Chris Phipps' Training Blog

MASH SF Twin Peaks TT!

2011-05-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

The MASH SF Twin Peaks Time Trial was a very unusual event. Being an underground alleycat race I normally never hear about these, much less participate in them, but the rumor of a hill climb time trial in my own back yard caught my attention, especially when I heard there was $500 cash for first place. When I first saw a tweet photo of the race poster I was disappointed that it was a "fixed gear only" event, but then later heard that it was open to geared bikes and that Incase was putting up $500 cash for first fixed AND $500 cash for first geared, game on!

As is the case with alleycat races, the format & destinations are not known beforehand and the course is generally any way you want to go, so area knowledge is very important. I did some course recon on Wednesday & Friday from the MASH SF store on 14th & Sanchez to the top of Twin Peaks and was convinced that 14th to Roosevelt was the much better route than Sanchez to Market to 17th Street. I showed up about an hour before the start with teammate Greg McQuaid & Jacob from Dolce Vita who had a couple teammates there too. Also there though was Keith Hillier from MarcPro Strava who had found out about the event from my tweet a few hours earlier (D'oh!). In total there were only 12 of us on geared bikes (the freaks) and about 45 on fixed. It was kind of funny how different we looked. Us geared riders in our dorky corporate spandex & helmets and the hipster fixed gear messenger crowd in cotton shorts, t-shirts with lots of tattoos & piercings. But everyone was real friendly (I think they were all drunk) & it was a great atmosphere.

There was no entry fee, no entry form, just a waiver we all had to sign about 15 minutes before the start where we were given a manifest of the qualifying procedure. This consisted of a 30 min period where we were to ride to Buena Vista Park, a 300 ft climb & back to the start as many times as we could in 30 min taking any route we wanted. At both the top and the bottom we had to have our manifest stamped. The top 8 & any ties in both fixed & geared would make it to the final. Any fixed gear riders with a hand brake were given a 1 stamp penalty, just thought I'd mention that even though it didn't affect us geared riders.

To make this even more *fun* though, the guys stamping our manifest at the park were sitting about 20 steps up from the road, so we had to dismount, run up the stairs, get our stamp & run back down the stairs (all in cleats mind you), then jump back on the bikes for the descent. This really started to hurt after the 3rd hill sprint. Also, each one way trip had 5 stop signs and a stoplight that was red 75% of the time to negotiate. These were not so bad on the way up, but very scary on the descent.

And so, as advertised, we were off at the stroke of 2PM with a mass start of fixed riders starting first and the geared riders starting 1 minute behind.

We started off blazing fast & I was about 5th wheel, but about halfway up I moved into the lead when it got steep & I was the first to reach the park in the geared division, but very slow to dismount, run up the steps to get my stamp and run back down & Keith Hillier was right there. He passed me on the descent then slowly pulled further & further ahead on each round trip up & down the hill. But this was just the qualifier & I was safely in 2nd with a big gap on 3rd so I backed off to save something for the final. The whole time though I was moving through the fixed gear field and was amazed at how these guys took the climb often hanging onto cars and the steep (15%+!) descent often removing both feet from the pedals and using both of them against the rear wheel as a brake!

At the end of the 30 min qualifier, Keith had 6 round trips (12 stamps) and I had 6 trips up & 5 down (11 stamps), so I was safely in the final with Greg (10 stamps), Jacob, Joe & Appel. We angered more than a few drivers & the SFPD showed up at exactly 1 min after the 30 min qualifier. But everyone told him we were done & he said "OK, just be sure to follow all the traffic laws" and drove off.

While the organizers tallied our manifests to see who made the final, Los Compadres taco truck pulled up and gave away free tacos to all participants & spectators. I think us geared guys (the freaks) were the only ones who did not take advantage of this.

So, onto the final! This time trial would be a mass start with all geared & fixed finalists starting together, except those fixed riders with brakes were given a 10 sec penalty at the start. Also, this time we would be going all the way to the vista point lot at the top of twin peaks, a 1.9 mile 700 ft climb. We were off & 4 fixed riders took the lead & I followed in the draft until it started to get steep & they started doing the paperboy, so I went by 3 of them, but one guy was still grinding away up ahead. As we approached Castro with a green light I could see the pedestrian signal counting down, 5-4-3-2-1, so I put in a sprint & hit the intersection just as it turned yellow and was across safely. I took a quick look back to see that no one else had made the light, but Keith ran it anyway, not wanting to let $500 slip away due to bad luck, so I pressed on with full gas hoping to open up enough of a gap so that Keith would lose sight of me and not know which way to go but he kept me in sight all the way up & I think I had about 20 sec when I reached the checkpoint. This one was a bit stressful though since the lot was crowded with tourists & it took about 10 sec for me to find the official stampers, but I got my stamp & left just as Keith was coming into the lot. I took the descent fast, but was worried about the 3 stoplights & 8 stop signs I'd have to blow through to get to the finish, but traffic was light & I made it through Clayton & 17th quickly and was on to Roosevelt with only the stoplight at Castro to worry about. Of course, it was red, but as I slowed to almost a stop I could see it was yellow in the other direction & no cars were coming, so I went through and onto the finish with a total time of 14:12.

I took a look back and Keith came through about 20 sec back. He told me he had taken 17th on the way back & it was sketchy (no shit!). Joe Mulvaney (Dolce Vita) was 3rd & Greg was 4th. The first fixed rider was a kid named Kyle & he was only about a minute back and came screaming through the line at about 250 rpm. There was some controversy in the fixed division as the top 2 riders had taken a shortcut up to twin peaks by running up the weeded hillside instead of riding up the switchbacks. I think one of the riders didn't take his bike with him, but no one was DQ'd or relegated for crossing the centerline.

The awards ceremony was real quick & I got a big ol trophy, some cash and an Incase messenger bag, not too bad!

Thanks MASH SF & Incase!

Photos from Dan Connelly

PFSD #1 for 2011 is Friday March 4 at 5PM

2011-03-02T11:04:00.000-08:00

Time to dust off the TT bikes & aero helmets & get ready for Polo Field Smack Down (#PFSD) #1.

Meet at the polo fields at 5PM for a short warm-up. 1st rider goes off around 5:20.

Same as always, 15 laps, 10.3 miles & Pez prizes for several categories!

New Team for 2011 - Only 50 days until San Bruno

2010-11-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

I'll be joining some good friends on the Thirsty Bear/Iron Data (or is it Iron Data/Thirsty Bear?) team in 2011. More to come soon.

As for training, I haven't been doing too much, especially on the actual bike.
I'm trying to run again, but that get slower & more painful every year.

I plan to start teaching at M2 again soon too, probably the long Monday night class.

I better get on it though because the San Bruno Hill Climb is only 50 days away and I see from Strava that my competition has been putting in plenty of miles.

PFSD #6.0 Report & Results

2010-10-08T19:36:00.000-07:00

September 29, 2010

Only 5 riders showed up for the 6.0th edition of the Polo Field Smack Down (PFSD). It's the end of the season & this could be the last PFSD for a while, since there is heavy construction going on in the polo field area and the track is closed.

1) Chris Phipps | Morgan Stanley | 35+ | 23:01 | 27.0 | S | 35+ Winner

2) Jacob Berkman | Mission Cycling | Cat 3 | 23:27| 26.4 | C, H, S | Cat 3 winner

3) Marcel Appelman | Mission Cycling | 35+ Cat 4 | 23:37| 25.8 | none | 35+ Cat 4 winner

4) Joe Mulvaney | Mission Cycling | Cat 5 | 24:15 |25.5 | none | Cat 5 winner

5) Jared Hudson | Mission Cycling | Cat 4 | 25:07 | 24.3 | none | Elite 4 winner

Notes on aero equipment:

B = TT bike (not incl. aero wheels)

C = Clip-on Aero bars

D = Rear Disc Wheel

H = TT Helmet

S = Skinsuit

W = Aero Wheels

There is now $40 up for grabs from the promoter for beating the course record next time. If there is a next time.

May not be another one until 2011.

PFSD # 5 report & Results

2010-09-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

September 15, 2010

End of season burnout? Resting for Tam? Whatever the reason, a record low of only 4 riders showed up for the 5.0th edition of the Polo Field Smack Down (PFSD). It was cool, overcast & windy. We did see a new winner though with Jacob Berkman from Mission Cycling taking both the overall and Cat 4 Pezies.

Notes on aero equipment:

B = TT bike (not incl. aero wheels)

C = Clip-on Aero bars

D = Rear Disc Wheel

H = TT Helmet

S = Skinsuit

W = Aero Wheels

Well, is it time to pull the plug on PFSD for 2010?
Heck no, I can't end the season with a DNF, so there will be a PFSD #6.0 on September 29!
Hope to see you there.

PFSD #4.0 Report & Results

2010-09-01T21:08:00.000-07:00

Only 6 riders showed up for the 4.0th edition of the Polo Field Smack Down (PFSD) despite clear blue skies & a record high temperature of 75 degrees for the start & there was hardly any wind for once. End of season burnout or maybe everyone was at the beach?

1) Chris Phipps | Morgan Stanley | 35+ | 22:36 | 27.35 | S | 35+ Winner

2) Jacob Berkman | Mission Cycling | Cat 4 | 23:11| 26.66 | C, H | Cat 4 winner

3) Dan Vigil | Mission Cycling | 35+ Cat 4 | 23:12| 26.64 | C, S | 35+ Cat 4 winner

4) Adam Hodes | Tieni Duro | Cat 2 17-18 | 23:40 |26.11 | S | Junior Winner

5) Jim Sallee | Zeitgeist Racing | 45+ Cat 4 | 28:24 | 21.76 | none | 45+ Cat 4 winner

DNF) Marcel Appelman | Mission Cycling | 35+ CAT 4 | DNF | 0.00 | W |

Notes on aero equipment:

B = TT bike (not incl. aero wheels)

C = Clip-on Aero bars

D = Rear Disc Wheel

H = TT Helmet

S = Skinsuit

W = Aero Wheels

There is now $30 up for grabs from the promoter for beating the course record next time. If there is a next time. With school starting next week, the Polo Field is likely to be inundated with with kids & parents going to & coming from lacrosse practice & games on the field.

