FEEL THE MOMENTUM

Hill work time

2009-04-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

Im posting some hill work times so I have something to go back on. I did 14:40 up Brant canyon on the mountain bike. I did it twice from the turn at the bottom to the gate on the right.

recovery going good!

2009-04-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

It's been one week since my crash and thing's are going real good. Getting better everyday. My arm mobility is still real limited but I am able to lift heaver things everyday. I got on the road bike for the first time today and wasn't bad at all. I little pain but as much as I thought. Idid a ride of 3 hours with 4500 feet of climbing.

Sea Otter Classic report

2009-04-23T06:42:00.000-07:00

The Sea otter classic is always the best race to see where I land in my fitness and my ability to good at the Coolest 24 hour race in May. My volume for the months prior to the race was way down. I was only doing a 8-12 hours a week of exercise. I have a big life/work change so I'm still adjusting to it. My weight and fitness seem to be right where I wanted it. The few day's prior to the race was to rest and keep the calorie intake way down because I wasn't exercising.

Race morning came and was excited to race. As always got there real early before the race start. My group was starting at 8:25 on the actual race track at Laguna Seca. The temperature was going to be a big factor today. I knew this when the temperature hit almost 80 degree's before the start. So I drank half a bottle of fluid and calories before the start and took one bottle with me. And were off. I manage to stay up front pretty easy. We stayed on the paved race track for almost 1 mile before hitting the cross country course. I made a mistake and got out front before hitting the track. That put me middle field entering the dirt. I found my groove pretty fast and hit it hard as I could. Trying to keep it steady and not blow up on the climbs. This is a real hard course with all the climbing. Got to the first and only aid station with no problems. By this time I was starting to climb back up through the field. The temperature was climbing fast. I noticed a lot of riders already starting to cramp and slowing down. At the aid station I crabbed one bottle of fluids with calories and sucked down one gu packet and sucked down the rest of my bottle. So I get through the first lap of two and feeling the effects of the heat. I grabbed two more full bottles at the half way point and kept on drinking. I kept the pace hard and was pushing the peddles. I had to back off a few times before I blew myself up. I started to pass a lot of riders and everybody pace seem to drop off dramatically. I figure I was in the top 10 going into the second lap. Well about 3 quarters of the way through the 2nd lap I crashed hard. The hardest I ever remembering crashing. When I went over the handle bars I knew it was going to be bad. My head slammed into the ground and then my shoulder hit the ground and I heard a big pop. There I was laying on the ground in the middle of a down hill section on the ground trying gather my injured body and bike off to the side of the course before I got run over. I sat there in bit of fogged daise. I waited for a bit before checking my extremity's for injury's. My head was leaning toward my shoulder, my left shoulder was starting to hurt. I stood up and I knew I wasn't getting back on the bike. I couldn't even lift up my left arm. I remembered a few cars and volunteers a few hills behind my so I grabbed my bike and my broken ass and started walking. We'll after the trip to the emergency room and ex ray's I ended up with a separated shoulder, swollen knee, and a bruised race confidence. My worst injury yet! Except for my over training issues I suppose. Look like 2-4 weeks before I recover. Then I get start my training again.

Sea Otter course

2009-04-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

I went to ford ord today to ride the Sea Otter course on last time. I started around 8:30 am and the weather was incredible. Warm with very little clouds. The trails are still nice and hard but the corners are starting to get real sandy. My goal for this was to ride the course hard and fast and try and get some hard stuff in. I rode easy for the last few day's because I was a little fatigue from more hard work. Warmed up for 15 minutes than hit the course. I was still a little sore but felt good overall. I started at hwy 68 and reservation rd entrance. Once I got to the race track I came across Grieg Heinz, our local fast pro here from Salinas. They were just starting so I went past them, not because I was faster but I suppose they were just getting started. He rides for Joslyn's. I wanted to ride with him but had to stick to my ride today. I was surprised I didn't see more riders than I did. I was riding pretty hard, I perceived exertion was about 90-100%. I felt really good and hit it hard the hole course. I was a lot faster than last week when I did the course. So hopefully I can carry that power into next weekend for the race. I still haven't signed up yet. Maybe this week. The next week will be easy steady riding with short intervals.

Wowy!

2009-04-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

Well now I know what a bear feels like after waking up from a long siesta (hibernation is what they call it). But here in Soledad everybody siestaing:). I'm going to do a little review of what has been going on in my life as an endurance athlete. After my race in May of last year I was so tired physical from the past six years of training real hard. Was it to hard? I really don't know if it was to hard. Or maybe i just don't want to believe that because what I was doing was something I enjoyed doing so much. Weather it was biking ruining or swimming it was something I have grown to love. The feeling of your heart pumping, hair in the wind or the water flowing across your body was nice. I will admit I did it to much and to often without much of breaks and what happened after may was the price I paid for it, major fatigue, deep fatigued in my body. My mental state always bounces back real fast. I can remember waking up countless times and feeling that feeling of going out and hammering 100+ mile bike ride but getting only to get an hour or so into the ride and having to call for rescue. And even before my rescue came I was walking of the bike. So as a good compulsive addict person I am I would not give up. I tried eating more, eating less, more vitamins, less vitamins, more sleep, less sleep, more sex, less sex. I was trying it all. I was not giving into the idea the I worked to hard. The only real obvious reason for my fatigue. Nope not me! As you can see I tried everything bu rest, sleep, and a mental break. But after every try I came up with the same results. I hear all the time athletes taking months or weeks of in winter or after the season but not me. I was so highly motivated to keep my fitness and try to be faster. I had some great results in the last six years. I'm proud of myself from going from 240 lbs 8 years ago to wining my first attempt at a 24 hour race less than three years. Then winning 2006 age group 24 hours world champion in Georgia. I even won my first Ironman attempt. I have had great success. So to really question my process that I was doing is a little quationable for me. I always think in my mind well it worked then why not know? Is it age? Probably. But as I fought this for months I did take a break. I rode some, ran and swim but nothing like I was doing. Maybe 3-10 hours a week if I was lucky or felt like it. I was just taking it day by day week by week and month by month. I knew in my head I wouldn't be able to keep that pace of training for ever but wouldn't change it for nothing. The memories I have are price less. I'm doing so much better today than yesterday and getting stronger and faster by the day. I feel the long rest period of 7 months was just what I needed, well I think i will have to weight and see after some racing. But here am am doing still trying to figure out a good amount of hours to train and still be physically sound. I'm sure it wont be as much as before but I think I will be a lot smarter about it. Because I know deep down you cannot get fast without pain and hard day's and weeks, just impossible. I did start training in January but nothing hard at all. I always here you think its tough to train fast, then try training slow. That was tough! To train slow, keep the heart rate down and the distance to a minimum. I hope it works. Well I do know thru the hole peeking processes you cant be fast all the time, at least that I do know and have experienced. Over my health and life is good. What an experience though!

Yes the retaining wall in my back yard is up and looking pretty cool! I will post a pick later. That's what I have been trying to do to fight of the urge to train so much. Looks like my shed and lawn won't go in for a while. Cost reason's. But its a process and to do it right will take some time.

Right know I'm trying to get ready for Sea Otter as long it doesn't rain on race day I will to it and then decide if I will 24 hours of cool the first weekend of May and will depend on work or lack of work. I have been training like I am going to do the race but not a 100% committed right know. Also would like to do the hole series. Jim Northey puts a great race and know he's got a hole series of awesome endurance races in really cool places. If you ever did one of his races you definitely would not be disappointed at all. I guarantee it!

I have to go for know and decide were to ride today. Looks like the sun is out but chance of rain. Then of to work tonight.

Happy holidays!

2008-12-14T14:12:00.001-08:00

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Just to update everyone.... Brian has been busy working two jobs and building a retaining wall in our backyard, in lieu of training, these past four months. It has been an interesting break in his routine, but he's planning on coming back to race next year, so watch out!

In the coming weeks, I will be cleaning up the blog, indexing and updating for Brian, so check back in the new year!

2008-08-03T17:25:00.001-07:00

Well another week is gone. This Sunday seemes like it is lasting fore ever. I have been training steady and getting stronger and feeling better every week. At least thats what I keep telling myself,"ha ha" hopefully the positive thinking will work. Although I do feel better but not 100 percent. Im working out about 1-2 hours a day. Just keeping it short and simple. Its still tuff to ride anything over 3 hours. I didn't ride yesterday because still trying to build a retaining wall in my back ride. But I did get the footing poured and ready for the rock wall to be set next week.

At the end of last week I was working in buitiful Felton Santa Cruz area. So many hills to ride on. And next week I will be there all week. I can't wait to ride Bonny Doon, Hwy 9 to skyline, Jamisine creek rd during the week.

Anyway thought I would p;ost something to help me to keep writing. I don't get near rthe computer much anymore.

Anybody ever have to go traininig anonymous...lol

2008-07-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

Well, Well, Well. Where to start. I see I wrote about my race over 2 months ago so that's good...lol. I have a bad case of fatigue that hasn't been fun at all. Not only fatigue but some depression to go with that. I have been a big baby in excepting what was going on. And like a good hard headed person I can be I didn't want to be defeated by some fatigue. A broken leg or arm would of been nice cause at least I could see it, sounds weird I know but makes sense to me. I have never really had to take time off from training and racing, well at least and extended period of time, meaning more than a few weeks. I did have a bunch of blood work taken but the doc said I have the healthiest blood he has ever seen and nothing he could see was wrong. I thought for sure he had to be wrong. This extended period of no training has been all new to me. I always felt I would never stop unless something serious happened. It has taken me awhile to adjust and except what is going on. I'm getting older and life changes has brought on a new era. I have to rest, rest and more rest to get myself back together so I can get out there and do what I love. " ride ride ride". As I look at it know it wasn't all bad, just seemed bad. Here I was with sponsors and my promises I couldn't keep. So I put a lot of pressure on myself because I couldn't perform at the level I was used to. So I had to except the changes that were dealt to me and move on. I will have to incorporate a lot more rest day's and not hold myself to so many hours a week and focus on speed and my health and life. I have know only started to train again and feel better than ever. Finally the fatigue fog is starting to remove. I just have to be care full and not to overload myself with hammer workout everyday of the week, maybe limit them to a couple and even might scratch those depending on how I feel. I know I just can't handle the volume I used to week after week, day after day. Its just unrealistic for me know. Not saying I wont do it from time to time but very limited know. Cause I still want to get out there and do 200+ weekends, I love that stuff. But it won't happen week after week. That will not help my overall goal in staying fast and strong.

One great thing about all this rest is that it couldn't be more perfect timing, I get to watch every stage of the Tour, what and exciting one it has been. So all my time hasn't been soaking in tears:)

As far as I schedule I'm not really sure yet. I see there is three six hour races that look pretty tempting. I don't think I have another 24 hour race in me. Although before I checked out last may I have acquired sponsorship from Vetta bike computers, so stayed tuned for some new gear write up.

So with my renewed outlook on training and health I feel like I still can be stronger and faster than ever. Look at Tinker pushing real old and still kicking ass.

Nutrtion thoughts

2008-05-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write some stuff on nutrition for longer race and training that I do or have have done. I think its a huge key to success in longer races lasting 4+ hours. Because the body can only survive at a high intensity for no more than 1.5 to 2 hours without shutting down and going into a metabolic state of feeding of your muscle and fat. But if you to the right fuelling you can teach your body to use the calories you consume along with stored fat as fuel and not your muscles. At least you can prevent the big bonk from happening.
On my 24 hour racing my goal is to average 300-500 calories an hour through out the entire race. Its so important to hit this goal all 24 hours. And when I say 300-500 calories an hour I don't mean you can quit eating for 3 hours and then double up the next few ours. If you do that you are done and that's not a good thing or healthy way to do it. I used not to be able to handle this amount of calories but over my first year of doing this I trained my body to eat and drink my way to this goal amount. And your calories can not be from cookies and coke, or pizza and bear. It has to be clean burning fuel. I use a lot of banana's and dates, good quality carb drink and protein drink. Not saying I don't eat other stuff like chips and pop tarts and jerky I do, but not as my hole calorie intake, just as a treat. And all this depends on temperature. Obviously the hotter it is the more difficult it is to process calories when the temp are hotter than your use to unless you train like that, but that is always difficult to do. Again this is all done during training. So with the right calorie combination and good fueling of liquids I do not bonk and I am able to hold my pace hard and fast and don't have to let up because Of lack of fueling. My water intake is in the range of 25-35 ounces of water, that's including the carb/protein drinks also. Again your body has limits on what it can do and go over those limits and shit starts to go real wrong. I try and keep my sodium intake no more than 700 mg per hour. I feel that the reason I cramp is not the lack of sodium or water but the lack to control my pace in the beginning. When I go out to hard I will always start to cramp even though I have enough fluid and calories. It is so important not to get behind on the calories, water, sodium in the first hours, those are key factors. Because once you fall behind you can not catch back up. You will be done.

24 hours of Cool race report

2008-05-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

Another win to the collection of well earned victories.
Its always hard to know where to start with these reports.

I would like to commend Jim Northey on the excellent job at putting on a race. Thanks Jim! I appreciate everything you do.

I really chilled out 1 week before the in order to rest up and get ready. I had 3 hours total biking before that week before the race.

