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....

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!

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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:)

No need to say anything else!

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

Thanks Sock Guy!

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:)

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

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!

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.

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

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:)

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

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

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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..

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


This is from Santa Cruz Bikes !



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

Oh this is going to be a great year. Thanks Santa Cruz Bikes!

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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!

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

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.

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

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!

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

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!

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

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.

Resting and feling good.

Its always a good feeeling to win or come close to winning. So i've been flying high this past week. Couple more day's and it will be back to work. I still have one more big race to go, "The Ironman", even hurts to think about it. That marathon is a killer. My right arm is still a little tender from the 24 hour race but is getting better real fast. My legs feel great and are recovering fast. Before the race my wife say'd if I win last weekend she would buy me a new par of vans. She reminded me of that today, which I forgot so thank you sweety. So this weekend I get a new par of shoes, yuppie!
I plan on riding about three hours on Saturday to see how well my legs will feel and then make a discision on what to do for next week. If my legs are recovering I will to good training week with alot of swiming and very little running. I dont want to thrash myself for the Ironman, I'll wait intel race day. See y'all later

24 Hour Worlds Report

The race took place in Conyers, Georgia on October 7th. We arrived one week early to see what Atlanta had to offer, which we were not disappointed at all. There was a lot of cool things to see and do.

My training for this 24 hour race has very good and had been doing a lot of work and now it was time to show and tell. I was so fired up the week leading to the race and was well rested and firing on all cylinders. I even lost some weight the last few weeks leading up to race day. I pre rode the course on Friday and was figuring around 50 minutes lap average.

We arrived Saturday morning early to set up and get things in order. We talked about strategy and what the plan was going to be, and get nutrition down and guess what my needs would be. I tried to take a nap but just was to excited to get going. It was time to put the bike in the racks and get ready for the Lemans start. And we were off. I tried not to go to hard and just keep it under control but when feeling this rested it's hard. So onto the the bike and hammer away. The first 6 laps were around 45 minutes per lap and I was holding steady and still felt good. I was eating a lot and drinking a lot of fluids. It started to get real tough after the 11 hour mark and my lap times were falling. My wrists were starting to swell up and it was getting very difficult to hammer through the rough section of the single track. The course was really cool and had a lot of small climbing. Always seemed like you were either climbing or descending. At one point I was having to wrap ice around my arm to get the swelling down. I was still feeling ok and was surprised how good I did feel at 5 am. I am always so glad to see the sun come up knowing I have only a few hours to go. I tried to go as hard as I could but still could only manage 1:10 minute laps by this time. I just couldn't get up to speed without my arms feeling like they were going to fall of. I really never worried about my competition and just kept going as fast as I could for as long as I could. Well I ended with 24 laps total which was enough to take 1st place in my age group 30-34. I'm really happy with the win and will be confident going into my Ironman in Florida in three weeks. I would like to thank my wife, she is so amazing and supportive, Chuck who worked on the bikes and did an awesome job, Granite Construction, Carb Boom, Keith Day Trucking, Recover Ease, Bill & Bonnie Cruickshank, Hayes Disc Brakes, Fiber Wise Pasta, and my whole family for all your support and love.

Before the race...

During the race...


The big finish!

Podium

The aftermath...

I did it!!

I won my age group (30-34) in the World 24 hour Solo Champianship with 24 laps. That is 200 miles of up and down. Not sure on the total elevation for each laps but there wasn't much that was flat. I will write a full race report in the next few day's after some well needed rest.

Reved, and ready to go

The rest period has statrted this week to get ready for the Big Day. Im all pump up and ready to rock it. I will be riding my Santa Cruz Blur, two of them. I picked up one of them last night at the bike shop and packed it in its case to go with me on the plane on Saturday. Everything is ready, lights, carbo drink and garb boom gel, Endurance drink, and me. I have been taking recover ease just like the instruction say and I feel real good. I went for a short swim last night and was ripping the water up. I was did 6x200 meters in the pool @ 3:05 for the 200 meters and felt great and not even tired afterwords, thats a good sign and a good feeling for me. I have been looking forward to this rest for months before the big day. I will check later on the my stuff I have shipped with UPS on TUesday to see where it is at. I will to some short light stuff in the folowing days but nothing big, maybe some 20 minute intervals on the bike and some short running intervals about 2-3 minutes but thats all, I want to be fresh and ready to last for 24 hours. I would like to thank Granite Construction big time. They are my biggest supporter and sponser for this year, I sure wouldn't be doing or going to all these races with out there help this year. They step up big time for me...Thanks Guys! 9 more days to go:)!.

