1 post tagged “los alamos”
I am trying to keep up the volume AND intensity on the bike(s) - and trying to keep up the postings here; but I'm just slow (at both!).
After last Wednesday's lunch ride - I went out and killed the hill climbing workouts on Thursday (Cameron was rocketing up the steeps like Andy Schleck on Crack!), then took Friday off. Then, alas - had to take Saturday off for house related reasons. Bleh. I did take Victor out for a few hours of trail work on the Little Tesuque Creek trail - which got mangled in a freak deluge last week (3" of rain in 27 minutes!). 2 days off the bike + a few hours hiking and manual labor makes a guy feel like crap.
Sunday I went out for the weekly Galisteo Group Ride - which was composed of myself, and one other guy! Doh. Everyone was up racing at Tour de Los Alamos (Go McCalla and Cam!). Our little NM road series is drawing some regional hammers, like Anthony Colby out of Durango - helping keep our fast guys honest. The result was that most of the regulars were either racing or helping out. So Sunday's ride was far easier than usual. Greg, my company for the ride, was sporting an insanely tricked out Time road bike - complete with the weirdest, low profile carbon rims I've ever seen. Me and my ghetto Scattante kept up just fine, and in fact pulled most of the way home - drilling some hefty 550-600 watt pulls up the rollers in the last 10 miles. He sat on mostly - but would come around for a minute here and there to give me a little break - then I'd stand up, gradually wind it up and push on again.
Good stuff!
I was trashed Monday a.m. - so settled for a very Mellow 2 hour mtn. bike ride. Did some local Dale Ball Trails stuff, then headed up Hyde Park Road to the same Little Tesuque Creek trail mentioned above - and while the meager improvements I made were great - there is a lot of work to do further in. There are a few places - including the trail head itself - that have always needed major work, or re-routing - but now need work desperately. The trail head forks right off the pavement, creating a nasty little drainage - which looked like it was ripped apart with a 12" - 16" deep erosion channel right down the middle. A number of areas where the creek and the trail are right next to each other need shoring up - or re-routing entirely, as the raging creek tore a whole lot of the bank away.
Then further in, behind Bishops Lodge - a fancy wild west resort type of place, that leads horse tours and has a shooting range, as well as a spa - there was fresh damage on top of erosion from horse traffic out hen the trail was too soft / muddy. Yay. Post holes everywhere.
This mornings edition of Tuesday / Thursday Worlds was moderate (thankfully) but well attended. As usual, I did 1+ hours of climbing drills and tempo work prior to the group departure (6AM) but then peeled off early to get home to help out before the day really began. At least I got to sleep fairly well, especially compared to the night before where at 130AM I was up to check on a howling Victor - and ended up on my ass as I quickly through a leg up to get over the 'baby gate' at his door. The (supposedly) planted foot slid away as I high-stepped and WHAM! On my ass/shoulder in a flash of boxer shorts and cursing. Not an entirely atypical night though.... worth it? Yes. Easy? No.
Victor in front of a 'horno' - an ancient oven used for baking breads and such - on a recent trip to the Jemez:
