Saturday was the Ergon Monster Ride. The plan was 6+ hours on the mtb.....and never ride the same trail twice. Mission accomplished! 11 riders came into Fort Collins to tackle the challenge. Here is the 6.5 hours cut down to 5.5 minutes....
And tons of photos from myself and Jim Fu!
The route took us through the foothill trails....over through Lory State Park....a loop through Horsetooth Mountain Park.....a loop out at Bobcat Ridge....then back to Fort Collins on the road. We were to hit Blue Sky and Devils Back Bone, but a few flat tires early and late in the ride slowed the pace down. Overall, I think everyone was excited to ride fresh dirt in a new setting. I am sooooooooo fortunate to have these trails literally in my back yard!
The bike was pushed aside on Wednesday. Well, kind of. Only did a 45 minutes core workout and a short easy 1 hour mtb ride in the backyard. Wednesday was all about the evening....and the Godsmack concert down in Broomfield, CO along with my buddy, Sonya Looney. It ended up being 3 hours of this......
Great show! Bravo! Godsmack really knows how to put on a show! All I can say is I am glad I took ear plugs along. Otherwise, there is no way in hell I would be hearing a thing today.....or in the near future.
We have been in a vortex of wind the last few days. If you are reading this in the Midwest and East Coast....you are probably getting what wind we had the last few days. Even with the light snow and rain that came with the wind, the trails dried out nicely! Tuesday, was a good late afternoon on the mtb. The first 2.5 hours were spent doing a hard tempo through Lory State Park and Horsetooth Mountain Park. After than I swung past the house, refilled bottles, then headed to New Belgium Brewery to take on the weekly CX training race.
When I pulled up, the Mens/Womens A race was getting ready to start. Lots of people showed up for the final race in the weekly series.
At 5:30, the Open race started! Great course was laid out for the 30 minute race....perfect for a mtb. 30 minutes, what?!?! Talk about shock to the system...which is honed to race for 7+ hours at a time!
Chasing....and being chased.
Sand spider!
In this day and age, this is about as hard as my 32 year old heart will beat..:)
Overall, it was a great way to wrap up the evening. Only downfall is it took a while for my body to relax enough to fall asleep.
Legs were sluggish all week. Last weekends near 12 hour weekend of training put a dent in the recovery process. So, the rides were short last week....as was the intensity. Yesterday (Saturday) I did not ride as I was in Denver all day for a very chaotic Veloswap. When I say chaotic, I mean busy, busy, busy. Check out all the people!
Crazy madness!!!!
Today I headed out with the goal of 4.5 hours hard. But if the legs sucked in the first 1.5 hours I would cut it short. Thankfully, the legs wanted to go, go, go! So, it was a singletrack tour of most of the singletrack near Fort Collins.
Started things off right with an out-n-back on Blue Sky and Indian Summer.
Damn it! Flat tire. Doesn't happen much anymore with the Stan's tubeless set up. When it does, I have to dig deep into my melon to figure out how to change a flat with a tube. Gasp! I fixed the flat....rode back into town....put sealant in a new tire....then hit the foothills trails.
After the foothills trails it was a big loop around Lory State Park.
Climbing out of Lory State Park on a trail I should have only ridden down got me onto some suh-weet trail in Horsetooth Mountain Park.
Time to head back down to civilization!
4.5 hours later back at the house with a recovery drink going down the hatch. It is a mix of OJ, water, FRS, and PoweBar Recovery. Shake. Shake. Shake. Then consume.
Weather is behaving itself for the final prep leading up to the Claro Brasil Ride. Getting out on the bike at 10 AM and I am greeted by temps in the high 50Fs. I'll take it, because I know it could be much much much worse. Now, how do I train for racing in near 90F temps when the highs here barely hit 70F? Hmmmmm.......
