Get out and race!

Finally finally a rest week- it took me most of the week to unload the fatigue in the legs and I planned to go to Dash For Cash on Saturday, being only a few blocks away with lots of Minty teammates coming.
Well, I happened to answer the phone on Friday night and had to head into work for a few hours- this turned into a all nighter and most of the next day- bummer, but sometimes the real job has to take priority to pay the bills- I did have lively legs jumping into holes and on and off equipment all night- so I think I was rested just about right anyway!
Got a couple hours snooze on Saturday night, woke up and ate a great dinner the missus whipped up, then a movie and crashed back out- woke up Sunday still pretty tired but I had heard the new Sonoma Mountain Village course was good, so I loaded up the Protege with all my junk and headed north.
Got there a bit late, but reg was no problem, small fields my guess from competing with Dunlap and DFC the day before-seems like numbers are down some this year overall, perhaps the economy, I don't know.
Got in a 15 minute warmup that was completely insufficient and took a lap-I LIKE THIS COURSE!
Perimeter road around a business park- fast corners, chicanes, a little contour that wore on you as things went on, and lots of wind- side wind, head wind, tail cross wind.
E3 race was fun- the break almost got away and would have if Norcal Velo hadn't chased like dogs for their guy with a few to go- i took a few pulls and went into a early move that of course wasn't going, then the next one took off, story of the day, sigh.
The legs were funky and I mostly hung out midpack, then moved up for the field sprint, but really sucked when the poop hit the fan on the last lap and never really closed with the front sprinters- eked out 10th somehow.
Nice long break in between races- excellent scheduling on the organizers' part, I've been to lots of races with the E3 next to the M123 and other permutations- if your trying to get more bucks out of people, a little foresight goes a long way, especially to a Cat 3 that is most likely donating his/her second race fee in the 123 race. Make it fun and give him time to pin up and have a snack or socialize- I went to a local java spot and had a sandwich and a expresso, then rode back with plenty of time to get ready for the M123.
Not much to say about that one- a break rolled off in the first 10 minutes just as I was getting back in the line after a pull- at first I thought it was too early, but most of the teams were represented and SP did a great job marking anybody trying to bridge- pretty textbook stuff but they did it well.
I put in a few completely futile pulls and once got a few hundred meters solo, but at that point couldn't even see the break and was incinerating myself in the wind, so hung my head and went back to purgatory.
Decided sprinting for 6th or 7th at best was lame and made the rest into a hard training ride, blowing myself off the back with 3 to go where Dylan from BBC and I worked on out 2up TT skills, man I was tired!
All in all I was grateful just to get out this weekend with all that was going on, with the long range goals not for months it was good to see where I'm at right now and just enjoy rolling around a sweet corsa.

My visit to Treasure Island

This is my 5th year ( wow has it been that long?) coaching for SJR and their beginning triathlete program, I always get a kick out of it.

Endurance sports opened so many doorways and changed so many things for me it's really hard to quantify, plus I'm just not that good of a writer, but I never get tired of sharing that excitement when someone who was terrified to put her foot in the bay a few months ago swims 880m and puts her face in.

Those victories you take with you for life- good stuff.

We followed this swim up with a 6.6 mile circuit of Treasure Island on the bikes , then a 2 mile run along the shore.

Wow what a scenic piece of land in spots and a ugly run down place in others. Strange place.

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The Watchman

If you see this guy six minutes into your next cruise interval session, your getting pretty fit.
Quiz for all 4 people that look at this blog- what tri-valley road is this dude keeping a eye on?
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Nice Ride For 1989

Helping a buddy clear out the garage- this thing is ridiculously pretty.

I'm such a sucker for a nice steel bike.....

Got to get this thing out of here soon before I fall!

