Why not? Why not look for the good, for the beautiful, for the awe-inspiring? Why not appropriate the clouds, the rain, the snow? Why not be grateful for time with friends and family instead of dreading the time apart? Why not appreciate what we have right now?

I write this because, when I was in my teens and early twenties, I never imagined this life could be so good. I never thought that I would be married to this beautiful, loyal, loving woman. I never thought I could have a hand in raising such a thoughtful, smart, confident daughter. I never considered that I could work a dream job for more than a decade, fall into another career that allowed me to make a positive mark on so many lives. I never considered that I could be so healthy that I could ride the spine of the continent on a bicycle and enjoy it so much.  All of this is amazing and today I am very grateful for it. What a life. 

This weekend, I get to ride a short “Media Pass” ride ahead of the annual Ride the Rockies. It will be about 25 miles from downtown Denver, out along the Cherry Creek Trail to the reservoir of the same name, and back again. I get to see many of the great people who organize the event, whom I only see a few times a year, and there will be coffee. I love coffee. 

This is all ahead of my favorite week of the year, when I tour Colorado with 2,000 like-minded people, including several cycling luminaries and a lot of amazing scenery. What could be bad?

I’m not suggesting that there are not real problems in the world. I’m just focusing on how good I have it today. No one is bombing my home, my work or my town. No one is kidnapping my child in a misplaced fit of religious fervor. I am not fleeing deplorable living conditions. As a dear friend once pointed out, if we all put our problems on a table and compared them to those of others, most of us would be happy just taking our own problems back. My problems are pretty small, today. I hope yours are, as well. 

For only the second time in my life, I’m on a cycling team. I joined as part of my track racing certification. A buddy of mine is on the team and he invited me to join and to get on the track. That counts as a win-win. I hope to actually race on Memorial Day weekend. It should be lots of fun. I hope to have some images from the event to show off in about two weeks. 

Lots of pro racing going on, if you didn’t already know. The first of the season’s Grand Tours is about halfway through. The Giro d’Italia started in the Netherlands on May 6. Sounds funny, I know. The pros raced for three days before heading down to Italy. Bob Jungels of the Etixx-Quickstep team currently where’s the pink jersey of the race’s leader. 

Meanwhile, in the US, French rider   Julian Alaphilippe, also of the Etixx-Quickstep team, took over the lead of the Amgen Tour of California. World Champ Peter Sagan won the race’s opening stage in a sprint into downtown San Diego. American Ben King won stage two, then relinquished the race lead on The Queen Stage on Tuesday. 

That’s about it, for now. Hope you get a chance to get out and enjoy a ride, and all of your days!

Have fun. Be safe. I’m going riding. 

  As I ready for bed and prepare for another week of work, parenting and training, I consider myself lucky. What a life. 

On Friday, I start a new direction in my cycling. I start on the Velodrome. A friend told me nearly 20 years ago that track racing would probably suite my well. I’m built much more like a powerlifter, as I once was, versus the relatively slight road cyclist. I have arms that can actually support me, unlike elite roadies. The trade off is real roadies easily distance me in climbs. But, that is fine. I am embracing my build and trying to make the best if it. 

This won’t change much of my summer. I will still Ride the Rockies in about eight weeks. I will ride the Courage Classic in July. In between, I will voluntarily be tortured over Trail Ridge Road by my cycling buddies. I will just spend Saturday mornings at the Boulder Valley Velodrome. 

Fixed gears and a banked track will be new and exciting. It may even be something at which I can excel. We shall see. It’s never too late to pick up a new cycling discipline. 

Within this new and fun exploit, I’m also trying to get help paying for my lifestyle. The web site and app Hookit helps athletes find sponsors and producers find athletic representatives. I get discounts on stuff I need and use, they get a little more exposure. I get Honey Stinger and Ryno Power supplements and, in turn, tell all of you what I think of them. It’s a win-win, as far as I’m concerned. 

  
I have raved on about Honey Stinger products for a while.  The Steamboat Springs-based endurance food producer makes energy gels, bars, chews and the like. I am particularly fond of their waffles, a sweet treat and very different product than any energy bar out there. I like the flavor and the energy kick of any of their waffles, but I’m a chocolate addict, so that’s what I enjoy most. The company has also started producing a gluten-free version of these treats, if that is something you are looking for. 

My new favorite, however, is their protein bar. Having been a lifter for most of my life, I have had a lot of protein bars. Some are tasty, but way over the top in terms of sugar and calories. Others taste like cardboard. The Honey Stinger Dark Chocolate Mocha Cherry Pro protein bar is the best-tasting, best nutrition bar I’ve had the pleasure of eating. 

