• Fires, Bikes, Snow

    Wow, what a weekend!  As I type this the weekend isn't even over yet!  Lets start with Saturday.  Item to note first is it was warm....very warm....record heat warm.  We topped out near 80F here in Fort Collins.  With the warm temps, it was perfect timing to get in one last endurance ride on the mtb here in Fort Collins.  Both Jason and Sonya drove up from Boulder to join in on the singletrack escapade.  It was a good ride with some big climbs, fast singletrack, and chunky trail.  Speaking for me, the pace was mellow....a nice zone 2 and 3 ride.  Got in some good photos as well.  Some of my favs....

    Tour of Duty

    Tour of Duty

    Tour of Duty

    All the photos are posted here.

    Here is the GPS file for the day via Strava.



    Now onto Saturday night. I went to bed at like 11 PM after I got done doing some work and unwinding from the days ride. During the day when it was warm and windy a few small fires had popped up in the mountains to the west...as well as the plains to the East. Really never thought anything of it as the evening news stated that the fires were 'contained.' Well, at about 3:30 AM I woke up to a house filled with smoke! It wasn't anything crazy, but the house smelled like a KOA on 4th of July weekend. My eyes were burning as was my throat. I got up to make sure the townhouse wasn't on fire....or was any of the nearby townhouse. Nope, all was clear, but outside, it was super windy and smoke was blowing into Fort Collins from a fire that blew up over night about 15 miles west of town.

    Fire west of Ft. Collins - April 2011I live too close to the base of the mountains to see over them, but this is what was filling the homes of Fort Collins with smoke. I managed to get back to sleep....and to awake to sunny skies and a cleared out house. Only a slight smoke smell lingers in the lower levels.

    The plus side of this is today (Sunday) we are to get rain...then snow. Yes, it was 80F yesterday...and now snow today. Good for the fire...bad for training. So, I got up early and got in some sub-threshold climbing repeats while watching the dark clouds roll in from the northwest.

    Spring storm rolling in from the NWI started my ride in 60F temps, sun, and no wind. By the time I was forced to bag the ride about 90 minutes later the clouds moved in, the wind picked up, and the temp dropped to below 40F.  Ride over.

    Now, it is time to taper and get ready to head to California on Wednesday for the Julian Death March and Sea Otter.