8/25 - Xterra Buffalo Creek

I have been thinking about trying out an Xterra race for quite some time now, but wanted to have a decent mountain bike to do it on, mine was over 18 years old. I got the new 29er hardtail a few weeks ago and signed up for the Buffalo Creek race.  The race would be the 4th time on the bike, either way it was a smaller Xterra race with a small pro fields, I thought I would do great.  The venue was near Conifer about 1/2 south west of Denver in the foothills.  It was private land connected to some great single track mountain bike trails.

The lake could have used some water in it, apparently the lake is private and they sell the water to farmers.  Anyway the swim course was to be two short shallow loops making up the 1 mile swim.  Waves were started according to swim times, pros did not have their own wave.  So we started in one large wave and I took off in the lead right from the beginning.  The 2nd loop was a little congested and I ran into a few other swimmers crossing the out and back in the wrong direction.   Either way I exited the water with a 3 minute lead and headed onto the bike.  I was not sure when the leaders would catch me, but I knew they would on the bike.  The bike started with a fast dirt road 3 mile decent to the single track trails.  I think I was at about mile 6 or so when I heard them behind me, since it was single track you have to find an area to let them pass.  That was not an issue as they were heading up and down the path faster than I was.  It seemed like the fast singletrack they would take much more risk that I was and that is where I was loosing ground fast.  I also thought I was lost a few times on the bike course, but was not all that worried since it was so beautiful and fun to ride.  The last 3 miles of the 20 mile course were back up that dirt road we had descended.  I was in 6th place now.  Onto the run was again single track, through great trails, up hill and down, through streams, over bridges, etc.  It was a pretty fun trail run, I passed one other guy to move into 6th and held 6 min per mile pace on the 5 mile trail.  When I was passing the one guy I thought it would be a good idea to pass quickly and picked up the pace, but right after the pass I turned my left ankle on a root pretty good and had to slow down a little.
Crossing the line in 5th place (the results said 4th at the race, until I checked writing this) I think was pretty good for my first Xterra race, I need to work on my MTB skills, but the new 29er Fuji hardtail was flawless the entire race.  I think next season I will throw some of these Xterra races into the mix for fun, as they are always in a great area.

Swim - 21:12

T1 - 1:01

Bike - 1:35:02

T2 - 0:42

Run - 30.00

Total - 2:27:54.9

8/14-8/17 Conundrum Springs

The classic family backpacking trip, except we were missing one member, well really two.  I have been planing a backpacking trip for a little while now for this summer right before the girls started school.  It was supposed to be Glacier NP but we did not have the amount of time I had hoped for so a CO trip would have to do.  It did not disappoint.  The plan was to head to Aspen which I had not ben yet and hit some of the Maroon Bells wilderness.  Shanon's Grandfather had passed away the weekend before the trip so she ended up not having all the vacation time that she wanted to be able to go and opted to stay home and work.  Charlie was supposed to go and help carry weight, but the trail I picked ended up not allowing dogs the last two miles.  So we were down to my two favorite girls and myself.
Heading over independence pass, we got to Aspen on Wednesday the 14th and spent some time around town, and it is exactly as dumb and dumber portrayed it to be if not more.

Anyway we camped up by Maroon Creek and hiked around Maroon Lake, which is the classic CO picture you see.

Early the next morning was the big first day, we drove to the Conundrum trailhead which was the next valley to the northeast and started our 9 mile hike up to the spring.

Since we were without Shanon and the dog, Dad was left to carry pretty much everything for the 3 day trip.  Th girls had their clothes and sleeping bags.  It was a long trip up the valley to almost 12k' where we would spent the next few days, but very rewarding and beautiful the whole way up.  There was not even that much complaining on the way up, but there were two very tired girls for sure.  We were pleasantly surprised that one of the best sites overlooking the entire valley was still available.

We set up the hammock and enjoyed the view.

Made dinner

And of course hit up the hot springs

The nights were cold and the days bight and sunny without any rain the whole trip.  We spent the next day doing a few day hikes, soaking in the hot springs, and just spending time up in the mts.

Saturday I watched the sun rise from the hot springs by myself since I could not get the kids out of the tent in the cold.  We packed up soon after and started our 9 mike hike back down.  It was sure a lot easier to hike back down than it was heading up.  We got back to the trailhead around 2PM,

The only thing left to do was go back into Aspen and have a huge lunch, we found a good Bar-b-q place and ordered 2 racks of ribs.

We were going to camp one more night in Aspen, but were were down so early we just decided to head home for a much needed shower and change of clothes.  Overall such a great trip, I think we will need to do at least one back backing trip every year, maybe Shanon can come with next time.  I got to go backpacking when I was a child about their ages, and I hope that they pass this onto their children as well.

All of the pictures can be found here - 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13519781@N02/sets/72157635112910923/

8/10 - Grays and Torrys Peaks

Two days after summiting Longs I decided it was a good idea to hit up two more 14ers with a few friends.  Shanon was supposed to come as well as a few others but due to a death in her family she was back in IL for the weekend.  While the kids were in IL we were going to climb these 14ers, we decided to go anyway.  Mary, Sam, Merideth, and myself, we headed up early in the AM and drove to the trailhead, we ended up starting at about 6 AM.  This was a popular hike especially on a Saturday, there were already a bunch of cars.  We headed out and took the first left intersection I thought was heading to Torrys, well it was but it was a class 3 route.  It was not going to happen for all those in our party, so we headed back to the normal route up to Torrys, by cutting through a rock field.  Once on the main trail again it was easy hiking up to Torrys, just crowded since we took a wrong turn.  We ate lunch on the summit if Torrys with great weather.

