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Thursday, December 28, 2006

The last three years have been a major change for me in my diet and what I eat. I read this book on Trans fat that change my life and what I would eat. I feel better, dont get heart anymore, and even look heathier. It amazes me how stuff like this isd allowed to be put in our food. The stuff with kill you. My understanding is that it origanaly was made back during world war II to help food last longer without spoiling. And it amazes me that the FDA has let this tuff exist in our foods nowing how unhealthy it was, and this was known for aty least 30 years ago. Thanks FDA, ( freeking bone heads ). Just this year the hole city of Knew York city has ban Trans FAt, and there is a hole state that has banned this stuuf. Know Universal studios has banned it also, this is real cool. I remeber when I first started to cut this stuff out, I went throught the pantry to throw everything out that had it in it and was shocked at how much of the food had it in it. My cubbords were empty. I must of had $200.00 worth of crap food. Well its good to know that what I have been doing was write on, everybody thought I was crazy for telling everybody for years, I hope they listen know.


ON another note about food and my switch to an almost all Friut and vegtable diet has been real good. I do noticed its hard to get full sometimes and takes more volume of food to get enough calories but I have never felt better. I dont think I will ever switch to totally vegan, I like cheese and meet to much at this time. I dont go the bathroom as much as before so that mith about all the fruits and veggies makes you poop more is a bunch of crap, now that was funny. Its tuff but I know in the long run it is going to pay off huge in the end.

My base training has been going good so far, Im one month into and I dont want to hit the hard stuff intel Mib Febuary/beganing March once my spring races hit. Its real hard to go easy, real hard. I always have to keep myself in check and say to myself I have a long year, be patient, wich I not that good at. I sure do miss going to Santa Cruz to hammer with the boy's.

I have been getting up at 3:30 to do my workouts before work. I will do core, run or bike then go to the gym intel 6:00 but I seem to always be running out of time and cutting my workouts short. Starting next week I will try and get up at 3:00 am and see how its goes. Not sure how that will work seing Im already on the verge of lack of sleep but I dont know if it will intel I try. So I will start that next week for the 2 week of my three week block.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Base Run Test

Last night was my first aerobic run test for 2007 season. I just finished a thre week block of base, very low intensity work outs. Nothing to hard, just cruzing, trying to keep my workouts about 3 steps below race heart rate.

I wil be doing all my test on a treadmill for runing and the trainer with my power tap pro. I think this will be the best way to keep everything the same. Theres no wind to deal with or the up and downs of the road. I will be able to track what kind of progress i will be making or not making.

So the run test was a warm up 15 minutes then keep my heart rate at an aerobic pace witch for me was 140 beets per minute for 20 minutes then see where Im at for milage.
Test results
Average heart rate: 139
Distanance: 2.5 miles
Time: 20 minutes.

I will repeat this every 3rd or 4th week on my rest, recover week.

I have noticed that most of my workouts last year were way to hard and I never got to recover from them. Just kept hammering myself in the ground. SO this year I am going to start of nice and slow and keep myself out of the demolition mode, at least intel march when my big races start to come up. Try and give this base training thing a try. Six time Ironman champion must know what he's doing. ALso if it can work for Lance it can work for me.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Im back!

I decided to post something today. I need to get back to posting regulaly. I took off 1 month of all training after my last race in November. I've been trying to keep my life more simple these day's, without all the stress and having to write or train or log any off my workouts or what has been going on. I've been training now for a few weeks and feel real good and rested. I have some big stuff comming next year and looking forward to a great 2007.

I do have some good news in that I am now officially sponsors by smith optics sunglasses. Pretty cool!

Things have been cold but not like back East so I cant complain. Just suck it up and train.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Im the cookie Monster

So last night after dinner I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. Oh! so good. I'm proud of my self for not drinking a whole bunch of milk with them. Trying not to drink so much milk lately, I feel better when I dont.

I rode for a couple hours with some tempo work. 3x 15-20 minutes. 45 miles

Thursday, October 19, 2006

I need a digital cam!

I look at all these other blogs and they post alot of pics of there daily stuff. Im going to put buying a camera on top of my wish list to get in the off season.

Went for a swim at the pool last night and felt real good. First time since the 24 hour race 10 days ago that I haven't felt WASTED after or during my workout. The swim was a continues 4000 meter swim broken down as 4x300 cruz, 100 fast, 3x300 cruz, 200 fast, 2x300 fast, 100 cruz, 100 cd. I felt really good and push the last half of the sets. I only stopped once for a few seconds to move for the swim team. Then went for a 45 minute run with a 15 minutes of tempo work at 6.5 -7 minute mile.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

One day at a time

Some more randome thought about my 24 hour race. It was 2 days before the race I eneded up with a head cold, somehow I manged 12 months without getting sick. So this sucked. I guess its being out of state so you have all kinds of new virisus to battle. Also during the race about hour 10 I got bit by a red fire ant. "Hurt like hell"!. I thought I got stung by a bee intel I took of my helmet. It hurt for about 2 hours but after that everything hurt so it was no big deal.

It's been a little over a week since the 24 hours race. Im still recovering well and feel real great. I can't thank enough my enduring wife who supports me 110 %. And Chuck for giving a helping hand also.

I've ran once since then and was still to sore to do anything longer than 30 minutes. My swimming has been very minimal due to my wrist still swolen and hurting. I've been on the bike three times. This Sunday I tried to ride about 6 hours but do to fatigue I had to be rescued by the wife. It's funny because when I called she said she had been waiting for the phone call, she knows me so well. On Saturday I felt real good and had a 6 hour training day with all three sports so I figuerd Sunday should be so hard. That was a dumb thought, but you never know intel you try. How else you going to know what your body can handle intel you get out there and try. I think thats a big key to an ebdurance althete. You have to push and keep pushing in order to adapt to the overloading of training. And I've alway's fely you have to push real hard in training or how else you going to push hard in racing. I know for me I do alot longer intense tempo riding and alot of speed work, Whether it be 800,1600 meters intervals and 20 minute tempo work. I cant do these to may works in row but fit as many as my body can handle then rest and repeat as often as neccasary. Well more on this later.

Well its time to start thinking about winter training and next years schedual. Im not going to travel out of state so much next year because of the cost. And not race so much next year but focuse on maybe going to Kona Ironman in Octber if I qualify in a couple weeks. Plus I will do a couple 24 hour race more locally, nd some short stuff in between. Well im done writing.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Resting and feling good.

Its always a good feeeling to win or come close to winning. So i've been flying high this past week. Couple more day's and it will be back to work. I still have one more big race to go, "The Ironman", even hurts to think about it. That marathon is a killer. My right arm is still a little tender from the 24 hour race but is getting better real fast. My legs feel great and are recovering fast. Before the race my wife say'd if I win last weekend she would buy me a new par of vans. She reminded me of that today, which I forgot so thank you sweety. So this weekend I get a new par of shoes, yuppie!
I plan on riding about three hours on Saturday to see how well my legs will feel and then make a discision on what to do for next week. If my legs are recovering I will to good training week with alot of swiming and very little running. I dont want to thrash myself for the Ironman, I'll wait intel race day. See y'all later

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

24 Hour Worlds Report

The race took place in Conyers, Georgia on October 7th. We arrived one week early to see what Atlanta had to offer, which we were not disappointed at all. There was a lot of cool things to see and do.

My training for this 24 hour race has very good and had been doing a lot of work and now it was time to show and tell. I was so fired up the week leading to the race and was well rested and firing on all cylinders. I even lost some weight the last few weeks leading up to race day. I pre rode the course on Friday and was figuring around 50 minutes lap average.

We arrived Saturday morning early to set up and get things in order. We talked about strategy and what the plan was going to be, and get nutrition down and guess what my needs would be. I tried to take a nap but just was to excited to get going. It was time to put the bike in the racks and get ready for the Lemans start. And we were off. I tried not to go to hard and just keep it under control but when feeling this rested it's hard. So onto the the bike and hammer away. The first 6 laps were around 45 minutes per lap and I was holding steady and still felt good. I was eating a lot and drinking a lot of fluids. It started to get real tough after the 11 hour mark and my lap times were falling. My wrists were starting to swell up and it was getting very difficult to hammer through the rough section of the single track. The course was really cool and had a lot of small climbing. Always seemed like you were either climbing or descending. At one point I was having to wrap ice around my arm to get the swelling down. I was still feeling ok and was surprised how good I did feel at 5 am. I am always so glad to see the sun come up knowing I have only a few hours to go. I tried to go as hard as I could but still could only manage 1:10 minute laps by this time. I just couldn't get up to speed without my arms feeling like they were going to fall of. I really never worried about my competition and just kept going as fast as I could for as long as I could. Well I ended with 24 laps total which was enough to take 1st place in my age group 30-34. I'm really happy with the win and will be confident going into my Ironman in Florida in three weeks. I would like to thank my wife, she is so amazing and supportive, Chuck who worked on the bikes and did an awesome job, Granite Construction, Carb Boom, Keith Day Trucking, Recover Ease, Bill & Bonnie Cruickshank, Hayes Disc Brakes, Fiber Wise Pasta, and my whole family for all your support and love.