Taking a break

My oh my what a long season- from September on almost every weekend- I got pretty tired of the travel by December and will be cutting next season short a bit- but anyhow, the new team really got me stoked so I saddled up for ten road races or so through April.
I had mediocre condition personally but had fun and we got some stellar results as a team and always raced hard.
I always take a break in the spring and reset- this year I finished off the early road season with two new races that were a blast-
Warnerville- 3 flats for me- Vick gave me his wheel and I busted that as well- but we throw down for one another and that's what makes racing so great.
Santa Cruz- a classic I've always missed but WOW that was fun!
I struggled to hang on after a bad start from the back and with my one teammate breaking his der. cable early we were out of the fray, but I really enjoyed the corsa and will return.

I was a little tired as well from the first Get Ready For Summer race at the track the day before- this was really fun- a nice day, mucho peeps to visit with,good organization on Ricks' part and a excellent announcing job by Matt.
I raced the B's- this was a good group for me, I ran a 88 for the races wich was small but gave me a bit of hop and I wanted to keep some legs for Santa Cruz- the flip side of the 88 was getting passed in some of the sprints at the end but I liked the overall feel- I ended up winning the omnium- woot woot! I don't win too often so I really appreciate it- we all competed hard through the day and I was suprised to have done so well.
Fun times.

Back to the iron pit for a while and some needed miles- summer is right around the corner!

Bring the land barge

This is so, like 2009.
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Monday Morning Recovery Ride

Nice maples in the nursery and a good conversation.....
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What I saw when I came back to the car.....

If that kid ain't cool, I don't know what is.

Way to go, dude.

Hard work pays off.

Welcome back to the garage.

Bad cam phone pic, I think I need to figure out how to clean my Blackberry a bit, but you get the idea.

This looks to be the view for the next few days, TACX and the cross bike, staring at the dogs' uneaten food- he has gotten quite finicky now that his mommy mixes in canned food and hot water to make a soup :-)

A Foothills RR thought or two- I hope the guy that took his hands off the bars to eat on a bumpy road in the middle of the pack realizes how dumb that was. I'm going to take the high road on this and realize bike racing is a dangerous sport and all that, but really.

It's not like we were flying along or anything, and with the gradual downhill there you could have rolled of the back and stopped, pissed, and ate and still got back on.

Best wishes to my compadre.

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ATOC San Jose

No intro needed....

Smart guy and a good book.

Diggin' the number plate, so very pro.

Sweet Quick Step bikes.

Bobke!

Nice passel of bikes.

The Beautiful People

Cantua/ Dinuba- with a Valentines break in there.

Some T-shirts grabbed

Some good hard riding

Great dinner

And a dance party?

Lotsa fun!

The Snowflake

20 years old and still going strong... I got her in 98'. My buddy couldn't ride in the aero position anymore due to a bad crash, but was riding her to the pool with his kids.
I got him a nice townie and brought the thoroughbred out of the glue factory.
This used to be my only bike and I trained for two Ironmans on this baby.
She has some white nail polish covering up the chips in the finish, and has a newer fork to replace the cracked alloy one( that was a haaaard ride back then!), but the basic bike is the same.
Position is key and me and the Flake go way way back.
26 even on the Calaveras course today at sub- threshold heart rate.
I heart my Flake!
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Monday morning housekeeping

A recovery ride with a can of purpose......
Hopefully no one misses the turnaround now :-)
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Welcome to the desert of my soul, theres' room for one more.

First long ride since August.

MP3 player on shuffle

pockets full of payday bars and two bottles

fenders and 32 spoke 8 lb wheels.

echelons over the centerline on a training ride- sigh.

refusal to create a second line- sigh.

Oh well,

all good.

Season ending thoughts

Just some random stuffins'......