I left my house on Friday morning to hook up with some new crew members on the way to Cool. My new crew members were a son and father addition to the madness. Not sure if I mentioned it but my awesome wife (Amanda) couldn't make it nor could my friend/mechanic. So i had to approach this race differently mentally. I arrived in Cool early (noon) so I could pre ride the course and get a feel of what to expect beside a lot of pain, and get a feel of what the temperature was going to be. So I get riding the prelap and bike wont shift good. So 2 trips to Auburn bike works (thanks Pete) and 4 hours later I'm back on the trail pre riding the course. Know it was time to make dinner and chill out and watch some of the 2007 Tour de france stages, really gets you pumped up. Saturday morning came and it was time for the traditional pancakes and coffee to get get started. Then it was off to the racer meeting and then to the start line. Because of the amount of riders there were start time gaps in between categories. The solo's went first. As always I hit it hard and fast. I hit the trail in good position and was the first of a few riders out front. By the half way point I was getting passed by the team riders. I was told later I came thru the start finish line the first solo but I could swear I chased a rider in front of me for 5 laps never to catch him. When I almost finished with the second lap I had to evaluate how I was feeling and what pace I could hold. I realized it felt like my fourth/fifth lap and my body was starting to feel it. So I decided to drop my pace and try and hold steady. Going on the next 4/5 laps wee real tough. I just could find my groove or pace, I felt all over the place. But I still have a long way to go and I had to keep going. My pace is where I'm always on the verge of cramping. I will push real hard until I start to cramp then I will let of some and just hold that for as long as I can. So darkness is about to arrive and I'm told I'm a lap up on the next Solo geared nut job. I feel real good abut that and know I'm ready to ease up a little more. And not that I had a choice t ease up. I was hurting so bad by this time and was started to walk a few laps into the night. I always have mental issues with walking. It's tough for me to succumb to that part but. But after a few laps I just gave in and decided not to let it bother me. And a I could see I wasn't alone out there walking up the steep parts. Some time in the wee ours of the morning I get about half way thru the course and come around a sharp corner and there come a gorilla jumps out at me. All of a sudden I find myself screaming like a girl, then laughing so hard I almost fell over on the bike. I will never see that corner the same. But it was freaking awesome and funny. Okay know it was all I had to do was make it to the morning until the sun came up. It was still mentally tough for me than usual to get there. Just never seemed to get comfortable with my pace. But I kept on going like a good suffering rider. I find myself stopping more than usuall. I was trying anything to just keep going and was digging deep. I would stop and thenwhen I knew somebody that would go buy and would jump back on the bike to chat/ride with to get me going again, that helped so much. A little before day break I'm sitting at the halfway point drinking coffee when the Hammer head Dez Wilder geo's buy, on his single speed. So I got of my ass and jump on my bike to catch him. I figured he would be stronger at this point but I wasn't going to give up yet. It took a lot to catch him but I finally did. It was nice to talk to Dez to the finish line. Dez and I were on the same lap but we were in different race division. Every time he shows up to race I'm at I definitely know I have my work cut out for me. As we head out again we rode for a while chatting it up trying to pass the time. I wanted to ride with Dez as long as could just to pass the time. Well that lasted for a while until he just pulled away from me. Thanks Dez for kicking me when I'm down...lol. I was still still only 1 lap ahead of second place ( Mike )so I wasn't out of the woods yet. And it was Mike's first 24 hour race. I was still suffering something terrible but just kept riding and walking the steeper sections just to finish. Before my last lap one of Mike's pit crew came to congratulate me for winning. I thought that was class act. Mike' was one lap behind me. So at that point I didn't have to go out again but decided to after all. It wasn't to put another lap on Mike but just for myself. I figure I had 2 hours to do a lap and was in no big hurry. So I finished with 19 laps. First place in the 24 geared solo division. Even after all the pain and suffering not a bad job. Dez Wilder finished with 20 laps, Congrats Amigo!!! You got me this time, I hope we will meet soon to battle again..

Here's something funny: I carry paper cups in my jersey pockets with different stuff in them. Anything from potato chips, jerky, pop tarts, and a lot of other stuff. This was during the night when I had a paper cup filled with potato chips. When riding on the trail at night I would always here stuff moving in the bushes on the bumpy section. This went on for a while before I figured out it was my paper cup filled with potato chip. Every time I hit a bump it would make a swooshing noise. I just thought I should share that.

Wanted to thank Auburn Bike works for there helping me out with my last minute issues. Also wanted to give a big thanks to Tharyn for taking the time and helping making sure the bikes were all tuned up and in running order.

And the biggest thanks to my Family ( Bill, Bonnie, Tom, Amy) and friends ( Dave and his son Mike). Thanks for everything. It helped me out so much just you being there.

And the bigger biggest support from my Wife Amanda, who I know could be there but was calling all the time to see how I was doing and to give me love! Thank You!

And a big thank to my sponsors
Santa Cruz Bike: The fastest/durable bikes on the planet. My Back didn't hurt at all the hole night.
Fiber wise pasta: For the healthiest pasta around.
Nuun electrolytes: For keeping my cramping issues at bay
Hayes disc brakes: For he braking power one needs when comming into a corner at mach 3
Sock Guys: The most comfortable sock you ever wear. Didn't even have to change once in 24 hours
Recover Ease / Energy Ease: Keeps my training racing above everybody else.

1 week to go

2008-04-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-04-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Boggs Mountain Race Report

2008-04-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

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.

CCCX Race

2008-03-30T18:21:00.000-07:00

Look at my crotch rocket!!!! Santa Cruz Blur XC...Its fast, it slices through the air like a jet.

Check out my new SOCK GUY wear. They have the coolest shoe covers and arm warmers, and plenty of socks!!!

I just got back from the CCCX race at Ford Ord. I really like these races because you go all out for 2 hours. I never consider myself for the win but I give it my all. The reason I do them id to help me push when Im tired. At least that is my objective. The races there always hurt like hell:) Though I don't know what hell feels like but Im sure its close...lol

I was tired from my long time trial ride yesterday. I decided not to work out in the morning before the and stack more fatigue on my body than normal.

The race starts out fast and I always have trouble holding wheels in the first 20 minutes. I entered the first section in the first 5 riders and was in good position. The wind was brutal so I had to give it my all to stay with them and not be left out to suffer. I felt real good and was able to move up a few spots before half way of the first lap of 5 laps total. We were moving alone pretty good and was still in the front group during the second lap and was doing pretty good. Were started moving through riders and there was only a few riders front our group left. I was out front pushing hard when one rider attacked and flew of the front. There was no way I could hold his wheel so I had no choice but had to let him go. About that time I was all alone stuck in the middle of nowhere. There was nobody to work with. I thought for sure another rider was going to catch me because I felt I was slowing down some. I was still passing a lot of people from the riders who left in front of our group and felt strong. So I kept doing my thing and hammering alone. On the last lap, with total amazement I ended up catching the rider that took of on the second lap. I knew he was strong but tired. When in the end I came across the finish line first for my first win of the year....yippee. Always feels good when you WIN!

I feel I'm going in the right direction with the training and I am doing pretty good with my power out put. I still feel I have some improvement to go for the 24 hours of Cool race but have have plenty of day's to ride. Plus I have the 8 hours of boggs next weekend!!!! So i have some resting to do to get ready. I have one hard workout next week of about 4 hours on Tuesday doing the sea otter course the its all about focus and rest....

2008-03-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

As spring time is here and in full swing the flowers are looking so nice! On Saturday I decided to drive up too San Anonio Lake with my croch rocket (Tri Bike) and do 2 laps of the 1/2 Ironman course at San Antonio Lake. I had some fatigue going into this but pretty much goes very everyworkout unless Im tappering. I felt good and was real exited to get ride the bike with more than myself. Although nobody was riding with me but just to ride with other people around is so nice. My thought on riding the tri bike is that it makes me putt out steady watts for long periods of time without going into the red zone for short perioids of time. Not saying I didn't go into the red zone but just was trying to keep it as steady as possible, working on my peddle strock to keep it turning in full motion. I believe when I do this my efficientcy is better for my racing, keeping your momentum moving forward at all times, rather than hitting only the down stroke on your circles. This burns like hell for so long. During the first lap I contiplated on only doing one lap but I told myself I not count out a second lap but would wait intel I finished my first lap to see how I felt. Also figured I must be pushing to hard to be thinking that early on. So I tried to hold of and save most of the mojo for the second lap. It so nice out there this time of year. I didnt use a heart rate moniter or power and wanted to do this on feel. Well I survived the first lap and felt good enough to continue. So my objective for this was to go hard and push real hard towards the top of the rollers and climbs. Eacl laps is around 5000 feet elevation gain, some goos climbing. I tried to stay aro only to get out of the saddle to stretch or attach the hills. I started to cramp son 1/3rd into the second laps but wasn't going to lay off. I rode hard and it hurt like hell but I wasn't going to give into it and slow down. I suffered pretty hard the last part was so glad I finish. I couldn't hardley walk afterwords, hurt like hell. And it felt so good:). My neck started to really hurt a lot being in the areo posistiuon for so long. I dont think my neck concusion was helping.

Im real happy with training this year. I have deligated more of my time to other responsiblity beside the bike. Plus with the trying to focus on the job change and the lack of work is taking some adjustments on the mental statis. But I will never give up and will keep trying intel the end... Got to go. I have a race MTB rac e in Ford ORd today at 1 pm, wish me luck!

Spring is comming

2008-03-05T11:03:00.000-08:00

And you cant stop it:) Its going to be nice. Riding in the my shorts again. Smelling and seing all the spring flowers. And im hoping my fitness with spring also:)
I haven't been writing for a long time in the blog. I had to simplify my life some and the intrenet was on of them. I was working at a concrete plant and it closed on January 1st. So have been going through a work transition period for know. Im not sure if I will write as much as before. It seems this blog is the first thing that will go when I get tired and start training. But I have been bouncing around at work, and know Im offficially being trained to operate an asphalt plant. Instead of making grey material it is know black stuff. My experiance from the concrete [plant has helped me a lot, it has a lot of the same principals. So I have been trying focus on my new job and has taking up a lot of my energy and time. Making sure I get it right. ALthough I did mess up already and tried to load a 6ton truck with 25 tons. Let me tell you know it won't work. Shit goes everywhere. It was pretty funny in a weird way. Im still training as much as I can but Im not holding myself to any figures. The only figure I hold myself to one is a healthy one.

2008-01-09T08:11:00.000-08:00

what a time laps between post.. Like I fell of the edge of the earth but have worked my way back up. Posting always seemed like a hassle. Call me lazy I guess.

My training has been going good. Nothing to earth shattering but keeping it steady. I rest when I need to and nothing to long. I'm around the 15-20 hour range right know. Keeping my heart rate low and trying too build on my fitness from last year.

I rode this morning, was on the bike at 4am. too the gym for some weight work then road to work, 9 miles. Si if I happen to skip my afternoon workout at least I started the day of good, witch will more than likely happen. My wife Say's I'm addicted to Law and Order know. I think she's right, seems like all I watch anymore.

I have been walking with the wife on the weekend in the early morning a lot. Keeps me busy and from training to much, the wife likes it a lot too because she gets to see me a lot, I feel bad for her too have to spend that much time with me though, what is she thinking. But it is real nice though. We went on a 5 hour hike at the pinnacles last weekend (10miles), I was proud of her for not complaining at all. I think she is hooked. Although I she think is was my intention on going that far but it wasn't. It is amazing how much stuff I miss when running and biking so fast.

Long road trip

2007-12-17T12:56:00.000-08:00

I have been away for a while. My mom was in the hospital for almost 3 weeks. She is doing good. I just havent had time to write or the energy. I have been traing still and everything is going good.

This weekend I attemted again a long bike ride on HWY1 to San Simeon and back. Not sure of ther milage but it was just about doing it. I had a bike trailer so I knew I wasnt going to shatter any records. But it is something I wanted to do. It takes so long to get somewhere with 70 extra lbs attached to the bike. I weigh 170 and the trailer is 70 and that's 240 lbs of bullshit:). Just for thought that is what I used to weigh that much 7 years ago. I didn't need no trailer back then cause I had one attached to my belly already..lol

Trips like this you see all kinds of cool stuff.

This is on top of Naciemento Rd before dropping down to HWY 1. A wicked 6 mile decent. Takes skill to manuver a 70 lbs traier behing you at 40 mph. I got a lot of weird looks.

Pic before heading of into the unkown:)

San Simeaon coast of HWY 1

ride, run ride

2007-11-18T13:09:00.000-08:00

thats what I did on Sunday. I rode to the pinnacles, ran for 2 hours and rode home. I didn't feel like traing all day. I figure I would be done by noon and get some stuff done around the house.

Nice day to be in the wilderness

You have eat to keep the energy going

Its all down hill from here

Let go legs, just a little longer

Wildlife

when things go according to plan

2007-11-18T12:41:00.000-08:00

evrything seems to work out. Everything falls into place and your left with a feeling of great accomplishments.
I wish I could say that about this weekend. I set out to do a weekend of riding into the depths of the unknown to me. Not really but sound crazy! Long rides is nothing new to me, but this was something totally different. I attached 50 pounds of crap and a 13 lbs trailer to my rocket. After which sure didn't feel like one. My attampt at a multiple day riding over the weekend was cut short because of pilot error. I left my at 5:30 from my house friday night and was going to see how far I could ride before I needed to rest. I made it all the way to Panoche on Panoche rd. I was hungry, tired cold and wet and late. About 10:00. I worked out that morning also, so by now I had already 6 hours of riding.

I found a nice wide spot on the road and began to unload my pad for the the night. I got my food out, light, and the tent (well that what was suppose to be in it). I proceed to open the tent to find out that there was no tent in the bag, only tent poles, and a tent cover. One of them monents you just wish you could of caught my reaction on film. After settling down I figure I might as well make the best of it and see if I could get some sleep. I just in the sleeping bag and wraped myself in the tent cover. I fell asleep but woke up to wild pigs screaming of in the distance. I was freezing my ass off, cold as hell and by this time critters all over the place. It was almost midnight I made a decision to pack up and head home. I wasn't going to spend my weekend freezing my ass off. I got home around 4 am and called it good. The weekend didn't go as planned but I already I am determind to accomplish this ride. So if you do not exceed try and try again.