PFSD #3.0 Report & Results

2010-08-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

A record low of only 6 riders showed up for the 3.0rd edition of the Polo Field Smack Down (PFSD). It was cold, foggy & windy just like it's been every other time. The course record was safe, but we did see a new winner and junior record from Adam Hodes (on the right in picture). The competition was tight with the top 5 finishing within 35 seconds!

There is now $20 up for grabs from the promoter for beating the course record next time.

1) Adam Hodes | Tieni Duro | Cat 2 17-18 | 23:32 |26.26 | B | Junior Record!

2) Jason Smith | Dolce Vita | Cat 3 | 23:59 | 25.77 | C,H,S,W | Cat 3 winner

3) Chris Phipps | Morgan Stanley | 35+ | 24:01 | 25.73 | none |

4) Jacob Berkman | Mission Cycling | Cat 4 | 24:02| 25.71 | C | Cat 4 winner

5) Marcel Appelman | Mission Cycling | 35+ CAT 4 | 24:07 | 25.63 | W |

10) Jared Hudson | Mission Cycling| Cat 4 | 25:52 | 23.89 | None |

Notes on aero equipment:

B = TT bike (not incl. aero wheels)

C = Clip-on Aero bars

D = Rear Disc Wheel

H = TT Helmet

S = Skinsuit

W = Aero Wheels

Here's my Strava segment from the TT:

http://www.strava.com/rides/161649

(time was for 15 laps, so I subtracted partial 16th lap)

Hope to see a record turnout for #4.0 on September 1!

PFSD # 3 is tonight

2010-08-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

Due to Outside Lands clean-up the Polo Field Smack Down was postponed until tonight, 8/19! Show up around 6PM to warm up, 1st rider off around 6:20.

I'm going back to all Merckx tonight but feel free to show up with whatever aero bits you have.

PFSD #2.0 Report & Results

2010-08-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

A new record of 13 riders (6 first timers!) showed up for the 2.0nd edition of the Polo Field Smack Down (PFSD) that saw a record low temp of 54 degrees (Fahrenheit) and higher than norman wind! We're all just loving this San Francisco summer. The course record was lowered yet again, now under 22:00. Will the 21 minute barrier ever go down? There is still $10 up for grabs from the promoter for beating the course record next time.

1) Chris Phipps | Morgan Stanley | Cat 1 | 21:45 | 28.41 | B,H,S | Course Record

2) Ken Gallardo | Pen Velo | Cat 2 | 23:00 | 26.87 | B,D,H,S,W | Cat 2 winner

3) Jacob Berkman | Mission Cycling | Cat 4 | 23:36| 26.19| C,H | Cat 4 winner

4) Daniel Vigil | Mission Cycling | 35+ Cat 5 | 24:27 | 25.28 | none | Cat 5 winner

5) Marcel Appelman | Mission Cycling | 35+ CAT 4 | 24:29 | 25.24 | none |

6) Chris Toshok | Mission Cycling | Cat 5 | 24:39 |25.07 | C,H,S |

7) Shawn Oliver | Morgan Stanley | 45+ | 24:40 | 25.05 | None | 45+ Winner

8) John Roberts | Dolce Vita | Cat 4 | 24:47 | 24.94 | None |

9) Justin Ching | Roaring Mouse | Cat 4 | 25:22 | 24.36 | None |

10) Jason Herrick | Mission Cycling| Cat 3 | 25:57 | 23.82 | None | Cat 3 winner

11) Devon Koch | Dolce Vita | ? | 26:24 | 23.41 | None

12) Steve Au | Roaring Mouse | Cat 4 | 26:30 | 23.32| None | I made up his time.

13) Eugene Kim | Mission Cycling | Cat 4 | Wasn't really there

Notes on aero equipment:

B = TT bike (not incl. aero wheels)

C = Clip-on Aero bars

D = Rear Disc Wheel

H = TT Helmet

S = Skinsuit

W = Aero Wheels

Hope to see another record for #3.0 on August 18!

PFSD # 1.5 Report & Results

2010-07-29T20:44:00.000-07:00

A new record of 9 riders (5 first timers!) showed up for the impromptu 1.5th edition of the Polo Field Smack Down (PFSD) that saw a record high temp of 56 degrees (Fahrenheit)! The use of more aero equipment led to new records in all contested divisions. Cat 4 record holder Jacob Berkman showed up in a baggy t-shirt (a-la Flandis), but took it off before the start to show off his new Mission Cycling kit.

There were a couple real close battles out there with 3 riders besting last week's record!

So, here are the results: Distance: 15 laps, 10.30 miles

1) Chris Phipps | Morgan Stanley | 35+ | 22:38 | 27.30 | S | Course Record

2) Harlan Chapman | Morgan Stanley | 45+ | 22:41 | 27.24 | B, H | 45+ Record

3) Jacob Berkman | Mission Cycling | Cat 4 | 23:18| 26.52| C,H | Cat 4 Record

4) Daniel Vigil | Mission Cycling | Cat 5 | 23:40 | 26.11 | C, S | Cat 5 Record

5) Greg Coleman | Taleo | Cat 3 | 24:34 | 25.16 | None | Cat 3 Record

6) John Roberts | Dolce Vita | Cat 4 | 25:09 | 24.57 | None |

7) Jared Hudson | Mission Cycling | Cat ? | 25:48 | 24.0 | None |

8) Jason Herrick | Mission Cycling| Cat 3 | 25:50 | 24.0 | None |

9) Michael Coppolino | Unatt. | 45+ | 30:27| 20.30 |None |

Notes on aero equipment:

B = TT bike (not incl. aero wheels)

C = Clip-on Aero bars

D = Rear Disc Wheel

H = TT Helmet

S = Skinsuit

W = Aero Wheels

I'll be dusting off the Cervelo for PFSD #2 next Wednesday August 4th, hope to see you there!

PFSD #1.5 Tonight (Thursday)

2010-07-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

By somewhat popular demand we will be running PFSD Time Trials tonight (Thursday July 29) at around 6:15 PM. Events will include the new Prologue TT at 3 laps (2.06 mi.) followed by the full standard 15 lap (10.30 mi.) TT. You can do just one or both!

Aero equipment is all fine, but not required. All events are standing start & self timed so bring a watch.

Hope to see you there!

PFSD # 1 Results

2010-07-21T21:20:00.000-07:00

(THE TROPHY)

Only 5 hardy souls braved the brisk 54 degree (45 with fog/wind chill) SF Summer weather to take part in the 1st Polo Field Smack Down (PFSD). Records were set in several divisions despite the less than ideal conditions, but we expect all these records to fall in the weeks to come.

So, here are the results: Distance: 15 laps, 10.30 miles

1) Chris Phipps | Morgan Stanley | 35+ | 23:20 | 26.49 | None | Course Record

2) Jacob Berkman | Mission Cycling | Cat 4 | 24:05*| 25.66 | Clip-ons | Cat 4 Record

3) Chris Toshok | Mission Cycling | Cat 5 | 26:04 | 23.71 | Skinsuit | Cat 5 Record

4) Daniel Vigil | Mission Cycling | Cat 5 | 26:07 | 23.66 | None | Should've worn skinsuit

5) Michael Coppolino | Unatt. | 45+ | 31:01* | 19.92 |None | 45+ Record

*converted from slightly shorter distance

Hope to see you all back and a few more for # 2 in 2 weeks on August 4, 1st rider start at 6:30 PM.

There will be $10 on the line for the fastest time under 23:20, and $10 will be added every 2 weeks until the course record is broken.

EDIT: Added result from PFSD #1.1 on Thursday:
Marcel Appelman | Mission Cycling | Cat 4 | 25:04 | 24.65 | ?? |
http://www.strava.com/rides/141623

Polo Field Smack Down July 21

2010-07-21T14:18:00.001-07:00

Time to revive this blog from the dead.

For those who can't make it to Davis for the Bi-Weekly Putah Creek Smack Down, I've decided to start a "low-key" Polo Field Smack Down starting tonight (July 21) at 6:30 PM.

The initial distance will be 10 miles (15 laps), but I'd like to add other distance in future weeks (2 miles, 2/3 miles & maybe 20 miles or 40K).

No charge and I'll start everyone in 30 sec intervals then go last. Until we have a volunteer this will be a self timed event.

Hope to see you there!

Training Week March 1 - 7, 2010

2010-03-12T09:30:00.000-08:00

A little better than last week's training.

Monday - no rain - eve polo field ride with Dyrwal - legs flat from Snelling 1:45
Tuesday - off
Wednesday - Led spin class at M2 - 90 min
Thursday - off
Friday - off
Saturday - 2 hr polo field ride with 1 hr crit simulation (hard)
Sunday - Marshall ride with Appel, Jacob, Dyrwal & Skates - 5:45 riding, 104 miles & about 6900 ft climbing.

Weekly totals: 9:30 riding, 1:30 spin, 11:00 total

Skipping Madera to put in a good training week, then racing the next several weekends in a row.

Training Week Feb 22 - 28, 2010

2010-03-02T08:49:00.000-08:00

Pretty bad week for training, but it's a long season, so maybe this year I won't peak in May.

Mon Feb 22 - NCNCA Meeting in Fremont - No training
Tue Feb 23 - rain, no training
Wed Feb 24 - Led 5:30 class @ M2 - 90 min spinning
Thu Feb 25 - Built up old blue SL2 for Saturday's race - no training
Fri Feb 26 - Drove out to Ripon to see Jen & family - dinner at Canal St. Grill - no training.
Sat Feb 27 - Snelling RR 35+ - 10 min easy ride, warm-up 1st ride on new build, bike felt fine. We had about 85 starters. It wasn't raining, but the course was flooded in several areas, so we had many deep water crossings to deal with.

