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Wednesday, January 31, 2007

It feels so good to sleep in today. Getting up around 4 am for two weeks and putting in 8 hour work days and 4-5 hours training sure takes alot out of me. Im started to feel normal again and thats a good sign, Im bouncing back fast betwwen my two weeks sets. I have a few more day's of easy stuff and then its back to grind. Oh ya I love this stuff.

Well I gave the go ahead for the new Santa Cruz Blur XC . Should be here by May, I hope. I'll be flying when it comes in.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Not much going on. Rest, rest and more rest the next few days. Just trying to rest the body for a few day's and soak up the training I have done the last few weeks. I've been trying a two week training and 4-5 days easy. Its good so far. I like it because it still gives me 3 weekends of torture. Also this week I finally hit 165 lbs, I was very exited about that. Weight training has been great and I'm feeling stronger every week. Pick up a new sponsor last week, Fox Racing Shocks. Cool stuff.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Took Monday off from training but hit it pretty good this morning with a nice early morning run followed by a hard session of lower body weights. I'm starting to feel real strong from all training from the weekend and just feel great mentally from finishing all the riding. Its always nice to set some goals and follow through with them. I am still cautious lately with my training because of my not so stellar year last year and don't want to burn out like that. It really set in the back of my mind all the time and have to get past that. I know I have to keep plugging alone and not to burn so many matches during my training and save it for racing, doesn't mean I'm not going to train my ass, I will train and train hard but not race myself every weekend like last year. I fill I will gain more fitness this way, slow but steady. Right know I have been feeling good and not always wiped out during my workouts and able to finish almost all of them.

Well looks like I will be adding another addition to the bike family. Pretty sweet! The website says a little of 24 lbs. I have to workout the financial part of it but looks good. I might have to sell 1 of the blurs to do this but it would be worth it.

Monday, January 22, 2007

I manage to make it throught he weeeknd. To tired to talk about it. I did manage to get stuck in Fort Hunter Ligget because I lost my drivers license for awhile, but got it back. I eneded up doing 4 laps of the sea otter course and Saturday after an eairler morning run. Then Sunday I parked in King City At the corner of Jolon Rd and Pine Canyon Rd and road to HWY 1 through Hunter Liggett. What an awesom ride. I will be doing more of that ride. I like the 6 mile climb from HWY 1 back to HUnter LIgget. Im tired today but not wasted, kind of strange for me. A hole new level of fitness? Maybe.

Here are the totals for the week.


Actual Time
39:15
Swim Distance
2500m
Bike Distance
395
Run Distance
53

Friday, January 19, 2007

Holy smokes, I think I'm in heaven..

So I get this email, The feeling that are going through my body, I think I'm going to get sick. A good sick.


This is from Santa Cruz Bikes !



Dear Brian,Congratulations!! We have reviewed your sponsorship proposal and decided you qualify for our program. This sponsorship program entitles you to order a complete bike or frame(the model is your choice) and short/jersey. Please contact us at your earliest convenience .Sincerely,Juli

Oh this is going to be a great year. Thanks Santa Cruz Bikes!
So thing are getting interesting. My volume is starting to increase as the fatigue is starting to set in. Last night I snapped at the wife for some lame reason. Well I know why, getting shelled, I'm love'n it. On Saturday I did 200k, Sunday was 120k on the MTB, and this week I have 3-90k bike rides. So far since Saturday that put me at 640k so far. Runing I'm at 58k and very little swimming. I did 3 hours of lower body weights. I got so big stuff planned this weekend. I will tell all this Monday. So get prepared my love, Mr. grumpy is on his way home.

Some thoughts that come to mind when seeing how far one can push themselves. I do notice it gets real tough to finish workouts mentally, and emotionally. Its easy to talk yourself out of workouts. I could see why doing an epic camp would be nice. Just not in the budget for me. Most of the workouts from here on out are just do them and not worry about intensity. If i get to far out there intensity wise I would quit, gets to hard so I have to watch it. I try and keep my heart beat under 145 for all workouts. Although seems at this point almost impossible to get it that high, and keep it there. I'm still trying to watch my diet and not eat the house down every night. But also make sure I get enough calories in not to crash energy wise. Try and healthier stuff but it hard when I'm this tired, I will hit the more carb loaded stuff, pasta, home made almond joy nuggets that I started to make from hole organic ingredients, allot of salads and fruits and vegetables. I'm going through allot of high and lows the last few weeks, but I know I need to keep going because after all this I will gain huge amounts of fitness to Carry me through the year, and that's what its about. Improvement, not only physically but mentally, and that what it takes to get through 24 hour racing is allot of mental breakthroughs.

That's all for know. My fingers are tired and my brain hurts from this thinking....