Saddle time

2007-11-16T14:21:00.000-08:00

This is going to be my new ride for the weekend. Multiday trip.
My plan is too ride out toward Cleer Creek tonight, Set up camp and ride to New Idrea and onward to Los Gatos Creek Are and ride home Sunday. Oh ya I bought a bike traiklar that holds 70 pounds of crap. It hooks up too your bike and trails behind it like its not even there. At least intel you start to go up hill. I think my small ring will get some use finaly.

Cleer creek multiday ride

http://www.bikely.com/

HWY 1 road trip

2007-11-05T08:28:00.000-08:00

With all the awesome weather were having I thought I would tale advantage of it, Im glad I did. Here's a Lamborghini, what a sweet ride. Only in Carmel!

A back view before heading down hurican point

Awesome HWY 1 view, one of the many

Some Big Sur art?

Who would of ever thought there is a school for apple pie!

More fall blues

2007-11-02T13:26:00.000-07:00

Ahhh man, I wish I didn't have to work all the time. Work has been real busy lately. Not to much training going on. I even slept in this morning. SO hopefully I can make myself productive this afternoon.

Trying to get a race schedule together, theres so many cool races out there I don't know what ones to choose from. I know I will trying to defend my 1st place title at Cool in May for sure. I could use another $1500.00 dollars. But who couldn't.

New ride route

2007-10-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

When I see this picture I think of a watermelon for some reason

I find it hard to find new routes here in Monterey county without having to drive about an hour south or north of my house. So I decided to ride over to East pinnacles and take the sinic route on the Santa cruz Blur. It eneded being 6.5 hours long. When i got the Pinnacles park i hit a trail that headed south(bikes prohibited) on a very unused trail I knew this trail ended up to the back side of Topo Ranch. 50,000 acres big, all to myself. Well except for the cow here and there. I think Im the only moun tain ever to ride this ranch. I was also suprised I didn't see one deer.

2007-10-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

After another weekend out of town I am really missing being home. But on the other hand it has given me different areas to ride the bike. This weekend was spent in Placeville. I really like that area. A lot of hills and scenery. Really close to tahoe. Well thats all I got.

I was thinking about how all these bloggers wright and post pictures everyday. I wonder how they do that. It's tuff more me. It seems that my blog suffers a lot.

Well its time to get a plan together for racing 2008. I have some good news and will post about it as soon as I get everything together. I will say it calls for out of state races, thats all Im going to say though intel its finalized.

Fall is here

2007-10-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

So I went to Woodland, my home town,over the weekend. Its always nice to go somewhere different to ride. Although its very flat in Yolo County. But I get to check out all the old fishing grounds where I grew up casting my shimano real. Know Im turning circle with my shimano gear.
Im glad fall is here. This time of the year my bike rides are so slow even grandma could pass me on the road. Well not that bad but it feels like it. Just now power!

Spent 4 hours in the rain on Saturday and not once did I think about turning around. All my training know is do what I feel like. Like this morning, I felt like sleeping in and I did. If I don't feel like working out i don't. Although I hope this don;t come to work against me starting next season. I here people do this but it's all knew to me. I use to just hammer all the time any time of the year. It has worked well for the last few years but I feel I need something different. Maybe get back to putting the shimano toy's in my hand on not clipped into it with my feet.

2007-10-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

Can't get enough of wild life in the country

I bet you didn't think Soledad could produce scenes like this.

Things are looking good again to be pain free in my knee finaly. I went for a three hour mtb ride last night after work and it didn't hurt after words. I still feel a little tingle every once in while but getting a lot better. I don't plan on testing it at this piont though, or do anyspeed work, or a 10,000 feet bike rides. But I will keep thing going they way they are, just steady and what ever I feel like without to any pressure.

Vacation Time

2007-10-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

So for our vacation this year we decided to pack up the RV ( recreational vehicle) and head to Yosimite for a week. We stayed at Indian Flat RV park, next to Merced River off HWY 140. It was 9 miles from the main gate to the park entrance. The closest place I could find with full hook ups. It seemed to take almost all day to get there after stopping for grociers and last minute stuff. But we arrived on Friday evening to a nice big river and a lot of pines tree's. Yosimite Valley was awesome, so many hiking/running trails and all altitude. The Yosimite floor was at 4000' elevation. But everywhere we went would top out at 9000'. SO most morning I would ride to where we were going and the wife would meet me there so we could walk around and do some sight seeing. The views were just incredible. One day we went to Galcier Piont. It over looked the Valley floor. You were standing in front of Half Dome and El Capitan mountain.

This is pic of the first long ride while I was there. It ended up being 4 hour ride. And I never got out of the small ring up front. This was the ride to glacier piont. Started out at 3500' elevation and toped out 9000'. Talk about oxigen deprivation

This picture was on top of half dome. I ran up to the back side and climbed to the top. It was 4 hour long run. I was totally wiped out after that for 4 day's. All I could to was hoble the next day.

This was the Vernal waterfall on the way back.

Where did all the motivation go?

2007-09-25T08:05:00.001-07:00

Seems like my training is frozen in time. Cant seem to find it anywhere to do anything extraordinary or exiting. The motivation just isn't there. No I'm not lazy! Well maybe a little. Okay dammit a lot lazy these day's. Feels like hibernation time has come. I am looking forward to the first rain ride. Maybe even another snow ride this year if nature so intend to so.

So last night all I could muster up was 14 jars of home made Grape jam. About wore me out. I wonder if I can consider it a recovery workout. Smashing grapes is no walk in the park! I think I went anaerobic a couple of times:) I'll have to wear my heart rate monitor next time.

year 2007 overview

2007-09-24T11:20:00.001-07:00

As I think about everything that has happend this year (2007) in a perspective of how my perfomance and or life living has gone. Ealry in the years I had set goals of where I wanted to be.

1. Be a good husband
2. Win some races
3. Get in shape
4. loose some weight
5. Not get hurt
6. Be finatiolly sound at the end of the year. (basically dont be broke )

Allthough I ran thru some tuuf points thru out the year with physical burn out. It happend after my second 24 hour attempt this year in June. I just couldn't seem to get it together training wise. I just couldn't seem to finish any of my key workouts and began to de progress on my fitness at one point. Its real hard to keep a high volume week after week without the proper rest. Although it deosn't stop me from trying. Although I am getting better at doing more low intensity stuff. And that means not hitting hard every work out all year. I had good results in the beganing of the year with all low heart rate stuff.

The reason I wright about it know is that sometimes it takes me a while before I can look at the situation open minded without being to emtional or rational about it. When I have a bad day I always feel like I have to make up for it someway or another to justify or top make me feel better.
I'm very thankful for having a loving and supportive wife. She encouranges me all the time and gives me great support in my training and racing.

I'll write more later

Dinner is served.

2007-09-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

Looks like hunting season is officially over for me. I think this Buck might be my biggest one yet. 5 shot's later. The damage was done. 2 missed shot, 2 broken legs. And a neck shot that went through his head and out his ass...lol

The best part was dragging him out of the canyon. Talk about max aerobic workout:)

Can you say Buck Burger!!!

This is what I've been doing in my off Time.

Sing alone with me..

you grab a line and I'll grab a pole hunny

you grab a line and I'll grab a pole babe

we all go down to the fishing hole

hunny babe and puppy!...dueet de deeee

We have puppy sun bathing, yes that is life vest on the dog (hilarious I know), and a smoking 120 horse power force engine in the back ground to push us around the lake at 40+ MPH

The deer were laughing at the puppy in the with the life vest on.

Here's what the deer were saying "Look at that Mom!, is that a bullit proof vest the dog is wearing, We got to get one of those for Daddy"

Here kitty kitty

2007-09-20T10:38:00.000-07:00

Last night I am going to consider my official ride back to training again. I rode for 2 hours an although my knee started to hurt some I would off kept going if the temperasture didn't drop so much climbing up Gloria grade. I had arm and knee warmers on but after sweating some I got cold quick. So decided to turn back and go home. It was good long enough ride to know Im feeling better day by day. Even got up at 4 am to train for 2 hours before going to work. Did 1 hour running and 1 hour gym work. Feels good to be going back to training. ALthough it has been nice doing other stuff.

Only a few more day's left of deer season. I got 1 buck early in the season, lucky I guess. Becasuse I have been going regularly with no luck.

Days are fying by

2007-09-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

It seems the day's are flying by now that it get dark early. I have'nt been much traing at all. I might of rode my bike a few times in the last few weeks. It is a well needed brake. The first week was tuff not riding, hell even the second week was tuff not riding. But After 5 years of hiting real hard Im tired. And I dont want to get burned out like I hear happens to a lot of endurance athlete's. Although I dont think that will happen, I like to ride to much. I have been constintly thinking of trainig and racing a lot, too much? Maybe. But its what I like to do. Plus you cant get good by sitting on your ass! But it has been hard these few weeks just chillin and doing other things. It's been good catching up on a lot of things and getting ready to train again. Its hard to turn the mind of and chil out for me. I just cant seem to sit still long enough. I can only managa about 10 minutes of doing nothing before I explode, I have always been that way. I have to be doing something. I will start up again in the next few day's. I might have one more race in me.

Fore Sale

2007-09-13T13:50:00.001-07:00

2005 Santa Cruz Blur LT

Full XTR components

Disc Brakes

Recovery

2007-09-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

It's only been a week since the 24 race and Im feeling real good. Not only physically but mentally about the outcome. I did my best I could on that day and look forward to racing again. I know Im recovering good because I already want to start riding and training again. Again thats good for me. I did a three hour ride on Sunday and still have a lot of fatigue in the legs but felt good otherwise. I wasn't breaking any records out there just cruzing. I did some thinking on pacing and where mty heart rate was during the first hours of the race. Its so hard to look at my abilityi of what I can do and what I should be doing. I felt it was real high, a lot higher than I wanted it to be. Did it hinder my performance come early m0rning? who knows, there are so many variables. But I think it did have some effect on me.

24 hours of Adrenilan Worlds Race Recap

2007-09-04T08:05:00.000-07:00

Well it's finally over. And another 24 race in the books. I would have to say this was one of the most difficult races I have ever done on a bike. The temperatures were in the hundreds. People were dropping like flies out there. Even the elite riders were DNF. People were dehydrating only after 2 or 3 laps and stopping.

On these longer races I will tapper longer than normal. So I took about two weeks too get ready. In those two weeks I had low volume and very little intensity's. By noon on Saturday the temps were already in the 90's and climbing. I tried to start out slow but my heart rate went sky high the first few laps. I tried to get it down but there just wasn't enough cruising section to do that. I stayed focus on the job at hand, fuel hydrate and be smart. After the first few laps I caught Natt Ross. Witch shocked me, my first thought was I must be going to hard. So once I caught him I stayed with him until my derailleur shattered and my chain snapped in half. By the time I got going again he was gone and never seen Natt again until he passed me at 6 am the next morning. The first few laps are always tough for me. Then things will mellow out. But not this time. The temps were so hot it was hard to get enough fluids and calories without getting sick. But I managed to keep a constant 500 calories an hour the hole time. And tones of fluid. But in the end it just wasn't good enough for a top ten. Instead I came in 16th overall in the Elite Division. I'm very proud of that and will take it.

I want to thank my one and only Amanda (my wife) for all the help and support. My Mom's and Dad's. And my Aunt Nita for the cheers. And a big thanks for Chuck Martin for wrenching on the bikes. It wouldn't be possible without all of you. Thank YOu!

And a big thank you to all my sponsors: Santa Cruz Bikes, Granite Construction, Smith Optics, Hayes Disc Brakes, Fiberwise Pasta, Carb Boom, Sock Guy, and Fox Shoks. You guys all have awesome products that have help me get great results.

Taper in progress!!

2007-08-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks amigo for the push to post.

So the last few day's have been nice, just chill'n. But before that I was putting in some good weeks of training, did a lot of climbing through out the week. I was putting in about 25000 feet a week, just to get ready for all the climbing for the race. Know that the body is all good to go and all the fatigue is gone I think Im ready to kick some ass at the 24 hour race this weekend. I feel good and ready. There will be a lot of good compition there but my only fear is myself really. I say that because it's usually myself thats kick's my own ass. So I have to keep a level head and stay in my own zone. If I can do this and keep it steady and strong intel day break the next day I will be in a good spot. Where that will be? Who knows. But as long as I can finish the race and finish healthy I'll be good with that.
The wife and I talk last night about nutrition and what I wanted to eat and what drink mix did I have in mind. I am going to be aiming for 3000-600 calories an hour is my goal. Mix it up with Carb Boom Electrolite mix, SPiz, and energy bars, chips, coke, and what ever else sounds good. I have a plan to have pancakes and eggs early morning. I will try to stay mostly liquid for the first 4-8 hours being that my intensity is real high and its hard to eat solids when my heart rate is so high, so when it levels off some I will start to eat more solid food.
My rides are all ready to go and are going to be real fast. There all washed and polished and ready to rip up some dirt.
I have been packing up the new motor home I bought three weeks ago. A 1988 winabago super chief! I m looking forward after the race to take it out camping. I will be heading to the race sight tonight to set up my solo pit and park the motor home in its spot for the next few day's. I have'nt decided if Im staying out there friday or not.

when to do what?

2007-07-18T20:19:00.000-07:00

Being a self coached athlete is good and bad. I have been wondering if I have been doing the right training lately. The way I see it though if I have a bad day out training or racing I have no one to blame but myself. I have been questioning my training technique this past year with my spotty result. Although I have some great results I still wonder if I do the right stuff at the right time. Since my Cool 24 hour race I have been struggling on and off to get going and get some good result. I just feel half ass. Just can not seem to get going. Although I'm still training I just don't feel fast or strong most of the time. This doesn't mean I'm going to quit but my observation of myself and how I see it whether I'm right or wrong. I just can't seem to get anywhere close to where I was in May. I guess when they talk about peaks during the year I must of had one hell of a peak for sure. I m trying to be patient but my patients is wearing thin.

