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Sunday, April 27, 2008

1 week to go

That's right, 1 week to go until race day. This will be the first 24 hour race for the year. As the temperature starts to rise so is the desire to ride in circle's for 24 hours. Who even thought of this shit anyway. A couple guys riding around and said, "lets make a 24 hour race" some crazy stuff. And here we are today with the 24 hour scene as big as ever. I think there is even 3-4 more 24's just in California alone. And the desire seems to get stronger. I even had the opportunity to help a friend (Chuck)catch the desire to ride a 24 hour race. For myself I always find very rewarding to something big. Weather it be a race or weekend rides that would make a normal person say,"you did what this weekend". But it has always been my desire to ride the bike from one mile to the next. Well not always but in the last five years it has been. Who would of thought 9 years ago I weighed 240 pounds and was about to buy next pair pants and a size 38 waist. It was a sight to see. I always laugh at the pictures when I come across one.



With one week to go the body is in shut down mode. The rides have been short in distance in duration but not lacking intensity's. On Saturday I did some hill climbs and on the average watts I was holding 370 average for 10 minute climbs. It felt hard but not maxed out. Since I weight close to 170 the watt to weight isn't all that great but is all I need to have a good race. Maybe even take some cash home. Next week will be real light and need a great big desire to want to get on the bike so bad that it's killing me to ride. I'm all ready to go and the bike are all tuned up. I'm so looking forward to riding the course on Friday and get some ideas of how my transition are going to be like.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

My first ride was tonight since the Boggs race. I spun the legs out for an hour. I'm still really fatigued tonight. But I felt real good and strong. If things heal as fast as I hope I will try to race sea otter maybe. But my main focus will be Cool 24 hour. I took the first 2 day's off from the race. The effort I used for the 8 hours was probably a 9 out of 10 on the pain scale. I could barely make it through work with out wanting to fall asleep. And wouldn't you know it there was a 12 hour work day waiting for me on Monday... Fun Stuff. I will try to ease into my next and last phase of training before resting up.

I just take it day by day and see how when the legs will wake up again before I hit it fast and furious. rest is very important to me these day's. More than ever.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Boggs Mountain Race Report

Another race in the legs. This race was a 8 hour race in the Boggs Mountain demonstration Forest on Saturday April 5th. The course was 9.2 miles with 1200 feet of elevation gain (seemed like more). This is an awesome race for a first timer or just too tune up your skills before a 24 hour race.

I was real impressed with the cool laid back Boggs race that Carlos puts on. They did a great job top make it a race to definitely come back. Pretty laid back. Seemed like more dogs than racers. Well not really but there were a lot of pets running around. It made it nice to not have to leave our dog at home.

I really wanted to do this race for a few reasons. One was to get an Idea of what my competition is going to be like when I go race the Cool 24 hour race May 5th. Yuri Haswald and Dez Wilder were there. Very strong riders and have won races before and could put the hurt on you. Also use this race to get my nutrition down. I have been Hammer nutrition more this year. I've used it before but have switch my carb, protein and gel to all Hammer products. Another reason I for this race was to get an Idea and feeling of what I can handle as far as potential pace. The race start was real cold and everybody had on arm warmers, knee/leg warmers, vest, and more just to keep warm.

So the race started of at a good pace. There were 5 of us up front at the start who hit the trail first. I think Dez Wilder hit the trail first on his single speed. I think Yuri and I were 5th and sixth to hit the trail. We were hitting real hard for the first few laps with Yuri and I trading leads. He was on fire on the down hills and couldn't keep up with him. At one point I was using all my lives (as Yuri said to me at one piont) on the down hill section just trying to not slow Yuri down when he was behind me on the down hill sections. So at one point I had to let him go and go at my own speed in fear of my life from hitting a tree of crashing from the boulder on the trail. I really could remember riders who were in front of Yuri and I but by the 3rd lap we started to hit a lot of rider traffic. So it was hard to tell at that point. Going on the third lap I had a gap On Yuri and was feeling good. Yuri was catching me on the down hill section and I was pulling away on the climbs. Going on the 3rd lap I got a pinch flat. 5 minutes later I was hammering away. At the second lap I remember seeing a single speed rider, his name Was Cameron. Every lap I tried to catch him but he was riding real strong. I almost would catch him but then would pull away. Going on the 4th and 5th lap I started to feel the fast pace from the start. So I decided to hold my own pace and ride in my own comfort zone. And what ever that ended me up I was okay with that. I just couldn't push any harder without getting toasted. Plus by this time it was 4 hours into the race and wasn't like I could push any harder anyway. This got real tuff on my 6th lap. I had to go into survival mode and not focus very good and couldn't get my comfortable on the trail and was loosing my momentum on the corners. I contribute this to the high pace for the prior laps just to keep Dez Wilder within reachable distance to keep the gap between us to a manageable time. Toward the end of the race it got pretty lonely. Going on my 8th lap I was told Dez was 10 minutes in front of me. Witch surprised me a lot. Because the hole was all I could picture is him pa sing me with an hour to go and lap me. At that point it wasn't like I could push any harder put maintain the pace I was holding. I was hurting a lot and was cramping on the climbs. My side hurt also front all the hard corner and dodging rocks. Well I finally finished with ten laps and about 15 minutes to the cut of time. I felt real good about my race and was totally hurting. It felt like an 8 hour cross country race. I got first place in the pro division. Congrats on Dez and Cameron for doing the same amount of laps on a Single Speed, just amazing.

My nutrition:
half a banana, 2-3 gu's per lap.
1 bottle (alternating between Carb and protien mix.
carb bottle was 2 scoops carb boom(140 calories)
protein was Hammer perpetum(2 scoops 260 calories)

My total calorie intake for 8 hours was 3,300 calories (over 400 calories an hour) I got hungry only twice during the 8 hours

I probably burned close to 8000 calories, I ate 4000 calories at Cattleman's restaurant(good stuff).

Pic's will come later.