Back on the horse

The weather has cleared up a bit and it was gorgeous today. No moisture and sunshine, temps back in the 50's. Not to bad. Still had to bundle it up a bit, but it is much better than waking up to snow like yesterday. I went for a solid 3 hours today with three long tempo intervals in there. My illness is subsiding and I felt o.k. today at the begining and fine toward the end and I am a bit sore now. I guess not doing anything intense will do that to the old legs.

I saw Blades of Glory last night, the new Will Ferrel movie. It is genius of course. I wanted to laugh more but the coughing from the laughing hurt to much. I am definitely going to have to get that one on DVD.

School is winding down and I knocked out two huge projects this last week. I have a few more and it is all over. I am counting the days, 32 by the way. Anyway, not much to talk about. Go see Blades of Glory if you are looking for that kind of humor.

Durango Crit Series

The local Durango Crit series starts this weekend on Saturday out at Mercy Medcal Center. It should be a great course. Brand new pavement in the parking lot. The new hospital is a perfect venue. If you lay it down you can crawl into the E.R. I think they do give free emergency service up to $100 as primes. I will take it. You never know when you are going to need a couple of stitches.

I have been laying low for the last 5 days. I caught the Redlands funk and have been sick as a dog. Actually, I am doing better than ususal with this illness. I feel like I should be able to get back to hard training by Saturday and Sunday. I was planning on taking some good rest after Redlands anyway, but this has added a couple more days of intense resting.

There were horror stories going around about all the people that got sick after Redlands last year from the pollution. I guess it gets so bad it just builds up some funk in your respiratory system that turns into a chronic illness. I started to feel sick the last stage when I woke up with a sore throat. I thought it was just allergies. The net day after having a couple beers the night after getting my ass kicked in the race, full on ill.

I got the new training bike last week. It's as awesome as the race bike. I even go my wireless powertap back from warranty. Had some issues and now it works perfectly. It is a good tool to have and nice to know that at threshold I am putting out 420 Watts. I wish!

Good luck to all the Durango-tangs headed down to Nova for the first Norba National of the year. If I had aMTB bike and wasn't sick, then I would probably have done it. My prediction, Todd is going to win the XC. Troy will crack his first top 10 and Sager is going to show up and race under an alias named "Juan Antonio Perez de la Vargas". Those Spanish names are always long and flowing. Inconspicuous, good luck Juan.

Last Stage of Redlands: Sunset loop

Well this week of racing has flown by. Today is the last stage or the Redlands Classic. The infamous sunset loop. It is a very hard circuit. Extremely fast with lots of tight corners at high speeds and climbs that are twisty and drawn out. I have heard that it is tough to finish this one with the lead group.

Our team plan changed dramatically after Stage 1: Oak Glen. We were aggressive early on that day hoping to have Cesar get to the top of the mountain first. Unfortunately, he was taken out in a bad crash breaking the scaphoid bone in his wrist and separating his shoulder. Our plan changed quickly as we were on the road during that race.

I was pretty tired as were the rest of us from attacking early on trying to get into moves that could produce a good result. Nothing went and by the time we hit the bigger climbs, I had burned a few matches. The icing on the cake was when I pulled a rookie move and tried to shift my bike into the small ring at the bottom of the 5 mile climb for the second KOM. Dropped the chain, and had to get off the bike and put it on. That was all she wrote! Evan Elkin my teammate dropped back to help me get on and we did get onto the back of the group, but guys sat up and the main field rolled away. I lost 18:00 minutes that day. DONE!

Yesterday was the crit. I actually felt really good in the criterium. I threw a few attacks myself and covered some moves. Tommy Nankervis got away in the break and ended up 4th in the sprint. Not a bad result.

Tomorrow it is back to the real world again of school. I am very burned out on the whole school thing and can't wait to be done. I enjoy school very much, but don't enjoy trying to juggle a full on racing and training schedule around it. Well we will see how the race goes today. Wish us luck, we will be going for the stage win today of course.

Correction. Scott Moninger from BMC

Correction. Scott Moninger from BMC won. He won this race win I was 5, back in 1985. I think he had a mullet then and some stonewashed jeans.

Oak Glen is over. I

Oak Glen is over. I heard Chris Baldwin fron Toyota United won. I had no legs, lots of early attacking. Ceasr crashed out. More later.

I put myself in the hurt box!

