2007 January | UltraRob's Adventures

Trail Access in Pike/San Isabel National Forests

January 29th, 2007

I’ve gotten a few e-mails including ones from IMBA and the Medicine Wheel Email List about the Management Plan for the Pike and San Isabel National Forests being revised. The Pike and San Isabel National Forests cover a huge area along the Front Range and into the central mountains. The area includes epic mountain bike rides like the Monarch Crest Trail, Buffalo Creek, sections of the Colorado and Continental Divide Trails, and numerous trails near Colorado Springs, Salida, Leadville, and Pueblo.

There is a page on the web that gives ways to get your opinion heard. The Forest Service is holding 7 public meetings. Two of them have already taken place. One is scheduled for this Tuesday in Denver and our Colorado Springs meeting is planned for Wednesday night. Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend it but hopefully I’ll be able to get some information on what happens there. I know at least one person from Pikes Peak Velo plans to go.

The biggest issue is some people would like to see the whole west and south slope of Pikes Peak, among 10 other places in central Colorado, be designated as Wilderness. I’ve spent plenty of time backpacking in wilderness areas and think they are important but they don’t allow mountain bikes. According to the email on from theMedicine Wheel Email List, the Central Colorado Wilderness Coalition would like to see Wilderness designation and they are planning on attending/commenting in large numbers. If you can’t make any of the meetings, you can send an email to r2_psicc_webmail@fs.fed.us or snail mail comments to

Pike-San Isabel National Forests
Attn: Forest Plan Revision Team
2840 Kachina Drive,
Pueblo, CO 81008

Tags: mountain biking, Pike National Forest, San Isabel National Forest, trail access
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

2007 Bloggies Finalists That I Read

January 27th, 2007

3 of the blogs that I read regularly are finalists in the 2007 Bloggies. Two of them are cycling blogs.

The first one is the Fat Cyclist. Fatty races the Leadville 100 every year. He also struggles with his weight like I do but I’d be happy to get my weight as low as Fatty’s. He is a finalist in the Best Kept Secret Blog category. He says he will hold his breath until he turns purple if you don’t vote for him.

The second one is Up in Alaska. Jill is an ultra endurance cyclist and always has great pictures on her blog. She’s currently training for the Susitna 100. Yesterday she rode a 100 miles on her mountain bike in conditions I’d use as an excuse to not train. She’s a finalist in the Best Sports Blog category.

Let’s all help these 2 cyclists win by voting for them. Voting ends at 10:00 PM EST on Friday, February 2.

Since you’re still reading, I’ll tell you which non-cycling Bloggie finalist I read. It’s ProBlogger. It’s a finalist in the Best Web Development Weblog category. Darren gives a lot of tips on writing better blogs and making money from doing it. I find his SEO posts interesting from a technical perspective. I’m a software developer and not a writer so I don’t have any plans to quit my day job any time soon. However if I could make enough money from my blog and website to be able to attempt RAAM again, I’d be more than happy. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been working on putting a cycling and outdoor gear product search on my website. I’m far from being done with it but I’ve slowly been making progress on it.

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Tags: bloggies, cycling, mountain biking
Posted in Bike | 2 Comments »

Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race Lottery

January 24th, 2007

There’s only a week left to get into the lottery for this year’s Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race. I’ve decided not to try to get in since I haven’t figured out what I’m doing this year. Even before I got injured, I was really out of shape and had gained 25 pounds since RAAM. I hope to be in race shape before the Leadville 100 but there’s plenty of other races I want to do that don’t require me to put in money on the line until shortly before the race. I plan to do Leadville again in the future but this year doesn’t seem the right year.

If you want to get in your entry must be received not just mailed by January 31st. Exactly how the lottery works is a bit of a mystery but over the years I’ve learned some things about it. Some racers automatically get in. I’ve known that the few racers that have raced every year get in. Also those that are super-human or crazy enough to also do the run get in. Ken Clouber, the race promoter, always says you get preferential treatment the following year if you volunteer for one of the races. Everybody I’ve talked to that has volunteered had gotten in the next year.

I’ve also heard that if you’ve not been picked for 2 years in a row that you’ll get in the next year if you try. I didn’t get in the first 2 years I tried. The first time was the year before they started the lottery. I also volunteered the 2nd year I didn’t get in so the fact I got in the third year probably doesn’t prove that theory.

Now with all the attention the Leadville 100 has gotten because of Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis, I’ve learned a couple more things. In an article in the Herald Democrat on January 4th, Ken says there’s always been a lottery exemption for sponsored racers. He doesn’t say what the definition of a sponsored racer is and I’m sure it doesn’t include guys sponsored by their local bike shop. I think the sponsored athletes still have to have their entry in on time because I’ve heard that Dave Wiens didn’t get to race the first year he wanted to but he tried getting in after the deadline.

He also says the defending champion is automatically in which only makes sense. Another sure way to get in is to move to Leadville because locals don’t have to go through the lottery. Also those that have raced more than 5 years and are going for the 1,000 mile giant buckle. I had noticed that guys I know that have done Leadville several times always get back in so it was pretty obvious there was this exemption but I wasn’t sure how many years were needed. I did it 4 years in a row but haven’t done it the last couple years. It looks like that I will have to race one more year to automatically get in. Or is that 2 more since he said more than 5 years?

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Tags: cycling, Floyd Landis, Leadville 100, mountain biking
Posted in Bike, Mountain Bike | 2 Comments »

Sledding the Manitou Incline

January 24th, 2007

I use the Manitou Incline for cross-training during the off season. There’s nothing like doing just over 2,000 vertical in a mile. Just before the false summit, the grade peaks out at 68%. The lower section isn’t nearly as steep but it’s plenty steep. According to an article in the Gazette, just before New Years a couple young guys were looking for steeper, longer hills to sled on. With all the snow we’ve had the ties on the Manitou Incline were buried so they decided to give the lower section a try. They sledded successfully for a while but it didn’t end well. One of them ended up with a broken arm.

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Tags: Colorado Springs, Manitou Incline
Posted in Hike | 1 Comment »

Injured While Skiing

January 21st, 2007

In my last post about why I don’t like skiing at ski areas, the last reason I gave was getting cold on the lifts. I included my muscles getting cold and then expecting them to work when I get off the lift. That might be a big part of why I got injured when I went skiing with my brothers between Christmas and New Years. Getting really out of shape and gaining nearly 30 pounds since RAAM certainly could also have been a big factor.

We had taken a very late lunch and were going to do one last run together before my brother’s went over to Loveland Valley to check on their kids at ski school. When I got off the lift, I caught an edge. I was telemark skiing and most telemark bindings don’t release when you fall. It felt like my left was being twisted right below the knee to the point that something was going to snap. I couldn’t get up on my own and my brother and the ski patrol got to me about he same time. Once the ski patrol took my ski off, my leg felt so much better that I thought I might be alright. After discussing it with the ski patrol, I decided to wait a few minutes and see how my leg felt. Pretty quickly I figured out I shouldn’t try skiing down and the ski patrol called for a snowmobile to come pick me up.

The first few days just walking around was difficult. If I was on a flat, even surface it wasn’t too bad but it didn’t take much unevenness to put me in pain. My physical trainer/athletic trainer checked me. He said I had strained my hamstring tendon attachment just below and also stressed the tibial head.

I started stretching 2-3 times a day. My sports massage therapist friend had showed me after my injury during RAAM how to use a rope to stretch my hamstring and IT band. I got a 10 foot piece of 5/8 inch nylon rope from Home Depot. I lie on my back and wrap the rope twice around my foot. I then pull my leg up in the air. This allows me to pull my foot into different angles in order to stretch my hamstring and IT band in different ways. It also has a benefit that it allows gravity to help circulation. Stretching this way has worked much better for me than the standard stretch where you sit and hold your foot or put a towel around it to do the hamstring stretch.

I’ve also been using up to 4 servings of Hammer Nutrition’s Tissue Rejuvenator. It’s their product that has glucosamine and chondroitin in it but they also but some other natural things in to help reduce inflamation and help with healing. It really seems to have been helping.

I first spun easy on my trainer after a week. After 15 minutes my leg was getting too sore so I stopped. Now it’s been 3 1/2 weeks and I’m up to riding an hour at a moderate effort on the trainer. I haven’t tried riding outside yet but probably could. We’ve had so much cold and snow and I don’t want to take a chance on crashing.

Technorati Tags: skiing | injury

Tags: injury, skiing
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Why I Don’t Like Skiing at Ski Areas

January 20th, 2007

Until the week between Christmas and New Years, I hadn’t skied at a ski area in over 10 years. I much rather ski in the backcountry and have been doing a trip to the Eiseman Hut every winter for the last several years. My brother was here from Ohio. He’s 6 years older than me and I hiked the majority of the fourteeners with him. He was the one that I did most of my backcountry activities with when I was young and we did backcountry trips as long as 2 weeks.

When he was here we did one day of cross-country skiing near Montezuma and skied part of the Montezuma’s Revenge course. He also wanted to take his kids skiing at a ski area. Our other brother that lives here also went but he was never into the backcountry trips.

Here are some of the reasons I hadn’t skied at a ski area for over 10 years.

Not only are there already tracks, but most of the time the snow is totally packed down. When we’re skiing in the backcountry we try to avoid going down where there are already tracks.

There are lots of people. I don’t really hate people but I like to be with at most a small group when I’m out in the backcountry. I like to enjoy the mountain beauty and to hear the sounds of nature. In fact the reason I like hut trips is more about being away from it all than it is about the great skiing.

Standing in line. We went to Loveland which is one of the smaller ski areas so the crowds weren’t too bad but there still were lines.

People smoking. There seemed to considerably fewer smokers on the slopes than there were 10+ years ago but there were still some. Nothing like a good lung full of smoke to ruin the outdoor experience. If you smoke that’s your right but please be considerate of those of us that like fresh mountain air.

Getting cold on the lifts. I’m not just talking about feeling cold because I’m just sitting there up at the tree tops with the wind blowing on a cold day. It’s also letting tired muscles get cold and then expect them to work when you get off the lift.

Technorati Tags: skiing | backcountry

Tags: backcountry, skiing
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

87 Hours On an Indoor Bike

January 19th, 2007

Last Saturday night George Hood finished riding an indoor bike for 85 hours straight to set a new Guinness World Record. Actually the elapsed time was a little longer because the rules allow for 5 minutes off the bike for every hour ridden. He was riding to raise money for Illinois COPS.

On Monday John Jurczynski started riding for a planned 50 hours to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. John is training for solo RAAM this year. In December he had done 50 hours to raise money for his local Children’s Santa Fund. When he heard of the new record, he decided to see if he could break it. Soon after midnight this morning, he made it to over 87 hours with an elapsed time of 89 hours. That means that in over 3.5 days he was only off the bike for about 2 hours! Since he decided to go for the record at the last minute it may end up being unofficial because he wasn’t sure what was required to get into the Guinness World Records Book. One thing that Biking Bis mentions is that the whole time has to be videotaped.

In 2004 while training for the Race Across Oregon, I did a training camp with the race directors and 2 others where we rode the 535 miles in 4 days. One of the other riders was Italian Alessandro Colo. Over New Years he had done a massive spinning session that was a little under 200 hours as I recall. Over New Years of 2005, he did another spinning session that was 201 hours and was reported by CyclingNews. Alessandro’s English was rather broken so it was a little hard to carry on a conversation with him but I talked to him a fair amount over the 4 days. One of the nights we shared a room. As I recall he took some short naps during his record attempt in 2004. That would be possible with the rules if he saved up his 5 minutes per hour for several hours and then took them at one time. Biking Bis says Alessandro’s record isn’t in the 2007 Guinness Book of World Records but I thought he was trying to get it in. He used to have some English pages on his website but now it seems to all be in Italian. Babel Fish didn’t help me very much.

Update 12/15/07: John “Blue Dog” Jurczynski and Mike “Mad Dog” Gallagher have pushed the Guinness spinning record to 113 hours!

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Tags: cycling, RAAM, Race Across America, spinning record
Posted in Bike | No Comments »

Blog Moved

January 17th, 2007

I’ve finally gotten this blog moved from it’s old blogspot address to my website domain. I still have links that need to be updated so things might be a bit messy for a little while. If you’re using the Feedburner feed, you shouldn’t have to do anything since I’ve pointed it to the new location. If you’re still using the Blogger feed, you will need to update it.

Technorati Tags: cycling | mountain biking

Tags: cycling, mountain biking
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Race Promoter’s Opinion On Landis Doing Leadville 100

January 9th, 2007

I’ve been wondering whether Floyd Landis will be able to race the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike race if he doesn’t win his fight against the doping charge from last year’s Tour de France. Yesterday Ed posted on the Yahoo LT100Bike Group about his conversation with Ken, the Leadville 100 race organizer, when he dropped off his entry form. A portion of it is below and you can read the rest of the post here although I think you have to sign in.

I asked if he was concerned that NORBA wouldn’t allow Landis to compete. Wrong question. I mean, really wrong question. I found out that Ken “doesn’t give a flyin’ f**k what NORBA thinks, it’s his d**n race and if Landis wants to ride, he’s in.” (I guess the lottery thing isn’t 100% for everybody huh?)

Then, and I quote, “And one more thing. If NORBA’s supposed to be connected with USA cycling, then why the hell wasn’t the people in charge of USA cycling standing by a USA cyclist who was being framed by the f****n’ French? Bunch of pissant p**sies.”

That was just for starters. Before long he really got going.

“What a bunch of crazy bulls**t—are they all out of their minds?
Sayin’ that testosterone could make you win a d**n race. Hell, if that s**t worked, I’d have won ever d**n race I ever entered. I take a bath in that crap ever’ single mornin’!” (That I don’t doubt!)

I should have guessed that would be his attitude. After doing the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike race 4 times, the Silver Rush 3 times, crewing for the MTB race, and volunteering for the 100 mile run and the 10k, I’ve had a several interactions with him and don’t find it hard to believe he’d say that.

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Tags: cycling, Floyd Landis, Leadville 100, mountain biking
Posted in Bike, Mountain Bike | No Comments »

Leadville 100 Entry Forms Online

January 5th, 2007

The entry forms for the Leadville races was posted online on Wednesday. This is the 25th year for the 100 mile run. The entries for the mountain bike race must be received by January 31st. The mail to Leadville isn’t exactly fast so you shouldn’t wait until the last minute.

Lance Armstrong has now said he won’t race and Floyd Landis is a maybe depending on how is doping case turns out. By the way there’s a good article in the LA Times that discusses the Landis case and how the testing system works. Quite honestly I think it’s better for the race that Lance isn’t there. Some people of criticized me for saying Leadville isn’t a true mountain bike race but it doesn’t have any single track. To me the draw of the race is the atmosphere. There’s no race that comes close to the atmosphere both at the racer meeting and out on the course on race day. I’m afraid if Lance were there it wouldn’t be the same.

I have about 3 weeks to decide if I’m going to race the Leadville 100 mountain bike race this year. At this point I’m totally undecided whether I want to do it. I’m more excited about doing Montezuma’s Revenge this year. It’s 2 weeks before Leadville so I should be able to recover in time. The Durango 100 is the week before so it won’t work if I do Montezuma’s Revenge. In 2003 I did Leadville with Durango the following weekend and I’m not sure I want to repeat back to back 100 milers.

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