On the go

Busy week...

Got to help out at the SoCal Interscholastic Cycling dinner and auction Saturday night - they doubled the attendance from last year (when the League first started) and raised $40k. The items were great, but bidding a little weak. Nice event though on the Queen Mary in Long Beach with some good entertainment from Bob Roll (bashing the French). Of course I left my camera in the car.

Sunday morning I was up early for a big ride with some friends up the Harding climb in the Santa Anas and down Joplin, Santiago Truck Trail and Luge. Of course I didnt want to drive to ride so 5hrs total riding for me.

Busy at work Monday and Tuesday, but we closed down early today and I got in a great cruise to Back Bay and down PCH. Just beautiful out. Rolled through Laguna at 4:30 as the sun was starting to go down and it was like being on the set for the Truman Show - just perfect. Completely sunny and 70 degrees, the ocean was totally calm and a bunch of people hanging on the boardwalk and playing volleyball. Of course no camera again. I have lots of pictures of Laguna but a lot of times still feel it's so nice I need to take another. Also almost got a ski pole in the spokes while on the bike trail - crazy roller bladder not looking where he's going.

6am flight from LAX tomorrow, Thanksgiving day, to DC to visit Beth's family and our new nephew Trent. That means leaving the house right at 4, off site parking because the place is so huge, dealing with crowds, security, and being on the runway as the sun rises... Time for bed.

WBR Donations Matched Through 12/31

All donations to World Bicycle Relief through Dec. 31st will be matched $1 for $1! Pay for one bike and you will be giving TWO bikes to students or families in Zambia! woohoo! Please click below and read how just one bike creates a massive shift in an individual's life in Zambia.

http://www.worldbicyclerelief.org/

4 yrs!

Had a great dinner with Beth last night to celebrate our 4yr anniversary. I'm thankful everyday for the great life we share together. Last night we got to make fun of the thousand or so crazies waiting for the New Moon premier... You know you're at the Spectrum when people are all honking at each other because it's taking too long to get a space in the parking garage and 2 sixteen year old girls in ugg boots get out of their lexus suv to go to the movies.

Actually yesterday was a long one, with an awesome sunrise run down in Laguna Coast wilderness park with Beth before getting some bagel sandwhiches and heading off to work. It's the simple things like a bagel sandwhich that make us happy. I only have one 1.5hr ride other than that as my training for the week, which bothers me, even though it's probably a good thing to do so little since its the off season and all.

Congrats to Manny by the way, really happy to see him achieve his dream and get the win at La Ruta. Knowing Manny, that motivates me more to try La Ruta than Race Across the Sky motivated me to do Leadville.

Not sure who all is racing on Lance's ranch this week, but I would put my money on Sager to give JHK a run for his money there. Not many people can beat Jason when he's on a Tx course and feeling good.

Cross

Had some beautiful weather and good training here this weekend. 4hrs on the road bike along PCH Saturday and one of the Urban Cyclocross races in Torrance yesterday. Cruised up in Noah;s new smart car which was pretty cool. They actually have a factory bike rack that works really well and is really solid for 2 bikes. We raced at a park that was literally hidden in a nice neighborhood up there. For a cross course it was hilly and rough - perfect. I actually would have been faster on my mtn bike. There was a long fast downhill with a single barrier at the bottom, it was pretty bumpy and sandy, but without the barrier you could go full speed. So first thing in warm-up I had to try hopping it. It was pretty tall and I got both wheels over ok but was totally front wheel heavy, rode it for a couple fit and fell on my face in a big pile of dust. So much for that. The races were small and laid back as far as cross races go, which is exactly what I was hoping for. A real hard workout without getting too worked up. Of course living isn't quite like Durango, but there is always one or two top level racers that end up at our local races. Sid Taberly was the guy yesterday. I couldn't hang from the end of the first lap, but still went hard the full length of the race for 2nd and a few extra dollars in my pocket. Just down the freeway is the factory where they make Kings Hawaiian Rolls, mmmm, and they have a fast food type place where you can get some hawaiian style food and rolls. A Kalua pork and steamed rice lunch at 3pm sure is good.

SoCal High School Mtb League benifit dinner this Saturday - http://www.socaldirt.org/events/cyclefest_2009/index.htm

A couple on-line items benifiting them - http://shop.ebay.com/leebirdbtech/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1

I hope to do this one day - http://www.socalcycling.com/articles/2009/neilshirleywbr.asp

One glimpse from CAF Triathlon Challenge

PERSEVERANCE... When our permanently injured military personnel, members of CAF's Operation Rebound, can feel whole again through participation in sports.

Work

I've been spending most of my energy at the office this week, lots going on. I even went a couple days without looking at any cycling websites at the start of the week. Staying in shape is always on the mind though and i hit the gym a couple times with Beth this week. Early mornings are the time to go - the place is a Zoo in the evening. As for today, Beth is in the middle of a her big endurance run before the Vegas marathon as we speak - 20miles up by Newport. At least it's flat with good scenery. Then there's Manny leading La Ruta in Costa Rica, probably finishing stage 3 right now. Seeing him killing it down there makes me anxious to start ramping it up for next year... But for now I need to get back to work. I'll try to keep things fun for a couple more weeks and then at the start of December the balancing act is back on - work, train, rest.

Santiago Peak

Rode from home to the peak this morning. Good times! 3.5hrs to get there, the last 2hrs all climbing. It was a great ride and my toaster pastries and snickers bar kept me well fueled. My endurance pace is now a little off from where it was during the season, so I'm going a slightly slower pace while working at my normal endurance pace. Views from the top at 5,600ft were pretty nice as always. Chose to go down Joplin which is the most direct way. It's the trail the Crank Brothers dropper seat post is named after and is known as a steep, rough, usually overgrown little trail. But it was actually in really nice shape and there were more fun, smooth sections with a little more tree cover than I remember. There was really only 1 section I wish I had a seat dropper seat-post for. Everything else was fine on the full XC set-up. After Joplin it's down the Santiago Truck Trail and The Luge for a 8+ mile single-track descent. Of course I decided to ride out to the trails, so I still had a good 45 minutes to get home. It's gradually down hill, but always a tough stretch of riding for me since it's always at the end of a long one and I'm on the verge of needing to stop for food, but just want to get home. Anyway, 5.5hrs total and once I ate and slept for an hour, it felt great...

Oh yeah - this looks fun - http://www.barnyardclassic.blogspot.com/

What a week

This week flew by. Things have been really busy at work for me and with the time change I don't know where the week went. Last weekend was great with some awesome weather, low key Halloween festivities and cross race on the beach. I've been riding about 2-3 times per, none of them hard, or long, so the cross race hurt just as bad as i thought it would. The course wasn't technical at all, adding to the punishment for me. After missing the front group when things blew up after lap 1 I was pretty much just out there for a good workout - which I got!

I wasn't exagerating about racing on the beach.

Racing bikes year round is a little crazy, but not as crazy as Beth and her friends swimming in costumes in the 57 degree ocean water.

Found a new lookout park in North Laguna i've never been to before

NY Marathon

Only caught a little bit of the TV coverage, but it looked like a good race with American Meb getting the win and Ryan Hall 4th. I wish Hall had that perfect day and got the win, but he will have to wait for another day. http://www.flotrack.org/

Also glad to see these guys are making some good $ - http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/entrantinfo/prize_money.htm