As I was looking at the result at downiesville classic I noticed Dezmin Wilder had a good race with a 2:12, now thats fast... Good job Dezmin. Also I seen Yuri had a good race also, kicked my ass again, THANKS:). I will be racing both these guys in September at the 24 hour Worlds, I just hope I can shake the Laguna Seca curse I have been caring for the last 2 years.

I took Sunday completely of, watch the tour and slept a lot. And took Monday of also. Before I would of felt bad but screw it. I work 45-50 hours a week and train my ass of, I deserve a good brake now and then, at least that's how I'm justifying it..! I didn't eat the house down so that was a plus.

The tour has been very exiting. I feel sorry for Vino, he would of been a big threat but not with 14 stitches in his body. And Micheal Rogers from T mobil, that crashed hurt. So with some of the big names gone and Rasmussen going for over all and everybody is real close I think Saturdays time trial with be a big deciding factor for the overall, as long as they don't crash. Oh ya and Robbie Mcewm is out, that sucks. Seem like if you crash your pretty much toast depending on how bad.

Downiesville Classic

2007-07-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

I eneded up doing the Downiesville race at the last minute. I wanted to see where I would land in the over all standings. Well I was a little disappionted and my performance. But I am glad not to be injured or hurt. The course can be unforgiving on the dwon hill section. Well it looks like I have a lot of work to do. Yuri Hauswald, and Brock Dicky kicked my ass pretty good. Even though I did come in before Brock, because he had tire issues only. THe Santa Cruz Blur held up flawlessly again, I just wish I could of been stronger.

From the start of the race my heart rate hit a 170 bpm. The hole time I was just trying to get the heart rate down. About half way up ht ehill everybody started to pass me. I kept thinking what the hell going on. My heart is sky high and seems like Im going know where. I hit the top of the hill and just kept it strong and not to get out of control. I was glad to finish strong and not wiped out as usuall. I do love this course. But maybe on a different day. I will now focuse on a month build up to the Worlds 24 hour race.

And your welcome Brock for the help. Anytime!

Im not grumpy, just tired

2007-07-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

As my training has kicked into high gear so has my grumpiness. Ass I get home last night all I wanted to do was bite my wife's head off for no reason. Sorry sweety. That's one thing I have to be care full of when my volume gets real high. Amanda ask me why was I so mad at her. I wasn't mad at her at all just miss being home with my wife and hanging out with her. Its not to say I don't like training, I really do but it can be demanding at times, most of the time. Yes I know I don't have to train so much but there are sacrifices I have to make in order to achieve a high level of fitness. Like time with friends, family and loved ones. House chores, washing my vehicles. But this is a choice I have made and I want to do good out there racing. Plus all the chores get done later rather than sooner. Also when the training volume gets high and the fatigue starts to set in the grumpiness comes also. Seems like even the little things will seem like big issues. Oh ya and I forgot to mention also why I'm grumpy is that I'm know 2 days behind on watching the Tour De France, that will make anybody grumpy:). All the pain I go through you cant but wonder why doesn't it get any easier. How come it seem after doing all this training you still sweat the same, hurt the same. The weeks/months/years of doing the training it does seem at one point you could say, " wow! this is getting easy. So after 5 years of this stuff I haven't been able to say that at all. And don't even think about it like that anymore anyway since I heard a quote I think came from The all mighty Eddy Merx. He said " the pain never goes away, you just get faster". He sure knew what he was talking about. So as the pain starts to get high I hold that thought a lot. Im just getting faster ( I hope).

Yesterday I got off early enough to do the Loop. Arroyo seco rd to Carmell Valley over Laurless Grade to hwy 68 and reservation home. I think its around 85 miles or so. I did this route on Sunday afternoon. It takes 5 hours and 4.5 hours of riding. I had a few phone calls and 1 stop for water. Once you leave the valley here you enter into the oven in Carmel Valley. Always a lot hotter there. With and 1 hour 15 minute run n the morning put me at little over 6 hours of training. And the wife wonders why I'm grumpy. Although I know its all self inflicted.

2007-07-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

With my training well into high gear Im feeling pretty good about how its going. Doing my build to the 24 hours Worlds on September 1st.

This weekend was a good sign that Im recovered and getting ready. With 7 hours on the mountain bike, and 5 hours on the road bike and 1.5 hours running for Saturday and Sunday is not to shaby. I feel tired today but not wiped out. My pace wasn't anyhting fast but steady. Still trying to keep my heart down, although at times I second guess this method, it just feels so slow and really not what Im used to. But I cant hammer all the time I know that, Although it fun but not productive in the long run for me. Im just trying to build up my body for the upcomming racing and trying to keep it consistant. I cant do that with a lot of intensity's.

Im thinking about downiesville this weekend but I have'nt made a final decision, depending on work and how I feel and if it deosn't get sold out. Also I see that the Distric Road Race championship in ford ord has moved intel after August 10th. I have found another race to for that weekend. Looks like fun, I will see if I can budget that in.

Well se how I feel depending on what Im going to do this week. Although I feel pretty good today seems like the second day I really feel the fatigue.

Ride, Ride, Ride.

2007-07-02T07:06:00.000-07:00

This weekend was going to be somewhat of a test to see if I recovered from prior racing and training. I think I am 90 % recovered. Thing went real good and I feel normal again, if that's possible. When I am out riding long I still feel worried about the chest pains coming back. I'm getting better every day at not worrying about it but it will take some time. I even think its a good thing to keep me slowed down for know.
With my new exercise program and keeping my heart rate at a certain range and nor going over that is all new too me. I did a 8 hour ride, 13,000 feet of elevation gain on Saturday and didn't go over my heart cap, I was amazed how fresh I felt afterwords. I could of did a lot more. I was tired but not wiped out like usually. Plus I didn't get that feeling of wanting to eat everything in the fridge. So maybe there is something to this. Who knows but I'm sure it works. Although its king of humiliating at times, I say this because Im going alone and I get passed by this girl and it took all I had not to try and keep up with her. Know that sucks. All I know is I couldn't keep up the pace I was going at and had to do something different. I'm not superman, although I try to be. I have been thinking about all the training and racing. How all the intensity fits into everything. You do need intensity but how much. When does it get to much. Its different for everybody. How old you are, how fit you are, well there are a lot of factors. But for me its seems like a month or so of intense workout/racing is all I can handle. Its like Joe Friel said once that you only have so many matches to burn through out the year, and once there gone that its. So for me at this point its all about getting back to basics and sticking with it. JFT babe! Keeping low heart and getting as big engine built. I saw a discovery documentary on Ice trucks in Alaska last knight hauling big heavy loads on the ice over lakes. Anyway they had this truck on there with over 600 horse power, first I thought of is I had that kind of engine in my body I could shred the peddles of the crank with that kind of engine...

MY focus right know is September race. Its not far away. Speaking of Laguna Seca. On Sunday spent some time at ford ord mountain biking with some friends. I love that place. It has everything. Single track, fire roads. Even a deer jump out in front of me going down trail 50.

I was thinking I don't write enough about my sponsors and there products. So I would like to write today about what bike I ride and why. I have been riding the Santa Cruz Blur for 5 years know. My first bike was a LT with full XTR, boy was on flying high when I got that bike. You cruised alone peddling over bumps and kept going. I remember before when I used to ride my hard tail on long ride and my sides with hurt for days from tensing up going over bumps. Then when I got the new Blur I couldn't believe how much a difference it made. I could ride longer, fell better after my rides and recover quicker. Well a few Blur later that's all I race and ride on today. Yes they are my sponsor this year, but I have been riding Santa Cruz Bikes for 5 years now and think they are an awesome product. Very durable, reliable, and hard to beet for comfort. I 2 cross country Blurs for my 24 hour racing and couldn't do it competitively without them. They cruise over bumps like nothing. Keeps me peddling for 24 hours strong. I never had any major issues that couldn't be workouts. And they have a great warranty if any issues come up at all. Thanks Santa Cruz Bikes!!!

Blood Results ar in

2007-06-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

It turns out that the blood result were real good. There was nothing adnormal in the results. I did get wierd looks from the doctor when I told him about the 24 hour races. I didnt think he believed me at first.

Its been almost three weeks since the Laguna 24 (well 12 for me ) race and I have been starting to feel normal again. Still have some fatigue IO working thru but other wise I feel real good and no more chest pains. So I have been training but not as much as before and have cut down my volume for know. I need to get strong and healthy before attempting anything stupid. Im still sticking to my heart rate cap and do not go over that. Its real hard buit it will pay off huge in the long run. I will do tempo and long sustained work but will not go over the heasrt rate cap.

Watched the 24 SOlo race with Chris Etough working on his seventh World title. If you havent watch it you should. As a 24 hour racer I really dont get to see the other side of thing, so it was kind of cool to see what geos on in the pit. I had an IDea of what geo's on but it was an eye opener. I still have the Cd so If you wan to borow it let me know. Also one other thing I took away from the movie is when cris lost he said he has learned more from that race than anyother one, so It made me think about my LAguna seca races the last few years is that I learned a lot from those races. I just have to not repeat them.

I will be doing WOrld in September so that is my main focus for the next few months. Im going to race in the pro division so it will be cool to see where I land.

Change is alway's good

2007-06-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

SOme of my afterthoughts on my less than stellar performance at LAguna Seca 24 hour race. Some many thoughts come to mind but I have narrowed it down. I had such a awesome race 5 weeks prior to this race. My pace was so fast I even impressed myself. I hit such a high peak for that race it was almost impossible to hold it. That was nor a bad thing or good but an observation to think about for the future. I think it would of been better nt to peak so high and instead have a more level peak. It took a tone of energy from me. Also I feel at this time my pace was to high in the beganing and burn all my fun cookies to soon. And not enough rest after the race 5 weeks ago. I always get this high from winning a race that I get to eager to hit it hard to soon.
It funny how thing have worked in the past but are not working at the moment. Things change and my training is going to have to change also to keep my results going. I am reading alot of differnet books at the moment and have come across some good infromatiion and things are making sence know. SO I hope I can take this knoledge into my second half of the season. I know there is no quick fix so this is going to takle some time. Change is always good and I ready.

2007-06-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

Lets see here, what I have been up too. REst, rest, rest. Its tuff for me just torest and relax. MOst people have a hard time getting motivated to exercise, BUT NOT ME!. Im just the opisite. I have a hard time just lounging around and not training at moch three, breaking the sound bearier...lol Thats just not what I want to do is kick back, but sometimes you just have too. So I have been watching T.V., sitting on my ass eating ice cream and stuff I usually dont get to do. Letting the mind rest and try not to think about training or racing. Although its pretty hard. So in my off time here doesnt really mean I get to sit on my ass all the time. Over the weekend got to explore the outer world I live in. I went to IKea to get some book shelves and new computer desk. WOW! what a place. The reason its so cheap is that you have to assemble the stuff when you get home. It comes with all the screws and hard ware but you have too put it together, wich is fine with me. So I built 10 book shelves, and 1 computer desk. Plus also I build three bike rackes for the garage. So this off time I have been trying is pretty cool after all, but I cant get used to it yet, I still got more kicking ass to do in a few months. So I will be back at it by next week turning the peddles once again.

Time for reflecting...

2007-06-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

Amanda here. You know, sometimes it can be a good thing to stop and take stock. To reflect on where you have been and what you have learned. It's nice to see Brian doing that right now. DNFing a race will make you do that I suppose. So I think it's important to remember what we've learned in the last five years and nine 24 hour events that Brian has raced...so here's my list of lessons learned...

1. Always have fun. Always. That is what these races are about. The first 24 hour race thought us that. Well, I should say that Dave Smith taught us that. He introduced Brian to his first 24 Hours of Adrenaline event back in May 2002 @ Laguna Seca where he raced a 5 man team for Granite. Seems soooooo long ago now, doesn't it? My how things have changed. I still remember how burned that Brian was that Dave was pulling faster laps than him all while Dave was going up against his 24 beers in 24 hours goal. Yep, it was all about having a good time out there! :)

2. It's as much about the competition as it is about having fun. The second 24 Hours of Adrenaline Race, May 2003 @ Laguna Seca, Brian sweet-talked Miles Wadsworth into racing a two-man team with him. As I recall, at this point, Brian was still thinking those solo guys were "absolutely nuts." ha ha ha ;) It was all about working hard with a good riding buddy and friend for bragging rights. Miles and Brian both worked hard and pulled out a well-deserved second place with 27 laps that year.

3. Always push the edge of the envelope. It wasn't enough to do it once. It never will be. It's about setting goals, reaching them and making newer even more ridiculous goals! In May 2004, Miles and Brian came back to beat their finish from the prior year and win first at 24 Hours of Adrenaline @ Laguna Seca. None of us were disappointed when they met their goal and won a first place that year!

4. Dream big - you never know what you may accomplish. There was that time where Brian shook his head and said those solo guys were crazy. He may deny it now, but he did - I still remember. :) In May 2005, Brian raced his first year solo at 24 Hours of Adrenaline @ Laguna Seca and he rode hard through that race like it was nothing. We had no idea what to expect, but wow was I impressed. Not only did he do it, he won his first time out on his own. What a difference a few years can make! What an amazing lesson to learn - no dream is too big if you just set your sights on it and go for it.

5. Nutrition is key, so don't get behind yourself. A hard learned lesson indeed. One learned with Brian's first DNF in May 2006 at 24 Hours of Adrenaline @ Laguna Seca. In retrospect today, we knew so little. It really can happen to anyone at anytime. Your stomach just won't cooperate. You're less than your best. There isn't much you can do except be mindful not to get behind. Definitely something we remember and it permanently changed the path of what we do to support Brian from the pit.

