rick

Whales return to Vallecito

2007-12-20T19:42:00Z

The whales have made their annual December return to Vallecito, and you can hear them talking to each other - it's like a Cousteau movie! Come to Durango and ski at the Vallecito trail and you will get the experience of a life time - don't miss it! The best time is in the evening...

Okay, no "real " whales - but as the ice forms you'll hear the most amazing sounds - as if whales are talking to each other. It's so cool...

Rick

We are in Primal Quest!!!!!

2007-12-20T03:23:00Z

This just in, Team 4 Corners Adventure Racing, aka Team Healthfx, is in Primal Quest, the biggest baddest adventure race in the World - basically it is the World Championships of Adventure Racing!!! 7-9 days and nights of biking, trekking (we don't run much), kayaking, and mountaineering.

Wait - what the hell was I thinking when I said I'd do it! I'm scared of heights, hate cold whitewater, and love to sleep. Must've been the fact that I can eat all I want during the race that got me - god knows i love to eat!!!!

Go to:

www.ecoprimalquest.com

for more!

Rick

Screw the desert - ski Vallecito!

2007-12-13T02:30:00Z

No idea why Dave moved when Durango and Vallecito offer the best of both worlds - ski in the morning and bike in the afternoon. Here's the most recent report from the Vallecito ski trail: (I'd include pictures but I'm not tech weenie enough (that should be not tech weenie at all) to figure out how to post pictures here - maybe on the Pine Valley Ski website I'll be able to post pictures - until then, just trust me that it's the prettiest place on earth):

World Cup!

Groomed all morning - didn't get to ski - how's that for dedication?

We'll be grooming all day Friday so we should be 100% open and ready to rip it up!

Anyone up for a night ski (skate) Thursday night? A group ski Saturday (I have to work Sunday)? 30k skate on Saturday@10AM? Anybody have Fergie's current email?

New website - only website!

www.pinevalleyski.com

Thanks to Alexandra Ippolite for doing all the work! Eventually I will be posting trail conditions there and sparing all of you (god, I almost typed y'all) these updates!

Crash and burn and suffer

2007-10-30T02:31:00Z

Sometimes you crash and have a good story to tell; sometimes you crash and have to make one up cause the truth is too stupid to admit! I just had the latter happen, so here's my story:

I was out riding and I saw some middle-school kids launching it off of a ramp on their BMX bikes. Cool! Forgetting I am 47 - that's right "Forty Seven going on Seventeen" - I decided to show those youngn's how it's done! So I hit the jump at full speed - only too late realizing that my mountain bike has a lot longer wheelbase than those BMX bikes - like after I caught my rear wheel on the lip and got cart-wheeled head first and pile- driven straight into the ground. Lucky to not have broken my neck - I never even got time to tuck my head or even release the bars - and too embarrased to admit to those kids that I was really hurt, I got up and pedaled slowly home. Neck has hurt ever since...

While that story is actually true, and embarrassing - it's not the latest "47 going on 17" story. The latest one involved an ice rink, and a wicked "high side" crash from catching an edge in soft ice. A bruised tail -bone, cracked noggin (no helmet while just pleasure skating), and another pain in the neck - and suffering doesn't begin to explain it. Can't walk, can't sleep, sure can't ride -still able to (sorta) run though, enough to get my training hours in - it's ugly but it counts in the training log! Haven't found a Healthfx pill that will fix this one!

Not Seventeen anymore...

Rick

Hallucinating ain't that bad...

2007-10-22T01:33:00Z

Really, I thought it’d be worse - I swore I was going to sleep long before I endured the hell that I assumed you had to go thru before you hallucinated. I feared and dreaded what I presumed was the worst thing about expedition racing – sleep deprivation to the point of hallucinating. But it wasn’t bad – in fact, it was pretty cool in a weird sort of way.

The Adventure Xstream Expedition race in Moab was meant to be 3 days (and 3 nights) long, and as expedition racing goes that is considered short! But it was the first time ever going that long for Tom, Vic, and I, (our 4^th teammate Emily had done a few of these and was on the winning team – with her own broken wrist – a few years ago). We had no idea what we were in for, except we knew it would be epic, and long, and hard, and that we would be deprived of sleep and food and water – ay carumba - what the hell were we thinking? Lack of brain cells for sure! I won’t bore you with the entire blow by blow - or maybe I will!

Go here for the short story:

http://www.checkpointzero.com/index.cfm?method=home.showArticle&articleID=1168

or here for the short video:

http://www.checkpointzero.com/blog/2007/10/xstream-expedition-video-redux.cfm

Our plan was to start fast and open a gap so that when everyone went into survival mode (after about 24 hours) we would have a lead and then everyone would be pretty much going the same pace (slow as hell). Our plan worked to perfection except for those crazy Crusted Butters (Emily came up with nicknames for everyone somewhere into the second night) – they killed us right off the gun in the first kayak leg and never looked back, going on to just plain blow us away. Wow – very impressive they are! Well, our plan worked on everyone else, and for most of 3 days and nights our job was to hang onto second place – easier said than done that’s for sure! After surviving the rappel (it wasn’t bad this time, no Tourettes) we were on our bikes. Into the first night we biked – uh, walked/crashed/barely rode - Gold Spike/Poison Spider, if you’ve ever been on that particular piece of broken up rock you know it is hard to find in the daylight – try it at night especially after your $400 Nite Rider fails on you (Dave, are you sure you won’t sell me one of those fancy lights of yours?). After a few long cuts (read: getting lost) and many flat tires and crashes, we finally made it to the next transition area (ta). Next up, a short kayak, and a 30 mile run – still in the dark. Off we went, feeling great and expecting to be back in quick fashion. Uh, wrong again Wally! Over 9 hours and much lost time searching for cairns in the night later, we finally arrived back at our boats, kayaked a little more, than ran back to the ta via a paved road – uh oh, first problem! All the training we had done had been on trails – and out of hundreds of hours of running thru sand and water and rocks, never once had I gotten a blister – never in over 30 years of racing/training had I gotten a blister – never though in all those years had I run water, sand, rocks and HOT PAVEMENT! Say goodbye to the bottoms of my feet – the entire bottom! Shit, all that training and 5 minutes of inattention (I had sand in my socks and I should’ve stopped to empty it out) and now my feet were about to hurt every step of the way for the next two days and nights. Damn! NO thought of quitting though – in a team race you have no choice but to keep on going – finishing, even second, mattered! Back at the ta our super domestique support crew (Ernst Baer) took care of feeding us (burritos and pasta yum!) and off we went, this time on the bike again. With just a broken chain and another couple of flats (it seems we had encountered some thorns somewhere along the way), and another long cut, we arrived at a new ta in the La Sals – ready for a 16 hour hike anyone?

