San Dimas Stage Race -- Redux and Random Ruminations

I need a muse. Last week I had planned on writing a good (ha-ha) pre-race post about SDSR and all the intricacies of this great race. I would've also predicted g.c. winners and contenders, and it turns out I'd have been correct in five of the nine different events. Pre-race intel was nearly spot on.

And then during the race, I had planned to take great photos to post along with near real-time results and stories, thereby scooping all the "real" news sources out there on the net. Turned out my only problems with that plan were: (1) I take crappy pictures, and (2) I was too cheap to pay the $10/day for internet access at our hotel. Sorry ...you get what you pay for here. And what I don't pay for!

So, if you've arrived at this blog expecting some witty stories full of insight and insider info, best move along now. Otherwise, if work is so boring that you're willing to stick around, all I can offer you is some random bits and pieces from my memory and my memory card.

Stage 1: The Tricky GMR Time Trial

I say "tricky" because despite doing this thing four or five times, I still can't figure out how to ride it. And judging by the post-race moping I heard, I'm not alone. Yeah sure, it's only 3.8 miles and climbs about 1,000 feet, so the simple advice is to... wait for it... go really hard all the way. Ha-ha. If only it were so easy!

First you have the equipment choices. Aero or weight? The slope of this thing puts you right in that middle ground. Same with gearing... big ring vice little ring. And ask Oscar Sevilla about shifting issues! But for me the worst part is the non-constant nature of the course: the false-flat first km, the shifting wind, the slope and direction changes, and that eternal last km. All of it conspires to keep you out of a rhythm.

Alas this year I thought maybe my strategy really was simple. Thurlow Rogers was my 30-second man so, obviously, since he's such an experienced time trialer, all I had to do was pace off of him. Surely he'd get it right! Do you see any flaws with that plan?

Yep, sure enough I couldn't keep him in sight except for a couple switchbacks where I could tell I was slowly losing ground. my final time: 15:06, slotted in at 9th place, about :28 behind winner Mark Noble.

More TT Randomonium and Pictures...

Gratuitous picture for all the women readers of this blog, if there are any. These hunks are my teammates Cookie and GaryAnn warming up for the tt. It wasn't really very warm so I don't know why they felt the need to pull down their skinsuits. Just for you I suppose...


...but, since Cookie is married with kid on the way, it's my moral duty to post this picture also. I warn you not to click on it and see it full size.

To be fair, he has been valiantly fighting off several viruses and other nasty infections.



So then I wandered over to the start to snap a couple pics.
Gary starting. He has been flying in the flat TT's but I think the aforementioned "issues" with GMR caused him some grief, and he was not happy with his result.


Kayle Leogrande is probably one of the most-often photographed bike racers in SoCal. With all the controversy swirling around him, I wonder if he feels like he's always riding an up-hill TT into the wind...


But on Friday, nobody got the lenses clicking more than Tyler Hamilton. I dropped my normal too-cool-for-drool character (that's a joke btw) and walked right up to snap a picture in his face. I imagine he's used to that by now.


OK, so the latest rage here in SB is Compression Pants, and it turns out the reason is that Aaron Olsen wears them.

But this is a picture of Jake Erker starting his TT. He is a pro who rides really fast. Note the aerodynamic tongue protrusion angled at precisely -45 degrees. This is an effective technique for measuring wind direction and velocity, which you can then exploit to maximum advantage. It worked for Jake as he rode a sub-14:00 TT.

Also, forget aerodynamic shoe covers. The careful observer will note that Jake is wearing casual business socks purchased from The Men's Wearhouse in Pomona. Top Secret scientific research in Canada has determined these socks to be the fastest attire for time trialing. You can thank me later for this top time-trialing tip when I see you wearing them at the next local Monday night TT.

More TT Day Stuff...

It was nice to meet Christy and Frank, the proprietors of SoCalCycling.com which is your #1 go-to source for race info and gossip. Well, next to this blog of course. (That's also a joke btw. If I have to keep saying that, maybe it means they aren't very funny...)

But this is funny, at least to me. Check it out, especially the No-Parking sign. So ok, if there really was no place else to park, who isn't above doing this!? But I can tell you that there were plenty of spots very nearby. Hahahaha... they're going to extremes to make the bad-boy image!

And I see bit of irony and foreshadowing in the picture below, which I took about the same time... yeah, there would be some Rock sliding in the area alright, like in the San Dimas Crit in a couple days, where Rock would slide right off the top step of the Pro podium thanks to these dudes!


