Looking Forward

This time of year is usually about putting the final touches on the fitness for Iceman and looking forward to a nice offseason.  This year has a different twist.  In the end of August, I tore some ligament in my ankle while walking on a slackline during a thunderstorm.  While I continued to walk, my ankle had no range of motion which lead to more biomechanical problems on the bike.  I took it easy and decided to make my offseason a bit earlier this year.

With a couple months of healing time, my ankle finally has a much better range of motion and I am feeling almost normal on the bike again.  This past week I started riding more hours and more consistently day to day. It is really refreshing to ride without pains, and finally get that good "sore legs" feelings again.

So, while everyone is racing and partying in Traverse City this weekend, I'll be cruising around thinking about 2012.  At least the weather has been decent here.  Got in a nice 130k ride on the knobbies with some friends this weekend, and realized how awesome it is to ride and BS for hours with good people.

Easy Living

This time of year is perfect to ride in the Grand Junction and Fruita area.  Blue skies, sunny, a little bite in the morning air, and 70's all afternoon.  Riding has been supreme. 

Yesterday we went out for a stellar trails ride above town.  No clouds and 80 degrees made for some great October tanlines!  Nothing better.  We'll see how long it stays like this.  According to Murphy's law, it won't snow much since I just got a nice AT ski setup.  I'd rather shred dry dirt in January anyways!

Video Time

I just started shooting some video this past week of some fall riding here in Grand Junction.  First vid is of the Edge Loop ridden from Fruita.  The second is of the Grand Valley High School MTB Team who I've been helping out with on Monday nights.  Enjoy!

Fresh Start

Seems like the spring and summer flew by this year.  Looks like I didn't even update this after my first race of the season in March...whoops.  I was posting some race reports on my team website, Livetrainrace.com, but I'm going to start adding content back to this page.  Stories, videos, recaps and more!  Follow the Twitter on the right for more up to date stuff.

I thought about just killing this site, but after looking back through some old posts from 2006 and 2007, it's really pretty neat to see how far I have progressed through cycling and life.  Not sure my spelling or writing has progressed, but we'll blame that on technology these days.

Anyways, a super-quick recap to get you back to date.  Did some bike races and had an awesome spring and summer.  I met some really awesome people this season traveling around racing, from competitors to host house volunteers.  A couple rounds in California early in the year had me stoked for the rest of the summer.  Had a good ride at US Nationals and rode up to 18th from the second to last call up.

I came back and prepared for Ore to Shore with the goal of winning.  I had the legs and fitness, but my bike had other plans.  Had a race ending mechanical with 15 miles to go sitting comfortably in the lead group.  Shit happens, but I'll be back next year to capture the title.  Finished the summer off with a great time at the 24 Hours of the Sage in Gunnison, CO.  Did some hot laps, then chilled out and had a good weekend.

After that, I tore a ligament and likely more damage in my ankle.  Yup, I fell off a slackline and came down wrong in the dark.  Damn hippies.  I could still ride, but it was definitely messing with some of my biomechanics on the bike.  So, I've been slightly riding, but focusing on healing myself up correctly and getting back in the groove for an early onslaught to the 2012 season.