Time off?

 I've had a lot of time off the bike the last couple weeks, but it's just left me spending more time in front of one of these. 

 Beth in the surfwagon!  Yesterday was a high quality Sunday - trail run and surf with beth , followed by nap and ended with small group study with friends. 

I don't know how to surf though... couldn't even catch the 2-3 footers.  Still fun!

Off season...

It's been kind of tough taking a break from riding!  I'm not dying to ride, but my energy and moods go through a pretty good funk when I stop riding for a couple weeks.  I'm finally coming around and feeling good again, but it's amazing how much rest the body wants after a season of racing.  Once my body starts to rest, it wants more and I'm more tired and hungry then weeks when I'm training. 

Anyway, it's all good and I have 2 weeks before the time change to really enjoy a few good sunset rides and beach hikes.  I'm lucky to have some pretty cool single track within a few minutes ride of home and I plan to start taking better advantage of that during the off season. 

Let the mountains sing together for joy (ps98:8) - see you on the trails!

Thank you!

Today I just have to say thank you!  It's been a great year for me.  Busy, but great.  First and foremost thank you to the Lord Jesus for his grace, my health, family, friends, and opportunities.  Athletes tend to be hard on themselves and end up taking their basic health for granted.  I'm truly blessed and need to do a better job reminding myself of that.

Thank you to my amazing wife Beth for your love and support behind everything I do.  I don't think Beth has ever, not even once, discouraged one of my bike racing plans once I had my mind set.  And I have a lot of bike racing plans!  Thank you to my awesome family and friends for all of your encouragement.  And thank you to Trek, Jax Bicycle Center, Cytosport, Clif Bar, and Schwalbe for your support. 

California State Championships

1hr 45min at a 185 heart rate and 99.9 degrees was a good effort to end the year!  Saturday was a really fun 7 minute Super D and I was able to take the win by just a few seconds over Ben Bostrom.  On Sunday it was Ben who held me off by a few seconds... 

I welcomed the heat going into the day, hoping it to use it to my advantage.  When it's 100 degrees and the course is completely exposed to the sun, a little pacing, and extra cooling can go a long ways.  Ben and Sid opened a gap on the main climb of the first lap and I already wasn't feeling that great due to the heat, but knew I just had to rely on my own pacing and be patient.  Beth was awesome in the feedzone as always and kept me cool and hydrated.  The plan seemed to be working as I caught Sid and Ben going into the second lap.  Then they opened a gap again on the main climb.  Then I came back up to Sid again going into the third and final lap.  But this time Ben held his gap and opened it up even more on the climb.  There wasn't much chance of me catching him in the last 15 minutes of racing after he had been stronger all day, but I kept my head down and effort up.  In the end I brought him back into sight and the gap to 7 seconds, but that was everything I had!  It was straight to the snow cone stand and into the pool for me!  I didn't get the win but it was a great effort and fun weekend with friends to end the season. 

I'm so grateful for the year that Beth and I have had.  Last night I realized it was 15 years ago that I did my first mountain bike race, I've been racing for half of my life!!  The love won't die!

Fall is Here!

 Fall is here!  Finally SoCal will start turning a little more beautiful again.  This afternoon I'm off to pre-ride the xc course and race the super d for my last race of the year - the CA State Championships.  Seasons are changing! 

I though my breakfast today was just awesome so I took a picture, sometimes i'm a dork!

Work

Work.  That is pretty much my story this week and last.  Life is good though and I'm looking forward to my last workout this evening and my last big effort on the bike this Sunday at the State Champs in Temecula!

Marathon Nationals

I had an amazing ride in Bend.  My goal was simply to ride in the moment that day and pour out every bit of energy I had into my riding.  Of course I knew if I was able to do that I might also be looking at a top 10 at a national championship.  It was a good day to have a good ride!

After a mellow cruise out of town on the highway the race blew apart as soon as we hit dirt for the first time.  The entire course was super dusty and went back and forth between some single track and double track in the early miles before hitting the middle of the course which was mostly fast, twisting single track.  I was honored to trade some pulls with Dave Weins for about an hour or so early on before chasing and eventually working with Ben Bostrom throughout the middle of the race.  We were in 10th - 15th place most of the way and I was riding well and having a good time.  Once we went through the last feed zone I knew it was time to start digging, and I upped the pace as much as possible as the trails started going gradually downhill back towards town.  I was thinking about how much I love riding fast and really enjoyed pushing myself to try and catch the next guy up the trail.  In the end I worked myself to the limit and actually caught a few guys, putting me up to 7th place on the day!

I have to admit I've been struggling a bit since then!  Instead of training today, I decided I was better off with rest day #4 after being tired and hungry pretty much the entire day at work...  not too mention the sugar cravings and moodiness!  Recovering can definitely be harder than training


Garmin

Results

Anyone have photos?!

Marathon Nationals

It's so nice to be resting up in Oregon!  Mon - Wed were way too busy at work and wore me out a little more than I would like going into a big race.  I did get in the one good ride I was looking for during the week on Tue evening though.  Wednesday was 10 hours at work, followed by packing for some early morning travel Thur morning... 

Since then, things have been really chill in Bend, which is exactly what I needed.  It doesn't even feel like a race weekend yet, but that will change late this morning when we head out for some pre-riding and registration!  9am tomorrow is 50 miles of reportedly dry, fast trails, with only about 4,000ft of climbing total.  I'm just looking forward to putting in one last long effort for the season and seeing where that puts me at the finish

Vacation's Over!

Returning home from vacation always means a lot of catching up to do.  Returning home from a 3 week vacation...  actually wasn't that bad.  Despite a cold last week and being really busy at work, things are good!  It helps a lot to be training less this time of year.  Tuesday was the only workday that I did a workout this week and it was a tough day.  At work by 7:30, worked pretty much straight through to 5, then on the bike from my office, and not home until 7:45 (a lot more worn out then 12 hours earlier when I left).  Not too big of a deal one day week, but it was tiring, and I'm not sure how I was doing those days back to back earlier in the year. 

