This Saturdays group ride will start at 9am from Sign and design at 2625 Overland ave. This weeks route will take us out to Molt via the hogbacks and out to laurel and back River Road. approx 50miles. all levels welcome!

Congrats to all the hardy souls that took on Peaks to Prairie last weekend! Starting in a near blizzard and facing strong cold snowy headwinds over 400 folks participated, thanks to all the volunteers and organizing committee ( Lona, Maryanne,Cindy, etc. ) There were many great performances. Lots of windtraining participants and coaching clones took part and kicked butt! Brenda Rose, Sarah Keller, Pat Duey, Jennel Duey, clarissa Klarich, Sarah Graves, Jen Reiter, Paolo Gerbasi, Chris Hostetter, Steve Mysee, Jason Frank, and more! Great job check out the results at:

http://www.ccrtiming.com/races/results/2009/09P2P.htm


Chloe did the kids bike and running races and did great even though she had a few mechanical issues and distractions from dad!

coming up next week is our family trip-- first to Denver/Vail to visit cousin Harrison, Brian and Amy then to see the Dead in Denver and off to Florida for a visit with my parents and some vacation time. originally I was to do the 70.3 race in Orlando but a recent MRI of my left knee put me on the shelve for a while. I hope to get the knee better without surgery and as of today its feeling much better, but just cannot put the necessary training in right now. But the good news is Sarah and I are planning a trip to the Keys for some camping and a short stay at Key west!

Spring 2009, Jay

It’s been a long winter here in Montana and as I write this on April 8th, it’s still snowing! Must be the global warming umm…well it has been great for snow sports though. We have spent most weekends at the cabin and have done a ton of Nordic skiing at Bohart Cross Country Ski Ranch, and alpine skiing and snowboarding at Bridger bowl.


With the new Schlasman’s expert terrain open we have had some epic days in the deep powder! Cycling legend John Howard even came out to make some turns, it was quite a site to see John in his vintage cycling plus fours on the slopes!


Chloe is really growing up fast (3.5yrs) and is now skiing on the Blue runs making turns all by herself without a wedge or harness its awesome to see and I bet she will destroying me on the slopes in short order. Sarah has been very busy with work and running ultras. She trains with Niki Kimbal (2x Western States champion) and a bunch of her pals that are extremely fit. I skated with her and her friend Bob at West Yellowstone a few weeks ago and after 2.5hrs I was done and they did another 2.5hrs without any problem. It’s always humbling out here.

I did make a race appearance at the powder hound winter triathlon (run, bike, ski) and managed 5th place. These races are really fun and very hard with biking on snow being to most challenging discipline but I did manage my goal of beating all the women participants which is getting harder and harder to do as I approach 50 years old.

Windtraining class was another huge success with our largest turnout yet - 45 participants! Thanks to Jim and all the Spokeshop staff for all their support as well as all the hard work from all who attended.

Although the skiing has been great and there has been a greater than normal snowfall in the Yellowstone Valley, we have had our share of nice warmer days and we have hit some good weather for group rides. Since March we have had a solid 10 - 15 folks on the Saturday long ride and since the time change, the Tuesday night ride has also had a good turnout. Come join us for the group workouts.

Recently I have experienced some concerns with my left knee. I had the knee surgically repaired some 23 years ago which is why I got started in the sport of triathlon in the first place. The repair I had then was only supposed to last 15 yrs so I should be happy it has lasted this long and allowed me to so many extreme events. But it is always troubling to have curtailing physical issues. We will see if this is going to halt my training. I am still planning on doing the Peaks to Prairie Duathlon at the end of April and the 70.3 Orlando race in May. We will see. It may be a rehab year for me. Regardless, we are heading to Denver to see the Dead on May 7th which will be super cool and on to Florida to visit my parents after. Sarah and I are also looking forward to a get-a-way in the Keys by ourselves for camping trip!

After that visit we are planning a multi-sport camp in Boulder Co. (see info at right) and then back to Billings. We also have a very busy summer planned with trips out east and plenty of mountain biking and cabin time. Come out and join us anytime - we love to show off the big sky state!

Jay

Spring 2009, Sarah

Well. Where to begin? Last season ended with a stab at the Northface Endurance 50 miler for me in San Francisco on Dec. 6 and then started up again with the Antelope Island Buffalo Run 50 km on March 28. At the endurance 50 I struggled quite a bit over extremely vertical terrain to end up 7th female finisher, and about 1 hour off the lead, at 9 hours and change. I was humbled by the difference between that and how I felt at my first 50 a couple months earlier at Le Griz 50 in Spotted Bear, MT in October, which was relatively flat. Since I am usually strong on hills, I might have been cocky in my preparation for 7-10,000-feet vertical gain and descent in the Marin Headlands.

After all that running, it was nice to be relatively un-focused this winter with a lot of downhill and Nordic skiing. I still managed to get my long runs in, thanks to Nikki Kimball and crew from Bozeman, and Sarah Graves and crew from Billings. That made the transition back to racing this spring a lot easier. I drove down to Antelope Island, Salt Lake, UT with 3 excellent ultra-runners from Bozeman to find a course that was much more interesting and beautiful than expected. The terrain had about 2,300 feet of climbing per loop and spectacular views of the snow-covered mountains across the great lake. Given a nagging hamstring strain and faulty knee I was not expecting to do more than finish. However, by taking the first loop easy (a la Don Dimitri’s advice), I was able to pick up for a 3d place finish in 4:48 only 3 minutes behind ultra superstar, Nikki!

Our car ride home contained the first male, first female, second male (1st Masters) and third female, (1st Masters). It was certainly nice to celebrate such a victory at the Portneuf Brewing Co. in Pocatello, ID!

Sarah.

Welcome!

Hey! I am really excited about using the blogspace. This way, all you clones out there can talk back to us!