Hard core on a schedule

Every Sunday used to consist of an all-day bike or moto adventure. Yesterday was a bit more fragmented.

Morning
Mess with babies. Gather tools for my meeting. Be tired.

1 p.m.
Meet with a Longmont resident named Alex about a riding park at his house. Distant neighbors and three acres: oh the possibilities.

The first phase is 1) a set of intermediate learning jumps and 2) a nice pump track. We’ll expand as Alex craves more terrain. He has plenty of space and a great house. I mention a Pump Track Worlds like the one last year in Australia. He says sweet. I say SWEET!!!

2 p.m.
Roll to downtown Boulder to meet The Wife and Babies at brunch. Park the Sprinter on the edge of town, grab the Intense 20 and let roll. What a spritely minx! Whipping through traffic like it’s my job, getting crazy looks from adults on adult bikes. Hopping curbs, baby!

The guacamole is warm, Mom is feeling good and the babies are sleeping in their cute way. All is good and peaceful on the fatherhood front.

4 p.m.
It’s week 10 of my 12-week trainer interval program. I’m supposed to do 3 x 3 minutes at threshold, recover, then 6 x 30 seconds at full power. As much fun as that is, the sun is shining and I want to ride for real.

I park the van at the bottom of my hill, whip out the S-Works Tricross then spin the bike route north along the base of the hills. Zoom zoom, this thing is fast! I take every dirt option off the surfaced path. The tires cake up, they clear, they cake up, they clear. Drop bars and full Lyrca, baby!

The bike path ends at a semi-steep, very rocky singletrack. Braaap up I go. A winter of hard workouts and a 19-pound bike make climbing easy.

Clatter down the other side: slide in the ice, wallow in the mud, rail the hardpack to Boulder Reservoir. Climb back up, hike the icy mud then hammer down the rocks I climbed. The carbon frame takes hits like a snare drum: rat tat tat!

I’m looking at my watch, racing home to feed babies. This is hard core in a whole new way.

Hard core on a schedule, baby!

Know more. Have more fun!

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