The Road Race...

I have a love-hate relationship with this 7-mile course around the Puddingstone Reservoir. It's deceptively tough when you have a motivated field, especially because you need to be alert to obstacles and must work hard to stay up front. On lap #1 I smacked an orange plastic pole at 25 mph, absorbing the contact directly on the metal plate on my collarbone. It stung so bad I had tears in my eyes and wondered if it had split my skin open. It took two laps to recover and get back up front. From then on I tried to escape but never got very far. One move had promise, with both Greg Leibert (btw, is it "Lee-burt" or "Lie-burt"?) and Bruce Gustafson which meant we wouldn't be chased by the two largest teams, Cynergy and Amgen. Alas we were caught going into the bonus sprint.

Let me digress again for a minute here. The main hill in this course climbs about 150 feet, I'd guess, and it averages maybe 6-8% slope. There's another hill that isn't quite as tough. For SB locals who have never done this race, it's comparable to riding a 7-mile loop including Goob and Bates over and over again. But my point is this: it is NOT a climber's race. To do well, of course you have to be fit, but you would be amazed at the big powerful riders that rip up this hill. At race pace, the hill lasts slightly longer than a minute, which means it's a significant anaerobic effort. Guys I know I could smoke in a long climb were killing me. Just another reminder of how cool and multi-dimensional this sport is.

More RR stuff...

OK, I don't know if the offending people might happen to read this but I need to rant. In SoCal masters racing, there are a handful of riders who are so thoroughly feared and revered that they prompt absolutely stupid behavior from their competitors. One such feared rider who I won't name, but goes by the initials TR, must see this all the time. Said rider likes to attack. A lot. And 99 other guys don't want him to get away solo because, as he's shown repeatedly, he can ride alone in the wind really fast. So what happens when he attacks? Inevitably you hear somebody scream from the middle of the pack, "RIGHT, RIGHT, RIIIGHHTTT!!!!" in a desperate attempt to warn everybody else that said feared rider is attacking up the right side. Give me a break. First of all, do you really think nobody else notices the attack? And are you really worried nobody will respond without your warning? Allow me to offer an alternative: ride near the front, follow his attack either immediately or after he gets a gap, and then try to exploit it. Yes, easier said than done, but that's what you should try for. Sit on if you have to, but no matter what, your (or your team's) odds are going to be better from a small break than from a field of 100 guys. And who better to have driving your break? OK, done ranting.

Sacrifice. That's what LaGrange did in the Pro/1 road race. The entire team waited for their gc leader when he flatted, but then they steadily lost time to the field. It was heartbreaking to watch the time grow beyond the 5% time-cut.

Gutsy. Vince Owens from NorCal has always impressed me as a gutsy and talented rider and he proved it this weekend. He's young and relatively new to bike racing but is on a steep upward trajectory. He rode a mid-14:00 tt and then a gritty RR to finish inside the time cut, despite some botched feeds by yours truly. One dropped bottle and another that got snagged by a competitor. That always cracks me up when people reach out and steal bottles in the feed zone, but I guess when you're desperate, anything goes! Sorry Vinny...

Noble. Well, maybe not really. After the RR, I caught 35+ gc leader Mark Noble tossing out a gel pack on the ground and muttering something like, "F*** that sanctimonious granola-eating hippy Hernando from the sCruz. I'm gonna teach him how us SoCal sluts roll when he comes down to Ojai in two weeks. That is, IF he doesn't chicken out...." At least that's what I think I heard, but it was kind of noisy with that building alarm ringing, so I might have it partly wrong. But I did catch him tossing the gel pack, see...


The Crit...

Mine was fast. How was yours?

Josh Webster was quite impressive and seemed to spend most of the race at the front or off the front. I need to take lessons from guys like him. But on this day, the sprinters came to the front and the crit was taken by Mark Scott (the 4th time he's won the 35+ crit at SDSR!)

The 35+ gc podium...

Mark Noble won but he had to fight for it. He did a good TT (he won) but he also made the final split in the RR and sprinted for intermediate time bonuses. 2nd place was a very impressive Chris Demarchi and 3rd was always impressive Thurlow. Greg Leibert and Steve Ferretti rounded out the top 5.

Your author ended up 8th on gc, which I'm happy with since my goal going in was top-10. My only regret is missing that small move in the RR going into the last lap, which I attribute to a momentary lapse of focus over the top of the KOM hill. I'd like to think I could have made that split if I had it to do over again.