Before the race...Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

During the race...Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

The big finish!Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

PodiumPhotobucket - Video and Image Hosting

The aftermath...Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

I did it!!

I won my age group (30-34) in the World 24 hour Solo Champianship with 24 laps. That is 200 miles of up and down. Not sure on the total elevation for each laps but there wasn't much that was flat. I will write a full race report in the next few day's after some well needed rest.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Reved, and ready to go

The rest period has statrted this week to get ready for the Big Day. Im all pump up and ready to rock it. I will be riding my Santa Cruz Blur, two of them. I picked up one of them last night at the bike shop and packed it in its case to go with me on the plane on Saturday. Everything is ready, lights, carbo drink and garb boom gel, Endurance drink, and me. I have been taking recover ease just like the instruction say and I feel real good. I went for a short swim last night and was ripping the water up. I was did 6x200 meters in the pool @ 3:05 for the 200 meters and felt great and not even tired afterwords, thats a good sign and a good feeling for me. I have been looking forward to this rest for months before the big day. I will check later on the my stuff I have shipped with UPS on TUesday to see where it is at. I will to some short light stuff in the folowing days but nothing big, maybe some 20 minute intervals on the bike and some short running intervals about 2-3 minutes but thats all, I want to be fresh and ready to last for 24 hours. I would like to thank Granite Construction big time. They are my biggest supporter and sponser for this year, I sure wouldn't be doing or going to all these races with out there help this year. They step up big time for me...Thanks Guys! 9 more days to go:)!.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Almost there!

11 days to go intel 24 world . Im going to start my tapper a few days before normal so I can be ready to rock & roll come race day. I will keep my intensity high but my volume low. I have been trying to loose those last couple of pounds and its very tuff. I find it easier than when my training is in full speed. BUt its only been 2 days know. I figure if I can keep my calorie intake to 1500-2000 calories a day For the next 7 days I will be in great shape, well I;ll be in great shape earther way but a few lost pounds wont hurt. I have no problem during the day but the nights are tuff. I just sent almost all my stuff yesterday to my Aunt and Uncles house, so it will be in Georgia before I will, or at least I hope. We leave San JOse on Saturday and return on October 9th, so thats leaves us a few days to check out Atlanta and surrounding areas.

Friday, September 22, 2006

15 day's intel the big day

That's right! 24 hours MTB Solo Chapianship in Atlanta Georgia on October 7th. This will be due or die for me. I haven't had the steller year for me and looking to come out on top these next 2 races. I wont be lying here to say I just want to do good, Nope! I want to WIN my age group and kick some butt. I've done all the training and worked my tail off, plus my wife said she will also kick my ass if I don't win. She said you spend way to much time away from me on your dumb bike for second place ans also she threatend to not give me sex for a month, if that ain't motivatiion I dont know what is:).

This week was going to be a b ig week for me but thats not going to happen. Alot of hours at work. Plus on Tuesday I planned a 3.5 hout MTB ride with lots of leg hurtin. But an hour into my ride I get a flat tire, no big deal right. I have had flats before. So I open my seat pouch to get out my tubes, tire lever and " oh no", I forgot to put in the co2 triger. So operation " rescue dumbass"( thats me) was in affect. Called Amanda to come get me ( thanks sweety). But traing has been great and I feel like real strong. I have been hitting hard. Lat night was a 3 hour hammer fest. 20 minutes at 280-320 watts, rest some, then 30 cruise at 250-280 watts and push hard on the uphills 330-420 watts. Then the nice cruise home. Ave power for the ride was 275 watts and burnned 2300 calories. Thats all

Monday, September 11, 2006

Big Kahuana Race Report

I chose this race for a final tune up for 24 hour MTB World Champianship on October 7th in Georgia. I figured the 4 1/2 hour hammerfest with be pretty much whats its like on the start of these 24 hour races. The object is to go real hard and try to stay with the lead pack and then cruise all night long.

The weather was real nice and cool. There were high clouds and fog but not to bad. The water temp was 59 deg, so a bit chilly but once you got in it for a few minutes it wasn't so bad. Swim went pretty good, came out of the water in 3 rd or 4th place in my wave. Exiting the water it was a good 1/4 mile to transition. Now im on the bike and hammering away to catch who ever i can. My plan was to be steady and get to the turn around not to hammered. I caught everybody in my wave and most everybody in the wave ahead of me witch was 7 minutes in between at the swim start. I consumed 1 bottle of carb boom that was 350 caloies, 1 carb boom gu, and 1 bannana. On the turn around my paln was to hammer hard and on the up hills keep the momentum and hammer even harder. It was working well and pain was comming along with it but I knew I need to keep going at this pace to do well. About mile 30 there was a big crack in the road and I happen to catch the last bit of it and ripped my side wall tire and popped my tub. By the time I changed it those 4 guys passed me again in my age group and alot of other people that I passed also. I thought no big deal still have a few miles. Took about 5 minutes and now back to work. Well 5 miles later my rear tire started to hiss again and there I was with the tire off and changing another flat as everybody I passed again goes by me "again". Im not to fustrated just stuff happens and up intel now I have been pretty fortunate not for these tings to happen, so as long as they don't keep happening. I figure it hasn't been a great year anyway. So back on the bike and I made it the rest of the way with anymore hickups. So get into my running shoes and go like hell. I was pretty flat at this piont but stll a long way to go. I just ran hard and tried to run as fast as I could without cramping to bad. They came a few times so I had to slow down a tad to keep them away. After the half way piont it was time to turn up the gas as go like hell. So I did. I caught a few peopl but nobody in my age group. I figure I lost 10 minutes with the flats. My overall time was 4:40. So not all that great considering 2 years ago was 4:20. Hasn't been my best year for results as I struggle with why this is happing I will contnue to train and never give up.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Rest days are nice

Ya, once in a while we all need them, rest days, even though I always think I don't. So I had 2 rest day's and have been focusing on my recovery and taling it easy. I have been taking recover-ease to help and its been working wonderfully. Plus I have been eating my fiberwise pasta to replunish the glycogyn stores. I feel real good today and looking forward to the 3 day wekend to get in some good workouts. Im going to try and hit it hard , swim and 100+ miles a day on the bike and some running. The next few days will be short and just keeping thing going. The last three weeks have been great and feeling real strong on the bike.

Besides having to train in all three disceplines these days I have another project in betwwen all this. And that is to get me a buck deer or two for my freezer. This meat has got to be the best organic meat one can get anywhere. I usually get two a year so wish me luck.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Cruising along

Haven't been feeling like writeing much. But I have been feeling really good lately. Trying not to overdue it so much. I hate that feeling of being wasted and not wanting to train. I dont mind it because Its kind of what has to happen in order to get stronger. Its when it sticks around for more than a week thats not good. So after a few weeks of trying to do my long run on Thursday and still riding long on Tuesday and the weekend has been working pretty good so far. I had to work all day Saturday so I did no training at all, well exercised my tummy, see how big I can get it in one night. I thought I did pretty well.

Sunday I decide to mountain bike over to HWY 25 of Gloria grade rd. 10 miles of paved rd and 30 miles dirt road. I have been noticing some dirt rd of the side and some cattle trails I've been eyeing for something different, so I might try those soon. Although I was thinking it is deer season and everybody is carrying guns so maybe not a good Idea to go expolring yet being it would be on private property. So 4 hours on the bike and of to the pool. My pool time was 1000 meters straight swim, main set: 400, 2x300, 400, 2x200, 2x100 fast, 400, 2x200, 2x100 fast, 5x200 paddles. A little over 1.5 hours. Im just trying to keep it steady and keepin it rolling along. I tend to overdo it alot on my pacing. Although fast is good but not all the time. Then of for my run. 2 mile warm up then 3x1 mile repeats @ 6:40 pace. Then of to the couch and one of my dinners yet. I had organic beef made in the oven with Vegtable juice, onions, cut up garlic, and water. I used the juice from the steak as my gravy. MAshed potatoes and some organic broccoli. It's was so good my wife Amanda requested it for our first anneversery as dinner. Thats all!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Things are back to normal

Well if you want to call it that, although I dont live the normal life. Acording to normal people I'm on the insain side of things. The definition of my normal life is training 25-35 hours a week swiming, biking, and running and putting in 45-55 hours of working.

