Round is IT

A different kind of project

2012-01-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

Some time ago, I happened upon an incredible photographic archive from around the Pikes Peak region. It brought back memories of my college days in the mid 80's wherein I set about to re-create photos taken by William Henry Jackson. A professional photographer took my college photo project a bit further in the late 90's. His name is John Fielder. I always wondered if he knew my Professor....Ha!

Anyhow, with this new reference in mind I set out to re-create a whole bunch of photos from the old days and make it into a video slideshow. Sounds easy, right? It took many a Sunday afternoon and many photos to get this one right. Not to mention near death experiences, tired legs, freezing fingers, possible tresspassing and inquisitive passers-by. In other words, it was awesome.

Here is the video:

Update from an old post

2011-12-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

I have been perusing the Pikes Peak library's collection of historical photos in the Pikes Peak area and found two more of the Cheyenne Mountain Lodge. I had done a post about an adventure ride that Russ and I had done to the top of Cheyenne Mountain (http://roundisit.blogspot.com/2010/10/cheyenne-mountain-lodge.html) and thought that I would add these photos to the mix. Enjoy!

This is an interior shot of the Lodge. Plenty of taxidermy going on here.

Really cool old car in front of the lodge.

The seasons may change but the riding is always good.

2011-11-20T17:49:00.000-07:00

My friend Matt made an end of the season video: http://vimeo.com/32186630

And that got me motivated to get all of my photos and videos gathered up and flatter him by imitating him!

This year started out with some nice riding conditions for winter. That enabled preparation for the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde mountain bike race which was May 8th. We did some good urban assaults in January/February/March and even got up in the higher regions in April. We got to visit Arizona in April and I got my dream vacation of just riding my bike and eating and hanging out with my wife and Dad.

We did many a lunch ride and a few night rides. I spectated a few races and even jumped in on one to do some filming. Then I got a wild hair and decided to do Ring the Peak on two different bikes (cyclocross and mountain).

Colorado Springs landed the Prologue for the Pro Cycling Challenge and we were lucky enough to have the world's top professional road cyclists riding all over town. I even got to see Danny doing what he does best (make massive power on a road bike) much to the delight of the fans.

Matt invited us up to his Mountain Command to do some cross country and chairlift-assisted downhill riding. That got me all motivated to build up a bigger travel (6.7" of suspension travel) bike for next year and for some fun on local trails, too.

I spent many hours riding with my friend Russ, who is 10 years older than me but keeps three National Championship jerseys in his closet to remind everyone that age is only a number. He is always positive and never complains and is the best riding buddy a guy could have!

I am also fortunate to be friends with some of the best female mountain bike riders on the planet. We have had some great rides in Palmer Park (and Airplane Loop!) and I feel so lucky to be friends with Alison and Kelli. They, like Russ, are always positive and never complain. I am still working on that....

Editing videos can be tedious but I really enjoy it. Here is my end of season video with a groovy and mellow soundtrack to go with it. Hope you enjoy watching it as much as I....oh never mind.

New Project...

2011-10-07T18:41:00.000-06:00

After riding the chairlift, I have been tainted and must now go on a quest to build a bike with more suspension travel. On the right side of my blog page is a picture of what has been accumulated so far...
Keep an eye on that one. If you know me, you know I am a little bit impatient when it comes to building up a new bike. I am trying to take it slow but.....any guesses to how long it will be before this one is complete? Ha!

Catching up...

2011-09-17T10:11:00.002-06:00

....ummmm, yeahh....I've been neglecting the blogosphere lately. Like I said before, I completely fall apart around July and for some reason this year, it's been tough to re-group. Not that I wasn't riding but the rides were smaller and not as noteworthy for blogging.

Let's see...it all came unraveled right after our nephew's wedding in Illinois. We had a great time there although it was during a heat wave which made the outdoor ceremony last about 15 minutes! The reception had a photo booth for some serious pictures:

Unfortunately, we flew home in the "germ tube" and I picked up a summer cold. Bummer.

After getting over it, I got to ride with some old friends:

Then I got to ride with my oldest friend (since 1972)!:

Of course, I have the privelege of being old friends with a World Champion Mountain Bike racer and we did some fun after work rides. Here we are checking out an advanced line to practice going up:

She is a very serious character as evidenced by this video clip:

I also did some solo riding. I decided to film the whole Williams Canyon descent and had a pretty clean run. Here are some stills from that ride:

It's probably a good idea to skip this ride if you don't like heights and exposure to cliff drop-offs.

I bought Cindy a digital camera and took this video of the dogs with it. Check out Klaus' eyes!

And of course, it is becoming a tradition to visit another old friend (TwoWheeledWorld) at his luxurious mountain command post in Winter Park, Colorado. This year was a mix of cross-country rides...

Seen here watching Stunt Double lubing his chain.

...and this year, we let the chair-lift do the climbing for a super fun day of downhill riding at Trestle Mountain Bike Park. Please turn up the volume...now!

Big news! Sort of...

2011-07-27T20:35:00.000-06:00

If you read the last post, I mentioned that there was some pretty big news coming. Well, here it is:

I finally got in our catlog! I knew that I had no chance as a model but never imagined that one of my photos would make it to the cover. Sweet!

Here's the back story: Marc Kipp (one of our catalog guys) came by my work bench to chat and asked if I could take some pictures with the GoPro camera since they were looking for something different for a cover shot. The next evening I put the camera on and rode across the street from my house to Ute Valley Park. Ironically I was feeling a bit "off" on the bike and actually almost crashed in the most random place during the ride. I turned the camera on a setting that takes one shot per second and started to ride some fun sections of the park. The reason that I picked the area that eventually ended up on the cover was that it was the only place during my ride from which you could see Pikes Peak. This cliff is just off of the main trail and I just started riding along the edge while the camera was shooting. Simple.

The owner of the Colorado Cyclist, Doug Bruinsma, picked this photo not knowing that I had taken it. When he found out that it was me, he came back to the shop to ask about it and then wrote the copy on the back side of the cover. I think that it's funny that his perception of me is a "wild man" when I am actually pretty cautious on the bike. Especially when you know the kind of riders that I ride with!

Random Photos from the GoPro

2011-07-12T20:19:00.000-06:00

If you remember my rhetorical question from the last post about how long my perception of what a long ride is, here is the answer: about 2 weeks. For some reason, July is not a good time for me on the bike. Maybe it's the pollen/mold wreaking havoc with the allergies. Or spending too much time in an air-conditioned environment all day and not doing lunch-rides because of the 90+ degree heat... Who knows?

What I do know is that I am eating and drinking beer like I am still doing epic rides every week so my blog title may soon be referring to the shape of my belly! Ha! Hope not...

Anyhow, the GoPro has been a fun source of photo ops lately. Actually, I have some pretty big news about that, but you will have to be patient. There is a setting on the camera that allows you to press the shutter once and it will take a picture every second until you press it again. What follows are the results of that action whilst riding mountain bikes in the woods or just standing around in the woods...

Merely blocks from my house. I have been scoping out this line while sitting in my car, slowing for the stoplight. Now I have it dialed!

Super fun descent in Ute Valley Park. Roots, rocks, trees! Teetering on the edge of disaster.

Way up in the mountains near Catamount Reservoir there exists a pristine single-track descent called Magic Carpet Ride. One of my favorites.

Chasing Kelli down the first descent towards the crashed airplane near Palmer Lake. Keeping up with her is not a walk in the park. Just ask any of the Pro Women that she routinely drops.

This is what you get when the camera mount comes loose and starts slipping down and pointing towards your feet: a really cool picture!

Another random shot while the camera was still shooting. Kelli is like: "is that thing on..." and Jeremiah is contemplating the tragedy of the plane crash from a half-century ago.

Unintentional yet ethereal self-portrait. Standing around in the woods has produced this, my new Facebook profile pic.

Chasing Jeremiah down Limbaugh Canyon. He bobs right while I weave left.

Riding bikes in the woods with friends (or alone) is fun. Now get to it! Don't forget your camera.

Ring the Peak, twice in a week!

2011-07-03T12:37:00.000-06:00

Initially I was going to do the "Ring the Peak Trifecta" but decided that a 7+ hour road ride is not something I really want to do at this juncture.

The plan was to jump on the cyclocross bike for the "easy" version of Ring the Peak ( a lap around Pikes Peak) on dirt and paved roads. Then on another day, climb on the mountain bike for a long day of Ringing the Peak on trails.

As it happened, June 11 and June 18 would be the chosen days. Mostly because Scott N. was available to join me for both rides. And the weather looked good.

Here is the Google Earth pic of the cyclocross ride around the Peak. Ride stats include: 75.6 miles, 5:03 ride time, 5932' of elevation gain and about 4300 calories burned.

Scott conned his buddy Mike R. to join us on his newly assembled Breezer mountain bike. He had the advantage on the washboards and deep gravel, for sure.

Here we are posing in front of some spectacular rocks along Gold Camp Road:

Once we hit the pavement, we were rewarded with a tail-wind and ice cold water from a mountain spring. That is the back side of Pikes Peak in the background.

At this point, my legs had turned to cement (reasons unknown) but soon after ingesting this Costco frozen organic burrito, I started to feel better. I now carry one on every big ride!

A week later, we met at the bottom of High Drive at 7am for the mountain bike Ring the Peak. This time we got Todd B. to join us. It was decided over a sushi lunch the day before. I wonder if he knew what lay ahead?

Todd shot this at the top of the first hike-a-bike climb. We had been riding nearly 2 hours and were still in town. That's a hard way to start a ride like this. Right after this photo, we started riding and a large black bear appeared in front of us on the Ute Pass trail. Luckily, he ran the other way.

Here is the start of the second hike-a-bike, the Mount Esther trail. Half way up, I found out that my fancy new custom mountain bike shoes are not made for hiking. Blisters appeared on my heels and made the rest of the day's hiking pretty miserable.

After Mt. Esther, there are some really great sections of trail that eventually get you to here, the scenic Catamount Reservoir.

Here is Todd and Scott with the Peak and the "W's" in the background:

My co-worker Dave B. decided to drive up and ride the trail to meet us with delicious treats. We missed him by that much:

That was all the pictures that I took that day until Scott and Todd did their final emergence from the last single-track descent of the day, Trail 666 (Bear Creek).

