New Family Member and Redefining the term "Running out of"

Last week was one of those weeks where I truly enjoy living here. Temperatures were in the 70s, calm winds, slight chance of showers one day and little humidity. What else can one ask for? World peace? Well that...

Anyway, this week we also welcomed a new member to our family, so we have been busy.

His name is "Koko" and he's a 6-week old Chocolate Lab. His mom is an American Chocolate Lab and dad an English Yellow Lab. So far he's been really good. He cried just a little the first night and with the exception of a couple of "number 1" accidents, his potty training is right on schedule.

We brought him home on Thursday, so we could have the weekend to get to know him and figure out a routine. On Saturday, I left for a ride and when I came home he looked so happy to see me, anyone would have thought we had know each other for years.

Sunday, we spent the day doing some chores at home, trimming some plants and getting the backyard puppy proofed. Then, of course we had to allow play time and cuddling time, so I didn't get on the bike until 3PM. About 1 hour into my ride my heart rate monitor strap stopped working. Oh well, time to focus on perceived effort. I had an easy ride, so I had no problem staying in the right zone. Then 30 minutes later my iPod battery dies. Oh man, I was totally rocking to Queen with it died too, so that was a bummer. I also made a last minute change to my riding route and figured that I could make it to Casa Grande and back home before dark. I completely underestimated how long it is from I-10 to the Casa Grande/Maricopa Highway. I had my last power gel right before that, so I had no food left. A few minutes later I also drank the last drop of water from my bottle. By now it's starting to get dark, so I pulled my cell and called home to let Norma know so she wouldn't worry. I barely got through the call before the cell phone battery died. I pushed a little harder, not sure how hard with no HRM monitor, to beat the sun home but I lost, so now I am out of daylight. To make it even better about 2 miles from the house I completely ran out of power, so I barely could turn the pedals to make it home.

Thankfully my wife had dinner ready and after some carboloading and some wine and lots of water I was ready to play with this guy again.

(Here he is "playing" with one of his favorite plants)

Next weekend is Super Bowl weekend, but it'll also mark my 2009 debut in the road racing scene. I'll be racing the skinny tires at the Avondale Crit. This will also be my first race since getting the upgrade to Cat 4 roadie. Now I just have to go relearn how to take corners at speed on the road bike.

Until next time....

Jeff

2009 has started

Yesterday, we started a new racing season at White Tanks. The course out in Waddell, AZ is just a rock trow away from the University of Phoenix Stadium where the Cardinals punched their ticket to the Super Bowl today.
Anyway, there was a little bit of drama the week leading to this race. It involved me, my new Titus Fireline frame, a chisel, a hammer and a trip to the Titus factory here in Tempe. It was a mix of not knowing, getting wrong advise and the desire to ride the new bike prior to the first race. Here is a picture of the titanum frame and its "sexy" chain stays.
Thankfully the guys at Titus were really cool and got me back up and riding. I went home and move all the parts from the trusty ol' Trek and this is what I ended up with...
I got to ride it a little on Friday just to try it and it went really well. It's maiden ride was at Desert Classic. I figure that trail would be a close test for the White Tanks course on race day. Here it sits atop the Helipad with the TV towers of South Mtn as the backdrop.

On Saturday we had to leave our house at o'dark thirty to make it to the race venue on time for Norma to warm up and get ready for her first race as a Cat 2 rider. Here she is at the start of her race. She completed the three laps to the whole course. No skipping the tech sections when you ride as a Cat 2. She seemed to be having a good time and kept her lap times very consistent for an 8th place finish. The rest of the Adrenaline Team had a great results too including a podium sweep in the Women Cat 2 40-49 class. Way to go ladies!

As for my race... well, this picture pretty much sums it up...