Pics of Teammates...
Jason just to the right of one of the Z-Team phenoms.


Cookie motoring along. He won the cat-2 field sprint in the RR and got top-10 in the crit. Just got word he has been upgraded to Cat 1. Congrats!


Gary always lurking near the front ready to go. He got 4th on the day.








Gotta give a shout out to all the local folks who went to San Dimas. A few weeks back I lamented the often poor showing from SB. Well shut me up if we didn't have around 25 people from town at this race. I think everyone had fun, especially Gabe with a RR win in cat-4 and a silver in the crit.

The SB turnout for the Women's Cat 3/4 race was remarkable. Did I correctly count nine from SB?? And let me tell you... they RACED. And it looked fast. I remember years back when MKA would harrass the women because of their slow, chatty pace. He'd say they should use a sun-dial to time their races. Well, not this time Roger!

Finally, we all got a real scare on Sunday when Druber hit the deck hard in the crit and was hauled off the the hospital for precaution. He broke a bunch of carbon, as well as his helmet, but when I spoke to him last night, his spirits seemed high. Or maybe he was just high. Pain killers and all... Get well Druber, we want to see you back out there ASAP!

Training Week -- 3/24 - 3/30

Took a (mostly) rest week in anticipation of SDSR. Not sure that was a good idea...

M: 1 hr; recovery ride around Goleta
Tu: 2 hr; some sprints before and after lunchtime hammerfest
W: 1 hr; Hope Ranch, mostly easy
Th: 1 hr; tested wheels/tires on OSM
F: 2 hr; GMR TT (15:06) plus warm-up/cool-down
Sat: 2.5 hr; Bonelli Park circuit race
Sun: 1 hr; San Dimas crit

Total: 10.5 hrs

Finding that Edge of the Envelope?

I once worked with a guy who liked to say, "If you've never missed a flight, then you're spending too much time in airports."

In other words, you're being too conservative and haven't found that edge-of-the-envelope.

Today whilst dropping down the bumpy single-track descent at Elings Park, riding both brakes the entire time, I couldn't help but wonder, "If you aren't crashing every now and then on your mountain bike, perhaps you're going too slow..."

Same principle I suppose, but the consequences are a bit more frightening!

Training Week -- 3/17 - 3/23

Working all fronts; fat-burning metabolism is improving; dropped another lb; loving riding right now

M: 0.5 hr; Recovery ride around Goleta
Tu: 1.5 hrs; low-gear sprints on Glen Annie + 2/3's of lunchtime hammerfest
W: 1.5 hrs; warm-up + Hope Ranch killervals
Th: 1.5 hrs; 2x OSM, 14:48 full gas w/ slight tailwind assist
F: 1 hr; 9 sprints on Winchester
Sat: 6 hrs; roco ride & on up hwy 33, ~10 hard efforts, 110 miles
Sun: 3 hrs; MTB at Elings Park + to/from

Total: 15 hrs

Other: ran twice (20 minutes each)

Dangerous Economic Times, or Irrational Hysteria?

What is going on these days?!?

Stock markets up 3% one day and down 3% the next... Home foreclosures at record levels... Recession all but certain... Unemployment rising... Dollar plunging... Oil north of $100/bbl and gold above $1,000 per oz... Inflation IS heating up...

I don't remember a time with as much bad economic news as we're currently getting. And it seems as though people are reacting--panicking in fact--like the sky is falling. Check out the current yield curve for US Treasuries; that's the interest rate people are getting on bills, notes, and bonds, i.e., the rate Uncle Sam will pay you to loan him money. It's low because A LOT of people are willing to take those rates.

But here's what's crazy... Inflation (WITH FOOD AND ENERGY INCLUDED!) is peaking over 4% annually, in other words, at this rate something you buy for $1.00 today will cost at least $1.04 a year from now. So why are people willing to take a dollar, and give it to Uncle Sam knowing he'll give you back only $1.01 in a year? You're losing buying power... it's a negative real return!!

It's a rhetorical question, and there are (at least) two answers as to why. First, people are freaking out and afraid to invest in anything with risk. Even rock-solid municipal bonds are yielding more than treasuries, by a couple percentage points in some cases. And they're federal- and state-tax free! Are people really worried that, say, the State of California or City of Los Angeles might go bankrupt?! Crazy.

