70 Miles and snow

Made it close to 70 miles today on my road bike before the weather closed in. Sad to cut the ride short. The bike paths of Denver make for some epic riding. I will return to bag that ride again later, perhaps even Thursday or early next week. I am going to be turning off the road rides for a few weeks to concentrate on running laps at Bear Creek park for the Battle of the Bear. My goal is to run 45 minute laps consistently for the three that I have to complete. Last year I deviated by 6 minutes on the Front Range 50. Not good. I also swam 1/2 mile tonight at the gym. My little beer belly is quickly fading. I am also going to step back from road riding to await the arrival of my new factory road bike from Cannondale. Can't wait to try running a full carbon frame. I am on the fence as to whether or not I will like it as much as aluminum, however I remain positive since carbon is still the top choice in the Tour De France.

Where I am at physically is pretty solid so far for this year. Now, I have to work on staying healthy, avoiding beer, and making in roads to break barriers with distance racing. Leadman is ever closer and I think I have a lot of fuel in the tanks leading up to something of that nature, however there is no time to sit on my laurels.

The last parts are on order to finish up the Van Dessel by next week. I plan to use a shop bike to run Bear Creek this weekend. It is a Gary Fisher Hi Fi 29er Deluxe that we have in the demo fleet. Should be a sweet ride. I have had a lot of good vibes exploring full suspension 29ers. I still love and prefer the hardtail 29er for racing but you can't beat the smooth ride of a full suspension setup, especially when you're deep in technical terrain.

That's enough for now. Going to brave the elements to see Sweatshop Union tonight.