I'm not dead yet…….

Bring out your dead.


"I'm not dead yet……"

Not that you could tell by my "less than timely" writing here.   Seems as if time has been flying by without me gracing the pages of the Internet with my own brand of wisdom & entertainment.   May well be for the better,  but I seem to have a bit more juice flowing these days (Creative Juices,  that is…).


First,  I DID go get a fat bike,  and got a taste of winter Fat Bike Riding on the front range.  THAT is a great way to stay motivated over the winter.   It's fun,  in that it is quite obvious that bikes were NOT meant to be ridden on snow.  Amazing it works at all.

Man,  the last time I wrote something here,  it appears to have still been winter.  Well past that now,  I've even had a full spring week in Utah,  my annual version of a spring training camp.  So it must have been a while.  

Spring Training Camp - All work - No Play

Did a week in Utah.  Moab for a few days,  then my second visit to Hurricane.  Stayed up on Gooseberry Mesa,  and that place just gets better and better with each visit.  The old trails still rock,  and there is a bunch of new stuff out there to ride.  If you like desert riding,  you owe yourself a trip out there.  World Class.

End of the Goose

Cactus Slalom

After a few days there,  we rocked across the entire southern Utah/Northern Arizona line.  With that we were able to check us out a little FLDS action.  A drive by on the greater Hildale,  Ut./ Colorado City, Az. metroplex is an experience not to be missed.  Well, at least the next time you need to drive from Hurricane, Utah to Fredonia, Arizona that is.   You owe yourself a few minutes to read up on the FLDS thing down there.  It's FAR worse,  and FAR weirder than you can imagine.   I of course managed to pick THAT day to wear my Polygamy Porter T-Shirt.  "I Tried Polygamy".  Perfect.

Then Get out of town…..

Spent a day on the way back in Cortez,  sampling the flowy,  jumpy goodness that is the Phil's World trail network.  Yep,  another place you HAVE to go to.  Here's a taste.


Rib Cage from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

SO,  hope to have a bit more flowing out of the brain here soon.  Stay tuned.

Photo(s) Credit:  John Deibert

Worldly thoughts

It appears that those of us in Colorado suddenly pulled up roots and moved to Michigan.  At least that is what the last few weeks have FELT like.  Gray.  Gray.  Cold.  Gray.  REALLY Cold.  Gray.  Then,  Gray.     Amazing how few days of midwest/east coast weather it takes to piss off those who are used to living here.  Generally spoiled,  we are.    No matter,  It has NOT been pleasant to ride bikes outdoors for the most part.    Course sometimes if you just work at it a bit,  it can be pretty damn nice out there.

Have a lot of motivation to get back in good enough shape to REALLY test out some heart arrhythmia drugs I am trying out,  and/or just get the nasty rhythms firing regularly for a second ablation attempt,  so I've been pushing myself pretty hard to get out.  Even rode for a FULL HOUR indoors one of those REALLY cold days.  Such seriousness is not usual around here at this time of year.    All that cold and snow is making me want another bike.

After borrowing one ( well,  not THAT one…) to do the Mile High Urban CX Fat Bike race,  and a few rides on "skinny" little 2.4 inch tires in the snow,  the bug is getting pretty itchy.

We shall see.  Kinda a fashionable thing to do these days,  that Fat Bike thing.  Seems like every clown around is riding some Fatty

While some super-bowl game was on,  there was also a rather large sporting event over in the land of Dutch.  The Cyclocross World Championships were in Hooger-Booger-Hidey-something in the Netherlands.  Mixed bag for the US riders,   with the eternal KFC Rainbow curse in full effect,  and Ryan Trebon tangling with a chainring.  Best way to see the race is the STELLAR work of In the Crosshairs.  His great #Svenness video series has the best recap of a really good Worlds race in his #Svenness #17.

Go watch it.  

And buy a shirt or book.  Keep him motivated to do these videos.  SUCH good work.

Seems that in spite of Euros having a reputation as not having a sense of humor,  and for being WAY too quiet at Cross races,  it seems that they actually can have some fun,  and are not always so serious.  (NO,  my Flemish is not that good,  but Google translate will get you there…)

Get out,  Ride,  Ski,  whatever.  Make sure the weather gods know we are NOT in Michigan.

Almost there

Well,  I guess I took a break from writing much here.  Unlike Bike Snob NYC,  I don't seem to know when I won't be putting anything up here,  and thus make an appointment to not write stuff.  Plus of course,  I am far from capable of spewing out my gibberish at anywhere near his level of quantity,  or really,  let us be brutally honest,  his quality.  With or without scheduling a break,  I seem to have taken one.

Since back about Christmas,  it has been a bit quiet around here,  all except for some little cyclocrossing race down in the Republic.    Not a bad week for cross,  if you are into that sort of thing. Some kinda fast dudes and dude-etts came to this neck of the woods and rode around a bumpy circle really fast.

Some Fast guy

Being as you need to be a Cat3,  even older than I am,  and have a functional heart/circulatory system to actually participate in said bumpy fast circle riding,  I attended in a mere support and fan like capacity.  Took Thursday off to pit,  help,  support and apparently jinx some of my teammates who were participating in the fast,  bumpy circle fast riding.  Two of the three I went to help were unable to complete all the required circles,  due to mechanical malfunctions and 4 stitches in the upper lip crashing events.

2014 CX Nats boo-boo from Dale Riley on Vimeo.

 The other managed to avoid too much of my "help" and was able to put herself up on the podium that day.  Nicely done,  Deirdre Garvey,  nicely done.  We are glad you came over to ride with the team.

Went back Sunday to watch the fast boys & girls do it for real.  Rang a bell,  Drank some beer,  yelled at some fast people,  hung out with the peeps.

More Fast guys

Not quite as fast folks

Pretty cool to have the big show here in our neck of the woods.  Wish I could have ridden the course there.  Looked SO sweet.  Too bad I doubt that any local races will get to use and abuse the "non-trail" lines used for Nationals,  so we will be back on the more usual Valmont courses next year.  Sigh.

With that show over,  and Worlds this weekend,  the whole cross thing will go dormant for a bit.  Time for skiing and maybe a dose of cross stoke now & then.


I also had the pleasure of chatting with my Cardiologist/Electrophisiologist about my failed heat probe/Zap thing.  He still insists on his number one "fix" being the famous Doctor approach of  "stop doing that".  He was telling me he thinks I should act my age,  and stop pushing my heart so hard.  Something about "seeing too many people with arrythmias"  and "exercising so hard at our altitude" not being "good" for you.   He also mentioned his opinion not being very popular in Boulder.  Wow,  Really?  It was not very popular with me,  either.  We then moved on to treatment options NOT involving me sitting on a couch from now on.

Now currently test driving and experimenting with some meds to see if blocking my calcium channels will help the heart rate "excursions" without too many side effects.  I am also trying to get my fitness ramped back up to where I can get hard enough efforts in on a regular basis to see how the drugs really affect me and the heart events.   Probably will also try a second EP study/Ablation if I get the events repeating more regularly again.  This time without the general anestisia.  Whee.

Enjoy the random bursts of cold,  snow,  wind and nice warm days.  It's winter in Colorado.