Today's time trial was very hard. I haven't put myself in the hurt locker like that in awhile. I felt pretty good. A little low on power, but overall, the legs were turning over. It was so short that I didn't even have time to think about not blowing up. By the time I was thinking about it, it was happening in the last 150 meters. It felt good to suffer and I actually hit a heart rate of 199! That is allot of bike squawk I know, but I haven't seen that in sometime. After crossing the line I could barely see straight. Some guy had gone so hard he hit the wall, literaly. He blacked out at the top and crashed into the barricade. He was done! I ended up a respectabel 33rd out of 190 today. Not to shabby! I gave'er all I had, there is more for tomorrow though.

My teammate Cesar (The Mexican) Grejales is sitting in 3rd. I think he has a good shot at pulling of the Win tomorrow. That means it will be Jittery Joe's on the front all day in the crit. OUCH! Whatever, I am happy to sit out there out of the crashes. Things are going good, the racing looks to be tough tomorrow for the infamous Oak Glen stage. They have shortened the race this year, but added much more climbing and there is a bad crosswind section.

Anyway, I have to hit the sheets, more from the race tomorrow. I love bike racing and it is good to be back on the road with the team....

Redlands time trial today!

My First go at Redlands

I am off to Redlands tomorrow to give it a go. I have not raced there before and have hopes of doing descent and helping the team out for a good G.C. position. I am looking foreword to the time trial. I know it is a short one and super hard with a good climb at the end. I hope that suits me, but I am actually looking foreword to suffering and putting everything I have out there. Overall, the race looks really difficult. Oak Glen is on Friday and I have heard some seriously brutal stories of that stage. Sunday's stage sounds epic as well. I feel ready though, the legs have come around a bit more since Fresno, so hopefully I can give it a good shot.

This past weekend was pretty good for training. I hit it really hard on Sunday. I went out with the group at 10 o" clock from bread and tried to do tempo and hit the climbs hard. I did allot of sitting on the front and drilling the climbs. We finished up the 3 hours going up the cliffs. That is hard after doing allot of tempo and some hard sustained efforts. After the ride, Hagman motor paced me for an hour on the scooter in the valley. I was worked! After all the resting the power was a bit low, but after the Cliffs climb motor pacing seemed easy. Well, not that easy. Alex kept putting the hurt on me.

Well, I will update from Redlands. I don't know where I am staying, hopefully we have Internet. If not, I will post some mobile updates from the phone. Until tomorrow....

Chill ride with Shagman.

The Aerospace Secret weapon, Alex Hagman.

Photo isn't so good eh? Just did a sweet 3 hour super chill ride with Shaggy. It was a very nice day again and I am looking foreword to the weekend of training in the Durango sunshine. Then it is off to Redlands California next Wednesday for the Redlands Classic. It should go better than Fresno. More later

Just another morning on campus

Another sunshine day.

Vegemite

There are multiple recipies for Vegemite.
Standard Aussie Army Issue Vegemite.

After spending a week with four Australian's spreading some funk on their bagels in the morning, I had to do a little research. It is a Yeast based spread and apparently it is full of B vitamins. This is a major source of nutrients in the Aussie diet. They eat this nasty paste on everything. I didn't get a chance to try it, but eating a yeast spread can't be better than a smear of cream cheese can it? Maybe it isn't that bad. It is so popular there is even a cook book and the military eats this stuff out of tubes.

I am on a little rest block for the next couple of days. I am trying not to get fat, but my roomates keep putting a cake in front of me with strawberries and chocolate frosting. How am I supposed to avoid that. It is a wicked thing to do to a cyclist trying to maintain race weight, or at least chissle down a few kilos. The rice cake with peanut butter as a crutch is just barely keeping me from grabbing a handful of chocolate cake stuffing it in my face and chasing it with a half gallon of milk.

The weather is incredible right now and definitely out of season. We are having weather now that we usually have in May. I am not complaining, I enjoy the warmth and it is going to snow some more, don't worry to much people. Until next time!

First Dead Squirrel Time Trial...New Record?