6. You can't plan for everything. This includes tornados, disasterous rain, ridiculously bad maps, SuperWalmarts, missed flights - all compliments of the Wisconsin 24 Hours National Championships near Wausau Wisconsin, July 2006. By far one of the most bizarre experiences of our lives - one that will never be topped. At least we hope. But that's the whole point, you simply cannot plan for the unexpected like that...

7. Hard work eventually pays off, as does good planning. After a couple of tough races, all the work and planning that those tough races provoked, paid off. BIG. And resulted in winning the 30-34 age group category at the World Championships of the 24 Hours of Adrenaline @ Conyers, Georgia last year. It wasn't a flawless race, but it was close.

8. Nothing beats having lots of support and a good attitude. Brian always races with a good attitude and we always try to maintain one in the pit. You're only as good as your weakest link or so they say. The Coolest 24 @ Cool California this May was awesome, but I think we learned that it is all about having a positive attitude and making that a priority. It's also nice to have family and friends to cheer you on, isn't it?!

9. And last, but not least, the most important lesson to date? Recovery time is crucial. Brian thought he had learned this lesson when he had to DNF his Florida Ironman last November 13 miles short of finishing the run with qualifying for Worlds in his grasp. This following after only 4 short weeks of rest from his 24 Hour win @ Conyers, Georgia. Five weeks isn't much different than four I suppose. Recovering from the race is still a lesson Brian is learning. It's hard for me to speculate what he needs - how much time, how much rest. It's just not built into him to take it easy. Now his body isn't giving him a choice about it. It should be interesting to see how this affects the future. At this point, I couldn't say, but I can tell him I hope he figures this out soon cause I hate seeing him struggle through this!

All I know is that each race takes it's toll, good or bad. Each race a lesson was definitely learned and it only served to improve his racing, his attitude, his outlook on life. I hope to look back on this post at some point later this year or next and be able to say that this last and newest lesson was finally learned. Until then, at least some stuff will get done around the house and we'll get the quality time together that we've been missing! ;)

24 hours of Adrenilan Race Recap

2007-06-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

This weekend was sure to be put in my record books, and not in a good way at all. And a weekend definitely not to be repeated.

Everything started out real good. Got up Early Saturday morning so ready to race. I felt real good and was ready to ride my ass off. I ate a huge breakfast, loaded up the truck and off we went. I had a huge support of family and friends. Witch is so cool. After setting everything up it was time for the race meeting at 9 am and the race started at 10 am. Well we were off racing, I tried to stay out front for the run and to get on the trail in the front off the pack so I can stay out of trouble. After about the the third lap I really started to feel really weird. I know for me sometimes this will pass and go away. I had major pain in my chest and my breathing wasn't the same as in the past. I could understand this feeling after 20 hours of racing but not only 3-4 hours into the race. I kept going hoping it would pass and tried to work through it but it just got worse. Yuri Hauswald and I at this point we changing leads a lot. Yuri would come in front of me and then I would come in front of Yuri. Yuri was real strong this race and I knew he was really shooting for the win. After about 8 hours I ended up getting a small gap on Yuri, but things were getting even worse with my pain and breathing and wasn't looking very good. I tried to keep upbeat about it and also keep real about it. I was going to go Intel I couldn't go anymore without killing myself, hopefully. After the second night lap everything turned to shit! My breathing became very erratic and the pain in my chest grew so intensely I had to stop and walk to the first aid station and catch a ride to the start/finish line where the pit was. When I got back to the pit and laid down my breathing and pain wasn't going away. Thank god I had such a wonderful and caring wife because she wanted to have me looked at by the EMT just to make sure I was okay. Every seemed to be okay with my EKG"s ( what ever that was), but took the ambulance ride to the hospital to get blood work and check everything out just to make sure everything was okay. The blood work came back negative for heart enzymes in the blood when having a heart attack. SO I just over exerted myself way to much. I'm not sure of the cause yet, there are so many variables to go over and think about. So that's what I will be doing over the next few rest weeks. I really hate the DNF monster but it's part of racing, you win some and you loose some. I'm not going to get all depressed like before and I will just chalk it up to a learning experience and move on. I am still sad about it because I have such a wonderful wife (Amanda, I love you) and family and friends support I wanted to do real good for them. So I am a little sad for that. In a way it kind of feels like I let them down. But I feel I gave it 110% and very happy with that. Right know I'm just going to to make any quick decision about anything until the fog clears out of my head and take a break. Again like I said there are so many variables to look at and will go over them the next few weeks and go from there.
I do want to thank my family and friends for there support and good words of encouragement. I just wish I did better for you all. Thanks again!

The big taper

2007-06-05T13:38:00.000-07:00

My taper is in full swing. Last week I was so worried and nervous. I had all kinds of weird aches and pains all over my body. I thought I was falling apart. But this week is a lot better and everything is comming together. I rode last night and felt very strong and fast. Rest period does wonders for the body. As I going throught this rest phase before the big day, I always look back at all the training and realize how much work was done, and how on the verge of over training I get. I know I train way to much sometimes but really realize during weeks like this. SOmetimes I dont know how to act without all kinds of pain. Everyday I have to fight not to go out and hammer away. Its like my body is going through adrenilan withdrawls. Only a few more day's left and I can rip it up. The days have been nice though, only an hour or so a day of training. Feels weird though. But in the bigger picture I know I cant keep training like I have been and have good results at the big races. I will not do anything but rest and get the bikes ready on thursday and Friday.

Im Alive!!!!!

2007-05-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

Another epic weekend, I'm just glad to be alive. You really never know how a bike ride will go. You might get a flat tire, or have some kind of bike malfunction. But what it usually is, it sure wasn't that way for me on Monday. I knew it would be epic, but shit! I had many thoughts on rides before but none of having to be air lifted out from the middle. I was so close to waving somebody down to rescue me on my epic journey but some how managed to make it. 140 mile total for the day. It never really dawned on me, going through what I did, and realizing when watching the Tour Or the Giro when you somebody having a bad day and could loose up to 30 minutes on a stage. Well I have a new respect for the sport know.

SO my journey started out with an hour swim. Then I drove to King City and park, jump on the bike and headed to Coalinga. Its a nice hour climb tot he top of bitterwater rd down the other side. I turned left onto hwy 25, rt onto Coalinga rd and topped at the fire station for the last stop Intel coalinga. Its awesome out there, no traffic, all along, pretty much on your own except for the occasional rancher. I get some weird looks, like what the hell is this biker doing out here. I was ticking along nicely. You past the entrance into Clearcreek, where all the motorcycles go ride. About here thing started to warm up a lot. And soon as I got to Los Gatos park I knew I was in hell. Kicked up to 90 degree's and it wasn't even 12 yet. Before the last going into coalinga I even thought of turning around but thought what the hell, Im here might as well make a day out of it. SO I get into coalinga, refuel got something to eat. One thing I have to remember is how hot it is and its three hours before the next water stop. I also go back the same way I came. I had 2 20oz bottle on the bike, 70 oz camel back, and three 1 liter bottle in the jersey pockets. Plenty you would think. So I knew I just wasn't in the best of spirits but no time or no way to contemplate anything else but keep going. It a long gradual climb but up too the mountain top flat. Going back you have 5 climbs. The first one is long and gradual rollers. Takes 1.5 hours. Well it took me all of 2 hours. In some spots I could swear it was close to 100 deg. Things just weren't good at all. I had no power, Things started to get real fuzzy and I had hours to go. The next passes were kind of comical. I never had to stop in the middle of a climb to catch my breath. By half way back I could eat, only sip on water. If I would of had cell reception for I would of definitely called for backup. So I got to the fire station, witch is 20 miles form the truck. I took an extend break here to catch up with myself. There usually some fire fighters there. There was a guy washing the fire truck. He was half way through soaping the truck when he walk over to me to talk to me. I really didn't realize it Intel later but I must of really looked like shit to have stop with soap still on the truck. It was nice to chat some with somebody though. I somehow manged to make it eventually. I remember telling Amanda I would be home by 5. Well I didn't get home until after 6:30. She was worried, I was worried, not a good day. So I'M just glad to be alive and feeling pretty good today.

I have two weeks until Laguna Seco 24 hour race, so I'm in need of some very deserved rest. I'm tired, I miss my wife, and am looking forward to our time together the next few weeks so we can get re aquatinted all over again!!!!

2007-05-25T12:46:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest thing about the internet is informatin. You can pretty much find anthing your looking for. I have so much info on nutrition and training, and keep finding new stuff on a weekley base.
The reason I say this is because I think everybody can gain something from changing what they eat. Wheather it be what you eat or where it came from. ANd if you are anybody who knows me Im very particular on what I will put in my body. WHen going on vacations I will call near by resturaunts and find out what kind of oils they use to cook with. Or if they use organic foods. Its hard to eat totally organic foods but I try real hard and feel real good about it. With so many people geting diabeties these day's and they have no clye to why> I believe its the food you eat. One of the big main killers is partially hydrogenated oils. If this is in your diet that's bad. This type of oil when going through your blood stream it will attached itself to the walls of your veins. And will intern give you high blood pressure. Another killer is sugar. There is just to much sugar in every body's diet. When I go home from work and the school kids are walking home 90 % of the kids either drinking soda's or eating chips and I cream. Its just sad.

As far as training and stuff goes there are a few sight I love to read. So much good information on training and racing. Gordo Byn is and endurance athlete that has started out like me, overweight, ate unhealthy and started training/racing at the age of 30 or so. Same with me. Then got into endurance training/racing and doing the longer events. Anyway he has always got something good to say about it. Here's his blog. Check it out. I always find something good in there. I know he's a triathlete but were all out for the same thing, do go faster. Also check out Mark Allen online website, on the bottom if the page is some good info. Its what I have been following this season. Pretty basic stuff. But that's what I read.

New jersey's comming in

2007-05-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

So I have been working hard on wanting to do something special for all support I get from my sponors. From product to racer support on discount product. So I enclosed a picture of what they will look like. I put an order in yesterday so should see them in a couple of weeks. They look so sweet and the company I have been working with has been so helpful in getting it the way I want. Thanks ZAAVY! The price was right too.

The pic on the left is the front and the back is on the right. A lot of work went into these. Let me know what you think?

Please help me( what my body is saying)

2007-05-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

SO last week after adding up the hours in training it scared me. I tend not to keep track because I have been trying to be just happy what I can do these day's and focus on quality stuff and not get buried into someone else training program and stick to what I can handle and not what everybody else is doing. I do this because I get so caught up in everybody else's shit I forget about my own. If you think about who knows what kind of life there living, if they work full time or what ever is. Than when I'm not pulling the hours I start to push harder and dig myself a hole, and the benefits of training diminish instead of moving forward I go backwards. SO I have been just focusing on what I can do or what I can handle, with the full time job, wife, and pets. I'm still on the high end of the hours but train smarter. Also this year I have really focused on my mental aspect of training and racing, weather its stupid shit. What I mean is sometimes I focus on thinking that I'm fast, Strong and can do this. Well it seems better and makes more sense when I think about it. I just try and focus on positive thing about what I do and what I can accomplish. Also getting away from results, although they are nice to win but just focusing on finishing strong and not worrying about where I place but just feel good that I don't get hurt or just finish strong. I can remember a few times last year I got so caught up in my result that I got depressed a few times for not placing real well. Then I would go home and drill myself into the ground in order to get better but my results were still shity. And it seemed I was going in reverse. So I really believe my mental aspect is getting better. I just try and have fun out there and not get to caught up in the racing part or results part. Not saying I still don't drill myself, I just don't drill myself 10 feet into the ground, only 5 feet know. Its easier to dig myself out there. For example this weekend was long. ON Sunday I did a nice 3 hour ride, 1 hour swim, ! hour bike, 2 hour run, 1 hour bike. Without resting at all in between. And a lot of tempo work. I worked out monday morning but took the afternoon, tuesday and wednesday morning off. SO today I feel really good and strong and not injured.
I feel really good coming into my 24 mountain biker ace on June 9th. 2.5 weeks. I will start to imagine my laps and what I'm going to do and it and all the scenarios I can think off. I got some new strategy's on my eating and have been hitting my nutrition needs on all my workouts. So feel really confident with everything.
I will start another build up for one more week. I have to work on Saturday so will hit the miles on Sunday and Monday then focus on getting all healed up and ready.

2007-05-20T17:56:00.001-07:00

Another weekend down and one more to go before I can start to slow down some. Im so glad Im so tired today. Things have been so tuff getting back into the swing of things since the 24 hour race. They take so much out of you. Depending on how I feel after next week I might even take it easy for 2 weeks intel the race because I still have a lot of fatigue, and really don't want that going into the 24 hours race at Laguna Seco on June 9Th. I will wait to see though. I suprised my self today. I got up at was out the door at 8:30 am this morning and just got back a few minutes ago and know it 6 pm. A lot of biking, some swiming and a long run. In the afternoon I went to the pinnacle to run and was loviong the heat, I forget how much I love the heat. Well I have Giro to watch and some sheep to count....... See Ya!!