That was a really long day to be riding (and hiking) a bike. Final ride stats include: 73 miles, around 9:00 ride time (and almost an hour of hiking), 13,800' of elevation gain and around 6600 calories burned. This ride was so long that the battery on my Garmin died at the mountain spring rest stop! That was only 2/3 of the way around.

After gaining big fitness from riding Ring the Peak, riding has become quite a bit easier. A short ride is now 4 hours. I wonder how long that perception will last?

Wednesday night races- local style with heckles and laughs.

2011-06-09T22:08:00.002-06:00

Scott B. and I decided to go watch the local Sand Creek Sports mountain bike races in Bear Creek Park last night. Our buddy Jon C. has been training all day for this one...without even pedaling his bike. He is the master heckling spectator and was in rare form last night. Here is the video of some of his verbal assaults and some helmet-cam action as well:

The time for Epic rides has begun...

2011-06-08T08:29:00.000-06:00

It has been a strange (read: typical for Colorado) weather season for spring around here. I feel like the winter riding was almost better for the working man who likes to ride bikes. I think that Summer is finally here and with that comes the epic, all-day bike rides that a select few of my friends have come to know and love.

Matt (The Bagel) is on injured reserve, so I am having trouble finding someone who is as willing to do giant rides on a moments notice. I got busy texting my potential candidates for riding partner and here's how it went: Russ- on the way to Italy, Daniel-racing somewhere, Kalan-racing at the Teva Mountain games (he got 11th in the Pros!), Greg-riding moto, Kelli -racing at the Teva games (she got 2nd in the Pros!). Matt (Simmmmeeee)- a go!

Here is a pic of Simmmeee taking a pic of me:

Here is a pic of the ride profile (which may expain why it's hard to find riding partners):

And here is an account of the ride from Simmeeee's perspective: http://twowheeledworld.com/the-bonk-heard-round-the-world/

It's going to be another Epic Summer!

Fun with my GoPro HD

2011-05-22T10:56:00.003-06:00

I recently picked up a LCD bacpac for my helmet-cam. Of course, I was at work so I decided to film a typical test ride after building a customer's bike. It took me about 10 minutes to film and an hour to edit. I posted it on Facebook so if you saw it there, nothing new here!
For some reason, it is one of my favorite videos and I laugh every time I watch it. Enjoy!

2011 12 Hours of Mesa Verde

2011-05-14T17:36:00.000-06:00

I keep telling people that I am retired from mountain bike racing...then I keep finding fun races to do. This one is at the top of the list. Phil's World in Cortez Colorado, is one of the best places I have ridden a mountain bike!

Russ and I did the race last year as a Duo and we both decided to NOT do that again. So over the winter I hatched a plan....put a four man team together containing a few of the old school crew and call it team "Legends Packfill". This year's "Legends" team contained Ned Overend, Dave Wiens, Travis Brown and Daryl Price. Our team had myself, Russ, Wade and Todd Wilderman. At least three of us were packfill for those guys in the 80's and 90's!

Of course being an ex-racer, I had set some little goals to keep me motivated all winter. One was to beat my best lap time last year and hopefully get a 1:20 lap. Another was to beat the lap time of at least one Legend. Pulled it off. I did a 1:20 and change my first lap and beat Daryl Price on both my laps! Of course, Daryl probably didn't even ride much and was still pulling decent times. He could train for 2 weeks, like Wiens did, and crush me just like the old days!

Had to steal this shot from the photo website. Throwning down some style in my non-descript jersey.

The team decided that Wade should start us off. It was a "Lemans" style start which meant a 300 yard dash in cycling shoes. I did it last year and vowed to avoid it at all costs. Wade was always good at starting fast (still is) and would put us in a great position for the rest of the race.

I swear Wade looks like a gun-fighter ready to draw. We picked the right man for the job!

Here is a quick video of the running start and subsequent chaos:

Lemans start of the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde mountain bike race from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Wade's daughter Sage was also there with her team, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Devo Sweet Elite. She already has a closet full of National Champion jerseys and proved she is the future star by setting the fastest lap by a woman (and all but the fastest men) of 1:15!

Here is Sage with two of her heroes, Susan DiBiase and Susan Demattei (of the Women's Legends team):

One of Sage's teammates is Colton Anderson and he came into the start/finish in first place at 1:09 with Travis Brown a few seconds behind. I thought I heard Travis saying something to the effect of "he tore my legs off on that first lap". I think the future stars of the sport are making themselves known! Here is Colton leading the fastest of the fast (including my buddy Daniel Matheny in the second Honey Stinger kit):

As it turns out, a four man team is the way to go for maximum fun. We placed 24th overall out of over 500 teams. And we were 11th place in our category (Legends got 3rd). The top 5 in our 3-4 man category were also the top 5 overall so I feel like we did pretty good for a bunch of 45+ year olds.

I'm already looking forward to next year and hope to bring more friends so they can be part of the fun!

Arizona trip

2011-04-17T12:04:00.000-06:00

Just got back from Scottsdale with a bunch of pics, videos and memories.

After 12 hours in the car, we took a walk around the neighborhood where my Dad had rented a house.

The next day we headed to the McDowell Mountain Sonoran Preserve for a hike and a bit of re-con for my mountain bike rides.

The next three days were filled with fun desert mountain riding.

On Wednesday, I did a big ride over to the McDowell regional park where they had the last Cactus Cup mountain bike race. They have specific directional "competitive loops" laid out as well as a fun pump track (no pedaling around a small course with big banked turns and roller jumps).

This is the top of Windgate pass looking toward Scottsdale. Elevation is over 3000' and the climbing up the west side is brutal at times.

That saddle is the top of Windgate pass as seen from the McDowell regional park side.

Who says you can't get some good elevation gain in the desert?

I recommend a "knees in" cornering style. There will also be a stiff penalty for over-shooting corners!

We spent a lot of time relaxing. It's a dog's life.

On the last day of the trip, I had scheduled a tattoo appointment with Cory Lenherr. He is well versed in the Traditional American style of tattooing. I had been saving a Sailor Jerry piece of flash for just such an occasion. Thanks, Cory!

One night after a long ride, I was sitting around thinking about some music for my next video. My Dad suggested "Cool Water" by The Sons of the Pioneers. Sorry Dad, but that was a little slow for a mountain bike video. I chose "Low Desert Punk" by Brant Bjork. Enjoy:

Fun in the Az sun! from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Lunch Ride Goodness

2011-03-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

This winter has been pretty kind to the Colorado Springs area. As a result of that, along with the fact that work is always slower in the winter, I get to do a lot of lunch rides.

One of the best places to ride mountain bikes in the Springs is Palmer Park. I have been riding there for 25 years and I still look forward to going back. It is that cool!

I am also very lucky to be friends with many of the local riders who are still racing at the Elite level of Mountain bike (and Road bike) competition and are available to ride in the middle of the day when most other people are limited to a one hour break. Riding in Palmer Park with a bunch of Elite riders is so much fun that I try to go as fast as I can and am usually totally worthless at work for the rest of the day. It's worth it!

Here is a little video that I made with two different rides combined into one. The second ride had me following my friend Kelli, who happens to also be at work while we are riding. Lucky.

A lunch ride to Palmer Park from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

There's a little black spot on the sun today..

2011-01-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

Haven't blogged much lately, what with all of the holiday happenings. We finally got snow in the Springs area and that means the trails are not so fine. It also means that Lake Pueblo State Park is back on the radar. Here is a little video clip from a recent ride there:

cuatro cinco from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Notice the little black spot on the sun.

Oh, I upgraded the brakes on the Trance to the new Shimano XTR Trail. Wow. They are so powerful that I had to reduce the size of the brake rotors. Testing is still in progress....

And, I don't want to sound like an info-mercial but I just got a Vitamix blender and it is awesome. I recommend it for someone who wants to eat healthy foods but is too lazy to make huge meals. I drink more emulsified fruits and veggies than ever before!

Another winter-time favorite is the Manitou Incline hike. Cindy and I are back on the "every Sunday" schedule. Here is a pic from a past hike:

Feel the burn! Hahaha. Ow, cramp!

A gift from La Nina

2010-12-12T14:30:00.000-07:00

This time last year, I had already hit the trainer a few times and made a few trips to Pueblo for some dry riding conditions. This year has been a bit....different. There has been very little snow on the Colorado front range but the mountains have been getting a good amount. I keep thinking that every snow-free ride will be my last. So I just keep on riding with a smile on my face.

Matt the Bagel and I met at Cheyenne Mountain State Park yesterday for a fun ride with my video camera. I edited the video and then added some helmet-cam footage from a warmer time...

Cheyenne Mtn. State Park footage from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

The forecast looks dry. Lunch ride, anyone?

Aberdeen!

2010-11-07T11:06:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been in the mood for an adventure. So the other day I am checking out the interweb and I happened to see Dave Wiens twitter page . He was talking about a new section of single-track that has just been completed at Hartman's Rocks in Gunnison, Colorado. Then he mentions a race coming up in a few days. Assuming that the race would cover the new trail, I started to plan a trip to Gunni. Then I started thinking: "what would make this even more epic?". The answer: riding with Mick Hannah. For those who don't know, here is Mick:

Here is more:

So at 6 a.m. on November 6, 2010, I set out on a one day adventure.

Here is the sunrise on the Collegiate Range on the way across Southpark:

I met Mick on the way and we headed to Gunnison. Upon arrival, we immediately went to sign up for the race and that's when Dave informed me that the new trail wasn't going to be part of the course. Darn! We got our numbers and put them on our bikes thinking that we would still do the race.
That's when Giant Bikes race team manager Joe Staub showed up. He was to be our guide for the warm-up for the race. We climbed out of Hartman's and started riding the epic trails in the area until it looked like it was time to get to the start. Or...we could go out and sample the new 7 miles of single-track called the Aberdeen loop. Mick and I were both feeling like not racing so the decision was made!

Here's Mick and Joe having a snack at the start of Aberdeen:

Here is Mick (and Joe) fixing a flat on the sweet new single-track:

Here is a picture of the Aberdeen Loop sign. I recommend riding it counter-clock-wise.

We ran into Scott N's college running coach. He was a history professor and knows the history of the area very well. Here he is meeting Mick: "So you are a pretty good bike rider, huh?"...

