It's not long now! The Colorado Trail Race is about 1 month away. The prep is getting streamlined and the training is specific to the event. This past weekend, I made it a 3 day weekend by heading up to the Breckenridge area with 3 different bikes and 3 different workouts planned.Friday, was a road bike session with some damn near max effort intervals up Loveland Pass. Ouch! Lets just say hitting the power numbers at 11,000 ft is a tad bit more difficult than at 5,000 ft.
Saturday was some 50 mile race efforts on the Marathon Nationals course in Breckenridge. Course is in fantastic shape....fast and a little loose....but in super shape. No snow on course, which is a first for me in all the years I have raced this event.
Yes, it's a hardtail course. But, tire changes will be coming for me.Sunday was the ride I was waiting for all weekend! Basically, 4 hours at a high altitude. Pace was 'play it by feel' Oddly enough, today is when my body finally started to kick over this thin air. I felt great! The views were great as well, as I climbed around 11,000-13,000 ft outside Montezuma, CO.
When you start at 10,200 ft, it doesn't take long to get above treeline....1 hour to be exact.
Fantastic dirt roads on top of the World! They just kept going and going.....
"Hey little buddy, I need to get by and go up that hill."
I was on the CTR race bike today....fully loaded as it will go on race day with all equipment. Notice the 'climbing' gear. Yep, it was a nice slog up the mountain(s). Honestly, the gear was just right. Any steeper....I'd be walking anyway. The SRAM XX is nice little element into my CTR prep.Still going up!
I needed to follow that road across the valley to complete the 'loop' I had mapped out on the GPS. Only one problem....
A big ass snow field with a huge drop on the other side.....ie: the Continental Divide. Continental Divide drop = point of no return....certain death.Now worries, as I retraced my route then took another road back down to Montezuma, CO then started riding around on some of the many dirt roads in the area....
Heading up to Argentine Pass. I did not make it to the pass as I ran out of ride time....I only had a 4 hour day planned.
The turn around spot. Time to head back to the van and then leave for 'reality'
Ahhhhh yes, welcome back to 'reality'. The concrete jungle of the Front Range.All the images are posted here.