mullerb's musings

Al took his new bike along for its first off road use. With Dan and Jose, we took a long 2 hours to do the loop out and back after work. Hordes of folks coming up the trail at 5:30. Gotta get to this one early, always.

Upping the average again with 22mph on this flat ride. Constant paceline for all but the warm up and part of the Diaganol with Jose and Heidi.

Argh, it hurt to push up the hill. And Heidi still beat me. The run down Left Hand was at 32mph the whole way. Paceline with Jose down 36 at 21.5-23.3mph the whole way. Fast, fast, fast.

The culminating ride of the season, if the season were coming to an end. Which it isn't, which means I'll have to suffer more yet this summer :) Boulder, Lyons, Estes Park, Trail Ridge Road, Granby, Bethoud Pass, Oh My God Pass, Nederland, Boulder. 208.5 miles. 11,000 ft of gain on day one and at least 8500 on day two. What a great group of people and support in the sag wagon: Heidi, Kay and Dean, Anne and Alec, Emil all riding with Diana and Lydia in the sag wagon. Emil and Diana are the parents of Lydia, 15 yrs, and have a really nice mountain house in Tabernash that we stayed at. Diana did all the support with drinks, food and lots of enthusiasm. Lydia helped and also rode parts of the trip. Emil is the son of Swiss emigrants. How fun to talk to him about it. He's a former US cycling B team rider. Diana is into running and is going to Switzerland in August to run the Jungfrau Marathon. Anne represented the US in the Sydney Olympics in mountain biking. Her friend Alec was...

Fast early morning ride with Heidi and Jose. Killer burn on that last rise on Baseline. We are making faster averages every time we go now! Over 21 mph on this one.

A good burn on the thighs after yesterday's long ride! Powered up Olde Stage from the south. Felt pretty good and stronger than ever. Often cruising at 25+mph on the flats, probably at a faster pace for longer than on any other ride thus far. Jose and Heidi help swap the pulls. The stretch along Diaganol was the toughest burn with Jose keeping a pretty steady 21mph on that slight rise. Need to take the day off tomorrow.

A Sunday AM escape despite Rachel working. The girls agreed to lounge this morning while I took off to ride this loop with Kay, her husband Dean, Heidi, Anne and her husband Alec. We hooked up with Don, Rob, and a few other guys while climbing up the canyon to Raymond. Great loop with lots of low grade climbing and an awesome downhill bomb from Ward to the Lee Hill turn off. Lee Hill is a cake walk from that point with only a 2 mile climb. My legs are a bit sore tonight but should be fine in the AM. Felt great to do something longer!

Long gentle burn up the to the west on Nelson. Had a fun paceline going at 23+mph on 36 southbound with Jose, Heidi and her friend Emily. Another early morning, beat the heat ride.

Killer loop. Great double shot climbing on Lee Hill for 6 miles followed by a great downhill run to Olde Stage. Then another shortish climb up the north side of Olde Stage for yet more roaring downhill. Excellent set of climbing challenges.

A slower ramble at 9AM to avoid the heat.

July 16-18: A most beautiful lollypop loop from Erickson Springs, up Dark Canyon of Anthracite Creek towards Horse Ranch Park, then up around past Silver Basin, just below Oh Be Joyful Peak. The girls are AWESOME hikers!! Blue skies, wildflowers galore, ridgeline campsites with no fear of lightning. Very nice. Capped off with 3 hours of swimming at Glenwood Springs.

Oh no. I got an odometer now. I think I'll have to make it a point not to become obsessed with it. Kind of nice though to have accurate readings. Never went below 15mph and averaged right around 20.1 for the loop. Just Heidi today; she has a mean pace on those slow rises. Wicked hot and sweaty but the new helmet has much better venting.

Flat with just a few rises. Great views, mostly wide shoulders. Good one to keep in mind. Jose, Kay and Heidi on this one. Partly a casual ride with an occassional sprint on a rise.

Luckily Kay was willing to do another good ride today. Though I thought we were going to do Lee Hill. Oh well, this was good too. Jose and Kay headed straight back to the lab via 36 but I wanted to make up a bit for yesterday's lost ride so I took off east on Niwot and looped around south to Jay and back. Hot and sunny. Need a better venting helmet.

Got all amped up to join the Tuesday Riders for a counter clockwise Nelson loop. But the rear tire was flat coming out of the van. A quick tube swap (only tube on hand) and I caught the group up on the bike path. Close to 3 miles down the road on Jay, another blowout. Patch kit time. But the darn glue tube had dried out (never opened but dry - argh). Just about 3 miles to walk back to the lab.

A slow and relaxing loop (well, as much as that loop can be) with Dan. Great flowers all along the way and South Boulder creek was raging nicely. Darn quiet for a nice Friday afternoon.