More Claro Brasil Ride prep on a fine Saturday. Weather is still good here in Colorado. Sunny days and temps pushing 70F! The effort was a 5 hour race pace session with a mix of everything: climbs, pavement, singletrack, and some chunk. Here are the details. More of the same tomorrow. Legs feel good and the motivation is still high!
80F degree Fall days are getting few and far between. Got to get out there while you still can. Plus, the dirt is primo right now in the Front Range! Trying to make a dust cloud today. Not sure if I succeeded or not. The training is more like riding hard when I feel like it. Too late in the season to be focusing on a power meter or HR monitor too much. Trying to keep as much fitness as I can for the mtb stage race in Brazil. Which, at the time of this post is 27 days out. Weekday rides are short and too the point. Weekend rides are long to keep the legs familiar for those few stages which will push 90 miles in Brazil.
More Claro Brasil Ride prep with Sonya on Sunday. Original plan was to ride singletrack in Fort Collins, but rain killed that idea. So, I headed south to Boulder to hit up the foothills and the singletrack up at Nederland. It was a great day on the bike with mostly dry conditions.
The start of almost 4,000 feet of vertical.
Switchbacks galore!
The reward for 2 hours of climbing? 2 hours of singletrack at almost 9,000ft!
I've lived here in Colorado for now what....like 4 years. Until today, I had yet to set rubber on the trails in the Golden, CO area. I knew that there was great riding in the Golden area, but there was never a specific reason to ride here. It was always a bypass on the way to the high country. With a light dusting of snow in the high country last night, the training stayed low instead of heading high. Golden was a good new place to get a longer Claro Brasil Ride training session in. Yuki was the tour guide for Sonya and I today as we set off for hours in the cool early-Fall Colorado air.
The GS1 is a new grip Ergon introducing to the market in 2011. Think of the GS1 and a hybrid mix of the GP1 and GX1. You get the low weight of the GX models....and the comfort of the GP models. This grip is perfect for those long distance riders and racers. I am quickly falling in love with this new product!
I am getting about 15-20 hours a week on these new GS1 grips in prep for the Claro Brasil Ride in mid-November. There is a new internal wing inside the GS1, which is split to allow for different flexing properties while riding. It is a pretty amazing feel! Something the other Ergon grips do not feature at this time.
Colorado singletrack in the early Fall. It really doesn't get much better! Today was a 3 hour zone 2-3 mtb ride on the foothills trails, Lory State Park, and Horsetooth Mountain Park. Funny thing is I have been living here for almost 4 years now....and I rode some 'new to me' trails. Awesome!!
Training is starting to ramp up again now that there is a stage race in about 1 months time. After the move on Friday, the rides have been mellow and brief....lasting about 2.5 hours. After the Vapor Trail 125 and Interbike, it is taking a while to get the engine going again. Yesterday I headed out on a 2.5 hour solo ride on the mtb. Today was going to be a longer ride with the Colorado State Cycling Team, but I made it about 2 hours before my rear derailleur cable started to fray and effect my drivetrain. So, I broke off the group and spun home. Here is the video from the first half of the group ride, which had about 8 riders total.
2005 Results
12 Hr Sugar Creek :: 2nd
12 Hr of Metro :: 1st
12 Hr of Thunder :: 2nd
12 Hr of Winter :: 3rd
24 Hr of 9 Mile :: DNF
24 Hr of 7 Oaks :: 1st
24 Hr in Japan :: 1st
2004 Results
Stump Farm 12 Hr :: 2nd
24 Hr of Rapelje :: 1st
12 Hr Nationals :: 3rd
24 Hr of 9 Mile :: 10th
24 Hr Solo World :: 12th
24 Hr of Moab :: DNF
Bio
NAME: Jeff Kerkove
NICKNAME: Mr. 24
COUNTRY: USA (Colorado)
TEAM:Topeak-Ergon DOB: 2.7.1978
HEIGHT: 6 ft.
WEIGHT: 165 lbs.
RACE CATEGORIES:
Pro (XC & Endurance) Click for full Bio