Me neither! We were now heading into our second night and had been racing for 31 hours – no sleep yet. We tried to grab some sleep – I got about 15 minutes – before going into the dread (dreaded?) second night. Now the race was about to get interesting as we only had about a half hour lead over third place Checkpoint Zero now and we were entering unknown territory (not only had we never gone 2 nights before, we also didn’t know where we were going in the mountains either). Thanks to Healthfx’s little pills though I was feeling good and wide awake – miracle pills those! (I used Endurofx, Cardiofx and non-ephedra Thermofx – see www.health-fx.net for more on those – throughout the whole race). About 3 in the morning though – after having raced for now 39 hours – we all got a little loopy – Emily was singing to cows – at least we think there were cows, Tom was sleeping every time we stopped – he could curl up and go to sleep anywhere/anytime, and Vic for the first time actually looked tired. Me, hanging on for dear life and hating every step – so much for going for a walk in the woods! They say the second sunrise restores life –well, that and the afore mentioned magic pills! As the sun came up our spirits soared – only 24 hours or so left to race! Ay Carumba!

Well, we made it to the next ta with much carnage (all on me unfortunately – snapped but not quite broken ankle, heat stroke, and a bonk – all me). But still in second place! Survival mode right? The show must go on – a little slower, a little more pain, but - now the good stuff!

We were heading into the 3^rd night – 54 hours in – and it is the third night where legend has it that the sleep monsters hit! Well, I can now say without a doubt – no legend, it is absolutely true! Having never experienced sleep monsters – nor drugs for that matter – I had no idea what to expect. But as we headed up the Kokepelli trail for our final (7-9 hour) bike leg, with darkness and a *storm closing in (we had had perfect though windy weather until then), I started seeing things. No, not kinda seeing things, like shadows and stuff – really seeing things. First I started hearing voices in the trees – and it just frustrated the hell out me that I couldn’t understand what they were saying (they weren’t speaking English). Then, my cell phone kept ringing (the ESPN theme song) – except I didn’t have my phone with me! And then I saw buffalo in the road, except as we rode up they weren’t there! And then we saw a roadrunner – like in Wiley Coyote style – only we all saw it so was it real? And then I saw 3 old pioneer people hoeing corn, complete with old fashioned hoodies and one bladed tools ( it didn’t occur to me until after that they were dressed like the Grim Reaper) - I so looked forward to talking with them and asking them what the hell they were doing out there in the dark in a rainstorm. About then Emily and Tom said they were also hallucinating, I think – and we had a very funny moment exchanging stories (good, it wasn’t just me loosing my mind)! (Let me explain a little – these things were real – and really happening – and not just my imagination, at least as far as I could tell. Hard to explain really, but real. Freaky! And kinda cool!)

*The storm – with a perfect weather forecast, and being in Moab, the last thing we expected or were prepared for was a blizzard! That’s right, a blizzard. But that’s what we got – 50 mph winds, rain/snow/lightning and finally all snow and temps. Below 32 – what the hell – another hallucination? Nope real all right, and we were about to enter Fischer Mesa and the mud and clay made the road impassable. A 4 wheeler came out and told us no way – he had gotten stuck in his truck. Well, we may be crazy ass adventure racers, but we ain’t stupid, so we turned around. And so did everyone else behind us – and we all froze our butts off as we rode back to the start/finish – relieved but feeling guilty that we had to skip that leg – but happy that we got to sleep for 6 hours before the race resumed. Best… sleep…ever!

In the morning we resumed racing, with all but Crested Butte having turned around in the storm. A short kayak leg to the end and we had made it, nearly 72 hours after we had started. That’s an epic – that’s an adventure race!

And I hope I never do it again….

Dolores recap or "Ken, you missed another chance to beat me"

2007-08-14T19:39:00Z

Well, I gave Ken and all the other young guys another chance to kick my butt on the mountain bike - and again he, and the others, didn't show up. As I've said before Ken, your not going to get that many more shots at me before I'm too old to even suit up...

And kick my butt they would've, as did the guys who showed up to race. It was only a few years ago when I was sprinting for the win in this race, and now I can hardly get out of my own way. Yes, I had a terrible race and realizing just how slow I am now has not been easy! God, going slow out there is not much fun at all...

Still, at least I was there on the starting line, and I found a way to have a little fun. That course is so great - fast and smooth - awesome! You should've been there. And I managed to at least catch Fergie before he flatted - I told him not to run those tires at 20psi but he wouldn't listen! :) I was sorry he flatted, it was shaping up to be a battle right to the line - at least I can still contend for the over 40 title.

Next up is the Healthfx Durango Dirt Lover's Rally - Sunday, August 26th. Register at active.com and show up for the best race in Durango. Okay, it's the only race in Durango, but still - great course, Healthfx tshirt, food and great drawing prizes all for only $20.00 - how can you beat that? And if that's not enough, another chance to kick my old fat butt - Ken, you're time is running out...

