Monday

Not much to report over the weekend. Have been work'n alot latlely so my training has been slow. Had to work on Saturday so didnt do to much. 1 hour run before work and 2 hour on the road bike after work. I was pretty tired after being on my feet all day at work. So the ride was just spinning to keep the legs loose. On Sunday I went to fort ord and road around on the trails for three hours on the Blur. Then went home and took a long nap before watching the Tour De FRance time trail. I was disappionted Hincapie lost so much time, I was hoping he would do better. Gearning up for the Marathon MTB race on Thursday. I'll be taking it easy this week. Just doing half of what I would usually do. Then it will be a 2 week focuse for 24 hour Nationals, its going to be a tuff field. Alot of big dogs will be there. But I shall give them a run for there money and do my best. I will be be ripping up the field with both Santa Cruz Blurs. Thats all folks..

7-7-2006

Last night I did a 45 minute swim. 300, 200, 3x300, 4x50 hard, 2x300, all in meters. Then jumped on the raod bike and did a 2 3/4 hour ride. Some intervals and a little bit of hill work. I have been pretty toasted since my epic ride on tuesday, so Its been all about recovery and alot of food and chocolate cookie time, mmmmmmmm good stuff. I will have to work on Saturday so I will try in get a good ride in on Sunday then rest up for Thursday's race.



Well it's official. I will be doing Infeon MTB Marathon race at the Sonoma race way on Thursday July 13th. This will be my last race before 24 hour National race in Wisconsin on July 30th. This will be my last hard workout before my final tunning for nationals.

Decided to my own stage race

I always get pump up during the Toue De France. These guy's are just so umbelievebly fit. The amount of pain they will go through is just amazing. I will tape the stages in the morning and watch them when I get home in the evening.

So I decided on Tuesday to do my own mountain stage race to get in some good miles for my upcoming 24 hour MTB National race at the end of July. I started from the house in Soledad and headed to San Juan Batista on the back roads. It was pretty chilly al morning. Ended up wearing knee warmers and arm warmers intel 11 a.m.. I was going to go up too Freemonts peak and back, then back up again and again. Three times to the top and back. I was trying to do it for times but ran out of time. I didnt feel like getting home at dark. The climb is 9 miles long and the elevation gain is about 2500-3000 feet. It has a few steep parts about 17% grade but are not verry long. It took me 53-55 milutes to get to the top from where the concrete pavement ends at the bottom. The 3rd time up the hill hurt pretty bad. I even stopped part way up to catch my breath. I figure the milage was about 140-150 miles and 9.5 hours of riding. I felt really good on the way home. The best I ever remenber feeling after that much torture.

Priceless!

This is courtesy of Bantransfats.com and I will definitely be purchasing one!

We need to quit killing ourselves

I can remember 6 years ago, weighing 240 lbs and growing. The realization of my weight really didn't hit me intel I out grew my pant size and my next size was going to be a size 38. I said " enough is enough" and decided to loose some weight, a lot of weight. Toady I weight 165-170, that's 70 lbs of excess baggage I was carrying around. As I look back and just think of how I ate and what I ate just blows me away. All the fast food, restaurant food and un healthy store bought food. It is amazing how good I look compared to 6 years ago. I really was never taught how to eat, or the right foods to eat and when to eat them intel I really got into exercising and racing and a higher level. My first health book was Body for Life. This book changed my life. The way I ate and what I ate. My next book was on Trans Fat, or better known as partially hydronated oils. It is a small book and didn't take long to read but WOW! What and eye opener. Who would of thought the company's you trust and recognize as healthy foods to feed you and keep us healthy is really killing us. And to found out all because of money and greed. Its in almost everything you find in the grocer stores. Just look in your pantry and you will be amazed at how many products have it in it. Company are required to label it on labels know. But they don't have to if its under a certain amount. What's up with that? Like I said it all has to do with money and greed. My wife, Amanda, when we first met she always had stomach problems and would get sick all the time. But know since we changed a lot of what we eat and eat mostly organic foods and cook all our meals from scratch and not out of a box. She no longer gets sicks like that anymore. I tell you these big company's are killing us with all there toxic foods. Another book I've been reading is Natural Cures by Kevin Trudeau. Yes you have to take it with a grain off salt but I believe a lot of it is true and he has some good products that are all natural. Its amazing how good I feel and Im never sick. I wouldn't eat any other way today knowing what I know about the food industries and the bad ingredients they use in there products. And to think that there labels say how healthy they are on them is a big lie. I will use cereal as and example: You look at most top name brands like General Mills, Post , and look at there ingredient list. You will see partially hydronated oil in there, just blows me away. Here they are suppose to be healthy and good for you. People have been feeding it to there children for years, and eating it them selves. Again here we rely on company's to provide us will good stuff and not be so un truthful. It makes me so made that even the FDA allows allows all lof this, The agency that's suppose to be protect us. The company we pay to have protect us. Again its all about money and greed. Anyway that's my rant on that for today. As you can see I feel very strongly about my food, because who else is going to care, NOBODY. Take care.

