Dead silence, that is. As I seem to recall, the last thing I wrote on this blog was "damn I love September". About 2 days later I got slammed by the other job (the one that pays the bills)...and since I don't have Martini's "check engine light" syndrome, with Moab looming that means an even more extreme bi-modal existence that usual. Working and riding become the two primary activities, all else takes a backseat (or is chucked out the window, actually). Even sleep becomes minimal.
That other life I lead is feast or famine, and suddenly it's famine time, leaving time to play catch-up on things that didn't make it out of the window. This blog, for instance, in case anyone is still checking :) Thanks for the emails of concern, BTW.
In training land, things are going great. OK, beyond great. A big CTL dump (aka rest) following the E100 left me with a lot of training reserves and I've been squandering the power like it's free. Specific training mid-week and big riding on the weekends is the typical fare. A few weeks back one of the rides was a road cruise to Mesa Verde. I'd never been beyond the tunnel (about 4 miles into the park), but beyond the tunnel lies tons of great climbing, fun roads, and well, some bitchin' archealogy as well. Great riding if you ever get the chance. Just know ahead of time there's a tunnel of about 1/4 mile. It's straight so you can see the light at the end...you just can't see the road beneath you. Cool stuff.
I wasted no time getting back to the Utah desert. Those that know me wonder why I live in Colorado because it seems I'm drawn to Utah spring, summer and fall. There could be a move in my future...but that is another story! Anyway, the following weekend was a camping affair in Canyonlands. After a breakfast to this sunrise, the day held a quick trip around the White Rim, one of my favorites.
But wait...there's more! This past weekend the Pocket Rocket (the real one) & I met in Canyonlands for what was originally going to be a day on the Moab course pre-riding, a day on the first half of the KTR route, then a White Rim day. Ma nature had other plans for us though. The beginning of the weekend saw some nutty cold weather for September - we even had a few inches of snow where we camped. The KTR plans were nixed as the route goes over 8,500 a couple of times - it was pure white up there. Of course it turned out for the better - we did back to back White Rim days and was it ever awesome. Perfect weather and there was water everywhere as all the potholes were full.
Lynda is flying. Her combined times for the back to back white rims was something under 16 hours, and that's just silly.
The past weekend put my CTL at an all-time high of 150, a mark I've yet to hit. Funny thing though, there's more to give. A lot more - yes, this is a manic confession. Now that I've suddenly got a ton of time on my hands, I'm going to do one more big push this weekend (prolly Saturday) with an assault on the Kokopelli trail. Between a couple blunders and bad luck on my ride there in May, it left me wanting to do it better. It really falls in with my final long ride theory leading to a 24 as well.
One other thing the KTR weekend will do is some serious bike melding. You see, I'm making the Yeti ASR the primary race bike for Moab, thanks to some huge support from Kong and Andy at Desert Cyclery in St. George, Utah. They totally rock, which is yet another story...but anyway, the Yeti has received well over 300 miles of abuse in the last 5 days and it wants a bit more. It climbs like a scalded duck and descends like no other bike I've ridden, and I'm pretty amped about that!
The old and the new come face to face:
