So this is a little off topic, but I thought I'd share a little about what I've been up to this summer. Aside from the occasional barbeque, and camping trips, most of my free time has been spent on my bike, training for a little event called the "Laramie Enduro". The basic details go something like this: 70 miles, 8900 feet of climbing, all above 7500 feet of elevation. And it was last Saturday.

Needless to say I've been doing a lot of riding over the last few months - first some 25 mile rides, then 40 mile rides, and finally some 50-60 milers - all told about 1000 miles since early April. I have to say that the training for the race was much more enjoyable than the actual event. Like any endurance event, this thing is as much about keeping yourself fed and hydrated as it is about trail riding, and it's one of the things I had to work on during training.  After gobbling something in the area of 10 gel packs, dozens of electrolyte tablets, and several hundred ounces of water / cytomax, I found myself rolling across the finish line in 7:38, with just over 7 hours of actual riding time. All-in-all pretty good, as my goal was to break 8 hours. The first 50 miles to aid station 3 were actually pretty fun, the 10 miles to aid station 4 were tough seemed to last for ever, and the last 10 to the finish were easier but at that point I was pretty exhausted. For comparison, the first pro racer crossed the line in just over 4 hours and 30 minutes - ouch! But I guess that's why they are pro bike riders, and I'm a software developer!

I'm not enough of a geo-geek to carry a GPS on this, but someone was - you can view the course in Google Maps or in Google Earth

So - now that this event is over, I should actually have some time to get back to some blogging!