My natural habitat

One week and one day ago Kyle and I drove up to his house situated at the base of the Horsetooth reservoir. Arriving at the house we found ourselves famished so we proceeded to head down the road about a mile to Cheba Hut, a hippie themed sandwich shop with sandwiches such as "the dank" and "purple haze" for some grub. The sandwiches we got lived up to their names, they were quite feastable. Coming back to the house Kyle and I unpacked all of our crap before a little relaxation followed by shake-out runs from the long 28 hours of driving we had done over the course of the past 3 days. Dank though Cheba Hut may be, we both decided that it probably was not the best pre-run fuel, who'd a thunk? Either way, it was good to stretch out the legs. The altitude definitely played a factor as I just didnt feel like I was able to open up my stride as easily without getting winded. It will be interesting to see what it feels like a month from now and even more interesting to return to sea level in August!

My second day I woke up early and went for another shakeout before an afternoon ride. The afternoon ride is a fast paced lunch time ride down from one of the local shops. I knew it was going to be hard as all the guys who showed up looked legit but I didn't know exactly what I was in for. The ride started out at a leisurely warm-up and steadily ramped itself up. We hit the first hill and being me, I attacked. Three-quarters of the way up the hill I looked back to see 4 riders bridging up to me, steadily gaining...damnit greg. They passed me and put about 10ft on me by the top. Chasing back on I hung with them for another 2-3 miles before being dropped through the round-abouts. Well this was a new feeling. Sitting on corner of the sidewalk I whipped out my snazzy gps phone to find the way back to the store. No thanks, I dont want to go on I-25 (the biggest highway in the Fort). Fortunately as I tried to retrace my steps I ran into two women who had missed the start of the ride. One of them I learned was Meredith Miller, a really fast local and the 2009 womens road race champion. They were nice and let me latch on to them and ride back to the shop. Lesson #1: Dont be an idiot.

The next morning I woke up at 5am to go to FAST masters swimming at the EPIC. Best decision ever. Since I have been to every practice the masters team has and I see big improvements in my stroke already. Today we got to do long course (50m) which was great for me not being a flip-turn expert. I have learned to swim with my back instead of my shoulders which is helping tremendously as my shoulders no longer hurt so bad and I feel more comfortable in the water. Winning. We did a gutcheck 200m at the end of practice today and I came in just under 2:54. Double-winning.

The past week I have gotten in some good rides including a ride up Rist Canyon, an 11 miles 5% avg grade climb followed by a good fast descent with Sam Dannenbring, a triathlete from VA Beach that I have raced against a good bit. Sam taught me another lesson in humility as he would drop me on both the climb and the descents, riding back to fetch me.

Unfortunately Kyle and I haven't been able to get out in the field yet for research due to the massive amount of snow blocking trail ridge, BUT we have played frisbee disc golf 4 times and made many a delicious meal. Not all bad. It is amazing to me how greg-geared this place is. For the first couple of days I couldn't stop telling Kyle how much I loved it. He replied, "Ya man, its like your natural habitat!" He couldn't have been more right.