Monday, February 1, 2010

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

3 comments:

Eric Cockrell said...

Jealous, GMR is so awesome. Was it clear enough to see Catalina Island? My homies and I used to hike up to the top near the construction and bomb that shit on our long boards. That would be a rad 2-wheeled expedition.

Endless Mike said...

Yea its been crystal clear lately, GMR is like cycling heaven when the road is closed.

chrisrosehart said...

One day, I expect to see you in a race on TV. And you know I won't expect anything less then that from and for you.