For a guy like me that has to train in blocks somewhat due to a hectic schedule, the WKO software and especially the PMC and TSS components were a great way to see if I was gaining fitness and not just guessing at things. I went from 70 CTL in January 08 to a peak of about 122 in September.
I held onto quite a bit of fitness through cross season and tried to spend my bank account wisely and rest only for bigger events on the NCNCA Cup.
One thing I noticed was with too much rest and a big positive TSB I sucked on race day but excelled about two days later with less positive TSB- my best races and best power numbers were generally with a TSB of 5-10.
Had the events been longer than a hour I think I would have killed it- I never really got tired , just didn't have a whole lot of hops.
I tapered down the last couple weeks to 90 and definitely lost a bit- I lengthened my season by a month trying to stretch for those last CCCX and NCNCA races and couldn't do it- my best races were in Mid December around Natz- definitely going next year.
I can hold good fitness in a race period for 6-8 weeks max, so just spending it in a more focused way will be on the agenda for next year.

One more powermeter thought- several times this season my races were marred by crashes and mechanical and driver error- if I only judged my performance on that of my competitors I would be awful down on myself- doing some tests and seeing some PB power numbers in December kept my head in the game.

My best race was one where my rear wheel went sideways in the drops at the start and I had to run for the B bike, then get going a half lap down.
I chased through the field with full mouth dribble a-goin' and got within 30 seconds of the leaders before rolling my back tubie- not a stellar result with hands in the air at the end but one I'll be proud of for a long time.

The SS A field was good hard racin all year- the best racers came out on top over the season, I think we raced each other hard all year but also rode with some class, not easy to do when you put a bunch of competitive fellows together on a little dirt path.

I got a bunch of kids out racing this year in a positive environment, several of them the LARPD was their first race, some of them have bigger fish to fry on the road, but I think going wheel to wheel at least a little bit all winter is good for you.
08 will be a complete success if a quarter of the kids take the lessons of sport and use them in their lives somehow...

A big shout out to all the compadres and my family- we went to tons of races this year, much to the dismay of the 12 year old, but loading up the barge and heading out every Sunday was fantastic.

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End of the season meal......
Congrats Jasmin on a long series!
And congrats to Lainey for a great ride today, these girls are tuff stuff!
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Bear Creek Spire 05

Nice trip and nice rocks- just found this pic while looking for something else. Sunrise on the ridge- always wear your helmet even if you look like your growing mushrooms on top - you may want your brain.

My two favorite things I got for Christmas this year- some Qoleum Mild embro from the wife and this hat from the Vickerator.The first cap that doesn't squeeze my jughead.

Gracias.

I keep tallying up the training for 08 and boring myself writing about it, perhaps How I Spent 648 Perfectly Good Sunny Hours would be a good title........

Whew.

The short- no excuses report on the last NCNCA race in Watsonville today-

Great course

Great people

I missed the dollar primes 3 times!

And got shot in the lip by a nerfy dart, just to add insult to injury.
Moving targets are probably harder to hit, no?

Hitting the barn kinda smarts.

I think I left my legs in 2008 somewheres.

One more to go in the CCCX finals next week, then a glorious 2 week off season.

Time to re-up
Go to the training cave
Pull out some old VHS
Put on some reindeer antlers

The legs and fitness are fading but the motivation is all there.

LA- a few photos and no bike stuff.

The Getty Museum in W LA- we have been wanting to make it here for several years and finally got the chance- a couple easy days at my sisters' were just what the doctor ordered.

74 degrees all weekend.

Mmmmmmmmmm

The gardens are spectacular even in winter.

Stunning architecture, the landscape architecture complements the buildings perfectly.

Lots of different textures in front of all that white travertine.

Nice stuff inside as well- I don't really like paintings so much but a fantastic exhibit of early photos from Yosemite and other california spots.

Little C digging the view and the photo opportunities.

Round two was the parade, I haven't been in 30 years( damn I'm old!), it was way fun.

Great floats, great seats, and hot dogs afterwards.

This is Julie Foudy on this float. It was full of Olympians with Greg Louganis as well.

Badass Texas Band.

The Rainbird Float- pretty nice!



Recognize this actress? Hint- S......



The SC band.

Penn States' cheerleaders were waaay hotter.

Guess they left it all at the parade.