Saturday, June 26, 2010

7 Sisters

Just finished the 7 sisters climbing loop - 40 miles with 6,000ft of climbing - here's a random link i found for the route - http://connect.garmin.com/player/35117688

No PR's, but one of the best all around rides I've ever had for all 7 climbs


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Keep on keepin on

Another busy week (and a half) has flown by. Work, riding, and trip planning are pretty much the only things I have done since the last post (besides eating and sleeping). It's a really weird balance trying to work hard at work and training, yet maintaining some level of rest. Beth and I somehow have it down well, but not quite well enough to spring out of bed when the alarm clock goes off. The body wants just a little more sleep...

I ended up with a lot of time on the mountain bike over the weekend - 2 x 1.5hrs on Saturday and a big ride that turned into nearly 5 hrs with Manny on Sunday. He's finishing prep for the BC Stage Race starting this weekend and it was good for me to top off the endurance before hitting basically all shorter, higher intensity rides for the next few weeks. Although we got the intensity up some just to get up the Trabuco trail and some sections of upper San Juan. I also won the California Super D series at the same time, even though I wasn't at the final race up in Big Bear. A nice byproduct of a couple good runs earlier in the season!

My photography the last couple weeks hasn't existed, but here's a shot of Beth in Sonoma last weekend. We're happy that her transition into swim lessons / coaching continues to go well. If you're in SoCal and know anyone interested in lessons or private swim coaching, pass them along!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Training

Well, training for the world cups has begun. After dedicating a lot of my time and energy to racing throughout the last 10 years, I decided that I had to experience competing at the highest level before I ever moved on from racing. Well I won't be ready to move on for a couple more years, but I'm going after the Switzerland and Italy world cups this July. In planning my training for the last few weeks leading up to the races I came across this quote from our Pastor Rick Warren -

"Wanting to be the best at anything is a competitive ambition, not a Life Mission. You were created for a purpose far greater"

Although I'm going to work and rest as hard as I can to be at my best for these races, my goals are not to be the best. My goals are more along the lines of using the gifts God gave me to their fullest and cycling just happens to be one of my gifts.

As far as the actual training goes, the work week last week was spent trying to rest and recover. After that i hit the road for 4.5 hrs saturday followed by the Como Street group ride Sunday. There are some great training races going on here in Orange County now - Tuesday night mountain bike races (with 300 people showing up each week!) and Thursday night crits - both within a 1hr ride of my office. The plan is to do my own workouts for the first 2 weeks of my training block though and hit the training races the 3rd week. We'll see how it goes. This week my 2 main workouts are short V02 intervals today (2 sets of 4-5 climbs up cholla on the mtn bike) and a tempo workout through Santiago Canyon Thursday. This weekend will either be the CA State Series race in Big Bear or a threshold climbing ride Saturday followed by the group ride Sunday.

Wish me luck and I'll keep everyone posted on the progress.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

CA High School Champs

How cool is this! Check out how many riders were at the high school state championships in Norcal! - http://norcalmtb.org/race/2010/RiderResults4.html

Also, a blog I've been following to get a little more insight on the training program of a world class marathoner (and a cyclist named Lance - see the tab at the top of the page for his blog)... http://www.facebook.com/mastertheshift?v=app_120924954597506

Sunday, June 6, 2010

US Cup Ellings Park

Well it was an interesting weekend for me and I got worked over for the most part at the US Cup at Ellings Park, Santa Barbara. After a potential lawsuit scare from some crazy rich people in a nearby neighborhood, the race luckily happened as scheduled. It's a really tight 6 mi course winding around a hill overlooking the Pacific in the middle of Santa Barbara - beautiful!

This was the 3rd and final stop of the US Cup Regional Triple Crown, so there was a short track and Super D on Saturday for the pros and $ on the line. But only 4 pros showed up for the Saturday races... now it will be hard for the others to complain about Team Big Bear races not having prize money, when they don't show up for the ones that do. In the short track my legs had no response and I rode poorly enough for 4th out of 4... I figure no problem, the Super D is a time trial format on a course that suits me pretty well and the legs would now be ready to go. I was having a good, most likely winning run and next thing I know I'm sliding on the ground. I pick it up and try to finish strong, but the momentum is gone. Oh and I was the first rider on course and had to run over a big snake on the trail right after the crash.

Dinner in Santa Barbara was great, I suspected my legs should be opened up after the Saturday efforts, and I was mad - all pointing to a great XC race Sunday. And I did have a good race, just not great. We had a lot more competitive field with 15 fast guys and I punched it from the start. At the top of the first climb Tinker and Menso De Jong (recently 3rd at collegiate road nats) came by and I didn't have any response. I felt ok, but looking back on it, my heart rate stayed close to 10 beats below where it normally goes when racing and I didn't have the high end needed on this course. I rode like 15 seconds behind Menso the whole way and settled for 3rd. I wish I was having a good enough day to battle with Tinker but that will have to be for another time. A good race for not being so fresh though and it ended up putting me in a tie with Aaron Bradford and Jason Siegle for the overall on the weekend. I finished ahead of both of them in the XC and at least came away with the win for the triple crown...

http://www.uscup.net/up/file/TRIPLE_CROWN_REGIONAL_STANDINGS.pdf

It was a good weekend, but I'm a little disappointed knowing I didn't ride up to my potential and truly take advantage of the fitness i've been blessed with right now. It seems the Texas race took a lot out of me and the work week was a little too busy to recover 100%.





Saturday, June 5, 2010

Still workin it

Well a lot came together for me last weekend at the race in Texas. One of my main goals for the season was to get top 10 at a national, and Sea Otter or Mellow Johnny's were the two I was going after. It was awesome to have my training going well. I put together a great race being aggressive where I needed to and backing off where I needed to, and the best part was doing it in Texas with family and friends there.

Of course taking a couple days off work always makes the next week busier, and this week flew by trying to get caught up at work. I did get in a couple fairly good rides, and did a fairly good job of resting, so I should be good to go for the West Coast Triple Crown race in Santa Barbara this weekend. I'm really looking forward to racing with a view of the Pacific and 70 degree breezes!
Then it's time to put together a training plan for Downieville and the World Cups... two of the most opposite races there are...

Dee at Mellow Johnnys - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfIf6Xl9cNU

Matt in the feedzone
Kath getting back to her usual ways