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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Back to my old tricks. Getting up at 3:30 in the morning makes for a long day. Know I remeber why I quit doing it. Tends to burn you out. But you have to extend yourself in order to improve. I ran for an hour this morning and 45 minutes of lower body weights. I plan on doing some night riding tonight and will be my longest ride before the race. Looking forward to tonight, there will be three us nuts out there at Ford Ord.
10 day's left intil the big show. 24 hours of Cool, Ca. Im so ready, I put on some tread on both Blurs, the new maxxis 310 grams per tire. I will test drive them tonight. Bye!

Monday, April 23, 2007

Well another weekend in the bank. It was a little slow getting going after Sea Otter classic. I spent more fun cookies than original thought. The recovery time was longer than wanted also. But really cant rush that unless you want to start shooting yourself up with drugs, that would get you going. So I have to do it the old fashion way... SLEEP! I still have some fatigue lingering but with all go away on my tapper to the big day May5/6th. I have to be rested for that for sure. The magic figure for me is 10 days out for the body to heal itself and get rid of all those nagging pains, well at least most of them. I had a good weekend with 10 hours riding total. I went for an hour run this morning and my calf were on fire. Allot of climbing on the bike. I did cahoon grade, Tassajarra climb, Laurless grade. I'm not sure of the mileage but allot of tempo work, nothing crazy hard. I really don't focus on miles any more. I guess I would but I don't have a cycling computer anymore. With 5 bikes it gets to expensive to maintain that part. And really what does it mater, a peddle stroke is a peddle stroce, its not like you are going to do more than you can physically. You can only do so much and that's it, your done. I push myself to the limit all the time and don't need a mileage count to do that. The next few days will be tough but only a few to go and then I can absorb all the workouts and be in total fitness in a few weeks. I'm planning on a night ride on Wednesday at ford ord and that will be the last hard ride I will do. I will try and do 3-4 hours training a day until than. Its now or never. Bye

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

I tried to swim yesrerday afternoon but it was very tuff. I mad it about 30 minutes then went home to rest. I will be eating healthy and trying to recover some more today before I hit the gas again. I figure by Wednesday I should be on it again. I slept in again this morning, ah it feels so good. Im going to need this rest period for my next build up.
I had a Miles Wadsworth weigh by Blur before the start of the race on Sunday and weighed in at 23.5 lbs. Well I ordered some new shit and it will put it under 23 no problem. Smokin'n light.

Well last night since I didnt train I decided to train my tools and tighten all my nuts and bolts:):)..... on the Santa Cruz Blurs. ALso put the new XTR shift pods and rear derailer. Getting ready for the Cool 24 hour race in less than 3 weeks. I still have my rear shock too fix on the new Blur so hopefully I get that back by race day.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Another Podium at Sea Otter

Not a bad weekend at all. Way more than I could ask for. So on Sunday I raced in the Expert 35-39 cross country race. 2 - 19 mile loops, 38 miles of turns, dips, sand traps and more. Each lap had 3000+ miles of elevation gain. That works out good for me, since I like to climb.

We statrted the race a little after 7:30. The day before it rained pretty good so the course was real nice and tacky. We started and the adrenilan was flowing. I was suprised how slow the start was and found my self in the first 6 or so riders heading onto the course, usually Im killing myself not to get left behing. This pack got a nice gap between the field and we were moving along pretty good. Alomost going on the second lap there were about 3-4 of us left. Me and Bob Delp were the ones left going into the second lap with 18 miles to go. We were pushing the pace hard and hammering on the hills. I felt really good considering my legs were pretty sore from friday. I started to hurt allot and was starting to cramp but I didn't care , I was going to push hard and not let up. I finally got a little gap from Bob, dude was strong and I knew I had to get a llittle lead on him. After I l;ost him my handle bars came loose, who would of ever thought that. I tried to hold on as much as I could. The first few minutes I noticed this wasn't to bad but it just got worse, I could hold my speed on the down hills. I kept loosing control of the bike. So I had to sloow down so much on the ruff section. I was getting worried know with Bob Delp breathing down my neck. THe handle bars were just roting all over the place, shifting and braking was becomming redilous. But I wasn't going to give up and decided to keep going instead of trying to find some one who had the right tools to fix it. A few minutes to the finish my nightmare happened, Bob Delp passed me. I tried to hold his whell but I just could manage the handle loosing up deal. He eventually got a 20 second gap, and I took second. I feel good today I will train tonight. This morning was a little tuff getting up to do anything.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Well its Saturday afternoon. Just a few hours before my second race in two days. I did the 54 mile Cat. 4 road race on Friday. There were 39 riders in my group.
When I started to put everything in the truck in the morning I walk over to the bike and noticed I had a flat tire. JUst what I need. I had everything color cordinated fron the jersey's, socks, sheos and the bike to all match with blue, yello and grey. I decided to change both tire and tube. But I only had a red tire, just thru the hole color thing I had going. But no big deel. Im sure it really deosn't matter if your wheel is blue,red, or even purple. All that matters for me is how much power and can apply tot he peddle. Going onto this race I have felt real good. Strong as ever. I have changed my game allot since last year. I was always trying to hit high miles and hours week after week after week. But this year no more, not saying I dont hit those numders/hours week but I dont do them intel I get a forced rest period. I use to think it was so productive, maybe if I didnt work full time. But enough about that and back to race day. So I arrive real early to get ready and jump on the bike an warm up for 45 minutes. I didnt do anything hard, just easy. I always think on race day my nerves would calm down after doing this so many times, but nope, also nervous no matter what. Hit the potty box a bunch of times as always too. So we take of with a 5-10 minutes nutral start. The course changed from last year but pretty much the same climbing, maybe not as steep but still up and down. Nothing to flat. I had writen all my stragety down and what I did but I erased on of it. Maybe on another day I may reveal but not tonight. Any way I got 1st place.. Very happy with that. Im just glad i never gave up, because if I had I would of got only third. At least that was where I was at 4 miles to go to the finish line. I want to thank Chin Chao for working with me and doing allot of work out there. If I didnt win I was hoping you would. Thanks again for a race like no other. I've got to get to bed and prepare for the XC race tommorow. I will post a poduim pic during the week.