2007-05-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

cccx race report. Out of the 9 races series you have to do at least 6 races and the final totaling 7 races. Yesterday I finish my sixth race so I really dont have to race anymore if I dont want to. Im glad for that. They were getting real tuff, they are real hard and its an all out hammer fest for 1.5 hours. I really dont train like that but they do do me some good though to help me get in some major intensity's. The race start's at 1 pm. Kind of nice. You dont have to get up so early. Anyway were were of and just as usuall the pace was real high. Brock and Keith were out front and pushing the pace. Well mainly Brock, Keith was sucking his wheel most of the time. And I was sucking there wheel. I wasn't feeling the best and didn't take any rest for this race so I was just going to see how long I could last. Lap after lap Brock was doing 90% of the work. There were a few times I felt good enough to get up front and give Brock a hand but it was tuff for me to do anything. I just didn't have nothing in the legs. But I felt bad he was doing all the pulling. Going on the third lap I was impressed with myself for still being in this break of 4 of us. I think at one piont during this lap 2 single speeders caught us. I seem to be always in the back getting spit out the back when the pace went up. I managed to stay with this group intel the last lap. Brock put a hard effort on the last little climb and that was it for me. I spent the rest of the last lap in no mans land, suffering like a dog in 100 degree heat with my tail between my legs. Humility is good once in awhile. Keeps me in check. I was real happy with 4th place and felt good afterwords about my effort. And I didn't crash and hurt myself so thats always good. If everything goes good the last race I might have 4th wraped up. For this race it was all about getting in a real hard workout. In the morning before the race I did three laps of the 24 course then imediatly raced. I figure it will help me push ahrd when Im fatigued. It has worked so good so far. I think it helped me so much winning the 24 hours of Cool 2 weekends ago. Its real hard to be rested for all your races, I would love to do good at all the races but its tuff.

I got to brag yesterday

2007-05-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got to speak in front of the Soledad Chamber of Commerce. My friends are always bragging about me in some way or another. So I was ask to tell my story in front of the town peers. At first I thought why, I'm nobody special. But after speaking in front of everybody I know have the answer why? It was real cool to have this opportunity to do something like this. It was even very motivating for me as it was to the group I spoke to. It wasn't a very big group but I feel I did make an impact on a few people. Whether it would be to exercise more or even to start exercising, and also maybe eat a little healthier. I was so nervous talking, my lip kept on twitching while I was up there. I could even see it with my eye's when I kind of looked down. But like I said it gave me a lot of motivation to keep doing what I have been. I didn't realize I could have that much influence on people. There were a couple of people I knew in there so they could elaborate on some of the crazy and insane stuff that I do. Like when I'm riding weather it is raining or snowing. The times people see me riding at night or in the wee ours of the morning. Also it has made me feel a lot better about what I have accomplished in the last few years. I really don't get to see that to much because I'm always focused on today or the next few day's on how I am going to squeeze in those extra few hours of training. I got to meet some really nice people too. Also I am motivated to maybe even speak at some high schools when things cool down on the training and racing. Plus I was invited to speak to the rotary club sometime soon. Again I can't believe how motivated I am.
Training has going good again, slow but expected. I was worried over the weekend about my fitness. I'm not sure why I get so worried. It was only a week after my 24 hour race. Its not like I'm superman or spider man or any other super hero. So I'm glad I got things in perspective here. I don't think it would be real productive to be hitting big volume so soon anyway, although would be nice. Maybe next week if I feel better. I've been sleeping and eating a lot. I did get to see the new spider man movie this weekend so that was cool. It even felt like a date with my wife. She was happy to get to spend so much time with me as I was also happy to have that quality time with her. Although I find it Ironic/funny sometimes when we get to spend so much time together I really don't think we know how to handle all that time together, since most the time we are together I'm either asleep or racing. And vacation are hole other funny topic.
So I will see how I feel in the upcoming weeks as to how my training will go. I am looking forward to the Yuri Huaswald and Brian battle. Since he did win the overall last year I will definitely give him a run for his money.

2007-05-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

Let's see, its been 4.5 day's since the race ended. My body has been so tired. I just can't seem to get enough sleep. There has been no training for me. just rest and relax. I can remember after all the my long events in the 9-24 hour range, I would be training again right away. Even then I would know that it was to soon to be hitting high volume of training. But my ego would not let up. Maybe its my age? Not really sure. But I have no desire to dig myself in a black hole no more. Noy saying I'm not going to extend myself from time to time but not week after week anymore. I am going to heed some of my own advise. So my plan is after feeling well enough to train, take 2 more day's easy before starting again. At this point my chest still hurts a lot, and I have a shortness of breath when doing anything taxing.
I did have big plans for this week to get my garage in order but looks like that's going to have to wait. I'm going to spend some time with my wife! This time of ours is well needed & deserved. She sacrifices so much of our time already. But understand what it takes to be on top. Not to many people can grasp that consept or even understand it.

Under Construction

2007-05-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

Bear with me as I update Brian's blog in the next several days! :)

Race Pics

2007-05-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

Mom & Dad before the start of race

My BAD ASS wife!!

BAD ASS Miles Wadsworth. One of the fastest Santa Cruz riders, when Im not there.lol

ME! The winner with 25 laps.

This is one BAD ASS bike company!

This is one BAD ASS Construction Company!!!

Perspective from the pit crew...

2007-05-08T20:30:00.000-07:00

Brian always wonders what it is like for us in the pit area during the race, so he asked if I wouldn't mind writing about this last race from my perspective. Well, be careful what you wish for Brian! :)

So when the race is over, the dust has settled and, well, we've all gotten a little sleep, we spend a lot of time rehashing the race and talking shop about what could be done better next time. Hard to criticize when he wins, but there's always room for improvement, right?!

We took off early on Friday morning for a long weekend of visiting with the family and racing. I was looking forward to *finally* having a mountain bike race near Sacramento. I was even more excited that it was in Cool, only fifteen miles up the road from a house we lived in when I was growing up! I knew the weather would be nicer than Laguna Seca and that we would get the chance to see lots of family come out for the race.

Leading up to the race, Brian is always restless. This time, I suppose you could say I got lucky that my schedule put me in Colorado the weekend before the race, because I came home from that trip to find our two cats shaved, his car washed and the all the gear packed for the race! I'm surprised he didn't put in the new back yard while I was gone too! lol Many of the nights before the race, he tosses and turns - drives me nuts! So I was happy the race was finally upon us. We headed up on Friday, checked into our hotel in Folsom. Later that afternoon, we finally got out to Cool, found the school and tried to figure out where to set up camp. We ran into Terry Wahlberg and her husband Rick. We were pitted next to them last year at 24 Hours in Monterey - such nice people, so I was happy to pit right across from them again this weekend. Brian took off to do a "quick" lap of the course (he ended up hopelessly lost!) and I caught a cat nap in preparation for the long weekend ahead of us!

When it got down to the race on Saturday, we had everything ready to roll. It gets a little easier to plan for each race I think. The start of the race was a little crazy, but fun and we were shocked to watch Brian roll through the chute in first place! All I could think was ah crap, he doesn't even know the course! What happened to the plan?!? THE PLAN!!!! Apparently, that was already out the window and left somewhere back behind him, maybe with the slow little puddle jumper of a motorcycle that was supposed to be leading the race?! It's funny to be a spectator at an event like this. The start is so exciting, but then after a few minutes there's this huge void of nothing. The pit area falls silent and we just hang out. There's not much to do but wait and wonder how long the laps will be!

When the first rider came down the hill, I was shocked to see Brian! This type of race, all the solo 24 hour riders are usually pacing more slowly than the team riders or 8 hour riders, so it was a huge surprise. It worried me a little, but one look at him and I could tell he was working at his own pace. The nutrition plan is what I really worry about. That's my job or so I'm told. :) I also keep track of his lap times, what he's doing each lap (like changing bikes, etc) and make sure that his laps are being tracked correctly. This race had a different lap tracking system than we've grown used to, so I wasn't checking the postings every lap this time - it gave me more time to kick back and relax, which was nice considering we had lots of family and friends around to hang out with.

Brian's nutrition plan wasn't always a big worry for me until 24 Hours in Monterey last year when he had trouble with his stomach after dark, so he stopped eating for a few laps, which resulted in him laying on the ground at 4 am completely miserable and unable to finish because he was so far behind. I never want a repeat of that, so I incessantly hound him to keep eating. This resulted in some hilarious exchanges between us as the day progressed. Examples? About lap seven or so, Brian started gettin' cranky and said (and I quote): "If you want something to worry about, why don't you count my calories?" Of course, I am left with no time to respond so the next lap, I asked him if he wanted any food. His reply? He lifted his shirt pointed to his stomach and said "this is 2,000 calories right here!! Didn't you count my calories?!" It took everything not to laugh at him! :) It's amazing how unreasonably cranky riding a bike for 24 hours can make you!

Mid afternoon on Saturday, Brian requested a bottle of water. Of course, the one thing I hadn't anticipated. Given the lack of shade, the water was hiding out under the back of the truck to avoid the sun. I ran to grab a bottle and as I came back around into the tent, he was already running to go out again. *SIGH* Good night. I'm supposed to chase him? He runs a six minute thirty second mile average on a MARATHON. I can't even keep up with him while he's running and I'm riding a bike! Somehow I managed to dig deep and catch him before he hit the out tent to start his next lap. I almost ate it by stepping in a gopher hole - must have looked funny. :) I doubt he'll even remember this happening!

After a while it gets easier to get him to eat - I just shove food in his pockets and he doesn't even pay attention. By nightfall, we start putting all the food options out on the table so Brian can just grab what he needs and go. It works pretty well actually. I always sleep from about midnight to sunrise so I can pack us up and drive us to where we're staying. Chuck stays up drinking his Rock Star energy drinks and chatting with our neighbors.

It was fun to watch Miles race hard and visit with his wife, Melissa and play with Madeline - she's such a cutie! I bet in a few years we'll see her racing hard in the 24 minutes of adrenaline out at Laguna Seca! :) Congrats on the win Miles - awesome considering that rough start with a flat on both your first and second laps!!

As the day wore into the night and back into the day, I was impressed by the atmosphere of the race. It was great to see the race director, Jim, walking around and spending the time talking to everyone. I may have been tired, but I seem to remember him walking around at one in the morning with a Chewbacca costume on?!? That was hilarious and I have to give him props for making the effort to make all the support crews and spectators comfortable. It was also fun to watch the competition that developed between the top two single speed riders and the collegiate teams - it was a fun, competitive atmosphere and we had a good time.

I always look forward to waking up in the morning to see what Brian has done in the night. I wasn't disappointed this time - he managed to stay completely consistent. It was a first that he only had two slow laps right before sunrise. I was impressed. According to Chuck, he only had one hard time where he stopped, put his hands on the table and looked like he was having a tough moment. Apparently, Chuck told him to knock it off and get back on the bike, which he did! I'm impressed and I'm glad to see him getting very tough mentally during this race. I was greeted the next lap with quotes and the vocal stylings of Carlos Mencia over the radio. :) I knew Brian was having fun when he started saying "dee da dee!!!" and singing "Would you like an apple pie with that?" If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just google that song line and you'll find one of the funniest things I've ever seen!

So I guess to sum it up, the first daylight laps always go by fast, the nights go so slowly and once dawn hits, it's an exciting race to the finish! It's always hard to get used to the lack of sleep, but we've gotten used to making it work. It wouldn't be possible without Chuck's help - he keeps the bikes running perfectly and makes it fun around camp. Definitely owe him a big thanks!! Especially for the yogurt! ;) LOL

Special thanks this race to all the family and friends who showed up to support Brian. It was nice to have both my Dad and my father-in-law Tim there to help hand Brian his nutrition bottle and take pictures, our moms to cheer him on, my sister Katie (who brought us fresh Starbucks coffee and cookies from work - thanks Kate!), her boyfriend Kile and friend Mike to cheer and Miles and Melissa who stuck around that extra 15 minutes part his award ceremony to support Brian with Madeline about 3 hours past her bedtime! It made a huge difference in his morale for this race and I think he looked forward to seeing everyone for the 30 seconds he was in the pit each lap. :) A special thanks also goes out to my Dad for calling from Starbucks on Sunday morning to get us hot coffee (I know Chuck and Rick appreciated it too!) and my Mom for bringing a roll of TP cause the bathrooms were out of it! It was great to have the support and company :) We hope you can all come out again for the next big race in five weeks!

We'll get some pictures up here this week. I'm off to bed....still trying to catch up from this weekend!

2007-05-07T17:25:00.000-07:00

24 hours of cool race report. When I think about it 24 hours is so long on a bike sitting on the smallest seat I could find just sometimes doesn't seem natural. And no its not, just writing it hurts. But the one thing, win or lose, when I walk away from these events they are so rewarding. I get to meet really nice people and we are all there to have a good time. I got to meet up with a few racers I have raced before plus some new ones.

10 days ago I really started to focus on getting 100% for this race. Getting rid of all the fatigue from prior training and focusing on my nutrition. Trying not to eat too much and not starve myself. I have been training really hard since December and have been pretty consistent. Also I feel really good that I keep up my running and swimming. I train like I would for an Ironman. Why? Because I like it.

I get there the day before the race to check everything out. It was in Cool California off HWY 49 North of Placerville. Very nice area. A lot off hills :) So I wanted to pre-ride the course to get a feel of when I can eat and drink on the course and get a rough idea of my lap times. Because they wouldn't be far off from riding it then racing it. I found the first part somewhat marked. And the last part...well lets say I never found it. It was a 1 hour course and I didn't get back until 2 hours later. Funny thing is I found Yuri Hauswald and Karl Etzel out in the middle of nowhere lost as shit! And to find out we were like 5 miles away down in this canyon and to ride the pavement on HWY49 at 5:30 in the evening on a Friday. There was so much traffic it was crazy. So I get back finish up everything, go back to the hotel and rest up. I ended up getting a hotel with a kitchen so I could cook my own food for dinner. Good stuff.

