February 1st, 2010

I have neglected my responsibilities here and have left this page dormant for almost a month. Thats what 2 weeks of vacation will do. I didn't end up bringing my bike back east due to logistics, money, and weather. It was really cold there.

Last Sunday I rode GMR with Jordan and Wes. GMR is Glendora Mountain Road and goes up towards Mt. Baldy. This was my first ride in a while because it was really cold out and I wimped out. I felt great that day, even though I had on a base layer, a long sleeve jersey, a long sleeve thermal jersey, a knit cap, knee warmers, embrocation, winter gloves, and booties. We went up the back side, through East Fork, which turned out to be a good idea because there was no way we could have gone down it with all of the ice patches. The road up the mountain was closed, but we hopped the barricade and continued on our way.

The best part about GMR is going down, and even though it there was a lot of debris on the road from rain and flooding, it was extremely fast and fun. This was mostly due to the fact that there was no car or motorcycle traffic at all. I better get used to GMR, our team is getting ready for the San Dimas Stage Race in March and the first day is a time trial up the front side. Oh Joy. The ride was 3 and a half hours and 53 miles.



On Tuesday I did an easy 2 and a half hour ride with Ashley and Scott. Scott is a junior who I have helped before and is a pleasure to ride with. Its good to see kids really excited about bikes, but not turning into jerks at the same time.

We started in the Back Bay and went east to Tustin/ Orange. There are some great little climbs in the hills of Tustin and I am only now getting acquainted with them all. Scott, being the 16 year old that he is, didn't understand what easy meant and kept jumping on up the hill while Ashley and I had a conversation. This wasn't rude, just funny. The ride was 2 and a half hours and 35 miles.

Saturday, Wes and I decided to test our legs out in a local fast paced group ride called Food Park. We only recently got our new kits and some product from our sponsors, Kenda Tires and Enverit supplements, so we took longer to get on the rode than we had expected and had to go at "oh sh!t I'm late" speed. This 10 mile warm up actually only made us stronger and when we met up with the group our plan to stay in the back and just see if we could hang on switched to "let's alternate pulls at the front and contest all of the sprints." Man was it fun to get the blood moving in my legs again at that speed with other people around me. It feels like its been a year since my last race.

The ride goes up Church Hill in Laguna Woods through the Canyon to PCH and back to the Back Bay on its way to Irvine. This ride turned out to be a big confidence builder for Wes and I. We both plan on mixing it up in sprints this years with the others help, so it was great for the both of us to not only see that we were capable of a good kick, but that our team mate was right there too. It was a great day to be on the bike. The ride was 3 hours and 58 miles, with an average speed of 19 mph.

Sunday I headed back out to Pomona to meet Wes and his friend Aaron for an "easy" ride, or so it was advertised haha. We ended up doing the same ride we had done a week earlier with Jordan, up the back side of GMR. I went decidedly slower this time up the hill, because I didn't feel like blowing my legs up after the ride the day before. Going down is always full on though, its my reward for going up right? The ride was 3 and a half hours and 53 miles.


Today was a day off the bike, but I did hit the gym with Dane. We did squats, dead lift, and bench press. Since I am no longer in the building phase of my weight training (that has been replaced by more intense road work outs) I do not hit the same peaks I used to. This means my body isn't in much pain at all after go home and shower. I think I will keep the gym as long as I can, it has worked so far.

Team Becher+ received our new kits from Champion Systems this past week. I am extremely excited to now be an "official" member of the team. I am also excited to have my first skin suit for the track, the LA velodrome has almost 2 races a month it seems!

Song of the day: Alaska in Winter - Close Your Eyes We Are Blind

	Alaska In Winter - Close Your Eyes - We Are Blind .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

January 7th, 2010

This week is an off week for me. I will spin the wheels a little, but that is about it. It wasn't so much planned as it was forced with traveling this week back east and starting a new job (the job and the trip are mutually exclusive, the job is in Fullerton, CA)

January 6th, 2010:
Dane and I went to the pool and did an hour work out. Swimming is extremely hard for me. The more body fat I lose the more I sink. Also I have girly arms and big legs, swimmers have big manly arms and less big but not girly legs. It sure helped to stretch my back out. I will love/hate including it more in my weekly training for January.

I did notice that I was EXTREMELY tired after we were done. Its amazing to me that i can ride for 6 hours and come home and be a little drained but still able to do things and after a shower I'm fine. After swimming I fell right back asleep for more than an hour. Perhaps its because there is no eating during swimming.

Dane and I figured out a "great" way to work on strength in the pool. We run half the distance of the pool with the other person doing a "dead man's float" on their back. No less than 4 attractive women walked into the pool area while we were doing this exercise, and none of them stayed very long.