I am a little blown away right now after my practice time trial tonight. The wind was perfect for breaking records. After motor pacing in the morning for an hour and then riding another 1 and a half after that, I didn't think I had anything in the tank, at least to not put up a new best. I wasn't expecting anything spectacular after my time trial performance in Fresno. Once I started to give it on the t.t. bike I felt alright, worked into the headwind a bit and got into the groove. Usually there is a tailwind on the way out and a headwind on the way back. I didn't think I was going to do it towards the end, but I was able to suffer on the t.t. bike, always an issue for me. When I saw the time I was stoked. Cody-bob Peterson had the old record and the only Person to go sub 20 at 19:58. With the wind I was able to shave off 39 seconds and post a new time of 19:19. I know it is just practice, but these are good indicators of fitness and technique. It is crazy, to never go under 20:00, and then crush it. I am stoked with my new position on the TT bike, thanks to our sprinter Jeff "Hoppy" Hopkins. I made a few more changes, brought myself more upright, not the most aero, but I am getting much more power.

School is kicking my ass like no other right now. This weekend on the list are three article reviews, couple pages each, Research paper at 8 pages, I have to draw a map, study for two exams next week, do a 4 page Master plan outline, and read about 300 pages. Not joking! Will I get it all done, maybe? I have to train on top of that. It is going to be an epic one. Whatever, I have done it all before.

I have been feeling the altitude here a bit. Tonight, I had the blood taste in my mouth the whole time. I think a couple other guys went sub 20 minutes tonight. It is awesome to see Fort Lewis dudes, Joey Thompson and Chris Kuhl, crushing it in local events. Nice work, just need to apply that to the collegiate races. Well, that is enough updating for tonight, have to start the homework due tomorrow. Good night!

On the mend

It was great to crash out in my own bed last night. I am still on the mend from the training camp and Fresno race. My bag is only partially unpacked as I am making space in my closet. Out with the old and in with the new. My bedroom looks like it did when I was 6 years old. Clothes everywhere, stuff hanging out of the drawers, duffelbags blown open, and the dirty laundry overflowing. It needs some serious work, but at this point I am thinking of putting everything in a pile and setting it on fire. Burn it out and start over.

I have a ton of schoolwork this week so it looks like I won't be going to Boulder to do a collegiate race. I had contemplated hitting it up for some more racing before Redlands, but it is just to short of a race to drive all the way up there and with to much school. I will stay here and do a Time Trial in the morning one day and head up to do some climbing later in the passes. Motor pacing a little behind the scooter which is always my favorite. Troy Wells is motorpacing me tomorrow morning at Bread. Should be a good session.

Well, I have to hit the pillow top mattress with the extra memory foam on top. Yeah, it is pretty plush. You have to recover as hard as you train, might as well go big for your sleep. Until next time.

Central Valley is in the bag.

I just got back to Durango today, about 3 hours ago. Got off the airplane at 1:00 and went straight to my 2:00 class. Actually one of my professors was on the flight back from the Caribean. He looked like he had a better time than his students, maybe hitting the cans a little to hard there in the sunshine. I am going to take the old GT stead out for one last recovery ride to get the toxins out of me.

The last stage of Central Valley was uneventful. I don't know what it is about that course, but I couldn't do a damn thing on it yesterday. I kept hearing on the radio about my teammates up the road attacking covering moves, and I could barely keep the legs going. I was trying hard to get up there to the front, but being a bit rusty and not having the crit legs, I was a little weak to do anything. Towards the end of the crit I actually started to feel better and was moving up during the last three laps, but still, nothing for the teammates. I felt like an idiot. I like to do my job, and yesteday, I may as well have been out of the office for the day. All I did was ride around in circles. I didn't ever think about pulling the plug. I kept trying to get up there to help. It just wasn't happening.

My teammates where disapointed in me to say the least. I felt like I let them down, and I left them with a bad first impression at the first race of the season with them. That is not something I wanted to do at all. I just don't have any speed right now, the power at Threshold sucks, and my race tactics were not good. I am disapointed. Willo was pissed, rightfully so, for he and Shirley were doing a lot of the early work. So, it was rough to leave Fresno on a bad note.

I am hitting the TT bike the next two days. It is important that I find a good position where I can actually put out some power on the bike. I should have my training bike here soon, hopefully. Well, I have to go out for a spin to get the flight legs out of me. It is nice in Durango now, almost 70 degrees, just windy. Spring!

Wasted!