On race day I got up, packed the truck and headed off to breakfast with my wife, in-laws and Chuck, my favorite mechanic (well, my only mechanic!). I usually try and skimp on my meals most the time but I didn't think it was a good thing to do this time. So I ordered 6 pancakes for breakfast. Carb heaven. I was suprised how easy they went down. Don't know if that was a good thing but it seemed okay at the time. So we get there early as usual and set everything up. Man seemed like we had a ton of shit. Which we did. After setting up Miles and I rode some of the course just to warm up before the pre-race meeting. I was disappionted in the no run before the race because I have been training for that...lol. But I did eventually get over it. Once on the start line I started to strategize right away. I noticed that there were a lot of riders so I wanted to get on the course in the first bunch being it was really narrow. So we were off and Yuri Hauswald kicked it off pretty fast. I remember the announcer saying don't pass the motorcycle (it was suppose to lead us around a school before the official start), that was a joke. The bike probably did like only 10 miles an hour, hilarious stuff. We past the motorcycle the first few hundred feet. That poor guy got surrounded like a swarm of bee's on red bull. I bet he was last by the time he hit the start/finish chute! When we hit the start line I was so shocked I was up front. Usually the team guys hammer away and are so hard to keep up with. So I keep hammering away waiting for Mr. Miles to come up behind me but never happened. By halfway I found my self pretty far ahead of everybody and not one person in site. I remember before the race how unmarked it was and the reason for that was that the horse riders in that park would intentially go out and take down on the course marking before the race. So here I am out in the middle of nowhere in the lead with not a clue to know if I'm going the right way or not. After all I didn't get lost. I came in on my first lap at 45 minutes and not one person in sight. I felt really good and didn't feel like I pushed too hard so I just decided from there to go at this pace for as long as I could go. I started to take in calories after the first lap. Mostly liquid at this time. On the second lap there was a creek crossing that was about 4" deep and about 15 feet wide. This was something I didn't want to go through at the time because it was too early to have wet feet. So I opted to get off my bike and hop on a few rocks to get to the other side, yes I lost my momentum but the cost was too much of a risk. I did that every lap and kept my feet dry. I continued on this pace like I had a bomb fire under my ass. During these races they get so hard at a point to keep me motivated at all. So one of the thoughts or even conversations I would have is thinking what would lance do. And I thought he would say, "dont be such a pussy".

I kept eating - eating as much as I could handle, about 11 pm things got real tough. My stomach was bloated, everything in my body said stop. But everytime I got back to my pit I was told to "eat, shut up and get on your bike," so I really wasn't going to argue with my family and friends who put up with all my training. So as usual, as I have noticed throughout my five 24 hour events to date, is this is the way it always seems to go. You feel real good for the first few hours then its all adrenalin after that. I tried to ride hard when I felt strong and tried to hold my pace when my sprits were down. The sunset until sunrise is always tough for me. As long as I can make it until the sun comes up, then I'm fine. Weird shit I know. So I kept eating and drinking and tried to stay focused on making it until noon. Then I could rest. Well I came in first place with 25 laps and had my first money check from a race. WOW! That was so cool. And don't worry it's already spent so don't ask to borrow any money.

The Santa Cruz Blur held up so good. Flawless all night long. Yes I am sponsored by them, but I have been riding these bikes for years and they are well worth the money. One day later I'm pretty sore but tomorrow will be worse. My body is swollen from all the salt pills, which takes a few days to go away. This was such an awesome race in a awesome area. I will definitely be back. Please if you ever wanted to try out a 24 hour race or even an 8 hour race this is one to go to.

It was great to have my Mom and Dad there cheering me on. And even Dad got to help feed me bottles. He hasn't done that in a long time. (that was funny shit).lol. Thanks Mom and Dad... Love you!

A BIG thanks to my biggest supporter of all. My wife AMANDA! I couldn't have done this with her help and support through all the training. It takes so much energy and time to compete at a high level. I wouldn't want to have anybody else at my side than you sweety! I love you!

Also the second biggest key to all my laps at this race is my mechanic/friend Chuck Martin from Bob Cat Bicycles. Dude you rock! Without you none of this would be possible, thanks for all your support and help buddy! I LOVE YOU MAN!!!!!

It was a big weekend for us local boys. Good job for Miles Wadsworth who took the 8 hour race victory, another stud! Congrats!!!

It was so awesome to have so much family support at this race. Thanks to my in-laws, Bonnie and Bill, my sister-in-law Katie, her boyfriend Kile and friend Mike, who came out. Just being there to cheer me on had such a big impact on me. Special thanks to Bill for hiking the hill to give me my nutrition bottles and take pictures and to Katie for making the best coffee and bringing me some to help kick off the night ride!!

Will post some pictures soon....

2007-04-25T08:44:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-04-23T08:17:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-17T06:41:00.000-07:00

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.

Another Podium at Sea Otter

2007-04-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-04-14T19:27:00.000-07:00

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.

weekend fun in the sun

2007-04-09T07:38:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-05T09:11:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-03-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a late race report from Saturday's CCCX race. I still felt tired from my week of training and did a little to much leading up too it. But it was good to get some metal part in the race to help me in the long run for my 24 hour races coming up. As always these races start out so fast and hard. The race had more climbing than the ones at Ford Ord so I knew I would do good. We went up the first climb and the leaders took of and had a big gap on me. And they were disappearing fast. I tried hard to catch up but couldn't. I just didn't have the legs. But I continued on hard as I could. The blur was awesome and felt really good, I think I found my new favorite bike. The new XTR shifters was so nice and smooth. So after the first lap I think I was around 5th place but going on the second and third lap there were allot of people drooping of fast. So I knew if I kept it up hard and steady I should place good. I drank to bottle and a total of 350 calories with allot more enduro lites than the last race to see if I could hold off the cramping. It worked pretty good but still felt on the verge of cramping. I ended in 3rd place so witch is real good and will put me a good point standing. Dickie Brock ended up winning, he kicked some serious ass. And Miles Wadsworth kick my ass again, you have to quit training so hard buddy, I need to bring back the old day's:) Good job.
Not much going on. I will be talking it easy for a few days and rest up for my next 2 week block of intense training.

Socks, socks, and more socks:)

2007-03-09T19:22:00.000-08:00

No need to say anything else!

This so cool, 12 new pairs of socks, my feet will be happy.

Thanks Sock Guy!

2007-03-09T06:50:00.000-08:00

This is game face with the new shades.

The cases were real cool, strong and durable.

"It's Friday"! Party! Ya right, I can't even stay up past 8 pm:) Well almost another week gone in my house of pain, then onward to an easy week. My training for the week has been good so far, I do have a race on Saturday at 1pm so hopefully I didn't extend myself to much this week. I had a hard day on Wednesday, 45 miles mountain bike ride with 4000 feet of altitude gain, 3 hours total riding. Alot of hard stuff. The last 2 days been less than 3 hours total for the hole day's. Toady will be the same. I feel a little weird today and not even 80% off normal so not sure what to think about this. I wonder if I caught somebody's cold or what? Only time will tell.

I did get my sunglasses last night. Now they are the shit, WOW! Man do I look cool! I am going to be pimp'n this Saturday with the new bike, new shades. If I get my ass kicked at least I will look good getting it kicked:)

2007-03-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

I just cant believe this weather, upper 70 degree's for the rest of the week. Man this is great. And on the 11th is going to be an extra hour I will be able to train during the day and work on my tan.
On Monday I was pretty toasted from the weekend so I took the day off. I ran this morning and did core work in the gym, a good hour of workout time. One of the great benefits from all my training is the amount of food I can consume throughout the day or in one sitting and not gain weight. Even though I eat allot of food it's still very healthy, organic, allot of fruits and veggies. If I workout 20 hours x 500 calories an hour on average for the week, that will equal approximately 10,000 extra calories I will need to eat in order to my energy levels up. That's allot food. And I am being conservative here.
I am planning on hitting the bike real hard on Wednesday with a 30 minute hard climbing and some small peak hard intervals to get the heart rate way up there.
Also picked up another sponsor on sponsor house.com, the Sock Guy. I just placed a 12 pair order and can't wait to get them. All different kinds. Also placed my order for sum new sunglasses from Smith Optics. I ordered this pair also, Catalyst Slider root beer brown. Man am I going to look cool.lol

2007-03-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

The weekends is over and its time to start the work week. I have been putting in alot of overtime so I wonder what this week will be.
I was sore this morning but not enough to keep me down. Plus who could resisit the 70+ degree temperature outside. I hit the recover ease hard last night so I could ride long today. I jump on the bike and headed toward Salinas. It was fast, fastest I ever made it there. A little over an hour for alomost 30 miles, I had a little tail wind but man that was fast even for me. I di the The loop, River ed, HWy 68 Laureless Grade, Lt on Carmel Valley rd, Cachua rd to the store, turn around head back out, CArmel Valley rd back home to Soledad. I figure around 90 miles with 5-6 thousand feet of climbing. I was so tired when I got home, I went straight for the couch. Good day overall!

2007-03-03T17:54:00.000-08:00

Race day is always fun, you never know what to expect. So I started out my day with a nice 30 minute run before work, just to get the legs warm and get my body to wake up and start the metabolism going. I could only work fours hours, being the CCCX started at 1:00. I wanted to get there and warm up good. I did one lap prier to the start. I didn't have any expectation being I got my ass kicked the last few races. I sad not to see Miles Wadsworth wasn't there. He's been doing reel good, I talk to him and he's was sick, get well buddy! I kind of change my week up some, I only did one weight workout on Tuesday morning and a hard bike in the afternoon to hone in on my hard shit. I had a weird pain in my leg this morning so I was wondering how I would hold up today. We started pretty fast as usual but for some reason when we hit the dirt I was with the lead group. I figure after lap one I would pulled of anyway, so I was just going to go hard and see where it will put me. SO to my surprise I am in the lead group after the first lap, I was thinking holly shit what am I doing here. So on to the second and third lap, I felt really good. The group consisted of Brock Dickie, Keith DeFiebre, Mike Holk, Me and a few only I don't know. About the second lap I I could see was Brock doing most of the work so I decided to give a him a hand and push the pace. I figure I would blow up and get shelled out the back. Things were going real good and I was able to recover and go back up to the front. So Brock would pull, then I would do some work at the front and a few others chipped in. Around the fourth lap I looked back and there was only three of us left. By this time I am just so exited to be in the front group. Brock would hammer on the first half and then I would jump on the front and push the back half. He probably most of the work. I was trying to push the hills but for some reason my shifter was a bit to be desired so I always got past there. On the last lap I cramp real bad on the last climb and Brock got a good gab and I couldn't catch up after recovering. SO Brock took first and I got second. I was pretty stocked. That will be me in good position in the Total points. Afterwords I felt pretty tired so I slammed 8 recover ease to bounce back from my effort.

2007-03-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

Still pretty sore today. Got to ride the new bike tis morning and WOW! What a difference. This bike is going to be smoking fast.

Here are a couple of pictures

2007-02-28T06:56:00.000-08:00

I see hard workouts in my near future. I have been doing allot of hard work these past few months and have made been improvements in some areas and still have to work on others. I find it real difficult to always take it easy and rest when I need to. I kind of see things black or white, on or off, hard or easy. I think last 2 years were nothing but hard, hammer all the time. I gained allot endurance and strength out of it but I became so fried by the end and middle of the year. This hole process of training and becoming on top off your game is very tough to figure out sometimes. There are always so many factors that you have to look at in order to be at the top of your game on race day. But you cant do it throughout the hole season anymore, to many people are focusing on certain races to peek and if your just a little of your game your toast. So I see so many people only focusing on certain races and not extending themselves to far. Look at the pros doing the Tour De France, Or Giro, Veluto, these guys only race a few races leading up to the race and then peek for these races. There early season races seem to be just to fine tune themselves. Most of the time they don't even place. Well you got your few freaks out there, Lance Armstrong, Eddie Merx, who won just about everything they raced, but they are the very few who can pull shit like that off. SO i am just a weekend warrior who is just trying to work his ass off to achieve some level of anarchy, I never really set out to achieve the goals I have today buy it sure has been an awesome experience to get where I am at today. It was that long ago when I was 240 lbs and did nothing to exercise. I started out just trying to loose weight. So after awhile I wanted to do a running race (10k), I almost placed in my age group my first race and was so exited. I guess that's where it all started. I sure didn't know then that I would be where I am at today because of that day. But this path of exercising, racing, training has brought so much good stuff in my life and wouldn't change It for the world. I get off on telling people what I do and they just can't even imagine, and don't want to what kind of work it takes to be at the top level. I think sometimes they don't even believe me most of the time. I'm sure glad for all the friends I have mad through all this too. There have been allot of sacrifices I have mad allot of sacrifices since I decided to see how far I can go with the racing and training. My friends and family are the ones who have had to suffer the most witch is hard to do. I miss seeing my friends an family. It helps also that they support me 100% in this crazy journey I have chosen. without them it would be hard, but nice to know I have there support.
I am writing all this because yesterday I was ask if I could speak at my local chamber of commerce in April so it has sparked allot of different thoughts that I going to have to write down. I will be talking about how I got started in all this and what I have achieved so far. So I hope in the long run I will have changed one person life for the good.

Yesterday was a hard day, I hit lower body weights real good in the morning and a 50 minute run. Aster work I took the bike up to the pinnacle and just hammered myself with hill repeats at 10-18% grade. The route is only 25 miles from the house and back but has 3000 feet of climbing. So there's no easy way around it. So today I am paying the price, hobbling around like an old lady. These next to weeks are going to hurt! At least i hope:)

2007-02-27T09:15:00.000-08:00

I got the new bike all together and took a bunch of pictures, I will try to upload them sometime this week. What a sweet ride, has all the new new shimano parts, Race face bar, thompson seat post and stem. It weighs in at 24.5 with some big tires it came with, I will change those muddies soon. Probably loose a half pound there. But man its going to be a sweet ride for the 24 hour event. This bike will rip up any course weather it be short or long course. It handles great and responds great in the corners. Even climbs good.
Just got of a rest week and now back to serious stuff for the next to weeks. I will be racing these next 2 weekends at ford Ord. Well the race on the 10Th is at Toro Park near Salinas. They have point results up for the last 2 races. Here are the standing so far. I am in 5Th overall right know. I had 2 six place finishes so far. Not as good as I would like but My overall pictures is my 24 hour races. These help with working on high heart rate intervals. It will tie in with my endurance come race day.
I took some pictures of me swimming at the pool the last night, I think people will get a kick out of them. The pool has been hovering 60 degree's, it takes a full wetsuit and a top pull over with a hood and an extra hood and gloves just to make it through and hour swim. It makes me laugh every time I look at myself before going into the pool. The dedication to my sport is in no short supply!

