Saturday, February 4

24 Hours

What a difference 24 hours can make. From 50F and no snow one day to 30F and nearly 2 feet of snow the next. This round of snow will not be melting off fast, that's for sure!

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Jeff Kerkove said at 9:27 PM :: ::





Monday, January 30

Week in review

spacer It was really warm early in the week. Temps near 65F! Not sure if this is ideal for the Yak-Attack in general, but I will take it!

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Mid week, the vest unzipped doing intervals up to Estes Park and dodging the local wildlife.

spacer An easy ride on the 'dams' on Friday after we got about 1/2 inch of snow in the AM....then it all melted away by 2 PM.

spacer Tom Danielson showed up for the Oval Ride on Saturday. Us non-climbing types paid dearly! Ouch! I popped on Carter Lake. BOOM!

spacer Sunday was a 4 hr tempo climbing day with recent IA to CO transplant, Carson Christen.

spacer Quick bottle refill at the natural spring just below Ward, CO....en route to putting in a 7k climbing day.

spacer Finished up the day in proper Boulder style: dirt roads, switchbacks, and steep.

Jeff Kerkove said at 8:51 AM :: ::





Tuesday, January 24

The 'book ends' of the 2012 season

If you stop by here often or follow on Facebook or Twitter then you know that all focus and prep right now is towards the Yak-Attack race in Nepal. Mountain Bike UK claimed it as one of the 5 toughest races in the World. I can agree with that....but I/you can also disagree. There are a lot of tough events out there and everyone has their own idea of what is tough.  For example: CTR, Great Divide, Breck 100, etc, etc.  This week the race roster was posted for Yak-Attack.  Going to be a good melting pot of culture...new friends and bonds to make over the weeks we are in Nepal!

So, the training continues!  Here is snap shot of how the week went down.  Monday-Wednesday I laid low fighting off a head cold.  Things started back up on Thursday with a ride with local pro mtber, Georgia Gould.

spacer Funny thing is we have both lived in Ft Collins for about 5 yrs now, and this is the first time we have ridden/trained together. She is driven this year. Eye on the prize, the Olympics in London. Little video posted here from the ride that day as well.

Friday was a solo day pounding out a 1.5 hour tempo at sub-threshold. Legs felt good! Had me excited for the Oval Ride on Saturday!

spacer The Oval Ride was stacked! CSU kids back from Tucson and Winter Break.....flexing their early season form! This is why I love it here! 70+ riders strong for this near 90 mile group ride hammerfest!

Before the fireworks, the simple things in life, like that of a well oiled paceline at nearly 30 mph :)



spacer Of course, the Oval soon went into full-on race mode as expected! My legs, not snappy at all. I was deep into the 'pain cave' just to sit in! Quite the difference from 2 weeks ago when the legs were spot-on while pedaling the mtb on this training ride.

spacer The fitness tow-rope eventually gave way. Snap! I solo tempo'd the rest of the way home.

Sunday was to be a climbing day in Boulder. I did get to Boulder and I did get to climb, but legs were super tired to ride within the group ride planned. I peeled back and spent the day riding with Sonya and focusing on big gear low RPM climbing. West of the Boulder the temps were well below freezing and the wind was blowing at 40-100 mph! I usually don't get cold on rides, but this ride had me second guessing my glove choice for the day.

spacer Layering up at 8700 ft....wind howling!

spacer Steep climbs = warmth! Sonya and I hit up as much of these punchy climbs as we could in the 4-5 hour training block scheduled.

I finished my ride up with a climb up Flagstaff west of Boulder, and Sonya did Sunshine Canyon for the second time that day. The training a success...and tough. Now, a few days of rest, then back on the horse!

Oh, and in reference to the blog title and 'book ends'....the season is starting with the very tough Yak-Attack. Sonya and I just found out we will end the season with another super tough event: La Ruta in Costa Rica in early November! The catch/funny thing is we have to use our American Airline voucher for the flight down....this voucher is from the lost bikes ball-up in Brazil last October. Crossing my fingers...and toes :)

Jeff Kerkove said at 10:16 AM :: ::





Thursday, January 19

Weekday canyon shred session

Jeff Kerkove said at 6:03 PM :: ::





Tuesday, January 17

Time to 'man up'

This is from the latest issue of Mountain Bike UK Magazine. Click the image to read.

