I am totally copying Lynda and posting my own "Year in Photos" from 2010. It was a great year of racing bikes and spending time with friends.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Snow Bike video from Christmas Day
Christmas Day Snow Bike from Dave Byers on Vimeo.
Melissa, Jordan, and their two new Salsa Mukluks, joined Michelle and I on Christmas Day for a great snow bike ride on the snowmobile trail from Horseshoe to Packsaddle. Cold temps overnight left the trails firm and fun!
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
The Togwotee Winter Classic Race #1 is less than two weeks away!
Check the Togwotee Winter Classic website for all of the details.
Be sure to email me to reserve your spot because this is shaping up to be the biggest TWC ever! And its FREE!
Monday, December 20, 2010
T-Minus 60 Days
The 2011 24 Hours of Old Pueblo is only 60 days away and therefore Sunday, Dec 19th was one of those key training days that are “non-negotiable”. In other words, no matter what the weather does, I will ride. The last couple of years of focused training for endurance races have taught me that quality six hour rides at key times in the schedule are probably the most important thing I do training-wise. Sunday was one of those planned “quality” days.
As I watched the forecast leading up the weekend I knew that Sunday was going to be a test of my cycling resolve. Snow was in the forecast for Sat night through Sun and the little voice in the back of my head that says “let’s go skiing” was now yelling at me…so I ignored it and intentionally did not check the snow totals Sun morning while drinking my coffee. Mother Nature followed through and dumped fresh snow on the Tetons all day on Sunday but threw a nasty little curveball at me along the way. At hour 4.5 of 6, she decided to really test me and raised the temp to 35F. The big beautiful dry flakes that had been falling all day quickly turned to a slushy rain/snow mix and began to thoroughly soak me. Perfect. (Insert sarcasm here) I am becoming wise to Mother Nature’s tricks these days and had grabbed my Montbell rain shell on my way out the door and tucked it away in my frame bag just in case. Ha! Needless to say, it saved my ass.
Random Notes from the Ride
- 62 miles on snow-covered back roads in 6:03:00
- 1 bottle of Carbo Rocket 333
- Osprey Bladder filled with Kiwi Lime Carbo Rocket
- 800 calories of EFS Gel
- 1 of the Best Cookies in the Galaxy
- Handful of dark chocolate covered almonds
- A random mix of Metal, Hip-Hop, Techno, Grunge, and a dash of James Brown
- Zero moose sightings
As I watched the forecast leading up the weekend I knew that Sunday was going to be a test of my cycling resolve. Snow was in the forecast for Sat night through Sun and the little voice in the back of my head that says “let’s go skiing” was now yelling at me…so I ignored it and intentionally did not check the snow totals Sun morning while drinking my coffee. Mother Nature followed through and dumped fresh snow on the Tetons all day on Sunday but threw a nasty little curveball at me along the way. At hour 4.5 of 6, she decided to really test me and raised the temp to 35F. The big beautiful dry flakes that had been falling all day quickly turned to a slushy rain/snow mix and began to thoroughly soak me. Perfect. (Insert sarcasm here) I am becoming wise to Mother Nature’s tricks these days and had grabbed my Montbell rain shell on my way out the door and tucked it away in my frame bag just in case. Ha! Needless to say, it saved my ass.
Random Notes from the Ride
- 62 miles on snow-covered back roads in 6:03:00
- 1 bottle of Carbo Rocket 333
- Osprey Bladder filled with Kiwi Lime Carbo Rocket
- 800 calories of EFS Gel
- 1 of the Best Cookies in the Galaxy
- Handful of dark chocolate covered almonds
- A random mix of Metal, Hip-Hop, Techno, Grunge, and a dash of James Brown
- Zero moose sightings
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Snow Biking Teton Valley Backroads
Saturday was a planned long-ish ride so Michelle and I headed out on the snow bikes, rode together for a while, and then finished up our respective rides separately. I am still learning the Drift HD170 camera but it is fun to play with and see what comes out. I have a LOT to learn in Final Cut Express as well so bear with me on the editing.
Dec 11, 2010 Snow Bike from Dave Byers on Vimeo.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Fenders
There are lots of backroads that stay frozen in Teton Valley but even at 20F, sunshine will melt out the pavement sections and create slush-soup. I was about to "MacGyver" an existing fender butI think I have found the solution to slushy pavement sections.
The Fatback might need a set of Woody's Custom Fenders.
The Fatback might need a set of Woody's Custom Fenders.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Sure, snow biking is fun...
...but a little variety never hurt anyone. Ha!
My first attempt at a ski video using the Drift Innovations HD170 camera mounted to my backpack's shoulder strap. The video was shot in 720p in wide angle (170*) format.
Teton Pass Dec 3rd from Dave Byers on Vimeo.