Thursday, January 18, 2007

What a long morning. I get up aroung 1:30 am and can't go back to sleep. So at 2:30 I figure might as well get up and to some training. I did some core work/upper body and a long, long run. I wonder how long before I need a nap. Actually sound good know.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

testing, testing, anybody there. I just switch the blog over to the google acount and wanted to se if it works..
Im was a bit smashed yesterday from all the weekend training. I managed a 50 minute run, core and lower weights in the morning but couldn't muster up enough energy for my afternoon workouts. I did manage to eat a ton of food though. I had Chicken and dumbling to start me off w/ 2 totilla's. Then I had and egg sandwitch w/ 2 eggs. I box of pudding. Half a sandwitch w/ potabello mushroom and blue cheese. Hazendauz ice cream bar. Handfull of almonds. This all in a 2 hours span. Im a little full today but man I feel good and ready to go. I figure all that food was around 3000+ calories.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Its been real cold here, even cold for California. Low teens and doesn't get that warm during the day. I have noticed a lot of ponds in my area are even frozen all day. I've never seen that before. Its still not cold enough to keep me away from training. I had a big weekend of training and went good. IM not very powerful right now and don't want to be yet. That will come in time and it;s still to easily to hit the hard stuff. I've been doing a lot of steady stuff and I am starting to feel powerful enough to get in some good climbing soon. In the area I live in there are not to many people that train around here. If I want to train with others or even see anybody train I have to drive 30-60 minutes away. I have to go to Salinas/Monterey or Santa Cruz. SO I have top do all my training as a loner. But that's cool with me, either way It's something you have to do with or without others. So IM almost done with my mountain bike ride on Sunday, IM atop Gloria grade (dirt road that goes over to why 25) just kicking and enjoying the view. I start to hear 2 voices down the mountain, well turns out to be a guy and a girl on there road bikes going the back way to King City. I was in shock. Cool to see someone else out there but shocked.

The Soledad pool if unofficially closed at this time for renovation, although they still allow me to swim when I can, very nice of them. But the turned the heater off a little over a week ago and the water is starting to turn my balls blue. SO yesterday it was 69 degree;s, although feels colder than that. I took my full wetsuit yesterday and was perfect, execpt my hands froze. I did end up doing 4000 meters though so that was good. The life guard who watches over me while I swim ask me isn't the weather cold or colder than it is now, I said yes, but your racing, you really don't notice it. Its different when training I think.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Well after 5 day's of easy training Im starting to fell normal again. I have been sleeping almost 12 hours a day. Feels so good. I will be ready for another 2 weeks block of torture. Not much going on, just eating and sleepimg. I caint wait for my sponsorship from Smith Optics opens up so I can prder some new glasses. I sent alot of proposal for a bike sponsor so see what happens there. I have plans to ride and run my butt of this weekend, if I don't freez to deat. There calling for high teens to lower 20's tommorrow morning. Looks like 2 layers of base cloths, long sleeve jersey, wind jacket and a jacket to keep me nice and warm.

Friday, January 05, 2007

What was I thinking!

So last night was a 2 hour run I did. The cool thing about it is I took a totally new route I never ran before. I get about 20 minutes into my run next to the mountains and decide to head strait up the mountain. Alot of walking because it was so steep. So Im going alone and find a old dirt road and just keep going, and going. So know I found my self on top of Soledad overlooking the hole town, it was so cool. SO I decide to keep going and explore some more. I get back into a few canyons with not a sole insight. All I could think of at this point was hope I dont get stuck back here because nobody even knows where Im at. So I made a mental note to tell wife next time I decide to go to no mans land. Unded up being the best run in a long time. A little over 2 houtrs of just me and back fourty.

Getting up at 3:00 am. Well that didn't work. I was going to try this for a week and see how it woud go. It was hard enough to get up at 3:30. Well I gave it a shot. I will go back to my normal routine.Its hard with working full time and trying not to kill myself in the process. I don't think I could pull that of unless I started to work part time and that's not going to happen, need the money $$$. I did get up early this morning and rode 1.5 hours in the gale force winds. I didn't get very far. I was even in the small chain ring on flat ground, thats how hard the wind blew. Also went to the gym and did my lower body workout. I do have to say this hole base training is harder than I thought. But building the my engine to become bigger is what I need to do to have some good results come race time, then that what I shall do. Lots of riding, run, swim, weights, repeat, repeat, and repeat again over and over and over.

I do find myself on the loner side of things alot. I wonder what it would be like to go out on a friday night and stay up late, or go watch a late night movie? hhhmmm? I sure the wife wouldn't mind that one day. As endurance althetes were do sacrafice alot of things. Normal friends. Not a hole lot of time with the family and friends.. Friends????? Watching T.V. Spending time with the wife. Theres a hole bunch of stuff I could come up with.But if one wants to obtain ultimate fitness and be the fastest you dont get that from doing nothing. You train and you train hard.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Cold Sweats

So on Monday night I wake up about 12:30 am and Im just sweating like I just ran a half marathon. The bed is all wet, Im burning up. The thermostat say's 58 deg. in the house. This is a good sign that Im working out to hard and need to get my heart rate down more during the workouts. This should only happen when racing and doing speed/tempo work. So I have to be careful. Im been putting in some good weeks and the weight workouts are going good. I've been increasing the amounts everyweek and deosn't feel to overtaxing. I cant wait intel the race season start, Im so lloking forward to it.

I have a 24 MTB race in MAy, June, and September. I get all exited thinking about it.

Base training has been good, kind of cold some day's but the rain has stayed away. It doesn't get any better than this for winter. Temperatures are in the low30 and 65's for the high. I will start to increase my long rides and run for the next few months. My long rides will be on saturday or Sunday. I will start with a 5 hour ride and increase it 1 hour each week. So on the third week it will 7 hours in length. Well thats it for know.