Another day in "Brian's House of Pain"

Saturday 6-24-2006

Thats right! The road bike ride was 158 miles with an estimated 12-14,000 feet of climbing. I started in Santa Cruz and went to La Honda, Pascadero, back up Alpine to Skyline and back to Santa Cruz on HWY 236. 9 hours and 15 minutes in the saddle and a total time of 10 hours and 15 minutes. Only 1 hour of stopping, which I don't think is too bad, you've got to eat sometime and it would be hard to carry that much food with you. My good friend, Miles Wadsworth, for some odd reason, decided to go with me. I bet he was wondering why the whole way! Funny thing is I wanted this weekend to be easy and not too much training, but when talking to Miles on Friday on the phone I joked with him that if he wanted to do a long ride with me, I would, and he said yes, so I wasnt going to pass this up. I bet he won't say yes for a while. It's always good to have strong riders ride with me like Miles so we can push each other harder than you normally would on a ride by yourself. There seemed to be a lot more riders out than normal - I guess the really nice weather has a lot to do with it. The temperatures reached well into the 100's in some parts of the ride and the some sections were in the low 80's by the ocean with some good humidity. The were three hard parts during this ride that I had to work through. It was the section heading on the way back. This climb is 2 hours long, with a small descent before climbing the rest of the way. It start almost right at Hwy 1 and you go up towards Skyline Drive. I'm not sure what the first part is but at one piont you turn on Alpine Road. This is where the temps hit well into the 100's. Last time Miles and I went up this road we ran out of water and suffered for hours. But this time we bought 4 16.9 oz of water to carry with us plus our bottles on the bike and this worked out good. I started to cramp real bad towards to the top, but I was expecting this anyway, so no big deal, just work through it. The next bad spot was coming back into the big redwoods on Hwy 236, about 9 miles before you get the camp ground an little sore. I really fely my suger level hit rock bottom, my vision gets blurry and just hurt really bad. And the final pain fest was at he end trying to hold a steady and consistent pace. Miles and I were having a tough time at this point and just wanting to get back and off the bike. So not a bad day. I feel I will be ready for the 24 hours MTB NAtionals in Wisconsin . The only competition I have seen so far would be Jeff Kerkove, he seems like an animal. He has been having a good season so far. Not sure who else will be there.

Sunday 6-25-2006

It has been an easy day. 50 minute run and a 4000 meter swim. The sets were 4 x 1000 ( 1000 swim, 1000 paddle, 1000 swim, 1000 paddles) each set faster than the other. And now the rest of the afternoon laying around getting some rest. I will be taking my Recover-Ease to help with my recovery, man this stuff is good. I will post some thoughts on my New Pasta sponsor Fiber Wise Pasta when I get to order my first shipment. Happy training....

Tuff week

It has been a tuff week. I feel at this point my body wants to peak and get a little rest. All I have to do is keep this up 5 more weeks intel 24 hour National Championship at the end of July. I can do it but its going to be tuff. Plus I have to be careful and not to burn out at this piont. I havent been exercising much and trying to recover for the next and final push into the ultimate fitness to kiss some ars. Yesterday I took the hole day off and today will be light with an hour swim and 45 minutes running. The days here are sure getting hot. The last few days have been close or right at 100 deg. So looks like I will be getting some good heat training in. I have a triathlon I will be doing on July 9th. Its an Olympic size triathlon. I get a free entry because Granite Construction co., the company I work for, supplies them with signs and cones.