After the ride, we headed over to the Gunni Sack restaurant and had burgers and beer. Dave called, wondering if we were still out on course since we were technically still racing. He laughed when I told him where we were, but I'm sure he was glad we weren't laying in a ditch out on course!
The post race party at the Gunnison Brewery was really cool and the people there were really nice but I had to get on the road so I couldn't hang out too long.

So 15 hours after leaving my house in Colorado Springs, I arrived home safe and sound. And tired. Definitely got the adventure that I was seeking!

Cheyenne Mountain Lodge

2010-10-10T17:27:00.000-06:00

In 1925, Spencer Penrose built a six mile road to the top of the northern summit of Cheyenne Mountain. The road ended above "The Horns". The cost was one million dollars to build and it wasn't a big hit with the locals. Nothing like a big zig-zag scar up a pristine mountainside, right?

Upon completion of the road, Penrose constructed a lodge where people could stay and admire the view, breathe the high altitude air and look at his menagerie of animals. It was called the Cheyenne Mountain Lodge or the Honeymoon Lodge. Here is a video:

I heard a rumor that in later years the lodge became a brothel, but I couldn't find any more recent history of it. In the early 1970's, the lodge was bulldozed due to vandalism and the high cost of upkeep and security. Too bad because it would be a really cool place to stay.

Now, it's a really cool place to hike (or hike a bike) and explore. Be warned that it is a no tresspassing area so I can't recommend visiting there. Nor can I give explicit directions on how to get there. I can say that purchasing a Pikes Peak Atlas will be worth the investment.

Here is a cool picture of the lodge:

In the next picture, look just above where the car is parked. I heard it was a mountain lion cage. Today you can see the gate to the cement enclosure and the bars are still intact.

Here is Russ walking up those stairs above the mountain lion cage:

Here are some pictures of the old footprint of the lodge. To the east you can see where they bulldozed the walls over the edge of the cliff.

These old stairs lead to a cool little overlook:

We had to go and check out the free standing overlook with the huge flag pole:

Here is a cool picture of the Horns from the overlook:

Here are our smiling mugs:

I think Russ found the fountain of youth because we look the same age yet he is a decade older than me!

I shot a quick video from our perch:

I made a cool 3D image of our ride route and ride stats:

It was a long day on the bike since the original ride route didn't include the excursion to the top of Cheyenne Mountain. Russ was a great riding companion and never complained about having to carry his bike up a nasty trail 3 hours into the ride (or again, 5 hours into the ride. Ooops). We should all be so lucky to have such a great riding buddy.

I am super lucky because I have several.

Weekend in Gunnison

2010-10-04T23:25:00.000-06:00

My co-worker Scott and his Dad Steve invited me to Gunnison last weekend to stay at the Island Acres Resort and do some sweet mountain bike rides. No-brainer, I was IN!

Here's Scott at Hartman's:

Here's Steve at Hartman's:

The plan was to ride in Crested Butte on Saturday with the one and only Dave Moe (Dave Meyer) as our tour guide and then the famous Growler race course at Hartman's Rocks in Gunnison on Sunday.

Here's me and Dave Moe with Mt. Crested Butte in the background:

I met Dave waaaay back in the dark ages of mountain bike racing. We were dukin' it out at Lory State Park in Fort Collins, Colorado. It was my first Pro race and I was chasing Wade Wilderman with Dave somewhere out ahead of us. We were rippin' through the trees and somehow caught Dave at the start of a big climb. Right about then Wade dropped a chain and I passed him, then Dave who actually cheered me on! That just doesn't happen in bike races. The only other time it happened in my racing career was when I somehow passed another Dave who also lives in Gunnison. They raise some polite and friendly bike racers up there in the high mountain valleys.

The troops were gathered in CB on Saturday morning and we headed up Tony's Trail east of town. This is where we split into two groups: the smart ones who love great trails at an intelligent pace, and...The Others. Dave Moe led The Others.

Here is Scott at the point of group division:

Dave has some hilarious phrases that he interjects into otherwise normal conversation.

Here are The Others gathered at the top of the first big climb. "That was a real booger-blower"- Dave Moe

We were waiting for a rider who was beginning to show that he was too intelligent to be riding with The Others. His name will be Kenneth (name has been changed to protect the intelligent). Kenneth has never climbed 10 miles in a row at 10,000' of elevation and he was beginning to suffer. At one point later in the ride, Scott noted that Kenneth was "talking to the dinosaurs".

Here's the Hitman after we made a "left turn, Clyde" onto Deer Creek trail:

While we waited for Kenneth to stop being so intelligent, I had plenty of time to take some photos. There is no shortage of scenery in CB in the fall:

Maybe those were the dinosaurs...

At this point Dave Moe told Kenneth that there were no more big climbs, "honest, Pocohontas". He wasn't lying, but there was plenty more uphill in the form of not so big climbs. At that point in the ride, Kenneth began projectile vomiting in order to flag down a passing vehicle. They carted his now super intelligence-enriched carcass back to CB in a random act of kindness.

Post ride, some of the others gathered at the Brick Oven Pizzeria in Crested Butte for some pizza and beer and to get one last morsel of Dave Moe-isms. Thanks, "Buddy Bear"!

We then headed back to Gunnison for an awesome home-cooked meal, more beers and to gather around the fire pit:

Sunday, we had yet another home-cooked breakfast and headed out to Hartman's. The Other's group had lost a few to the intelligent group but we couldn't let that deter us. We headed out to do a lap of the now infamous Growler race course.

Here is a sample of the fine trails around Hartman's:

Did I mention that Dave Moe has a trail or two named after him? He is responsible for about 70% of the awesome trails at Hartman's. He couldn't ride with us on Sunday due to "marital maintenance". :

The riding was awesome and the groups had a great time, but the shadows were growing longer and we still had to drive home:

Island Acres Resort is mountain biker friendly, dog friendly and they even have a bike wash:

If you are extremely lucky, you can enjoy the home cooked goodness from Nancy and Pam as well as the hospitality of Steve and Tim. Thanks for the invite....can I reserve "same time next year"?

Monarch Crest Trail

2010-09-12T17:26:00.000-06:00

Here are some stats for those who are into numbers:

Distance: 53.6 miles round trip.

Climbing elevation: 10321'.

Ride time: 5:01

Time spent climbing: 1:39

Time spent descending: 1:00(!)

I've always wanted to ride the Crest trail with a full-suspension bike and the forecast was unbelievable so I called the Bagel and the next thing you know we were slogging up Monarch pass on the way to the Crest.

If you have trouble loading these mini-videos, here is a link to the condensed version:

http://vimeo.com/14907677

At the top of Monarch Pass, we stopped for a quick snack and to top off the water before heading up the short climb to the entrance to the Crest Trail.

Once you are on the Crest trail, you are at or near timberline (11000') for quite some time.

The trail has a variety of terrain from hardpack with embedded rocks to loose, rutted trail and even some scree.

One of my favorite sections of trail is the one right before the end of the Crest. It's easy to go too fast and crash...but I didn't because I am old and wise.

Here is the end of the Crest right before a fun jeep road descent to the top of Marshall Pass.

From the top of Marshall Pass, we jumped on to the Colorado Trail for a while until we hit the Silver Creek trail. It starts out pretty rough and many people get flats there. There are some smoother sections as well.

After Silver Creek, you actually ride down the creek for a minute, then the Rainbow Trail appears. We saw many people blow right by the trailhead which is too bad because it is some of the best single-track anywhere.

The Rainbow Trail has many left turns followed by sharp climbs and then you get to the final descent which is another of my favorites.

At the end of the Rainbow Trail, you end up on Poncha pass.

All that's left is the descent down Poncha Pass. Watch how close this truck tries to get to us. I believe he violated the 3 foot law by about 2-1/2 feet. Nice.

We were both pretty tired all day but still rode at a respectable pace. I'd like to thank Hammer Nutrition for inventing Endurolytes. They saved me from cramping up two hours into the adventure and continued to save me for the rest of the ride. I highly recommend them.

Riding with the "Hit Man"

2010-09-06T14:51:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday was the last ride for my Kermit Green Niner. It was developing some hairline cracks at the seat tube/seat stay junction. Of course Niner warranteed it but only after proof that the old one was destroyed. Talk about adding insult to injury:

Since I work at a bike shop, all it took was a quick call to our Giant Bikes rep and presto, my new bike appeared! It's a 2010 Giant Trance X2. Of course, I have modified it to fit my needs:

Now I am re-learning how to ride 26" wheels and on top of that, learning how to ride with 5" of suspension travel front and rear. Ummmm, yeah. It's cool.

That brings us to yesterday's ride. The Bagel was down and out so I called the one other guy who was ready to ride anywhere at the drop of a hat. Don "The Hitman" Hull:

Why is Don called the "Hit Man"? Well, when he first started coming into the shop, nobody knew exactly where he got the money to buy all those fancy bike parts so someone suggested he was a hit man. Later, we found out he may be in the import/export business which fits the hit man profile. He imports bullets into people and exports them into the ground! All unfounded rumors....or are they?

I have been wanting to ride the Ring the Peak trail from the Catamount Reservoir to Horsethief Park all year and with the forecast in the Springs being around 90 degreees, the time to head up to 10,000' is NOW.

Don and I parked at the Edlowe Road trailhead and immediately jumped on some sweet single-track. We then joined the Ring the Peak trail and headed South. My planned turn-around point was Horsethief Park at the remains of an old cabin:

Any time of day is a good time to eat:

On the way back to Catamount, we veered off of the Ring the Peak trail and rode a little known section of trail called "Magic Carpet Ride". I'd tell you where it is but then Don may have to come see you...

You won't believe it but I actually had my GoPro camera and made yet another video. Weird, huh?

This will give you an idea of how awesome the trails are wayyyy up in hills of Colorado:

Mountain bike trails around Pikes Peak from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Riding after work with Matt "The Bagel"

2010-08-27T22:56:00.000-06:00

Since we are both working on the southeast side of town, Matt and I like to meet at Cheyenne Mountain State Park after work for the occasional mountain bike ride. Yesterday was a typical 90 degree summer day but I happened to have my GoPro Helmet-cam....

