Good Times in SoCal

Beths ocean swim saturday morning was pretty awesome - about 350 people doing the 2 miles from Balboa pier to Newport Pier - Beth in 42min. After that a really warm ride doing the climbs in Laguna, 90+ degrees, very hard effort, 6mph = hot. The group ride was good again on Sunday and got in a couple extra hours with Manny afterward. Thursday afternoon we're off to Colorado.

The start

Lots of swimmers

Beth warming up after

Me after the 2 miles (just kidding)

We finally have a new camera so expect to start seeing some more photos. My rides the last 2 evenings have gone until dark and been pretty draining. What a good feeling though...

I've set my mind on Nationals and the 3 remaining US Cup / Pro Tour races as my focus for the rest of the year. Those are by far the most competitive xc races left in the US this year, and that's where I want to be competing. Vermont Aug 8, Windham NY Aug 16 and Vegas Sept 26. This part of the season is much different than the spring here in CA though. There are far less local races (at least good size ones) to go after. Flat crits in the industrial area of Long Beach just don't do it for me.

Looking forward to Beth's first ocean swim / race of the summer, some tour watching, and the group ride this weekend...

Nats Preparation

Riding and life have been going well the last couple weeks. A couple new best times up the Cholla and Old Camp climbs, busy at work, but not too busy, and some time to actually relax on the weekend. My schedule pretty much includes rest days on Mon & Tue, one of them completely off and an easy spin the other day. Short intervals (something I only do a few times per year) on Wed and Tempo ride through Santiago Canyon on the road bike Thursday. Off Friday and train hard again Sat and Sun for a total of 14 hours or so.

We're going to road trip it to Colorado, which is always an experience. At least I can bring chain lube and CO2 for my bike though.

The training has had me eating a lot, but i'm listening to my body and not getting too skinny and losing a little muscle like last year. Did have to go to bed a little early last night to keep from eating more brownies though...

A little reminder before the tour

Eating for the Tour

well written - http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=stein/090701

No World Cup

USAC is giving the nod to the u-23 riders for the Canada World Cups. Makes sense to me from USACs point of view for developing up and coming riders. At the same time it helps prove the fact that USAC has let our National Series suffer the last couple years and that does limit some other riders.

The weekend flew by, I guess that's what happens when training a lot. Friday eve I had a great mtn bike ride and killed my previous best time up to old camp. From the gate where the dirt starts to the top is now under 40min...

Saturday was another nice day along the coast down to Torrey Pines and Sunday Noah and I found out that it's too hot to ride in the Santa Monica mountains in the middle of the day. The awesome scenery and tough climbs will bring me back there in the fall or winter though.

Can't wait for the Tour to start so I don't stoop to the level of watching Bachelorette 2 weeks in a row.

Train low, sleep low, race high, right?

Round 2

Yesterday I started some heavy training for the late summer races. I will have a solid 3 week block and a taper week before nationals. After that will be at least a couple weeks of big races (tbd) on the East Coast. I've petitioned to USAC for entry to the World Cups since I don't have 20 UCI points to enter on my own. Being top 20 in our national series 3 years in a row and only having 5 UCI points is a little frustrating. Hopefully the momentum from this years US Cup series continues and all of the races can be class 1 UCI like the Canada Cup in 2010. Windham NY was awarded the World Cup finals next year which is huge.

Last night I found out that 30 sprints / accelerations makes for a hard workout, but the ride goes by fast since the rest periods seem so short mentally.

Skipping the local races this weekend to focus on some hilly endurance rides.

Is it weird that hearing that Beth got us Wallaby yogurt on sale may have been the highlight of my day?

What about this photo - weird for a pro mtn bike race?

Apparently the food vendors in the background were selling deep fried snickers bars...

Cool Stuff

World Cups draw many thousands

Ever wonder how many people come out and watch the UCI World Cups? Wonder no more... the UCI released the following numbers of spectators at each of this year's World Cups:

Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (XC/DH/4X): 17,000
Offenburg, Germany (XC): 16,000
Houffalize, Belgium (XC/4X): 20,000
La Bresse, France (DH/4X): 22,000
Vallnord, Andorra (DH/4X): 10,000
Madrid, Spain: 12,000

World Bicycle Relief - Velonews Article by Zack - http://www.velonews.com/article/93508/tech-feature-world-bicycle-project-zambia-bike

On-line store - http://www.kintera.org/AutoGen/eCommerce/Category.asp?ievent=281878

Rest week for me - taking it easy, getting some things done, and planning the rest of the season. First surf outing this weekend?

Pro XCT - Co Springs

A very cool weekend of racing in Colorado. I felt good on race day and rode a really solid race for 24th. The course was tight and fast at the same time making the racing really close. I really wanted a top 20 at this one, but I lost just a tiny bit of gas on the last last and the group I was with got away from me. There was another large group behind me which I did manage to keep out of sight. Looking back I had a good start and rode all the climbing sections at my limit, the place to make up time would have been on the downhills on lap 1 and 2... but I was in a train of guys each time and there was no way for us to go at full speed on the tight trails.

The venue was really cool, great location, course fun, xc call up and start were a little un-organized, short track (which I didn't race) wasn't run very well, and I don't think they called up the top 5 pros for the Kenda Cup West Series. That was probably better for me since I think I finished a close 6th.

Colorado was beautiful as usual and we were also able to check out Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak. Of course too much time having fun on a travel day can leave things a little rushed at the airport. Ended up packing my bike up under a car wash at a gas station while it rained just outside the airport.

Anyway, cycling dirt has a cool video and some results listed - http://www.cyclingdirt.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235180-us-pro-xct-4-sand-creek-international-classic/186727-men-s-xc-colorado-springs

Very close racing on lap 1

Cruised in style all weekend

Sunday morning ride through Garden of the Gods

Awesome weekend in SoCal

The weather along the coast was amazing this weekend. I took advantage with about 10 hours of riding between Friday 5pm and Monday 8am. Mountain bike Friday eve, group ride Saturday morning, group ride Sunday morning, then ride to Solana Beach and took the train home in the afternoon! Dee's visiting and we had a great time walking some beaches Saturday and riding past a lot more on the way to Solana Sunday. Sometimes I go a couple weeks without really going to the beach (even though I see the coast while riding) and when I do I'm always reminded how nice it is and how lucky I am to live in such a cool place.

Feeling about 90 percent healthy now, one hard workout tomorrow and then it's just a matter of getting rested and focused for Colorado Springs this weekend...

Back to work

I definately have the sinus infection that has been going around. It's crazy how I was able to stay healthy all last week and how quickly it came on after the race Sunday eve. There's a good race video that captures the action really well on http://cyclingdirt.org/

A couple photos from Alabama...

Oak Mountain State Park is really nice

Crowds at the race

Where were all the big names during the amateur races?

Alabama entertainment

California Wal Marts don't have a rocking chair selection quite like this

Bump

24th at the warm and very fast Bump n Grind yesterday afternoon. A good, but not super race for me. It was a fun race but my start wasn't as good as I needed and I thought we had one more lap to go... good, close racing. Sore throat last night so I may have been racing somewhat sick. Just made my waffle, time to drop the bike off at FedEx and get to the airport.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2009/may09/usproxct_3_09/usproxct_3_091