Rick

I told you so

2007-08-09T22:56:00Z

Hate to say I told you so, but I did. What? Contador and Brunhilda are having a press conference tomorrow to address (confess?) his connection to Puerto and the blood bags with his initials on them in Spain. Should be quite a show, can't wait. As far as I am concerned, Evans is now the Tour winner, at least until they look into his medical program. Better living thru science eh Shane?

Next up for me is the Dolores race this weekend - a great race on a great course and a salute to the old days when racing was fun and festive and not ruined by NORBA greed - I'd say grass-roots but that is so overused. Check it out at: www.doloresrotary.org/race/race.html

I wonder if Dave Harris will be there? He and I used to have epic battles on this course. That was before he decided anything less than 3 days was just too damn easy...

See ya there, Rick

Tour recap

2007-07-29T01:08:00Z

Well, it was interesting wasn't it! As long as you remember that it is not any more real than wrestling - except wrestling has less drug use - it was a damn good tour. For purists though, if any still exist, it was horrible, a tragedy, an unbelievable exercise in ridiculous mad chemistry! Which group are you in?

I'm in both - the purist in me wanted Moreau to win - not to mention I had money on him. The scientist in me was amazed at just how fast the lab can make these rats go (as fast as Pantini and Armstrong in their fastest, most drugged up state - allegedly)- and go fast day after day without cracking. One thing is for sure - Discovery and Brunyeel have the least ethics and the best doctors - unless some of you believe they really could have 2 of the top 3 overall, 3 in the top 7 in the TT, and that Levi - the same Levi who has never won a TT in his life in Europe - can destroy everyone in the final TT, going faster than even he admitted he has ever gone in his life. Ya right, I have some prime ocean front property in Durango to sell you. Really, come on, some of you folks probably still think Iraq had WMD too...I hope no fool comes forward to sponsor Lance and the boys - the sport needs to be rid of that whole team! And Contador hasn't won yet - not until they test that blood in Spain that has his nickname on it...Allegedly.

Don't get me wrong - I don't care if Discovery dopes, really I don't - it's just the way they play the game I don't like - the screaming hypocrisy of them all to say they can and do win clean - liars! Dopers I can stand - everyone for the most part is doing it (except Moreau) and "that which does not kill me... " and all. But the constant lying, telling young racers they can do it clean, is just ridiculous. Look Discovery - *we know you cheat, you know you cheat, and all the other riders know you cheat - so just shutup and put on a good show! And quit trying to tell us how pure you are! *All allegedly of course ( my lawyers make me say that).

There you have it - my take on the Tour this year. Good entertainment, completely fake sport. My real question I am left with is this: why kick out Vino and Chicken and Kloden et al, when everyone is doing it? I wanted to see the show - a great show it would have been too. Can you imagine what would have happened had everyone stayed in the race? Awesome, sorry we missed it.

And I watched every minute of it - didn't you?

Dog Days of summer

2007-07-12T02:49:00Z

I'm trying to work up a rant about something, this webpage has been so damn boring lately (other than Dave falling and knocking himself out - I'm worried Dave that you have burned up too many braincells doing crazy stuff, you can't afford to lose any more, next thing I know you'll be doing f***ing RAAM or something). But nothing is coming to me: Bush - done to a crispy fry; Forest Service -don't even get me started again but nothing new (though I love how they let fires get huge and out of control, then try to fight them - just so they scare everyone and guess what, they get more money to fight fires - ay carumba!); Le Tour - yawn, call me when they have to go up hill and they actually race - man July used to be so pumped up with racing and stuff and now - nothing!

I did do the "death ride" last week and was going to give a full report, blow by blow Dave style, but nothing happened. No-one blew - well, Alex did for a little while, no-one crashed no mechanicals blah blah blah - kinda boring riding and even worse to write about. It was a long day - 240 miles, 5 passes, 16000 feet of climbing and record hot - join us next year, the first Sunday in July - if riding all that in 16 hours sounds like fun. You Dave worshippers might like it...

That's all, sorry to bore you - I clearly need a break. Next up is the Breck 24 Hour Adventure Race - hopefully I'll have something good to write about. If not, I'll make something up about how crazy Bush is - ah, couldn't make up stuff that's as crazy as he really is. Maybe I'll write about who's doping and who isn't...

Note: I posted this entry before Dave and Lynda's blogs were up - I certainly meant no disrespect to either and didn't at the time know how seriously Dave was hurt (sorry Dave);

Rick

Just what is an Adventure Race?

2007-06-26T03:20:00Z

Everyone keeps asking me what it is that I do, so here's a video clip of the Durango race - the one we just did and found a way to win. Yes, that's us crossing the finish line - Team 4Corners AR (adventure racing). Can you find Waldo (me) anywhere else in the clip? Think guy who likes to eat Mexican food! That is, fat guy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg-MdEpoFto

Rick

Confessions of a doper

2007-06-22T21:23:00Z

I confess - I can not lie about any longer: I use performance enhancing substances! That's right, back in 1988 I starting using the wonder drug "Vitamin CO turbo" and I have used it ever since. It makes me faster. It makes me more alert and more aggressive! It cures the bonk in seconds! And, everyone else uses it so is it really cheating? Is it safe? Probably not in large quantities, but I only used 6 a day - alot on the surface but relatively not that much (now that I'm old and semi-retired I only use 2 a day, partly as a result of Shane's books). Is it WADA legal - yes, in limited quantities. For awhile it wasn't legal in Olympic circles- but I used it anyway - I was addicted afterall, and it worked so great! But just recently WADA made it legal again, in limited quantities -so I'm legal NOW. I ask forgiveness, and to be trusted - I am legal now so my past use is just that, in the past. So everything is okay, right?

Just kidding... After consulting with my lawyer and my sponsor, I've remembered that I never really tried "Vitamin CO turbo", but I did attempt to use it, just once, back in 1988. Really! I swear on my stack of Velonews...

Oops, after further review - and about a hundred of my ex-teammates coming out to refresh my memory - I can now confirm that I did indeed use "Vitamin CO turbo" on more than one occasion. I'm sorry, again. Really.

