Sunday, July 29, 2012

Thank You Brad and Jason

I want to give a huge thank you to Brad Williams MD. PhD and Jason at Signs 928. Brads continued generosity has made many things happen this season and he continued with race entree fee and travel expenses. Jason also help make this trip happen with his generous contribution. His contribution helped with travel expenses. This moves me up in in ranking and am 4th in the state and top 400 in the nation looking to continue moving up for the finish of the season. Words don't put into perspective on how thankful I am for the contributions from all of my sponsor. They are the reason I am able to move up. Thank you again and again.

Missoula XC Trip Pictures




















Saturday, July 28, 2012

Missoula XC Race Day / Drive Home


Race day woke up to the sounds of the cat 3 racers going off. Felt good, had plenty of time to focus on the race ahead. I ate breakfast, filled bottles, picked out nutritional's for race, and relaxed until warm up time. For warm up I road up and down the road leading up to the resort. The road was either up or down no flat sections which was almost perfect and was able to do hard efforts and cool down and spin with out using to much energy yet being able to warm up muscle properly. I set my spare bottles in the feed zone and got lucky and a guy said he would feed me. At the start line the cat 1 were split in to Jr.'s 15-18, open, and masters 45+.  Jr's started it off at noon and open group went off 2 min later.

I started in the second row out side, was able to get a pretty good line but slipped my pedal and fell back a few spots putting me in about 23 spot out of 30. I knew I had to make a move quick before any gaps grew. I attacked the first long climb moving up a few spots. I continued to grind it out maintaining high rpms I was passing competitors at first but everyone was starting to stretch out. I could still see a couple riders ahead and focused on catching and passing them.  The climbs were slow and steady. The descents were fast and technical. If I could paint a picture for you the trail was bench cut with roots, rocks and lots of washboard from braking. The switch backs went from steep to almost vertical. The best way to maintain speed through each switchback was to power slide each one which allowed me to maintain a higher speed and to take a better line in the corner. I was able to pass a couple competitors in the corners with this method. Main focus on descent was to stay off the brakes. The course left no room for any error!! The first couple laps went by, 3rd lap nothing major happen started to feel fatigue setting in. I took a deep breath and reset my focus. If I lost my focus on the descent it would mean absolute carnage and loosing focus on climbs meant loosing countless distance in seconds. 


The goal for the last lap was to continue to focus and to not bonk. I maintained power on the climbs and keep tire side down on the descents. I was able to pick off one more competitor and chased another but lost sight on the descent. Crossing the finish line was a welcome sight. I finished 15th, there wasn't much I could have done to finished any better. The competition seems to get stronger and stronger. This was a great boost in confidants and a reassurance of all my hard efforts. I know I'm getting faster and better overall which will start to show in increasing ways!!!


The drive home was long, I drove straight through 19 hours. I got home around 8 am instead of 2pm like I was planning. The drive was well worth it, being able to see my kids as they were waking up. Thank you for reading hope you enjoyed!!! 

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

July Training

In recent weeks training has been going well. I having been doing lots of intervals. Started off hard, to the point of almost not being unable to finish workouts. I have progressed and am feeling stronger and faster and finishing stronger.There is always more to do but feeling great. Most of my rides have been 2 plus hour mtn bike rides on dirt forest service roads. Covering 25-30 miles minimum. Over all speed has increased. Most of my rides I leave from my house and head out Sycamore Canyon Rd to FS258 to Bill Gray Rd and from their the options are  to Sedona or Dead Horse or Llama. Distances range from 26 miles plus. Most of ride are dirt forest service road.  I will upload the gps file on to a page and/or create a link to view in google maps. I have never done this before so it might take a few days.

Over all I'm feeling good, strong and looking forward to the fall AZ State Series.

Missoula XC Drive and Pre-Ride

Missoula XC was in Missoula Montana. The drive was is about 19 hours. The drive was uneventful other than the short ride I had in Utah and the beautiful scenery that surrounded me! I road on a dirt road near The Grand Staircase National Monument for 30 min. The scenery made it hard to drive all I wanted to to do was watch the landscape. I spent the night just past Salt Lake City at a truck stop in the back of the van. Slept well for about 5.5 hours. Arose early and drove the final leg of about 8 hours to Missuola. I arrived at the venue at about 2 pm, stretched out and got ready for pre-ride.

Didn't know much about coarse other than I was told to keep steady hard pace and has lots of climbing. Bottles filled, tires pumped up and I was off. From the start line it was pretty much up hill for 2.5 miles. Below is the map and the elevation chart. The course was hard lots of long climbs, didn't think it would ever end. First section of climb was double track with a slight reprieve and then back to climbing with steep switch backs back to double track steady climb for a short distance and then on to the steepest switch back section. Now its was steady climbs with some descents mixed in. Finally the descent was found here. the descent was much more technical than I anticipated. I took it easy making sure to learn the switch back and washboard sections. Quicker than a blink of a eye it was over. I stopped to look at time and to my surprise it was only 25 minutes. The lap felt like it took 45-60 minutes not 25. I decided to take another lap due to the descent and how unforgiving it was. The second lap was good I was able to find smoother lines on the climbs and faster lines on the descent.