Last Training Ride before Bike MS

I have one last opportunity to get my legs and butt in shape for the Bike MS next weekend. Steve is coaching several triathletes this year and one of them is doing the Boulder Sprint Tri so we decided to come watch him race and spend the weekend in Boulder. I wanted to ride Old Stage Road before the Boulder Peak and get in one more long ride. I had myself all pumped up and ready to show Old Stage Rd that I’m not the wimp I was last year. Old Stage Rd hill is about 1.3 miles with 800 ft of elevation gain. Riding Old Stage last year was not pretty; it’s rather embarrassing having to walk a Cervelo up a hill. My hormones and I were not on the same page last year and I’ll use that as my excuse and spare the rest of the details. I’m stronger, better adjusted and most important, medicinally treated this year and I was ready. I downed some liquid substance that came in a small bottle and is supposed to naturally get all your neurons firing (Trigger), and we headed out from Boulder Reservoir. We got to Old Stage Rd and I was feeling even better, until we hit the road closed sign. Construction. The road is torn up. Not to be deterred, I kept riding. It was hard packed after all. No reason to stop. Steve, on the other hand, is very fond of his bike and wouldn’t ride on the dirt road. Challenge thwarted. We went on a nice long ride anyway through the back roads of Boulder.


I took Monday off work, so we had another day to play. Play for Steve and I means we sleep in until maybe 7am, get up and have a leisurely breakfast, change into some sort of training gear depending on the activity and head out. We love running in Chautauqua Park right below the Flatirons so that was our running location today. Boulder has gotten a lot more rain than we have and it was green and lush and cool.

                                              Riding the roads around Boulder.

My view when I draft off Steve 

Running in Chautauqua Park