What is "Vitamin CO turbo"? You haven't guessed? If you haven't guessed then you have been had - that's right, "Vitamin CO turbo" is good old fashioned ( I like the Classic) Coke. You know, in the red can, the stuff you see all bike racers and adventure racers gulping down after about 4 hours in a race, ya, that stuff. It used to be illegal, can you believe that? So, before you go off on you anti-doping tirade next time, think about how ridiculous the anti-doping rules really are...

Not that I, you know, use the stuff.

Rick

Durango Adventure Race Recap

2007-06-20T00:40:00Z

I woke up this morning and couldn’t figure out where I was or what I had done to myself: What the hell happened to me? Was I hit by a truck? Beat up by a grizzly bear? Made to play piggy by some backwoods mutant? All I knew was that I must’ve been beaten by someone with an ugly stick cause I hurt everywhere!!!!

Welcome to 24 Hour Adventure racing, Durango style! I’m writing this after spending all day (the day after) in a Lazy Boy chair – not because I wanted to but because I could not move! It was like I was drugged on some of my wife’s pain medication (she is recovering from ACL replacement surgery), while at the same time not having control of my legs. Weird, man!

Our team was led by veteran adventure racer and mythical ultra runner Emily Baer, turns out she’s pretty damn savvy with the maps too. Tom Ober did the actual mapping and set a new record for the number of bathroom stops in the woods, and Brett Sublett was the strongest man in the race, often I’d look up at an unrideable section of the trail and Brett would be riding it!!!!! (I say man because Emily was equally strong all day). Me? I was just hanging on, being drug all over the course by my team – sometimes literally! My prevailing thought all race long was: I’m too old for this shit!

The race started at midnight from Durango Mountain resort – Purg to those of us that have lived here awhile – with a nine checkpoint trek/orienteering section. We were racing without Kiviok, our navigator, so we knew this first section would decide the race – either we would nail it and win or get lost and end up in Telluride. Our history suggested we would get lost…

We didn’t though, and maybe it was home court advantage but we actually were the first team to get all the checkpoints and return to the transition to the mountain biking section.

We were slow mapping our coordinates at first, but we made it all up by making the decision to get our checkpoints out of order but in kinda a figure eight. As a result we caught back up to the leaders at about 2:30 in the morning at Hermosa – suddenly there was Bagel Works, AR Coach and us all at the checkpoint – that was, surreal. Actually AR Coach had led us to a checkpoint that we had mapped wrong, we would have lost a lot of time had we not just followed them to that one – thanks AR! We returned the favor by leading them down an unmarked trail that they may not have found – adventure racing is sometimes a little “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”. After Hermosa we took off running faster than we should have, especially since I had rolled my ankle on the last downhill and was now sporting an ankle the size of a grapefruit, but we wanted to get out of sight of the other two teams. It worked too as that was the last we ever saw of them (where did they go was a question we kept asking ourselves). We nailed the next two checkpoints and headed for checkpoint number 5, down a trail we hadn’t been down before. That one ended up being our hardest one to get as the trail was totally horse beaten – nothing like running on a trail that had been post-holed by a horse and then dried hard, on a wasted ankle no less – and the checkpoint was cleverly (we didn’t use that

word at the time, Will!) hidden in the canyon that was from every angle unapproachable without sliding down some rock on your ass. After wondering around for awhile – and wandering where the other teams where –we finally found a way into the canyon, nailed the checkpoint and headed for home. Eight hours after we started we rolled – well, I gimped – into the transition, thinking we had lost the race on that last leg, thinking all the other teams must’ve found a better way and gotten ahead of us. Shocked were we to find out we were the first ones in! Alright then, now we were in the race, and the mountain bike was our strong point, or so we thought…

The mountain bike section was long and hard, but we all felt great and were stoked to be in the lead! So we took off, in the immortal words of Meatloaf, “Like a Bat Out of Hell”. We were flying too – until we got our first flat. No problem, we have a lead, a quick fix and we were on our way. We still had three spare tubes, no problem. 200 yards later – BOOM! - Emily flatted and by the sound of it I knew we had a big problem. A sound you never want to hear on a bike is: BOOM! Sure enough her sidewall was not only ripped open but it was a jagged triangle – Ah #@%&, race over! But like all good adventure racers we had a few McGyver tricks up our sleeves, and we booted her tire with a patch, some duct tape (I always carry duct tape wrapped around my seatpost) and a Cliffshot wrapper. It worked! We were back in the race! Off we raced, more cautious this time as now we were down to 2 tubes and we weren’t even close to half way done. About 5 minutes later – you guessed it – Tom had another flat! @$^*%(^# - that’s code for my burst of Tourette’s! Another quick fix, another tube gone, and we were off, but down to our last tube! Our race rested on not having another flat – what were the odds? We couldn’t figure out where all the other teams were – why weren’t they passing us? We had no idea how much lead we had, but we knew it was getting smaller…We made it almost to the Dutch Creek turn and you guessed it – Tom had another flat! @$^* ! You have got to be kidding me – 4 flats! @$^*% -I was overcome with Tourette’s at this point. We still had half the bike section left, we had lost over 30 minutes of our lead, and now we were about to use up our last tube – the Adventure Racing gods were not being very nice to us! (Turned out it was more our lack of attention then the gods – Tom’s flats were caused by a little thorn that we kept missing, finally on the fourth try we found and removed it – close call).

To make a long story shorter, we pushed our bikes all the way up Dutch Creek, suffered no more flats, and held onto our lead into the ropes section. But by how much did we lead?

We did a fast transition into our climbing gear, blazed across the traverse – thankful that it wasn’t as hard as the one at Buena Vista – and just as I was finishing my last and slowest leg on the traverse, in came Bagel Works!!!!! @$^*%! They had finally caught us after chasing for 8 hours on the bikes. The race was on!