I took a lot of video footage on our ride but for some reason, this particular trail stood above the rest for capturing the essence of why we enjoy the park. Maybe it was the late-afternoon sun. Maybe it's because I kept it on two wheels at a pretty decent clip. You decide (crank the volume and think: 80's):

Boulder Run in Cheyenne Mountain State Park from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Tour of the Lakes w/trail maintenance

2010-08-14T18:36:00.000-06:00

Matt "The Bagel" and I are both coming off of four or five weeks of not riding very much so we decided to do the legendary "Tour of the Lakes".

Prepping for the ride...

We haven't been at 9000' on a bike for a while and we strangely had to stop early for some bonk prevention.

Early pig-out.

We arrived at the "Rock" trail and Matt decided, after watching me slam my rear wheel on a rock obstacle, to fill in the gap with some old deadfall.

The start of the trail labor...

At the bottom of the "Rock" section, we always had to hike-a-bike up a steep little hill. I saw a way to make it rideable with a little (a lot!) of work.

Matt, doing some hard labor in the middle of a hard ride.

After we both bonked while using the hand-saw, we finally cut the old dead tree. Matt had the honor of the first test-ride of our new section:

Bottom of the Rock from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

There's still plenty of trailwork to be done up there, but at least we got started...

Now I have to recover from roughly 1/4 of the Leadville 100 at the elevation of 9000' instead of 10000' to 12000'. Glad I wasn't entered in that one.

The Copper Triangle

2010-08-08T18:58:00.000-06:00

This weekend, The Colorado Cyclist sponsored a ride called "The Copper Triangle". It is a fully supported bike ride starting at the Copper Mountain ski area, climbing up Fremont pass down to Leadville, towards Minturn over Tennesee Pass to Vail and back over Vail Pass to Copper.

Many of the employees of The Colorado Cyclist were there to help make it a good time for all. There were four mechanics, myself, Scott, Dave and Brandon. Scott and I were assigned to the top of Fremont pass from 6am to 11 am. Last year, there were four mechanics and it was super busy so I was a little bit worried that with only two of us it would be crazy. Although it did get pretty hectic at times, we took care of as many bikers as we could and sent them on their way.

I brought my new HD video cam and took a bit of video. Here are the clips (I had to compress the file so the resolution is not the greatest):

Regression...

2010-08-05T22:12:00.000-06:00

Riding less and less lately. Who's to blame? Work? Monsoon season? Not sure.

I did get a chance to try out my new Kodak Playsport ZX3 video camera. It's the size of a cell-phone and can film 1-1/2 hours of 1080p HD video on an 8GB SD card. And it can film under water which is important at the moment. Ain't technology grand?

I did some filming in Palmer Park between rain showers and then got some stills from the video. Not the greatest clarity in the stills but the HD video is outstanding.

Dropping into "Little Moab"

Off of the big slab at the bottom of "Little Moab"

Fun descent above the dog park.

...then right back up.

The fitness is fading and the weight is creeping up. The next long ride is going to hurt!

Chicago

2010-07-19T12:16:00.000-06:00

No biking this past weekend as Cindy and I did a turbo trip to Chicago to attend the wedding of Cindy's nephew. Here are some pics:

The bride and groom took us on a trolley ride around Chicago.

I got some cool shots while hanging out of the trolley window.

This is my award winner. The old lady looks unfazed by the city. The young people walking away and the long shadows have meaning open to interpretation.

Had a lot of movie flashbacks. The Blues Brothers sent the cops to this address.

We jumped off the trolley for this shot. Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline.

We bumped into the groom at the top of the Willis (Sears) Tower. He was wearing this.

That's our hotel with the pointy antenna as viewed from the top of Willis Tower.

Another movie flashback. Emulating Ferris Bueller from the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off."

Sitting on the 6" glass Skydeck 1353' above Wacker Drive.

Don't look down.

This is Erik looking a little wobbly. Game over, man. Haha.

Seriously, Erik and Ali are a perfect match and I believe they will be married to each other for the rest of their lives. The wedding was pretty unreal for a Colorado boy and I'm glad Cindy and I got to be there to enjoy it.

Fourth of July hike

2010-07-04T20:21:00.000-06:00

Haven't been feelin' it on the bike lately. Got sick after my last blog post and haven't fully recovered for some reason. As my hard-earned cycling fitness circles the drain, I figure I'd better get off the Laz-e-boy and do something resembling excercise so I brought Cindy over to the site of my last adventure to do some more investigating.

Didn't have to set the "F" stop for this one.

Technically we aren't supposed to be here so I photo-shopped Cindy hiking up the road to the old quarry above Queens Canyon.

Dawson Trotman was the founder of The Navigators and is now buried in a pretty choice locale.

General Palmer picked the coolest location in the Springs to build a house. If he were alive today, I'm pretty sure he'd be a mountain biker.

Of course I brought my GoPro camera and of course I made a video. Please give me 2 minutes of your life....

Glen Eyrie hike on July 4th from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Solo Mission

2010-06-21T23:01:00.000-06:00

A few years ago I heard about a crash site of a B-24 Liberator located above the Flying W Ranch on or near Lone Pine mountain. The plane crashed into the mountainside at night on April 26, 1944. There were seven casualties. Last year, my friend Scott and some of his riding buddies searched for and eventually found a pretty decent route to the wreckage. It wasn't easy but they were determined to get there by mountain bike.
After having several conversations about it with Scott, I decided to find a route from my house through the Blodgett Open Space and West into the Pike National Forest where I would intersect the trail that Scott and his buddies found. It took me three tries but last Saturday I finally had success.
After about 35 minutes of pedaling, I had to hike-a-bike it for around 90 minutes to get to the ridge.

This was my first self-portrait on the high ridge (9000') above my house which I could see for most of the adventure. I was never more than 5 miles from home yet it felt like I could be lost and never found in that forest.

Someone built this pretty cool shelter and there was a good campsite a few yards away with a nice view and a firepit.

This huge rock cliff can be seen quite plainly from my house which is somewhere behind me in this pic.

Spectacular views in every direction. Two steps in front of me is a couple hundred foot drop to oblivion.

After much more navigating along the ridge, I found a sweet single-track which was originally built by General Palmer. I followed the trail and it started to drop steeply down the mountain-side. That's where I started seeing pieces of metal. Those pieces used to be a plane that looked like the above picture.

This is one of the bigger pieces. I think it's part of the landing gear. There was bits of wreckage strewn all over the mountain-side. Also, there was a lot of blobs of previously molten aluminum. This plane went down in a snow storm and it was hard to imagine the amount of heat that was generated to melt the aluminum.

After a snack and more wreckage exploration, I headed towards the reclaimed mining scar above Queens Canyon and plainly visible from most everywhere in Colorado Springs. Once again...I can see my house!

This was a pretty scary and loose section of trail on the way to the scar. One slip and it would be time for search and rescue to find my body.

More sweet single-track and not so sweet hike-a-bike led me to the tip-top of the scar. Guess who's house that is in the background?

Awsome view.

This one doesn't eat sugar cubes but he did have a go at my wedding ring. I saw a herd of the real things literally run down a cliff after being startled by some creature with wheels for legs. It was one of the coolest and most memorable things that I have seen in nature. And it was five miles from my house!

Here's an over-view of my route. It was a meager 15 miles and a healthy 4000' elevation gain. Total time in the great outdoors: almost 5-1/2 hours. Most of that was spent navigating and having near death experiences (just kidding, Dad).

On the way home, I was riding up a busy 4-lane street and a 250 lb. black bear tried to cross in front of me. He got spooked and turned around so I followed him for a while. I was in the forest all day and don't see a bear until I am 6 blocks from home. Crazy.

And to think I didn't even want to ride when I got up that morning.

Let the Epics begin!

2010-06-08T22:01:00.000-06:00

The high country snow is finally melted for the most part, so I planned our first big ride accordingly.

The usual suspects were gathered, while others were off doing things like watching TV or hiking the Inca Trail.

I chose the route based on my training rides from the late 80's and then mixed in some of the newer trail offerings. We got turned around at one point by machine-gun fire. I figured it was probably best to find an alternate route.

After successfully avoiding any 50 caliber mishaps, we began the climb west towards the Pike National forest. This was taken at the top of the worst part. Definitely sandwich-worthy.

This is a pretty cool still-shot taken from the video descending the Waldo Canyon trail.

Here is the ride profile. There were sections of one climb that had a 30% grade. I may or may not have walked those parts....

Some of the ride stats:

Distance: 55.31 miles

Ride time: 5 hours, 38 mins.

Total time: 7 hours 26 minutes

Climbing elevation: 8764'

Uphill time: 3:07

Uphill distance: 25.6 miles

Did I mention video? I brought the trusty Helmet Hero and chest mount and video'd all of the good bits. Here is the condensed version. Crank the volume to 11 and get ready to groove....

June Epic from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Growler Mtn. Bike race & 3 day weekend

2010-06-02T19:07:00.001-06:00

I entered this race in the dead of winter thinking I would surely be fit enough to do a 7 hour race by the end of May.....wrong! I signed up for the two lap, 64 mile option but decided to do the one lap, 32 mile bailout option. I could have done the longer version but leg cramps and fatigue take away from enjoying the sweet single-track that Gunnison has to offer. I figure that 3-1/2 hours isn't really a bail-out anyways...

Here's Doug Johnson (#9) in the lead group up "Kill Hill" with over 300 riders chasing. Doug placed 12th overall (!) after some serious mechanicals. Freak.

Here's Matt Daigle (#65) following former Pro Susan Demattei (#357). I think she had the advantage since her husband, Dave Wiens is the promoter and course designer. Oh, she is also an extremely talented bike rider. Matt would have won the 1/2 Growler in his age group. On three weeks of training. Freak.

A little further back....it's Don Hull (#116) and me (to the left of #341's face). I think there are still around 200 riders behind us. Crazy.

Future Pro Scott Nagelkerke (#173) heading for 4th in his class and 37th overall. Not bad for a former roadie who can run a marathon in 2-1/2 hours on 4 weeks of training. I think he trained for this race for about 3 weeks.... freak. I need to find a lower class of friends. These guys are killin' me.

Here I am tucked in behind the 3rd place overall woman, Jari Kirkland. Really, that's my shoulder and foot.

