Yes sports fans, the Wednesday World championships were in effect this AM! Gotta love Boulder. We went from epic 30 degree snowering on Sunday to 65 and sunny today. Gorgeous.

Today was the typical ENORMOUS field of cross enthusiasts. Literally, we have doctors, lawyers, technologists, general worker bees out there. Each punching holes in their schedules as the Wednesday throw down is not to be missed. WAY too many ego-based bets and shit talking going on that people live for week after week after week. Today, lots of the strong men and women out. No Sager (where were you man!??) but lots of the top shelf was there including B-money, Danny "I'm going to own Juri Adams in 08" Summerhill, Colby and more.

Special guest today: My boy Timmy "The Truth" Faia. Don't ask me why I called you The Truth Timmy....it just came to me. Thanks for making the trek from Breck! Hey, that rhymes...

Session 1: Elks. The bag-o-barriers made its debut again and we had a great course set up. Plan was to slow burn into this session instead of shooting all the bullets in one fully automatic spray and I felt very fast. Not quite fast enough to stay with Brandon, Troy and Danny, but fast enough for like 5th I think in the 25 minute heat. The WB and I rolled very nicely together trading some work which felt great to do with him as we've had plans for a while to try our tag team! Ha!

Session 2: Valmont. The Parks and Recs folks came to 'greet' us and we complied nicely. They were not psyched but the work folks like Cat Johnson has been doing was all front loaded today and they knew we could be there. We stayed on the perimeter of the grass and monitored the large gate so as to not let the disgusting disease infested death varmints in or out (Boulders sacred and protected prairie dogs). Thanks all who looked after the gate for the rest of us! Session 2 for me was about 'completeness'. I wanted a good workout and rolled evenly through the thick grass. I stayed in the front 1/2 of the large field and just put in some attacks to work on some sharp end intervals. The body is still feeling the cold I have but definitely dissipating. All in all, two good deep sessions today.

No racing this weekend at the Boulder Rez and all its lovely goat heads. Good luck with that boys and girls! Traveling to see my family and looking forward to some rest and home cookin'.

Sorry not a lot of pics today as I was busy getting in a work out or two. Some digital celluloid:

The Indy twins, Rocco and Timmy The Truth.

The new Litespeeds run by Kabush and Team Maxxis. This one owned by Gary Wolff, Maxxis Mechanic

Slow roll today peppered with moments of what's needed to start re-stoking the coals for the weekend's forthcoming frolics. I could feel the muscles re-tear from last weekends efforts with every pop above 900 watts. Frankly it felt good.

These trips take the life out of me. It's getting harder and harder to bounce back when I get back to 'reality'. It takes everything while traveling to eat well, stay healthy and rest when business is driving you like a freight train. The balance is imbalanced the moment you get on that outbound plane. When its wheels up, I calculate how many hours precisely it is until I get home. Somehow, I turn it on, do my thing and obtain focus on the subject matter at hand, but when I get back to the hotel room it is like a full scale collapse after all day meetings and realizing it's midnight and I've got to race my bike in a few days. Literally, I'm thinking as I lie awake buzzing in my head from all the technology discussions, how this lack of sleep is going to take a lap out of me on Saturday.

F it. Life is good. I'm gunning for it whenever and wherever. I just gotta remember to pull up my big girl panties and get 'er done. What would Chris say to me about my whining?

Number SEVEN today. Wow, 7 weeks have already gone by (and I skipped a week due to group travel) and each week the group has grown.

So, as you can see, no pics today. Sorry! Home boy needed to travel light today as I had some post-CX-group training to do that involved some, howyousay, v-e-r-t-i-c-a-l. Wanted to be backpack-less today.

At the CX throw down, 83 people went off in a cloud of dust and I rolled with the top guys comfortably for the duration of the session. Frisco made the legs feel good today for sure. Pete L went super hard from the get-go which was good and got a split within the first few minutes. We rolled as a group of 5-8 or so for most of the time. Brandon laid down some law towards the end after his back to back wins this weekend and finished strong. I think he's got some interesting performances locked up in those legs at a USGP coming to a city near you this Fall. Matt P and the WB had a nice bridge effort to me on the last lap and they took me at the end. Bastages. Ha! All, in all, everyone looked good and the speeds are climbing week by week. Sager's looking great as is this guy from Jelly Belly who I don't know. Troy and I traded the good paints, all NASCAR style and such this AM. Awesome. How are the jewels, Troy? Ha! Sorry I missed your B-day man! Forgot to say that in person when I saw you!