Some new news is that I have picked up another products sponser, mmmmmmm pasta, I eat pasta about four times a week so its going to be very nice of FiberWise to help me out.

Weekend of 6-12

SO after a nice week of resting up I wanted to upon it up with back to back big cycling day's. I was hoping it was hotter but it wasnt. I head to Santa Cruz on Saturday to get in alot of longer climbing. I start from Santa Cruz and head north on HWY 1. Then go Rt on Boony Doon road all the way to Empire Grade. Lt on Empire GRade and then Rt on JAmisin Creak, Lt on HWY 236, lt on hwy 9, Lt on SKy line, Rt on 84 in La Honda. Not sure about the road but I made a right at the bottom of 84 to hit page mill back up to sky line.lt on sky line, rt on hwy9, rt on hwy 236, rt on Jamison, lt on Empire GRade, rt on bonny doon, lt on hwt 1. In all 140 miles with 12000 feet of clibing. Nothing exiting to report. There was alot of fog at LA Handa so I had to change my route some. Didnt have to stop much and took alot of food with me. Im really liking the burito thing know. I will make potatoe and a litler bit of egg whites in a butito to eat on the way and all I have to do is stop fpr water and maybe some food but not much.

Sunday I decided to back it up again and go for it. So I went to king City to park And head to Coalinga and see if I cant find some heat. The route is Bitterwater rd, Lt on hwy 25, rt on Coalinga rd witch turn into Los Gatos Rd,rt on derrick, 1 lt, rt on HWy 198 into Coalinga to re fuel. Sam route on the return. It was foggy fro the first hour and then cleared up nicely. There is fire station 25 mile after leaving KIng City where I fill up on water for the last stop to Coalinga. I like this route because very little to no traffic. The road are a bit rough. Some little 5-10 minute climb but nothing to bad. ONce I got 30 mile from Coalinga I have found what I've been looking for, 90 deg +, oh ya. By the time I started to head back it got in the upper 90. Not as hot as I would of liked but beggers cant be choosers. Overall a good ride. It was real hard to get my heart up except on the hills but still didn't get that high. I was real tired towards the end of the ride and could barley muster up 130 bpm on the heart rate moniter. Glad I didn't take my power meter, man those would off been some low numbers. But the overall picture was just to make it. It took a little over 8.5 hours with a 30 minute stop in coalinga for lunch and refule and a 20 minutes stop at the firestation on the way back to bullshit with on of the firefighter boys. My confindence and morale are real high when I do stuff like this. So I will be taking alot of recover ease the next few days to help me recover and get back to traing hard and heavy.

Weekend of 6-3-2006

So its was a tuff week last week. I was really tired and decided to take it easy.. Hell who am I kidding, it was a forced rest week. I was blown out. Its funny because I really never had a planned rest week that I could remeber. Its always go hard and go long intel my body say's "please no more Brian"..lol. Although I have a funny story of last weekend before I go into detail of this weekend. So me and Amanda went up north for the weekend to her sisters graduation dinner. We usually stay at my Mom & Dads, wich they live in Madison. SO on Saturday I was going to do A road ride that I have done before but never finished, not because I couldn't but because I ran out of time. The ride took about 10 hours and is about 140 miles.. Its a long day. This route is pretty and very out in the middle ofno where. The route: I leave Madison and head south towards winters. In Winters I take a right on HWY 128. You will past right by Lake berryessa on your rt. Cant rember what road it is but you will make a rt and head towards lake berryessa. You follow that for a while and instead of going to the lake you will go straight like your going towards Napa. And then at this little lake you turn rt on POe Valley RD. This road is so gorgous and theres pratically no traffic. The first part you climb is unbelivably senic. Its in a narrow canyon with a creek right next to it. Once you get to the top it faltnes out for a long time. After going thru Pope Vally I startd this little climb and herd a horn beeping constinly. My first thought was a car being broken into but then realized in was someone trap in a car down a short cliff. I got off my bike and headed toward the car and there was a girl in it in the back seat. She was honking the horn with her foot. I couldn't smell any gas so that was a good thing and she was not bleeding. She could talk and was very consciuos but shook'n up pretty good. After seing everything was ok I went to the rod to get help. I stopped this nice man who had to drive back down the hill to find a house to call help since our cell phones didn'y work. So talk to women some more to keep her calm and make sure she didn't go into shock. Well help arrived so I took off. Im not sure how she was but I hope her well. Then I was of again. The weather was smoking hot so this was good. I need to get some hot days in for the 24 Nathional MTB race in Wisoncin in the end of July. After you get past Pope VAlley it rolls along and you go thru a pretty big city intel you run intio HWY 20. MAke a right and just keep going, and going, and going. I bet the temp hit a 100 deg easy. After a while you come to HWY 16, go rt and its 40 more miles and Im home. I had somwher to be so I had my dad drive me 5 miles from Davis to run the rest of the way. Man it was smoking hot. It was only a few minutes after running that I already was cramping. BUt I had no choice to finish since my Dad was already heading home. Good Day.