This is the kind of riding that greeted us deep into the first lap (and second lap for the really hardcore). Awesome!

Here is Don, Scott, Mike and Daniel the night before...sure, they are smiling now. Ha.

This was our room at Island Acres in Gunnison. Kind of a throwback to the 50's motels. A really cool place to stay and pet friendly to boot.

The day after the race, Cindy and I headed to Gunnison for breakfast at the Firebrand. It was very popular and we saw many friends there, including 2nd place overall Travis Brown (super nice guy). Then we drove to the Black Canyon National Park to check out the scenery:

What a nice 3-day weekend.

Palmer Park race

2010-05-26T21:39:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday was the fourth time I have raced a bike in Palmer Park (In Colorado Springs). Coincidentally, I am the only person that I know of who has participated in every Mountain Bike/Cyclocross race on the trails of Palmer Park. Also, wanting to keep that tradition alive has caused me to renew my USA Cycling license and enter a few races this year. Don't be fooled, I am not planning a comeback or even training to race again. This is purely for fun.

Proof that I am in it for fun!

Ron on the other hand, is looking pretty serious about the race. He rode me off of his wheel and went on to win our class, putting around 3 minutes on me. Good job, Ron.

I somehow managed to talk Matt and Dean into dusting off their racing legs and do some laps in the Park. I think they had fun, too.....

Momma Bear wanted to show her two cubs some sweet single-track. Unfortunately for my friend Matt Simmons, he lost a few minutes waiting for her to finish her tour. I think he was glad to oblige.

Here's Matt flexin' his way up a rock. I think the bear gave him super powers.

Kelli raced the Pro Men's and finished a very respectable 5th place. She told me that it was "friggin' hard!". This, coming from a World Class Professional racer who has raced all over the globe. Kinda gives our local riding spot some credibility!

Christian Murdock took this unbelievable shot of Kelli riding through "Little Moab". Very nice!

Thanks to "Ultra" Rob Lucas, Tim Bergsten, Randy Lindblad and Brian McCarrie for being there with their cameras blazin'

Helmet-cam from a lap at Phil's World in Cortez

2010-05-16T08:26:00.000-06:00

I finally got 90 minutes of video edited down to just under 6. This was my third lap out of four, so the racers were spread out all over the course. The afternoon sun made for some cool shadows.
Grab a snack, put on a Snuggie and click "play"!

12 Hours of Mesa Verde at Phil's World 5-8-10 from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

12 Hours of Mesa Verde

2010-05-12T21:33:00.003-06:00

Last weekend Russ and I headed down to Cortez, Colorado for a 12 hour endurance mountain bike race (12 hours of Mesa Verde). We were entered in the "Geezer Duo" category (average age of 50) as "Team Stunt Double".

Pre-riding the course was so fun that it was hard to go easy.

Miles and miles of buffed out single-track.

A great view that I never saw during the actual race

Here is an interactive map of our pre-ride.

The venue was a fairgrounds with ample room for over 300 teams.

Russ was the Team Captain so I was assigned to start first. It was a LeMans start with over 300 crazed cyclists in cycling shoes running a few hundred yards to our waiting bikes. I dreaded it, but it was actually really fun.

2-way traffic in the tunnel was interesting. So was the Pirate theme. I did see a plastic pirate sword out on the race course. No doubt lost by a pirate biker.

Lucky for me, Russ is one helluva fast biker (and I don't mean geezer biker). We won our class by over an hour.

Here's a tip: don't let Durland run free with your camera. You will end up with some interesting pics!

Bonus! I saw the living legend John Tomac milling around the crowd after the race and asked if he would pose with me for my "wall of champions". He told me he wasn't in good shape and I believed him until I saw his lap times. Once a champion....

Stay tuned for the live action view of the race course. I wore my helmet-cam for an entire lap (lap 3)...............

Rabbit Valley Rally....mountain bike race.

2010-04-29T20:52:00.000-06:00

My good friend Matt Simmons talked me into racing in the first Mountain States Cup race near Fruita, Colorado last Sunday.

The drive over the mountain passes was a bit snowy.

We had a cool view of the Colorado National Monument from our Hotel window.

Had some fun with a giant Corona bottle.

Checked out some of the fun trails off of 18 road.

Kessel's Run is highly recommended. I dragged Matt over there after he raced the time-trial. He's a good sport!

Here is a view of the race parking lot.

The race went pretty well. My goal was top 15 and I managed 11th which qualified me for the National Championship race in July. Not bad for someone who doesn't actually train to race bikes any more!

Oh, I tossed the tiny GPS in my jersey pocket for the race and here is the sweet interactive map for you to toy with:

Urban Assault- Spring Classic Edition.

2010-04-11T10:34:00.000-06:00

Stick a fork in my legs...they are cooked!
Yesterday we headed out for the long version of the Urban Assault. It was much the same as the last Urban Assault with the addition of more Palmer Park trail time and a trip up Columbine and Buckhorn trails in the Cheyenne Canon area.

Here are some of the stats:

Dist: 47 miles

Ride time: 4:31

Vertical gain: 7600' (according to my super accurate TopoFusion program). Russ got around 5500'.

Climbing time: 2:13

Climbing distance: 19.25 mi.

Here is another interactive map for you to play with:

I kept asking myself: "Why am I doing this?". The answer is: Fun Bank surplus!

Fun Bank

2010-04-03T18:57:00.000-06:00

Today, while riding with "Team Stunt Double", I created a new way to be positive about completely coming apart half-way through a ride.
First, let's back up to yesterday's lunch-ride in Palmer Park. I had been well rested and well fed and the hills were like speed bumps. I call it "light legs". I felt like a fit racer dude and it was awesome!
Today rolls around and I'm thinking I am gonna rock this ride. Felt pretty good against the crushing headwind and on the first few climbs and then we hit a bigger climb with Pro biker Matt leading the way. Not so good. Now I am faking it but it's becoming transparent. Maybe I need more food. Didn't work. Maybe I will cut this short and recover like a smart person. I'm not that smart.
Now Team Stunt 2x is pulling away and I can do nothing but watch. Like a car accident in slow-motion. Except I am the one who is crashing.
This is where you either get really grumpy or come up with something to entertain your lactic-acid infused brain. I came up with the "Fun Bank". It's pretty simple. When you are having a great ride and you are feeling invincible, you are making big withdrawls from the Fun Bank. Soon, you will be getting overdraft charges. Today was the day I needed to make some deposits. I made so many deposits into the Fun Bank today that I may be able to drop Contador on my next ride.
Give your riding buddies a break and give it a try because nobody likes to ride on sweet, sweet single-track with a grumpy bastard.

Here is the route we rode today. Climbing total was just over 5000' and ride time was just under 3:45. Gotta love the interactive web.

@trip - Falcon trail 4-3-10

Tuesday Night Rat Ride.

2010-03-30T22:28:00.001-06:00

Spring is here and it was over 70 degrees today. That means it's time for the Pro Cycling group ride. Every Tuesday at 5:30 we all meet at the new Pro Cycling location and set out to suffer for about 1.5 hours. No holding back since the ride is so short. And that means pain is going to be a reality. Ummm, I had a grim realization that I haven't been riding hard too much this winter. Ouch!

Here is the sawtooth profile of this evening's adventure:

The huge wind gusts added to the fun. Nothing like descending a pot-hole filled road and having side wind gusts trying to steer you into said pot-holes. Good times!

My lovely wife coined the term "rat ride" and I like it. Just in case you were wondering.

Hiking with new toys

2010-03-20T16:02:00.000-06:00

I just received my new i-gotU GPS (http://www.amazon.com/GT-200-i-gotU-Bluetooth-Version-Chipset/dp/B001ADEIQI/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t#moreAboutThisProduct) in the mail the other day so I decided to try it out on the Manitou Incline today with Cindy.

The snow from yesterday is already starting to melt but not before I could snap these cool pics:

Here is the interactive map of the hike. The easiest thing to do is click on the little play button on the upper left side of the page. You can also click on the faster button to speed things up.

http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/45294

Everything old is new again (part 2).

2010-03-13T18:48:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things about being a mountain biker and having knowledge of a vast amount of fun trails and routes is taking my friends on a trail that they've never been on. I look at that same old trail as if I am the one who has never seen it before and it becomes new to me again.
Today it was Scott's turn to experience the 1000 turns of Lake Pueblo State Park:

2 feet behind him is a 30 foot drop into some cold reservoir water.

Matt was there to join the fun.

We also had an unexpected visitor.

Bald is cool!

Mission accomplished. Scott had a great time. Spring is growing ever closer and that means epic season is closing fast. Are you ready?

Sometimes you don't know what you're missing.

2010-03-07T22:06:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here on a Sunday night, reflecting on Saturday's activities and thought I'd pass it on.

Saturday started with the idea of driving down to Pueblo and riding at the State Park. That is a fun time but I have been recovering from a pretty nasty cold-like virus and didn't want to get there only to feel bad and have less fun. Plan B was to ride with Cindy (my wife) around Garden of the Gods and then part ways with her and just pedal around, trying to remember how after so much time on the sofa.
Thus, the inspiration for this post was born. After riding a few laps in the Garden with Cindy, I headed into Manitou to visit and drink from the 7 Minute Spring (the sacred place of our wedding almost 16 years ago!). After that, I made my way towards the Norris Penrose Events Center to visit the Bike show. On the way, I decided to detour up 26th street to Gold Camp road. I stumbled on a Pikes Peak Velo group ride and shadowed them for a while and chatted with an older gentleman who was rapidly getting dropped. He was so nice and really seemed to enjoy the ride despite being dropped by his much younger team-mates. I rolled past the other riders as they were stopped to wait for him. Continuing on the climb I saw several more cyclists and others headed towards the hills for various reasons. There sure are many ways to enjoy being outdoors in Colorado Springs on an early spring day.
Soon, I was turning around at the point where Gold Camp Road turns to dirt and coasting back down into the city. Got to the bike show and surprise, they had valet bike parking. Pure class! I saw many friends, old and new and even a former in-law (although he will always be my 'bro!). The legs were beginning to stiffen up, so I figured it was time to bail on the bike show. I wanted to get some more ride time so I headed south and then dropped back into downtown Colorado Springs, riding close to cars and pretending I was a NYC bike messenger.
It was about this time I started having deja vu feelings. When I was younger, I was always training to be a bike racer and I lived on my bike. I did rides like this all of the time and thought nothing of it. Now that I'm older, I am seeing the streets and trails from a different perspective. I found myself noticing more about the homes, the other cyclists, the huge potholes all over the streets and the traffic. It's kind of hard to explain the feeling of viewing the world from the seat of a bicycle, especially to people who's cycling experiences ended when they got a driver's license. For some reason on Saturday I was a teenager on a BMX bike, a twenty-something on a mountain bike, a thirty-something on a beach cruiser and a forty-something on a road bike.

