Last Tuesday fellow CTS coach Daniel Matheny and I headed to Austin, Texas for a private camp with six CTS athletes.  We arrived in Austin at 2:00pm and hit the ground running.  We had 46hrs before the first ride of the camp started and a fair amount of reconnaissance to accomplish before we were able to rock and roll.

To my surprise the riding in Austin is difficult.  The terrain was significantly more taxing than I had given the “Austin Hill Country” credit for and 50 miles down and 3 hours of sweating left both of us rethinking many of the routes we had planned.  The setting sun was also a good sign to call it a night for riding though.

After a late night of revamping some routes we met up with athlete Cliff to help him get his bike ready for a ride and then Daniel and I struck out on a second recon ride.  And then later that night drove our third and final.

Day 1 started off with a field test which left all of our athletes “cross eyed and drooling,” as I like to call it.  Day 2 was a nice 87km jaunt with all the riders staying together for the entire ride.  Bonnie certainly got the trooper of the day award averaging just below her tempo power for nearly 3 hours.  I have to admit that women are much more tough than men are because they will push themselves much harder to stay in contact and she was the perfect example of this!  Day 3 started off with some cloud cover for our 135km ride.  The clouds burned off around 11 and the temperature hit nearly 80deg. rapidly which made our ride, particularly the last hour, a little more difficult since the majority of us have been either bundled up or on the trainer after a long cold winter.

 Day 4 though was the one that Daniel and I were waiting for.  More climbing and some of the toughest hills in Austin, including City Park, left a fair amount of tongues dragging the ground and the sweat pouring off to the point they looked like they just hopped out of a shower.  The final day left everyone feeling the miles and looking forward to several days of recovery.

I can’t thank Chad from SRAM NRS enough.  He is one stand up guy and we always tend to leave with bikes more clean than they arrived and working better as well.

With the camp wrapped up we packed up clothes, bikes and all of our equipment and hopped on the first flight back to COS.  The flight to DIA went quick and with 90minutes of layover in Denver Daniel and I celebrated a great camp and even better, 20hrs of saddle time in six days.  What better way to celebrate than a nice cold one?!

So I have two of my three girls at home feeling under the weather again.  Kate came down with a head cold on Friday of last week and was running a fever on Sunday night and now Janelle has the crud.  We’ve got to figure out something to do to get the one with the developing immune system and the one with the lack of a proficient immune system from passing the sickness back and forth.  The weather has taken a turn for the better though and i’m hoping some warmth will make them both feel better plus a lot of rest and recovery.

On a brighter now I got a GREAT ride in on Saturday thanks to a little bit of girl time that Janelle had with Jodee.  4.5 hours is the most I have ridden in quite a while and boy did it feel good!  The winds were gusting in to the 40’s and starting off with the Saturday morning was a great idea otherwise I might have wanted to call it a day a little early.

Well, in the words of my sister, “Oh my Cow” was this a busy weekend!  Friday was filled with a full day of work and then a wonderful date night with my amazing bride.  Thanks to her mom who offered to watch Katelyn while she was in town visiting so we could get out on a much needed date night.  After a tiring week we were both not up for doing a ton and knew that a movie would only end up in sleep so we went out to dinner, then a Rico’s which is a neat little coffee shop that has live jazz on the weekends and then on to dessert at Sonterra.  Janelle is addicted to their bananas foster and I certainly can’t blame her because it is AMAZING!

Saturday was filled with a morning ride for me and then a full day of shopping.  Originally the plan was to have the women go in the morning and then me and Kyle (bro inlaw) would follow with three of the other kiddos.  However, Kyle turned in to a spineless sissy (I’ve told him this) and the partial day of shopping for the guys turned into a very full day.

Today was a morning of bowling and I haven’t seen this many people intoxicated by 11am since I went to k-state football games in college.  Now Janelle is making desserts for a family dinner tonight and then is headed to a tea party with Kate.  Two weekends in a row has left me a little frazzled and I think while the tea party is happening it is nap time for sure!

Photos to come…

Okay, so clearly life has gotten away from me and so has blogging.  The past month Janelle and I have found that by the time we get home from work, get Kate fed and to sleep we are both needing sleep.  It is at the point where seeing anything past 9-9:30 is a rarity.  Between Janelle working her tail off these days at work and putting in long days and me working and trying to get some training in on the bike we are both worn pretty thin.  Plus, it’s a lot of work taking care of a kiddo… who knew?! 🙂 By the way, Thanks Mom and Dad for everything you guys have done that you weren’t “thanked” for.