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Jeff Kerkove said at 11:56 AM :: ::





Monday, January 16

Weekend update from 10,200 ft

Another weekly recap! Visa application is in the mail for Nepal and the Yak-Attack. Had to send off my passport and some $$ to New York to get approved. Now, only thing to do is get in the training. This past weekend, Sonya and I headed up to the mountains to get in some hike-a-bike training and breathe in the thin air. With snow still very low in the high country it's pretty easy to get to the high terrain without any skis or snowshoes.

spacer Road trip Leadville!

spacer It may look cold, but it wasn't. Temps were about 40F, plus take in the intense Colorado sun. Made it feel like 50F at 11,000ft. The plan was to ride and hike as far up Mosquito Pass east of Leadville as far as we could within the 3 hour training window we had.

spacer Hiking soon set in. Snow wasn't too deep, but deep enough to where our tires would break through and break traction. So, Yak-Attack oriented hike-a-bike training went into full force!

spacer Going up! This was a fantastic time to test carrying techniques as well as footwear.

spacer This is as far as we would go. Sonya pushed a little bit further to break the 12,000 ft mark for the day. The pass proper is still 1,100 ft above us!

Here is a quick video of our time on Mosquito Pass, filmed with the Epic Cam HD 1080



spacer 2 thumbs up for a post-training ride espresso in Leadville!

spacer The reason we only had a 3 hour training window in Leadville is because we were both signed up for the snow mountain bike race at Copper Mountain Ski Resort. The race was a 2 lap format on groomed snow trails around the resort...at night. Cold you ask?  Yep.  Race temp of about 20F.

spacer Guess you could call this the first race of the year :)

spacer 162 people would race! Some on regular mountain bikes, like myself. Others on proper snow bikes with big old fat tires!  The fat tires would reign supreme at this race.

spacer Sonya and Leslie ready to do battle! Rawrrrr!

I got everything out of the Copper Race I wanted. The training and the social aspect of it. The snow was so soft for a lot of the further reaches of the course that myself and others on normal mtbs were forced to run. Hey, it's all training, right? Yep. Even managed to go off course. Yeah, don't ask. There was a course marking mishap. Few of us got in some good extra climbing :)  Overall, the snow bike race was a riot!  So fun....so hard!  GPS file here on Strava.

spacer Worst part of the Copper Race? Changing out of sweaty wet cycling clothes in a tin van where the air temp sits at about 15 F. Brrrrrr!

Great Saturday!

As I type this, I am 2 days into a nice little cold.  Head cold....tired.  Always happens at least once over the winter.  Now is the time for out with the bad...in with the good.

All the weekend photos are posted here.

Jeff Kerkove said at 10:47 AM :: ::





Sunday, January 8

Doing what it takes

T-minus 2 months until Sonya and I leave for Nepal.  Plane tickets are in hand, so this is as real as it gets now! It feels weird trying to 'peak' for a 10-day race in March....especially when those you train with are just getting on the bike to start preparing for 2012. The past week or so, I have been without a road bike. Why you ask? Well I had the brilliant idea to go train in a High Wind Warning. Why not. I race in the wind, so why not train in it. Well, that day while rolling north, a huge tumbleweed flew out of the ditch and straight into my rear wheel. This sheered off the rear derailleur hanger and shattered the SRAM Force derailleur. So, now I wait for a new hanger to arrive from Germany. While not a huge deal, I am relegated to the mtb for training.....on and off road.

spacer Earlier in the week did a lot of Zone 3 tempos up the canyons with the warm weather. Can't beat riding to 8,000 ft in shorts in January with temps pushing 65F!

spacer A majority of the snow is gone, but trails are still wet for the most part. What is dry I got out on later in the week. Trails behind the house are rolling good now. A few days of dry weather and everything should be good!

Saturday was the Oval Ride. With no road bike, I was unsure how productive the ride would be. I just wanted to merely survive 2 hours if possible. To my surprise I was feeling good. Legs snappy. Was able to get the whole ride in and not loose contact with the group until after Carter Lake. The downhills and tailwinds were the worse. Being under-geared requires some stupid leg speed. I took the new Epic Cam HD 1080 out for the ride. Check it....



Today's ride (Sunday) was a flop. It's amazing how a hard 4 hr effort the day prior can leave one virtually functionless at their favorite hobby/sport. A 4 hour ride was basically a 2 hour slog through the foothills. Still can't complain! A bad day on the bike is still better than not being able to ride at all. All you need to do is open your eyes and look around!

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Jeff Kerkove said at 9:12 AM :: ::





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