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....