I saw a preview of the November UCI courses DBC are putting on here in Boulder. Let's say that Harlow Platts you should be familiar with from last year, but the Rez is looking totally different. It'll be good training for me for Mol given all the sand. Oops, did I say that?

Last note: For Boulder CX geeks: DO NOT TRAIN ON HARLOW PLATTS! We will certifiably lose that gorgeous race course if anyone continues to practice there. We will find you.

Thanks for reading and 'cross on.

God, I love this town. Wednesday AM 'cross throw down was in effect today. Big big big big group. Conservatively 55-60. Elks and North Boulder Park (although pics below are not in that order).

Today only saw session 1 of 2 on my docket. I love these training sessions cause I can have fun, work super hard but try out lots of things. Today I played with some racing strategy changes and tried out various things which my body seemed to like. Power ramped up consistently, evenly and more powerfully at the end which is what I wanted to feel. I didn't have to bury myself today so I flowed and stayed clean and thought clearly about what I was trying out. I placed well in Session 1 with the top 10 including Brandon, Pete, Will, The WB, Troy, Danny, some others with Pacocha and Sager flowing in with me. I was super satisfied with the experiment.

People are stoked for 'cross this season. Happy faces and lots of fitness going on. It is way different than years past where you'd have hard men like Gully and Travis gone off the front, and a couple of hacks (like me!) trailing along with their tongues wagging. 07 seems like its the year of cross. These sessions are now one looooooong line of crossers fairly evenly trained together or 20 minutes or more. Conversations I've had with lots of these folks prove that 'cross is literally 'it' for them. No more road racing, maybe an MTB race now and again but cross is their core and it's anticipated all year round. Not unlike the rest of the country's growing hot spots. Bike manufacturers have taken notice....next step is parks and rec advocacy! We need the dedicated places for this MASS of people who are so passionate.

Anyhoo, good day today.

Digital Celluloid:

Lucas...came with Shimano Dura Ace shoes and pedals on the MTB. Nice.

The Gremlins attacked Taro's tires today.

Stephen looking stoic.

Rocco.

Hup hup.

Pete hunting down Brandon.

Nice form Troy.

Boups getting his porting on.

More hup hup.

Lane getting the hup hup on.

Baker on his way to Belgium. Good luck, hombre.

Me and Danny

Za crew.

Rocco (2)!

Baker sharpening up.

Holy yum. Belt drive, baby!

Capt Will.

Troy

Troy and The WB.

Opperman!

Got the wheels re-dialed this week so let's see if I can't keep the Gremlins from crawling all over and inside the machine to take me out again. Looking forward to Frisco and firing up the engine again at 10K feet. Got work to do this week on all three seats of the teeter totter as I ramp up for racing goals, family plans and work travel to the 2,240 meter-high Mexico City. Gonna preso-out to a couple of hundred of my close Mexican business associates. Translator and all. Nice. Done this a zillion times in places like Osaka and Sao Paolo too and is fun to have their laughter happen 35 seconds after the joke has been told.

Timmy is planning on make the trip down to Za Reepoobleek for the Wed Am World Championships to have some fun. Weather should be nice still but I feel somthings a brewin' for Frisco this weekend weather-wise so I'll be packing doubles of everything.

Wish me luck that the bikes stay together. I'd ironically love the excuse that the engine wasn't cooperating than the bike.

Ah, the Rocky Mounts team. What can I say? we are core 'cross geeks. Here's Greg H (white helmet) and Ryan H (black helmet) getting their 'cross training on. You go boys.

Brandon is packing up his Times and on his way to CrossVegas tonight. Go big, Brandon! I am going to take over his clinic tonight so if interested, swing on by.

Meet at Boulder Cycle Sport in No Boulder at 5:45 and we'll head somewhere to get our 'cross on for an hour. We'll do some core basics and give y'all some drills to go home and work on.