Well, I was dead, had been mostly dead all day, but I was damned if they were going to beat us now! So we jumped on our bikes, hammered the final downhill and short road section to the boat transition, and jumped into the boats without stopping to eat. Yes we still had 3 hours of kayaking to go, and we were hungry and tired – but now it was a race! We paddled hard thru the faster whitewater section, took some shortcuts, nearly flipped twice, and finally settled down as we hit the calmer water near the end. The truth is that we knew they were at least an hour behind us as they had missed a checkpoint, but we wanted to cross the line in first, not win because of the time penalty.

And we did just that crossing the line some 19 hours after we started. Our first win!

Wish I could say I was happy (I am now), but at the time all I could think was: I’m too old for this shit!

A late rant and BV Adventure race recap

2007-05-17T21:10:00Z

I've been trrying to get worked up about the Giro - but really without Basso and any of the good riders, yawn! I know, Basso is a cheater - well who isn't - in baseball and NASCAR they say "if you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'", but in cycling everyone wants this lillie white "clean" sport. Come on already, the NFL is the dirtiest sport of all when it comes to dope - and they are by far the most popular sport- so who really cares about being clean? Not the spectators, not the sponsors, not the teams or team managers - so enough of this witch hunting - let 'em ride and that which does not kill you only makes you faster! Better living thru science - if they want to be test monkeys so be it. I just want to watch a good race...

Not enough ranting for you? Try this from Patrick O'Grady - the original ranter (if you ignore Ed Abbey and Hunter S. Thompson that is):

http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/12221.0.html

The BV Adventure race was all it was said to be - http://www.gravityplay.com/adventureracing/. Fun and tricky class 3 whitewater - in a duckie (we went swimming, but so did almost everyone else - I don't think I relaxed the sphincter once the whole way down!). Hard, hot and long uphill mountain biking (who knew BV had a desert? It was sandy, and it was hot, and it was technical - it was Moab at 9000 feet)! How cool is that? Everyone was running out of food and water; everyone was dry heaving and bonking - sounds like fun for all you crazy bastards eh? :) And nine hours later we got to haul our mostly dead ( "I've been mostly dead all day") dehydrated (I ran out of water and food at six hours) and disoriented (we missed 7 checkpoints on the O course for a 1 hour 10 minute penalty) across a 400 foot Tyrolean traverse - like doing 1000 situps and pushups at the same time! Try that with your little emaciated biker bodies!

In the end we finished in fifth in the pro class, not bad for a team with full-time jobs, families, and little natural talent - must've been the Drip and Enduro keeping us going. I know that I finished still feeling good and all I had to eat and drink all day was 20 ounces of drip - my camelback managed to leak the other 50 ounces all over me) and 3 Sweet and salty nut bars, plus a couple bottles of water. I was just having too much fun, in the sick twisted way of an adventure racer, to realize how wasted I was - the last part of the mountain biking section was on an old railroad bed and we were flying - yahoo! Haven't tried adventure racing yet - come on out - the next one is here in Durango and there isn't anywhere else in the World I'd rather live and race...

And in case you're worried about it - everything I took during the race was legal - I'm too old to be the test monkey!

You win some, you lose some...

2007-04-27T21:39:00Z

Finally found a race I could win - well Tom Ober won and I just followed him - that guy is a racehorse! We went down and did race #1 of the New Mexico Adventure Race series and had a great time ripping around the courses at the Foothills trail system. We raced as a two man team, and me being older and wiser I let Tom do the map work. Not only do I get lost in a parking lot, but I'm slower than Tom so as he would stop to figure out where we were going I would catch up - worked perfectly as all I had to do was keep him in sight. We did take a little diversion though - it wouldn't be an adventure race if we didn't get lost at least once! We took a trail that looked like the trail we needed, but it ended at a rock overlook and we were, as it turns out, three drainages over from where we needed to be. No problem, we'll bushwack! Or should I say cactus whack! And guess what, those cactus and prickly trees are tougher and meaner than I am; my legs looked like a kitten had used them for a scratching post - of course, the last thing Tom said before we took off was that "no matter what we do not want to bushwack". Right. Our shortcut ended up costing about 20 minutes - we were too stubborn to just go back down the trail to where we knew where we were - and we finished the run section about 10 minutes out of first.

No problem though, as where we are really good is on the mountain bikes - and we new we wouldn't have too many navigation problems as all the bike checkpoints were on the trails, so we just let er rip and caught the lead team by the halfway mark. A few short wrong turns later and we were not where we thought we were - no we were not lost - but luckily we saw someone going the right way and we were able to follow them. At this point there were people spread all over the trail system and we had no idea what place we were in, so we just put the hammer down and headed for the finish - a couple of wrong turns thrown in just to test us. As we aproached the finish we though it was oddly vacant, and sure enough (and we're not used to this) we had won! Cool! The race was a blast and so damn much fun I can't wait til the next one! If you've never raced and want to try it, these races are perfect for first -timers, go to: http://www.nmarc.org/ for more info. And by the way, Health-fx products work!

Winning was fun, the 12 hours in Gallup (Dawn to Dusk) however - not fun for me! I have all the usual excuses ( I had a cold, bike didn't work right, went out too fast, I'd skipped taking supplements, the course was different and harder, blah blah blah boo hoo)! The fact was, while all those are true, I just wasn't ready and those other guys are just faster - not fatter - than me! In the end I faded like the sunset over the mesa - only I looked ugly while the sunset was great. As someone said "I was a danger to myself and others out there". On my last lap I saw a woman who had obviously never ridden off-road before - she was falling off on every rock and walking every uphill. I felt bad for her until I realized I wasn't keeping up with her. And yes, she did her lap faster than I did mine! God, I was going slow....Not fun.

This weekend is the Alien Run mountain bike race in Aztec, NM - a great fast desert race. Do it if you can!