My first attempt at a ski video using the Drift Innovations HD170 camera mounted to my backpack's shoulder strap. The video was shot in 720p in wide angle (170*) format.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Cross Training
The 24 Hours of Old Pueblo is squarely in my focus these days and I will ramp up my training time as we get closer to February. This past Saturday’s training day called for a 5 hour “adventure” at a moderate to hard effort. Given the snow that fell on Friday, a BIG ski day was in order and Mike Piker was willing to join me.
Quick Stats:
Climbing: 6,600'
Moving Time: 4:47:00
Total Time: 5:57:00
Calories consumed: Not nearly enough
Our plan was somewhat loose in that we would let the weather and snow conditions dictate where we went. The top of Teton Pass was unusually calm Saturday morning so a hike up the Glory bootpack was a great way to kick off the day. Mike summarized the Mt. Glory bootpack climb perfectly. “It is like a hard 45 minute interval, but with an awesome payoff.” I don’t have many Glory hikes under my belt yet so it was a nice change to stand on top in light winds. It seems as if every time I hike Glory the wind is absolutely nuking at the top. With such moderate weather and good snow we decided that a second Glory hike was in order so we grabbed some water at the truck and headed up for round two. The snow in the trees on Second Turn was delicious!
NOTE: I am always amazed at how much I sweat hiking up Glory. Within ten minutes of beginning the hike I am literally dripping sweat from my uncovered head all the way to the top.
Our two Glory/Second Turn runs ate up about 2.5 hours of moving time (I stopped my Garmin 310XT timer whenever we stopped) so I had some more work to do. I threw on the skins, grabbed some more calories, and headed south to Edelweiss with a loose plan of doing laps there for the remainder of the afternoon.
NOTE: It is more difficult to accumulate moving time when yo-yo’ing shorter ski runs. Peeling skins at the top and putting them back on at the bottom takes time.
Despite being late afternoon, there was plenty of untracked snow left in Edelweiss Bowl so I was content to make a couple of runs there and use the existing skin track for my trips back up. With each run down my legs were screaming a little louder and letting me know that they weren’t used to long ski days yet. I finished off the day with great run down The Nose and then skinned back up to the parking lot where just a few cars remained.
NOTE: Bringing dry clothes and hot tea for the drive home was a good call.
Overall, this was one of the harder efforts I have done in a while and I tried to keep the foot on the gas any time I was going uphill. I could have done a better job of eating and drinking and that is something I will have to get better at if I want to do any truly epic ski days.
TECH NOTE: The Garmin 310XT does a poor job capturing ski files. It works fine for running but struggles with the start/stop nature of backcountry skiing.
Quick Stats:
Climbing: 6,600'
Moving Time: 4:47:00
Total Time: 5:57:00
Calories consumed: Not nearly enough
Our plan was somewhat loose in that we would let the weather and snow conditions dictate where we went. The top of Teton Pass was unusually calm Saturday morning so a hike up the Glory bootpack was a great way to kick off the day. Mike summarized the Mt. Glory bootpack climb perfectly. “It is like a hard 45 minute interval, but with an awesome payoff.” I don’t have many Glory hikes under my belt yet so it was a nice change to stand on top in light winds. It seems as if every time I hike Glory the wind is absolutely nuking at the top. With such moderate weather and good snow we decided that a second Glory hike was in order so we grabbed some water at the truck and headed up for round two. The snow in the trees on Second Turn was delicious!
NOTE: I am always amazed at how much I sweat hiking up Glory. Within ten minutes of beginning the hike I am literally dripping sweat from my uncovered head all the way to the top.
Our two Glory/Second Turn runs ate up about 2.5 hours of moving time (I stopped my Garmin 310XT timer whenever we stopped) so I had some more work to do. I threw on the skins, grabbed some more calories, and headed south to Edelweiss with a loose plan of doing laps there for the remainder of the afternoon.
NOTE: It is more difficult to accumulate moving time when yo-yo’ing shorter ski runs. Peeling skins at the top and putting them back on at the bottom takes time.
Despite being late afternoon, there was plenty of untracked snow left in Edelweiss Bowl so I was content to make a couple of runs there and use the existing skin track for my trips back up. With each run down my legs were screaming a little louder and letting me know that they weren’t used to long ski days yet. I finished off the day with great run down The Nose and then skinned back up to the parking lot where just a few cars remained.
NOTE: Bringing dry clothes and hot tea for the drive home was a good call.
Overall, this was one of the harder efforts I have done in a while and I tried to keep the foot on the gas any time I was going uphill. I could have done a better job of eating and drinking and that is something I will have to get better at if I want to do any truly epic ski days.
TECH NOTE: The Garmin 310XT does a poor job capturing ski files. It works fine for running but struggles with the start/stop nature of backcountry skiing.
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