This has been the view I see most training days. My shadow and I are intimate with the climbs and suffering. So much of my training has been solo this year. Part good part bad. I love mixing it up with my team mates but I have this tendency to want to throw down. Often. Ha! So learning how to ramp up, achieve goals and taper (e.g. REAL recovery) has been my take-away for 07. Logical to most of you but I have been for time ad infinitum all about the go-go-go and my heart speaks to my head more often than my body can get a chance to.
The spins around Boulder in early mornings are epic. Right now things are changing. You can see the Aspens just starting to get golden. Little cold pockets of air that sit there in ambush as you come into a corner and go from warm to cold. All signals of cross season. Yum.

The contusions are healing up famously, but the ribs are still reminding me. Sleep on the back or left side is about it....but the sleep comes heavy and deep. Really looking forward to Saturday and mixing it up with the boys. The goals are yet to come but cleanliness is what I am striving for. Too many rookie moves last weekend that is all about the discipline I need to re-enforce with myself. Each one is a subtraction, not an addition to the goals being built.

Life is good. Cross on.

One word: HUGE. I had no backpack today....so no camera to take pictures of what was the largest group yet. In all sincerity, 50 people....maybe more. Immense. The GOOD news is the Wed AM World Cup ride is more or less legitimized. Hard work by people like Kat with the Parks and Rec crew have enabled us to use some land such as the beautiful North Boulder Park. That is SOLID. It helps to legitimize the plight of the 'crosser here in town. A species certainly not in danger but growing rapidly.

So today, broken shoe. No biggee as it's an old Dragon, but made it a wee bit dodgy on the dismounts. The ironic part is it FORCED me to stick to my plan of ramping up into the 20 minute training race in a way that allows me to work on some strategies of using my power more wisely. It worked well. I decided to take a back seat today and not win the hole shot (easy to do and super fun actually, but hard to maintain) and settle in and tun up the power gracefully. I liked how my ride went and I grooved well with the plan. Again, smiles, even with all my aches and pains present. They seemed to fade away a which was good. I only did one session of the workout and went to focus on some other things with T which was so well needed. The numbers are still there but unlocking them will be my challenge.

Last night was Boulder Cycle Sport's closed door Team Night. HUGE thanks to the BCS crew for their support of the teams they sponsor. The closed door affair gave us s-i-c-k deal son all the equipment and supplies which keep us going fast. I'm going to be rocking some Ksyrium SL and ES's for a while with Challenge Griffo's and reserve the Dugasts for the right courses. I ran them last year and was mostly satisfied but had some issues with the tread pattern on wet grass (e.g. Interlocken). I'll roll these on the mostly shit dirt crit courses we have around here and reserve the Dugasts for the right time. I still have to re-glue the rolled tubular. I've got time...

Another beautiful sunny morning in Boulder....and 40+ hungry 'crossers out before their work days begin to get their 'cross on in the weekly throw down. We had a stellar turn out and the Front Range folks are amped to get the season underway.

After going to South Boulder and deciding the grass was too wet (we're trying to keep our good rep you know and preserve the land!), we headed down to Boulder Research for a throw down and then on to Elks for more fun. Za Plan prescribed only one session pour moi this week so I was able to take some pics and a quick vid (below) of the group at Elks.

Boulder Research went well. Given the heavy hitters, I was immensely satisfied with how I felt and had T in my brain on trying things we've discussed. It's good to try 'em now with all this depth of talent I get to train with and see how the body responds which made me smile. More work still but I'm so happy. We had the whipper snapper Danny Summerhill out today so he and I traded some paint which was fun. Like old times in the 3's a few years ago when he was like 10 year sold and making me suffer for my placings back then.

Digital celluloid.

Lane

Tyler J and a BMC guy (got to get his name!)

Corey's new Primus Mootry

Corey!

The WB, fresh off a top 20 at Leadville.

Strong strong strong ladies.

Dave and AC2

Ben and Danny

Danny's new steed.

El Gruppo @ Elks.

Dubba and Danny

I got to say 'Go"...and did the Boston Style "You'll start when I'm g-damn ready!"

Strong lady 1

Michelle!

Baker dropping in.

Tuba dropped in...and rode strong today.

Steve Harshman of Harshman Primus Mootry