Basso suspended

2007-04-24T21:19:00Z

Wow, just when I thought the UCI did NOT want to bust any more riders, they nail (sorta) Ivan Basso. I wish they would just let everyone ride, or suspend them all and start with age 18 and under riders! As the famous movie "Breaking Away" taught us: everybody cheats! And everybody in the pro peleton cheats - every last one of them ( allegedly), so let's quit the charade and get on with racing. I want to see Ullrich Basso Tyler Landis and Armstrong etc. all lined up at the start line of a race - all drugged up if necessary -cause that would be the greatest race ever. It seems ridiculouos to single out a couple guys and kick their ass - who for instance in last year's tour was innocent and then so deserves to win? Maybe the guy who got dead last....

Gotta go - the famous dDurango Tuesday Nite Worlds ride is starting in an hour and I have to go dop...uuhh, warm up. :)

The Forest Service lies...

2007-04-20T21:49:00Z

Allow me a moment to vent about a program by the USFS to destroy our Forests and trails. The Bush administration - well hell, I don't have enough computer memory to spell out the whole list of atrocities that those criminals have laid on us - has declared war on the woods by declaring them "unsafe". Citing safety concerns - they have WMD's style - the USFS is saying that the only way to protect the forest is to cut it down! Paving paridise to put in a parking lot so to speak! Oh ya, they leave an occasional big old Pondersa just to make tree huggers happy - a tree musuem? Turns out some big logging companies spent alot of money getting the Bullshits elected. Don't laugh, it is happening here and will be happening to a trail/forest near you soon!

Why should you care? Cause the way they are doing it not only effects the environment - funny how everywhere else in the world we are condemning deforestation and worrying about Global warming - but also affects the very trails you run/ride/hike on. It seems that trailheads for recreation provide easy and cheap access to the loggers - around here every project - they call it Healthy Forests! - is happening on the very same land we recreate on! Hermosa trail, Vallecito, Log Chutes and now Animas Mountain! Seems that only these easily accessible trails/Forests are in danger, hmmm. The end result is that these trails are changed/ruined forever! Thats a long time to wreck a trail!

Well, I'm sick of it and I hope you are too. And before you blow this off and do nothing, remember that though they are not in your area now - they will be! It's like that old WWII writing - "when they came for the Jews I didn't complain, because I was not a Jew...".

So what can you do? Find out who the District Ranger is where you live, and write them a letter somewhat like this one that I sent to our Ranger - if they hear from enough people maybe they'll stop:

Dear Craig,

It goes without saying that I am opposed to your project and I have registered my concerns with Beth over the phone, but wanted to be on the record as opposed to any thinning on Animas Mountain. I am vehemently opposed to any road building, and strongly opposed to mechanical thinning which will certainly result in logging and huge environmental impacts - including erosion, trail closures and obstructions from debris that never gets cleaned up, large diameter living trees being cut, loss of much wildlife habitat, loss of shade and therefore ability to hold snow/water - all of which I saw at Vallecito! Are you willing to put in writing that no trees over 6 inches will be cut? That not one log will come off of the mountain in a logging truck? That the road will be completely erased and the trail rebuilt? That wildlife concerns will not be ignored (like the Turkey's and Osprey were at Vallecito)?

I am tired of the USFS shouting that the "sky is falling" and "we must destroy the forest to save it". All research done independent of the USFS proves this "treatment" to not only be unnecessary, but also that the "treatment" increases fire danger, see for example the brush fires in California. The result of this thinning will be loss of shade and moisture and an explosion of scrub oak - the very fuel that causes devastating and fast moving fires!

Sorry to be a cynic, but I saw what happened at Vallecito and it was NOT what the USFS said was going to happen. And I know that under the current administration your department/district gets more funds based on how many acres are "treated" thus certainly calling into question the real motivation for these projects.

Animas Mountain has survived for millions of years without our intervention, and it clearly is not a danger to the "urban interface", so I would again request that you do nothing and let nature take care of itself. Failing that, at least do a full EA rather than asking for the "exemption". Prove your case.

Sincerely,

Rick Callies

Have you ridden Phil's World lately?

2007-04-07T00:08:00Z

"Phil's World". Those that have ridden it revere it. Those that haven't, well, you're missing out! Part rollercoaster, part BMX course-all just plain old fun! I rode it today with the Mighty Kiviok, who trains there every damn day, and he kicked my butt and yet I still had one of those adrenaline rushing, spirit lifting days - Mountain Biking is the greatest! Its hours later and I'm still rushing - oh, maybe that's the Endurofx still kicked in! Either way - awesome!

Haven't been there? It's just out of Cortez, CO, right across from the Montezuma fairgrounds - if you see a "no trespassing or you will be shot" sign you are in the right place, just go past the sign (not over the fence) thru the gate and you'll see the map and the trail will be obvious. Then, just ride, and enjoy, and then do it again! If you really like it, enter the 12 hour race there on Saturday, May 12th. That has got to be the most fun 12 hour race anywhere!

And if you overshoot the"ribcage" (you'll know it when you see it, or catch huge air on it) - go see Kiviok at Cortez Chiropractic and he'll fix you right up.

Ride it and let me know what you think!

Up the creek without a paddle

2007-03-30T19:09:00Z

Raced with Team Cortez Chiropractic in last weeekend's Moab Adventure Xstream 12 hour race - what a great race! If you've never tried an adventure race do it, do it now, cause it's more fun than anything else I've ever done. A little biking, a little running, a scary as hell 300 foot rappel - I get affected by Tourette's (swearing like a drunken sailor) every time I look over that damn cliff - and a little, well way too much, kayaking in a duckie. All mixed together it is really fun, check it out at: http://www.gravityplay.com/adventureracing/

We had a great group campsite in the Goldbar campground, and Shane and Fergie, aka the DB, aka the Android, provided great entertainment as they tried to figure out how to rappel without a rappel device or even a caribiner, and how to paddle down the river without a paddle - Fergie figured he could paddle with just his hands and rapel by just hanging onto the rope like in P.E. class - okay, so I made that part up but it was close to that!