(My camera has been acting up, so I don't know what's the deal with the pink shade, but it kinda resembles how everything looked from my eyes at the end of the race)

But if you want the read the details, here you go:

It was defenitely a hard race. The Pro field was pretty big not only in number but in talent too. There was a crash on the second corner which I was able to avoid and ride around. I was able to catch up with the lead train and hang on for a few minutes but I found myself doing the rubber band thingy off the back until it snapped. Teammates Tom and Chris came by and I was able to jump on their wheels. Surprisingly we caught back with the lead group going up the technical switchbacks. Chris got a little bit sideways on the following downhill and with no place to go I hit his rear wheel. My saddle got tilted up and it got pushed all the way back as far a the rails would allow it to go. Fortunately we both were able to keep it up right but I had to ride in a completely different position and I never saw Chris again. Tom and I joined forces with Mimo Futia and Rich Weiss and we worked for the rest of the lap and part of the second lap. We caught Kyle Reedy and lost Rich on the second lap. At this point I also started to suffer leg cramps, probably from the new position my legs were forced to pedal. Right before the tech section on the third lap we lost Tom and Mimo, so I hung onto Kyle's wheel and took turns at the front when I could. We caught Ryan O'Connor halfway into the fourth lap. I attacked them going up the switchbacks and was able to open a gap but it was not big enough, so we all started the fifth and final lap together. Kyle and Ryan started attacking each other and while I was able to hang on for the first couple accelerations, soon the lights went out and I had to switch to damage control. With no one in sight behind me, I rode like a child the rest of the lap until Tim Allen came by me and even though he encouraged me to stay with him, I had nothing left. As I was exiting the last tech section, getting ready to just cruise to the finish, I looked back and saw former teammate Matt Connors coming up. I gave it all I had to keep him behind me and came into the last corner with just a bike lenght advantage. I held the inside line and won the sprint for a hard earned 10th place.

Now it's time to recover and get back into training. My program got all screwed up when I got sick two weeks ago, so now I hope there are no other issues in preparation for the second race on Feb. 7 at McDowell.

Pura Vida!

Jeff

2008 Recap by the numbers

It doesn't seem like that long ago we were just starting 08, putting together race calendars and preparing for another year of racing and riding. Now it's time to do that again, however here are some facts from 2008:

7500+ miles I logged on my bikes. If I was a car, I would be due for my first check up back at the dealership. To put it into perspective, that's the same distance as driving between Phoenix, Arizona and New York City three times!

685 hours spent training during the year. That includes riding, racing and gym time. If I could pay myself minimun wage for that time, I would owe myself about $5000.00

345000 kilocalories burnt during the year while training and racing. That's what I and most people would burn in about 173 days by just being there.

640 kilocalories/hour my average calorie rate during exercise.

37 times I either pinned a number to my jersey or zip tied a race number onto my bike's handlebar. That's about 3.1 races a month.

5 different states where I raced my bike.

Anyway, 2008 was a great year. Norma and I got to go to really cool places, meet great new people, we joined Adrenaline Race Team and a lot of other cool things, so here is my Best of 2008 list.

Best Race: Prescott Punisher. Things just seemed to click that day. I finished 2nd but mostly because I couldn't believe I was in second that instead of trying to chase 1st, I spent the last lap looking back for third to come by me.

Best Training Ride: 6.5+ hour training ride with Art in Durango going over Kennenbeck Pass. Going 20 miles out of the way, almost getting hit by a car, climbing to 12000 feet, running out of water, escaping a thunderstorm...all in the same ride.

Best Trail Ridden: Hermosa Creek in Durango. Even with all the mud puddles.

Best Moment: Winning bonus time sprint at the Summit Center Road Race. Doing that put me virtually into the race lead. Eventually I broke a pedal and couldn't contest the final sprint though!

Best Place Visited: Big Sky, Montana. We were there for Dan and Sarah's wedding. Awesome place.

Best New Product: Fox F80 RLC suspension fork. That thing rocks. And I am not even sponsored by Fox.

There are a lot of other year's best as well as worst, but I'll keep those to myself.

Now looking at 2009, there quite a few races that I am looking forward to. I am also eager to see the results of the training plan that Art created for me. All that time at the gym and on the bike doing drills and what not goes into action in just a couple of weeks.

In the meantime I'll leave you with a picture of my most recent acquisition:

I picked it up just a couple of days ago. It'll take a while until I put it together, but once I do, I may have additional motivation to do a few more road races.
By the way, I should have a new MTB frame too, however I am not sure if I can let it out of the bag yet, but it sounds like I'll be racing 26 inch wheels and the material is not carbon.

Best Wishes in 2009!

Pura Vida!