Got treated to some great bluegrass music at the Zoo Friday evening by the Greencards. They are two Aussies and a Brit, along with a homegrown guitar player. Interesting that they play traditional American bluegrass. Excellent music and a talented group for sure.

Started out Friday with an early a.m. high intensity ride in the foothills before work. The ride hurt, but man, you just feel so good the rest of the day after a ride like that. Early Saturday Ann and I hit up some of our favorite east mountain trails. Mainly around David and Otero Canyons trying to stay out of the hot sun. Sunday we had a farewell ride for our Friend Matt L who's moving to the Pacific NW. We took him on his favorite route at Cedro, and other than a bunch of folks playing frisbee golf at Oak Flats, we didn't see another person during our 2.5 hour ride.

Sunday eve the FCA-E and BOMB groups headed down to Valley High School to volunteer at the Cherry Garcia 10K race. Mostly we did the water and had games set up for the kids. The race benefitted Joy Junction homeless shelter, and I was really surprised by how many people turned out. Ben and Jerry's supplied ice cream and Pudge Bros. supplied pizza for all the runners. It was pushing 100 degrees, and I was sure glad I wasn't running (wilting) in that kind of heat. Busy weekend, but relaxing at the same time.

Saturday was time for some high country riding with temps in the 90's, so I headed up to the old neighborhood for cooler temps, running water, and some sweet singletrack. You'll never see many riders out here cause it's quite technical and even hikers are few. So I rode from the old hood, all the way to the top of the mountain and back down. It was one of those days I was really on and couldn't believe the stuff I was cleaning on the hardtail. These are the trails where I learned to ride on a fully rigid, steel Trek, and where I first met Tom and marvelled at the stuff he rode in his retro garb. It was good to be back. Got 4,800 feet of climbing in over 32 miles, and it was a tough effort.

Sunday, got together with Carl and Laurie up in the pines. A recovery ride for me, and a Fathers Day ride for Carl. It's amazing what you can do with a Bob trailer. I've discovered Carl's stealth training secret though as he towed his daughter through some fun trails and up some nice climbs. Helped him for sure at Dueces Wild where he took 8th overall, even beating out some of the younger pros.

Here's a couple of cycling-related shots: The statue is a tribute to Mike the Headless Chicken.
This is funny to me cause Pete Nelson told the story in a sermon he did recently.

And, if you've ever wondered what the weekend crowd at Calvary Chapel of Fruita looks like, well, wonder no longer.........Not really, but not long ago our mountain bike group tried to coordinate a visit with them during the Fruita Fat Tire festival, and you know what, they didn't even bother replying to our correspondence. You'd think a church located in a town like Fruita, would have it's doors open during the entire Fat Tire Festival reaching out to the community..............they could learn a lesson from the other churches in town who cooked up some great breakfast for everyone and demonstrated what it means to be kind and hospitable to strangers...........

Check out my friend Keith P's web site for some outstanding photography by clicking HERE!

Oh, and this weekend, get off the couch and do something fun outside!

Stick a fork in me......I'm done. A little before and after effect. The Cochiti 100 was Saturday.......and for me it was the Cochiti 55, and that was about right at my pre-race goal. It's hard to keep these tales brief, but here's my best shot. Being a self-timed event, I took off with a small group right at 6:29am, knowing it would only be a matter of time before the hammers, who left a little later, caught and passed me. One of many highlights of my day was pedaling along for a while with the former Governor, along the 13-plus mile, steep, Dome climb. On the Dome climb, Jeff H and John S cruised right on by looking quite strong. Chris H caught my wheel a while later and we rode together to the Dome Wilderness signage where Jens flew past us going quite fast. Big props to the moto guy who not only did some trail clearing the previous day, but also was at the Motown turnoff directing traffic early Sat. Thanks! It wasn't long on Motown before I went over the bars on some nasty rootage, but no damage done, and shortly after that Matt cruised right on by me, and let me tell you, not only is he super fast, he is smooth! When Lenny caught and passed me with a couple of guys at the end of Motown, it prompted me to pick up the pace, and I kept them within earshot as we hit graduation flats over to 10 plus miles of technical singletrack called the crosstown trail. Typical fun moto style trail with some loose, steep, hike-ups and downs, along with the faster, flowing stuff, and a steep, hike-a-bike at about mile 29, before some much needed gravity riding, wrapping it up on the awesome Media Dia singletrack complete with refreshing stream crossings, back to Dixon's apple orchard.

I couldn't believe how long it took me to complete the first 41-plus miles, but talking with everyone else, that seemed to be the common theme, even for the elite riders. I kicked back for about 15-minutes while my great pit crew, Ann, took care of my bottles and food, and before I knew it, she and Janet from El Paso, said they wanted to head out on Loop 2 with me. Sounded good, so we headed out and did a modified version of the loop to complete our day. I was pretty cooked, feeling the effects of afternoon heat, an upset stomach, and leg cramps, I'd battled all day long. Upon finishing, I spotted Tim relaxing in the shade with some friends, and doing some "carbo loading" before hitting up their second loop. Guess they got a later start than planned, but Tim rocked the first loop on his SS, so hats off to ya man and good to meet ya!

This was a very challenging endurance event, and I'm really glad to have participated. Big thanks to Matt for organizing, and to any of the 60+ guys and gals who rode. Turns out only John S and Matt completed all three loops, and that last loop looked like the toughest of the three. Way to go. The NMES web site has additional info and comments from participants.

To the big volcano....Cochiti 100 that is.............

Keith Bontrager gives some interesting insights and advice on completing multi-day stage races, that are really applicable to any endurance kind of event. I thought it was a good read.

National Trails Day was awesome! The Open Space Division contacted me to lead a work crew on the section of trail that our mountain bike ministry adopted 5 years ago. Seems they had too many volunteers and not enough staff to lead work crews. Wouldn’t it be great if ministries had that same problem?
Anyway, I had an awesome crew, including my better half Ann, and Mark from the Bomb group. Chris P from the FOO group cranked out some great work. Also Bob and his better half Betsy, Dr. Chris and his better half Claudia, Mark 2, John and Jim?
Anyway, we knocked out 15 or so erosion control features and also built some new "stair step" ledges using huge granite slabs. I dropped an 80-pound slab on the middle finger on my left hand and it’s quite a lovely shade of purple today.
Splinted up the finger and got out for a ride today with Ann at Cedro. At only 10 miles, was probably our shortest ride of the year, but one on the most enjoyable with cool breezes, colorful wildflowers, and nobody on the trails. I had no need to hammer out a long ride today, and judging from my inability to get my heart rate even close to my Lactate Threshold, I was better off going easy and resting this afternoon.