Secondly, a big fraction of treasuries are bought by foreigners who view the US as a safe haven for money, and of course they're not worried about our domestic inflation rate or US tax issues. BUT, they should be worried about our free-falling dollar, which is the currency in which they'll be paid back. If you lived in a Euro-zone country and bought a five-year bond in 2002, then you'd have lost a big chunk of your money by the time your bond came due last year. Why do foreign investors continue to buy treasuries?? Perhaps because our economy will drag down the rest of the developed world and they have no other options... dunno.

What I do know is that I'm confused about what to do. Normally, I'd look at this kind of panicky scenario and be salivating at the buying opportunities in the stock market. Blue-light specials all around.

But what scares me right now is inflation, not this "Core Inflation" BS but REAL inflation, of things I buy. It's insane to exclude food and energy costs, those are the fundamental products we need to survive! And prices are on the rise faster than I ever remember (well, at least since I've been an adult and worrying about savings and retirement).

Here's the some national-average price increases over the last year...

Price of bananas per pound.


Price of roasted coffee per pound.


Price of unleaded gasoline per gallon.



Of course, all three of these items are more expensive here in California for some reason. Lucky us.

So we're probably in a recession, yet prices are rising. Is that "stag-flation"? And what if all this cheap money that the Fed is pumping into the economy does nothing more than goose inflation even higher? People like me who don't work a lot will be hosed, that's what! Makes me think twice about taking chances in the stock market... but then again, as an investor, you have to realize the best opportunities arise when the masses panic and become convinced the sky is falling.

Is this one of those times?

(pardon me for writing about topics other than bike racing, but this is my blog and this is what's on my mind currently. By about Tuesday of next week, I'll be so obsessed with the upcoming San Dimas Stage Race that I'll barely have awareness of anything else...)

Meet Rocky

I've been meticulously pruning our Orange tree the last two days, trying to shape it and encourage its productivity on into the future. Last time I pruned this much, the following season's crop looked more like basketballs than Oranges. But after that the fruit was incredible for the next five or six years. I think trees regard a good pruning like you and I would feel if we let our hair, finger-nails, and toe-nails grow grimy and unchecked for a couple years, and then finally had the perfect trim, manicure, pedicure ...and massage. (Blatant hyperbole... and I don't really know how any of those things feel...)

Citrus seems to respond favorably no matter when you prune, but now seems like a good time since the last fruit is coming off and the flowers are just appearing. Of course, around here, it's too late to work on any deciduous fruit trees because they're already blooming and growing leaves. Gotta love Southern California!

So what's with the picture of my cat? Well, as I've been up in the tree obsessing over one branch or another, he's been hanging out nearby and keeping me company. But it turns out it wasn't really me holding his interest. You see, the neighbors have a chicken coop just across the fence from our Orange tree, and a family of mice live underneath it. Out of reach and out of sight save a tiny gap in the fence, much too small for a cat. So Rocky sits and waits. And waits. As long as it takes.

Then the payoff for his patience... a youngster made the fatal mistake of wandering just a bit too far and Rocky the normally-sloth-like cat struck like a Cobra. Lightning quick.

Tail high with prey clamped in his maw, Rocky pranced on by so I could see his handiwork. All it took was a couple minutes of smacking around before the poor little thing was twitching, and then totally paralyzed. So Rocky gnawed on the skull and ate half its body, then apparently decided it was too gross to finish so he wandered away to take a nap. I buried the lower half under the orange tree.

Kind of our own little tract-house-neighborhood eco cycle: chickens attract mice, which get killed by cats, then buried in dirt, rotting and nourishing Orange tree, so we can trade Oranges for eggs. Or something like that...

Monday Morsels

This video has been making the rounds on the web, and it's pretty interesting so give it a whirl if you haven't seen it already...

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Speaking of videos, have you seen Matt's ToC TT?

(Hey testrider, is there any way I can embed this video for posterity and have a separate link to your site?)

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Snagged two pics from the Visalia weekend...

First, on Saturday, the big TT guns rode a 40K course that went from Exeter up and over the Rocky Hill climb (remember that fun one from the Exeter RR in the old days?) into the Yokohl valley and back. The winning times were still under an an hour, which is amazing to me considering they climbed that hill both directions. MarkZen had the unfortunate luck to start just ahead of a famed TT'er and here's "the pass" on the way out...

...which is no knock against Mark because he still rode a great time. But just you watch, Karma will bite me in the butt and I'll be in the same boat at San Dimas and get passed before that lefthand U-turn to start the climb!

The crit the next day saw Cody get 2nd against a very strong pro field...

Is there any doubt that he's gonna snag a big win one of these days?!

