Well! It's Monday, and all I can do is bask in the glory that was my weekend.
First, I read some sad news that happened on Saturday, a bit late last night. Mark Linkous of the wonderful band Sparklehorse fame, committed suicide. Very tragic loss, and, his genius will be missed. While I was a late bloomer to his music, I did get to catch him live at the Gothic a few years back and it was very very excellent. From what I've read about his history, it seems as if this wasn't the first time he'd attempted suicide. He hung through life for a little while, but, left us too quickly this Saturday. Rest in Peace Mark.
Now, onto the meat of my weekend...
Friday night we headed out to Duo in "Lohi" for 5280/resteraunt week with some friends of ours from both Boulder & Denver. The food was remarkable, and, neither Amy & I had ever been there before so it was a wonderful treat indeed. I had some "Polenta French Fries" that reminded me of a very classy French Toast Stick from Burger King (yes, I just did that) as an appetizer, a deliciously robust Vegetable Cassoulet for dinner, and, a mind blowing Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert. The dessert was almost "too" sweet...but damn it was good!
Saturday a.m. I woke up and headed over to the normal Saturday am ride meet-up at Bang!/Starbuck's. A funny thing happens to me when I take a day off...I potentially feel shitty the next day. I'm sure there is some physiological link between the two, but, needless to say I left the house with some slight reservations about how the ride was going to go. When we eventually rolled out a bit behind the rest of the group (we were waiting for Randy Ellis to show up), Jordo, Randy & I made some great time down to the start of the ride, and, as common practice goes, Jordan & I kept going. Part of the reason I like cycling is that you start to make mini-goals for yourself during rides you might do on a regular basis. For example, in this ride, Jordan typically leaves me at this one spot of a climb, where, I let him go, and, just simply catch back on with him for the second half of the ride. It turns out to be like 2 30 minute Tempo/Sweet Spot intervlas for me with about a 10 or so minute rest while I wait for him. Perfect. Anyway, my goal this time around was to ride with him THROUGH this point so, once I eventually dropped off, I'd at least surpassed my previous challenge from last week. Well, it happened, and, I was able to hang on for another 2 minutes, then, blammo. As Jordo came back around I latched onto his wheel and we finished up the route in quick style. I'd holler for a wattage check every now and then, and, I'd get back a number somewhere in the 240-260 range. For me, that's definitely tempo, and, could even have been bordering on the zone 4/LT range (for all I know). Either way, I felt really really good. Afterwards, the plan was to go up High Grade. With the way I'd felt earlier, the fatigue really started to kick, espcially after I was done chasing Jordan's wheel around! I opted to head home via Willow Springs instead, but, this time around skip Garrison, and get a few more miles up via Hwy 40 over into Golden. It was such a beautiful day out, and, the ride was awesome. Definitely one of my bigger days in the last few months.
Sunday, part of the Erie crew decided to come down for a ride (Mike & Jim). I opted to take them up Grapevine, since, I wanted to climb, and, I figured Mike would get all jazzed about a ride that was on dirt (much to my non-surprise..he was :-)). We headed out and it was pretty chilly and damp out with lots of fog. Once everything burned off, we were reminded of how overdressed we were as we climbed up Hwy 74. There were relatively few cars on the road at 11am which was kinda surprising, but, we enjoyed it a lot. I couldn't believe how I was feeling going up. I figured I'd have been a mess from the big day before, but, I opened up nicely, and, really never struggled on the ride. On the last leg home (Golden to home), the wind had picked up a bit out of the East, and, we had a headwind the whole way home. Mike put it in the big-boy gear and just towed us home. I always feel bad for him when it gets windy out, cuz, well, first of all, he's 6'5/6'6 and offers the BEST draft, and, second, everyone always runs to his wheel when it gets windy. I said to myself "Big man is always in the wind...Imma take us back...not fair". Of course, he comes whipping around me anyway and is like "I'm good"...which is really just him saying "I am not tired and you are riding too slow for my massive power. Move little man". So I obliged. For Jim's "first climbing ride" of the season, going up Grapevine is no picnic and he did awesome. I had such a great time, and, handed out much deserved hi-fives back at the house after our return.
Amy & I finished up the weekend watching the Oscars and, were very happy to see the Hurt Locker win. Much deserved, and, like Mark Boals said during his acceptance speech for best screenpaly, it really revived the independant film maker approach to film. Especially against a huge icon like James Cameron.
This week...more good stuff! Keep it real.
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