After work I had a hockey game in Anaheim at 9:10. For some reason this league has become a lot for physical lately. I'm sure its because our team is a lot faster and more skilled than the other teams, but I really don't play hockey anymore to knock people around. I did at one time, but now I don't need to blow off steam. I just really enjoy skating, so its a shame that this has happened. I'm sure it means we will become more physical again; at one time our team was kicked out of the league for being too dirty, so we cleaned up. I feel like Sean Avery. I will be gone from hockey for a few game so maybe I'm the problem and they will prosper.

January 5th, 2010:
Went on a 2 and a half hour ride with Dane just to keep blood in the legs. We found a great new climb in Tustin that I will being doing repeats on in the near future. I did the whole thing in my big ring.

There are actually a lot of roads around me that need to be explored and I am knocking them off one by one. It is not uncommon for me to say "lets take this road" on a ride now; know ahead of time that I don't know where I am going. Whats the worst that can happen?

Like I mentioned earlier, I will be away for a few weeks. I am worried about how cold it will be. I should have been riding early in the AM to get used to the cold, but 70 degrees feels so nice. I am excited either way though because I will get a chance to explore 3 states I have never ridden a bike before (well Washington DC is not a state, but its new). I will take lots of pictures and hopefully make new friends.

One thing I am sad about, is that I will be missing my team's first camp of the new season. I still have not met everyone on my team, so this would have been a great opportunity for me. We are going to have a second camp in February though, and I hope we do it around the Boulevard course in San Diego. I have never done that race and would like to see it first, as would Dave.

Song: INXS - Mystify

	INXS - Mystify .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

January 4th, 2010; Supplemental Post

Dave's bike for Lisa is complete. I think I want to keep it. It is so much fun to ride. Check out the gear ratio!
First bike I've built like this, Dave painted it. pretty cool for our first from scratch effort.

January 4th, 2010

We'll go backwards...

Monday January 4th, 2010:
Went to the gym with Dane. We are winding down our strength training this month. This week and next we are hitting the weights Monday and Friday while swimming Wednesdays. Swimming is being brought in to help stretch out my back and to strengthen my core, my biggest weakness. Do not think for a second I have decided to try a triathlon. I will wait until peer pressure gets deafening when I am in my 50's.

The last 2 weeks we cut weights back to just Mondays, with swimming on Wednesdays and now yoga on Fridays. If I am uncomfortable on my bike then the weight training is useless, so this is the time to work on stretching and my core.

January is also the month I start my weight loss program. Being that I am not overweight at all I feel like an asshole saying I need to lose weight, but there is a difference between being at a healthy weight and being at a performance weight. I would like to be at the latter.

Another reason to tone down the weights is because I am starting to up my intensity on the road. My miles will come down as I do more intervals. One of my favorite things to do is hill repeats. It hurts a lot for a non-climber like me, but you can actually see your results. Find a short 1 kilometer hill that is fairly steep and do it as many times as you can. then do it out of the saddle as many times as you can then only do it out of the saddle. It helps your sprint, well it helped mine.

Sunday January 3rd, 2010:
Short easy day on the bike. just did a loop through Shady Canyon and then stopped at Marcel's bike shop in Laguna Niguel (Celo Europa). Riding alone is one of the most cathartic things I know of. I feel like Henry Fonda and the 11 other "Angry Men" are in my head debating my life's most insignificant topics.




Saturday January 2nd, 2010:
Wes Nielson, my new team mate on Team Becher +, came out my way for a ride for once. Normally I go east to Pomona, but the riding is so much nicer here, its not even fair. He liked the opportunity to ride along the coast for once.

I took Wes through Shady Canyon then up Ridgeline to University. From there to the Back Bay and on to the coast. With it being the first Saturday after New Years the day was pretty quiet surprisingly. there were very few people out and about in cars of on bikes/running. There were also few females to make the ride more attractive, our high pressure system made up for it again.

We took PCH down to Dana Point and just rolled over the worst kept secret in Southern California. PCH needs to be refinished in Laguna beach though, it hurts like hell right now.

Through those rollers in South Laguna I like to keep my bike in a very easy gear and spin almost I'm spinning out.

I feel bad though, because I misrepresented the ride to Wes; he was expecting no hills and it was non-stop rollers. I had a lot more I wanted to say, but I started this entry 7 hours ago, so its all been forgotten by now.

Monday January 4th, 2010 Supplemental entry:
Dave and I spent quite a bit of time, with help later from Dane, building a bike for his fiance. We painted a road frame grey and slime green then put flat handle bars on it and the easiest gear ration you have ever seen. I am jealous of this bike. I will post pictures once I finish putting the grips on and cleaning it off.

