South Siiiide!

Lake Pueblo State Park's South Shore (Marina). Notice the ice at the left side foreground.

Didn't mean to be sound gangish y'all. What I really meant to say was South Shore, specifically Pueblo, Colorado's Lake Pueblo State Park's South Shore Marina. Moab's weather was too risky to travel 6 hours and only have a 50 percent to not have precipitation fall on us. So on a whim, I decided we should check out Pueblo's off-road offerings. We bagged the promise land and instead detoured to Pueblo. On the road, Sverre checked the weather at Moab and lo and behold it was raining. Thanks NOAA and your reliable forecasting skills!

We parked inside the park and 28.3 miles later under the sun's gift of 64°F we were back at Keb-moe's lovely Sequoia. We saw the front roll in on our return trip: the winds blowing and getting colder, the occasional drop of rain, and the looming dark clouds in the distance.
Here's Kevin on Voodoo with the clouds rollin' in...

The terrain unfortunately wasn't captured by me because we were in the flow. The technical stuff consisted of dried out waterfall chutes lined with a boat load of shale. Going up or going down was pretty cool. Every now and again a tortilla sized piece of shale would get kicked up from the tires it smacked the ground in such a way it made this real sharp, bright sound that ricocheted off the sides of the waterfall. Sometimes the single track would be lined three layers deep with shale flakes and when we would roll over it it sounded like people throwing beer bottles as hard as they could at the ground making this SUPER amplified exploding glass sound. Very audio-visual riding out here in Pueblo's South Shore.
Here we are at the Voodoo trail.

On our way back we took some unintended detours trying to out and back it to the parking lot. One particular trail called Cuatro Cinco was like a slap in the face. We were already tired and close to cramping and here's this circuitous loop with stiff, sprint-like climbs interspersed within the loop taking us away further from the parking lot. Ouch.
almost back at the truck

Wished I couldda snapped some pictures of the many waterfall chutes. Thinking about it (like what Hez-chilly's doing below), it was nutty y'all...

I edited Hez-Billy's GoPro footage and if'ns you wantsta see it click on this youtube link!

Winter's zapping my road fitness

Old Man Winter's recently had a wicked grip on our state for the last couple of weeks; consequently that means no road miles, no hour of power. I've been running but really there's nothing like pedaling on the road with a nice stiff wind blasting you and a pack to draft from. It is Winter, but still I thought I was making some headway. Got invited to go to a spin class with my friend Hez-chilly-that was cool. Sweated my arse off; got a pretty decent workout too. Guess I also need to prepare for that half-marathon.

This past Sunday I probably logged in seven miles running. 5 on the treadmill with another two chasing my son on his bike on the bike trails with my pootchies in tow. There was a bunch of run-off from the melting snow so we were pretty wet. Still wished I coulda rode.

Have one more day on my four-pass at WinterPark. If Moab's going to be a bust this weekend, I'm either going to go skiing or I'm going to get a bunch of off road miles in a town south of us called Pueblo. My weight's down but I really need to start stressing my body with more endurance base miles. No weight training 'cept using my shlubby self as resistance doing pushups and situps.

Mentally I need to pull that trigger and commit but I don't know why I'm so apprehensive about riding in slushy weather. I hate cleaning my bike that's for sure and if I don't go off-roading while the mud still's frozen I won't do it at all. Work and parenthood, oooweee. I ask myself why do I pay licensing fees to race at an amateur level when the dividends aren't so good. My friend told me six hours is the magic number for competitive cyclists who are also parents. Six hours? How do you find the time to ride six hours (per week) on the road, check your kids homework, cook dinner, grade, and have reading before bedtime? My time management's average but six hours? Really? In the summer, when school's out though on good weeks I can get close to ten. I have to wait until May until then and by that part of the season my fitness is playing catch up to my cohorts in the pack. I make do. I have to I suppose if I want to not become a super sluggo where my waist circumference exceeds my pectoral measurements, soon after followed by man boobs. Yuck. Guess it's my vanity that makes the suffering rewarding, quantifiable, and valuable. Don't hold it against me; instead send some positive energy my way so's the weather gods and goddesses make Moab climactically doable for the homey trinity.