Training Week -- 3/10 - 3/16

Getting more comfortable with steady-state high intensity, but can't say the same thing for over-under anaerobic efforts. Oh well, all in due time...

M: 2 hrs; recovery ride around Goleta
T: 1 hr; lunchtime hammerfest
W: 2.5 hrs; OSM + PC in gusty wind (38:30) and Hope Ranch suffervals
Th: 1.5 hrs; OSM in gusty wind (16:26)
F: 0
Sa: 4.5 hrs; Casitas and back, 2 hrs motorpacing on Ben
Su: 3.5 hrs; Worlds

Total: 15 hrs

Blast from the Past

Come on, admit it... you google yourself from time to time, don't you. I know I do. Well, thank god I name names here on this piddly little blog because my old good friend from 30 years ago googled himself (or his significant other did, so he claims) and stumbled upon this site and then emailed me. Wow! Great to hear from Tim and great to hear he's doing well in Sacto.

He also sent me this pic......which shows Tim with me on his wheel (both in yellow with red shoulders) in a race when we were juniors.

Yowza! There's hair flowing out from under that helmet!

He's making me guess the race and the year, but I think it must be 1977 and judging by the crack in the concrete pavement, I bet it's at Cat's Hill in Los Gatos. That bike was a Frejus that I rebadged on the head-tube with a Playboy Bunny sticker. See, juniors have always been dorky! But that's not half as dorky as those bunched up socks and those hot-pants cycling shorts!! Jeeezus, cycling fashion has come a long way.

So this little history quiz prompted me to dig out my log from that year and make sure I actually did Cat's Hill... and sure enough, on May 22, I did. The log says that it was an E-for-excellent workout and further, that Chris Springer won, Greg LeMond got 2nd, and I got 7th.

Few people ever beat LeMond in the junior races, but Chris Springer was one of them. I don't recall a single race where I did...

But later that same year, at the 4th-of-July crit in Davis, Tim himself solo'ed off the front of the junior field to win. Second place that day... Greg LeMond.

Great to hear from you Tim!

Temp

Some Puzzling Math

But first, a pic of a few of the Platinum Performance mtb racers at Bonelli last Sunday...


And that picture above shows just a small fraction of the SB-area riders who were there. A quick scan of the results shows about 45 local riders (i.e., SB, Goleta, Carp, SY Valley) out of around 400 total participants. That's huge! And really cool too.

So now why is it that the SB turn-out at SoCal road events is so much lower proportionally? A typical one-day road event will see maybe 10-15 SB area riders, at most, even though the event will attract 400-600 riders total. Maybe it's not fair to compare a beautiful venue like Bonelli Park with a typical LA industrial park crit, but what about a race like The Garrett Lemire Memorial Grand Prix? Only an hour away from SB, a very nice course, in a great downtown location. Yet, I'd guess 20-25 locals raced there last year. It was probably the biggest local turnout for a road event other than Mothballs. For reference, there are nearly 150 USCF licensed riders in our area, so we're seeing 10%-20% participation.

I have no idea how many NORBA-licensed riders are in the SB area, but I'd guess fewer than 100. So is it true that more of them race, and more often? Why would that be?

What Would You Do?

I just got a call from the promoter of the San Dimas Stage Race and he has a dilemma... The Pro/1 race is sold out and he's trying to make room for some pro teams that got caught out. Looking down that list, it's pretty clear why he called me. Johnny Anonymo, no teammates, and I'm probably the only one with an option of doing another race (35+ or 45+). So he asked me point-blank if I'd be willing to give up my spot and do a Masters race instead. Ouch!!

This has thrown me for a loop and is making me search my feelings, literally right now as I type this.

On the one hand, it would be a kick to race with some of the more (in)famous entrants such as Tyler Hamilton and Oscar Sevilla. Of course I shouldn't really say "race with" because in truth, I'd be a couple minutes down in the TT and might be struggling to make the time cut in the RR. Basically, I'd call it success just to be pack fill! Is that a worthwhile reason for some up-and-coming pro to be excluded just because his team manager wasn't quick enough to get the entry in before me?

So here's my thought at this exact moment: Bike racing is a team sport at all levels, but especially so in stage races at the pro/cat-1 level. Bigger races don't allow individual entries, although a few will take composite teams. Maybe some uncompetitive old dude with no teammates doesn't really belong in this particular Pro/1 race.

But I am sad to miss an opportunity to line up with Jake and his Symmetrics team, Phil Southerland and his Team Type-1 guys, and of course friends like MarkZen, Adrian, Vinny Owens, Grant Van Horn, Cody, and Daniel. These are great people as well as great athletes and I really enjoy the privilege of seeing them in action from up close ...at least until I get dropped!