I felt awful in the 1st lap as I tried to find my bike legs. The pace was fast & lots of guys were getting dropped. THings settled down for laps 2 & 3 and I started to feel better. We lost a few guys to flats (Dyrwal, Oliver & Holtz), but the rest of us were active at the front trying to establish a break.

As we started the final lap, Chris Baker rolled off the front (with a couple Taleo guys I believe). Several guys started to chase hard& I jumped on. I heard Innes yell from behind that we had a gap and that it was time to go. I think we had about 10 guys & never really got organized, but there were a few guys in there taking hard pulls, so we got a good gap. I can't remember exactly where, but at some point Innes, Bryant and I got a gap and took off. I was barely hanging on, but lasted with them until they took off for the sprint with Innes taking it, so I rolled across in 3rd. I though Baker came in 6th, but the results show him in 7th.
Took most of the drive home to thaw the feet out.

Sunday - City/Marin Headland ride with McQuaid - No rain, blue skies & warm - 90 min ride turned into 3:15.

Weekly totals: 6:15 riding, 90 min spin - 7:45 total.

Time to start putting in more hours on the bike.

Training Week Feb 15 - Feb 21

2010-03-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

Time to catch up on the training log.

Mon Feb 15 - President's Day! - 4 hour Marin ride - Alpine Dam with Thirsty Bears
Tue Feb 16 - Polo field tempo - 2 hrs.
Wed Feb 17 - Off
Thu Feb 18 - Polo field tempo 90 min
Fri Feb 19 - Off
Sat Feb 20 - Berkeley TTT with Dyrwal - Short trainer warm up, Won the Merckx Division in 42:05!
Sun Feb 21 - Ronde van Brisbeen Sierra Point Crit in the rain - only did the 35+ race in a field of 13. Finished 4th behind 2 man break of Reaney & Gerlach, I lost sprint for 3rd to Theobald. Too cold to handg around for P/1/2 race.

Weekly totals: 10 hrs riding.

Training Week Feb 8 - 14, 2010

2010-02-17T08:27:00.000-08:00

Sometimes one little part breaking can be very costly.

Monday - Led spin class @ M2 - 90 min
Tuesday - Polo field tempo ride - some TTT work with Dyrwal - 2:00 hr.
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - easy 30 min lunch run
Friday - 1:15 polo field ride.
Saturday - Beat the clock TT - Went to the wrong end of the course & wasted 30 min looking for the start. Arrived 10 min before start, got number, rode for 5 min, then was off. Started slow & was feeling pretty good by mile 9.3 when my rear derailleur shattered into pieces & my chain cut a big hole in my chainstay. Eventually walked across the finish line with the 2nd slowest time. Rode around a bit afterward on Paul Chuck's old SL. Total - 45 min riding.
Sunday - off - trying to figure out what to do about a bike.

Weekly totals: 4 hrs riding, 90 min spin, 30 min run, 6 hrs total.

Training Week Feb 1 - 7, 2010 - Cherry Pie

2010-02-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

Monday - Off (to a good start)
Tuesday - 2:00 Polo field ride - with Jacob, Steve & Justin. Did 3 x 20 min @ 25 mph. Led all of the 1st one, then we sprinted the last min of every 5 on the 2nd then alternated laps on the 3rd.
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - Led both spin classes @ M2 - 5:30 & 6:15. 2:30 total spin. - lots of 1 min & 4 min intervals.
Friday - Off
Saturday - Led 75 min spin for ALS group @ Club Sport in San Ramon. Did 4 x 5 min, 4 x 3 min, 4 x 1 min, 8 x 20 sec intervals.

Sunday - Chery Pie criterium. I arrived plenty early as usual, but didn't get much of a warm-up in as I was talking to people and picking up team orders, etc, but got about 30 min riding around.

1st up was the 35+ 1/2/3 race. I felt pretty lousy on the 1st lap, so I gave myself 10 min to warm-up in the pack then moved to the front just in time for a prime lap. I attacked on the downhill & got a gap that I held to the line for the prime. I was immediately joined by a small breakaway group of Gerlach, Sayers, Nolan, Innes & Martin, all of whom were either a pro, world, or national champion at some point. So, the break was strong enough to stay away & our lead quickly grew to over 30 sec on the pack. There were a few attacks from the break & I tried a couple times, but nothing got away. There was a crash in the main field with 2 to go & when we went by it with 1 to go some people were yelling for us to neutralize. When we went by the finish the lap card still showed 2 to go and we did not get a bell. Someone was till yelling neutral, so I sta up with Martin & Innes, but Sayers, Nolan & Gerlach kept the gas on. I was trying to close the gap with Innes & Martin on my wheel, but wasn't quite sure if it was really the last lap. Turns out it was so I got 6th. (For some reason they made the pack go another lap to sprint for 7th)

The P/1/2 race was just a workout. Started in the back for the first few laps, then I tried to get to the front & move up each lap on the hill. I was not being too aggressive though, and just rode it out in the back of the pack.

2:30 total riding.

Weekly totals: 4:30 riding, 3:15 spinning, 7:45 total

Training Week January 25 - 31, 2010

2010-02-10T08:26:00.000-08:00

Busy, busy, busy with work & NCNCA stuff but have a little time now to update the training log.

Monday - Led spin class @ M2. 90 min @ 265 W Ave. Final set of 4 x 5 min was 330W, 339W, 353W, 361W.
Tuesday - Off
Wednesday - Polo fields ride, 90 min. 4 x 10 min. 4 mile splits & HRs were: 9:40 (145), 9:38 (149), 9:37 (154), 9:35 (158)
Thursday - Led 5:30 class @ M2, 75 min. 2 x 5 min 270W, 280W, 20min @ 307W, 10 min @ 330 W, 5 min @ 359W.
Friday - Off
Saturday - 4:30 ride in Marin with McQuaid & Dyrwal, started with Purple Patch group, but my training partners became a little impatient. Rode to Stinson & east peak of Tam. 77 miles, 6,650 ft climbing.
Sunday - Easy city ride with McQuaid - 75 min.

Weekly totals: 2:45 spin, 7:15 riding, 10:00 total

Training Week January 18 - 24, 2010

2010-01-26T08:31:00.000-08:00

Rain every day and being busy at work & tired from camp, this was a good week for a rest week.

Monday - Drove home from camp - stopped for butter, pancakes, eggs, butter & pancakes.
Tuesday - Back at work - 2 x 400M - 25lb cat in carrier carry to vet & back
Wednesday - Took spin class at M2 - 2 hrs - Started with building warm-up (50 min Ave 230W), then went out too hard on 20 min interval, ave 373W for 1st 10 min, 361W for full 20 min. Was too tired to properly do 4 x 5 min intervals that followed, but felt better at the end (290W, 328W, 357W, 391W). - 1827kJ for the 2 hrs.
Thursday - lunch run with Patti - 1st run in a few weeks - as always, running feels good for about a mile, then less so. She was half-wheeling me all the way back at 7:15 pace, which felt fast to me. I'm not in great running shape.
Friday - Off
Saturday - 4 hr ride in Marin - most of it with Dyrwal - Alpine Dam, 7 sisters (he kicked my ass in the 7 Sisters sprint), down to Stinson & back up Panoramic & home - 67 miles - 6,000 ft of climbing
Sunday - Walked to the Farmers Market with K.

Weekly totals - 4 hrs riding, 2 hr spin class, 37 min run. 6:37 total.

Training Week Jan 11 - 17, 2010

2010-01-18T18:59:00.000-08:00

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney / Specialized Team Camp

Monday - NCNCA Meeting - No workout

Tuesday - Packed for camp (rain)

Wednesday - Ride from San Jose to Big Sur with Brian Lewis, Shawn Oliver, Keith Hock & Harlan Chapman (John Grant drove support & rode the last stretch from Carmel with us) - 100 miles, 5:45 riding, 5,160 ft climbing - amazing dinner at Nepenthe

Thursday - Ride from Big Sur to San Luis Obispo - A beautiful day on the central coast with temps in the high 60's. Chris Black & a friend rode up from SLO & met us near Cambria & we had a fantastic dinner at the Blacks (thanks Trish & Chris!) - 106 miles, 5:46 riding, 5,932 ft climbing

Friday - Rode from SLO to team camp at the Skyview Motel in Los Alamos - dinner with the team at Flatbread. 59 miles, 3:15 riding, 1,560 ft climbing.

Saturday - Team pictures, then team ride over Figueroa - 88 miles, 8,008 ft of climbing, 5:15 riding. Climb split was 51:28

Sunday - Rain started early in ride, then got worse, so ride was shortened to 63 miles, 3:15 riding, 2,100 ft climbing. Good pace-line work with the team.

5 day camp totals - 23:15 riding, 416 miles, 22,700 ft of climbing.

Heavy rains on Monday meant no ride & everyone left early.

Training Week January 4 - 10, 2010

2010-01-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

Monday - Led spin class @ M2 - 90 min class, finished with 2 x 10 min power test.
Tuesday - Off
Wednesday - Lunch run. Chased after some guy who went by running 6 min pace. Didn't hurt much at the time, but sore the next day - 35 min total run.
Thursday - Eve Polo Field ride. Joined Dyrwal for 3 x 6 min Z3. Good group of Roaring Mice riding with us. 90 min total.
Friday - Easy 30 min lunch run
Saturday - 75 min AM ride - Polo fields & a few Sunset climbs.
Sunday - Early Bird Criterium clinic mentoring. Mentored 2 sessions (pedaling through corners) & 3 crits, then finished day with 60 min P/1/2/3 crit. Long, fun, educational & exhausting day. 85 miles, about 4:00 riding total.

