MORE RIDING IN BEAUTIFUL FRUITA

I had the great luxury of returning for another weekend of fun Fruita riding. The weather was spectacular. I cruised from home after work (5 massages!) at around 9 pm arriving at 18 Road by 12:30 am to camp with a friend. Rode from camp both days. I felt strong and feel like I'm getting into the groove again. Being off the bike for 5 months (I live in the mountains so i ski in the winter) is always tough. I feel like I have to get used to how the bike handles all over again. I must say though that each year I feel a little stronger and more comfortable. I can't wait until the 20th when I head west for 4 weeks. All I am going to do is ride, eat and sleep. Yippee!!!!! Now I massage my brains out and go to the gym, run, ride on the road and hopefully a couple of trips to Denver to ride the trails. I am definitely considering moving west next year so that I can pretty much ride year round. As Lynda Wallenfels says, "In order to be stronger on your bike, you have to ride your bike year round."

Fruita Riding

I just had 3 great days of riding in the Fruita/Grand Junction area. I took my Ventana since my Blur is waiting for its new drive train from Sram. I loved how sweet my Ventana was riding. I just felt on my game with technical riding and climbing. My hot pink Ventana certainly is a great climber, light and free. I got to demo (for free!!) an Epic by Specialized and have to say it was nice. It was a women's specific large frame and fit wonderfully. I love the brain on the rear shock which makes it climb like a hardtail. So, as far as my rides..... Day #1--Rode the Monument for a 3.5 hr ride, sweet single track and fun technical moves, a beautiful blue sky day. Day #2--Rabbit Valley to Loma on the Kokopelli Trail. Training ride for the KTR on May 19th. Happy I did it again since I totally screwed that section up last year. Day #3--Back to the Monument on the demo bikes--Holy Cross trail, fun and technically challenging but I rode more this time than last time I did it so that's always great. Hope to return next weekend than for a month starting April 19th!!!!!!!!

spring training

This is my first official blog. It is March in Colorado and it feels like Spring, should be snowing but what are you going to do? Anyway I have been in training mode all winter for the upcoming mountain bike season. I have been skate skiing, snow shoe racing, running, gym and a wee bit of riding just recently. I had the pleasure of riding at Green Mountain in Denver and am heading to Fruita this week for three days of riding and hopefully good training. Of course it is supposed to snow here Thursday.

So far my race plans for this season include The Kokopelli Trail Race which is to my surprise on May 19th. I literally just found this out as the original date was the 4th. Oh well, more time to train, very nice. So my plan is to leave Colorado and head to Moab by the 18th of April. I'll train there for several weeks until the KTR than home again for some high altitude. I would love to do The Seven which is a 7-day mountain bike stage race from Victoria to Whistler. Still exploring the possiblity of sponsorship as entry fee is costing a pretty penny. The dates on that are July 1-7, 2007. Other options are Breckenridge's Firecracker 50, The Breckenridge 100, Montezuma's Revenge, Kona's 24 Hours of Granby/Winter Park, and 24 Hours of Moab. These are some of the races I did last year and pretty close to home so that always makes things a bit easier.

I'm signing off for now.