Snowshoeing, Riding, Etc.

I'll probably be updating this thing more often since I have lots of spare time. I haven't made the transition to MissingSaddle just yet. Still trying to get things dialed in. January has come and gone. Seems like just yesterday I was celebrating New Year's Eve. It was a solid month of training, that's for sure. I logged close to 100 hours on the bike. The weather in Fort Collins has been pretty amazing for riding this winter. I've been back here since the beginning of the month and have spent more days riding outside than inside. Awesome!

Last weekend I went snowshoeing. It was an awesome workout and I found muscles that I haven't used in a while. We went to Cirque Meadows up at Pingree Park. I spent a month there this summer for a class. It looks a lot different covered in snow. The hike round trip was 8 miles. All uphill for the first part. Breaking trail is always the hardest. Especially in deep fresh powder. Ok picture time!

So pretty! It snowed on us almost the entire way.

Erick...

The snowshoe tracks.


This weekend, the weather was awesome in Fort Collins. Saturday marked my first appearance for the year at the Oval ride. This ride can be pretty cut throat. The "Who's Who" of FoCo usually show up. It's an 80+ mile ride that has a variety of terrain. Read more about it here. This past Saturday there were 50+ riders to show up. It made for a fun, but sketchy group ride. There was a crash towards the beginning. Fortunately no one was hurt. The Windsor "wall" split the group. A few miles later, the major crosswind split the group again. I found myself in a chase group off the back of the main pack. We caught back on to the group where and stayed there for a while. My coach, Meredith Miller, and I opted out of the Carter Lake detour and headed back to Fort Collins. Good call because my legs were toast. I definitely wouldn't have kept contact with the group for the rest of the ride. The end of the ride involves some decent climbs. I ended up with just over 70miles in 3.5 hours. Ouch. Read more about the ride on Jeff and Sonya's blogs. Also, these pictures were taken by Jeff Kerkove.

The ride meets on CSU's campus at the oval.

The group rolling out East of town.

Today I did a solo 4 hour ride to Carter Lake and back. It was a beautiful day. The weather man had called for snow and cold weather. Instead, it was sunny and almost 45 degrees with hardly any wind. It was an awesome ride. Here's some pictures.

Climbing out of town.

The infamous Carter Lake.

Smile!

A hill. Who woulda thunk it?

An awesome view of Long's Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.

And that's all I have for tonight. First race is coming up in less than two weeks. There's several of us from the Fort Collins area heading to Valley of the Sun in Phoenix, Arizona Feb. 13-15. I can't believe the 2009 season is just about under way. Time flies when you're having fun! Take care and good night!
-A