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!