Our team settled into the front of the race with the World Champion Nike team and the top 5 in the World Crested Butte team until the climb up Long Canyon got real - then we faded like Floyd Landis sans testosterone (allegedly) and had to fight hard to hang on to a fifth place finish - though we were ahead of Team Nike until the half way point (but only because they missed a checkpoint). Turns out we were missing our proverbial paddle in that one of the team had gotten the flu on Wednesday and had puked for 2 straight days and hadn't eaten for 4 - not a good combination when racing such a tough group of pros! The race became a real battle to just survive and my hamstrings were humming some tune from Queen (bicycle - bicycle) for the first few miles of the run (did I mention that running sucks?). The rappel was as always wet your pants scary, but I survived without letting go of the rope or smashing my face into the rock - so I'm getting better at it! The second bike leg was flat and fast so I hitched up Emily (we actually can pull each other in adventure racing, like sled dogs) and took off with Kiv and Tom helping when I'd get tired - at one point we were all hooked together like a slinky and we were flying, imagine 30mph in a team time trial only you are hooked together - one crashes we all crash! As we approached the boat put-in we saw team Bagelworks - last year's champions - just taking off so we got a little excited and gave chase in the kayaks, only to fry ourselves and go back into survival mode for the final hour - paddling a duckie in still water against the wind is really the true definition of hell! Boring, hard, slow, and your ass hurts for days after! Other than that though I love the kayak section! :)

The next day Tom Ober and I went on a little recovery ride on the Kokepelli trail - I'd heard it is all flat dirt road, mostly downhill and really pretty boring - perfect for a little recovery spin right? Ah, nine hours, 10,000 feet of climbing (or so it seemed), endless miles of technical 4-wheeler road and out of food and water for 3 hours, later, we made it back to camp. That, Dave Harris, is a recovery ride - oh God I'm mutating like Dave and Lynda now!

If any of that sounds even a little fun to you check your hematocrit - and make sure they are red blood cells not the green alien ones that Dave, Lynda and now apparently I seem to have - what is really in those Healthfx products Shane?

"Everyman's" Training Mistake

2007-03-22T21:05:00Z

As my legs - quads specifically - were refusing to work (truth be told they ripped like old jerky about 100 yards into the DOWNHILL run) at the Monticello Tri, and I was quickly starting to doubt even being able to finish the far too far and slightly downhill 10k run, I started trying to figure out what the heck went wrong. I had run more than ever over the winter, done more speedwork - even done repeat sets of 200's - and even run some 5k time trials, and yet I was running slower than the Late Great Marc Witkes on the 7th day of his 100 miles a day attempt - WTF? About mile 5, just when I realized I not only was going to hold on to finish but actually win - I realized what I'd done wrong, again. I say again because as someone who has raced and coached for over 30 years I have made about every mistake known to man and many of them more than once - running really makes you stupid sometimes! And as a coach and Exercise Physiology degree holder I knew exactly what had gone wrong, yet there I was woddling - not running - down the road at 7:20/mile. I feel bad for anyone who had to see that! No pictures please!

So what went wrong? "Everyman's" training mistake number 1: In trying to rest for the race, and peak perfectly, I had neglected to run the whole week before the race. I mean I didn't run a step! I biked a little, skiied a little, but didn't run at all - no relaxing hollow quarters, no leg stretching 5 k pace workout, not even a easy jog with the dogpack. What the heck was I thinking? And hadn't I made this mistake a million times - like last year right before the Expedition race? Knucklehead!

What was I thinking? I was thinking that I had a sore calf/achilles that really needed to rest. I was thinking that my hamstring was pretty tight and I'd hate to pull it right before the race. And I was thinking that "fresh is better than fit". In other words, I was panicking about the race and I gave in to all these bizarre fears! As the defending Champion I was scared to death that I wouldn't even make it to the starting line. And because I didn't run all week, my hamstings and calves were not sore, but my quads were so tight that the first downhill step I took afeter riding in the aero position for an hour caused my quads to rip - and every step after that caused them to rip again and again and again!

Don't let this happen to you! The proper way to prepare for a peak race is to train like normal!! If you normally run 200's and halves and pace workouts, do it the week of the race too. Just do it a little bit slower, and do a few less, and stretch a little -not alot as overstretching is another common mistake. And rest , but by getting more sleep not by sitting on your butt. As it turns out, I was faster and felt better at OP than I did at teh Tri, and I had trained 14 hours in 4 days going into OP. So, lessson learned, again, training is better than sitting.

Try that and let me know how it works! And if anyone out there understands Dave's last post please send me the "code" cause even with my degree I'm too brain dead from Oxygen debt to be able to figure it out. :)

A word on Training

2007-03-15T23:34:00Z

Okay, so people can't believe I won Monticello - they keep saying: "Dude, I was kicking your ass all winter and then you suddenly beat me - WTF?" One guy I run hill repeats with was like, man if you can win that I ought to do it - because he kills me on the repeats. What these guys aren't getting - and the most common mistake made in training - is the concept of "peaking". I wasn't trying to go fast this winter; I wasn't waxing my skis, I wasn't taking supplements - I tend to only take most supplements during a 3 week peaking period before a big event - and I wasn't resting. I was training! Training hard! And so I was tired, really tired, and slow, really slow. And then 3 weeks before Monticello I went into a 3 phase peaking program - one I have used for about 20 years with my own racing and with athletes I've coached as well. And it worked! Here's how it goes:

Phase 1: 1 week of long, meduim fast distance. The goal here is to top off the tank, so I went to Tucson and rode 3 hours a day and ran for 1 hour a day for 4 days, then raced OP on a relay team. I felt great in OP after 4 days of LSD...Started supplements Lifefx (2 a day) and endurofx, drank the Drip during training.

