Training Week -- 1/18 - 1/24

A lot of rain last week, thus not a lot of riding. This biking stuff is just a hobby ...a serious hobby... and not so important as to justify being miserable (or in danger) in the cold rain and wind. Your mileage may vary.

Mon: 0
Tue: 1 hr; intervals on the bike path
Wed: 0
Thu: 0
Fri: 0
Sat: 3.5 hrs; SB - Casitas - SB, mostly steady tempo
Sun: 3.5 hrs; Worlds, full gas on the way out

Total: 8 hours

Notes:
- The difference between how I'm going on the flats versus the hills is out-of-whack right now, based on years past. That tells me one thing, I need to lose a few lbs. No more cookies and ice cream for awhile... like I said, it's a serious hobby.

Five Days, Five Storms

The Sea Was Angry This Morning My Friends

Forty minutes of bike-path intervals this morning, and I would have beaten the rain had I not stopped at the beach to shoot this dumb video.

Training Week -- 1/11 - 1/17

More of the same, especially trying to do hard efforts after 3+ hrs of riding. Endurance is good; short-term recovery is improving noticeably; climbing is still too weak; day-to-day recovery is terrible.

Mon: 0
Tue: 5 hrs; 8:00 roco + lunchtime hammerfest, hard pulls
Wed: 1 hr; recovery
Thu: 1.5 hr; OSM (10000:11111) + 75% Painted Caves
Fri: 1 hr; easy
Sat: 5 hr; around Casitas, some hard pulls
Sun: 3.5 hr; 1/2 of Worlds + a little extra, really fatigued

Total: 17 hours

Do Something

Help the people in Haiti.

Here's one way: click on Direct Relief International and then follow your conscience.

What's for Lunch?

I spent some 15+ years as a desk jockey. Most days were packed full of code and report writing, meeting and managing, pointless PowerPointing, and plenty of office politicking. Some people thrive on that stuff, finding it meaningful and thrilling; to me, it was an energy drain.

So with this jaded outlook, you'd think that lunchtime would be the best part of my workday, right? Well, yes and no. Yes for the days I got to ride my bike. Oh glorious lunch rides! But definitely "No" for the days when I joined ranks with the other thousand automatons making the daily drive to restaurant row. Don't get me wrong, I liked my coworkers and their company. It was the food that was the problem. Chili's, Chevy's, Wendy's, Jack in the Box.... there's really no difference. And more and more, what you get at those establishments can hardly be called food. GMO corn with bacteria genes inserted into its DNA? Freaky!

Some people microwaved frozen lunches instead. Have you seen the ingredient lists on those things?? Should you really need a PhD in Chemistry to understand what you're eating? Some days I'd bring a brown-bag lunch my sweetie made me that morning. PB&J ...again. I'd eagerly anticipate... would it be strawberry or marmalade today? Sigh.

Fast-forward to 2010. I don't work in an office anymore, and I don't eat at those kinds of "restaurants" either. But lunch is still a dilemma sometimes. Strawberry or marmalade? Now it's up to me to decide.

So today I finally tried Organic Living Santa Barbara. I've been hearing the buzz for months... wonderful variety of lunch entrees, made fresh daily from locally-sourced organic ingredients, delivered right to your home or office. They'll even accommodate your vegan, vegetarian, or meat-eater preferences.

Here's what I got today (click the picture to read the label, and you don't need a PhD in Chemistry):


It was delicious! I actually ordered two meals, which was enough for dinner also. Such a tasty and sensible way to solve the lunchtime dilemma. And way more healthful and environmentally responsible than eating at those chain restaurants.

As an aside, today I rode my fastest time up Old San Marcos in at least nine months. Coincidence?? I don't think so.

Bad Timing to Ask for a Handout?

Today in sunny Southern California, I rode my bicycle in shorts and then later picked fresh, ripe strawberries from my garden. Meanwhile, it seems the rest of the US is in the grips of a brutally cold arctic blast. That's a shame. So I was wondering... how is the rest of the country going to respond to California's request for a 6.9 billion dollar handout from the Federal Government to help us with our budget crisis?

Training Week -- 1/4 - 1/10

Finally got sick. It was inevitable, and better to get it over with now than in Feb or March.

