Marathon

This past few days and the ones to come are what I always figured that I would be living out here in Colorado, but haven't fully utilized yet.
Fri - XC ride cut short by rain at Deer Creek with Pam
Sat - 25 mi XC at Buffalo Creek with Pam
Sun - 30+ min DH runs with Pam, Postin and Sarah
Mon - 25 mi XC with Postin and Sarah at Buff Creek
Tues - work on sprinklers at Pam's house
Wed - DH with Loo and Ziska
Thurs - DH with Loo, Z, and Scuba

Then Fri, Sat at Sol Vista
Sun, Mon at Keystone
Tuesday maybe a rest day.
Sweet weeks. Here are some pics from the past few days.

IMBA rated Buffalo Creek as an epic ride. Me and Pam headed there on Saturday for a 25 mi loop. The trails were all super fun, buff, and twisty. The trails took us thru dense woods and forests and the remains of the 1996 fire.
Pam at the beginning of the day.

Pam, not keeping both hands on the wheel.

Me on some turns.

Over head on Pam.

Me, practicing my whips.

Left...

Right...

Left...

Brian Postin at the top of the 30+ min downhill. He was riding with Pam and Sarah, but Ziska, Loo, and Scuba got the time down to 25 min over the 2800 vertical feet. The trail was super fast and sorta smooth, not too technical.

Brian.

Sarah.

Sarah.

Sarah and Pam.

Here is a shot of what we just went down, we started up by the clear swatches that makes up Echo Mountain ski area and came down 2800 vertical feet into the valley below.

Then I took Brian over to some way more technical trails. Here is Brian on a trail that Cole built.

Brian riding what some would walk.

Brian, walking what most would ride!

Dinner afterword.

Brian showing off his awesome table manners.

Then I took Brian and Sarah where me and Pam has just been, at Buffalo Creek. It was a sweet ride. But, Pam had to work that day.

Dragging the foot again.

Brian, about doubled over after the huge effort up a technical section. Sea Level to 9000 feet in 2 days takes a lot out of a man.

I thought I was the only one who puffed my cheeks out when I did something that I had to put a little effort into, like jumping. But, apparently Brian is that way too.

We traversed the bottom area of those two peaks you see in the background and wrapped around to here.

Straight from the airport with Loo and Ziska, we went up DHing on some of the gnarlier trails around. I was a wise guy and didn't wear my upper body armor and went over the bars and slow speeds and still got pretty scratched up. But not enough to slow me down. We were back at it the next day.

Morewoods loaded up and heading to the airport to pick up Scuba Steve.

First stop, Scott's back yard in Evergreen. This place was so over my head I need a 10' snorkel just to breath. I think we only tapped about 5% of what was here. The grand daddy was a 20' blind step down, it was super crazy. His place was built up top notch with doubles , berms, wall rides, gaps, step downs, some wooden stunts, duel slalom course and more. I would progress there so much if I only could ride there everyday for a month.

Loo on the wall ride right off Scott's back porch.

Ziska.

I did a horrible job of taking any more action pics, everyone was so huge I was cutting heads off in the pics. In the back ground you can see a HUGE double behind the wood platform. It was the finale to the 6 pack before it. We never hit that stuff because we ran out of time, but it would have been right up Loo's alley.

Part of the 6 pack before the monster double. Scott even had his irrigation hooked up to water all the jump faces at the flip of a switch. It was set up 1st rate.

Then back to shuttling. Loo, Me, Steve.

Elk crossing on shuttle road. There were two Does and two fawns.

Look over hucking the small road gap.

Mark, making a super smooth transition.

Figured I better post some of these up now, or I never would. I'll put up some from the bike parks when we get back.

Never Trust Women

So...my sister, Elizabeth, moved out a few weeks ago into a house with 3 other girls. They were having a house party with a Mullet theme. They encouraged mullets and said there would be wine and cheese in the front and beer in the back, along with some flip cup stuff.
Well, I get there to find that I am the only one in a mullet and the girls are all dressed up and the pony keg is in the front and they don't even know how to tap it. What kind of mullet party is that?!
In the true form of my family, even the youngest members show up to keg parties. My sisters grew up doing it and now my nieces and nephew are learning the same. (Actually, they just happened to be there for a bit in the beginning but not the whole night. And they didn't try to steel the keg and run off like on of my sisters did back in the day.)

My family of little Joe Dirts.

Triathlon

Saturday was the Buffalo Creek Xterra Triathlon. It was a sweet day with good temps and overcast skies, the way I like it. Sometimes, the direct Colorado sun is more than I need when biking and such. Christie did the full tri, 1 mi swim, 20 mt bike, 5 mi trail run. Me and Pam did half that. It took me and Pam about 2 hours and Christie about 4 hours.

Pam thinking..."We are going to do what? I thought we were here for pizza!"
Smooth water, 61 degrees. Not too bad at all.

Christie and Pam in their shower caps getting ready.

Not quite Aquaman.

Pam, asking what I think of her with a shaved head.

All those birds on the water are actually arms. Mob swim time. It actually wasn't too bad, only a few feet in my face. The hardest part was swimming in a straight line. I think I covered a about a 100 extra yards zig zagging.

Pam summing it up.

Pam thinking of a smart answer to another one of my smart questions.

Christie, heading out for her 5 miler. It started to rain right after me and Pam finished. Lucky for us, not so lucky for her. But it wasn't too bad. Just another day in the life.

The widest bars with bar-ends on them. I think this guy was from Texas and used to the long horns.

...and DONE.

My swim was better than I expected, the bike should have been a few minutes faster, and the run had my guts all twisted up and having to walk a bunch. I didn't feel so good for a bit after the run, but the cramps finally passed and I got a free lunch, well it was included in the entry fee anyway.

I'm thinking about the full Xterra next year, but that is also a long ways away.

On another note, I was trying to think of how to create my own type of triathlon. I was thinking of a white water swim, trail run, downhill bike, something maybe like Downieville, a 18 mile DH/Super D run. Then Christie found this, guess I wasn't the only one thinking of such things. I will have to get some more info on this one.

http://www.usmultisport.com/EventDetails.aspx?EventID=2089

Then for yet another alternative, there is the Beer-Bike-Bench that is held in Golden each year.

Timed Road bike, Bench press as much as possible, then timed malt liquor chug. Wayne was there this year and said it was pretty sweet.

http://www.beerbikebench.com/