On Saturday I went to Santa Cruz and did the road ride with Miles Wadsworth, Tom, Shain, ( this guy road with Lance Armstrong 10 years ago), Mike and about 40 other riders. The first part is all chatter, everybody catching up with everybody. After that the tempo will pick up some and the stronger guys are at the front and attacking on the small hills. I took my bike that has a power meter on it to kind of see how my fitness is comming along after my 24 hour race two weeks ago. I didn't expect to much being tired still. It was kind of nice once the group split, there wasn't so many riders so I was able to move to the front and do some tempo work. I'm always impressed at the power some of these guy's are putting out. I was pushing 375-450 watts on the small rollers and still had trouble keeping up without blowing my wad. About half way on a flat section everybody was pace linning and taking turns at tempo and boyond. I was able to do this for a few miles before I got blown off the back. Then we came to a couple mile climb and thats when the field really split. There were about 6 riders that took of and domalished everybody. I just tried to hold my own and hit it real hard. My buddy Miles kick my butt and took all I had to catch him, I did but not for long. It seemed Miles was on fire today and was killing me toward the end of the ride. There were three of us in the end working together to get back to Santa Cruz. And then there were two of us, not me though. I was toast and couldn't keep up and dropped of the back and just cruised back with my tail between my legs. Thank's for almost killing me Miles, I thought you were my friend Buddy. Although he did let me park in the driveway for the first time so that was cool, and also fed me afterwords. The ride was so hard I went home and laid on my butt the rest of the day.

Sunday: 8-13-2006
After yesterday I just wanted to ride. I jumped on the mountain bike and road over Gloria grade rd to Hwy 25 and back. 4 hours and about 45 miles. 45 minute swim. The swim was 3 x 400 ( 1st set just swim, 2nd was 25 drill 75 swim, 3rd set was 25 kick 75 swim), 16x100 on 1:45, 400 c/d. Then 3 mile run with 2x1600 at 6:40 mile pace. I was done by 1:00 and happy to have the rest of the day to kick back. I was disapointed though because couldn't find no texas hold'em on T.V.. What's up with that.

Monday: 8-14-2006

Sleep, work, came home and ate the house down, sleep, see wife for a few minutes. eat some more and off to bed....

Tuesday: 8-15-2006
Back in action today. I was up at 4:05 am, running by 4:10 and finshed at 5:20. Just ran with nothing special. Trying to work out the soreness from this weekend. Went to the gym for some upper body weights and core and stretching. So 30 minutes of resistance training.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Thursday Run, and more on New sponsor....Fiber Wise.

I have been contiplating changing my schedule up some. My usual schedule is core, run, swim and a small bike ride on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And Tuesday and Thursday's are run and 3 hour bike rides. Weekends are 6-8 hours. So I'm going to try and replace my 3 hour ride on Thursday for a long run, 1.5-2.5 hour range. I just feel like something different. This week was the first trial and I liked it a lot. I'll keep everything else the same.

Looks like this Saturday I'm going to do the Santa Cruz ride starting in Santa Cruz and go to San Juan Batista and back, about 80 miles or so. Then ride around Santa Cruz some more to get in over 100. There is usually 25+ people that show up. So it will be a good day for some pain, or as Jeff Kerkove would say "Bleed your eyes out". So I'm really looking forward to riding with a group and see some of my friends:)

I have a review to give on my new sponsor, Fiber Wise Pasta. I got a pretty cool packet with a T-shirt, stickers and two of each product they sell, and also two weird looking piece that look like a flat don't made out of wetsuit material and don't know what its for. We think its very measuring pasta. Well after two weeks of trying different ways of cooking it I would have too give it 2 thumbs up. When first initially trying it it sure tasted different than normal pasta but I really like the taste know, plus the health benefits are the best, more fiber and more nutrients per serving than anything else out there. And being an endurance athlete and health food crazed maniac we need all the help we can get. SO there you go, go straight down to your local grocery store and try it out for yourself, and if they don't have it you can request it.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Recovery well

So its been 11 days since 24 hour Nationals and Im feeling pretty good. I took a hole week of from anything structerd at all. I rode once later on in the week, but thats all. Its alwatys real hard to do nothing and think its going to be ok for me. I alweays feel like I should be out there hammering away, but i know I just cant do that. Maybe four years ago I could and get away with it but not today. Maybe cause Im older or just have the more experience than I did before. Plus I notice It takes a little longer to recover than 4 years ago.
Any way back to my regular traing schedual, Here's my training log, I will update it soon, Ive kind of been in transitiion here, charging the batteries before I take of on my second half of the season.. This week will somewhat lite, working 10-12 hours a day so it will be hard to hit the training to hard. Im going to race a 1/2 Ironman in Santa Cruz/ on September 10th. MOre lAter

Thursday, August 03, 2006

National thoughts

After a few more days rest, some more random thoughts have crossed my mind. And also rememdering some more stuff.

I got to meet Natt Ross, one of the more respected riders out there. This guys is very classy and has my most respect for someone who is very approachable. So if your reading this Natt thanks for being cool in my book, it was nice to talk to Natt and ask him some questions and just hang out with him.

Also I might have to rethink stratigies going into a race. My stratigy for this race was to conserve some energy for the end. But since the race got cancelled 3.5 hours earlier I wasnt able to past more riders in front of me. So next time I will have to pay more attention to the weather. But who ever thought they would cancel a 24 hour race, not me. I feel my nutrution and pace was right on track.

I cant believe how fast the pro's start out. It was impossible to keep up with them the first few laps. I would of blown up at that pace. I will have have to work on that. My next race will be World Championship age group in Gorgia on October 7th. My Aunt and Uncle live there so it will be nice to see them. Its been a long time since we got to hang out, so Im really looking forward to that.

Im starting to feel like training today, so will have to see how well I feel after work. BUt this is a good sign so early after the rest. I will keep taking my Recover Ease to get me back to my regular training schudual. This helps alot with a quick recovery.

The last few nights have been about 10-12 hours of sleep and try not to eat to much food. Its real hard though. And no exercising at all. Work has been tuff to stay awake through out the hole. I have been working 10.5 hour days since returning to work. Toaday was the first day I got to sleep in and that was nice.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

24 hour National Race report

I haven't been posting lately. It's always weird when tapering for my big races. I just seem just as busy or just don't feel like doing much at all. The race was on Saturday July 29th in Wausau Wisconsin. This was my first race out of state for Amanda and I, so there were a lot of first. Like shipping both bikes, gear, tools, clothing. It was a lot of stuff. I decided to ship one bike UPS and fly with the other, seemed my odds were better at least getting one bike there. When we got to the airport to fly out we checked in the bike, but what I found out is that they don't cover any cost if the bike is damaged. So I wont do that again.