So I told the SDSR guy I'd call back tomorrow with my answer. Maybe I can extort a comp'ed entry into the 35+! That'll be a damn hard race anyway with Thurlow and the Amgen/Giant machine, and other strongmen like Pat Caro, Greg Leibert, Josh Webster, Mark Noble, etc, etc, etc. The 45+ looks really tough too.

What would you do?

Catching Up on Race Commentary and What Not...

Up North...

Wow, some great performances from locals in very competitive races up in the Fresno area the last two weekends. Adrian Gerrits raced the Pro/1 Merco crit and worked his way into a powerful nine-man break (eight pros including Chris Horner, and Adrian as the lone amateur). Unfortunately for our hero, Horner attacked and split the break and Adrian was in the back half that got reabsorbed, but he was still able to sprint to a top-20.

Adrian looking strong in this picture from Rob Evans. We can't read the big numbers on that powertap, but the careful observer will note that Adrian is so strong that his left quad has burst that Gel packet tucked under his skinsuit.


A closer view... at least I hope that is Gel...



Gary continued his streak of good placings and got a top-10 in the cat-2 crit.



...and sprinting to 2nd in the cat-2 RR the following day!



Although not technically a local, Ventura-resident Mark Shimahara has been racing every weekend and staying right up front with the pros. I spent a couple hours surfing (and pilfering) pictures of the recent races and this one from yesterday's CVC crit is typical... MarkZen mixed in with a gaggle of pros. Big time!



Down South: The Highs and the Lows...

Malcolm Hill is about the nicest guy who will ever kick your butt in a bike race. Even more annoying is that he's as handsome as George Clooney ...or so I'm told by people who would know. But he's a very humble and likable guy, so it was with great pleasure that I read he won the Pro/1/2/3 road race held out in the desert last weekend. I think one can deduce from the results that Malcolm and his Amgen/Giant brethren worked over our dear old friend C-Walk. I am eager to hear the story...

...but the following day at the Crash-4-Cash crit in LA, fate was not nearly so kind to Malcolm as he was involved in a nasty crash and suffered broken ribs and a punctured lung. Five days in the hospital from that one! Let's all wish Malcolm a speedy recovery.

Training Week -- 3/3 - 3/9

A lot of high-end aerobic work and some anaerobic efforts.

M: 2.5 hrs; OSM-Painted Cave-Stagecoach-Painted Cave (OSM-PC in 38:45)
T: 2.5 hrs; OSM + 3 JB intervals + recovery
W: 1.5 hrs; Hope Ranch suffervals
Th: 4 hrs; MTB at Elings and to/fro + OSM lunch ride
F: 1 hrs; OSM
Sa: 4.5 hrs; Solvang Century (4:20)
Su: 2.5 hrs; Bonelli Park MTB race + twice up GMR TT course

Total: 18.5 hrs

Need to be More Pro...

...ductive. More productive. This week at least. Maybe longer. Gasp!

Being without internet a week ago made me realize how much time I've been spending when making the bikie rounds. Think about it... if you keep up with new content on, say, cyclingnews, velonews, socalcycling, ncnca, bikeforums, rbr, and 15-20 blogs, then you're spending a good 2-3 hours a day gulping down this junk. Methinks that's too much.

So, as a little test, I'm going to forsake the web for a week. Email will be limited to one not-to-exceed-30-minute session per day.

Let's see what can be accomplished with an extra 15-20 hours this week!

See ya later.

Training Week -- 2/25 - 3/2

A great week. Starting to feel fit and motivated... seems to be strongly correlated with the better weather. I'm getting excited and a bit nervous about doing some of the NRC-type races coming up. San Dimas, Ojai, and Sea Otter. Is that insane or what!?! Fear of embarrassment (or time cut!) is a good motivator to train hard!

M: 1 hrs; 12 seated sprints up Winchester
T: 2 hrs; 101 to Mariposa Reina & back, 44 miles in 2:00
W: 5 hrs; Goleta-Gaviota-Los Olivos & back, 90 miles solo
Th: 2 hrs; 2X OSM & Painted Cave, OSM in 15:27
F: 0.5 hrs; recovery ride around Goleta
Sa: 5 hrs; roco ride around Casitas, 95 miles
Su: 3.5 hrs; MTB at Elings Park + test ride on new road bike

Total: 19 hrs