Mon: 0; sick
Tue: 0; sick
Wed: 0; sick
Thu: 1 hr; Easy up OSM to watch the Burrito Duel, Vol. 2
Fri: 1 hr; OSM moderate
Sat: 4.5 hrs; Gibraltar Hillclimb + ECC/154 + Montecito and back
Sun: 3.5 hrs; Sunday worlds, 2-3 hard efforts, recovery improving

Total: 10 hours

Note:
- Saturday's Gibraltar Hillclimb was good and bad. I can't complain about my time (46:22) considering where I was two months ago, but it's always a little frustrating to get beat. My pacing was terrible... from past experience, I know where to hit certain milestones in order to do ~43 minutes, and I was a minute ahead of that pace up through 25 minutes, then cracked and lost ~4 minutes the rest of the way. Oh well, room for improvement. BTW, all that detail was just for Cookie since I know how much he likes to read about other peoples training!

Top Talent from SB

I've heard it asked many times, "Who's the most talented bike racer from Santa Barbara?"

That's a hard question.

First of all, "from Santa Barbara" means to me that they were living here and discovered bike racing when young, say, under 18 years old. That has significant implications, because it excludes from consideration a whole bunch of really good riders who came from out-of-town to attend UCSB, including:

• Dylan Casey
  
• Eric Cech
  
• Dave Fiengold
• Matt Dubberley
• Adam Laurent
• Kieth Horowitz
• Lynn Brontzman/Gaggioli
  

...along with a bunch of really good riders there right now.

That definition also excludes some really good bike racers who have come to live in Santa Barbara AFTER already establishing themselves in the sport. Examples of those would include:

• Aaron Olson
• Kim Anderson
• Jacob Erker
• Erik Saunders
• Ben Haldeman
• Zach Walker
• Dave Lettieri
• Ken Hanson
  

So you might think that those exclusions wouldn't leave many riders to choose from. You'd be wrong. Santa Barbara has produced a remarkable number of home-grown talented riders over the years. Below is my list of the top-10, presented in no particular order. Of course this is all subjective, and your opinions may vary.

Adam Duvendeck -- A two-time Olympian on the velodrome, and multi national champion. Started bike racing as a junior with Echelon in the mid 1990s along with Aaron Musicant and Matt Abrams, the first crop of many great juniors coached by the next rider on the list.


Rory O'Reilly -- 1984 Olympian, former world-record holder in the flying kilometer, one of the fastest road sprinters in the US in the late 1970s and early 1980s before turning focus to the velodrome. Rode for the famous 7-Eleven team. In the picture here, Rory keeps a close eye on a young Greg LeMond.


Cody O'Reilly -- Rory's son and a favorite of the entire SB cycling community. Seems like only yesterday that Cody was a little tyke on the back of Rory's tandem, his tiny legs turning circles on a 150 mm crank installed just below the seat. Fast forward to today, and Cody is one of the fastest road sprinters in the US, and arguably the best all-around track rider in the country, having just won the Elite Omnium National Championship. Cody has improved every year for the last decade ...how good will he ultimately get?


Uthman Ray IV -- A Dos Pueblos High graduate who began his cycling career flying down hills in the dirt before turning attention to the road. Uthman quickly rose to Cat 1 and was a solid all-around rider for the couple of years he raced seriously. He's a smart guy who completed graduate school at UC Berkeley and has apparently put cycling on the back burner ...for now.


Larry Shields -- When I was a kid in NorCal just getting into bike racing, I only knew of two racers from Santa Barbara. One was Rory, and the other was Larry Shields. His reputation as a smart and savvy rider was well known, but clearly he had an abundance of strength too. A multi-time National Champion on the road as a junior and a podium finisher in the Elite ranks. The picture here shows Larry winning a National Championship after dispensing of a quicker Chris Springer with a crafty move in the final corner.


Kurt and Derin Stockton -- Brothers, both among a select group of the best road sprinters in the US during the late 80's and early 90's. Both rode as professionals for a number of teams and participated in all the big Pro races back east, with Kurt winning the USPro Road Championship in Philly in 1990. Both went on to successful careers on the booming downhill MTB circuit.