All of those experiences added up to the indescribably unique feeling I got on a simple road bike ride around town. Pretty cool day.

Go ride your bike. Take the back roads and bike paths. Don't sweat the stop signs or lights. Stop and drink some spring water. Talk to people along the way. You never know what you are missing if you don't.

"I can't wait to ride the trainer."

2010-02-27T18:16:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you heard a cyclist say THAT?
As strange as it may seem, I have been saying that quite frequently since I picked up a Tacx VR trainer (http://www.tacxvr.com/en/products/vr-trainers-intro) from The Colorado Cyclist.
This amazing piece of machinery will keep you entertained and working hard during your workout.

This is the setup I have: Tacx i-magic T-1900 with VR steering frame. I built the little stand that the mini-notebook sits on. I found an old Polar heartrate strap in a drawer and it works with this unit!

You will need a computer of some kind. I hooked it up to my desktop at first, but the trainer took up the whole computer room and made quite a racket downstairs in the room below. I don't have a laptop but I do have a mini-notebook which works really good if you can build a custom stand for it so it will be close to you while you ride. This also let me put the trainer in the basement workout room where it is cooler and quieter.

In your face. Just be careful not let the sweat fly onto the computer screen.

The software on this unit is fairly good....after you spend a lot of time learning how to install and use it. There are several courses in the virtual reality section and many pre-programmed riders to ride with. You can also log onto the internet and ride with people world-wide (for a fee). My favorite feature is riding against my virtual self. Every ride is saved and you are given the option to ride against your former self. Today I rode against two other me's and finished in between. I may have done better but I was also trying to get used to the steering frame which had me riding in the gutter a lot! When that happens, it gets really hard to pedal and you have to straighten up fast or lose a lot of time.

Here is one of the many courses available. There are both mountain bike and road courses in the program.

The trainer I am using doesn't let you coast, so if you ride an hour, you are pedaling for an hour. I was looking at the more expensive unit and it actually coasts down hills! That would be weird. I have noticed that time really flies on this trainer- especially with the steering frame. You can also program your own ride if you really are serious about interval training.

Let it snow, rain, sleet and blow. I can always ride the trainer.

New feature on the blog page!

2010-02-10T21:47:00.002-07:00

The GM at work (Dean) clamped an old arm-rest in the vise next to my work-bench the other day. He said it's for all of the people who hang out and talk to me while I toil away building bikes and such.
Hmmmm, I think I will snap a cell-phone pic of everyone who uses that arm-rest and post it on my blog page. Who knows who you might see in those pics?
I shall do my best to keep it updated every so often....

Trail Ridin' with Buck (the dog)

2010-02-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

For some reason, I thought today would be a good day to ride the Falcon Trail on the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Uhhh, it's February, it's been snowing, it's been melting and turning to ice then snowing some more....denial really helps you out the door.
I had a few volunteers to join in the fun. Matt D (of course), Daniel M, Heather E and Buck the dog!
Daniel is a coach at CTS and races in the Pro class on a mountain bike. He is a very animated rider and fun to follow. Buck (Daniel's dog) is a German Short-haired Pointer and in phenomonal shape. He pretty much leads the ride and if he's not leading, he's looking for a line around you! If there was a Pro class for trail dogs, Buck would be factory sponsored.

Here's Buck looking to fuel up.

Trail conditions were as expected. Muddy, snowy, icy, fun. Buck led the way and took some sweet cheater lines. His all-paw-drive system was working over-time in these conditions but he never seemed to fatigue. Daniel had a flat which gave me time to grab a snack and snap this picture:

Fixing a flat with Blodgett's Peak in the background.

Oh, I also had my Helmet Hero cam mounted on my stem to catch all of the action. Grab some popcorn and click "play".

Trail Ridin' with Buck (the dog) from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Coffee is mandatory.

2010-01-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

Most of the athletes I know love coffee. It has been proven beneficial to athletic performance in one way or another and it's soooo good in the morning.
I got a coffee bean roaster for Christmas 2 years ago and my world has changed for the better since then. It sounds so complex and difficult to roast your own beans, but I am going to show you how easy it really is.

First you need to buy a roaster. A home coffee roaster is like a glorified popcorn popper with a timer. Here is a link to the one I use: http://www.burmancoffee.com/equipment/freshroast_plus.coffee.roasterSR.html
Actually, I have the predecessor to these models and it works great.

Next you need to buy some green coffee beans. I like to try new beans all the time and I use these companies: http://www.burmancoffee.com/, http://www.breworganic.com/

Now that you have to beans and equipment and beans, here's how easy it is:

Put the raw beans into the roaster.

Set the timer for how long you want to roast the beans.

The beans have a distinct "cracking" sound while they roast. This indicates the different levels of roast. The more cracks, the darker the roast. If the roaster starts smoking, you have reached espresso roast!

Here's one pound of raw beans. I roasted these fairly dark but not espresso-dark.

After cooling, I put them in a air-tight container and brew them the next day.

This whole process takes about 6 minutes. I usually roast the beans in my garage because there is too much smoke to roast in the house. Here is my "roasting station":

Simple, easy....worth it!

An added benefit of roasting in the garage is that my car's air circulation system has a faint coffee odor. Not too shabby.

Demo a bike today!

2010-01-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

At work (The Colorado Cyclist) we have several bikes available to demo (for a small fee). I've had my eye on a Giant Trance X2 for a little while but have never really ridden one for more than a minute.

Today was the day to test ride this sweet bike, so I invited my full-suspension-loving co-worker (our warehouse manager) Rick and we headed for Palmer Park at lunch-time.

I have always preferred a rigid frame with a suspension fork (since I am so "old school") and I have owned full-suspension rigs in the past (AMP Research, Santa Cruz Heckler). But today I was ready to try it again...I even wore baggy shorts!

Palmer Park ride on a Giant Trance from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Oh yeah, I will be purchasing one of these bikes as soon as I can afford to because it was waaaaaay too much fun and that's what it's all about!

Urban Assault!

2010-01-09T18:35:00.000-07:00

A great thing about Colorado Springs is the amount of riding areas located all around town. Years ago, I figured out a way of linking many of the riding spots together in one loop. This is usually done in winter when the high country is snowed in and unrideable. I dubbed it "Urban Assault" and have called it that ever since. It's a pretty big loop and takes well into 3-1/2 hours of riding time and it can be quite challenging-especially when there is snow and ice on the trails.
Today was the first assault that we've done in quite a while. I invited a few friends and here are some pics:

Water, check. Food, check. Cell, check. ID, check.

First stop: Ute Valley Park

Posing in Pulpit Rock Park

A quick pass through Palmer Park after riding through The Bluffs (University Park).

Leaving Palmer Park and heading across town to Bear Creek Park.

After Bear Creek and prepping for Stratton's climbs. Downtown C. Springs in the background.

Slippin' and slidin' at the top of the Chutes.

Awesome city view from the top of the Chutes.

After descending Gold Camp, we rode up Section 16 to Inteman on the way to Red Rocks open space.

Attacking Red Rocks!

After Red Rocks, we rode up Ridge Road and through the legal trails in the Garden of the Gods. Then back to my casa!

Another great ride in the books. Thanks to the Matts, Don and The Champ (Alison) for making it even more enjoyable!

Not my bike

2010-01-01T21:55:00.001-07:00

Have I ever mentioned that I really like my job? I've been a bike mechanic for about 25 years. I tried other things, but realized that I had better stick with what I do best. Luckily, The Colorado Cyclist called me after I realized this and now I've been back there for over a year, putting together really expensive bikes and getting paid money for it!
That brings us to my latest video. A customer of the Cyclist ordered a sweet $5000 carbon fiber Santa Cruz Blur XC and requested that someone take it for a ride to break it in. Umm, I guess I could give it a try. Oh, the sacrifices one has to make for his job...

Not my bike from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Protein Drink Comparison

2009-12-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

Recently, my favorite protein supplement (Essential Natural 100% Whey Protein) has ruined their taste. When I inquired about it they told me that vendor issues required re-formulation. Bummer.
I then decided to do some comparison shopping at my local Vitamin Cottage. I purchased five different protein supplements with the following criteria: no soy, no egg and no fake sugars. The products I purchased had a variety of hemp, rice and whey protein. I then decided to rate the newly purchased products by price, taste, protein content and mixability. I mixed each drink with about 3 oz. milk and 7 oz. water. Here are my results:

#1 Solgar Whey to Go (chocolate flavor): http://www.solgar.com/SolgarProducts/Whey-To-Go-Protein-Powder-Natural-Chocolate-Cocoa-Bean-Flavor.htm

Price: $1.49 for a single serving packet.
Taste (1-10): 9 tastes great (and it does have a tiny bit of fake sugar in it)
Protein content: 16g
Mixability: mixes well with no clumping

#2 Nutribiotic Rice Protein (vanilla flavor).
http://www.nutribiotic.com/rice-protein-vanilla-21oz.html

Price: $.89 for a single packet
Taste: 7 taste was great but there was a chalky after-taste and it was kind of weak.
Protein content: 12g
Mixability: mixes well with no clumping

A three-way tie for third place in no particular order:

#3 Nutiva organic hempshake (chocolate flavor)
http://nutivahempshake.com/choc.htm

Price: $1.25 for a single packet
Taste: 6 taste was good but left a lot of grit in your mouth after.
Protein content: 7g
Mixability: mixes ok but had to keep mixing to keep the grit suspended

#4 Biochem 100% Whey (chocolate flavor)
http://www.biochem-fitness.com/pages/powders_main.html#ultlo

Price: $1.89 for a single packet
Taste: 6 taste was a bit chemical and was harder to finish.
Protein content: 20g
Mixability: had some clumping issues

#5 Spirutein Whey (vanilla flavor)
http://www.naturesplus.com/products/productdetail.asp?cryteria=category&category=25&productNumber=4604

Price: $1.65 for a single packet
Taste: 6 tastes like alfalfa or something
Protein content: 14g
Mixability: had to be shaken a lot to keep it mixed
Note: This stuff has a huge amount of nutrients in it. I am pretty sure that if you drink it every day, you will be able to breathe fire and shoot lightning bolts out of your arse!

