Border Grill powered by Quick Stop Bike Shop: April 2011

With being so busy in my return to the UP this past week I have had no time to recap my California training camp and Sea Otter race. This post is more to let you know that it will come. With a 2 1/2 day weekend I should find time to post a detailed recap. Although, my weekends tend to be busier then my weekdays as I try to stack a lot of my week's hours during the weekend.

18 days is a long time to be away from home, my wife, my family, and my job. When planning, it sure sounds good but it really made me realize how much I love the people and things around me. Though I feel it is very necessary in my training to spend some alone time on the bike. A big base period is stressful enough on its own that when you throw in a career and family it can become overwhelming. That is why I decide to spend a week or 2 away from home each year to get some concentrated bike time. This year the trip started in the beginning of Base 2 and will leave me with 2 1/2 weeks of Base 2 upon my return, which is a lot more tolerable than doing all 5 weeks here in the ugly UP weather.

Trip Stats:

18 total days
15 riding days
2 days travel
1 rest day
11 hours of flights
12 hours of layovers
13 hours of driving

Riding Stat:

49 hours
702 miles
51,000 ft of elevation/climbing
>45,000 calories

Racing Stats

2 races (1 road and 1 MTB)
32nd out of 41 Category 3 Road Race - 60 miles 5,500 ft. climbing
22nd out of 131 Category 1 MTB Race - 40 miles 7,000 ft. climbing (2nd age 25-29) - This was a marathon race not an XC event. It will be my longest race of the year.

All this would not be possible if it wasn't for the patience of my awesome and beautiful wife Amber. Thank you so much Amber for allowing me to chase and achieve my dream. Thank you to my family especially my mother and father who support me with every pedal stroke. Then of course each of my sponsors, I ride each of your names with so much pride and your support allows me to ride with a smile on my face.

Hello from California. I came for riding and I came for weather. I have received both and the best of both. A few weather road bumbs but nothing to complain about. I've settled into the ride only job pretty nicely. My days are pretty laid back as they consist of sleep, eat, and ride.

My week started with a 12 hour trip across country arriving 2:30 am EST/11:30 PST. A late arrival and I still had to finish two bikes builds. The good thing is Danny had most of it built on both bikes. With no real time to waste it was a short nights sleep and up and at em' at 6:30 PST. Running on 3 hours of sleep we jumped on the bikes. The great thing was I felt like I had 20 hours of sleep. I was so excited to be on a bike in 60+ degree weather. My last UP ride was in single digit wind chills. We posted a 4 hour ride that morning and then jumped in the car to head south to Redlands to watch some Pro Criterium action. It was a lot to squeeze in a 24 hour period but it was worth it. Watching others race is fun, knowing exactly the feeling they are enduring I feel in tune with every pedal stroke. It amazed me how fast those crit specialist flew around the course. Amazing speeds! The rest of the weekend and early week was pretty mild in my daily plans. Each day consisted of hours in the saddle adjusting to the increased load of hours from base 1.

Midweek I finally ripped out the mountain bike. It was the first day on the mountain bike in nearly 5 months and my first ride on the new Trek Gary Fisher Collection Superfly Elite. This bike is all it's talked up to be. (I'll be sure to write a review and my thoughts in another post.) We found some single track and I slowly gained my MTB skill back but never really felt comfortable for the first day. Riding here is fast. You climb 100's of feet and descend for minutes at a time at blazing speeds on concrete like dirt. A fall on this stuff would be like falling on a heavy grit sand paper. Day 2 on the MTB was much better. I fitted the bike and the handling was way better. I really started to feel in tune again. I still have a lot of adjusting to do to get back in MTB handling form but it sure is great to feel the fun of knobby tires again.

By the end of the week I was approaching 23 hours of riding so I did some short recon to find whatever rest I could after a big week for my first race effort of the year. The race was called De Vleechuis Ronde. It was right here in Bakersfield. It consisted of two laps on an extremely hilly course constantly climbing or descending. It was 60 miles with 5,000 ft of climbing and the first climb was 20 minutes long. I knew it was going to be hard but I had no idea what to expect. For a Midwest power climber thats a lot of elevation gain. My goal, to get a great training day, stay in the main group, and test the legs as much as possible at my pace. Well it was a great training day and I did test the legs as much as possible but I did not stay with the main group all day. The race starts on a false flat and then begins to climb right away. It's an out and back race so you have to go around traffic cones at a couple turn arounds. Anyhow, I stayed with the main group up the first hill, quite comfortably actually. We descended down to the next section of big rollers. On the next turn around the the line was so long it yo-yoed drastically, anyone not in the top twenty was in trouble. Not prepared for this I fell off the back as they were at full speeed and I hadn't turned the corner yet. I spent the next 35 minutes climbing amd descending with 3 other guys to finally catch the main group right at the end of the first lap. I was extremely relieved because it kept my plans in tact and I figured they were gone for the day. Relieved but it took a lot of energy to pull back. At the start of the 20 min climb it was catching up to me. A 1/4 of the way up I popped. I spun the legs for a few minutes and finished the rest of the race at a manageable pace with another guy. I rolled in at 2:55 which was for 32nd place out of 41 finishers. A long race to start the year. Not a place I can be happy with but in perspective I did most of what I wanted to accomplish that day. It was also my first Cat 3 race and it was with roadies that have been racing since February. A lot of cool riders and young fast roadies out here. I also took away from it that Cat 3 is much more enjoyable to race. These CA boys made road racing fun for me again. No yelling, "turn!" "slowing!" "pull thru!". It was just a bunch of guys respecting each ability and racing. (felt a lot like a MTB atmosphere.)

The very next day a Danny and I joined a few friends for a Sunday stroll (later to be named death march). We wanted to get an endurance ride in the day after a hard effort. We planned an out and back route and we figured for about 6:30-7:00 hours. Our plans were wrong. It turned out to be an awesome epic ride. 8:30 hours, 142 miles, and 10,000 ft of climbing. Not my longest day on a bike but my most miles. I didn't know what to expect from the body or the legs that day but it was an awesome sign my endurance is developing well. Not much high end yet but encouraging that intensity will build well on top of this base. Every hour that went by I felt better and as the 6 hour mark approached I fully expected to fatigue considerably but I only got more comfortable. The power wasn't increasing but the same power I was doing 5 hours prior was feeling comfortable. I spent 2:30 hours of the ride at sub threshold to threshold. I even completed the a 20 min climb at threshold wattage 7:00 hours into the ride. What would be considered insane and obsurd by some turned out to be my most encouraging sign of the young yea and a great sign that base 2 is going well.

It's now Monday night and today consisted of a lunch ride. I rode the MTB into town got some lunch and a massage and strolled back home. Just the way a recovery ride should be. Now that I have some big hours early in the week I'm taking it down a notch to prepare for Sea Otter. I race on Friday which will come at the end of another 23 hour week but I should be a bit more adapted by weeks end. I'm picking up Nathan Guerra from LAX tomorrow. He will be joining me for the weekend of Sea Otter. I'm really excited for him to join me. He'll make great company and he can show me some Jet Eye Night skills in this smoking fast CA single track.