Come race morning I was ready to get on my bike and rip it up. I was well rested and ready to go. We got to the 9 mile park in Wausau about 6:30 in the morning. Not to many other people awake yet. But we found a nice spot right next to the race course. We began to set up our area and that's when some nasty clouds starting to roll in. 45 minutes later were in a down pour for almost an hour. Luckily the guy next to use let me use his canopy to take shelter so Chuck could finish putting the bike together. By this time one bike was ready and registration was open. So I took a spin to get my stuff. The rain quit and thing were starting to dry out. Well time past and race was ready to start. So I got ready and headed over to the start line. The race started at 10 am with a short run and then jump on the bike and go like hell. After getting on my bike there was this girl who was also trying to get on her bike but was heading right for me and was going to take me out so I gave here a little push to get her going. Later I was told it looked like I was pushing her out of the way but I was not. She gave me a weird look like you A#$# %#$%. But I was just trying to help her get going with out taking me out. Well of on my first, as always everybody hit it hard and fast. I tried to stay with them but they were just to fast and I knew it was going to be a long night. And looking at my heart rate witch was 95% of my max, 170 BMP, I decided to let them go and stay with in a certain range. My plan was for this race was to be conservative intel the last 5 hours and then hammer away and start passing people. The course was awesome. A lot of ski trails with a lot of single trak that twisted thru the forrest. It was real tectnical with a lot of roots and rocks. You really had to time the rocks or you would hit them with your pedals. I can see why 29" whell ruled this course. On the 3 rd lap, like I planned was to start taking on food . I told Amanda this and to give me food even if I didn't want it. So when I cam in Amanda said here is a bagel, I said Im okay, then all off a sudden I got this look from here and the look said if you don't take this I will shove it down your throat, so with a smile I took it and ate it. I was using a 32 oz camel back and a 20 oz of Carb boom mix each lap. I tried to eat as much food as I could and drink a lot of fluids. I still felt really good going into my sixth lap. Nothing real exited happened the first ten hours. People were great out on he course, everybody was real considerate and moved over when you came up on them. By this time it was getting dark and it was time to get the lights on. Some time during the night I ended up hitting a tree with my shoulder, hurt like hell. My hands were starting hurt and everything else started to feel pain. But that's 24 hour racing and I was ready to tasake the pain to the end. Some time around 2 am I ended up with a rash around my but were it sits on the seat. I tried to lube it up with vasaline but to no avail it didn't work. So I ended up having to stand 80% of my laps standing to pedal, if it was trail was smooth enough I sit. But there wasn't much of that. I still felt okay and was ready to finish strong. I new the sun wasn't far away and if I could just make it intel then I new I would make it to the fininsh. Well around 4 am the rain clouds decided to move in and take over. Its started to rain and didn't never really quit. They stopped us around 6 am in hopes it would let up some so we could race again. About 6:45 they let us go again, why Im not sure. I came back to transition and went out again. The guys in front of me were starting to crack and I was gaining time. But half way thru my lap they stooped us and said the race was cancelled. Not only cancelled but they stooped it from 5:30 am. So I ended up with a 9th. Not bad really considering the field and only my 3rd 24 hour race. I would like to thank my one and only, Amanda for all you do for me, you were awesome. And would like to thank Chuck for coming all the way out from California also to help wrench on the bikes. I had the best pit crew ever. Thanks. I would like to also all my sponsor because I wouldn't of been there if it wasn't for all you guys and girls.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Monday

Not much to report over the weekend. Have been work'n alot latlely so my training has been slow. Had to work on Saturday so didnt do to much. 1 hour run before work and 2 hour on the road bike after work. I was pretty tired after being on my feet all day at work. So the ride was just spinning to keep the legs loose. On Sunday I went to fort ord and road around on the trails for three hours on the Blur. Then went home and took a long nap before watching the Tour De FRance time trail. I was disappionted Hincapie lost so much time, I was hoping he would do better. Gearning up for the Marathon MTB race on Thursday. I'll be taking it easy this week. Just doing half of what I would usually do. Then it will be a 2 week focuse for 24 hour Nationals, its going to be a tuff field. Alot of big dogs will be there. But I shall give them a run for there money and do my best. I will be be ripping up the field with both Santa Cruz Blurs. Thats all folks..

Friday, July 07, 2006

7-7-2006

Last night I did a 45 minute swim. 300, 200, 3x300, 4x50 hard, 2x300, all in meters. Then jumped on the raod bike and did a 2 3/4 hour ride. Some intervals and a little bit of hill work. I have been pretty toasted since my epic ride on tuesday, so Its been all about recovery and alot of food and chocolate cookie time, mmmmmmmm good stuff. I will have to work on Saturday so I will try in get a good ride in on Sunday then rest up for Thursday's race.



Well it's official. I will be doing Infeon MTB Marathon race at the Sonoma race way on Thursday July 13th. This will be my last race before 24 hour National race in Wisconsin on July 30th. This will be my last hard workout before my final tunning for nationals.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Decided to my own stage race

I always get pump up during the Toue De France. These guy's are just so umbelievebly fit. The amount of pain they will go through is just amazing. I will tape the stages in the morning and watch them when I get home in the evening.

So I decided on Tuesday to do my own mountain stage race to get in some good miles for my upcoming 24 hour MTB National race at the end of July. I started from the house in Soledad and headed to San Juan Batista on the back roads. It was pretty chilly al morning. Ended up wearing knee warmers and arm warmers intel 11 a.m.. I was going to go up too Freemonts peak and back, then back up again and again. Three times to the top and back. I was trying to do it for times but ran out of time. I didnt feel like getting home at dark. The climb is 9 miles long and the elevation gain is about 2500-3000 feet. It has a few steep parts about 17% grade but are not verry long. It took me 53-55 milutes to get to the top from where the concrete pavement ends at the bottom. The 3rd time up the hill hurt pretty bad. I even stopped part way up to catch my breath. I figure the milage was about 140-150 miles and 9.5 hours of riding. I felt really good on the way home. The best I ever remenber feeling after that much torture.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Priceless!


This is courtesy of Bantransfats.com and I will definitely be purchasing one!

We need to quit killing ourselves

I can remember 6 years ago, weighing 240 lbs and growing. The realization of my weight really didn't hit me intel I out grew my pant size and my next size was going to be a size 38. I said " enough is enough" and decided to loose some weight, a lot of weight. Toady I weight 165-170, that's 70 lbs of excess baggage I was carrying around. As I look back and just think of how I ate and what I ate just blows me away. All the fast food, restaurant food and un healthy store bought food. It is amazing how good I look compared to 6 years ago. I really was never taught how to eat, or the right foods to eat and when to eat them intel I really got into exercising and racing and a higher level. My first health book was Body for Life. This book changed my life. The way I ate and what I ate. My next book was on Trans Fat, or better known as partially hydronated oils. It is a small book and didn't take long to read but WOW! What and eye opener. Who would of thought the company's you trust and recognize as healthy foods to feed you and keep us healthy is really killing us. And to found out all because of money and greed. Its in almost everything you find in the grocer stores. Just look in your pantry and you will be amazed at how many products have it in it. Company are required to label it on labels know. But they don't have to if its under a certain amount. What's up with that? Like I said it all has to do with money and greed. My wife, Amanda, when we first met she always had stomach problems and would get sick all the time. But know since we changed a lot of what we eat and eat mostly organic foods and cook all our meals from scratch and not out of a box. She no longer gets sicks like that anymore. I tell you these big company's are killing us with all there toxic foods. Another book I've been reading is Natural Cures by Kevin Trudeau. Yes you have to take it with a grain off salt but I believe a lot of it is true and he has some good products that are all natural. Its amazing how good I feel and Im never sick. I wouldn't eat any other way today knowing what I know about the food industries and the bad ingredients they use in there products. And to think that there labels say how healthy they are on them is a big lie. I will use cereal as and example: You look at most top name brands like General Mills, Post , and look at there ingredient list. You will see partially hydronated oil in there, just blows me away. Here they are suppose to be healthy and good for you. People have been feeding it to there children for years, and eating it them selves. Again here we rely on company's to provide us will good stuff and not be so un truthful. It makes me so made that even the FDA allows allows all lof this, The agency that's suppose to be protect us. The company we pay to have protect us. Again its all about money and greed. Anyway that's my rant on that for today. As you can see I feel very strongly about my food, because who else is going to care, NOBODY. Take care.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Another day in "Brian's House of Pain"

Saturday 6-24-2006

Thats right! The road bike ride was 158 miles with an estimated 12-14,000 feet of climbing. I started in Santa Cruz and went to La Honda, Pascadero, back up Alpine to Skyline and back to Santa Cruz on HWY 236. 9 hours and 15 minutes in the saddle and a total time of 10 hours and 15 minutes. Only 1 hour of stopping, which I don't think is too bad, you've got to eat sometime and it would be hard to carry that much food with you. My good friend, Miles Wadsworth, for some odd reason, decided to go with me. I bet he was wondering why the whole way! Funny thing is I wanted this weekend to be easy and not too much training, but when talking to Miles on Friday on the phone I joked with him that if he wanted to do a long ride with me, I would, and he said yes, so I wasnt going to pass this up. I bet he won't say yes for a while. It's always good to have strong riders ride with me like Miles so we can push each other harder than you normally would on a ride by yourself. There seemed to be a lot more riders out than normal - I guess the really nice weather has a lot to do with it. The temperatures reached well into the 100's in some parts of the ride and the some sections were in the low 80's by the ocean with some good humidity. The were three hard parts during this ride that I had to work through. It was the section heading on the way back. This climb is 2 hours long, with a small descent before climbing the rest of the way. It start almost right at Hwy 1 and you go up towards Skyline Drive. I'm not sure what the first part is but at one piont you turn on Alpine Road. This is where the temps hit well into the 100's. Last time Miles and I went up this road we ran out of water and suffered for hours. But this time we bought 4 16.9 oz of water to carry with us plus our bottles on the bike and this worked out good. I started to cramp real bad towards to the top, but I was expecting this anyway, so no big deal, just work through it. The next bad spot was coming back into the big redwoods on Hwy 236, about 9 miles before you get the camp ground an little sore. I really fely my suger level hit rock bottom, my vision gets blurry and just hurt really bad. And the final pain fest was at he end trying to hold a steady and consistent pace. Miles and I were having a tough time at this point and just wanting to get back and off the bike. So not a bad day. I feel I will be ready for the 24 hours MTB NAtionals in Wisconsin . The only competition I have seen so far would be Jeff Kerkove, he seems like an animal. He has been having a good season so far. Not sure who else will be there.

