Does it get any higher than New Mexico?

Living in Denver you tend to think that you are acclimated to high elevation. But I guess with some mountain bike racing, you are truly bike racing-- up a mountain.

The base of Angel Fire, New Mexico stands at a mere 8,500 feet. That's where we started. The course consisted of 60% technical singletrack and 30% fire roads. The long loop was approximately 9 miles and climbs up to 10,500 feet each lat with about 2000 feet of elevation gain. This we did twice. So yes Nick, when I said I felt like I climbed 4000 feet, I wasn't kidding!

My warm up hurt pretty good. When you look down and see 182 on your heart rate monitor, and you're spinning about 60 RPM, you're doing some major climbing. The good thing though, it that you aren't the only one suffering. When the race kicked off, our pack moved like jello up some of the steepest sections of the course. I knew I had to settle in pretty fast, otherwise it would be an anaerobic burnout. I gradually moved up to about 5th place by the top of the first lap. I was stoked on the final technical climb that I was outclimbing girls. I told myself I would just keep pedaling until I fell over, and sure enough I just kept going.

I have been gaining major confidence in my technical riding skills as I have become more acquainted with my Yeti. This was the first race where I could rely on my technical downhill skills to gain ground as opposed to losing ground. I was only passed by one gal in my class (Expert 19-29) on the downhill, and considering she was the Women's Open Super-D the previous day, I didn't feel too shabby.

By the end of the first descent, I felt more exhausted than at the top of the descent. Apparently it served no recovery. I could barely shift into my granny gear from round number two of the climb. Overall, I finished sixth. It was rough, but I'm not too disappointed considering the circumstances coming into the race: moving furniture the day before instead of pre-riding, still being physically hungover from the Tribe Gathering, sleeping with a dog on my head the entire night, and well, being there and just finishing was good enough.

As of now I am third in my class (Expert 19-29). I am ready to get back into some "training." Today I am going to go and ride Lookout Mountain and see where I am at fitness wise. Yesterday I had the most incredible commute to work, I climbed up Chimney Gulch trail from my house in Golden to the very top of Lookout Mountain and then descended down Apex to work. What a way to start the day! I think that will have to be my new morning mountain biking commute. Screw the bike path!

I'm headed into the heart of race season soon. The Rio Stampede on June 7 was cancelled. It was rescheduled for August 9th. Unfortunately I'll have the miss the 12-hour bonanza for a friend's wedding. In place of the Rio Stampede, I'll be doing the Teva Mountain Games XC race on June 7. It'll be a good time to see a friend coming in from out of town to race and to race with a gigantic pack. Looking forward to it.

So I realized finally I need to replace the rechargeable batteries in camera. So no new pics from the weekend. I do have a few pictures of the downhill racing that was going on in Angel Fire. It was 4X Nationals also that weekend. A little peak into what I may be getting myself into up in Keystone this summer. (Actually this looks very similar to the descent on the XC course, funny how that works!)