My old favorite, Essential Natural 100% Whey Protein in the old formula would have won first or second place. Here are the stats:
http://www.country-life.com/moreinfo.cfm?Category=22&Product_ID=388

Price: $.75 in bulk form
Taste (old formula): 9 all flavors are good
Protein content: 22g
Mixability: mixes good with no clumping

There you have it. My hard work has paid off for me when my current supply of the old stuff runs out. I gots to have my protein!

Nice day for a ride

2009-12-20T15:22:00.000-07:00

With a predicted temperature of around 50 degrees in Pueblo, it wasn't a difficult decision to head down there for a ride. I sent out a mass invite but got mostly "no's". Of course, there is always one hardcore dude out there and I found him. The Kappel-meister! He only knows one speed...fast. He basically rides hard until he's tired, and heads back to the car. A perfect candidate for a helmet-cam footage subject:

Lake Pueblo State Park Mountain bike ride from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

As you can see from the video, I was finally a victim of the sharp rocks on my thin sidewalled tires. Ahh, the price you pay for light wheels.
After my rear tire exploded and instantaneously lost all of it's air, I set my bike down and started to asess the damage. Mike looked at me and asked: "What are YOU going to do?". Haha, I guess he was never a marine! I sent him on his way and made plans to fix the tire and meet him at his car. I got to his car first and he arrived within minutes, which means his ride was barely interrupted by my bad luck. Excellent!
The chest-mount strap for the helmet-cam was awesome. Thanks again, Don.

You know you like bikes...

2009-12-17T22:14:00.001-07:00

when you work at a shop that sells primarily high-end bikes and your garage is full of primarily high-end bikes.
Yet you still enjoy finding a sweet Huffy beach cruiser on Craigslist, fixing it up a little and smiling while you zoom around on it in all of it's simplicity.

Only slightly modified.

Nothing on the bars but grips.

Fun for all who ride it! (go Dave, go)

Holiday schwag

2009-12-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

My friend Don, an occasional subject in the blog, presented me with an awesome gift today. It's a chest-mount for my new helmet-cam!

(http://www.goprocamera.com/index.php?area=2&productid=16)

Now I will have yet another vantage point from which to film our escapades. Yay! Thanks, Don!

Finally a warm day

2009-12-12T17:42:00.000-07:00

After a week of storms and cold weather, we finally got a day above freezing. I opted for a mountain bike ride on the Santa Fe trail and then around the Air Force Academy. Still testing out the new helmet-cam and it's wide-angleness. So far, I really like it. Can't wait to actually ride some single-track with it. In the mean-time, here is another video:

Santa Fe Trail/AFA bike ride 12/12/09 from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Manitou Incline Video

2009-12-06T19:58:00.000-07:00

Got busy with the new Helmet-Hero Wide today. Hiked the incline with it strapped to my head! It was around 15-20 degreees and snowing. Makes me feel lucky to live in Colorado Springs.

Hiking Manitou Incline and down Barr Trail from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Oh, and the new batch of beer has some reviews coming in.
Don: "Excellent".
Matt D.: "I want to start a blog telling everyone how good it is!".
Me: "Mmmmmm, good".

A cold day in....

2009-12-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

Colorado Springs, of course. I felt like I had better ride today because the next few days aren't looking so good. I decided to ride to work (Colorado Cyclist) and pick up a new Helmet-cam since my old one expired. My plan of attack was to find some Geocaches (http://www.geocaching.com/) on the way back. I don't think it ever made it to 40 degrees today and when the sun went away, it became clear that I had better keep moving. My first cache was pretty easy but I had to hike through some seriously thorny trees to get to it:

Snowy and thorny.

I moved on to the next one but couldn't find it. Found the next one and gave up looking for the last one as the weather was telling me to get home.

After I got home, I immediately tore into the new cam's packaging. It is almost identical to my old one except it has a wide-angle lens. Here is a test video:

Testing the new Helmet Hero wide from Alan Keeffe on Vimeo.

Now I have to think of some interesting ways to use this cam!

Pics from Pueblo

2009-11-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

Since I didn't have a camera last week, I decided to bring one today and take some pics. We rode similar trails only the opposite direction. My friend Mike was our guide on the trails up and down the bluffs (i.e. "edge", "roller coaster", "free-ride", "skull canyon" and a few others. Thanks Mike!

Mike on "Free-Ride"

Don finishing up "Outer Limits" on his new Giant 29'er

Matt and Mike taking a break on "Voodoo"

Another great ride in the books and here comes another winter storm...

Could be a while until we are down here again.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

I am returning to a past Thanksgiving Day tradition: bike ride then pig out. Last year I rode the Falcon Trail and it was cold but completely snow-free. This year it is warm but not snow-free...

Time constraints kept me from completing the entire Falcon Trail loop so I had some fun on the lower sections before heading home via the Santa Fe Trail.

Now it's time to eat!

Finally tried the Incline!

2009-11-22T13:46:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to meet my friends Dave and Derek and hike the Mount Manitou Incline. I'm sure you've heard all of the stories about how steep it is so I won't be redundant.

Here is the view from the very bottom.

Derek and Dave getting started.

Dave on a snow-packed portion.

Those steps get pretty tall on the steep parts.

Derek on the final push to the top. Just below

him, the steps were slick and you could see

many hikers slipping. Derek said he

slipped back about 5 steps there!

Yeah, Dave!

It turned out to be a great workout especially for a cyclist. Going down is much harder for me than going up. The people are all pretty friendly, too. One guy blasted the last few steps and stopped his watch at 23 minutes. The funny thing is that is really fast for one mile and 2300' of elevation gain!

Helmet-cam demise in Pueblo

2009-11-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to drive down to Lake Pueblo State Park and do a long (for November) ride. I prepared my Helmet Hero helmet-cam and mounted it to my seat-post facing backwards. The plan was to have my friends follow me so I could film their faces in complete agony after accelerating out of the 500 corners down there. Not ten minutes into the ride I jibbed off of a small bump and heard a loud crack and the sound of something dragging on my rear tire. My poor little camera got sucked into the rear wheel and the ensuing carnage destroyed the on/off button. Dammitall! I didn't even bring my camera because I had planned to take some stills with the helmet-cam.

Oh, the agony.

We continued the ride and slogged through the mud for a while longer. Then it warmed up some more and the trails became drier. Mike's theory is that the older trails don't get as muddy since they are more packed down than the newer ones.

One saving grace is that Don had his Garmin and sent me the file. Here it is:

Lake Pueblo State Park Mountain Bike ride

Even after the tragedy of the Helmet Hero and the slimy mud early on, we had a great time and that's what counts. Oh and I am still trying to forget the dog poop that I ran over and scattered all over myself (I was thinking of you, Greg). Haha. Crap.

Beer finale

2009-11-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

Well, the weather outside is frightful, and the beer is fermented so I guess it's time to bottle it up.

Frightful.

First, you have to cook up some more sugar

This is for carbonation.

While that maltodextrin in boiling I am sterilizing

the bottles in an iodine solution.

Super cool bottle-washing attachment for my faucet.

The bottle tree for draining them.

Christmas has come early!

I am transferring the beer to mix it

with the sugars I cooked earlier.

Now I am transferring the beer to various

containers for the final carbonation.

Capping those bastards!

Here is 5 gallons of beer in various containers.

In 1 to 3 weeks they will be carbonated and

ready to consume.

I took a sample sip of the un-carbonated beer and it is awesome! I can't wait until it is completely ready.

Cheers!

Night ride heebee jeebies

2009-11-12T19:13:00.001-07:00

Last night Ron and I headed out for our "classic loop" night-ride. It's about a 2 hour ride in the North Cheyenne Canon area. There are many forms of wildlife in the area including fox, bear and mountain lion. Near the end of the ride we were at a turn-around point and I heard some bird-like chirping nearby. Maybe it was a bird or maybe it was...
http://www.extremescience.com/images/audio/cougarpurring.wav

Time to head down the trail. About half way down I heard a voice. I thought it was Ron catching me until I came around a corner and saw a dude standing just off of the trail telling me to have a "nice evening". Holy moly! Talk about an adreneline rush. I'm pretty sure my heart rate shot up about to 1000 beats for a second.
When you are descending at night, your concentration is 100 percent on the trail in front of you and you really don't expect to see people hiking alone and talking to you. Weirdness.

Sad news.

2009-11-08T17:50:00.000-07:00

I recently found out that my friend, Mike Pieczarka passed away after a massive coronary. The world will never be the same without Mike.

He was an awesome bike mechanic and loved his Datsun.

Your days are numbered....

2009-11-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

This is the time of year in Colorado that your mountain biking days can come to an abrupt halt. It can be 65 degrees and sunny one day and the next it's a blizzard. We all keep a close eye on the forecast and plan accordingly. This week I over-compensated a little and rode more than my legs really wanted. It was such a great week for fall weather that I did a road ride, a lunch ride, a night ride and today, a great mountain bike ride. Around 10 hours on the bike.....it was worth it!
Today's plan was to ride over to Balanced Rock with the Matt's and meet Scott, Don and Daniel. When we got there, they were nowhere in sight (our sight!). We sat and talked about greedy corporations and the bad economy and such, until I decided to call Scott and see where they were. Right when I dialed, I heard a phone ring down in the parking lot below us and it was Scott! They had been waiting there for 30 minutes! Ooops. No worries because it was so nice out.
We headed up Rampart Range to Williams canyon:

November in Colorado. Nice.

Daniel has no fear!

The Bagel is coming.

Scott and Don takin' 'er easy.

Good view down Williams Canyon.

That's Daniel in the shrubbery.

I picked up some hitch-hikers at the bottom of Williams.