Sunday 6-25-2006

It has been an easy day. 50 minute run and a 4000 meter swim. The sets were 4 x 1000 ( 1000 swim, 1000 paddle, 1000 swim, 1000 paddles) each set faster than the other. And now the rest of the afternoon laying around getting some rest. I will be taking my Recover-Ease to help with my recovery, man this stuff is good. I will post some thoughts on my New Pasta sponsor Fiber Wise Pasta when I get to order my first shipment. Happy training....

Friday, June 23, 2006

Tuff week

It has been a tuff week. I feel at this point my body wants to peak and get a little rest. All I have to do is keep this up 5 more weeks intel 24 hour National Championship at the end of July. I can do it but its going to be tuff. Plus I have to be careful and not to burn out at this piont. I havent been exercising much and trying to recover for the next and final push into the ultimate fitness to kiss some ars. Yesterday I took the hole day off and today will be light with an hour swim and 45 minutes running. The days here are sure getting hot. The last few days have been close or right at 100 deg. So looks like I will be getting some good heat training in. I have a triathlon I will be doing on July 9th. Its an Olympic size triathlon. I get a free entry because Granite Construction co., the company I work for, supplies them with signs and cones.

Some new news is that I have picked up another products sponser, mmmmmmm pasta, I eat pasta about four times a week so its going to be very nice of FiberWise to help me out.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Weekend of 6-12

SO after a nice week of resting up I wanted to upon it up with back to back big cycling day's. I was hoping it was hotter but it wasnt. I head to Santa Cruz on Saturday to get in alot of longer climbing. I start from Santa Cruz and head north on HWY 1. Then go Rt on Boony Doon road all the way to Empire Grade. Lt on Empire GRade and then Rt on JAmisin Creak, Lt on HWY 236, lt on hwy 9, Lt on SKy line, Rt on 84 in La Honda. Not sure about the road but I made a right at the bottom of 84 to hit page mill back up to sky line.lt on sky line, rt on hwy9, rt on hwy 236, rt on Jamison, lt on Empire GRade, rt on bonny doon, lt on hwt 1. In all 140 miles with 12000 feet of clibing. Nothing exiting to report. There was alot of fog at LA Handa so I had to change my route some. Didnt have to stop much and took alot of food with me. Im really liking the burito thing know. I will make potatoe and a litler bit of egg whites in a butito to eat on the way and all I have to do is stop fpr water and maybe some food but not much.

Sunday I decided to back it up again and go for it. So I went to king City to park And head to Coalinga and see if I cant find some heat. The route is Bitterwater rd, Lt on hwy 25, rt on Coalinga rd witch turn into Los Gatos Rd,rt on derrick, 1 lt, rt on HWy 198 into Coalinga to re fuel. Sam route on the return. It was foggy fro the first hour and then cleared up nicely. There is fire station 25 mile after leaving KIng City where I fill up on water for the last stop to Coalinga. I like this route because very little to no traffic. The road are a bit rough. Some little 5-10 minute climb but nothing to bad. ONce I got 30 mile from Coalinga I have found what I've been looking for, 90 deg +, oh ya. By the time I started to head back it got in the upper 90. Not as hot as I would of liked but beggers cant be choosers. Overall a good ride. It was real hard to get my heart up except on the hills but still didn't get that high. I was real tired towards the end of the ride and could barley muster up 130 bpm on the heart rate moniter. Glad I didn't take my power meter, man those would off been some low numbers. But the overall picture was just to make it. It took a little over 8.5 hours with a 30 minute stop in coalinga for lunch and refule and a 20 minutes stop at the firestation on the way back to bullshit with on of the firefighter boys. My confindence and morale are real high when I do stuff like this. So I will be taking alot of recover ease the next few days to help me recover and get back to traing hard and heavy.

Weekend of 6-3-2006

So its was a tuff week last week. I was really tired and decided to take it easy.. Hell who am I kidding, it was a forced rest week. I was blown out. Its funny because I really never had a planned rest week that I could remeber. Its always go hard and go long intel my body say's "please no more Brian"..lol. Although I have a funny story of last weekend before I go into detail of this weekend. So me and Amanda went up north for the weekend to her sisters graduation dinner. We usually stay at my Mom & Dads, wich they live in Madison. SO on Saturday I was going to do A road ride that I have done before but never finished, not because I couldn't but because I ran out of time. The ride took about 10 hours and is about 140 miles.. Its a long day. This route is pretty and very out in the middle ofno where. The route: I leave Madison and head south towards winters. In Winters I take a right on HWY 128. You will past right by Lake berryessa on your rt. Cant rember what road it is but you will make a rt and head towards lake berryessa. You follow that for a while and instead of going to the lake you will go straight like your going towards Napa. And then at this little lake you turn rt on POe Valley RD. This road is so gorgous and theres pratically no traffic. The first part you climb is unbelivably senic. Its in a narrow canyon with a creek right next to it. Once you get to the top it faltnes out for a long time. After going thru Pope Vally I startd this little climb and herd a horn beeping constinly. My first thought was a car being broken into but then realized in was someone trap in a car down a short cliff. I got off my bike and headed toward the car and there was a girl in it in the back seat. She was honking the horn with her foot. I couldn't smell any gas so that was a good thing and she was not bleeding. She could talk and was very consciuos but shook'n up pretty good. After seing everything was ok I went to the rod to get help. I stopped this nice man who had to drive back down the hill to find a house to call help since our cell phones didn'y work. So talk to women some more to keep her calm and make sure she didn't go into shock. Well help arrived so I took off. Im not sure how she was but I hope her well. Then I was of again. The weather was smoking hot so this was good. I need to get some hot days in for the 24 Nathional MTB race in Wisoncin in the end of July. After you get past Pope VAlley it rolls along and you go thru a pretty big city intel you run intio HWY 20. MAke a right and just keep going, and going, and going. I bet the temp hit a 100 deg easy. After a while you come to HWY 16, go rt and its 40 more miles and Im home. I had somwher to be so I had my dad drive me 5 miles from Davis to run the rest of the way. Man it was smoking hot. It was only a few minutes after running that I already was cramping. BUt I had no choice to finish since my Dad was already heading home. Good Day.

ON Sunday we drove home and I felt prettty good so I figure some more good torture. I jumped oN the bike with my running gear and headed to the pinnacles for sone trail running. The bike ride is only 25 miles but has 3200 feet of climbing. Once I got to the pinnacles it was 2.5 hours in the inferno. 100+ deg. OOps I forgot about the 1.25 hours swim before heading out.

Friday, June 02, 2006

No Gas

SO I head out for my Thursday bike ride. I will usually do intervals and hill work. The intervals will last 20-40 minutes. But not today. I got half way thru the first set and my legs are toast. So decided to skip the intervals and just ride. I ended up with 3 hours and 56 miles. Its really hard not to ride hard in this area because of the north wind that blows 30+ mph everyday in the afternoons. So the last section was real tuff. I decided to call it a day after that.

On this ride since I had some time to think about what deos it take to to be an elite athlete. I know for me its real hard with a full time job working 40-45 hours a week. The amount of work and hours one has to put in are pretty scary to think about. The interval work, the hill work, long staedy stat work, and all this not just on the bike but running and swimming too. For me I know I have to keep going day after day and woprkout after workout. I know if I dont get 4-6 workouts in each discipline each week I will start to loose that fitness. Yes there are weeks, like this one where I dont get the folume Im looking for. But I keep the same amout of workouts. I always do this kind thinking on my slow weeks. I rember when I started working out and the gains were huge. I was was gaing minutes from year to year. BUt know to even gain a few seconds is real hard because the amount of work invilved to increase those few seconds hurts like hell. BUt Iknow for me i will have to keep going and try to push the body to the next level, what ever that will be only time will tell.