ON Sunday we drove home and I felt prettty good so I figure some more good torture. I jumped oN the bike with my running gear and headed to the pinnacles for sone trail running. The bike ride is only 25 miles but has 3200 feet of climbing. Once I got to the pinnacles it was 2.5 hours in the inferno. 100+ deg. OOps I forgot about the 1.25 hours swim before heading out.

No Gas

SO I head out for my Thursday bike ride. I will usually do intervals and hill work. The intervals will last 20-40 minutes. But not today. I got half way thru the first set and my legs are toast. So decided to skip the intervals and just ride. I ended up with 3 hours and 56 miles. Its really hard not to ride hard in this area because of the north wind that blows 30+ mph everyday in the afternoons. So the last section was real tuff. I decided to call it a day after that.

On this ride since I had some time to think about what deos it take to to be an elite athlete. I know for me its real hard with a full time job working 40-45 hours a week. The amount of work and hours one has to put in are pretty scary to think about. The interval work, the hill work, long staedy stat work, and all this not just on the bike but running and swimming too. For me I know I have to keep going day after day and woprkout after workout. I know if I dont get 4-6 workouts in each discipline each week I will start to loose that fitness. Yes there are weeks, like this one where I dont get the folume Im looking for. But I keep the same amout of workouts. I always do this kind thinking on my slow weeks. I rember when I started working out and the gains were huge. I was was gaing minutes from year to year. BUt know to even gain a few seconds is real hard because the amount of work invilved to increase those few seconds hurts like hell. BUt Iknow for me i will have to keep going and try to push the body to the next level, what ever that will be only time will tell.

On another thought Im always get told how crazy or insane I am. I dont think Im that crazy just that I work real hard at what I want in life. I look at it like Im only going to get one chance at this and you have to go for it when you can. And Im going for it, giving it 110%. But one thing I will have to say for the people that say Im insane or Im going to kill my self. I just have to laugh because if you look at what people eat or there health stile really who killing them selves. They smoke, drink, and eat all the wrong stuff and dont exercise. So to all those people who think Im insane you might want to look at your own life and see who's really killing themselves. Just some random thoughts. See ya!

1st win of the year

I wanted to do a race to get my nutrition down - so I competed in the 12 Hours of Weaverville this weekend. After the 24 HOA at Laguna Seca I was worried. I worked out all the way thru this week to see what I could do. I took both my Santa Cruz Blurs to get me to the finish line. Also I was feeling really good from all the recover ease product that I have been taking. I drove up to Weaverville California on Friday and we got there about 8:30 at night. We found the hotel we were staying at and then went to go get race packet before going to bed. On the way to get the race packet got got pulled over for speeding in town. The Highway Patrol man was real nice and let me go. I actually think my heart hit about 130 BPM! Boy I got so lucky not to get that ticket. I got my race packet and was off to bed to get some sleep. We got up at 5 am to get get ready and head to the transition area. It was pretty chilly in the morning. After setting up I took a quick ride to warm up and check out some of the course. The race started at 8 am and ended at 8 pm. So I knew I would have a long day. And off we went on the first lap. It always amazes me how fast people go on the start of these long endurance races. I just tried to keep my pace and not blow myself up. The big climb to the top seemed real long and compared to Laguna Seca I thought it was tough. After the first lap I was in 5th or 6th place, but I knew it was going to be a long day and there was no need to worry yet. After the 4th lap I was in first and held that position all the way to the end. Some thing I noticed here was I really didn't start to feal good until the 8-9th hour. Not sure why. I ate about 400-600 calories an hour all day. Oh yeah and I ended up beating all the teams also except for a two-man team who had the same amount of laps but was only 5 or 10 minutes faster than me.

