Long Weekend

Having a nice long weekend is a real treat for me. i usually get with a group of friends or teammates and ride on the flat ground looking for hills and signs to sprint to, having a nice time in the group atmosphere. Not so this weekend. Saturday I went down the hill to see a friend race in the Morgol Superior Criterium, (Morgol for the famous Morgol Bismark course, and Superior for the town hosting the event). After my friends' race I rode off in search of my training ride and managed to put in three hours of high quality training before heading back up the hill.
On Sunday I decided to stay in the mountains and do chores around the house and then get my cross bike out for a little adventure and some cross practice.


I found a remote trail and placed some Cross Propz on it for a little dismount/run-up practice....boy, am I rusty! After that I took the dirt road to a local single track and let loose.Well, as "let loose" as get!
Its been awhile since I've had my cross bike on single track, and the rattling around came right back, This has got to be one of the best ways to learn bike-handling skills. From the looks of it I have lots to learn!

For some reason I'm having trouble posting the pictures for this post.....the ones above are backwards and the ones I'm trying to post won't come up. So, the picture of the dirt road is of a "bluebird day" at 8400 feet in Colorado with a dirt road cut thru a forest of evergreens with the mountains of the Continental Divide in the backround, nice, huh? And the singletrack runs thru the pine forest, not a soul in sight, you can smell the pine and savor the light crunch of tires over pine needles.
I'll try to get this fixed, but for now thanks for reading, and its not too early to at least be thinking Cross!!

New Page

The new, (and vastly improved) Cross Propz web page is up and running.
Visit us at www.crosspropz.com where I hope you'll find information you want to know about Cross Propz, cyclocross in general, a little history etc. Let me know what you think...
And from time to time, you'll spot another author right here on the Cross Propz blog,
Bill Teasdale has ventured forth to add his insight and cross wisdom for all of us!
So look for interesting articles, blog posts and news and info from Cross Propz....
The weather here in Colorado has everyone thinking about cross, snow,rain,mud....its perfect!
Take advantage of our off-season rates for Cross Propz, three sets of light weight propz for $100....plus shipping What a deal...(normally $120)!!!

Cross Weather

They say its Spring here in the Rockies.... I'm not so sure, well, the bluebirds have been back for a bit and the hummingbirds have hit the feeder, but the weather is really crossy.
Last week we had snow twice (8000 feet abv sea level), and it rained a couple of times, too. I had gotten home from my day job and thought I would ride my bike on the dirt roads surrounding my place. by the time I got there though, it was raining and snowing at the same time.....not hard, but enough to let you know it was there....in 20 minutes you'd be wet.
OK, I really wanted to not miss a training session, but the roads were getting soupy.....so I set up some Cross Propz and a couple of log ends in the horse paddock and practiced bike handling skills and dismounts. The horses looked at me like "there he is again, why doesn't he just do the hay thing..." my little dog Johnny took the opportunity to run next to the derailleur and encouraged me to get smooth, I'm lucky to live on five acres of land, none of it remotely flat, with lots of forest, I have been able to create a sort of cyclocross short track that's enough to ping your heart rate and if you're not careful introduce you to the electric fence.....don't ask me how I know!
After about an hour of riding, running and jumping, I hosed the bike off and headed in to the house. My cross skills although rusty, will get better in time, I'm just happy I decided to give this a go nowhere near cross season. If it feels like cross weather, why not??

Be on the lookout for a new Cross Propz web page, sometime this week, I've had a little help with this one and I really hope you enjoy it.
Thanks for reading,

Paul

Spring Signs

Today is Saturday, I had some work to accomplish down on flat ground, so I loaded the truck with the necessary equipment and then loaded my road bike hoping to catch a few hours of training. As I mentioned in my last post I'm pretty religious about this training so I try to catch it whenever I can. The weather while working, was beautiful, as soon as I got on the bike it started to cool....this is under the heading of "Just Figures". So off into the wind I went, on my merry way. Lots of folks out riding still, some training for next weeks Time Trial, some scoping out tomorrow's Boulder Roubaix.

