February Training

Last week I road mtn in sedona. Started on Girdner then to Wagon Wheel, dead mans, Aries, cockscomb, western civilization and finished on last frontier. Great set of trails. This was the last ride for my fork the damper was officially dead. I didn't have much suspension but the ride was still good, covered about 30 miles. Last few weeks have been good only missing a work out here and there due to work or kids. Feel like I'm making good improvement on base miles and endurance. Looking forward to the season at hand should be a good one! Thanks to all my supporters you help me through the tough times and encourage me to push myself!!!

Last couple of rides

Last couple of rides were great wanted to get out and do 4 hours but was only able to get 3 because of time constraint daycare and daughter getting out of school. Any how went out and my goal was to have an over all avg speed increase. Went out solo and had a couple really good rides. Pushing my self a little more than I normally do. I tried to no matter what to not give up and slow way down. Also focused on pedaling I put on my old garmin w/ Spd and cadence and watched rpms. Tried to keep a high cadence over 90 to start and working towards 100 rpms avg. wow it's hard to have a high cadence with mtn. But it's all apart of the process of getting faster. I am learning a lot from graham and his experiences of riding with other high level pro cyclist. thank you! In the end Tuesday I covers about 34 miles in 3 hours and Wednesday cover about 38 in 3 hours. Still not good enough for me but it's improvement. Endurance is getting stronger and speed will come next along with Andy's coaching. Getting more and more excited about the race season to come. First mbaa race is Saturday not sure if I'm going to do it finances are kinda right after the move and shox is still out of service. Till next time thank you for you support !!!!

Training

Training has been going good getting at least one if not 2 3.5 hr rides in a week. Have been slacking some on the weights though. I have been read this great book called "finding your zone" it's really helping me to get better about focusing and getting my motivation to just do it instead of thinking about doing it! I've been riding with someone fast a lot fast and that is really putting into perspective how much I need to work of I want to be a contender on the pro circuit! Getting strong and am in better shape than I think I was in all of last year cross my finger well find out come race day I'm getting excited about mellow Johnny's the first big race of the season. Need to start making plans for race weekend driving flying lodging wow this is an expensive journey but I love it and can't wait to take on a circuit!! Thanks to all my supporters and sponsors it's not possible with out you!!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart this is for you all!!!!

Ride 12/28

Ride was good but shorter than I planned. Road with Graham who rides for CTS U23 team. Was on call for the ambo so needed to stay within 10 min of station. I road up to Jerome twice before I was called in to cover station. First time was a warm up graham started the pace between 11-12, I quickly said I need to warm up first. We set in around 9-10 mph and chatted as we ascended. He told me how he has become pretty good friends with tom Danielson who road for Harmon cervelo last year. Tom comes in quite a bit to the shop he works for. Talked a bit about races for this season how he's going to warm up for the UCI Pro season by doing some of the local MBAA races! We talked about routines. Second time up I didn't talk much graham set a good pace up we bounced from 8 near the bottom and 13 closer to the top. I fell back just bellow the high school. I donno what happen but my legs just stopped. I tried pushing it as best as I could but couldn't hold his pace. Kids a monster going to be a big shot in a few year if not sooner! The steep section wasn't horrid but just couldn't turn the legs over like I wanted to! Still kept spd up around 7-9 on the 16-20% grade section. Meet graham at top by one of the galleries and we continued on past gold long mine and onto the dirt road to Perkinsville. Quickly turned back around and headed down part way down felt pager go off twice, time for me to go to work. Graham desired to head over to Prescott and back to finish his ride! Kids a monster!

Dec 16, 2011

Well today was a cold ride. 36 deg. Road mtn bike for 3 hours. Started out on a usual route from Zachary's daycare out sycamore canyon rd to buckboard rd up to bill gray rd around to 258b onto 9536? Down rust bucket around thumper. I added a new trail the bill ??? Trail in dead horse st park. I came out on Mingus extension and back to daycare.

The roads started out nice but as it warmed up to 45 deg the dirt started to cake on to the tires also the soft dirt felt like you where riding in sand. Made for a little extra effort but makes ya stronger. Tread didn't get to bad but enough to causing my wheel to spin when pedaling. Once onto single track tread cleaned out and Picked up speed . Road rust bucket to thumper no issues kept up a good pace! After thumper I tried a new trail. Started out pretty bad, torn up my horses and very soft and lose. After a few hundred yards turned into an alright trail! If maintained this could be a great trail to add some extra distance to area!!! Over all ride was good only was able to get in 3 hours but 3 is better than 2.

Prescott Sixxer

Well not sure how to start this other than I finished and how it was an experience and endurance athletes are animals. Prescott Sixxer (http://www.dcbadventures.com/) is a 6 hour endurance race held in Prescott, AZ at Pioneer Park on November 19th, 2011. Weather was not too bad other than chilly between 30's and 40's. It was windy on the first half of the course. Course started with a half lap of the 9 mile loop then continuing on to the full loop. The course was a mixture of double track and single track. Terrain was rocky with lots of differing gradients with a few longer climbs. The course wasn't the best I have ever ridden but defiantly not the worst. Not warming up before the start was very hard not to do but with my usual race taking less than 2 hours I didn't want to over do it. Overall I had a good race no mechanical other than my chain dropping off small ring a couple times. Had plenty of water and Hammer gel. I drank a bottle every lap, each bottle was filled with water and whey protein to keep the calories coming in. The people all around where great the promoter DCB Adventures did as always a fa nominal job.

Let get to the racing!! We lined up and the horn went off! Right from the get go was about 5 places back. A lady was walking across the course with a stroller and stopped everyone in there tracks. I road in a circle so I didn't have to clip out, she jumped out of the way. Again we started and everyone took off again now I was in about 20th. My legs didn't seem to want to turn over and felt like lead weights. After about 2 hours of riding my legs seem to get better but my stomach started to have a pain. With every jolt it felt like someone was stabbing me in the side,  the pain grew worst as time went on but I was convinced it would go away if I kept riding. Hour 2-4 was kinda a blur just kept my moving forward with the stabbing in my side. Mile by mile and lap by lap the time disappeared. I passing riders here and their and continued on. Still with every jolt my side continued to get worse. Pushing through the pain I continued on. As time drew on the climbs went from not so bad to starting to hurt. Pushing with every pedal stoke keeping my momentum up. I passed a few more on climbs by this time I was on my 5th lap. The leaders came by my like I was at a stand still. Pushing on and feeling the fatigue set in I kept on keeping on with my steady pace. 6th lap felt like an eternity it was never going to end watching my time and came across the the start line with 15min to spare continuing on with my seventh lap. Now the climbs felt like endless mountain as my legs throbbed from the 6 + hours of riding and my side still getting stabbed. Only a few miles out still keeping tire side down and maintaining a steady pace. The final climb was great knowing I only had a few more minutes. The final down hill I couldn't even get myself to push it. I crossed the finished with 6 hours and 48 minutes of riding time and about 70 miles of mountain biking! Today was a good day!! I will say overall the experience was good and I will probably do another 6 hour race! But I am defiantly sticking with XC racing the endurance racing is too much with kids and starting a career. Thank you Susie and Ashley for cheering me on and keeping me going. The pain almost unbearable and I almost gave in and went to the hospital! Thank you for reading and for supporting me!!

Training Ride Brad

So went out for with my buddy brad who is an animal on the road and come to find out is also a animal on the mtn. He doesn't even have a mtn bike. We set out for a long ride in sycamore canyon road typical loop and head toward Sedona area. Maintained a good pace up and down climbs. The ride was good was out for 4.5 hours not much happen . But wow was I beat afterwards. Covered about 40 miles.