Won't Back Down

 I fully enjoyed the premiere of "Won't Back Down" at the D Note in Arvada, Colorado recently.  Can't wait to get it on DVD.  The Royal Racing guys did a great job at the event bringing along tons of raffle prizes, stickers, and they even hung up some fine looking jerseys on the wall.



Before heading over to the premiere, I had the opportunity to enjoy some fine weather on the DH bike, and test out my new Spy breast cancer awareness goggles.  "I love boobies!" Cheers to my friend Kristy who survived breast cancer and is back on the bike.

In other other recent adventures, the high country is still fairly full of snow in Colorado, so I have been enjoying hiking the doggies in the snow at Rollinsville.

I was excited to get my new GoPro and can't wait to use it.

And, yes, it is still somewhat mud season around the place.  I did a number on my cross country bike out riding it the other day.  Sean was kind enough to scrub all the mud out of  every nook and cranny.  Fortunately, I have since found some drier trails.                                  With respect to the food part of my life, this is my new favorite breakfast of champions (it involves a blender), Banana-Pecan Pancakes:

1 cup oats

1 cup egg whites

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1 banana

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tsps.  baking powder

1/4 cup pecans

 

And, finally, Sean and I joined the stein club, so we have felt obligated to use it.  We love our life!

Looking forward to an awesome race season!

Today was a fabulous day as I am finally all cleared by the doc and back on a full training schedule.  Check out my happy face!  So happy to be back on a trail outside!  The trainer bike and road bike are fun and all, but there's just not a lot of variety there.  It was awesome that it didn't snow today, so I went out for a cross country ride.

Super happy with the new ODI grips as well.

Rocks and plenty of dirt around the trail today.  It was nice to enjoy it, especially since it might snow all over the trail by tomorrow.  You never know in Colorado.  There was some mud on the trail, which I was stoked to ride through as well since it gave me positive thoughts of looking forward to the hero dirt that can form up at Port Angeles, WA with a bit of moisture.

Nice view of some snowy mountains on the top of the trail.  It was quite the nature experience today as one part of the trail was full of howling coyotes, and later on a herd of deer passed by the trail.

I rode until dark today, but soon the time change will come and I will have so many more hours to play after work during the week.  Looking forward to it!

 

Back in Colorado

Mike Powers found this photo of me having some fun racing.

Ian Cook  took this photo of me during one of my better moments this weekend. :-)

 

After a brief trip down to Las Vegas, Henderson, and Boulder City Nevada, we are back home.  We went down to the Nevada State Downhill Championships for some January preseason racing.  Sean did an awesome job with race support and making my bike work perfectly.  The bike felt great all weekend!  I started out having a fun weekend learning lots, but then on my practice run before seeding I crashed the hardest I've crashed in years and sustained a mild concussion.  I DNF'd in seeding, and went back to our hotel in Henderson and slept and iced my wounds as I hit a few other body parts in my crash as well as my head.  Nevertheless, I figured I had come this far that I might as well finish out the weekend of racing.  So, I went ahead and went down my race run, and put down a hideous run which one might expect with a concussion.  After the race, Gene told me I probably shouldn't have raced, and I later learned that, yes, racing is not the best recovery method once a mild concussion is sustained.  Good to know.  Anyway, so now I am on the rest and recover plan for a bit.  I have been making an effort to be as restful as possible and to do low stimulation activities for 6 days now...

I was glad Christine came out, especially since we lost another one of our racers to a broken arm.

Ouray ICE!!! Day 2 Christmas Eve

 Sean at the top of the climb!  Nice work!

 Sean untying after climbing and lowering.

 Sean heading up!

 Amber working on her ax placement.

 Sean way at the top again!

 Beautiful blue skies.

 On belay beside a crew of people, but not too crowded.

 Amber finally getting back into the groove of climbing on ice!

 Amber having fun.

 Amber smiling down to Sean on belay.

 Amber on the way up!