Of course I was riding for a reason and the season isn't over just yet...  This weekend I'm in for the Racers and Chasers 100mi race in San Diego (tomorrow actually) and after some prayer, I decided to take a chance at Marathon Nationals in Bend on the 17th!!   100mi mountain bike races have become a lot more popular lately, but I really had no desire to do one, until I saw Racers and Chasers making one happen.  They promote some really good races in SoCal and the course has "only" 10,000ft of climbing so it's not too much of a beast.  The hope is that I don't work my body over too bad and bounce back for a strong ride in Bend the next week.  Marathon Nationals is half the distance at 50 miles, but will be raced at a lot higher intensity.  I was pretty unsure about going to Bend while busy at work and only a week after the 100 miler I had already committed to.  But I'm taking a bit of a step in faith and we'll see what happens.

We'll leave this with a pretty strong verse for the day “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love ….” Romans 8:38-39

Swiss Bike Trophy Bern

So I thought it would be cool to ride the Swiss Bike Trophy a few days after the Grand Raid...  for the most part it was cool.  The Swiss Bike Trophy was a 1 hour race, in the evening, on mountain bikes, around the Swiss Capitol building in Bern, on 1.6k of streets and sidewalks, with man made obstacles.  Not exactly a normal mountain bike race. 

Bern was awesome though, it was definitely the coolest large city I've been to in Europe with a sweet river running through town and people on bicycles everywhere.  

The race venue was an awesome scene with lots of spectators, a jumbo screen showing the race, music, food and beer tent.  The women's race was fun to watch and then a nasty thunderstorm rolled in for the start of the men's race.  The first lap was a literal traffic jam for the second half of the field and riding around in the dark and rain, jumping off slippery wood ramps was only fun for about 3 or 4 laps.  That's how long it took until I got lapped so it was all good!  It wasn't much of a race for me, but a super cool event!

  

Grand Raid

There were 2 reasons I chose to go after the Grand Raid this summer: any endurance race through the Swiss Alps has to be pretty cool, and it was a qualifier for the 2012 marathon world championships.  I originally planned to do a UCI race in Austria the weekend of the Grand Raid, because the Grand Raid looked too long...  125k with 15,000ft of climbing and a winning time of 7:10 in 2010.  I've never even ridden my mountain bike that long, let alone raced that long.  But when I saw the Grand Raid was on the calendar as a qualifier for the 2012 marathon worlds I had a change of heart.  It was a good choice!

The Wednesday before the race I got an idea how cool the race would be when Beth and I went out to preview the middle part of the course.  Permanent course markers on all of the trails and roads, amazing views down into the Sion Valley and later views of the glaciers above Evolene, and a few sections of actual single track!  The course is a super cool point to point starting in the famous ski town (and tour de france mountain top finish) of Verbier.  From there it's up over a pass, down into the town of Nendaz, and a repeating of several more passes and cool Swiss mountain towns.  Each town had a feed zone on the main street and the feeds are fully stocked with bottles, gels, and food hand ups for all riders. 

Race morning dawned with perfect weather and a short 10min warm-up was all that was needed with the long day ahead.  From the gun I felt pretty good, but paced myself a little slower than the week before at Eiger Bike.  I was still riding in the top third of the 100 elite riders at the top of the first 3,000ft climb and rolled pretty comfortably with a small group of riders from there...  A lot goes through the mind during such a long race, but I've really found some joy in trying to just be in the moment and that was my focus for the next several hours.  Not thinking about anything and simply riding in the moment...

A few hours of mountain roads and trails later I made my way down into Evolene for my second and last feed from Beth.  I was riding just inside the top 30 and feeling good, but knew the biggest climb was still ahead.  The section that looked scariest on the profile was also the section I didn't pre-ride.  A climb from 4,000 up to 9,000ft which included at least a little bit of hike of bike at the top...  By now I was a catching a lot of riders doing the shorter version (they start at other towns midway along the long course and go to the same finish) but the other Elites were pretty well spread out.  I got back in the moment and ground out some 10-12% jeep road climbing for I don't know how long, probably a full hour.  I passed one guy and one guy passed me.  Then at some point we were getting above the tree line and came around a bend to see one of the craziest sights I've ever seen in a race.  Way up on a barren ridge ahead there was a line of riders that looked like little ants from where I was, all walking straight up the slope.   A couple minutes later I rolled to the bottom of the ridge and the road we were on ended, with only a hiking trail going on.  It was a very long 30 minutes of pushing my bike up the rocky scree before making it to a huge cheering crowd at the top.  I have no idea how all the swiss families and fans got out there to the middle of nowhere, but they were on the 9,000ft pass cheering us on. 

From there I knew there was a 15k descent to look forward to.  The top 20, which would qualify for worlds, was out of grasp.  But I was loving the moment, my legs still worked, and I pushed as hard as I could on the descent.  The bottom half turned into some fairly technical trail and I was able to blow by a couple elite riders before dropping into the finish where thousands of riders and friends were cheering everyone in.  It was super cool and felt amazing to finish such an amazing day on the bike.  I was blessed that day and definitely felt it.

Only later that evening when Beth and I made it to out hotel was I able to pull up the full results.  Turns out I was riding a couple spots further up in the field than I thought and the guys I passed on the last downhill actually put me into 20th overall on the day.  The dream of going to worlds is alive and well!

RESULTS

GARMIN

Grand Raid

That was a tough day!  http://services.datasport.com/2011/mtb/GrandRaid/RANG091.HTM 

Still recovering, more detailed report soon!