It was 43 degrees for the high and rained all day. I rode at 10am for 3+ hours and then finished up the ride with a hike up the incline. For those of you that don’t know the incline is 1 mile long and gains nearly 2000 feet. At it’s steepest i believe it is 48% and is brutal to say the least!

Last week was a great training week with 14 hours of total saddle time. Some of that was just driving but others included a lot of interval work. Today I was able to get out and get nearly 2 hours in the saddle and am certainly feeling the effects from last weeks training. The 30mph winds with gusts up to 50 certainly didn’t help either but that is part of life, riding and racing so you have to train in the elements you will be riding in. The legs are sore to the touch right now and after tomorrow I think I will be very deserving and ready for several days of recovery and then back at it again!