Weekly totals: 6:45 riding, 90 min spin, 1:05 running, 9:20 total.

This week - ride down to Morgan Stanley team camp, lots of miles!

Training Week Dec 27, 2009 - Jan 3, 2010

2010-01-07T20:52:00.000-08:00

1st Training Week of 2010.

Monday - Led M2 Spin Class - 90 min class with San Bruno simulation at the end.

Tuesday - Eve 65 min ride on trainer

Wednesday - Off

Thursday - GG Park/Polo field ride with a few pick-ups 1:15

Friday - Mt. San Bruno Hill Climb - Arrived plenty early for a long warm-up. Rode for about 35 min between 8:50 - 9:15, then wasted a bunch of time switching from 35+ to P/1/2 & re-pinning my #, cooled down a lot and barely got in a few more minutes warn-up before the race started. Started slow, about 8-10 back, took the lead about 6 min up for about 1 min, but didn't really break up the group. After the parking lot Menso DeJong (Metromint) went to the front & pushed it & I think it was down to just him, Metcalfe & me. I put in a real hard 90 sec effort about 1K from the top and dropped Metcalfe, but couldn't get more than a bike length or so ahead of Menso. He then pulled real hard & I tried to go around him 1 last time about 400M from the finish, but couldn't & just watched him roll away with the victory. His time was 15:13, mine was 15:23. Metcalfe lost a close sprint for 3rd to Conner Spencer.

Tim Clark outlasted Greg McQuaid to win the 35+, Cale Reeder nipped Mark Edwards for the win in the 45+ & the only other Morgan Stanley Smith Barney rider, Mark Caldwell won the 55+. Rode about 1 hr cooldown. 2:00 total ride.

Saturday - 1 hr easy riding at the mentoring clinic in Fremont.

Sunday - Hans' 49th birthday ride - 6 hrs, 105 miles of great riding!

Weekly totals: 10:15 riding, 2:35 spin class/trainer - 12:50 total.

San Bruno Progression:

2006 (age 36): 15:48.8 (1st Cat 5, 5th overall)

2007 (age 37): 14:56 (1st P/1/2, 1st overall)

2008 (age 38): 15:15 (1st P/1/2, 2nd best time - Nate English rode 14:56 to Win Cat 4)

2009 (age 39): 15:15 (1st 35+, 1st overall)

2010 (age 40): 15:23 (2nd P/1/2, 2nd overall)

Training Update Dec 27, 2009 - Only 5 days until San Bruno

2009-12-27T22:09:00.000-08:00

Trying to get back to my weekly posting of my training so I can figure out how much training I'm doing and if it's working.

Friday 12/25 - Christmas city ride with Cale R. Rode about 2 hours around the city with several good hills through the Presidio, Land's End, GG Park, Warren to Twin Peaks.

Saturday 12/26 - Rode with Brian & Jacob, picked up Cale at the Fairmont, rode to the Embarcadero, then south to 3rd to Bayshore to base of San Bruno Mtn. @ Guadalupe. Did 3 climbs: 18:30, 16:49, 17:08 - felt pretty good but legs were sore & had trouble getting HR over 170. Back through Daly City to Park Presidio - Cale was going about 30mph all the way to GG Park - 4 hr total ride.

Sunday 12/27 - Slept in until 10:30 (11 hrs sleep) - rest day, no ride

Weekly total: 90 min spin class, 11 hrs riding, 12:30 total. (No Running)

Training Update Dec 9 - Dec 24, 2009

2009-12-24T12:42:00.000-08:00

Dec 9 - Headlands ride with Greg - 90 min

Dec 10 - Easy 4 mile 30 min run

Dec 11 - Easy 4 mile 30 min run

Dec 12 - (Rain) - 5 mile run with 4 x 400M @ Kezar with 1 min recovery - 80, 79, 78, 75

Dec 13 - Christmas Relay's @ Lake Merced. Ran 4th leg - 4.464 M in 25:27 (5:30, 5:28, 5:54, 5:58, 2:37) -Team was 6th overall, Jin was fastest & ran our 1st leg in 22:59. I was slowest & lost 2 places in the last 2.5 miles.

Followed race with 2hr ride with Greg & met James on San Bruno Mtn. Did the summit twice (didn't look at the times). James outsprinted me to the line at the finish. I better watch out for him on 1/1.

Dec 14 - Led spin class @ M2 - 90 min

Dec 15 - Day off

Dec 16 - Polo field ride - 1 Hr

Dec 17 - easy 30 min lunch run

Dec 18 - Office Party @ Lunch, Party for Harold & Pete in the eve = no training + too much eating

Dec 19 - Birthday ride - SF to Pt Reyes Sta. to Mt. Vision to BoFax & up & back to SF - 6:30 total ride time 105+ miles - feeling good

Dec 20 - Easy SF ride with Greg - 90 min

Dec 21 - M2 spin class - 90 min - finished class with 2 x 8 min power test - Power was 327 watts for 1st 8 min, 358 watts for 2nd 8 min.

Dec 22 - Day off

Dec 23 - 2 hr ride - polo fields - some with Matt P, some with Noe.

Dec 24 - 3 hr ride to Muir woods, Muir Beach with Brian G. - post ride weight down to 139.5

Sat Dec 26 will be a San Bruno x 3 test starting at 10AM.

Merry Christmas!

Training Update

2009-12-08T21:24:00.000-08:00

I need to do this more often because it's getting really tough to remember what I've been doing.

Nov 21 - 4 Hr team ride in Napa

Nov 22 - Lead Bike for PAXC race in GG Park - 3 hrs riding

Nov 23 - Led 90 min spin class @ M2

Nov 24 - Easy 35 min lunch run

Nov 25 - easy 30 min lunch run

Nov 26 - T-day Alumni XC race @ Crystal Springs - 17:21 (7th place - 1:28 faster than 2008)

Nov 27 - easy 45 min ride in GG Park

Nov 28 - Long Marin ride w/ Dyrwal - 5 Hrs total

Nov 29 - CX in GG Park - 60 min - 9th in SSA - 2 hr total riding

Nov 30 - Led 90 min class @ M2

Dec 1 - Day off

Dec 2 - 30 min lunch run

Dec 3 - 30 min lunch run + 90 min eve ride w/ 2 x 10 min Zone 2 @ Polo Fields

Dec 4 - 30 min lunch run

Dec 5 - Team ride in the east bay - 3:30

Dec 6 - 60 Min park ride - 30 min Zone 1 @ Polo Fields

Dec 7 - Lunch - 30 min 4 mile run - eve - led 90 min spin class @ M2

Dec 8 - Rest day no workout

Hard to tell if I'm in very good shape or not. Will try a few repeats on San Bruno with Greg M on Saturday if it's not raining and that should be a good test.

Training Update November 1 - 20, 2009

2009-11-20T14:18:00.000-08:00

Not yet "officially" training for 2010, but trying to keep fit and not put on too much weight. I weighed myself Monday night and was shocked to see 150.5. That may be the heaviest I've ever been and a good 10 pounds over my ideal racing weight. I guess I can't eat unlimited cookies & chocolate covered pecans & almonds without consequences.

Though the 150.5 was an after dinner weight and when I rechecked on Tuesday morning I was down to 148. So, I'm still a good 8 pounds over where I want to be. Until I get back to 140 I'll be skipping all between meal snacks & desserts and cutting back on the beer. :-(

I've also been taking lots of days off lately and haven't been on the bike much at all, but that will be ending soon as I need to be burning more calories.

Here's my November training summary for the 1st 20 days:

Nov 1 - 8.5 mile (65 min) run
Nov 2 - 5 mile (35 min) run
Nov 3 - 1 HR M2 Spin Class
Nov 4 - 5 mile (35 min) run
Nov 5 - 6 mile (45 min) run + 1 HR M2 Spin Class
Nov 6 - 5 mile (35 min) run
Nov 7 - Lead bike for NCAA DII Western Regional XC - about 90 min of riding.
Nov 8 - Hills of SF ride - about 4 hours, but very easy for the most part
Nov 9 - 90 min spin class at M2
Nov 10 - Off
Nov 11 - Easy 4 mile (30 min) run
Nov 12 - 5 mile (35 min) run
Nov 13 & 14 - Off
Nov 15 - Easy 1 hr ride
Nov 16 - 4 mile (30 min) run - Led spin calss @ M2 (80 min)
Nov 17 - Off
Nov 18 - 5 mile lunch run with final 2.5 @ 6 min pace (33 min)
Nov 19 - 6.5 mile lunch run (50 min)
Nov 20 - 5 mile lunch run (38 min)

Hopefully all this running will pay off at the Turkey Trot next Thursday.

More off Season Stuff

2009-11-05T09:32:00.001-08:00

Congratulations to the new NCNCA officers: Lorri, Michael, Tad & Bob!

I'm not too bummed about losing the Treasurer election to Tad. I'm sure he'll do a great job and I'll find some other way to help out with the NCNCA BOD.

I haven't been on my bike since LKHC #4, (11 days now!) which I think is a record for me.

I have been going to a lot of M2 Revolution spin classes though and will be teaching my first class on Monday November 16 at 6:15 PM. This will be a free introductory class for people who want to come see what M2 is all about.

I've been running more and did an 8 mile run Sunday and a tempo run yesterday with 4 x 5 min at an unknown pace that felt really fast. I think I'll go to the track next week and find out the truth.

Here's a schedule things I'll be doing in the off season:

Nov 7 - Saturday - Lead bike for NCAA D2 Western Regional XC race at GG Park
Nov 8 - Sunday - 17th Annual Tour of SF Hills - 9AM At Marina (SF) Safeway parking lot
Nov 9 - Monday - M2 Spin Class 6:15 (80 min class)
Nov 10 - Tuesday - New Balance Excelsior running workout

Nov 14 - Saturday - Timing the Run Forrest Run 5K in Monterey

Nov 16 - Monday - Leading Intro Class - Spinning with Power at M2 - come join us!