I wonder if it will ever warm up?

I hit a low spot in my training after this weekend. After my ride in the rain on Sunday things went down hill some. For what reason, I'm not sure. I ran Monday morning for 1 hour but felt really wiped out. I did do 9 hours on Saturday but I didn't think it was that tough. On Monday after work, when I got home I pretty much devoured the fridge and pantry. Then went to bed really early. I also took Tuesday morning off from training and just slept. But that afternoon I was having trouble getting going after work to go train. But I knew I had to get out there and do something. So I planned on a 3 hour ride and do some running speed work. Once I started biking I was fine after my warm up and felt good. I did tempo work 20 minutes on a few minutes rest all the way to Arroyo Seco lakes. I stayed seated on the small hills and high cadence. On the way back same tempo work but stood up on the hills and did hard peddling with high cadence. Total of 3 hours and 56 miles. Jump off the bike and hammered out 4x1600 meter repeats. I was smoked. 6 miles total running about 45 minutes. I like this workout alot. Cleans out the system.

Wednesday was easy with a 5000 meter swim. Broke down as 600, 4x150. Main set was 12 x300 steady/smooth, every 3rd set w/ paddles. 200 cd. 1.5 hours. I was wanted run but was pretty tired so I change the cables on the MTB bike for a race this weekend. The race is put on by www.teambigfoot.net. It's the 12 Hours of Weaverville. This was a last minute race to do. I'm really looking forward to it and I feel really ready.

This morning was 1.5 hours of running steady to easy and 45 minutes core and upper body. I started to do weights again and one thing I noticed is how strong I was 3 months ago when I stopped. So I want to start again just not as much as I was doing. Maybe 2 times a week or what ever I can fit in.

Snakes, snakes and more snakes

Well I'm still feeling pretty good since 24 HOA last weekend. I felt the soreness on my MTB ride last night, climbing up Gloria grade. It was a 3.5 hour ride with about 4,000 feet of climbing. I've noticed a lot of snakes this year so far. I seen three garden snakes, 1 gopher snake and killed 1 rattle snake on my ride. I have bounced back really fast and had little fatigue in me from 24 HOA. So at this point I feel very confident in doing Ironman Florida in November four weeks after 24 hours of Adrenalin World Championships in Gorgia in October. I will still do 112 miles on the bike and a 20 mile run in two weeks just to make sure but I think it will be cool. I wasn't able to get up this morning to train, but I will swim and run tonight.

24 Hour report

Well after a couple of days to think about the race and what happened, I think I felt really good going into the race. I was rested, did all the necessary training to do good. We arrived at the race on Saturday morning to finish setting up our spot and get everything in order. All week my wife and I have been talking strategy and what we were going to do. And we continued to talk about it right up until the race started. The race meeting was at 8:45 and the race started at 10:00. The first part is about .25 mile run to our bike and then ride as long as you can for 24 hours. This was my second 24 hour MTB event and the first one I won at, so I had very high expectations. I tried to finish the run comfortable and steady. Got on the bike and just tried to keep real. The first few laps I felt really good and was just flying. After that for some reason I would stop at the pit area for 10-15 minutes just wandering around, so I made too long of my pit stops. Well the night came and the lights went on the bike. I forgot to mention that I ended up getting a mechanic to help me from Bob Cats Bicycles in Salinas. His name is Chuck, really cool guy and knows his stuff. I used both Santa Cruz Blur bikes for this race. Having a mechanic there was the way to go. I changed the bike out almost every third lap. So on the night I went. After a while I started to feel pretty bad. Unlike last year where I would force myself to eat. All else felt pretty normal and what you would expect from a 24 hour event. My pit stops were still too long and getting longer. I would get really cold and it was hard to warm up and get going. So from now on I will not even get of my bike unless I need to change or something. Everything seem to work like clock work though. I always had food and water for me, but just didn't take any. The funny thing is that when I was out there on the course that's all I could think about, getting back to transition area to eat something but when I got there I didn't want to eat anything. My wife was just unbelievable, always had what I needed and wanted. She was so supportive ( as always ) and helped me when ever I needed it. My wife is the one of the reasons I can and am doing what I do. My mechanic was so good. Always had a clean bike and shifted like a dream. It was all working out great until I hit my 17th laps and all hell fell about, well I mean I fell apart. I got so behind on my calorie intake and my body started to shut down. This was at 4 am in the morning. I think I had about the same amount of calories in 17 hours as I would of on my 8 hour rides. You just cant to that and hope to have a good result. So toward the end of the lap my knees started to hurt so bad and my stomach pretty much shut down with everything else. When I got back to the transition area I laid on the ground in pain for 90 minutes. I couldn't take it anymore. So 17 laps and 6th place. I was so devastated, and depressed at my performance. I really felt bad because it felt like I let my wife and crew down, who put so much effort out there for me. All because I wouldn't listen and eat when they told me I should. I'm so very sorry. I had put a lot of pressure on myself this race because I wanted to do good for my sponsors and family and friends who put up with me so much throughout the year and I just felt like I let them down. I know I didn't but it felt like it. After I was able to get my butt off the ground, we packed up and headed home.