After lunch was a short hike down a bit to the ridge to the trail up to Grays.  We made it up to the top of Grays quickly and enjoyed some time on top.

The total hike was just over 8 miles, not too bad for bagging 2 14ers in one day and the weather was gorgeous the entire day.  After the hike we headed down to Boulder to enjoy a few beers for Merideth's birthday hike to 2 14ers.  A great day was had by all.

All pictures can be found here -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13519781@N02/sets/72157635030165444/

8/7 - Longs Peak

Last week I made a little list and put it in a frame, it is of all the 14ers in Colorado, with each member of the family and a checkbox for the date in which the peak was climbed.  I will cover them all in my lifetime.  I have only done a few so far, but Longs is on that is staring at me every day from here in Louisville, I can see it from the mesa where I run, I can see it each time I get in the car, it is begging to be bagged.  Shanon was not interested in Longs since it is a class 3 and has some exposure.  So I signed up Owen and Mark to hit it on a weekday to avoid the crowds.  We choose Wednesday the 7th a few weeks prior and just hoped for good weather.  Heading up the night before and camping in Meeker campground at the base.  We started out hike just before 5 AM, watching the sun rise over the peaks was incredible, but the weather forecast had us worried we would not summit at all.

Sunrise

We figured we were not going to chance it and it we did not summit that was okay, a nice hike in RMNP is much better then working any day.  The approach is long starting at 9k' and 7 miles each way, it took us a while to get to the harder stuff, but looking at the peak and the diamond was worth it all.

Diamond

The boulder field before the keyhole was a little tough, this is where many camp before their final approach.  Heading through the keyhole the weather was looking bad to the north of us, but it did look like it was staying to the north.  We saw a few other parties turning around, but we make our own decisions here and just kept a vigilant eye on the clouds during the hike.

Keyhole

After the keyhole is where it really started to get tough and up through the trough accent.  At the top of the trough before the narrows we waited for Mark, we did not think he was going to make it as he was feeling ill due to the altitude.  He said he was done so Owen and I were going to summit without him.  The Narrows were fast and we made it to the top as the sun started to shine and the weather looked much better.  The summit of Longs is huge, maybe two football fields.  And since the weather looked iffy, there was only 2 other people on the summit today, usually there are a bunch.

Summit

We took some time and then were prepared to head back down, when we saw Mark almost up as well.  We waited for him, I was happy he made it as well.  Since the weather was nice we brewed some celebration coffee at 14,255k', and headed down.  The hike down is long but much faster and easier, than the way up.  We got a few drops of rain about .25 miles from the car but that was it.  We finished at about 3pm a long day, but we made it and the weather turned out to hold and be actually pretty nice.  Very proud to have done the peak with Owen and Mark, well done boys.

All pictures on Flickr -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13519781@N02/sets/72157635030165444/

8/4 - Boulder 70.3

Living here in Boulder I feel obligated to race the Boulder races, but knowing that they are going to be super fast.  This was the third time I have raced this one, if you count 2012 which I did not do the run due to a stress fracture.  This year I thought I was in great shape and ready to hit the top 10 for sure.  My day did not exactly go that way at all.  The swim was good I ended up 4th out of the water and headed onto the bike.  This is when I knew I was it trouble, about 5 miles into the bike my quads were just screaming already forcing me to back off.  Thinking back on it I am pretty sure it is from riding the road bike way more than the tri bike.  Backing off helped me recover, but some of the super fast bikers went by me and I had nothing in return.  I started to feel better about 30 miles in, but by then it was way too late.  I rode the rest of the bike with Michael Lovado trading off, but he ran away from me on the run, which was too me expected.  I took the bike dismount pretty easy this time, and the first lap of the run felt okay, the second lap the heat and race got the best of me.  I ended up backing off quite a bit on the second lap considering I was outside the top 15 now, there was not point in killing it the rest of the race.  I was 18th on the day, not great but I learned a few things that I need to continue to work on in training....like running more.


Swim - 24:37
T1 - 1:27
Bike - 2:12:46
T2 - 0:49
Run - 1:25:57
Overall - 4:05:36

6/29 - SonicBoom Crit

The SonicBoom crit is our home town race and I was more than proud to host this one.  I was not really set on racing at all as I had to be up super early to setup for my daughters swim meet that morning for a few hours, get he to the meet, then volunteer all day at the crit race. I raced at the end of the day.  The race was held right downtown in Louisville, while we had a large swim meet a few blocks away, a farmers market a few blocks from that, and the crit all day.  It was a great atmosphere, folks having breakfast and coffee overlooking the racers as they go by each lap, some of them wondering what bike racing was all about, but they soon found out.  The mens CAT 3 race was later in the day and I did not expect much out of myself except to support the team.  I rode with the field the whole race and tried to break away with Ryan with 4 to go.  I stayed away until the last lap, when I was caught on the slight uphill of each lap.  I gave it a valiant effort, but it was just not enough, anyway ended up 17th on the day, not too bad considering the long day.  Travis had a great race here as well, I was very proud of him on the day.