Kate on the other hand is growing like a weed and is learning new things daily. Currently we are trying to coax a “dada” out of her but that isn’t really working out yet.  “baba” is a go but that’s about as far as we’ve made it.  The little devil is sitting up on her own and we are doing some wicked awesome tricks these days too.  Maybe those will be posted as long as you don’t show child services or anything like that. 🙂  We had our first official ride in a grocery cart without a car seat and our first dinner in a high chair.  It’s getting fun for sure and the personality is coming out more with each day.  Sometimes that’s a good thing and other times it’s not so good…just like any of us though right?

Well…to say the least it has been a long time since my last blog post. The month of January has been a great one in Colorado Springs. We have seen some snow and some weather in the 50’s too! That’s the thing I like the most about being around here. As long as the sun is out the potential for warm weather is likely. The only problem is the 4:45 sunsets… that knocks out the idea for evening walks with Janelle, Kate and Kiya.

The riding during the day has been going well. I am not at the fitness level I was at last June for race across the west and before Kate was born but camp season is quickly approaching and I’ve got to get some of that fitness back so the athletes aren’t making me hurt too bad! 🙂 Saddle time is really what I need at this point and i’m hoping that is a possibility for the rest of January and in to February. I did get out yesterday for 2.5 hours which was nice and the average power was higher than I was expecting for my fifth consecutive day in the saddle and a solo ride. It’s nice to have a group to ride with but I really enjoy an occasional long solo ride like this. It always seems to give me the time I need to think and suffer a little at my own choice.

Well, to say the least December has been a rough month at the Irwin household.  I have been one busy guy playing nurse and trying to get all of my girls back to 100%.  Janelle was sick(strep, bronchitis and a sinus infection) right after Thanksgiving that lead into the the first week of December, then Kate got sick with Strep which turned into Scarlett fever and now Kiya is fighting something (106deg fever) bad enough that we had to take her to the emergency clinic on Sunday night and they kept her at the vet through most of the day yesterday.  She has got patches on either side shaved nearly bald from where the EKG electrodes went and a nice bald spot on her right leg from the IV.  She is by no means 100% and had Janelle and I very worried with how bad she was.

Well, Sadly enough since Sunday I have ridden more than I have ridden the past 3 weeks combined…needless to say that is not saying much.  I have done 7.5 hrs in 4 days.  The fitness is lacking right now for sure since in the last 2 months I have done less than what I was doing in 2 weeks time in May.  As I was looking through my TrainingPeaks power files on Friday of last week I hit a harsh reality, that reality is I’m LAZY!  So, this new realization led me to motivation.  My goal for the next two months is 10-12hrs in the saddle each week and so far the path to success this week is looking promising.  Even with the cold spell that is supposed to hit tonight I think it will still happen.  Keeping my fingers crossed and my motivation high and AWAY WE GO!

So, it has been a really long time since I blogged…Things have been busy, to say the least, since we returned from our trip to Florida.

We took a trip back to Kansas for Thanksgiving and did all of the festivities with both families.  It was nice to go back but we were glad to be back in our own bed and done with all the driving.

We also got rid of the Mazda (HATED that thing) and got another Trailblazer for Janelle.  It is nearly identical to the one that she flipped several years ago and she is really happy to have it back (picture later).

We also went up near Woodland Park and went looking for a Christmas Tree in the Pikes Peak National Forrest.  It was a fun time but the trees were a bit more sparse than we were expecting.  We learned a very valuable lesson for a future trip if/when we do take one but you live and learn!

This afternoon we will load up the car and head back to Kansas.  We’ve got an eight hour drive ahead of us and then four days of hectic activity to try and get all of the rounds we need to done.  The car will be full with Janelle, Kate, Kiya (the dog) and myself plus all of the luggage and stuff… It has always amazed me how much we take back and now with Kate it amazes me that a little 13lb kid needs an entire suitcase just for her clothes.  To be honest, the suitcase weighs more than twice what she does!  I guess when you spit up and drool on yourself all the time though you have to have lots of changes of clothes. 🙂  Watch out Kansas, here come the Irwins!  In true Grizwold fashion I might add, don’t worry though I won’t hook the dog to the bumper.
o