Leadville on the list and my teammate

Leadville has long been on my mind as a race that I would like to complete. To me it’s always been one of those “one of these day’s I will do that one”. Well for me that day is now barreling down on me like a huge freight train, that there is no way I’m getting out of the way of! In a few short weeks, I’m going to be lined up at the starting line, with all those crazy thoughts we all get at the starting line.

Did I train enough? Did I do everything I could have to prepare? Did do all I can to raise money to this point and fight cancer? Do I have the right supplies with me for the day? Are my clothing choices right? Did I choose the right food and liquid nutrition to carry? Is the bike good to go for the day? Why does my stomach feel like this? That guys looks fast, wonder if I can hang with him? That person looks out of there league, hope I can get in before them? I did ORAMM…. I can do this right????

Then “BAM” there is a start. For me, it shuts out those questions. It’s time to focus and do what you came to do. I know when it comes down to it, I need to drown out all those things and focus on what I can do. Still saying that and doing that are different things. Anna is always in my corner and telling me I can and supporting me and I love her so for it. She gives me such strength at times. She completed Ironman Florida in 2005. She raised a lot of money to fight cancer in honor of her father who lost his battle. Just in seeing her complete such huge task makes me know I can take on my challenges and come out better. She continues to show me strength and determination every day. I am so happy to have her on my side. She is a true teammate and soul mate. I would never have put my name in the Leadville lottery had she not given me that little push. She rocks. Anna, I love you and thank you for all your work and support. I hope to make you proud.

PS... congrats to all finishers of ORAMM this year. Results are posted here.

ORAMM

( photo credit Anna Caton )

The off road Assault on Mt Mitchell 09 is in the books. A lot of good lessons and training accomplished. 64 miles and 11, 000 feet of climbing done, I learned a lot about myself and that I can push hard to finish. My finish time was 9 hours and 28 minutes. Not my predicted time, but 2 flats tires and a few cramps induced by 92 degree temps added to my time. I drank so much fluid, 6 -100oz camel back bladders of water, 6 - 20 0z heed’s, and 4 cokes. But the heat was hard and took its toll. I am thrilled to get the miles, hours and climbing in, I think its perfect training for my next race, Leadville. So excited and ready to go.

Currently the Epic is being re braked (lost them at ORAMM) and boxed up to make the journey out west to Colorado at CYCLES de ORO. So the rest of the training is going to be tooling around on my road bike.

My brakes, two tires were not the only casualties of the race. My mountain bike shoes bit the dust. The soles wore away on the rocky hike a bike sections of the race. New choices being considered. Kind of scared I will be rocking new un tried shoes on race day in Leadville, but its really the only option.

Getting ready for the training race

I head out tomorrow to Old Fort to ride the Off Road Assault on Mt Mitchell. This will be my first endurance mountain bike event. I thought it would be perfect training to leading up to my Leadville Race in a few more weeks. I will be spending this evening going over my gear and bike making sure all is good to go for the race on Sunday. This race is 63 miles and 11,000ft of climbing. I will keep having to tell myself to keep the wheels turning and hold a good pace.

I will post when I get back on how it went and will announce some things about raising more money for the LAF to help fight cancer.

Wish me luck!

Lots of training and slack on post

Training is going well. I don’t feel like I’ve done any work unless I have 40 miles or so done on a ride. I got 220 miles in 4 days last week, so I feel like my base is pretty strong right now.

I took a few days off this weekend and spent the time with my lovely wife Anna in the mountains. We hiked and spent one day out on the lake cruising around on a big pontoon boat swimming and relaxing.

Looking forward to racing off road Assault on Mt Mitchell this weekend. It will be a good test of my fitness leading up to the Leadville race across the sky. I stopped by CYCLES de Oro today and got supplies for ORAMM. Picked up spare tubes, side wall patch, and some food / drink products.

Local News Story on the Battle Ride

This is a training ride I try and go on about two times a week. The Battle ride or Northside Ride is a great group and I'm glad the news did such a nice job with the positive message about cars and bikes.

Story Here on Fox 8's website

You can see a lot of fellow CYCLES deOro jerseys on this story.

Mountain Training Time

My trip to the mountains was good. I managed to get 2 rides in with a total of about 5 hours and 15 minutes of saddle time, with 52 miles of trail / road / fire road covered. I climbed about 6,008 feet between the two rides. No weird people out in the woods this time, but did see a lot of people out enjoying the wonderful weekend, boaters out on the lakes, fishermen in the rivers and streams and lots of hikers on the trail.

I managed to enjoy some good family time as well with my wife Anna and my parents. I ate way too much UN healthy food and had a lot of good wine and beer. So I need to get back on eating better.

I did enjoy some fireworks at the Sky Valley GA fireworks display. They had some great barbeque before the main event. I hope everyone else out there had a great 4th as well.

Mountain Biking in Mountains

Up in the Highlands area for the weekend and today rode some awesome trails at Jack Rabbit Mountain area. SABA built these trails and did a wonderful job if you are ever in this area, the single track is sweet. I only got about 1400 ft of climbing in and about 20 miles. Planning for a longer ride tomorrow. Anna and my parents hiked while I rode. Here is a shot Anna got of my parents and I when I came around one of the laps.