DAVE WEINS' HEALTH INITIATIVE

Last year's winner,Dave Weins, took second to Lance Armstrong, but I thought he gave a much better, meaningful talk. This part speaks to what I believe as a physician and athlete.

Spread the word and encourage your family and friends to get out there and challenge their bodies! For their sake.

LANCE'S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH AT LT 100

Here is Lance's acceptance speech for first place at the Leadville Trail 100 MTB race that I took Sunday.

GRANNY GEAR LEADVILLE 09

I RACED LANCE! How do you think I did? I was hoping I'd run into him and let him borrow "my" Arantix.... He didn't seem to need the help. As you can see, I did run into Dave Weins (the 44 yo that BEAT Lance last year) He was pretty cool but I didn't offer the ARANTIX. He was too tall for my medium.

THE "RACE" - IN A NUT SHELL

We lined up at 5:15 am to get a "good" position since there were 1400 entrants. The race started at 6:30. It was a long wait in 38 degree temp. I went to pee twice during that time (should have gone three times though). It was a decent start despite the huge numbers. I got a good position but had to keep a pretty good pace up the first wet cold climb to keep my position. I went out too hard as usual and I paid for it for the rest of the race. The decent down powerline trail was wet but fast. The was the most exhilarating part of the race. I passed a lot of people (that would pass me later). My gloves were soaked at the first aid station and I changed over to another pair from my drop bag but it took a lot of time with cold hands. I was passed by a hoard of riders and after I got on I was feeling pretty tired. By the time I started the 10 mile climb to Columbine mine I started cramping so I very frequently had to spin it out in granny gear. That was essentially the rest of the race. Granny spin, cramp anyway, get off hike, go again, wonder why I am doing this etc. I had a goal of 8 hr 30 min to push myself to a more realistic under 9 but would have ended up at 9:30 except 3 miles from the finish my SRAM quick link broke (4 the 2nd time this year! but no more) and because the replacement wouldn't fit I lost 31 minutes. I finished under 10 hrs in 9hrs 59 min and 59 sec. Good experience but this is just a kick your butt course between the weather, altitude and climbing.

CORRECTION; last blog I incorrectly wrote that Columbine was over 13000. Nope, it's ONLY 12300. Piece of cake. NOT!

KC kicked butt (mine too) doing the course in 7 hr 59 min for an overall 3rd place!

Chris came in just under 8 hours in 19th place against a stacked field of pros including Lance, Dave Weins, Tinker, Alex Grant etc.

Brad Mullen had a "fun" ride finishing a bit over 10 hrs.

I'll post more pics later since I'm having trouble posting them on the laptop.

The ARANTIX did awesome and drew huge attention and comments. I swear if I could have just 1 kcal of energy for each "wow" comment I might have beat Lance!

LEADVILLE SHIVERS

So I talked to Brad M yesterday to prepare for the ride to the Leadville MTB 100- and he ruined my day. I hadn't looked at the weather forcast for Leadville yet and he updated me. It's NOT good. A big reason I wanted to do this race again was to get a chance to do it in good conditions. I've tried in previous blogs to describe how bad it was in 2000, but unless you've been there it's not possible. Suffice it to say I was shivering for 45 minutes after the race from hypothermia.

Well the forcast is for a low of 34 with thundershowers, but that does not reflect the temperature and weather at (over 13,000 ft) Columbine Mine. Which will be colder. Starting at 6 am in near freezing weather is not fun either. Sorry, I am usually not much of a weather complainer, but that last experience has scarred me for life.

Chric, KC, Brad and I are heading out today and despite my complaining I am pretty excited. The ARANTIX is cleaned and tuned. My legs feel pretty good. I can't wait to race against Lance!

Follow this link to see live webcasts of our misery.

I gotta go. Got's to pack some more warm weather stuff......

IN MEMORY OF......WOLVERINE RIDGE

This would have been the weekend for the 16th annual ICUP Wolverine ridge final except for the fact that this venue has been canceled. Dot and I really like this challenging course so we both did it from the cabin as a tribute to its running. The course was in great condition, more packed than usual and the weather was nice and cool. Too bad......

6 Days to Leadville...

ARANTIX II MILES: 1049

RANATAD 2009

Delta 7 Sports treated me right for this ride. They gave me a team outfit AND set me up with the Ascend. I was nervous trying out a bike for the first time for 165 miles but I figured what the heck (hell for those none Utah readers) I haven't been on MY road bike for a while either. I did spend a good while the day before setting it up to fit me as best possible. I got to Sundance and this year they made us park in the upper lot! All I could think of was that the hill was NOT going to be fun riding up to my car after 165 miles.

