Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Recharge the Battery

It feels really good to take a little break from racing and training during the season. With the stress of college finals and all the reports due it was a good call to put aside the bike for two weeks. Riding with Jay at his place was fun and hurt just a bit on the weekends, but gave enough joy to fill in for the week.

This Friday I start training for the Triple Bypass which is coming up really fast. Slated for July 14th in beautiful Colorado with the Roffster, training for long climbs and time in the saddle will be very important in the next two months. Call me up if you want to do a long ride. Also the Deer Valley National in Utah is around the corner on June 15-17 weekend. Getting some altitude riding in will certainly help with that event. Still contemplating if I should race Ellings Park on June 2nd to get my ass in some sort of race shape for Nationals. Like Bert the Hurt says "gotta race to get into race shape".

Cross-training I've heard is really important when doing the same thing over and over again like biking. Our basketball team, Los Guerrilleros, are in first place still undefeated in the league. Averaging 13.7 ppg and 7.6 apg. My frisbee golf score has steadily gotten better. Marco and Gardo still kick my ass on the opening drives tho. These refreshing and using-different-muscles-that-i-didnt-know-i-had are awesome! Especially the next day.

Dance the Good Time dance peoples....

Jimbo rocks !

Beers do too.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

National #2

I'm alive ! well... barely. Firestone Walker Santa Ynez Chamber of Commerce of Los Olivos Double Barrell Ale of Trek was this past weekend. Not happy with my result but pretty content on my performance, finished it ! I still cannot believe the difference from Sport category to Expert category is , just one mistake or foul up and the whole pack is gone never to be seen again. Now I understand what Vegas Bob has been going through the last couple of years moving from sport to expert.

The race started off really fast like usual but what made it worse was that the first 4 miles or so was the vineyard loop where it is all flat. If you are not in the pack to draft and get pulled along then your ass is getting sucked out from the back , thats what happened to me and a fellow racer. Inhaling large amounts of particulate matter is not fun either. Thats what I get for being a slow starter ... and a slow racer ... and a slow finisher ... haha.

The climbing wasnt that bad. Some of you know me and know that I love to climb, which is all I do in my hood. Again, felt my back and hips start to cramp up just like Sea Otter but I was on the Trek Fuel X 9.5 (Full carbon, full XTR, full $7000 worth of stuff that I will never own. Thanks to Jay Shipwreck for letting me borrow it while my poor 'ol Epic gets slowly fixed up) The back and hips felt much better when I flew off the singletrack and careened down the side of the hill. Still cannot believe I didn't get mangled into peices but flying off that log on the trail and landing INTO the hard right hander was priceless... hiked back up with some giggling.

Felt good about halfway through the race and started to pick it up going into the second lap, which is what always happens before I die again. Probably got lucky and caught my last 5th and 6th winds at one time haha. Result was 11th out of 14th. I had fun , didnt finish dead last, felt stronger mentally and physically. Whatever ... rookie season, rite ? please say "rite".

Thanks to the peeps out there cheering on in the heat. Roger and his buddy at the feedzone. The official feedzone kids who all ten of them splashed me. If I find out who planned that out ...i swear ! It was funny tho ... props.

One of these days I'll fully be prepared to race. Hiking around for 8 hours with measuring instruments on an island or drinking beer ... wait ... not that one... or working late the night before is not a healthy preparation at this level.

Shoutouts :
Vegas BOB ! Finally found his MOJO ! Welcome back dude !
Bert the Hurt . Fractured hand ... racing Semi-pro ... get this man a beer ! one for me too please.
Alex Boone . Homie who is killing out there this year. Congrats again on a first place race.
Greg Pleis . Thanks for the Sierra Nevada Porter after the race... the boot is in the right hands now.
All the sponsors. Kenda tires ( even tho I didnt have Kenda tires on, I wish I did! Bontragers suck ! ) and Kenda Girls especially.