Almost there!

11 days to go intel 24 world . Im going to start my tapper a few days before normal so I can be ready to rock & roll come race day. I will keep my intensity high but my volume low. I have been trying to loose those last couple of pounds and its very tuff. I find it easier than when my training is in full speed. BUt its only been 2 days know. I figure if I can keep my calorie intake to 1500-2000 calories a day For the next 7 days I will be in great shape, well I;ll be in great shape earther way but a few lost pounds wont hurt. I have no problem during the day but the nights are tuff. I just sent almost all my stuff yesterday to my Aunt and Uncles house, so it will be in Georgia before I will, or at least I hope. We leave San JOse on Saturday and return on October 9th, so thats leaves us a few days to check out Atlanta and surrounding areas.

15 day's intel the big day

That's right! 24 hours MTB Solo Chapianship in Atlanta Georgia on October 7th. This will be due or die for me. I haven't had the steller year for me and looking to come out on top these next 2 races. I wont be lying here to say I just want to do good, Nope! I want to WIN my age group and kick some butt. I've done all the training and worked my tail off, plus my wife said she will also kick my ass if I don't win. She said you spend way to much time away from me on your dumb bike for second place ans also she threatend to not give me sex for a month, if that ain't motivatiion I dont know what is:).

This week was going to be a b ig week for me but thats not going to happen. Alot of hours at work. Plus on Tuesday I planned a 3.5 hout MTB ride with lots of leg hurtin. But an hour into my ride I get a flat tire, no big deal right. I have had flats before. So I open my seat pouch to get out my tubes, tire lever and " oh no", I forgot to put in the co2 triger. So operation " rescue dumbass"( thats me) was in affect. Called Amanda to come get me ( thanks sweety). But traing has been great and I feel like real strong. I have been hitting hard. Lat night was a 3 hour hammer fest. 20 minutes at 280-320 watts, rest some, then 30 cruise at 250-280 watts and push hard on the uphills 330-420 watts. Then the nice cruise home. Ave power for the ride was 275 watts and burnned 2300 calories. Thats all

Big Kahuana Race Report

I chose this race for a final tune up for 24 hour MTB World Champianship on October 7th in Georgia. I figured the 4 1/2 hour hammerfest with be pretty much whats its like on the start of these 24 hour races. The object is to go real hard and try to stay with the lead pack and then cruise all night long.

The weather was real nice and cool. There were high clouds and fog but not to bad. The water temp was 59 deg, so a bit chilly but once you got in it for a few minutes it wasn't so bad. Swim went pretty good, came out of the water in 3 rd or 4th place in my wave. Exiting the water it was a good 1/4 mile to transition. Now im on the bike and hammering away to catch who ever i can. My plan was to be steady and get to the turn around not to hammered. I caught everybody in my wave and most everybody in the wave ahead of me witch was 7 minutes in between at the swim start. I consumed 1 bottle of carb boom that was 350 caloies, 1 carb boom gu, and 1 bannana. On the turn around my paln was to hammer hard and on the up hills keep the momentum and hammer even harder. It was working well and pain was comming along with it but I knew I need to keep going at this pace to do well. About mile 30 there was a big crack in the road and I happen to catch the last bit of it and ripped my side wall tire and popped my tub. By the time I changed it those 4 guys passed me again in my age group and alot of other people that I passed also. I thought no big deal still have a few miles. Took about 5 minutes and now back to work. Well 5 miles later my rear tire started to hiss again and there I was with the tire off and changing another flat as everybody I passed again goes by me "again". Im not to fustrated just stuff happens and up intel now I have been pretty fortunate not for these tings to happen, so as long as they don't keep happening. I figure it hasn't been a great year anyway. So back on the bike and I made it the rest of the way with anymore hickups. So get into my running shoes and go like hell. I was pretty flat at this piont but stll a long way to go. I just ran hard and tried to run as fast as I could without cramping to bad. They came a few times so I had to slow down a tad to keep them away. After the half way piont it was time to turn up the gas as go like hell. So I did. I caught a few peopl but nobody in my age group. I figure I lost 10 minutes with the flats. My overall time was 4:40. So not all that great considering 2 years ago was 4:20. Hasn't been my best year for results as I struggle with why this is happing I will contnue to train and never give up.