A few other docs from Mountain View showed up as well for the ride. It's nice to see we have some medical professionals that practice the healthy lifestyles that they should preach. From L to R: Dean Egbert (one of my partners), Ian MacMaster, Roman Takasaki.

We headed down the hill from Sundance with the temp about 58 F which was refreshing and woke me up fast. I got of to a fast start and as we headed through Benjamin I was actually wondering if I should pull back some so as not to be burned out. But you can't pass up a free pull so I held on. But by the time we hit Payson Canyon I was feeling good and I began the climb with just Heath and I. I don't know his last name but apparently he is a pro tri racer and he had some involvement in planning the Ascend at delta 7 sports. He's the one that pulled me for a huge part of last year's ride. Anyway, he took off and I began my grind up. At the Blackhawk water stop two riders (Greg & Rick) caught up with me and we worked together for the rest of the day to AF canyon. It was a relatively steady pace and my legs were feeling good.

Also, By the 6 hour mark which is the longest time the saddle this year for me I realized I really was pretty comfortable. I was concerned with a new bike that I would have some fatigue spots. But the Ascend was really comfortable. It was not jarring on the bumps and dips, was responsive on standing and climbs and stable on the fast descents! I LIKE it!

Once we reached the Alpine loop I was itching to open up on my own and headed off. Greg dropped back but was not too far off. I felt strong and the concern of only having a double rather than my bikes triple up front was not an issue. Later I found out the third guy in our group-Rick had become too dehydrated and was throwing up. He made it though. Pretty good for a 50 yo.

The biggest problem of the ride came 4 miles from the top where the road was closed for at least 15 minutes for resurfacing. I got all tight and stiff and the adrenalin rush of approaching the top disappeared. I creaked it up the rest of the way and finished in about 9:25 total time and about 8:28 ride time. This was about 20 minutes faster than last years and I felt pretty good. I took the shuttle up to the parking lot, though.

So after that I feel better about Leadville and know I can do that length. And nutrition was not much of an issue, either.

Rumor, I heard on the ride a rumor that Lance was trying to get some of the guys on his team to race at Leadville as well. Anyone else hear this?

Leadville here I come!

Thanks Delta 7 Sports for the bike! AWESOME!

DOUBLE TAKE ISOTRUSS STYLE

I borrowed the Ascend for the RANATAD tomorrow. I figured it really isn't a race so I could try out a "new" bike for the day long ride. We'll see if my 'Arse will regret it. Last year the RANATAD was a blast. I hooked up with a couple of strong fast riders and blew through the 165 miles and 13000 feet of climbing in 9:30. That's my goal again but I'd be really surprised if it worked out. It all depends on if there is a strong front group. It can't be done alone at that pace. I tried the ASCEND a bit today and it seems less jarring than my Allez on the little bumps. Full report after tomorrow. The ARANTIX gets a rest.

CANYONS- ICUP FINAL RACE

The new Canyons course is my kind of course. Good steady climbing and quick descents with fair room to pass. I got off to a great start up the road climb and was feeling good. Even at the top I was not feeling too winded and by that time I had creeped to the front from my usual back of the pack start. By then, I had passed Fred Porter as well which should have given me a clue. But I was feeling good and besides I had been working on my endurance for Leadville and felt I should be able to keep up the pace. (forshadowing) I went into the first full lap climb strong as well and caught and passed Karl who beat me last race by one minute. The only other rider ahead of me that I could recall in our group was Sam. Then I hit the second full lap climb and noticed it wasn't as easy as the first time. I saw Fred in the distance behind me so I figured I'd better turn it up. But the legs said "Surprise! we're done!" I burned them out? How could that be?
Well, Fred caught me at the start of that climb and I just kept getting slower! Well maybe I could hang on.. NOPE! Karl came sneaking up as I was cresting the top of the climb and I knew he was a better downhiller than I so I let him go. Crap! I dropped from 2nd to 4th in the last 1/4 of the race.

What worries me is why? Am I out of shape and NOT ready for Leadville? Was the 2 1/2 lap pre-ride thurs too close to the race? Am I over trained (most doubtfull), Was it too hot? I don't know. Worst of all I am scheduled to ride the RANATAD ( Ride Around Nebo and Timpanogos in A Day-165 mile road ride) monday and am not sure where my legs are. More on that ride later.

Dot took first despite all of her usual angst about the race. I am going to ignore her anxiety from now on since it seems to be all ritual and never really what her races end up as. Maybe I need to have more anxiety....

Jonny was disappointed with his 5th place and Joey did his usual 13th or so and was complacent with it.

ARANTIX II MILES: 835