Nov 21 - Saturday - SF Bike Expo at the Cow Palace - need to find some cheap parts
Nov 22 - Sunday - Pacific Association Cross Country Championships at GG Park - will either be lead bike, or could be talked into racing though I would probably be one of the last 10 finishers since I'm only 39.9 years old and have to race open.

Nov 26 - Thanksgiving - Don Dooley Memorial Turkey Trot & Alumni World Championship Cross Country Race at Crystal Springs in Belmont. - 9AM

Nov 27 or 28 - Some "Epic" training ride of some sort somewhere in the Bay Area

Nov 29 - RUN WILD - 5K or 10K - GG Park - If I haven't given up running my then.

Dec 9 - 4PM - Dentist Appointment

Dec 13 - Sunday - Christmas Relays - 4 x 4.6 mile run around lake merced - If the open team needs me I can run.

Dec 19 - Saturday - My 40th Birthday - Will either ride Tam, San Bruno, Hamilton, Diablo, or possibly all of the above if I can fit it in.

Dec 20 - Sunday - My Masters Running debut at the Miracle Mile in GG Park - 1 Mile downhill - If I can't break 5, I will quit running.

Dec 24 or 26 or 27 - San Bruno Hill Climb Training Ride

January 1, 2010 - San Bruno Hill Climb

I'm running for NCNCA Treasurer

2009-10-22T23:03:00.000-07:00

I've decided to try to get into cycling politics at the local level and am running for NCNCA Treasurer for 2010. Click here for my candidate statement.

Win or lose though, I plan to be more involved with the NCNCA.

As for the off season, I'm enjoying it so far. I'm getting caught up on things at work & at home while doing a little running, a few M2 Revolution spin classes & some of the Low Key Hill Climbs to keep from getting too out of shape.

Training Weeks September 7 - October 3, 2009

2009-10-03T14:18:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking on the training blog. I know blogging is dead, but I do this so I can look back after a good/bad race and try and figure out what I did right/wrong.

It's the off season anyway, so I'm not doing anything too long, but still a few hard efforts when I feel like it.

Mon 9/7 - Giro di DF - rode downtown & warmed up about 1 hr. Started slow, moved up, got in a couple moves, 1 solo break for about 2 laps, won a $25 Sports Basement prime, then couldn't get away after that. Seemed like every time I tried to move up some 200 lb guy would try to drive me into a curb. I decided a t-shirt & $20 was not worth a potential hospital visit, so I sat up. Watched the rest of the races & rode home.

Tue 9/8 - Park run 7 miles in about 50 min. Longest run of the year. I was lucky that Brian, Molly & George decided not to do tempo or I would have died.

Wed 9/9 - Spin class - 45 min

Thu - 9/10 - 1 hr polo field ride

Fri 9/11 - can't remember

Sat 9/12 - Lead bike for 3 XC running races. Great workout riding through the sand, soft grass, over the log & up the hill 9 times. Linda Somers Smith (now 48!) beat all the open women and ran faster than all but 3 of the 149 masters (40+) men!!

Sunday 9/13 - easy 45 min ride

Monday 9/14 - 45 min spin class

Tue 9/15 - GGP eve ride 75 min

Wed 9/16 - 45 min spin class

Thu 9/17 - 35 min lunch run + 1 hr eve polo field ride

Fri - 9/18 - 45 min spin class (last spin class for a while)

Sat - 9/19 - easy 75 min city ride with Greg & Nick

Sun 9/20 - Fremont Peak HC - New race. E 1/2, E3, 35+ 1/2/3 all races together, about 30 of us. Stayed together for the 1st 4 miles, then it blew up. I was 1st in 40:02. Try for sub 40 next year.

Mon 9/21 - Lunch run - 35 min

Tue 9/22 - GGP eve ride (hard! - thanks Noe) 75 min

Wed 9/23 - Off

Thu 9/24 - Not really anything

Fri 9/25 - rested

Sat 9/26 - easy 1 hr park ride

Sun 9/27 - easy 1 hr park ride

Mon 9/28 - Lunch run with Patti - 48 min (6.5 miles)

Tue 9/29 - GGP eve ride - hard - just because - 75 min

Wed 9/30 - Lunch run with John & Mark - 35 min

Thu 10/1 - Lunch run with Patti - 5 mi - 35 min with stop to see the bottom of the 2nd @ AT&T park.

Fri 10/2 - Lunch run - 25 min + easy eve ride 45 min

Sat 10/3 - LKHC #1 - Montebello - Drove down with Greg. Warmed up around 30 min. Rode 25:59 for 6 sec PR. The only data I have is from my HRM. Average for the climb was 161 bpm with a max of 177. I don't know what that is is watts or kilojoules.

Also, have to include a link to the You Tube video Karin did of our cat Bou.

Training Week August 31 - September 6, 2009

2009-09-07T09:35:00.001-07:00

Monday - Lunch run with Patti - about 4.8 miles in 36 min

Tuesday - Modified GG Pars sprints course - due to Outside Lands clean-up, we had to add about 200M to our usual loop. Still hard as ever though. 1:30 riding.

Wednesday - 45 min spin class

Thursday - 25 min lunch run, 1 hr eve ride

Friday - 45 min spin class

Saturday - easy 30 min ride

Sunday - 1:30 park ride (sunday streets). Added a few hard 1 min intervals.

Weekly totals: 1 hr running, 4:30 riding, 1:30 spin class - 7 Hrs total.

Training Week August 24 - 30

2009-09-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

Getting caught up on the training logs.

Monday - came back from Utah exhausted

Tuesday - Off

Wednesday - 25 min run (1st run of the year!)

Thursday - 35 min run, 45 min easy ride

Friday - Off (warm in SF)

Saturday - 3 Hr ride to Stinson & back on 1 with Brain & Joe - some moderate efforts on the hills

Sunday - 25 min run - ran a 400 on the track in 75 (now just need to do 4 of those in a row by December)

Weekly totals: 1:15 running, 3:45 riding, 5:00 total

Tour of Utah Part II

2009-09-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

Time to get caught up on the training/racing blog.

After the 1st 3 stages we had almost a rest day since we only had a 9.2 mile TT and that didn't start until around 7PM. After we all slept in and had breakfast the team went for an easy coffee ride with our hosts with Marijke on her bike and Alex as lead moto. The rest of the day was spent relaxing until it was time to head out to the Miller Motorsports Park. It was a very warm day, in the high 90's, but we had a nice shaded warm-up area (though none of us had trainers, so we warmed up by riding around the parking lot). The course started with an out and back around the perimeter of the race track, then finished on the track, which was a lot of fun with the constant turning. It kind of made me forget about the pain. Here are the Zteam and selected other results from the TT:

Position	Bib	Name	Team	Time		Gap	Penalty
1.	35	ZIRBEL Tom	BPC	.17'00"	900
2.	5	MCKISSICK Ian	BMC	.17'14"	900	14"
3.	2	BOOKWALTER Brent	BMC	.17'19"	000	19"	1"
4.	36	VENNELL Jeremy	BPC	.17'22"	500	22"
5.	19	ZABRISKIE David	GRM	.17'23"	300	23"
6.	34	JACQUES-MAYNES Ben	BPC	.17'29"	300	29"

30.	56	LANDIS Floyd	OCM	.18'06"	600	1'06"

33.	32	MACH Paul	BPC	.18'10"	000	1'10"
34.	181	ENGLISH Nathaniel	ZTM	.18'11"	500	1'11"
38.	186	WINGERT James	ZTM	.18'17"	300	1'17"
101.	183	LAUE Justin	ZTM	.19'01"	300	2'01"
102.	188	PHIPPS Christopher	ZTM	.19'02"	600	2'02"
106.	185	OWENS Vincent	ZTM	.19'04"	700	...
130.	182	BARBERI Stefano	ZTM	.19'28"	600	2'28"
131.	184	RAMSEY Daniel	ZTM	.19'30"	400	2'30"	1"

Pretty good rides for Nate & Jim. The rest of us did OK, and Daniel didn't have a TT bike, so not bad for him either.

Getting back late from the TT stage followed by the queen stage the next morning was sure to be the toughest part of this race. The queen stage started in Park City with 2 neutral laps around town, then is was off to Snowbird with a few climbs along the way. Oh, and it was about 95 degrees out, so I started with 4 bottles, 2 frozen.

The first obstacle was an unrated climb just a few miles in that was made much harder than it should have been by the attacking off the front. There was a crosswind from the right and I found myself about 120 riders back in the left hand gutter, occasionally having to go around cars that were pulled over to that side of the road to let the race go by. After the climb, we had a lot of fast descending, so it was much easier to stay with the group, and it was pretty mellow until we hit the first HC climb about 50 miles into the stage. The pack really blew up on this climb, and a group of about 35 (maybe they were 2 groups totaling 35) got off the front with Nate in there and I was in the next group of about 20, which grew to about 50 after the descent and we also had Justin and Stefano in there. The descent was long and fairly technical. It was a bit scary seeing it for the first time at race speed, but I got through it and was safely in the pack when we got to the fast gradual descents on the wide roads. Next problem was that I was running low on fluids with about 1/2 a bottle left. I was waiting for our team car to come by, but when it finally did, it was going about 50mph, so no fluids for the 3 of us for a while.

On the next climb, the small Cat3 Traverse Ridge in Draper, David Clinger charged a bit ahead of our group (I think he had some fans there). I was really dying of thirst when a fan on the side of the road gave me a Coke. That really hit the spot! I had about half of it then gave the rest to Paul Mach because it looked like he needed it. After that I was feeling pretty good and got another bottle from neutral support that was enough to get me to the base of the final HC climb to the finish at Snowbird.