Today, we headed out earlier in the morning, and ironically enjoyed a bit warmer temperatures.  I was pleased to discover that the toe warmers were definitely effective as my feet were toasty warm all day.  Sean and I played on a toprope in the Schoolroom area.  Sean did a great job dancing right up the route.  I took several attempts, and had some fun successes on the lower parts of the route.  After awhile, the climbers next to us suggested a trade.  So, we climbed on their rope for awhile and they climbed on our rope for awhile.  I had a lot more success with their route as there were more good stance options, and it was fun talking to the other climbers.  One woman was from Hungary, currently residing in Boulder, and quite proficient at ice climbing.  It was fun watching her dance right on up the ice.  After we finished our route, we then hiked out and let another party climb on our rope while we walked up the steep icy path toward the anchors.  The routes were all beautiful ice with lots of blue ice around the place, and it was great to get to climb more than one section of ice without having to set up anymore ropes.

The weather was great all day, with just a few wind gusts and mostly blue skies and sun.  Apparently, snow showers are supposed to be coming, but everyone seems to say that all the time in winter in Colorado...

After climbing for about 4 hours, we decided it was time to have more to eat than the sardines and hot tea we brought with us, so we headed into Ouray and secured some provisions from Duckette's, the local grocery store.  We also stopped into Mouse's and got some coffee and chocolate.

OURAY ICE Day 1

Ice climbing is quite possibly the BEST cross training for mountain biking there is.  First of all, it's super fun!  Secondly, it's a full body workout in amazing terrain.

It's 7,792 ft. in Ouray.  It was 19 degrees when we walked down into the canyon.  Perfect weather for our first day of ice climbing this season.  Sean set up a toprope in the South Park area, and we played on that for the afternoon.  It was a late start after sleeping in and letting the dogs run around, but good fun nevertheless.  I was excited to be swinging axes and kicking crampons.  By the end of the session, I almost felt like a bonafide climber again.  I started to trust the rope and use my feet more, and things went much better.  The first time back on ice after being off it for a whole season is always going to be a bit rough, so I was stoked to start feeling good on Day 1.  We played on WI 2/3 for the day.  Sean knocked some ice in his face and knicked it drawing a bit of blood just for good measure.  Sean had some great attempts, looking good on the ice, except that he pumped out early in the forearms.

Now we are back in Room 12 at the Timber Ridge Lodge, relaxing and warming back up.  It took a bit of time to get the feeling back in the toes, so I will likely use some toe warmers tomorrow...even though it's not really that cold in the world of ice climbing.  We used our microwave to heat up some soup and pasta, and Sean scarfed down some peaches while I downed some mango apricot juice to refuel.  Now time to enjoy some hot tea and rest.

 Bishop having a parking lot romp with another climber's dog.

 Bishop on the run!

 Bishop trying the turn around move.

 Amber on the approach to South Park.

 Amber heading to the climbs.

 View from the top of the climbs.

Off Season

So, it's technically the off season and I have been recovering from injury anyway, so Sean and I have gotten up to some fun times at elevation. It's taken me awhile to post, since I have just recently been able to type at the computer keyboard efficiently.  So, these four wheel drive roads are likely now full of snow and closed.  Luckily, we were able to enjoy driving over Taylor Pass and Pearl Pass before the season ended.  Below are some fine Fall photos of mountain passes near Crested Butte, CO and Aspen, CO.

Keystone, Colorado

Sean and I headed out late today, so we ended up doing some fun riding in rain and hail.  All the wet just made it that much more fun and exciting!  It was a fabulous day of riding until your brain turns off...and then riding some more.  Also, it was fun taking the pink mustache socks out for a ride today.  Much thanks to Sean for taking these fine photos today on his iphone :-)

 Busted out all the fun today - yellow bike, pink mustache socks, plaid shirt, jean Royal shorts.

 Sanitorium

 Sanitorium

 Fun playing on some drops...remembering...it doesn't matter if it's wet:-)

And...cornering in some mud...woohoo!!!