Taper Week

I've ramped up my triathlon training these past few weeks and now with a week to go until my first race it's time to rest and obsess.  Legs are tired, arms are tired but by next Saturday they should be good to go.

Best race shirt ever.   In honor of the big bull moose at the swim start last year.

Sadly this will be the last year of the race so I'm very glad I chose it over Mountain Champs which are being held this weekend in Beaver Creek.  For some inexplicable reason Xterra didn't tell the race director that they were moving Mountain Champs up a week and he moved his race to avoid Boulder's half ironman so they ended up a week apart and apparently everyone but me is going to Mountain Champs.  It also doesn't help that Indian Peaks is at 9000' which is a challenging elevation for a race.  The elevation slows me down but I can hack it and the trails are so beautiful and not open to the public normally so it's a rare opportunity.

I did the pre-ride last weekend and at first felt like I was hit with a sobering dose of reality but I remember now that that happens every year.  The bike always goes way better during the race when my legs are rested after the taper.  The one thing that's new this year is that the trails are more rocky than in years past due to deluges of rain that have washed loose rock onto the trails.  I may end up walking more this year than in years past but it'll be o.k. and I know not to get mad at myself about it. 

And yet again I didn't get to check out the run course due to threatening weather.  There was a flash flood watch for Boulder Canyon and skies were turning ugly so I skedaddled down the canyon after the bike.

I feel prepared and excited for my first real race of the season.  Then it's a race every 2 weeks for 3 races then hopefully Nationals in September.  I may not be able to go for reasons unrelated to qualifying but that situation is unpredictable and out of my control so I'm going full speed ahead as if I can go and hopefully the fates will align my way.

In any case I love training and the carrot of Nationals has me out on the trails more than I probably would be otherwise.

Betasso for an early morning ride/run?  Why not?

The west side of Lory is finally opened up and the wildflowers in the burn area are out of control.

So lush and green in there as well somehow while every place else is turning brown with the lack of rain.

Still some more bridges to be replace on the east side so the whole bike course still isn't open.  Hopefully they'll get it done by the new race date in August but it's volunteers doing the work so I can't be too impatient or ungrateful about it.

I've been doing some of my trail runs on the steepy steep Tenderfoot Trail.  Once the weather cools down I'll take Strummer up here but right now I'd have to come so early to beat the heat that I'd be scared of bears and mountain lions.

Can't remember which trail this was from, they're all becoming a blur.

Today was my first time up at West Mag since the fire mitigation raping and pillaging by the forest service.  Fire mitigation my ass, this is a travesty.  They clear cut areas, took the good lumber down in trucks and left the rest in giant slash piles that are going to remain for years and eventually they'll burn them and put how much carbon into the global warming mix?

This used to be solid forest.

This is a nice view, yes?  Only problem is there didn't used to be a view, there also used to be solid forest.

What poor gods we do make.  And yeah, those giant slash piles aren't a fire hazard?

So if the forest service comes to your trails and says it's doing 'fire mitigation' you should chain yourself to the trees and threaten your politicians and tell them all to go fire mitigate their own asses.

The only good news is that as bad as it is, it isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I'd been hearing horrible reports and I'd been stalling going up there.  That's why it's already the end of July and I'm up there for the first time rather than in May.  But most of the trails I ride on were mostly o.k. with the exception of the clear cut areas.

They didn't touch any of the School Bus trail.  And if they try to you can bet lots of people including me will raise a stink this time.  A big, giant, messy smelly stink 1000 times the size of those slash piles.