There's only 1 point separating 1st and 2nd place. Miles Wadsworth has an impressive start with a third place overall so far, not far from second place. I am in 5th place 3 points behind Anthony Leal from Buy-Cell. These group is really tough with some fast guys. Like I said Miles is real fast this year and getting faster, you have Brock Dickie is is very strong. Plus Mike Holt is right on my tail with only 2 points down. I have allot of work to get ahead, and stay ahead of these animals

Keith DeFiebre
Brock Dickie
Myles Wadsworth
Anthony Leal
Brian Sevall
Mike Holk
Scott Zavack
Cesar Chavez
Mike Doyle
David Allen
Evan Adams
Ruben Villareal
Geoff Luttrell
Bryce Renshaw
Matt Jordan
Tim Cannard
Don Palermini
Ian Allen

2007-02-23T07:53:00.000-08:00

Its been two weeks since my last post. Things are going good, its frustrating this time because I feel I just don't have the power like I used to. I did the cccx races the last 2 weekend and placed 6 place both times, I figured I would off done better. So I have been questioning my tactics so far this year and kind of don't really know what to do. I wonder at some point have my workouts not have enough intensities in them. Who knows. Even my buddy Miles Wadsworth is kicking my ass all over ford ord races. I envy him at this point. I'm hoping at this point I would fair better when some of the races are over at Toro park with the hilly course. I'll keep doing what I've been doing because I feel I'm getting stronger and I still have allot of racing to go. It just sucks to loose. I do remember doing allot more group rides before but the last year and a half I have been training alone, so I might step up the amount of group riding to get some race intensities in.

Some good stuff on my sponsors. I receive my new Blur last night from ups. Anodized silver and the new xtr group. Took all I had not to put it together last night and go for a ride. I dreamed about it all night. Also going into 2007 I will have Recover-Ease, Carb-boom, and Granite Construction as to help me out this year. Thanks Everybody. I will try and post some pics of the new bike this weekend. Also really need a digital camera. Just a odd thought there. So I am hoping with the new bike will step me up a notch to at least hold on to Miles wheel com March 3rd, watch out buddy, I'm taking you down..lol

2007-02-12T08:55:00.000-08:00

First race of the year. I was somewhat sceptical because of the rain but it was nice. There where a few puddles and the bike did get dirty but hell its a mountain bike race. The Blur help up flawlessly as usual. So the race started off pretty hard as usual, everybody hammers to get up front before the single track. The race was 5 laps about 25 minutes each lap. On the first lap I lost the lead group of about 7 riders, I did catch 1 or 2 riders but not sure. I didn't even stay long even after the race to find out what I placed, it really didn't matter to me, we'll it did matter but I was just glad I finished the race and felt good about it. I did spend 90% of the race alone so it seem like for ever. I did miss calculate the time we were going to be out there, I thought a little over an hour but turned out to be a tad over 2. I took 1 Carb Boom and figured it would be enough. The last lap was tough to finish, felt really wasted. It was nice to see some friends I haven't seen since last year and get to catch up on what every body's been up too. Anyway the race for me was a big pain fest, I was on the verge of cramping the hole way it seemed like. It was the hardest I've done workout in the last 2.5 months, hurt like hell but felt good. If you like to race or train hard you would know want I mean. I have taken the last 2.5 just steady to easy and nothing over 145 bmp heart rate. Well I fell I'm ready to start up a nice build period to my main races in May 5Th at the Cool 24 hour race, and 24 race at Laguna Seco in June. There still are plenty more races in between witch gives me some great intensity along the way. I did this 2 years ago and worked out great, and as they say why change a good thing.

2007-02-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

Things are going good. This last weekend was amazing, first time in months I didn't have layers and layers of clothes to keep warm on the bike. I rode all day in shorts and a short sleeve shirt, working on the tan in February, only in California. It was in low 80's.

On Saturday I did 6 laps of the 24 hours of Adrenalin course at Laguna Seco race way. 10,000 feet of climbing, The laps were around 55 minutes just cruising, nothing hard. I was surprised I didn't see more people out there. On Sunday rode to Hunter Ligget toward HWY 1 where the wife met me and we went for a trail walk. I love it over there. Just keeping things consistant, I think that's the key in training and wanting to improve. I look at it as putting miles in the bank as how I have been looking at it lately. I'm making huge deposits in order to make huge withdrawal's come race day. It's a weird analogy but true. Looks like rain is coming this week so this will get interesting training wise. It's tough enough o get out there when it's cold, but wet and cold is another story.

I will have to think off new and improved motivations to get off my ass. Maybe I dangle a bag of cookies in front of me, think that will work? I do!

2007-02-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

The wife and I have been emailing each other recipies this morning and now I'm affiacially starving. At least thats what it feels like. I guess the 2 bananas and yogurt just are not getting it. And then I look into my lunch box and relized I only bropught and oranga and some pieces of watermelon, Ah its going to be a long day at work. So sometimes I wish I wasn't so hard on myself about Food, calories, nutrition. Although thats not really true, I'm glad I watch this stuff because I care about my health, weight and well being. Not saying it's not tuff but in the long run I know it will pay off huge. Organic, many fruits and vegtables all the way baby!

2007-02-01T09:28:00.001-08:00

I feel even better today and I am ready to hit it hard again. I did a 30 minute run followed by a 45 minute core and back workout and felt great. I'm really started to come together. I signed up for both 24 hours of Adrenalin races at Laguna Seca, Monterey , The first one is on June 9th and the world championship is on September 1st. I made it just in time for the cut off for the discounted price. I think you got 15 more days left for the World championship in September. Not much else to report. I will be still doing weights next week and will up the total amount and lower the reps. I will 4 sets of 15 on week then 4 sets of 20 the following week. Its been working great so far. I was told last night that the pool might be officially closed in 3 weeks. That sucks! The swim last night was a 2000 meter swim broken up as 5x200, 200 rt arm only, 200 lt arm only, 3x200. The water temp was a freezing 62 Deg. Froze my ass off. But I stayed warm enough to think I can start swimming 4000-5000 meters again since I got some more wetsuit cloths. I will be going long again this weekend and also promised the wife to take her on a hike in the back country somewhere so looking forward to some weekend time with the wife.. See its not all about training, it's about keeping everybody happy. Plus valentines day is coming and have to think off something cool to do foe her this year since I failed last year.

2007-01-31T09:57:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-01-30T08:53:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-01-23T08:05:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-01-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

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

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

2007-01-19T07:54:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-01-19T07:04:00.000-08:00

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....

2007-01-18T07:25:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-01-16T10:29:00.000-08:00

testing, testing, anybody there. I just switch the blog over to the google acount and wanted to se if it works..

2007-01-16T09:14:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-01-15T08:20:00.000-08:00

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.

2007-01-12T10:26:00.000-08:00

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.

What was I thinking!

2007-01-05T07:12:00.000-08:00

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.

Cold Sweats

2007-01-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-12-28T09:16:00.000-08:00

The last three years have been a major change for me in my diet and what I eat. I read this book on Trans fat that change my life and what I would eat. I feel better, dont get heart anymore, and even look heathier. It amazes me how stuff like this isd allowed to be put in our food. The stuff with kill you. My understanding is that it origanaly was made back during world war II to help food last longer without spoiling. And it amazes me that the FDA has let this tuff exist in our foods nowing how unhealthy it was, and this was known for aty least 30 years ago. Thanks FDA, ( freeking bone heads ). Just this year the hole city of Knew York city has ban Trans FAt, and there is a hole state that has banned this stuuf. Know Universal studios has banned it also, this is real cool. I remeber when I first started to cut this stuff out, I went throught the pantry to throw everything out that had it in it and was shocked at how much of the food had it in it. My cubbords were empty. I must of had $200.00 worth of crap food. Well its good to know that what I have been doing was write on, everybody thought I was crazy for telling everybody for years, I hope they listen know.

ON another note about food and my switch to an almost all Friut and vegtable diet has been real good. I do noticed its hard to get full sometimes and takes more volume of food to get enough calories but I have never felt better. I dont think I will ever switch to totally vegan, I like cheese and meet to much at this time. I dont go the bathroom as much as before so that mith about all the fruits and veggies makes you poop more is a bunch of crap, now that was funny. Its tuff but I know in the long run it is going to pay off huge in the end.

My base training has been going good so far, Im one month into and I dont want to hit the hard stuff intel Mib Febuary/beganing March once my spring races hit. Its real hard to go easy, real hard. I always have to keep myself in check and say to myself I have a long year, be patient, wich I not that good at. I sure do miss going to Santa Cruz to hammer with the boy's.

I have been getting up at 3:30 to do my workouts before work. I will do core, run or bike then go to the gym intel 6:00 but I seem to always be running out of time and cutting my workouts short. Starting next week I will try and get up at 3:00 am and see how its goes. Not sure how that will work seing Im already on the verge of lack of sleep but I dont know if it will intel I try. So I will start that next week for the 2 week of my three week block.

Base Run Test

2006-12-22T07:03:00.000-08:00

Last night was my first aerobic run test for 2007 season. I just finished a thre week block of base, very low intensity work outs. Nothing to hard, just cruzing, trying to keep my workouts about 3 steps below race heart rate.

I wil be doing all my test on a treadmill for runing and the trainer with my power tap pro. I think this will be the best way to keep everything the same. Theres no wind to deal with or the up and downs of the road. I will be able to track what kind of progress i will be making or not making.

So the run test was a warm up 15 minutes then keep my heart rate at an aerobic pace witch for me was 140 beets per minute for 20 minutes then see where Im at for milage.
Test results
Average heart rate: 139
Distanance: 2.5 miles
Time: 20 minutes.

I will repeat this every 3rd or 4th week on my rest, recover week.

I have noticed that most of my workouts last year were way to hard and I never got to recover from them. Just kept hammering myself in the ground. SO this year I am going to start of nice and slow and keep myself out of the demolition mode, at least intel march when my big races start to come up. Try and give this base training thing a try. Six time Ironman champion must know what he's doing. ALso if it can work for Lance it can work for me.

Im back!

2006-12-20T09:55:00.000-08:00

I decided to post something today. I need to get back to posting regulaly. I took off 1 month of all training after my last race in November. I've been trying to keep my life more simple these day's, without all the stress and having to write or train or log any off my workouts or what has been going on. I've been training now for a few weeks and feel real good and rested. I have some big stuff comming next year and looking forward to a great 2007.

I do have some good news in that I am now officially sponsors by smith optics sunglasses. Pretty cool!

Things have been cold but not like back East so I cant complain. Just suck it up and train.

Im the cookie Monster

2006-10-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

So last night after dinner I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. Oh! so good. I'm proud of my self for not drinking a whole bunch of milk with them. Trying not to drink so much milk lately, I feel better when I dont.

I rode for a couple hours with some tempo work. 3x 15-20 minutes. 45 miles

I need a digital cam!

2006-10-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

I look at all these other blogs and they post alot of pics of there daily stuff. Im going to put buying a camera on top of my wish list to get in the off season.

Went for a swim at the pool last night and felt real good. First time since the 24 hour race 10 days ago that I haven't felt WASTED after or during my workout. The swim was a continues 4000 meter swim broken down as 4x300 cruz, 100 fast, 3x300 cruz, 200 fast, 2x300 fast, 100 cruz, 100 cd. I felt really good and push the last half of the sets. I only stopped once for a few seconds to move for the swim team. Then went for a 45 minute run with a 15 minutes of tempo work at 6.5 -7 minute mile.

One day at a time

2006-10-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

Some more randome thought about my 24 hour race. It was 2 days before the race I eneded up with a head cold, somehow I manged 12 months without getting sick. So this sucked. I guess its being out of state so you have all kinds of new virisus to battle. Also during the race about hour 10 I got bit by a red fire ant. "Hurt like hell"!. I thought I got stung by a bee intel I took of my helmet. It hurt for about 2 hours but after that everything hurt so it was no big deal.

It's been a little over a week since the 24 hours race. Im still recovering well and feel real great. I can't thank enough my enduring wife who supports me 110 %. And Chuck for giving a helping hand also.

I've ran once since then and was still to sore to do anything longer than 30 minutes. My swimming has been very minimal due to my wrist still swolen and hurting. I've been on the bike three times. This Sunday I tried to ride about 6 hours but do to fatigue I had to be rescued by the wife. It's funny because when I called she said she had been waiting for the phone call, she knows me so well. On Saturday I felt real good and had a 6 hour training day with all three sports so I figuerd Sunday should be so hard. That was a dumb thought, but you never know intel you try. How else you going to know what your body can handle intel you get out there and try. I think thats a big key to an ebdurance althete. You have to push and keep pushing in order to adapt to the overloading of training. And I've alway's fely you have to push real hard in training or how else you going to push hard in racing. I know for me I do alot longer intense tempo riding and alot of speed work, Whether it be 800,1600 meters intervals and 20 minute tempo work. I cant do these to may works in row but fit as many as my body can handle then rest and repeat as often as neccasary. Well more on this later.

Well its time to start thinking about winter training and next years schedual. Im not going to travel out of state so much next year because of the cost. And not race so much next year but focuse on maybe going to Kona Ironman in Octber if I qualify in a couple weeks. Plus I will do a couple 24 hour race more locally, nd some short stuff in between. Well im done writing.