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!

To Serve and Protect

In the last week, I’ve had a couple of pleasant, short interactions with police officers doing their work. The first one was last Thursday, while I was completing the last of my threshold intervals on Riggs Rd. It looked like the Gila River Indian Community Police had a speed limit operative on this section with about 6 squad card spread over a 1-2 mile stretch, but it was 10 in the morning and the traffic was low. They had one “client” on the other side of the road and as I went by with my head down trying to get through the last seconds of my interval, one of the officers jumps out of the car and yells…”you are doing 26 MPH!” I gave him a thumps up and kept going. He waved, smiled and got back in his car.
Then Today, I was riding to work on 347 and right before Riggs Rd again, two  officers from the Arizona Gang Task Force had pulled a vehicle over on the shoulder and were searching the vehicle with all doors open, therefore, I would have to merge onto 65+ MPH traffic or stop and walk around the right side. As I was starting to slow down, one of the officer saw me coming, tells the other officer and they quickly closed both  doors and moved to the front of the car then waved me to keep going. I thought it was really nice of them.

Anyway, that’s all I got.

Happy Holidays!