Song for today:
The Rolling Stones - Under My Tumb

	The Rolling Stones - Under My Thumb .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

January 1st, 2010

Yea January 2 0 0 backspace 1 0 is here.

I did not do much of anything today. Friday is a leg workout day, but the gym is closed for National hangover day.

I can think of 20 better holidays to close for, but whatever enjoy the day off right?

Wednesday night I drove up to Los Angeles and stayed with an old friend Sandra. I had a birthday gift card for Real Food Daily and I didn't want to have to drive straight to Thousand Oaks in the morning from Orange County. Besides picking a fight with 2 drunks guys while I was half asleep, the night was uneventful and delicious. There is a cute dog that lives there, although I'm not sure she likes me.

Thursday morning I drove to Thousand Oaks to meet up with a fellow vegan cyclist I met through twitter. Its still very strange to me how things like this happen, but social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have become immensely helpful to the cycling community. I am unaware of any other communities who use these two forums in the same way cyclists do.

When you receive a pleasant invite from a person who guys by the name @profsmitty you know that the hardest part of the day is going to be getting to the group before the person that invited you gets there. Crisis averted, we arrived at the same time.

The Platinum Performance cycling team guys and gals are all extremely nice. It was a pleasure to ride with completely new people who were excited about cycling and were not assholes (ed. REAL assholes, not the kind I am).

The ride of the day was schedules to be an 80 mile route which passed over two tough climbs and would take about 5 and a half hours. There was support after the first climb, one of the Platinum guys', Bob, wife drove to the middle of nowhere and gave us banana slices water an peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (no I'm still not eating bread).

After the group reached the support destination, many of the riders decided they were not prepared to complete the route for the day and decided to take a flatter, shorter route home. For some reason I kept going with the original plan. Our group of 30 was now 7, myself and @profsmitty (Steve Smith) included.

I have to say that the next 5 miles of road may be the greatest I have ever ridden. My legs were warm from the long slow climb and so I made short work of the short rollers and had an amazing time traversing the smooth switchbacks that presented themselves on the other side. I love when you can beat a car down hill.

I always loved the stretch of PCH that goes south to Malibu, ever since the day Pat and I made our way down the coast and we knew this was the beautiful gateway home. Even with the wind you can really get your speed up and still take in the coast line that is trimming the bike lane. I just wish it was closer to my house. The length of ocean lined road near me is unparalleled, but the beauty is not.

Our group of 7 deviated from the original plan and made our own way through the Santa Monica Mountains spending at least 2 and a half hours climbing during out 5 and half hour long ride time. When we were close to the end, another 10 miles was added on simply for the visual enhancement of the ride. I was told it was for the new guy. I'm not sure if that means that I really needed to see this specific area or if it meant I was being hazed. I wouldn't be suprised if it was both.

90 miles in the legs are a great way to end the year. I put my compression tights to great use, spending the next 15 hours in them. now I feel like a million bucks.

It is legitimately getting close to the race season, in fact there is a track race this month. I don't know if I feel excited or underprepared. Last year I felt confident and fell on my face.

Song for your dreams:
Jimmy Eat World - Kill

December 29, 2009; Supplemental Post

Went for a reeeeal easy ride with Dave. Turnout just be be an errands run through Irvine actually. Dave finally got his new Fizik saddle he's been wanting, and he is very happy with his purchase.

He had to ride home with his old saddle in his jersey :).
Our ride was really nice actually. Rode through Shady Canyon then up Ridge line to Turtle Rock. I love those little climbs in there. Dave seemed to like them a lot too. I've spent hours in there before just going up and down people's streets, great way to spend an afternoon.

Ended up with 2.5 hours and 35 miles and 5 DVDs on sale from Blockbuster to watch tomorrow while I put my legs up.

There really isn't a lot more I can say, I'll let the pictures tell the story.



Today's song is Virtue by Harvest, back to 2002 for this one. Great times, a lot like these times.

Lyrics:

Dedication to discipline. Endurance of self separation. Sustain the sense to remain. Give of the feeling, control your life. Empower. Slave, suffer. Never will I ignore. No more ingestion of submission to this world. Dedicate some time to that which brings you to life. Empty without substance. You're just a slave to the hand that pulls the strings. Ignite the will. Self acceptance the first discipline. Obligation to fulfill your endeavors. You control your actions. You may free yourself. Suffer, slave.