On another thought Im always get told how crazy or insane I am. I dont think Im that crazy just that I work real hard at what I want in life. I look at it like Im only going to get one chance at this and you have to go for it when you can. And Im going for it, giving it 110%. But one thing I will have to say for the people that say Im insane or Im going to kill my self. I just have to laugh because if you look at what people eat or there health stile really who killing them selves. They smoke, drink, and eat all the wrong stuff and dont exercise. So to all those people who think Im insane you might want to look at your own life and see who's really killing themselves. Just some random thoughts. See ya!

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

1st win of the year

I wanted to do a race to get my nutrition down - so I competed in the 12 Hours of Weaverville this weekend. After the 24 HOA at Laguna Seca I was worried. I worked out all the way thru this week to see what I could do. I took both my Santa Cruz Blurs to get me to the finish line. Also I was feeling really good from all the recover ease product that I have been taking. I drove up to Weaverville California on Friday and we got there about 8:30 at night. We found the hotel we were staying at and then went to go get race packet before going to bed. On the way to get the race packet got got pulled over for speeding in town. The Highway Patrol man was real nice and let me go. I actually think my heart hit about 130 BPM! Boy I got so lucky not to get that ticket. I got my race packet and was off to bed to get some sleep. We got up at 5 am to get get ready and head to the transition area. It was pretty chilly in the morning. After setting up I took a quick ride to warm up and check out some of the course. The race started at 8 am and ended at 8 pm. So I knew I would have a long day. And off we went on the first lap. It always amazes me how fast people go on the start of these long endurance races. I just tried to keep my pace and not blow myself up. The big climb to the top seemed real long and compared to Laguna Seca I thought it was tough. After the first lap I was in 5th or 6th place, but I knew it was going to be a long day and there was no need to worry yet. After the 4th lap I was in first and held that position all the way to the end. Some thing I noticed here was I really didn't start to feal good until the 8-9th hour. Not sure why. I ate about 400-600 calories an hour all day. Oh yeah and I ended up beating all the teams also except for a two-man team who had the same amount of laps but was only 5 or 10 minutes faster than me.



Thursday, May 25, 2006

I wonder if it will ever warm up?

I hit a low spot in my training after this weekend. After my ride in the rain on Sunday things went down hill some. For what reason, I'm not sure. I ran Monday morning for 1 hour but felt really wiped out. I did do 9 hours on Saturday but I didn't think it was that tough. On Monday after work, when I got home I pretty much devoured the fridge and pantry. Then went to bed really early. I also took Tuesday morning off from training and just slept. But that afternoon I was having trouble getting going after work to go train. But I knew I had to get out there and do something. So I planned on a 3 hour ride and do some running speed work. Once I started biking I was fine after my warm up and felt good. I did tempo work 20 minutes on a few minutes rest all the way to Arroyo Seco lakes. I stayed seated on the small hills and high cadence. On the way back same tempo work but stood up on the hills and did hard peddling with high cadence. Total of 3 hours and 56 miles. Jump off the bike and hammered out 4x1600 meter repeats. I was smoked. 6 miles total running about 45 minutes. I like this workout alot. Cleans out the system.

Wednesday was easy with a 5000 meter swim. Broke down as 600, 4x150. Main set was 12 x300 steady/smooth, every 3rd set w/ paddles. 200 cd. 1.5 hours. I was wanted run but was pretty tired so I change the cables on the MTB bike for a race this weekend. The race is put on by www.teambigfoot.net. It's the 12 Hours of Weaverville. This was a last minute race to do. I'm really looking forward to it and I feel really ready.

This morning was 1.5 hours of running steady to easy and 45 minutes core and upper body. I started to do weights again and one thing I noticed is how strong I was 3 months ago when I stopped. So I want to start again just not as much as I was doing. Maybe 2 times a week or what ever I can fit in.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Snakes, snakes and more snakes

Well I'm still feeling pretty good since 24 HOA last weekend. I felt the soreness on my MTB ride last night, climbing up Gloria grade. It was a 3.5 hour ride with about 4,000 feet of climbing. I've noticed a lot of snakes this year so far. I seen three garden snakes, 1 gopher snake and killed 1 rattle snake on my ride. I have bounced back really fast and had little fatigue in me from 24 HOA. So at this point I feel very confident in doing Ironman Florida in November four weeks after 24 hours of Adrenalin World Championships in Gorgia in October. I will still do 112 miles on the bike and a 20 mile run in two weeks just to make sure but I think it will be cool. I wasn't able to get up this morning to train, but I will swim and run tonight.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

24 Hour report

Well after a couple of days to think about the race and what happened, I think I felt really good going into the race. I was rested, did all the necessary training to do good. We arrived at the race on Saturday morning to finish setting up our spot and get everything in order. All week my wife and I have been talking strategy and what we were going to do. And we continued to talk about it right up until the race started. The race meeting was at 8:45 and the race started at 10:00. The first part is about .25 mile run to our bike and then ride as long as you can for 24 hours. This was my second 24 hour MTB event and the first one I won at, so I had very high expectations. I tried to finish the run comfortable and steady. Got on the bike and just tried to keep real. The first few laps I felt really good and was just flying. After that for some reason I would stop at the pit area for 10-15 minutes just wandering around, so I made too long of my pit stops. Well the night came and the lights went on the bike. I forgot to mention that I ended up getting a mechanic to help me from Bob Cats Bicycles in Salinas. His name is Chuck, really cool guy and knows his stuff. I used both Santa Cruz Blur bikes for this race. Having a mechanic there was the way to go. I changed the bike out almost every third lap. So on the night I went. After a while I started to feel pretty bad. Unlike last year where I would force myself to eat. All else felt pretty normal and what you would expect from a 24 hour event. My pit stops were still too long and getting longer. I would get really cold and it was hard to warm up and get going. So from now on I will not even get of my bike unless I need to change or something. Everything seem to work like clock work though. I always had food and water for me, but just didn't take any. The funny thing is that when I was out there on the course that's all I could think about, getting back to transition area to eat something but when I got there I didn't want to eat anything. My wife was just unbelievable, always had what I needed and wanted. She was so supportive ( as always ) and helped me when ever I needed it. My wife is the one of the reasons I can and am doing what I do. My mechanic was so good. Always had a clean bike and shifted like a dream. It was all working out great until I hit my 17th laps and all hell fell about, well I mean I fell apart. I got so behind on my calorie intake and my body started to shut down. This was at 4 am in the morning. I think I had about the same amount of calories in 17 hours as I would of on my 8 hour rides. You just cant to that and hope to have a good result. So toward the end of the lap my knees started to hurt so bad and my stomach pretty much shut down with everything else. When I got back to the transition area I laid on the ground in pain for 90 minutes. I couldn't take it anymore. So 17 laps and 6th place. I was so devastated, and depressed at my performance. I really felt bad because it felt like I let my wife and crew down, who put so much effort out there for me. All because I wouldn't listen and eat when they told me I should. I'm so very sorry. I had put a lot of pressure on myself this race because I wanted to do good for my sponsors and family and friends who put up with me so much throughout the year and I just felt like I let them down. I know I didn't but it felt like it. After I was able to get my butt off the ground, we packed up and headed home.

Some random thoughts about the race. I know for next year I will not get off the bike unless I have to switch bikes or change clothes. I will also have my crew stuff my jersey pockets full with food to eat on the course. So will see what happens. I'm sure there's more but I can't give away all my secrets!

I started trains on Tuesday evening with a 3 hours ride and felt really good. I think it's the recover-ease that helps me so much. I just cant believe I feel this good and I am not totally wiped out. Thanks Recover-Ease!

Monday, May 08, 2006

Weekend wrap up

Only 5 days left until 24 HOA. This was one of the easiest training weekends in a long time. But rest is what is needed to gain all the training that I have been doing. It's still real hard not to go out and train hard because it's what I've been doing all year. Saturday I had to work so no training. I did get some stuff out of the attic for the 24 HOA. Sunday was 5000 yds in the pool and 3.5 hours on the mountain bike. I did three loops of the old National 24 hour loop. It was real hot and I got severly sunburned on my shoulders. I wore my triathlon skin suit with no sleeves to see how it would work. Wearing the camel back and the skin suit was different. It did rub on my shoulders some but after a few hours couldn't even tell it was there. Then off to pick up the new Blur. I didn't get a chance to ride it but I will today.

