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Goals, even macro ones, keep me going in the right direction

I haven’t been posting on my blog very much recently..  Things got a little crazy at work and the time (priority?) just hasn’t been there.  I do think about it, but simply haven’t gotten the spare minutes to do it.

We’re going through those growing pains that all companies do when they hit a certain size.  Priorities shift toward execution, revenue generation, and a general maturation of getting bigger, needing to move faster, and with more precision.  The great part about where we are is that our network is growing so damn fast that our market opportunity is there for the capturing – which gets me back to the ‘time and priorities’ place I started this post.

I have managed to get out and ride recently.  Below is a heart-rate and altitude snapshot of the Triple Bypass ride I did a week or so ago from Evergreen to Avon (120 Miles and 3 mountain passes).

I try and make a point to do this ride every year.  This was my 5th time out on course.  Its a great way to break up the summer (it occurs every year in mid-July).  I like it because its something to build toward, and keeps me honest as far as my riding goes.  This year I caught up with Andrew Davision, Jeff Schafer, Rushton McGarr, and Steve Frank.  A 7:50 ride time is still fairly respectable, and I’m glad the above crew (who are all much stronger/faster than me) didn’t mind me drafting wheels a good part of the way.

Back to the point of the post..  I enjoy writing on my blog and I’m glad I tuned into the medium for a variety of reasons.  I can’t write everything I want to write, but at least I can carve out 15 minutes once in a while.  Sort of like my putting the Triple on the calendar every year, it gives me something to shoot for.

Firecracker 50 - - 2009 edition

Last weekend I rode the Firecracker 50 in Breckenridge.  As a friend put it: had they pre-ridden the course before they registered, they never would have registered.  The site even says that there is a strict time-limit and the DNF rate is in the 25% range.

         

Even more, people that I ride with that are way stronger and faster than me said it was over-the-top hard (and fun).  Below is the course profile, which pretty much tells you why he gave the sage advice..

Best advice I got was from Beeker (aka Greg Keller): ride the first lap and then, if you feel good, race the second lap.

My first lap, I took his advice and just settled in.  Warm-up was the climb out of town and up Boreas Pass road.  Result: I had a freekin’ blast!  Riding it like a fast, fun ride was clearly the way to go.  Never pushing the limit avoided a potential blow up.  Moreover – no mechanicals, no flats, just steady riding.  The only major near-miss, was a crazy sliding “almost” crash I somehow made it through on a long and steep descent.  Still not exactly sure how I stayed upright, but thankfully I pulled it off at 30+ mph!  Too bad no one was around to see it.  I must’ve looked pretty funny flailing at that speed and somehow keeping the rubber side down.

Riding within myself on the first lap was definitely the key to a fun rest of the day.  My first lap time was 2:39.  Slightly slower than I wanted, but a decent time for a rookie.

Next lap I tried to turn up the pace, but also kept within myself.  I finished strong with a total time on my computer of 5:30 – a full 30 mins faster than my goal going into the race.  I’m certainly not claiming that it was a blistering pace (I came in 23rd in my category and I think the winning pro time was just under 4 hours) but fast enough to finish feeling good and whooped at the same time.

Next year? Absolutely!