The Honey Stinger bars offer 10 grams of protein per bar. While that might seem modest to the powerlifting crowd, it is great for cyclists trying to repair muscles in-ride without getting gastrointestinal distress that overly sugary products can produce. 

Most of the sweetness of these products comes from, one guess, HONEY! And the Cherry Mocha also offers a bit of caffeine from real coffee. It’s a beautiful thing. 

Still being, more or less, a power athlete, I like to get a bit more protein in my recovery products. Branch chain amino acids are the go-to product for such recovery. Ryno Power Recovery is just such a product. 

It’s not cheap, but it is worth every penny. While my legs are still sore, they are able to perform. I can spend my morning doing high-intensity sprints, then turn around three hours later to do a heavy squat routine. The Ryno Power Recovery BCAAs allow me to keep pushing and keep getting results. For more details, visit rynopower.com. 

I have to mention one last thing for which I am not receiving any kind of deal, but has still been very helpful. The FitBit, which I’m sure most people have already heard, is a fitness and movement-tracking device that, in the case of my Charge, fits on my wrist like a watch. It tracks my daily steps, calories burned, heart rate, sleep and resting heart rate. It allows me to better track the markers of my fitness of which I have never been able, until now. It all sincs to an app on my phone. The app, in turn, communicates with MyFitnessPal and other apps to help keep track of calories, weight-loss goals and more. It’s the product I never knew that I could live without. 

I look forward to sharing my track exploits soon. I hope to review another app next week, as well. 

Until then, have fun, be safe. I’m going riding. 

Today is the last day to sign up for RTR, my family is great and I have been a butthead. Not much of this is related to any of the rest. 

Today, in fact, for only a few more hours, is the last day to enter the Ride the Rockies lottery. Unlike RAGBRI, in Iowa, the Ride the Rockies is limited to only 2,000 riders. It is such a popular event that a lottery had to be created to handle all of the entries. I hope, by the time my readers have received this post, all have had the chance to sign up. If you are one of the folks who read my last post, you know I’m a big fan and have figured out why. Good luck and I hope to see you out there. 

  
I feel strongly that part of my job as an instructor, a generally fit guy and a father, is to set a good example. My friends and my family know I’m not perfect, but that does not excuse me from putting in the effort. So I get extra happy when my wife and daughter come to the gym and even ask for help. It’s fun having them around, even when I’m doing stuff that they would consider a bit crazy. The best example would be today’s workout; the CrossFit Open WOD 16.1 – overhead walking lunges for 25 feet with 95 lbs, eight burpees, another 25 feet of overhead walking lunges and eight chest-to-bar pull-ups. The fun part is that I had 20 minutes to do this over and over as many times as I could. I got through six times, by the way. 

What my daughter sees is a man taking care of himself. What I explain is that it is also so I can be around longer and be able to do more with her and my lovely wife. I have been lucky to have this life. I didn’t realize just how much so until today. 

  
We traveled back to Omaha over the New Year holiday to see my family and one of my oldest and dearest friends. While there, I thoughtlessly made fun of an ad for a gym that promotes itself with the tag line Lunk-free Zone. I had called the gym “Planet Fatness”. My buddy challenged me on this. He pointed out that I don’t know what it’s like to walk into a place and be intimidated by athletes and fitness fanatics, people who look like the people in the fitness magazines. He was right. 

I don’t know what it’s like to truly struggle with weight. When I was young, I was a little chubby. When my father remarried to a very health conscious person, she adjusted our diets and made small tweaks to what we had around the house. Eating healthy was just how we ate, for the most part. 

Meanwhile, my younger sister was living with our mom and her second husband, none of whom put the same sort of thought into what they ate. I actually looked forward to visiting as I got treats that I wouldn’t normally. 

My sister got neither the habits nor the support that I did. Quite honestly, I didn’t think of it as support at the time. Perspectives change. 

So in college, like many, I gained weight. I lost some good habits and explored some very bad ones. After some years of what I euphemistically called competitive drinking, I found myself nearly 50 pounds heavier than when I started college. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my big push to drop that weight took a relatively short time. I suspect, between my genetics and the things I was taught as a kid, it was pretty easy. 

I realized, after watching the outstanding PBS documentary, “Fat,” that the cards were actually in my favor. And worse yet, I didn’t understand or appreciate  how lucky I was and how oblivious I had been to the struggles of others. The irony is that I’m a recovering addict. You’d think I would have some compassion for folks who suffer from a condition from which most can’t recover and society sees as a will-power issue. I did not get it until today. 