I've been feeling really strong the last few days and I am very tempted to go out and test myself but I will have to wait until race day. I don't want to do anyhthing stupid a few days out from my A race. I did manage to do 30 minutes of stretching and a 45 minute jog. I have been taking my recover-ease every day and it is working really well. I always feel so strong the next day after hard workouts. Also it says to take 4 a day two weeks leading up to the race. Well back to work.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Friday!

Well yesterday was an easy training day. I swam 3000 meters in 1 hour. I just can't seem to get my swim down anymore. I remember last year I was doing a lot of 4500-6000 meters each swim. I have been trying different things but can't seem to get it right. My first thought is maybe I didn't take enough of a break after my first Ironman in September. Went straight into base. Anyway today is a run and a swim after work. I've been taking my recovery ease every day and have been feeling really good. Only one more week until 24 HOA SOLO!!! Oh yeah, I can taste it already.

My new Hayes disc brakes were at the front door last night. So of to Bobcats bicycle shop they went today. I just take them to Bobcats and the new addition to the family is ready. It's a Santa Cruz Blur, just like my other MTB soft tail. It has XT components. Easton handle bar and seat post, and the seat I won from the Downiesville Classic. I can't wait to test ride it this weekend.

Man it's going to be tough on me and my wife espcially because of this week being my easiest week of training this year so far.

Also, I will be getting a digital camera this weekend hopefully. That's going to be cool! And alot of stuff is still left to do for 24 HOA.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Pre riding 24 Hours of Adrenalin course

The race course start is at Laguna Seca and goes into the Ford Ord area. Its a 10 miles or so long with about 2,000 feet of climbing. So I decided to pre-ride the course to familiarize myself with all the turns and dips, grooves and do some night riding. Even though my wife advised against me riding in the dark with it being a work night and all. So I hit the trail at 5:30 and wanted to do 4 laps. I took the first lap real slow being its been awhile since I rode out at Ford Ord. The trail is in real good condition with a few bad spots you have to be careful on. I noticed there were some big grooves on the trail from the sea otter. Not many but some. A few times my tire got caught in them and almost crashed. I kept having to tell myself not to get hurt this close to the race. There are some sandy spots also but that's pretty normal for there. And my favorite part is the grind back to the race track area, oh ya I love to climb. I noticed this year Im a lot stronger than last year. I remember going up the grind in the big ring and three over from the left on the rear. Don't ask me what gear ratio that is because I have no idea. This year was the fourth gear from the left. Plus I had a head wind. The next 2 loops I did the national chapionship old course, which they're not doing this year. The third lap I put on the lights, it was 7:30. Turned on the light and headed out again. Although it was still light but just wanted to test the battery for a couple hours. By the finish of the third lap it was pretty dark. The last lap was the same as the first. The last three laps I rode real hard and attacked on the hill. Oh ya I was even able to stay in the big ring going up hurl hill. That was a first also. But I don't think I should attempt that for 25 laps on race day. I'm crazy but not stupid. Well, most the time. Now I will be trying to rest and recover for the next ten days. I will keep swimming, biking, and running but no 8+ hour days. Mainly just focus on good quality stuff with not a lot of recovery time. I feel I'm very ready I will have a good shot at being on the podium, depending on who shows up.

Monday, May 01, 2006

Training in different areas

It's always nice to go somewhere different and train. We went to see my Mom & Dad in Madison over the weekend. So it was a good time to see some sites. On Saturday I dedcided to do a loop. Go towards Lake Berryessa and Clear Lake and back to Madison. I looked on the map and was thinking a good 5 hour and about 100 miles. WOW! was I wrong. I had somewhere to be afterwords so towards the end of the ride I had to call in for a ride or I never would have made it. Thanks DAD! I ended up riding 8 hours in the saddle. I would have to say close to 130 miles. This was a nice ride. Most of the time you were right next to a creek or river that had running water in it. So I was really never worried about running out of water. I got low on water at one time climbing this grade but at the top of the hill they will have these pipes sticking out if the mountain with water comming out of them, pretty cool. I would have to say this is was the hottest ride of the year so far. The only bad thing is my knee was hutring on Sunday so I couldn't run at all. And being out of town always sucks because I couldn't get to much training in like I wanted to.

Only two weeks until 24 HOA. :)

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Rest day #3

Yep, on my third forced rest day. These days are always tuff for me. I always want to keep training hard. But I can only keep it up so long. 2-3 weeks hard then I need some rest. I guess its real good for me because my body absorbs all the hard traing from the prior weeks and gives me strength to continue the next phase. But they still suck. Its real hard for me to do nothing or just a little. I can only imagine what my wife sees, like what it's like to see my ups and down. And how I go through my phases. Its kind of funny because she seems to always know before I do, but really I know but choose to ignore my pain and try and push through it all. I can say it is real tuff to spent a lot of time away from my wife and kids( I mean pets:) ). One thing I miss the most, heck I cant even remember the last time I slept in on a weekend and did something besides train. But if I want to get where I want to go; on top of the podium, I have to train and train hard and train a lot. A lot of people just don't understand why I do what I do. I try and tell people all the time what I'm trying to do and they think I'm killing myself or think I have lost it. I might have but I'm having a lot of fun training and see how far I can push myself. I'm just so glad I have my family and friends who back me all the way and support me in all my crazy stuff, might not really understand why I do it but still love me and support me.

Wow after writing all this stuff I just realized all this thinking going on is a sign I need to get out there and train, I must be feeling better.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Amazing what a little and a lot of rest will do!

So after my epic week I was forced to take a couple days easy. Monday was 45 min swimming then eat, eat, and eat more, then sleep. I did manage to get up on Tuesday mornng and do 1/2 hour of core and run for 30 minutes. After work when I got home I devoured the kitchen and slept from 4-6. Got up and ate some more and went to bed at 7. Then got up at 9 and ate some more. So I got a total of 4500 calories and 12 hours of sleep last night. SWEET! I'm glad I did rest because last time I tried to push through I got burnt out hard and took me awhile to get back into the groove.

This morning I got a 1 hour run in and will swim and bike tonight.

My second back up bike for 24 hours is almost ready. Just waiting to get my new Hayes disc brake in and it will be fininshed. Then both Blurs will be ready to rip up some dirt.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Weekend summary

This would have been my biggest bike week so far this year. I would of liked to got more miles in per week since January but the weather has been tuff so far. This weekend was the first weekend I have been able to get to my favorite riding area, Santa Cruz. The weather stayed goog enough not to be to miserable. There were a few times I almost had to quit because it got too cold.

On Saturday I decided to head down to Lake San Antonio, where the Wildflower 1/2 Ironman is going to be on May 5th to train. I started with a chilly lake swim. 45 minutes straight. Figure it was about 2600 meters. Then got on the bike and headed to HWY 1 first before doing the 1/2 Ironman bike course. I like this route because there's hardly any traffic and the road is a lot better. You have to go through Fort Hunter Liggett to get there but no big deal. Just make sure you have your I.D. with you or you can't enter. This is one of the most scenic rides one can find in this part of California. So many wildflowers this time of year, and the smell from them is real nice. There was a lot of streams running this time because of all the rain, which was nice to see. About half way I stopped at the ponderosa camp ground to get some water. I also like this route because it has a lot of climbing, I love to climb. Too bad it was foggy, couldn't really see the ocean from the top of the climb. From the top you descent 2500 feet in 6 miles with a lot of tight turns. Took 15 minutes to go down. At the bottom there I camp ground where you can get more water. Although this time it tasted pretty bad and ended up having to dump it out, so beware. Well now for the fun part, heading back up. 6 miles of pure delight, gear grinding, sweat making hill climbing. The first part is real steep and then levels of some. After that I did the Wildflower course. In all, about 120 miles with close to 10,000 feet of climbing. After the bike ride I decided to tuff out a 50 minute run. I was toast after that. Took all I had to drive home. I popped some recover-ease on the way home. Man this stuff is great, and not just because they are my sponsor but I feel it works the way they say it does.