This wino tried to give Willo a beer in this photo. They were messing with the guy. He thought the Aussies were cops because of the Aussie accent. Then he started talking like a pirate. Arrg matie! We was a wierd guy and sat down on the bench next to us talking to himself. Willo asked him "what time did you start hitting the cans today, and did you put it in your cereal?" The poor old tymer kept getting all crazy about Kangaroos in Australia. He said "Oh Australia, you have Kangaroos there huh?" Willo said "Yes, and we have tooth brushes to mate", because the old guy had no teeth. Every person that walked out of the store by the bench, the old guy kept saying, Aaarg Matie!

So I crept pretty slow in the TT today. It took me 5k to figure out where to sit on my tt bike. I have to ride that thing somemore. I am looking foreword to the crit tomorrow believe it or not. I am not a huge crit fan, but I am enjoying being back in the racing groove and it is going to be tough to head back to school on Monday. I fly into Durango and go straight to class. Then hit the homework pretty hard for a couple weeks and back out to Cali for Redlands. I should be going pretty descent by Redlands, then hopefully off to Tour de Georgia. Just have to make the cut. It is a tough cut to make.

I was talking to the mechanic tonight about yesteday when I had the mechanical. I was motor pacing back onto the group at 54mph. No wonder I was cracked when we hit the climb again. Just don't have that engine yet.

Mobile update, Post time trial.

Mobile update, Post time trial. I rode like shit today. No excuses, just need some serious tt work. First 5k was epic, after that i went o.k.

Fresno Day 1: I blew up!

Today was the first race of the season. I could definitely tell. It was a rolling course with some good climbing in it and a couple long fast descents. The team rode very well and we were in every move. The one move that would have gone with Trent Wilson, or the man they call Willow, we brought back as a team pretty quickly. We had to bring it back because once Trent had to go back to the car for bike trouble, we had no one in the break. I actually felt really strong for the first race of the season, but the power and race legs just weren't there today.

On the second lap after we pulled the move back I launched an attack at the bottom of a climb. I looked back and no one was there, then Colovita's Davide Fratini had bridged. I thought it would get brought back right away and I was suffering like a dog. Tim Johnson from Health net bridged across next. Tim is the best rider in the country right now so I thought it might actually stick. Soon there were about 15 guys in the lead break. Here I was launching an attack thinking it might help send one of my teammates once it got brought back. With less than one lap to go we go caught at the base of the long climb. Just before the catch some strong guys, Tim Johnson and Chris Baldwin attacked. I went with them but that was the dagger. We soon got caught by the field and I went right out the back door. It was all I could do to drag myself the last 20 miles to the finish line. The teammates did well though, Cesar is in 7th, Trent is in there and Tommy Nankervis (Nanny) is in the top group as well.

The race is still up for grabs tomorrow as the Time Trial is up next. I guesse that Cesar can throw down a good time trial. Hope to have a descent day myself, you never know with early season form though. More tomorrow.

Off toFresno........ The Central Valley

Off toFresno........
The Central Valley Classic starts tomorrow with the Road race. I guess there is a 5 mile climb per lap, rip into it!

Landis

I sent this photo during the ride the other day, but for some reason it didn't post. Floyd is a nice guy, not cocky, Hip is doing good he said.

San Dego Camp!

How ya going mate!

Jeff Hopkins putting out the Aussie vibe on the coast today. Hoppy is a former Worl Champion in the Kilo on the track. He tried to take me in the kom sprint. I let him have it. Rest days tomorrow, the Aussies are a rowdy bunch.

California Sunset.

I am loving the mobile uptades. Look for mor on the training ride tomorrow. I forot to mention. OLN, now Versus is here and they have been filming all week for a documentury to air during the
Tour de France on Jittery Joe's . Pretty cool. Thanks for stopping in.

Mobile update!

Checking to see if the mobile update is working. Today we rode down on the 101 along the coast. Unreal gorgeous! The ocean is incredibly beautiful and the beachesare nice. It was a bit windy today, so according to the Aussies on the team, the surfing wasn't looking so good. It is so nice here. Another note, I will be racing in Fresno next weekend at the Central Valley Classic. Am I ready, not quite but there is only one way to get ready I guesse. Go Kart racing at a serious track tonight. These things are for real. I am just livin the dream.

Another day at camp.

Beautiful weather again in San Diego. 125 miles yesterday. Riding with Floy Landis tomorrow. Will be good to base an impression of meeting Floyd and talking to him ather than all the media, negative press. More later.

I am trying to get

I am trying to get my mobile blogging going, should have some photos and updates live during camp. Be patient. Thanks.

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