After Williams, we headed over to the Inteman trail and rode it over to Red Rocks. This is Scott's "hood" so he was hookin' it up! That was fun.

Don wasn't feeling good, so he was considering

this to be his final resting place!

Here's Don on the last part of Inteman before dropping into Red Rocks.

If you look carefully in the background you can see a bare spot

on the hill. Above that is where we dropped into

Williams canyon earlier in the ride.(click on photo to enlarge)

Long shadows and flat light. Must be Fall.

Another great Fall ride with good friends is in the books. You could stick a fork in my legs- they're done!....at least for a few days.

The Lunch Ride

2009-11-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

'Tis the season for the legendary Colorado Cyclist lunch ride. When the business slows down during the fall and winter, we are afforded longer lunch breaks. So, we plan the lunch rides. In the past we have had legendary cyclists along for the ride. For example, Mountain Bike Hall-of-famer Dave Wiens has joined us for a flat, windy jaunt through the old prairie east of town. He was on a cross bike and we were on skinny tires but that wasn't enough of a disadvantage..he worked us! World Mountain Bike champ Alison Dunlap has spent many a lunch in Palmer Park with some of the luckier Colorado Cyclist employees. Sometimes her husband, Greg Something-or-other tags along to kill us with his sick manuals and technical ability.

Today, well, today Dave is at home in Gunnison taking care of three wild boys with his awesome wife, Susan. And Greg and Alison are getting ready to crush a bunch of Michiganders in The Iceman Cometh mountain bike race. So I decided to head over to Palmer Park and recruit some riders in the parking lot.

Here is who I found: Donny and Kandi. Kandi is a Bicycle cop from Michigan who is here visiting friends. She told me that before she was a cop, she was a meth-addict with little to no future prospects. She overcame that addiction by riding a bike and eventually became a bicycle cop to help arrest meth addicts. Ironic. I guess she got pretty good at it because she sure can ride a bike!

Here's Kandi puttin' the cuffs on a techincal ledge section.

I'm seriously considering taking up meth so I can overcome it and ride as good as Kandi. Damn.

Donny is a traveling Industrial chain-lube salesman originally from Pueblo, Colorado.

Here is a sample of Donny's wares.

Apparently Donny makes a lot of money selling this product because he told me he spends the entire month of July just riding his bike around France. Ka-ching!

Here's Donny on his Frannkensteined Tomac single-speed. I guess he's a pretty good garage mechanic as well.

Both of these riders were well above average in bike handling and fitness. They probably could be Pro bike riders if they wanted to but they chose a different path. Makes you wonder how many desk-jockeys have the VO2 of Lance Armstrong and the bike handling skills of John Tomac but choose to live a very different life.

Maybe next time I will ride with some famous Pro riders....here's hoping!

Beer update

2009-11-01T19:42:00.002-07:00

Halloween has come and gone and we still have lots of candy left over from the 5 lb. (!) bag we picked out at Costco. After a 3 hour road ride today, I had a bit of an appetite so after some steak and salad I decided to try one of every candy bar in the bag (9). That's nearly 700 calories! No problem and that has effectively erased any calorie expenditure from the bike ride. D-oh! It was worth it!

Here is the homebrew update:

The beer has fermented for a week and I have decided to transfer it to another fermenter. What this does is create a clearer finished product and gets rid of the digested yeast.

This gets left behind!

A hydrometer reading (1.016) indicates that I am within the recommended Final gravity(1.012-1.018) but I am going to let it ferment some more to be sure. We want it to be at max alcohol content!

Bottling will commence in around 2 weeks.

The cycling seasons of Colorado Springs

2009-10-31T19:47:00.000-06:00

Here in the Springs, we have a variety of trails and terrains available to us during the year. In the winter, we can ride many trails in town and down in Lake Pueblo State Park. As the snow melts, we inch higher and higher into the mountains until we can hit 14000' if we want! Here are some pictures from the many seasons of riding here:

January in Pueblo is a blast!

Way better than sitting in front of the tube.

It's June and we can hit the high country.

August at 13000'

Winter Park, CO on my birthday...sweet!

October is night-ride time before the big snow flies.

October at Rampart Reservoir.

It's November and we are in Palmer Park.

December: Back in Pueblo in the State Park trails. Good times!

As you can see, we can ride year round on the front range of Colorado, and there are some really good riders to hang out with if you are lucky!

It must be snowing

2009-10-25T19:07:00.000-06:00

That means it's time to brew up a new batch of homebrew!

First, you have to get the equipment together

Then you get your wort (grain tea & sugars) boiling

Then you have to cool it

It takes a while, so I am having the last beer from the previous batch while I wait

Cool enough to put the yeast in

Now you have to wait a few weeks to bottle it!

Not a bad way to kill a few hours on a snowy day. Soon I will be drinking a fine home-brewed 90 Schilling Ale!

Some days.....

2009-10-24T13:25:00.000-06:00

the body just won't cooperate. I was planning a pretty good-sized ride today. But as I was climbing out of my neighborhood into the Blodgett open space, my lungs felt like I was at 14000'. Keeping in mind that if I run myself down I could easily catch one of the many fantastic flu bugs going around, I decided to explore a few trails and head home.

Here is a view of my "hood" from several hundred feet above it.

Here is a good view of where the gravel pit collapsed.

That's about it for today's adventure. Can't wait to feel 100% again!

Leadville 100 Movie

2009-10-22T21:08:00.000-06:00

Just got back from the movie "Race Across the Sky" and really enjoyed it. They even had footage from 2 days ago when it premiered in Durango. Not bad for such a short time window. If you have ever considered riding this race, you need to see this movie. It will give you an idea of the terrain, altitude, the race crew and the sheer amount of racers. There were some good stories as well. It wasn't just the "Lance Armstrong" show as some were anticipating. This movie will make you realize just how awesome riders like Dave Wiens, Lance Armstrong, Travis Brown and many other elite bike racers are. They make it look way too easy!

Tour of the Lakes!

2009-10-18T17:48:00.000-06:00

This is why I love Colorado and riding mountain bikes. Today we rode a route we call Tour of the Lakes. It starts at the Rampart reservoir trial-head and follows the reservoir trail towards the dam. After that, you have to be with someone in "the know" to find the rest of the route. Today is October 18 and we rode at 9000' feet in shorts! In a week, that could all change but why not live for the moment?
There is a certain part of the ride called "The Rock". It is a huge granite slab in the middle of the forest. It is quite intimidating the first time you ride down it (much like slickrock). We used to do it with cantilever brakes which was really scary. Now the modern disc brakes make things a bit less stressful.

Here is Matt leading the unsuspecting followers down to the steep section.

Scott and Don are blindly following.

Scott on the steeper part.

Don had to think about it for a second.

Success!

As we continued on the ride, we ended up on the Stanley Canyon trail. The hikers always look surprised to see bikes on this trail!

Here we are discussing important issues like global warming, etc..

This is truly a classic loop especially in the fall!

Everything old is new again

2009-10-17T17:24:00.000-06:00

There was a Mountain Bike race in Palmer Park today. Normally I would avoid that area and go for a ride elsewhere but I got a wild hair and asked the promoter, Andy Bohlman, if I could race the Men's Cat II 40-49 age class and he said yes. Even more awesome was that he would comp me the entry fee!

I retired from racing around 15 years ago and never looked back. But I also have raced every mountain bike race in Palmer Park that has been held. So yesterday I emailed Andy and explained my situation and he was down with it. Talk about slipping into an old pair of comfortable shoes...

So my streak remains and that means next year I will have to do it all over again. Now that I am older and wiser, I have learned the best recovery food:

First Night Ride of the season!

2009-10-15T07:30:00.001-06:00

Last night, I dusted off the helmet-light and met my friend Ron for our first night-ride of the season. We started at Cheyenne Mountain high school and headed up the Stratton trails to Gold Camp road. At the first tunnel we headed towards Columbine trail (which is closed-doh). I passed a deer on the single-track and he waited until the last minute to skeedaddle out of there!

I forgot how sketchy it is to ride those decomposed granite trails at night. It makes you feel like a novice all over again. I think it's actually harder to go slow in the dark because your balance is so weirded out.

Forgot my camera so had to use the cell phone for pics! This is at the overlook before descending to High drive.

After Columbine and Buckhorn, we headed down Captain Jacks back toward Gold Camp. I didn't know it but Ron had flatted right before the top of the last climb. When I got to the parking lot by the first tunnel, there was no-one behind me! I sat there for a while, shining my light all over the place, wondering where ol' Ron had gone. All the while there was a young couple in a car sitting by the tunnel and they were wondering what the heck that light was. The girl finally yelled out at me: "You are freaking us out! Can you come here and tell us about the area?". Still wondering where Ron was, I rolled over to converse. She started asking me all these crazy questions about the tunnels being haunted and the bloody hand-prints on the walls of the first tunnel and how a family was killed in the third tunnel collapse many years back. I told her that was all BS! She asked me if being out there at night freaked me out. I said no (but sometimes it does!). She asked me if I was a thrill-seeker. I said no (but maybe I am a little). About then Ron showed up and told me about the flat and we headed down the way we came. That descent down through Stratton is a blast at night!

Why is it...

2009-10-11T13:32:00.003-06:00

that every time you get a new part for your bike and you are really excited to go ride, it snows, rains or you get sick?

Case in point: my new Fox 29er fork. I was fooled by the local weather forecasters into thinking it would be around 45 degrees out right now. It's 34 degrees and foggy. I am older and less hardcore about riding so I will wait this cold front out and ride when it's warmer.

Of course the best alternative to riding is a wee bit of alkeehaul. Maybe a cocktail before dinner will ease the pain...

Welcome to the banality of my life!

2009-10-11T09:41:00.001-06:00

Actually I really like my life. But to some, it could be boring.

For example, I visited the Busch Brewery in St. Louis in '08. It was awesome! Maybe you don't like beer...

Anyway, I named this blog "Round is IT" because my life has been shaped by the wheel. Whether it's a bike, skateboard, motorcycle or car wheel, it has been a key element in my (and most everyone's) life.

I never thought I would do a blog because who cares what I have to say? Then I realized how much enjoyment I get from viewing my friends blogs and seeing what they are up to. So if nothing else, all of my friends can now see what I am up to. Boring or not. I hope it's not!