Chris Walker -- Most people don't realize C-Walk started bike racing as a junior back in the mid 1970s. He was a mediocre rider back then and soon hung up the bike for other interests. He returned to the sport ten years later (1987-88), and since then has put in, oh, at least a quarter million miles of training. I'm completely serious. Do the math... 20 years X 52 weeks/year X 250 miles/week. Probably a low estimate actually. He's been a podium finisher in some of the hardest, highest-level races in the country, including Tour of the Gila and the Killington Stage Race. He's won National RR Championships as a Master and Elite competitor, along with many Districts victories. Still, at 48 years old, he's one of the top roadies in California.


Daniel Ramsey -- When I first met Daniel he was an affable, slightly-gawky, enthusiastic puppy dog of a bike rider. Fast forward fifteen years or so, and he's now one of the most exciting bike racers you'll ever see. Nobody rides with more heart and grit than Daniel. If you think of US Domestic Pro bike racing as entertainment, then Daniel is a star. If you've never seen him roll one of his improbable solo break-aways with 100+ hungry riders nipping at his heels, well then you are missing one of the most heart-pumping scenes in bike racing. Sometimes he gets caught (e.g., annually at Manhattan Beach) and sometimes he pulls it off (Sea Otter; Tulsa Tough). Either way, it's always a great show.


Nieko Biskner -- A mercurial career if there ever was one. Nieko also started as an Echelon junior after doing some running at San Marcos High (5K in the 16's!) and when he began to really train on the bike, his talent was immediately evident. A big-boned kid at 6'5" he was still as good a climber as anyone in town, and when he got on top of a gear on the flats, well, following him was essentially motor-pacing. He finished top-10 in a Tour of Georgia sprint and recorded 1900+ watts on his SRM. That's a Mario Cipollini-like number. In the NRC San Dimas Stage Race one year, he powered a small break in the road race and was barely nipped at the finish by Chris Horner, who was the most dominant rider in the US at that time. Nieko's pro career only lasted a couple of years because he was pulled in lots of conflicting directions, including school and partying. Who can blame him... would you rather ride your bike a quarter of a million miles earning minimum wage, or hang out at night with good friends and pretty ladies, and learn about cool technology during the day?


So that's my top-10 list.

At this point, it's fair to revisit the original question, "Who's the most talented bike racer from Santa Barbara?" But this naturally leads to a more enigmatic question, namely, "What is talent with respect to bike racing?"

Every rider mentioned above has talent. For example, Adam was able to master all the technical and physiological details necessary to get maximum explosive power out of his body. Both Rory and Cody were and are able to live extremely disciplined lifestyles that ensure maximum productivity from their training efforts. Kurt and Derin had the bravery to fight at the front of thundering field sprints. C-Walk has the ability to religiously churn out thousands of miles in training. Daniel seems capable of tapping into raw emotion as a fuel source, digging deeper than most people realize is possible.

All those traits above are important, and clearly they led to success for all these Santa Barbara bike racers. To me, however, "talent" in the context of bike racing is defined as an innate potential for great success, and it's mostly a physiological aptitude. In my opinion, for raw physical talent, Nieko tops the list and I think he could have been a world-class bike racer.

Discuss?

Training Week -- 12/28 - 1/3

Getting some more intensity.

Mon: 1 hr; Easy around Goleta, Hope Ranch, & UCSB
Tue: 5 hrs; SB to Rose Valley up hwy 33
Wed: 0
Thu: 1 hr; lunchtime OSM, 16:59
Fri: 3 hr; MTB up Little Pine Mtn
Sat: 4 hr; 8:00 roco to 2nd Casitas + Emma Wood w/ Gina & friends
Sun: 3 hr; Sunday Worlds

Total: 17 hours

Training Week -- 12/21 - 12/27

Not much training due to holiday craziness.

Mon: 1 hr; recovery ride around Goleta
Tue: 0
Wed: 1.5 hr; Mt. Hamilton
Thu: 0
Fri: 0
Sat: 0.5 hr; running
Sun: 0

Total: 3 hours

Video from Santa Barbara Sunday Worlds Ride

Training Week -- 12/14 - 12/20

OK, I had decided I was done putting up these Training Week blog posts. I mean, how utterly absurd is it to think anybody gives a flying-#### about my training?! Even my wife can't stand to hear about it...

"...from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, and to listen to ad nauseam stories about training rides..."