Phase 2: 1 week of hard but not anaerobic efforts followed by huge rest. This phase started with OP - I wanted to do some threshold efforts, and while 5 - 1 hour efforts in 24 hours isn't really part of the plan, it worked because I completely rested for the next 4 days after, and than did a hard effort again - a 1 hour TT in the valley. And then rested for another 2 days. So at the end of phase two I was rested and fast...Still supplementing with the above but added a multivitamin with iron and a daily dose of Aleve. The latter is not approved by Shane at Health-fx! I also started eating like there was no tomorrow - mostly proteins and fats but some carbs - a modified carbo loading program. I did not feel fast this week - and I did not go fast in training -saving it for the race!

Phase 3: Rest rest and more rest - though with 2 hard efforts during the week to stay opened up. Continued eating, though on Wednesday I switched to mostly carbs with only a little protein and fat. Gained 5 pounds during the whole 3 week period, but much of it was water weight - that stored water came in handy after I dropped my bottle and had to live like a camel for the last hour of the race! The efforts were short, fast, but totally aerobic - no lactic acid really in any of the last 3 weeks ( I've read that it takes 3 weeks to clear lactic acid - therefore no anaerobic efforts in the last 3 weeks). I did these efforts on skis and on the bike - no running this week (see next week's post for how wrong that was!).

That's it - simple peaking program that always works! I have used this program for multiple National and State Championships in running and xc skiing (not personally, I was never THAT fast - but for althletes I've coached), and for several personal record type performances for myself as well. It works! Try it and let me know how it works for you.

Monticello Tri and defining "everyman"

2007-03-07T00:48:00Z

Just back from the Monticello (Utah) Winter Triathlon - the winter World Championships for me! And it went great, Healthfx users placed 3 out of the top 4 in the overall solo mens class (Team rider Andrew Ferguson placed 4th, and I managed to survive the run and win the overall)! How's that for a testamonial - endurofx and lifefx work! I started out with a good ski, finishing just behind 'Fergie" and - get this - a 13 year old Durango Girl (watch out Lynda). That's right, I got chicked on the ski by a 13 year old girl! But this is not your normal girl, or your normal 13 year old - Alicia Rose Pastore is a dedicated and addicted skier, biker and runner who trains year round and is likely to be the next World Champion in whatever sport she picks - awesome! Anyway, I tried to go just hard enough on the ski to stay close, but not so hard that I blew up and couldn't ride - hint to Fergie - and I started the bike feeling great. I passed Andrew early on and just put the wood to it as I knew everyone behind me could out run me. Near the end of the bike I got a split that I had 4 minutes on Tom Ober - a guy who I figured I would need at least 4 minutes on in order to hold him off in the run! Shit - I had to get going and no holding back now! The run was pure torture - I had gone so hard on the bike that within the first mile of the run both quads had comletely torn and all I could do was take baby steps...try running 7 minute miles with no quads! I did though, and was really happy to hang on until the finish. I never looked back, and the only split I got was at 2 miles to go when someone said "you better pick it up - those guys are gaining fast!". Great - I couldn't go any faster, so I just kept it smooth and tried not to cramp - I had dropped my bottle the first time I drank and so did the whole race on 2 sips of water and a sip of the Drip - can you say BONK? And no, I still can't walk 2 days later!

Lynda and Dave gave me some grief about my last post where I called myself the opposite of them and just an "everyman". So to clarify - an "everyman" is someone who has more than 12% body fat - mine is 13 and I love to eat, some would say I train to eat - trains less than 12 hours a week - and does not do super human tricks like riding 24 hours races or 11 white rim training rides solo in the snow. Sorry Dave and Lynda, you two are not "everyman"! I do race adventure races that last 24 hours (I've even tried 3 day races but never finished) but I don't WIN them! And when I break my collarbone - twice-I cry for morphine and crawl into bed - though I was happy in a wierd way to read that Lynda is actually feeling pain! Let's face it Dave and Lynda -you two are aliens posing as humans! I'd still love to go on some of your epic rides with you though - just leave me a good map when you leave me in the dust!

Rick

Something new and different

2007-02-23T20:29:00Z

As a reader of the website and user of the product I finally convinced Shane to let me blog - I convinced him that I had something to say and that it would be different than what Dave and Lynda had to say. I've been accused of being politically incorrect, and of speaking before thinking - all true! My goal will be to write frankly and openly and spur some discussion. Hope you enjoy it:

Just back from the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo and man was that fun - big ring power course, perfect for the Deisel - my pedaling style. In contrast to Dave and Lynda, I am more like the "everyman" - in other words, I have a full-time job, a wife, and I like to eat Mexican food! So, while the 'crack heads" get to pedal 10 hours a day, I'm happy to get 10 hours a week. And I don't keep a log, or work on my bike (ever)or even wash my bike (it's just going to get dirty again). I just ride! Still I manage to go pretty fast - a 57 minute lap at OP - of course unlike Tinker - who I finished right behind - I was only going once every 5 hours! My night lap was slow as hell though - my lights failed - I guess I'll have to get one of those fancy lights Dave is always talking about!

I am not afraid to admit that I've been using Health-fx products for about 6 years and have to say that they are the safest, best, no bull products I have found. And they are legal (caution, Pro racers need to know that some Health-fx products are not legal by WADA standards - I personally don't give a damn about WADA - nothing is legal, you can't even take an antihistimine for a bee sting!). By legal I mean I can go on-line or down to the Health Food store and buy them - they are food! For this race I used Endurofx for the first time, and man it was really good - I felt unbelievable even on my final (5th) lap, which I turned in under 1:01 even though my legs were dead dead dead. I also took Lifefx both days so that my legs wouldn't get sore ( I find that Lifefx really works on sore legs - not sure why but if you suffer from sore legs try some). I think both of these products are even WADA legal, but I don't know for sure as I don't bother to read WADA's ~125 page list of banned substances - if it works they ban it, even if it is completely safe (more, much more, on WADA in a later blog). Seems to me that if it works, and is safe, shouldn't we all be using it? Better living (racing) thru Science, as Healthfx says...

Rick