As we started the climb I saw what was some guy handing out neutral water, but as I grabbed the bottle I realized it was Daniel who had dropped out on the first climb and hopped in the team car. I guess he had had enough. Too bad since I think he would have done well in the crit.

Going up the final climb, there were several fans with water, which really helped, and the temp started to cool dawn a bit too as we climbed. Justin and I traded leading our group, which disintegrated after a few miles, mostly because the guys just didn't care if they were 40th, 50th or whatever place, they just wanted to make the time cut. I was feeling better on this climb than I imagined I would considering the heat and the length of the stage, (2 of my weak points), and finished feeling really strong, crossing the line in 43rd and moving up to 63rd in GC.

With the long stages over, and only a 90 min crit remaining, we could really relax and enjoy our saturday night. For the first time all week I had a few beers (they were the 3.2% Utah variety) , and spent the evening shooting pool back at the Rossi house with Hunter, Nate & Jim.

The crit didn't start until 2PM, so Sunday was another relaxing morning and a big breakfast. Nate, Jim, Vince and I rode over to the crit course. I got a flat on the way, but we still arrived about 20 minutes before the start, so plenty of time to sign in. We were told at the start of the crit that as long as we lasted 30 minutes without falling too far back we would get a prorated time and be included in the GC results. Jim, Vince and I stayed near the back for the first 30 minutes until Jim pulled the plug & fell back. A few other riders did the same shortly thereafter, but I hung on for another 25 minutes. Being on the back though, the constant accelerations were getting to me and I finally let too big a gap open up and couldn't close it. I rode solo for another 3 laps in TT mode until the official mercifully held up the red paddle and I was pulled and awarded 99th place in the crit and 64th in GC with a total time of 13:14.25. (more than I normally train in a week)

Training week totals: 13:14.25 racing, ~ 2 hours warming up and easy riding - 15:14 weekly total.

Many thanks to Alex and Marijke Rossi who hosted us, to Hunter the DS of Zteam and to Lorachristine for all her organizing and follow car support.

Also, thanks to my wonderful wife Karin who was still here when I got home and hadn't changed the locks. This excessive bike racing is real tough on a marriage. =-)

Racing Week August 17 - 23, 2009 - Utah part 1

2009-08-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

Tour of Utah Week, the big race I've been anticipating & dreading for many weeks.

Monday - woke up at 6AM, out the door by 6:30, picked up Jim Wingert in Davis around 8AM & drove to SLC. Arrived at the Prologue course around 7:30 PM and rode the course a few times.

30 min ride, then went to the Rossi house where we'd be staying for the week.

Tuesday - while the rest of the guys went for a ride, I tuned up my bikes and rested, trying to get over the lingering symptoms of my cold. I thought my prologue would be around 6:45, but when I arrived at the course around 5:45 I discovered that my start time was 6:17. I didn't get much of a warm-up, so a 2.8 mile race was a real shock to the system, that and the altitude. I thought I rode pretty well, coming in at 6:57, when the best riders were only about 40-45 seconds faster. Turns out a lot of riders finished in that 45 seconds and my time was only 132nd best. I knew it was going to be a long week. (about 45 min total riding)

Wednesday - First real road race Ogden to Salt Lake, with 2 Cat 1 climbs in between. This race didn't start off super fast. I thought it was odd seeing Zabriskie spending most of the early race in the back 10 with guys like me, but he knew how to move up when he needed to. I didn't have too much problem staying with the pack on the 1st Cat 1 climb or the following descent, but was not positioned too well when the 2nd climb started and too far back when the gaps started opening up. I rode with a few guys on the following descent, but ended up on my own over the last 10 miles and finished solo in 89th with no one within over a minute of me on either side. I finished 89th and moved up to 89th in GC. (3:31:13 stage time)

Thursday - Mt. Nebo. - 60 miles flat followed by a 20 mile HC climb. As soon as the neutral ended we were going full gas due south for miles & miles. Problem was the wind from the east. Guys at the front were trying to break away & Rock & the other teams were chasing everything down, so back in the last 25 spots where I was, it was just pedal as hard as you can with your head down, trying to ride on an inch of road and hope the pack would eventually slow down. At 1 point there was a crash about 20 riders up that I was able to avoid, but after hitting the brakes I saw a large gap open up. I chased as hard as I could for about 2 minutes, then was about to give up thinking my race was over when a small chase pack with Ben Jacques Maynes & Floyd Landis went by. I was able to get back on this group and get a ride back to the safety of the peloton. A little while later a break was established and we made a turn into the wind, so it became a lot easier to sit in and wait for the climb. When the climb came, I was again in a bad position near the back of the field, but that didn't matter too much. This was a 90 minute, do it at your pace climb. I went hard, but held back a bit since I didn't want to blow up. I again finished solo, this time in 71st and moved up to 74th in GC. (3:17:34 stage time)

When we returned to the Rossi house they had prepared an incredible pasta dinner for the team and we surprised them with how quickly we ate everything. One thing about this trip was that I was eating a lot more than normal.

Training Week August 10 - 16, 2009

2009-08-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

Way late on this one, but not too much to report.

Monday - 45 min spin class

Tuesday - Usual GG Park sprints - 1:30 total ride

Woke up wednesday with a sore throat & feeling sick

Wednesday - easy 30 min on spin bike

Thursday - 1:30 at polo fields with some tempo

Friday - easy 30 min on spin bike

Saturday - Alpine Dam ride - started with BF group, then rode with Dyrwal, he was making me hurt pretty bad - 3:30 total ride

Sunday - easy park ride - saw Irish Greg & rode with him foe a while - 2:00 total ride

Weekly totals: 8:30 riding, 1:45 spinning, 10:15 total.

Training Week August 3 - 9, 2009

2009-08-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

I am in such a workout rut Mon-Fri, but it's been working OK, so I'll keep doing it.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday - 45 min lunch spin class
Tuesday - GG Park sprints - hard - 2:00 total
Thursday - Polo field tempo - 2:00 total ride
Saturday - City loop ride with Greg - 2:00 - a few short hard hills
Sunday - Patterson Pass RR - 35+ We had 4 (Cole, Daly, Lyman & me). It was hot, & I was called out for being wasteful with the limited water. (Sorry about that, I'll be more sparing next time). I pushed the climbs and would get a little gap on the field over the top, and as the race wore on there were fewer and fewer left until only 7 of us remained after the 3rd time over Patterson Pass. I kept throwing in attacks, but it wasn't enough to drop or tire out Bosch who took the sprint over Nils (2nd) & Cole (3rd). Bryant, me & Irish Greg picked up the remaining 3 t-shirts.

Weekly totals - 9:45 riding, 2:15 spin classes - 12:00 total.

Next up, Tour of Utah.

Training Week July 27 - August 2, 2009

2009-08-05T09:15:00.001-07:00

After the crit crash on Sunday, I decided to take a few days off, so M-T-W I didn't exercise. Though I did trade in my old Dodge Caravan for $4,500 (Cash for Clunkers) & bought a new Honda Fit. I would have preferred to buy American, but Ford didn't have a compact hatchback (Focus is only in a sedan for now & the Fiesta won't be here for a while), & I wasn't really interested in the Chevy Aveo.

Anyway, back to the training:

Thursday & Friday - 45 min lunch spin classes.
Saturday Elite District RR @ Fort Ord. - 105 miles - 10 laps. Pace on the climbs was brisk on the 1st 3 laps until the winning break of 5 got away. (Mach, Moore, DuBost, Riffelmacher, Pickett). I was near the front when I saw this happen, and in most cases would have chased, but with 75 miles left to ride & not feeling that great I decided to sit in and let others chase.
The break stayed away & I didn't do too much, just got in my long training ride & finished near the back of what was left of the pack in 17th.
Sunday - easy 90 min park ride.

Weekly totals - 6 hrs riding, 1:30 spin class - 7:30 total.

Training Week July 20 - 26, 2009

2009-08-05T08:50:00.000-07:00

Been laggin on the bloggin again.

Typical work week workouts:

M-W-F 45 min lunch spin classes
Tue - GG Park Sprints - 2 Hrs.
Thu - 90 min ride, nothing too hard.

Sat - Drove up to Woodfords with Charles, our 40+ district race started at 11:10.
It was hot, probably around 90, so glad the race was only 55 miles. Race started off real fast with Todd Weitzenberg being real aggressive. The pack pretty much blew up on the 1st climb and on the stretch to the finish, Todd got away with David Albrecht & Brenon. After that what was left of the pack slowed. I kept trying to jump across, but couldn't escape without company until the climbs on the 2nd lap where Chris Wire & I got away clean. We worked together for a lap, but then saw the pack getting close as we started the climbs on the 3rd lap, so I had to take off. I was able to bridge up to the lead 3 and with Brenon in there, we had 2 of the 4, but we played nice until the final lap with Brenon taking some extra long pulls (thanks!). On the final climbs Todd went 1st, then I punched it with all I had left and was able to get a gap and TT it to the finish for my 1st district championship win. For a race that was only 55 miles (about 2:20 riding time), it really took a lot out of me since I wasn't used to the altitude & 90 degree heat.

Sunday - Minden Crit - my plan was to sit in for at least 30 minutes, then try 1 all out attack to get away. Well, for some reason I never stick to the plan & started attacking after about 10 minutes and every 5 minutes thereafter, but nothing was getting away. Charles was looking strong & being real aggressive, which was great to see. On the final lap, I was leading the pack into turn 1 and was going just a bit too fast, so I slid out of the race. Got some nasty road rash, but at least no one else went down or hit me, so it could have been a lot worse. Sorry to those who were forced outside of me & lost their position for the final sprint.

Driving back from Tahoe on 50 was a huge mistake. 50 & 80 were parking lots @ 105 degrees & we were without AC, no fun for sure. I'll be sure to take 88 home next time.

