Note
Rest day - 24 hours of our third world bus system. (rode standing from Laramie to Fort Collins, mysterious hours long delays, stopping in the middle of nowhere at night (twice!) for the cops and ambulance to check out the poor sick kid who seemed to be on drugs or on theverge of a breakdown or both. Good to be home.
So, I did not make it all the way from Boulder to Laramie. After pushing my bike up a few rock-strewn gullies on the way to Estes Park, sleeping on a high mountain ridge, and riding some really fun mountain bike trails, back roads, and a whole lot of Peak to Peak highway, I decided my bike and pack were too heavy to hike up 3000 feet to Donner Pass, so rode back down to Boulder and took a bus to Laramie. I met a bike shop owner in Laramie who had ridden the other way to Cache La Poudre Wilderness. It was the Donner Pass climb that was the ride-killer. Realistically, I was close to overstepping my limits and it was a good decision to turn back. On the other hand, I wasn't all that far away from being able to do it, and it was very encouraging for future longer distance rides.
This fall I want to concentrate on true cyclocross fitness, training 200-300 miles per week, and on building on the 1000 day orienteering experience. I will try to ride to all the local meets, including the ones that are 1-2 hour auto drives out of town, and also try to attend KC and Indiana/Chicago/Ohio meets (probably not by bike, but by train/bike combination, or ride sharing)