December 29, 2009

I feel bad when I flake on the boys, I really like riding with them. I did predict that it would happen though. Its just too cold for something I don't need to do. turns out it was a good thing I didn't go on the ride, my week is already packed so I need the rest day now. I am going to do a New Years Eve ride with a new friend, and fellow vegan, Steve Smith on Thursday, which is 80 miles with lots climbing. followed by the New years Day ride out of Long Beach the next morning which is also 80 miles. My tally actually takes me to 335 miles projected for the week.

Strike that, this just in, Tuesday is being switched for Wednesday. I guess I'm putting chamois cream on today after all, because Dave is getting off work early. To be continued...

December 28th, 2009

Weights this morning with Dane hurt. I was actually going strong on the squat rack, but every time I stepped out to reset the bar, I felt a pinch in my hip flexor. I didn't push it too much even though I felt really strong, because I was worried about an injury. I tried a few dead lifts and called it a day. Something was just not right. I spent 20 minutes talking to Dane while he continued his routine while I stretched out my leg. It was just really tight I guess.

I took a nap after the gym because I had time to kill before I had to meet Kyle in Newport Beach. My nap went a little long though and I had to drive there.

I ended up taking Sunday off as well, because i was enjoying the time with my family and because the Jets were on. They won, so it was a great choice.

I showed up to the bathrooms a little late, as per my usual. It really must be hard to be my friend. Our friend Jake's girl friend, Eva was with Kyle. We rode down PCH towards Laguna and enjoyed some of Southern California's greatest miles on our way to Bluebird Canyon. Bluebird is a shirt steep climb in south Laguna which makes for a nice effort to throw into an easy ride. The decent on the backside is short but sweet too. We took the Canyon back north through Irvine. Then took a left up San Jauquin and did the alternate Newport Coast climb. I love coming down that road, its straight as an arrow and if you catch the light in the middle you can get your speed up pretty high. 45.6 mph today.

Stats for the day 45 miles/ 2 hours and 45 minutes. Tomorrow I'm riding with Dane and Josh of Becher Jr. fame. I have flaked on the last 4 rides that have started before 10:00 am, so we'll see if I can wake up and get out of my warm bed.

I listen to music all day long, so I think I am going to start including a song with every post from now on. I picked Decades by Joy Division, because of the Tom Zirbel situation. I feel for him, his life is going to change drastically and his character is going to take a big hit. How ever it ends up, I hope he still finds happiness in his life. i love racing my bike, but if I couldn't do it anymore, I know I could find different ways to spend my time. Its still a sad story, I really admired him for making the pro tour at 31. Good luck with this tough time Tom.

Anyway, enjoy...

December 26th, 2009

Sometimes when you wake up its hard to convince yourself to throw a leg over your top tube. Marcel told me this happens to him sometimes too. I know most of the time I'm just tired and need to eat some cereal and get dressed and I'll be fine. Today I felt different, just drained. I though sleeping in to avoid the cold would help it, but I still wasn't ready to go anywhere. My heel feels the worst in the morning. And at 9:00 it felt like a broken bone, now at 11:30 I'm ready to do hill repeats on it. I mean I'm not going to, but it feels better. Its just a stupid bruise, but its in a bad place.

So I take some advice from Marcel this morning, and I didn't ride. I always take Marcel's advice, he has done everything I could hope to do.

The problem with off days, is I worry that I will over eat. When I get bored I eat, its pretty normal I think. So now I am waiting until 12:00 pm so I can eat lunch, then I'll go brave the stores and make some returns.

I promise to kick Sunday's ass though, because I want to. Sunday's been acting like a punk.

/lunch.

December 25, 2009

It should come as no surprise to the people who know me, that I am not big on tradition and am not a fan of religion. I do, however, enjoy good friends and family and xmas is a great excuse to get these people together, so I don't hate xmas. I really like it.

Did the presents thing in the morning (got some new compression tights), then met up with Dane around 11:00 to go for a short ride.

I planned to do about 2 hours, but that isn't really possible anymore. There are no good 2 hour rides. We rode through Laguna Canyon via Irvine and spent some time enjoying the beautiful day along the PCH. I still can't believe I get to live here, there is a long series of events that brought me here today... I'm glad that all happened.

Our ride was still pretty short, 3 hours and 40 miles. We went at a pretty slow pace because its xmas. I have a feeling that the law of action and reaction does not apply to headwinds. I never feel like I get the benefit of a strong headwind when I turn around. We decided that the wind must follow the rules of the road and go with the flow of traffic.

No gym today, I'm not even sure they would be open. It was a good day to skip anyway, gives my heel a full weekend to heal before squats again on Monday.

Riding tomorrow up the coast to Seal Beach or maybe shorter, depends on Becher Jr. I think Ashley is going to meet up with us, which is always welcome. I don't think its vain to say that I like the way the 2 inches of my arm in this photo look...

/goodnight