Weekly totals: 8:00 riding, 2:15 spin class, 10:15 total.

Training Week July 13 - 19, 2009

2009-07-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

Very late on this one, spending most of my time with twitter and facebook these days.

Monday, Wednesday, Friday - 45 min lunch spin classes - nothing too hard.

Tuesday - GG Park Sprints - 2 hrs total

Thursday - Polo field tempo - 2 hrs total

Saturday - Polo field century - 105 miles - 5:00 total. 100 miles in 4:48:36

Sunday - 2:15 city/Presidio ride

Weekly totals - 11:15 riding, 2:15 spin classes - 13:30 total

Looking forward to racing again this weekend at Daimond Valley & Minden

Training Week July 6 - 12, 2009

2009-07-12T15:14:00.000-07:00

No racing for a couple weeks.

Monday, Wednesday & Friday - 45 min lunch spin class. Moderate intensity.

Tuesday - GG Park sprints - hard - 2:00 total

Thursday - Polo field tempo ride - moderate - 2:00 total

Saturday - 120 laps (80 miles) solo on the polo field track 3:43:17. Started easy, then picked it up. 20.5 mi. in 1st hr, 21.0 in 2nd hr, 23.0 in 3rd hr. 100 lap split was 3:04:13 - 4:00 total ride.

Sunday - 2 hr AM city ride - GG Park, Land's End, Presidio - did a few short hard hills.

1st ride on new SL2 module build.

Weekly totals: 10 hr riding, 2:15 spin classes, 12:15 total.

Training Week June 29 - July 5, 2009

2009-07-10T19:30:00.000-07:00

I've been lagging on the training update.

Monday - In Louisville - AM rode TT course, then after lunch rode a lap of the RR course. A few moderate efforts. 1:30 total riding.

Tuesday - RR - 30 min W/U, 2 HR race - 10 x 4.8 mile laps (11:00 to 11:15 per lap), near the back for the 1st 2 laps, then moved up. Got away on the 7th climb, but caught by a small group. Cluster @ the finish, I followed 3 others who missed the turn, then turned around & finished 4th. Good for Roemer to make the right turn to the finish to win it.

30 min cooldown, 3 hr total riding. Great dinner with Hunter & Cale @ Z's Fusion

Wednesday - TT - start was delayed 2 hrs. - 45 min w/u - felt tired & not super motivated - 1:30 total riding. Finished 26th, over 3 min down on Lyman, but may have been the only guy in the 40-44 without a TT bike.

Thursday - Rest day at home.

Friday - Easy 45 min ride

Saturday - Rode to Mill Valley to meet up with Purple Patch group, & rode to Pt. Reyes Sta. & back along Hwy 1 with them. 5 Hr total ride.

Sunday - Off

Weekly totals: 11:45 Riding

Just heard Nats will be in Louisville again next year. I hate flying with my bike. =(

Training Week June 22 - 28, 2009

2009-06-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

Monday - tired from weekend races - easy 30 min spin

Tuesday - GG Park Sprints - Hard as usual - 1:30 total ride

Wednesday - Lunch spin class 45 min moderate

Thursday - Polo field tempo - moderate with a few hard intervals - 2:00

Friday - Lunch spin class - 45 min easy

Saturday - easy/moderate park ride - 2:00

Sunday - easy AM park ride - 45 min

Weekly totals - 6:15 riding, 2:00 spinning - 8:15 total

Now, off to Louisville.

Training Week June 15 - 21, 2009

2009-06-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

Busy work week, tiring weekend, need more time to train & rest.

Monday - Off
Tuesday - Polo Field/GG Park sprints - hard - 2:45
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - Polo Field tempo - moderate - 1:45
Friday - lunch spin class - 55 min
Saturday - 1:15 hr w/u - Diablo Hill Climb TT - 3rd in 25:53. Nate was 1st in 24:11 with Justin 2nd in 25:24. Total riding - 2:00

Sunday - Nevada City - Very long day. Left at 8:30, drove to Scott's. We got to Nevada City around 11:30. Easy 45 min w/u for 35+ race. Got in 3 man break with Casey & Metcalfe. Tried to get away about every other lap on the climb, but couldn't. Finished 2nd to Casey. Much better experience than my 1st time here 2 years ago when I took the bottom turn 2 fast & crashed into the haybails, got back in the race and crashed again in the same place.

The P/1/2 race was total mayhem with Lance, Levi & Horner added to an already stacked field. I heard there were 130 starters. I almost crashed 3 times during the "neutral" first lap, but then assumed the safe tailgunner position for the first 2 laps as the field got totally strung out. I proceeded to move up around 10 spots per lap for several laps until I started having to bridge bigger and bigger gaps between packs. I think I was on my 12th or 13th lap when Lance, Levi & Ben Jacques-Maynes came by. It was the first time I'd ever been lapped & didn't know if it was OK for us to jump on the train, but the others in the small group I was with did, so I did too, for about a lap. It didn't look like they were pulling anyone unless they only pulled riders who were getting lapped to a certain point, and then stopped after they pulled enough guys out? I don't know, but I just kept going for the full 90 minutes since it was so much fun to race through that crowd. I got lapped by many guys (some more than once) and I even lapped some guys, but I heard there were only around 35 who finished. It will be interesting to see how they sort out the results.

Total riding time for Sunday was about 3:30. Got home around 12:30 AM, one wheel short, so my front wheel had fallen off the bike rack somewhere between Nevada City & Oakland.

Weekly totals: 10:00 riding, 55 spin class - 10:55 total.

Training Week June 8 - 14, 2009

2009-06-15T22:40:00.001-07:00

Monday - Lunch spin class 50 min moderate

Tuesday - GG Park Sprints/Tempo - 2:05 total ride

Wednesday - Lunch spin class 50 min hard

Thursday - Polo field tempo - moderate - 2:00 total

Friday - Lunch spin class 50 min moderate

Saturday - Pescadero RR - only had Cole & Charles PW with me. 4 man break got away on the 1st lap & built a nearly 4 min lead. Specialized guys (Casey, D'aluisio) did most of the work brining it back. I probably spent more time with my face in the wind than I should have. It came down to Innes, Cole and me on the final climb and that's how we finished. Probably doesn't show, but I'm always learning, especially in the races I don't win. Still, a very fun race. - 4:00 total ride.

Sunday - lots of sleep - polo fields were deserted, good for a solo tempo ride. 2:00 total.

Weekly totals: 10:05 cycling, 2:30 spinning - 12:35 total

Training Week June 1 - June 7, 2009

2009-06-09T08:20:00.000-07:00

Monday - off
Tuesday - GG Park sprints + long cooldown with some tempo - 2:10
Wednesday - Lunch spin class - moderate - 50 min.
Thursday - Polo field paceline/tempo - set PR of 38 laps (~25.5 mi) in 1 HR. - 1:50 total ride
Friday - Lunch spin class - easy - 45 min.
Saturday - Ross' Epic Hill climb - real low turnout this year, only 7 in the P/1/2. We didn't go too fast on the 1st flat 6 miles before the climb started. I was content to go to the front on the early slopes & set a moderate tempo & wait for attacks. David Van Orsdel (AC) threw in a few that got rid of everyone except me & Steve O'Mara (ZteaM). I went to the front after that. My time was about 1 min slower than 2 years ago (I had 1:03:30, they had me at 39 sec slower), but our 1st miles were at least 2 min slower, so the climb was faster. Ride back + 40 min more - Total ride 3:00.
Sunday - easy 40 min spin in the park.

Weekly totals: 7:40 riding, 1:35 spin class - 9:15 total.
Low volume week with some good intensity.

Training Week May 25 - May 31, 2009

2009-06-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

Monday - Memorial Day - didn't even go outside, just watched WWII movies.

Tuesday - GG Park Sprints - 2:00 ride - hard sprints & tempo - Presidio cooldown

Wednesday - 55 min lunch spin class

Thursday - Polo field tempo - hard - 1:30 total.

Friday - 40 min spin class - easy - HR 90 - 110.

Saturday - Prerace city ride with Greg - 1:45 total - a few short hard hills.

Sunday - Spring Hill RR - P/1/2 - 88 miles - race was a little over 3:40. In breaks for about 70 miles - finished 4th behind V. Owens (Lombardi's), A. Switters (Cal Giant) & P. Mooney (Metromint). - 4 HR total riding.

Weekly totals - 9:15 riding, 1:35 spin class - 10:50 total.

Training Week May 18 - 24, 2009

2009-05-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

Monday - 50 min lunch spin class - moderate
Tuesday - 1:30 GG Park Sprints - hard with some tempo
Wednesday - 50 min lunch spin class - hard
Thursday - 1:15 Polo field paceline tempo - hard
Friday - 50 min lunch spin class easy (HR mostly in the 80's, didn't go above 100)
Saturday - 1:30 prerace ride with Greg M. - GG Park, Land's End, Presidio, Fort Point. A few hard 1 min hills.
Sunday - Mt. Hamilton RR - 35+/45+ combined. After Lyman tried a dig, I got away around mile 8. Held it over the top for the KOM and kept going solo until I was caught at mile 45 by the Specialized train (Casey, Innes & Metcalfe) with Lyman geting a free ride. Being outnumbered 3-2, and being the 2 slowest sprinters, Lyman and I knew we had to attack. I went 1st, unsuccessfully, then Lyman went with Casey chasing. They stayed away with Casey taking the sprint. Innes led out the sprint for 3rd with Metcalfe beating me by a couple feet. Unfortunately though Casey & Lyman were DQ'd by the refs for crossing the center line as they followed the moto by a Cat 3 pack, so Metcalfe was awarded the win and I was given 2nd.
Real bummer for Casey as this is the 2nd time a win has been taken from him. At least the podium makeup didn't change with Specialized still 1-3 and us in 2nd.

