Scare the dog

Wow it's almost 9am on Sunday and I'm laying in bed today, wiped out. This week was speed and power workouts and that's what I accomplished. Monday was power climbing on technical trails in Fruita. Tuesday was a smoking fast TT at lunch followed by a hard 3 hours after work. Wednesday was a rest day with just commuting while Thursday was a sprint workout on the trainer that was so hard I scared the dog. Friday I did a recovery ride at lunch and a time trial up Belcher (still on the singlespeed) followed by a very pissed off rattlesnake on the descent. As I pulled over to let an uphill rider have some room I slowly rolled over a 3 or 4 foot rattlesnake who promptly let me know he was pissed and struck at my downtube 2 or 3 times. After quickly rolling away the uphill rider and I just watched the snake coiled up and rattling for a while before he slithered away to the other side of the trail. Wow. Sometimes you forget there is other wildlife out there, especially on trails so close to the city.

Yesterday Ramin and I had a killer offroad ride, somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 to 70 miles. It was a little over 5 hours including the ride back to my house via Marshall Mesa. The first 4 hours were just an awesome quick pace with me chasing a very fast Ramin on his sweet carbon hardtail with my Monocog. I'll be the first to admit that he spanked me up the climbs, especially the loose steep ones, but I did my best to follow his strong pace with the single. For those who know the area our route was down the block from Ramin's house by Chataqua to the creek path. Out the creek path to Four Mile Canyon road, climb to Logan Mill road, climb a number of tight switchbacks on Logan Mill and then descend briefly to Sugarloaf Mountain road. From there it was three steep miles on the road to the Switzerland trailhead. Climb for a steep mile on the Switzerland trail and then a fast ripping 5 mile descent on the Switzerland trail. From there we began another 6 to 7 mile climb on the Switzerland trail connecting up to Gold Hill road. From there we climbed up to the town of Gold Hill and hit the general store to reload. (Yum pizza slice). Out of Gold Hill we descended Lick Skillet to Lefthand canyon, down Lefthand Canyon to Old Stage. Climbed up over Old Stage and dropped into Boulder heading back to Chataqua via Wonderland Lake and north Boulder roads and trails. Ramin left me at the top of Lincoln and Baseline and I headed back to my house via Marshall road, the Marshall Mesa trail and then highway 93 before dropping down to my subdivision off Sims.

Today is mostly a rest day and we'll see if I can get some stuff taken care of around the house. Another week of riding fast coming up!