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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.