Monday, April 09, 2007

weekend fun in the sun

Work has been real busy so I have been tweaking my training some. Plus I have been working almost every Saturday if O wasn't racing, even then I was was working half the day than racing the other half.

Being I had to work on Saturday I was going to do a long, long ride on Sunday. To kind of back up a few days here. I got a head cold on Thursday so I have been not feeling good but still training. I figured as long I was still standing might as well see how far I could push. I see it as I need to teach my self to push when not feeling all the great, being most of my races are 24 hours long and it gets real tough the last 8 hours. Anyway I took it easy on Friday, and could only run for an hour on Saturday without feeling I was going to die. So at that point I was pretty sure I was going to bail on my long ride but wanted to wait and see how I felt before making that decision. I got up Sunday feeling okay enough to give it a try. My head cold was still there, so I decided to see if I could burn it out with an all day bike ride. Well that didn't happen it was still there at the end.
I started my ride in King City, I parked at Hwy 101 and Jolon rd store. I headed north from ther on Hwy 101, you ride about 4 miles on the freeway before turning lt onto Central Ave. I started my ride at 7:30 am, so its not to cold, I had arm warmers and that all. Cruised along central ave for about 30 minutes then mad a left on Arroyo Seco rd and headed west. The north wind was already blowing, I knew it was going to be tough day. I felt cold at times but not bad at all. Then I turn rt on Carmel Valley rd, its about 40 miles to hwy 1. THats were I planned on getting fluids, food. The weather was awesome. Before I climb up Cahoon grade the fierce head wind came back. I was worried then, I really didn't feel like grinding my way for 100+ miles. But it didn't last long. I was making real good time. It took only 3.5 hours to make it to HWY 1 from King city. I was thinking f I made it by noon I would be good. SO now I'm heading South on HWY 1 and traffic is about normal for a Sunday. Not to bad really. I had my new ipod so I would just crank the toons and turn circles. This route has everything, nice rollers, ocean view, green grass everywhere. I did notice that there were hardly any wildflowers this year. The grass was green but no flowers. But I wasn't there to see flowers, I was logging miles. The miles were flying by with a nice tail wind. I stopped in big sur to refuel with water. Then I came to San Lucia. Its a cute store and restaurant. People are always pretty nice and ask question like where I started, or where I'm going. I get along crazy looks from people when I tell them I will have riding 140+ miles when I finish. Its just something that is not common to do. So anyway I was talking with this guy waiting in line to pay for my stuff and we started to talk. I told him where I started and where I was going and he ask where was i staying on this 2 day trip. He was blown away or didn't believe me it was a one day trip. Well off again. From here it wasn't to far from naciamento rd, turned lt and up the 6 mile climb. I love this climb. Kicks my ass every time. The first part is real steep. It was real warm and was sweating allot. I started to cramp some towards the top. Thing were pretty un event full from there. I was just glad they let me through hunter ligget. That would be mest up if I had to back track. I almost got through hunter ligget and hit my wall/bonk and ran out of gas. I pushed through for awhile but had to stop to regroup my self and down 2 Carb-boom gel to get going again. By that time I could only get my heart rate up to 120 unless I sat up and peddled hard, but that hurt like hell. There was one casualty though, I hit a squirrel a few miles before I was done. No harm done though, I think, he got up after that and split. I was gone for 10 hours including all the stops, so I would think 9 hours of riding. 140+ miles. I don't have a computer and I cant remember how miles it was last time I did this.
Consumed Calories.
1125 of spiz
1025 of carb-boom drink.
160 from a red bull.
240 from coke..mmmmmm
4 bananas.
6 gels.
Allot of water.

Burned calories. 700per hour x 9 hours = 6300. Acording to heart rate moniter

So I consumed and average of 400 calories per hour.





Here's some random photo's





I love this pic, and the sock's

















This was on hwy 1. It was the only group of flowers I seen the hole day.

















Here I am grinding away in the small ring three over from the left. I was going down hill into the wind at the end of the ride














In the middle of Naciemento climb.




















Ocean view:)
















Looking back toward Monterey











Here's looking down on the switch back of Naciamento rd

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Wow, I cant believ its been so long since my last post. Two weeks ago I got sick with a fever and a body ache and just haven't been the same. But this week I feel real good and have been hitting some good ours in. I will be pushing hard these next few weeks for the last build intel my 24 hours mountain bike race on May 5/6. I have Sea Otter Classic next weekend for some good intense riding to help with my speed. Other than that I am focusing on endurance right know and nutrition. Other than that things are good, I feel real strong and in my best shape ever. PLus with my new Bike Sponsor, Santa Cruz Bikes I am going to be smoking fast. I got my new XC Blur 3 weeks ago and did my first race with it a couple of weeks ago at the CCCX races in Toro Park. It was so nice and fast, stuck to the track and was smooth on on the bumps. I wouldn't trade it for anything.