Steve Tilford

Kind of made a spur of the moment plan change Friday and headed back out to Colorado. It seemed like there were too many positives to skip the trip, so I changed Trudi’s ticket back from San Francisco and made it to Denver.

My friends Stacie and her family are renting a 3 bedroom condo in Vail, then Keith and Catherine Walberg were up for a 3 days Labor Day vacation, and Bill wanted to drive out, so that’s what we did. Trudi and her mom went to the airport and parted ways, then Trudi’s flight was cancelled, but she got put on an early flight and arrived in Denver a couple hours early. We picked her up and headed to Vincent’s in Arvada.

There is a crazy amount of traffic on I-70 on holidays, so we at dinner in Arvada and waited until 10 pm to head up I-70.

Yesterday we rode over to Vail and back. It is about 70 miles roundtrip, climbing over Vail Pass both directions. It was warm and sunny when we left, but like it has been all year for me up in the mountains, started raining when we just got back to the top of Vail Pass on the way home. It wasn’t as cold as it was a week ago, lower 40’s this time, but it rained a bunch. Pretty soon we were all frozen from descending wet. We all had full on rain gear, but that wasn’t enough. Eventually Bill and Vincent ditched us, so I rode back with Keith and Catherine.

It is funny your thought process when you’re wet and cold. We all wanted to stop in Copper Mountain or Frisco, to try to warm up some, but realized that if we did stop, it would be nearly impossible to get moving again. So we persevered. We got a small break in the rain, right about when we got back to Frisco. It is amazing how much you can warm up when you take the water out of the equation.

We were planning on doing a longer ride today, closer to 85 miles, but it is raining pretty good again and it looks like that might be the story of the whole day. That’s no good.

Okay, sounds like people are making plans for the day. I hear hiking up to some high lake. I can’t hike. I can barely walk around Vail with the puppies after dinner. It is so funny how it is easier riding than walking. I’m going to spend some time with Stacie today trying to figure out some of my ortho problems. Probably the best use of my day.

Gang sitting in Vail yesterday mid-ride. Vincent’s head really isn’t that narrow.

I ran into my friend, Mike Kloser, yesterday in Vail. Mike was my in to have surgery at the Steadman Clinic last February in Vail. He is a great guy and phenomenal athlete.

Trudi did her first real ride in over a month. She got dropped early on, but kept going to the top of Vail Pass. She has a little chocolate Gu on her lower lip, it seems.

Here’s a little Sunday morning fun. It is only 3 minutes and is pretty amazing.

I’ve been limping worse and worse recently. It seems to be a muscle problem, which makes sense now that I understand a little more what actually happened to me during surgery. Forget the screws and plate in the bone. The trauma to the muscle is severe. I’m going to get another x-ray done within the next couple days and am starting a strengthening regiment to try to get some of the muscles working.

Check the pictures out below of the tool they use to spread open the IT band to fix a broken hip. It looks primeval. It seems primeval.

I put some Garmin pedals on my bike to see the difference in power between my left and right leg power. I don’t know of another way to do that. I’m pretty interested to see if I’m really imbalanced or not. I tend to think that I’m just bad all around, but I do have some issues pedaling at certain times with my left leg. On Strava, there is a form and fitness page and it doesn’t seem that I am gaining any fitness, even though I rode 68 hours last month. When I crashed at the end of May, my fitness level was 116. It is now 48. I don’t understand the algorithm that Strava uses to manufacture that number, but I know that I was above 48 early February, only riding 18 hours in January. That is pitiful.

Okay, I’m down in Arvada, framing in Vincent’s basement. Keith and Catherine flew out late yesterday, after riding to Red Rocks in the morning. Bill and I kept going and did a lap of Morgul-Bismark after, so we had around 70 miles. My power meter’s battery died about half way, which is a shame. We rode pretty hard and I was interested in the numbers.

I entered Chequamegon Fat Tire, so am racing in two weeks. It is going to be what it is. I won’t even be able to get to the field in the front, but I would hate to miss the experience. I am lucky that I am to the point that I can just ride the event.