Phase II

Time to play where's Amanda again. It's been one of those months where I forget where I am when I wake up in the morning. Starting May 31 it went like this: Victor, ID to Fort Collins, to Denver, to Ohio for the Mohican, back to Denver, a few days in Frisco, CO, back to Denver, out to Monterrey, CA for a wedding, back to Denver, up to Leadville, over to Breckenridge and back home to Victor just 3 days ago. It makes me tired just looking at my trajectory for the last few weeks.

Finally getting to ride the good trails in Fort Ord.
Sea Otter never goes near the best riding.

However, it's been a month full of amazing rides at altitude, spending time with great friends both new and old, visiting with family and also time by myself to rest, think and prepare for the next phase of my season. Phase one went pretty darn well, if I do say so myself. Phase II is going to be another kick in the pants.

Pre-wedding group ride on a rental bike with bald
tires and reflectors. Didn't matter. Cruising with great
friends around Fort Ord was awesome.

My 2010 plan all along has been to do a bunch of long races early (Cohutta, Dirt Sweat and Gears and Mohican), take a break from racing and and then start the second phase of the season all in the name of preparing for Leadville. That means actually having the time to train as I have either been recovering from ultras or tapering for them since late April. I'll kick things off again in a few weeks with the Firecracker 50, then try to get some of my high-end speed back with some XC racing and intensity (the Pro XCT in CO Springs and then XC Nationals) throughout the month of July. The way Eric and I see it, the base is in, now I just need to find some speed! Currently, I can ride at 100 mile race pace for days...but asking my body to go anaerobic is a very painful experience. Must work on that.

Speaking of painful, I was up in Leadville training this past week and forgot how excruciating it is to push hard at that altitude. And I live at 6500 feet. I can't imagine coming from sea level to race the Firecracker, XC nationals or Leadville. On a side note, I do hope that USA cycling changes the location for both marathon and xc nationals next year. It just doesn't seem fair for everyone to have to come up and race there year after year, especially amateurs who cannot take the time off to acclimate before the events.

Pebble beach. My first trip to the area that didn't entail bike racing was sweet.

So, now it's time to settle into the home life, get some cross training in with epic lawn mowing and weeding sessions and actually spend time with my dog and friends. Unfortunately, my timing is a bit off to spend time with the hubby as Nate leaves tomorrow for a 10-day family trip to southern France. Yes, I was invited and yes, I had to turn it down. The way we see it, when I do make my first trip to Europe I want to be able to enjoy the festivities. As we all know, I have a twisted definition of enjoyment. Although 10 days of eating cheese, drinking excessive amounts of wine and sightseeing sounds magical, being in France for the first time and not being able to do some of the infamous epic road and mountain bike rides would be for me, torture. Instead, we are going to save the miles and $$ for a warm-weather getaway in January when I really need to get out of here. Right now, nothing sounds better than home!