Yes, Mr. Minister, all except that last part.

But then two things brought me back here. First, I had the biggest, most-enjoyable winter training week in perhaps 13 years. Perfect storm of weather, motivation, health, and available time. I cannot express in words how pleasurable it has been to pedal this week.

Second thing: a nice mention in Ryan Barrett's blog about the idea of posting training weeks. Hey, if a guy as good as him thinks it's OK, well then who am I to judge??

Ergo...

Mon: 1 hr; around Goleta and UCSB
Tue: 5 hrs; 8:00 group ride from Goleta + Gibraltar loop
Wed: 1 hr; OSM, tempo
Thu: 5 hrs; 8:00 group ride from Goleta + Gibraltar loop
Fri: 1 hr; OSM, easy
Sat: 5 hrs; early w/ Ben + group ride to Ojai (big-gear on hills)
Sun: 5 hrs; Worlds + Gibraltar loop

Total: 23 hours

(Note: I have some video clips from the ride today and will post as soon as my son teaches me how to use the editing software.)

Go Johnny Go

Just in case there's anybody who hasn't seen this yet...

The talented filmmaker is 11-year-old Beau Lettieri, and you can visit his website here.

Expect a Crowd

Old Time CX

Long before there was Page, Trebon, Johnson, and Douville...

...there was Sir Lawrence Malone, Clark Natwick, and Mary Ann Allen:

(Thanks to Dot Wong for finding this)

And some trivia for SB locals... in those results listed at the end of the video, which rider is the brother of a popular Santa Barbara endurance athlete? Next, which rider lost a National RR Championship after being forced into a ditch during the final sprint by a Santa Barbara rider? (Yes, I know, those are hard questions...)

Oh, and by the way, if you're wondering who Gary Douville is, check this:

And it turns out he can CX in addition to TT, as he is the SoCal elite champ and got 36th at the Elite nationals in Bend last weekend!

The Scream

Casitas in the big ring while seated is the easy part. It's the torture session with The Stick afterward that kills. I hope the neighbors didn't hear the screaming last night.

Why do it? Because it works, that's why.

Soft?!? Hmphff!

I crossed paths three times today with HE-IS-TED-KING including a joint jaunt up Old San Marcos during which I whined about our upcoming storms. To that he responded, and I quote, "You California riders are too soft!" So as he turned down 154 to get coffee and escape my babbling, I felt the need to defend the honor of CA cyclists everywhere, and so I continued on up Painted Caves and East Camino Cielo. The higher I went, the colder it got. Near LaCumbre peak, the wind was whipping in gusts approaching 10 mph, and the temperature in the shadows was surely near 40 degrees. Brrrrrrr. Undeterred, I pressed on through patches of snow at least 1 mm deep, see:

Whatcha say now, huh!?

A Perfect Weekend

Finally, after six months of things-are-not-quite-right weekends, the past 48 hours have been pretty much perfect. Allow me to bore you with the details....

Wife's Holiday Party
I've been told that a classic symptom of an introvert is that you dread going to parties, but you almost always end up having a really good time. That's me to a tee. Gina has worked at the same company for 24 years and I think I've been to all but one of her company's holiday parties. Some years are more memorable than others --the drunken, skirt-lifting affair comes to mind-- but they're always enjoyable. Like Friday: Tasty food and wine, along with good conversation. Our table won the trivia contest, albeit with some help from internet-connected iPhones. Then, after dinner, Gina danced and I played poker. The first few hands were bleak. The dealer was flirty with the cuties, and Lady Luck was not flirty with me. Twice I lost big with two pair, and then when I drew an inside straight, I ended up splitting the pot. But on the final hand of the night, when everyone goes all in, I nailed a flush and took it all.

Saturday Ride (Bonk-a-rama!)
All week I'd been excited to do the group ride, especially with near-certain rain for the next four days. Plus I really, really need to train. But all that logic goes out the window when the alarm goes off and you're still dog tired and outside the covers is dark and freezing cold and really early. Inside the covers is cozy warm and my sweetie is near. Why get up?! Because, that's what we do, isn't it. 8:00 downtown and I see that 40-50 other riders also got up in the cold dark early. The ride began with nice chatty tempo pace, but as per normal, the climbs sorted us out. I immediately fell back from the leaders and decided the remainder of this ride should be done solo. Skip the regroup, onward to the lake, Ventura, and up the coast back toward SB. Nice power on the rollers at first, but by three hours my fuel light went on and all I had left to eat was a small baggie of raisins. 40 miles to home.