I’m going to try to be less judgmental, more compassionate. I’m going to work toward being more supportive and encouraging. I’m going to ask how I can help rather than assuming I know what works. One more thing I need to work on to be a better human. I’m also going to be more appreciative for what I have. 

Have fun, be safe. I’m going riding. 

It’ Labor Day as I write. My daughter is working on her Pintrest and checking e-mail. My main road bike is in Boulder, getting repaired. I put more than 1,000 miles into my legs outside. I wish I could have a lot more, but the positives of the season far outweigh any bad.

New friends from California and Texas.

After tackling Ride the Rockies, the Triple Bypass and the Courage Classic in the space of six weeks. There are still plenty of riding weekends left. I need to ride the Old Fall River Road and the Peak to Peak Highway at peak fall foliage. It’s all good.

I have more, but I NEED to get out before I eat all of the training food I just bought.

Have fun, be safe. I’m going riding.

I am not a great swimmer. I have been working on my swim stroke for more than ten years. It is improving, but still not as smooth as I would like. But ya know what? That’s okay. It works in my favor.

When I’m in the water, whether I am just swimming stroke drills, swimming long intervals or short sprints, I focus on form. I try to feel the water over me. I feel my hand enter the water, pull through and pull out again, all the while, try to remember to kick. When I’m all wrapped up in this, I don’t think of much else.

When I swim, I don’t think of anything else at work, no bill, no work projects. Just the swim stroke. It becomes a moving meditation.

I do this in most of my athletic efforts. I remind myself to strike the ground gently and quietly while running. Stand up straight, lean forward from my ankles, lead with my bellybutton. On the bike it’s all about smooth, fluid circles, flat back, loose grip on the bars.

The meditation helps me. Helps improve my perspective and attitude. Helps remind me to be grateful. I have a lot, and therefor, a lot for which to be grateful.

I have long felt my bike was a tool for healing. It was my freedom as a child. It became that freedom again as a young adult, and continues to offer freedom, wonder, meditative quiet and a sort of healing of the spirit.

I have a buddy named Mark who is taking this to another level. He, too, started cycling at a young age. He had a bike early on in his military career. When things in his life fell apart, cycling would eventually help him fight his demons and give him the chance to help his brothers-in-arms.

Mark will be riding the Ride 2 Recovery Army vs Navy Challenge starting in West Point, New York at the US Military Academy, and ending on October 3, at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, just in time for the Navy vs Air Force football game. The event’s tag line is “Saving Lives by Restoring Hope and Purpose”.

This event gives my friend the opportunity to show how cycling has changed his life and how it might help other former servicemen and women to heal. What better purpose could there be?

The Cobbled Classics and spring Monuments are done. Some of cycling’s heroes didn’t even get to the start line. I have friends who openly lamented the absence of Tom Boonen and Fabian Cancellara. Paris-Roubaix “Would have been so much better” had the two dominant riders been on the roads of Northern France. Alas, it was not to be. But what did we have?

Paris-Roubaix ended with a five-up sprint in the fabled Roubaix velodrome. I don’t know how it could have been better. Exciting to the very last pedal stroke. Had Spartacus and Tornado Tom been racing, they would have been nearly prohibitive favorites. The two had won seven of the last ten editions. Like it or not, John Degenkolb’s victory was exciting and great fun to watch.

Women are getting more opportunities in the spotlight. Her in the US, they will have big-time races at the same time as the men at both the Tour of California and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. While this might not make household names of the winers, it will get exposure and hopefully encourage more women and girls to get on their bikes and ride.

This sport of cycling, whether competitive or just for fun, is so wonderful. I am signed up for all of my big events for the year. I am riding two of the three with friends, but the longest one, Ride the Rockies, I plan to meet new friends.

Ride the Rockies has been a great experience over the last four years. I’ve met ladies making dinner on their little portable grill in Leadville. I met a woman from the US Virgin Islands. I’ve met cycling heroes and I’ve met people changing the lives of those around them and changing their own. RTR gives me the chance to meet more people, people from all over the US. Racers, Wounded Warriors, enthusiastic neo-pros, retired legends and people just out for a good time, they are all out there. All have great stories and I can’t wait ’til June so I can meet them.

Get into one of the many organized events of the summer. Get out to see the landscape in a different way and with friends you haven’t met. It’s a great way to spend a day, a weekend or a week.

Have fun, be safe. I’m going riding.