I got to brag yesterday

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.

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*

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

Race Pics

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...

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!

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