Side story: I have a personal Thanksgiving tradition, and it goes something like this. Leave mid-morning for a four-hour ride. Carry no food. Inevitably a nice bonk will arrive at about three hours, just when the aromas from amazing Thanksgiving feasts begin to waft into the air. Savor the sensations: gnawing hunger, weak legs, slight headache, delicious smells. My theory is, a good old fashioned bonk kicks your metabolism and fitness up a notch.

Anyway, back to the weekend... I missed the Thanksgiving bonk ride this year, so Saturday looked like a good make-up opportunity. By Carp, I was mindlessly turning circles in the 39x17 at 15 mph. By SB, I moved up to the 19 and down to 13 mph. Literal State St. crawl. I saw big-time pro I-AM-TED-KING sitting alone at a coffee shop in full Cervelo kit, and my normal pro-ho tendency would have been to stop and chat (annoy, harass, stalk) him, but this bonk was serious business so I plodded on by. The smell of In-and-Out onion rings almost killed me, but I persevered. At 4 hours and 50 minutes, I arrived home and went straight to the kitchen to fry up some eggs and drench some toast with melted butter which I enjoyed immensely while growing mushrooms in my chamois.

A Nap!!!
After a long ride, a meal, and a shower ...is there anything better?

A Marathon in Town
A huge, huge event for our little community and the organizers did an incredible job of pulling it off. The Santa Barbara International Marathon had a couple thousand runners, which seems like a pretty good turn-out for an inaugural event. Gina decided to run (her 12th marathon in 12 years!) so I rode around to cheer and snap a few pictures of her and some other runners:

One of the most amazing things about Gina is her consistency and her ability to stick to a plan. All but her very first marathon have been in the 3:20-3:30 range. This year she targeted 3:30 which is a nice even time with a bit less pressure than her usual 3:20 goal. Despite the constantly changing slope of our local roads, she stuck to the effort level she knew was right and completed the 26.2 in 3:29:58. Incredible.


And you thought Chicken Rancher Gabe Garcia was just a sprinter! Look at him smiling here on the Cliff Dr. hill after already pounding out 23 miles. His goal was 3:30 also but he went a tad too fast and finished in 3:29:21. Congrats Gabe!


Lunchtime OSM rider Leif Reynolds is also a good runner and this was his 3rd (?) marathon so he knew what he was doing. He also looked quite comfortable climbing that brutal hill on his way to a 3:16:44.


Lots of press about the fast women entrants, and the smart money was on local speedster Drea McLarty to take the vee. But press leads to pressure, which can be a burden on race day sometimes. Well, not this time. She ran away from the field to win in a powerful 2:52:23, 11th overall and a solid eight minutes in front of the next woman. Wow!

Also notable for the cycling community was Eric Forte's performance (2:51:13 for 9th overall) and Nikola Valerjev's run in 3:26:31. Who says cyclists can't run?!

So inspirational was this event and those awesome runners, that I'm going to join the fun next year.


Farmers' Market, Lunch, and Coffee
...with brother and sister-in-law on Sunday afternoon. Nice that he'll still hang with us common folk since he's now a national TV star after his appearance on "Top Chef" and all. Rumor has it he'll be on a future episode of "The Bachelor" as well! Really.

Gardening
My garden really suffered during the remodel, but now it's finally getting the attention it needs. Amazingly, a bunch of summer crops were still producing so I picked a few things...


...and also finally planted my winter veggies. From seed: lettuce, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, cilantro, onions, Fava beans, and peas. Also pushed a bunch of garlic cloves in the ground. As soon as the rain lets up, I'll plant a bunch of flower seeds too, so that by next spring and summer we can have a beautiful mix of color and food. The added bonus, of course, is that the flowers will attract and feed a diverse population of predator bugs that keep the pests under control. Nature is amazing.

So that was my weekend, and it doesn't get any better than that.

Wild (??) Life

These Bobcats have been living at the lake a half mile from my house...

As cute as they are, for their sake, I hope they move on to a more wild habitat.