I'm training in the hopes of doing well in a summer road race and to get in deep condition for Cyclocross. I missed last season almost entirely for a ridiculous work schedule, not this year.

I went up a familiar road to see the road construction that I knew was taking place, but being in construction and trying to get out of the aforementioned wind I turned toward this.

I think this pretty much explains that this is, at least temporarily, an out and back route, and today, respite from the wind.

So I turned around and continued, doing as the coach prescribed I rode looking for hills (easy to find) but these were specific hills, some had to be short, 1 to 3 minutes in length, others 6 to 8 minutes . I have enough trouble with the hills as it is, but now add telling time, or counting time, and hoping I'm doing what I should on the right length hill ...well, its a good thing I don't chew gum.

I continued into the wind, which had now shifted to accomodate me and had a really nice ride, I wasn't paying much attention to the duration of the ride as I felt pretty good, was nice and warm, seemed to be breathing pretty well and was enjoying myself. I made a few turns back in the general direction of where I started, was considering cooling down when I saw this..

So now I'm thinking maybe I've been out here too long...

maybe there's a good reason for this....I took the photo to be sure of what I was seeing....and to show you some signs ...of Spring.

Rest Week

I know its a little early to be thinking about cross training, but eventually the training I'm doing now will (hopefully ) add to my fitness by the time Cross is in season. I've never been very scientific about training ( it probably shows) but I've found that just going all-out all the time doesn't get me anywhere. So I started using Training Peaks. Training Peaks is a Joe Friel product (actually there are several really good coaches that have programs there), Joe does all the science, I just follow printed directions in the form of a calendar. I can also add Power measurements , heart rate and a host of other things, but, as I said I'm not very scientific.
I use a heart rate monitor and a Power Tap, but I'm old school enough to use both of these to check my percieved exertion. I'm usuall pretty close when I guess (feel) that I'm at a certain level of work. What I don't quite understand is rest week, oh, I follow the instructions, but a whole week of rest? It doesn't seem like I've done enough work to deserve that much rest.But for a guy that uses percieved exertion and has a sometimes flickering memory.....I'll just stick with the program the best that I can. I can feel changes in my body, I don't know yet if I'm any stronger or faster, but I do know I'm in good hands and I feel good.
So check back from time to time and I'll update this training....in the meantime go ride, the weather is getting nice and the wind will make you strong.
Thanks for reading....

Paul

Gettin' Started

This is a new blog, gettin' it started to spread the word about the Cyclocross scene in Colorado, and any other cycling related items, probably interspersed with thoughts, ideas and comments.

First of all for those of you that aren't familiar, Cross Propz are something......for cyclocross.


They're portable barriers that you can take
(easily ) to the park for a little dismount practice.
They're real light, don't come apart if you run into them, and can be used for practice, informal races, team workouts whatever you come up with these will help, and they really work!

Here in Colorado I belong to a club you may have heard of, Blue Sky Velo. Its made up of a bunch of regular folks, with the common thread being cycling. the club is loosely segmented into
separate disciplines, road, cross, club and mtn bike, with casual and racing elements of each. The best part about this club is the genuine-ness of its members...racing for 25th place.... the cheering is off the hook! Need some skills work? all kinds of people step up!
Cross Propz was created due to my own clumsiness......at a pratice session a couple of seasons ago I crashed and took out the pvc barricade, as I started putting it back together, a gentle hand tapped me an the guy said " I'll fix that, you just practice" The guy was Greg Keller of "Mud and Cowbells", his kind act got me thinking....why should anyone have to stop to place together a flimsy barricade.....a little experimentation ...and Cross Propz were born!


So that's what the name is about, and soon I'll be a lot smoother at blogging and not so blatant about product....but, if you want to check them out, crosspropz.com is the place.
'til next time,

Paul