On Sunday was my first official ride in Santa Cruz this whole year. I park by my friend Miles Wadsworth's house and ride from there. He lives in Aptos on Soquel Drive. From there I headed up Hwy 1 to Bonny Doon Rd., left on Empire, right on Jamison Creek Rd, left on Hwy 235 big redwoods, left on Hwy 9 to Saratoga. Eat lunch then head back. Another day with lots of climbing. It was 120 miles with 10,000+ feet of climbing. Took 8 and 15 minutes with 25 minutes for lunch. I no longer have a bike computer unless I'm on the other road bike with the power tap pro. So I don't know exact miles just off what I remember when I did have a bike computer.

Not a bad weekend overall. I had 30+ hours training and close to 400 miles biking. Just another wicked weekend on the body.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Got a new sponsor!

Yep, pick up Hayes Disc Brakes. Just perfect timing too. I just bought a Santa Cruz Blur frame from Bobcat bicycle shop. So I'm building it up from the frame and will need a new brake system. I just orderd the mag6 front and rear. I should get them in a couple of weeks. I just hope there here before 24 Hours of Adrenaline. I needed another soft tail for 24 hour racing. I used my hardrock hardtail bike to switch of between servicing last year and about died. It hurt so much to get on that after 18 hours of racing. I vowed never to do that again.


Last night's workout went better than I thought. I wonder if it was the 2 cans of coke I drank before the workout had something to do with it. 5400 meter swim. Broken down as w/u 400, 4x100, 4x50, main seet 18x200, 800 pull and then go home. popped two recover ease pills and off for nice easy spin on the MTB, a little over an hour.

This morning I couldn't get up so I only did a 30 minute run.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

21 days until 24 hours of Adrenalin!!!

I have been feeling very excited lately knowing its only a few weeks away. I have been pushing real hard on the endurance and power workouts. I hope to secure a spot to the World Championships in October.

Monday was a light day. I was pretty tired from the weekend training but that is usually normal for me. I've noticed though that taking the recover ease products helps so much to bounce back from all the torture I endure on myself. I swam 2400 meters. 600 w/u, 4x150, 12x100 in the pool on Monday afternoon, then went home and ate a whole bunch of food.

Tuesday I felt great. Morning was a 30 minutes core and then a 1 hour run w/ 3x 15 minutes cruise intrvals. Then off to work. The afternoon workout was a nice suffer fest. 3 x20 minutes hard TT efforts on the road bike. Then I decided to do hill repeats, 4 of them. The hill is 1+ mile long and an average grade of 11%. I figure I was holding 310-330 watts for the efforts. My quickest time was 9:30 standing the whole way. The other three were in the low 10+ minute range. I felt tired but not wiped out.


Today my legs are tired. I managed a 30 min core and a 1 hour run. I took it real easy on the run. Then off to work.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Do the distance, and don't cry about it!

Well when I awoke on saturday I didn't have any intentions of going that long. But after an easy 10 mile run I started to feel really good and the weather looked decent. So I decided to load up the bike and head to King City and park at the LA Hearne parking lot and ride to Coalinga. It is 70 miles one way so it would be a long day. I could see a lot of clouds but still didn't look too bad. It has about 10000 feet of climbing so I was thinking 9+ hours to the ride if I didn't stop too much. For the first half I always have to remind my self its going to be a long day and not to go out too hard. There is a fire station not quite half way where I stop to get water. The half way point is at the Clear Creek entrance. I really like this route because there's almost no traffic at all. The weather was real nice when I started out but 2 hours in the ride the temps drop to about 60 deg. I didn't see much wildlife at all, just a lot of cows. I usually see a lot deer and pigs but nothing. After I past the halfway point I started to feel really tired and started to think of turning around. I think if it was any colder I would have. But I kept going. Once I got to Coalinga I felt better knowing I was going to eat some real food before heading back. It was real warm, about 75 deg. Oh it felt so good. When I got to town I decided not to go to the sandwich shop because it takes too long and decided to go to the local grocery store to get a ready made sandwich to go. Well I get in the grociery store it doesnt have shit. No sandwiches, no energy bars. I wasted 15 minuted searching for this stuff. And everybody I ask had no clue where to look. So after wasting 15 minutes I decided to grab a coke and some water and get going. After leaving I still needed some food for the ride back so I had to head farther into town and find some. Well another 20 minutes later, fustrated as hell I'm heading back with some crap food and no lunch. I think next time I will just stop for the sandwich. It took me 4 hours 15 minutes to get to Coalinga so about 4 hour ride time. Pretty good! On my way back I see a couple on moutain Tour bikes heading the East pinnacles and decided to chat a little. I eneded up giving him one of my spare tubes in exchange for some cliff bars. Oh yeah! Some real energy food. Not much to report on the way back. Just hill after hill to grind away. It started to sprinkle on the way back, not much though still bearable. I started to ride harder knowing I was on my way back and pushed the pedals hard. It ended up taking 4 hours and 15 minutes to ride back. A total of 8.5 hours and 140 miles which was real great since it usually takes 9 1/2 hours plus to that ride ride. Well then I headed home to eat the house down.

On Sunday I decided to work out the legs and ended up doing 90 miles. It ended up raing on me for two hours. Got pretty bad for a while. Almost had to call in for some rescue but tuffed it out like a good cyclist. I got home early and just kicked backed to rest. Pretty wiped from yesterday.

Friday, April 14, 2006

ITS FRIDAY!!!!! Yesterday was a good training day. 30 min core followed by 30 min run and then an 1.5 hour hammer fest. Averaged a little over 20 mph. And then off to work. After work was another bike hammer fest. I did the trek 2300 with my power tap pro to do some wattage work. Nice 10 min warm up and then 300 watts intervals. The first 2 were 5 min. with a few minutes rest. Then 3 x 20 minutes at 300 watts average. Feels good afterwords. I had some workouts scheduled this morning but couldn't get up. But I did manage a good swim

W/u 300, 2x200, 3x100 steady
main set
1900 straight (2x400 steady, 100 recover in between then 2x400 w/ paddles 100 recover in between). Then off to work

Monday, April 10, 2006

Post Sea Otter, the mud fest!

Well three days of racing sure makes me tired. Friday was a circuit race, 8 laps arounds the Laguna Seca Race track. I nice little climb and a 45+ mph cork screw descent. This race is so much fun. It last about 50 minutes. I didnt do that good this, somewhere in the top 15.

Saturday was the road race. The course was 46 miles with four laps out at the Ford Ord millitary base. Each 10 mile loop had 1000 feet of climbing, we had to do four loops. Pretty tuff course. We lost over half of the field on the first lap. And they just kept droping off climb after climb. We were over half way on the second lap when I decided to make a break for it. I hit it real hard and got a few second gap. 3 miles later I had a 20 second gap. So I just kept my head down and see if I could make it to the end. At one piont I had a 40 second lead. It was a hill top finish, 2+ miles long with a couple of steep sections, so I knew I still had alot work to the finish. Well I get to the top and 5 feet from the fininsh line I got passed. I was so bumbed.

Sunday was the cross country mtb race. 2 laps at 19 miles each lap with 3200 feet of climbing. I couldn't believe how much mud was on the course. It started to sprinkle before the start. We started about 1:20 pm. And we were off with a half lap on the race course and on to the mud fest. As always everybody starts out so fast. As didn't want to blow up so i decided to hold back some. The single track was very slippery and wet all the way. There were alot of section where people were walking there bike because of the mud. It was pretty exiting and tuff. I took three pairs of sunglasses with me because of all the mud, but it was so muddy they would only stay clear for a muniute or so. I ended crashing about 5 times. The crashes wren't to bad and didn't get hurt, only a few bruses. I eneded up passing everybody on the second lap that took of like crazy and ended up 7th place. I was so tired after this race and just laid on the ground for at least 5 minutes before I got and moved around some.
Man what a tuff weekend. I feel pretty good today but have some deep fatigue to get rid of. I have been taking my recover ease product and it has been great. I have noticed to the differnce in my recovery time. So I will be back up traing again here in a few days getting ready for 24 hours of Adrenilan on May 13th and 14th.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Day before Sea Otter Classic

Hey, my very first post, so cool. Well its Sea Otter Classic circuit race tomorrow. 8 laps around the race track. What a ride it's going to be. Nice little climb and then you 35+ mph. Its been a tuff few days not doing much. This is a race I want to do good in so a few days rest is needed. I will have three days of races. Saturday will be the road race and Sunday is the brutal cross country race with 2 laps and 3200 feet of climbing each lap, oh yea, let the pain began. I'm glad I will have recover ease to take after all this torture this weekend to ease the pain. Nothing like three days of lactate threshold.