The Pre-Work Hours

Rob captured some cool pics of yesterday's dawn patrol. I still can't believe this all happens before work on a Tuesday.

The up...
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Little Superior with the town of Alta below


Ben- The big cheese at BD testing out some new boots. Yes. I would like a pair please. It's always fun to see what new toys BD is working on and Ben is the guy who gets to design and test this stuff.


Ben making one of the three turns he made all day. Seriously. It's full throttle, straight down, all the time.


Ben making another turn down Little Superior.


Ian tearing it up while he misses 2nd period at school. I'd say he made the right choice.


Proud father Dug is right behind him. How many Dad's do you know who would drag their teenager out of bed on a school day, climb a mountain, ski down it, and THEN take them to class?


Cardiac Bowl. (The backside of Superior and one of the best lines in the Wasatch).


No pics of Rob (Sorry ladies), but you can find him by watching this video.

I Am Ripe

I love everything about the dawn patrol sessions in the Utah backcountry. Getting in a few turns before work makes being at work much easier. But by about 2pm, I don't feel so fresh. I feel ripe. Like I have a thin layer of film or stink all over my body.

My post ski routine usually starts with a baby wipe shower in the car. Followed by applying a 2nd layer of deodorant over yesterday's layer. Once at work, I'll try and splash some hot water over my face and head. This routine seems to work but it's only a short term fix and by the afternoon, I start to get bummed out. Uncomfortable.

Today's 4pm team meeting in the small conference room is going to get interesting. A mouth full of Tic Tac's isn't going to mask the smell but it's my only option.

It's Cold But At Least It's Windy

If you got out today on the bike here in Utah, you know what I mean. Windy and cold. Probably the coldest ride of the year for me. I knew Brad would be up for it so I sent him an email and we met after work. We climbed the North side of Suncrest together and then went our separate ways. Did he keep riding? Did I keep riding? Nobody knows.

Fly It With Pride

Why is winning the sprint during a group ride so satisfying? Because you get to display the one finger salute.

Why is displaying the one finger salute so satisfying? Besides the aesthetic factor, it says so much without wasting precious oxygen.

Fly the salute often and with pride.

V-Day Celebration

Instead of gifts, flowers or chocolate, we decided to find a sitter for the kids and spend the morning together in the mountains. I consider myself very lucky to have a wife who can hang in the backcountry.

Conditions were perfect. Light snow falling with about 6-8" of new snow. Things were mostly stable so we decided on a north facing shot- Scotties up Little Cottonwood. I expected to see a bunch of people and a semi-tracked out mountain but despite several cars in the parking lot, we didn't see a single person the entire day. We cut a fresh skin track straight up the gut. It's a more direct and interesting route up. Rachelle didn't seem to mind the steep and technical lower sections. At least I didn't hear any complaints. As painful as breaking trail can be, there is something about cutting a new skin track that is very satisfying.

(Rachelle - just below the upper Scotties bowl)

Once we got to the upper bowl, we stayed left (towards No-Name) and climbed up to the ridge between N0-Name and the Scotties summit. Climbing got tricky as the pitch got really steep and the snow got deeper and deeper. I couldn't keep the smile off my face. I knew this was going to be one of the best days of the year. Still not a single person in sight. Unreal.

Rachelle managing the new snow sluff like a pro

Rachelle showing off the powder high

Rachelle and me after skiing first tracks top to bottom.

After the skiing, we hit one of our favorite places for lunch -the Porcupine Pub & Grill at the base of BCC.

The best V-day ever.

A Different Kind of Singletrack

photo credit - Dug

A good skin track is a lot like singletrack on dirt. It can be nauseatingly steep and technical or mellow and fluid.

Cross training in Utah. A pretty great state.

The Competition

What do you do when your co-worker is your rival. Your most feared competitor on the bike? You buy him treats.

Here at work, one of the perks is free soda, free fruit, and free candy. Which is fine for most people but not an ideal scenario for someone training for the upcoming race season. So imagine my delight when I started seeing piles of candy on my desk whenever I returned from a meeting. And it didn't stop there. I'd put on my jacket after a hard day at work, and notice the pockets loaded with treats. I knew immediately who was doing this.

So today, after a "mellow" lunch ride together, I offered to make a quick lunch run and bring back some food. Extra mayo, avocado, bacon...I ordered the works on his sandwich. And I topped it off with a huge sugar cookie (shaped like a heart w/ pink frosting).

We'll find out soon enough who has been eating too many treats.

Stuff

A small prototype run arrived today. If you need some new bib shorts for those training days and don't want the typical pearl izumi stuff, consider these.

First person to send me a pic of these on the podium at an ICUP event will get their entry fee paid for by Salt Cycling (Kenny, Brad, and Bob are you listening?) *Tweety chair does not count

Death Rattle

That's what is sounds like in my throat when I ride in cold temps and push the pace up a steep climb. I don't know if it's Exercise-Induced Asthma or just a freak thing that only happens in the cold but I've noticed it more and more recently.

I'm going to call it my death rattle.

I'm posting this so you'll know what to do if I pass out on the next ride. I'll be packing a straw in my jersey pocket. Take that straw, and jam it into my throat. Like this.

Thank you.