Some random thoughts about the race. I know for next year I will not get off the bike unless I have to switch bikes or change clothes. I will also have my crew stuff my jersey pockets full with food to eat on the course. So will see what happens. I'm sure there's more but I can't give away all my secrets!

I started trains on Tuesday evening with a 3 hours ride and felt really good. I think it's the recover-ease that helps me so much. I just cant believe I feel this good and I am not totally wiped out. Thanks Recover-Ease!

Weekend wrap up

Only 5 days left until 24 HOA. This was one of the easiest training weekends in a long time. But rest is what is needed to gain all the training that I have been doing. It's still real hard not to go out and train hard because it's what I've been doing all year. Saturday I had to work so no training. I did get some stuff out of the attic for the 24 HOA. Sunday was 5000 yds in the pool and 3.5 hours on the mountain bike. I did three loops of the old National 24 hour loop. It was real hot and I got severly sunburned on my shoulders. I wore my triathlon skin suit with no sleeves to see how it would work. Wearing the camel back and the skin suit was different. It did rub on my shoulders some but after a few hours couldn't even tell it was there. Then off to pick up the new Blur. I didn't get a chance to ride it but I will today.

I've been feeling really strong the last few days and I am very tempted to go out and test myself but I will have to wait until race day. I don't want to do anyhthing stupid a few days out from my A race. I did manage to do 30 minutes of stretching and a 45 minute jog. I have been taking my recover-ease every day and it is working really well. I always feel so strong the next day after hard workouts. Also it says to take 4 a day two weeks leading up to the race. Well back to work.

Friday!

Well yesterday was an easy training day. I swam 3000 meters in 1 hour. I just can't seem to get my swim down anymore. I remember last year I was doing a lot of 4500-6000 meters each swim. I have been trying different things but can't seem to get it right. My first thought is maybe I didn't take enough of a break after my first Ironman in September. Went straight into base. Anyway today is a run and a swim after work. I've been taking my recovery ease every day and have been feeling really good. Only one more week until 24 HOA SOLO!!! Oh yeah, I can taste it already.

My new Hayes disc brakes were at the front door last night. So of to Bobcats bicycle shop they went today. I just take them to Bobcats and the new addition to the family is ready. It's a Santa Cruz Blur, just like my other MTB soft tail. It has XT components. Easton handle bar and seat post, and the seat I won from the Downiesville Classic. I can't wait to test ride it this weekend.

Man it's going to be tough on me and my wife espcially because of this week being my easiest week of training this year so far.

Also, I will be getting a digital camera this weekend hopefully. That's going to be cool! And alot of stuff is still left to do for 24 HOA.

