Wednesday, December 20, 2006

My New Team

After a few years racing individually, this next year I'll be racing for a team. The team is called Procon/1st National Bank of Arizona and it's based up in Scottsdale, AZ.


I attended one of the team's meetings and discovered that they are very competitive and race focused. Most of their riders race on the road and less than 20 of them race mountain bikes.

Here is a picture of the team while they prepared for a road race.

The team kits are going to be the same for 2007, so expect to see me wearing those colors in the next couple months.
There are a few more weeks of long rides on the road. Last weekend I rode both days and rode for more than 60 miles each day. Gym work is still going on however my lower back has been bothering me in the last few days so I'll take it easy for a couple days until the doctors clear me to go back to weight work.

That's all for now.

Happy Holidays to all!

Jeff

Friday, December 01, 2006

Something Wrong with this Picture???

So I moved to Arizona with the idea that I never would have to suffer with cold weather....wrong! Look at what the weather is supposed to look like tomorrow. Granted it is December, but 42 degrees...come on, I have a race at Estrella Mountain park starting at 8:00 am. I am not going to like this very much.
Anyway, I just finished up digging some of my winter stuff, like a hat and some gloves to wear tomorrow. I am also planning to ride with cycling tights (sexy) and some kind of head band to keep the ears warm. Wool socks are also ready.
This race is going to be interesting. Two long 10 miles loops of jagged rocks and steep climbs then 5 shorter loops of a technical course and a bunch of small parking lot loops. I hope I dont get dizzy.
Lastly, I am 0-2 on the sponsorship race. I got my second "No Way Man" via e-mail a couple of days ago. This time it was the fine folks at Oakley shades that said no. Appearently I am not pro enough for them. Oh well. There are still 20+ pending requests.
Have a great weekend and check back for results of the race. In the mean time I am going to do something I never thought I would have to do in the Desert....turn the heater on in the house. We try keeping the doors closed and turning all the lights on to generate heat, but it's really hard to sit on my hands while I try to type, so time to turn the heating on.
Pura Vida!
Jeff

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Second DNF in my career

Last weekend I had another rough day on the saddle at the second race of the Dust Devil Series. The race was at the McDowell County Park just north of Phoenix. This was supposed to be a training ride for me. The marathon race was supposed to be close to 50 miles long, which I was supposed to complete at an Endurance pace, according to the results of my fitness test, unfortunately I can't seem to convince myself to take it easy but unlike other times where I finished ready to die, this time I couldn't even finish. Norma did finish her race not before donating some skin from her knees in the process, but she did finish.

Once again, we didn't get enough sleep before the race. Even after trying hard, I still found stuff to get done the night before and didn't go to bed until past midnight. The race was supposed to start at 7:00 AM so we got up at 5:30, Norma made some burritos which we ate on the way and shortly before 6:30 AM we were there. I was curious how we were supposed to start at 7:00 AM if it was still dark 20 minutes before. After completing the registration we were told the start time had been changed to 8. Darn, I could have really used that extra hour of sleep.
Anyway, it was probably good they delayed the start, one because it was a little cold but most importantly, we had left the jug of water to use during the race at home, so that gave us time to go get water from a nearby gas station.
After the last minute scrambling, I went to the start line a few minutes before 8. A quick look at the competition showed me that none of the guys that had beat me at the previous race were there, so I really didn't know how things were going to play out.
And off we went. Just in the first 100 yards it was clear that no one wanted to take the lead, eventually the guy in the inside line took that lead after the first turn and I took his wheel. The first couple miles were through some short rolling hills but the leader's pace was a little slow for my preference and I was wasting a lot of energy keeping his pace, so less than 10 minutes into the race I decided to pass him and set the pace at the front. Two other rider followed my wheel and to make the story short, they stayed on my wheel for the next two laps of 10 miles each. I thought I was keeping a comfortable pace but even when I offered them to take the lead, neither of them was interested. The rest of those laps we rode together in the same order and we never saw the rest of the group behind us.
Shortly after starting the third lap, the guy sitting on 3rd attacked, the guy on my wheel followed and so did I, unfortunately that was my error. The effort of pulling them around the course for more than 20 miles had really wore me out, so when the attacks came I didn't have much left, yet I chased and got back on their wheel. They kept a pretty steady pace until we started passing some of the Sport riders. The traffic helped to bring the pace down but going up one of the steep uphills, one of the Sport riders had a little biff and two of us got stuck behind him. While we waited for him to get his bike out of the way, the guy that had sat on my wheel for the most part attacked and we never saw him again. We tried chasing and I was having a hard time staying on the chaser's wheel but instead of letting him go, I stayed on until the end of the 3rd lap. With 30 plus miles on my legs and at least 18 more to go, my stomach started acting up. First I felt like all the food consumed during the day was growing in my stomach, then there were the nauseous feeling and finally the puking (Sorry for the visual).
The 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th laps were supposed to be shorter (about 3.5 miles each). I struggled to finish the 4th. Stop by the car and try to get rid of some of the weight by leaving the tools and my hydration pack and taking just a bottle, then headed out for the 5th lap. With the Kids race starting just a few minutes before I started that lap, I had the embarrassing opportunity to ride a hill almost at the same pace as a 7 year old girl on her singlespeed, pink bike. That's when you find out that you are not having a good day. The rest of this lap was as painful, with another stop for more regurgitation until I finally made it to the finish line, 3 laps before the end and called it quits.
Yeah, I am not proud of it. I felt guilty for the rest of the day for not staying 'til the end but it was probably the best thing to do, or else I could have had to be taken out in a ambulance. On a positive note, by "finishing" early, I was able to watch Norma finishing her race on 6th place overall and 4th in her age group. She did crash once and had some chain problems but finished strong and with a big smile.

Next up, is more training, some gym work and long training rides. The next race is at Estrella on Dec. 4th and I am hoping to take that one easy and finish it.

Pura Vida!

Jeff

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Finally a Language Specific Blog

I took me a while to get around to do this, but I finally got an additional blog for English only and kept the other one in Spanish.
The reason it took so long is because I am learning as I go. One of these days I though I had lost all the postings but thankfully they all reappeared like magic because I had no idea how to recover them.
Anyway, hopefully once I get time to play around with the website I'll be able to link both blogs up and you can decide in what language you want to read it. This will help to keep the postings short or shorter. Yeah, I know I can go on and on, sometimes without a real idea of what I am writing about.

Anyway, keep reading and don't hesitate to add a comment if you have anything to add.

Pura Vida,

Jeff