Pre riding 24 Hours of Adrenalin course

The race course start is at Laguna Seca and goes into the Ford Ord area. Its a 10 miles or so long with about 2,000 feet of climbing. So I decided to pre-ride the course to familiarize myself with all the turns and dips, grooves and do some night riding. Even though my wife advised against me riding in the dark with it being a work night and all. So I hit the trail at 5:30 and wanted to do 4 laps. I took the first lap real slow being its been awhile since I rode out at Ford Ord. The trail is in real good condition with a few bad spots you have to be careful on. I noticed there were some big grooves on the trail from the sea otter. Not many but some. A few times my tire got caught in them and almost crashed. I kept having to tell myself not to get hurt this close to the race. There are some sandy spots also but that's pretty normal for there. And my favorite part is the grind back to the race track area, oh ya I love to climb. I noticed this year Im a lot stronger than last year. I remember going up the grind in the big ring and three over from the left on the rear. Don't ask me what gear ratio that is because I have no idea. This year was the fourth gear from the left. Plus I had a head wind. The next 2 loops I did the national chapionship old course, which they're not doing this year. The third lap I put on the lights, it was 7:30. Turned on the light and headed out again. Although it was still light but just wanted to test the battery for a couple hours. By the finish of the third lap it was pretty dark. The last lap was the same as the first. The last three laps I rode real hard and attacked on the hill. Oh ya I was even able to stay in the big ring going up hurl hill. That was a first also. But I don't think I should attempt that for 25 laps on race day. I'm crazy but not stupid. Well, most the time. Now I will be trying to rest and recover for the next ten days. I will keep swimming, biking, and running but no 8+ hour days. Mainly just focus on good quality stuff with not a lot of recovery time. I feel I'm very ready I will have a good shot at being on the podium, depending on who shows up.

Training in different areas

It's always nice to go somewhere different and train. We went to see my Mom & Dad in Madison over the weekend. So it was a good time to see some sites. On Saturday I dedcided to do a loop. Go towards Lake Berryessa and Clear Lake and back to Madison. I looked on the map and was thinking a good 5 hour and about 100 miles. WOW! was I wrong. I had somewhere to be afterwords so towards the end of the ride I had to call in for a ride or I never would have made it. Thanks DAD! I ended up riding 8 hours in the saddle. I would have to say close to 130 miles. This was a nice ride. Most of the time you were right next to a creek or river that had running water in it. So I was really never worried about running out of water. I got low on water at one time climbing this grade but at the top of the hill they will have these pipes sticking out if the mountain with water comming out of them, pretty cool. I would have to say this is was the hottest ride of the year so far. The only bad thing is my knee was hutring on Sunday so I couldn't run at all. And being out of town always sucks because I couldn't get to much training in like I wanted to.

Only two weeks until 24 HOA. :)

Rest day #3

Yep, on my third forced rest day. These days are always tuff for me. I always want to keep training hard. But I can only keep it up so long. 2-3 weeks hard then I need some rest. I guess its real good for me because my body absorbs all the hard traing from the prior weeks and gives me strength to continue the next phase. But they still suck. Its real hard for me to do nothing or just a little. I can only imagine what my wife sees, like what it's like to see my ups and down. And how I go through my phases. Its kind of funny because she seems to always know before I do, but really I know but choose to ignore my pain and try and push through it all. I can say it is real tuff to spent a lot of time away from my wife and kids( I mean pets:) ). One thing I miss the most, heck I cant even remember the last time I slept in on a weekend and did something besides train. But if I want to get where I want to go; on top of the podium, I have to train and train hard and train a lot. A lot of people just don't understand why I do what I do. I try and tell people all the time what I'm trying to do and they think I'm killing myself or think I have lost it. I might have but I'm having a lot of fun training and see how far I can push myself. I'm just so glad I have my family and friends who back me all the way and support me in all my crazy stuff, might not really understand why I do it but still love me and support me.

Wow after writing all this stuff I just realized all this thinking going on is a sign I need to get out there and train, I must be feeling better.

Amazing what a little and a lot of rest will do!

So after my epic week I was forced to take a couple days easy. Monday was 45 min swimming then eat, eat, and eat more, then sleep. I did manage to get up on Tuesday mornng and do 1/2 hour of core and run for 30 minutes. After work when I got home I devoured the kitchen and slept from 4-6. Got up and ate some more and went to bed at 7. Then got up at 9 and ate some more. So I got a total of 4500 calories and 12 hours of sleep last night. SWEET! I'm glad I did rest because last time I tried to push through I got burnt out hard and took me awhile to get back into the groove.

This morning I got a 1 hour run in and will swim and bike tonight.

My second back up bike for 24 hours is almost ready. Just waiting to get my new Hayes disc brake in and it will be fininshed. Then both Blurs will be ready to rip up some dirt.