Long cooldown ride back to SJ with a good group. (total of about 5 hrs riding).
Thanks to Chris Hipp for the time gap updates and for moto pacing the ride back to SJ.

Weekly totals - 9:15 riding, 2:30 spinning - 11:45 total.

Training Week May 11 - 17

2009-05-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

Monday - Off
Tuesday - GG Park sprints + some tempo on the polo fields - 2:00
Wednesday - Lunch spin class - 50 min
Thursday - Bike to work day & home - 1 hr total. Yeah, I only bike to work on Bike to Work day, but it's not like I drive the rest of the time, I take public transit. The reason I don't bike more regularly is that there is no safe place to keep the bike since we can't bring them in my building.
Friday - Lunch spn class - 50 min
Saturday - slept in until 9, then 4 hr solo ride to Stinson, then to the top of Tam, it was warm, but not too bad. Went hard on the climbs.
Sunday - slept in until 9 again (I could get used to this) - 1 hr ride through the Presidio, then back to the park to watch Bay to Breakers revelers.

Weekly Totals - 8 hrs cycling, 1:40 spin, 9:40 total.

Training Week - May 4 - 10, 2009

2009-05-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

Monday – 45 min lunch spin class moderate
Tuesday – Eve ride – Alpine Dam with Paul & the Thirsty Bears. Good effort most of the way with some hard climbing – 3:15 total ride
Wednesday – 55 min lunch spin class (Alex) – hard
Thursday – Polo field tempo + Land’s End/Presidio loop – 2hrs
Friday – easy 30 min lunch spin
Saturday – 1:20 AM ride in GG Park & Presidio with Greg – added a few sprints at the end.
Sunday – Berkeley Hills RR (35+ 1/2/3) – No breakaways that lasted this year, and we still had about 15 on the final lap – The team did great work keeping it together and chasing down breaks until I chased a Dylan Casey attack and got away solo on the last 2 climbs. There’s no way I could have won without their help, especially Brenon and Greg on the last lap. Thanks guys! – 4 hours total riding.

Weekly totals – 10:35 riding, 2:10 spinning – 12:45 total.

Training Week April 27 - May 3, 2009

2009-05-04T08:17:00.000-07:00

Busy work week & race/rain on the weekend, not a lot of hours on the bike.

Monday - 45 min spin class easy
Tuesday - GG Park sprints + some polo tempo + a few hills = 2:00
Wednesday - Lunch spin class with Alex - 55 min hard. - I think he was punishing me (& the rest of the clas) for dropping him at Wente.
Thursday - Easy polo field ride - 1:20
Friday - Lunch spin class - 50 min with a few hard intervals.
Saturday Cat's Hill - Good w/u - Greg A broke away for the 1st Prime, then I broke away after a few laps. A few laps later Dan Martin bridged up to me. We built a good lead, then he powered away from me on the final lap. 1:40 total riding.
Sunday - Easy ride with about 40 min moderate tempo on the polo field. 1:15 total ride.

Weekly totals: 6:15 riding, 2:30 spin class - 8:45 total.

Training Week April 20-26, 2009

2009-04-27T15:05:00.000-07:00

Monday – Lunch spin class 50 min
Tuesday – GG Park ride sprints (I didn't win a single sprint) – 2 hr ride
Wednesday – Eve polo field ride, some light tempo with Ryan B 1:15 total
Thursday – OFF
Friday – Lunch spin class 50 min
Saturday – Wente RR – The team was awesome, getting 2 out of 4 in the early break. We had Greg A. & Brenon with Castia (Infovista) & Nunes (Bishop’s Peak). Specialized (mostly Innes) had to bring it back in the 3rd lap. After the climb it was down to Metcalfe, Nunes & I for the final lap. I was able to pull away from Kevin on the final climb for the win. total 3:30 riding.
Sunday – City ride with Tim D. – nice loop through the park by the Cliff House, Sea Cliff, then some steep hills in the Presidio & Pac Heights. 1:45 total ride.

Weekly totals: 8:30 riding, 1:40 spin class, 10:10 total.

Training Week April 13 - 19, 2009

2009-04-20T22:48:00.000-07:00

Monday - 60 min lunch spin class easy

Tuesday - GG Park Sprints - Hard - 2 hrs total

Wednesday - 50 min lunch spin class - easy

Thursday - evening park ride - 60 min with some tempo & a few sprints

Friday Sea Otter Circuit Race 35+ - 45 min warm up ride, 1:24 race (15 laps). Got into a 5 man break after 5 laps, then we lost a guy each lap until it was just me and Nunes from about 8 to go until 4 to go. Threw everything I had at him and finally got away on the climb with 4 to go & finally won a jersey. 20 min easy spin cooldown.

Saturday - Roasters ride to Pt. Reyes Sta., then south on Hwy. 1 to Stinson & back via Pan Toll with Josh & Ted. 4:30 total ride, pretty hard most of the way from White's Hill on & finished completely exhausted.

Sunday - Easy 1 hr park ride.

Weekly Totals - 11 riding, 1:50 spin class, 12:50 total.

Training Week April 6 - 12, 2009

2009-04-12T23:00:00.000-07:00

Monday - Easy 45 min spin class

Tuesday - Off

Wednesday - Evening ride - 2:15 - hills in the Presidio

Thursday - easy 30 min on spin bike.

Friday - 1:15 - easy 22 mile lap of Copperopolis course.

Saturday - Copperopolis RR in P/1/2 - 110 Miles, 5:01 riding time.

I realized that I don't train enough for 100 mile + races.

Still waiting for results to figure out where I finished. Maybe top 20.

Sunday - Off

Weekly totals - 8:30 riding, 1:15 spin bike - 9:45 total.

Training Week March 30 - April 5

2009-04-06T08:15:00.001-07:00

Monday - 60 min spin class - easy - feeling tired from weekend races.
Tuesday - GG Park Sprints - 90 min total
Wednesday - Off
Thursday - GG park polo field paceline 90 min
Friday - 50 min spin class
Saturday - 2 crits in Napa. 2:30 total riding. Shawn went down hard in the Rev Win & Out. Get well soon Shawn.
Sunday - 1.66 crits in Santa Cruz - 35+ race was short (36 min), but hard. P11 was long too. Dropped out after 33/50 laps. 3:15 total riding.

Weekly totals: 8:45 riding, 1:50 spin, 10:35 total.

Training Week March 23 - 29

2009-03-30T07:01:00.001-07:00

Monday - 60 min lunch spin
Tuesday - GG Park sprints - 2 hr total
Wednesday - 60 min lunch spin
Thursday - Polo field paceline - 90 min total
Friday - 60 min lunch spin
Saturday - RVB crit - 2nd to Steve R in 35+ (2:15 total riding)
Sunday - RVB circuit - 1st in 35+. Ran out of gas in last 2 laps of P/1/2. 3:15 total riding.

Weekly totals - 9 hrs riding, 3 hrs spin class

Angry Drivers who Hate Cyclists

2009-03-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was riding with a few teammates in west Marin, when a driver coming in the opposite direction started honking his horn and flipping us off.

As far as I know this individual didn't recognize any of us, and since he was traveling in the opposite direction, we obviously were not slowing him down at all, so I have no reason why he was so angry with us.

This was not an isolated incident.

Though this disturbs me, it's not nearly as bad as the "I'll show them" drivers who blow by us at 80 mph, driving as close to us as they possibly can, often within 6 inches or less. This is not only illegal, but extremely dangerous. I just can't

Why do drivers do this? Is it because they often come across pack of cyclists and have to slow down for a minute or 2 before going around them? "These cyclists cost me 2 minutes and I'm so angry I want to scare them within an inch of their lives."

That's kind of like being in line at the grocery store and being angry at the person at the front of the line who is just standing there doing nothing while the cashier scans their groceries and they pile up. If that person wasn't so lazy and bagged their own groceries, we'd all be out of here 2 minutes sooner! I should take my gun and fire a few rounds a few inches above their head to show them how angry I am about being delayed for 2 minutes!

What's even worse for cyclists though is that ALL of us have to take the road rage created by the actions of those who ride irresponsibly and take up the whole road. When I ride alone, I ride as far to the right as possible and if I hear a car approaching, I move even further to the right, often into the gravel, just to be safe. When I'm riding in a group, and a car comes up from behind the person at the rear of the group will yell "CAR BACK" and we'll all move as far right as possible until the car or cars have passed. Simple.

Drivers, please stop the hate.

Brisbeen

2009-03-29T17:09:00.001-07:00

Good day at the races.

Training Week March 16 - 22, 2009

2009-03-22T18:02:00.000-07:00

Monday - 60 min lunch spin class - feeling tired from Madera

Tuesday - GG Park sprint/race simulation sprints - great workout: 1:45 riding

Wednesday - OFF

Thursday - Left work a little early and rode over to Stinson with Paul, then rode the Tam HC course. Incredible night for a ride. 3:30 total ride.

Friday - Lunch spin class - 45 min - easy

Saturday - Long ride from home started with Roasters ride, then broke off with Paul to add Marshal Wall & back along coast with Pan Toll climb. Went hard on the hills & felt good. - ~105 miles, 5:45 riding.

Sunday - OFF

Weekly totals: 11 Hrs riding, 1:45 spin class, 12:45 total.

Caved to the peer pressure and finally joined Facebook this week......probably won't be blogging as much now.

Pack of Cyclists fined $12,000 in Mill Valley for right turn on red light

2009-03-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

Mill Valley, CA - March 14, 2009 - A pack of approximately 30 cyclists were pulled over en masse and each issued a citation for $400 for failing to stop at a red light before making a right turn from E. Blithedale onto Camino Alto.

That totally sucks!

I'm all for riding safe, but the punishment should really fit the crime. I believe moving violation fines shoud be based on kinetic energy (1/2 MV^2). So, if a 155 pound cyclist on a 20 pound bike going through a red light at 8 miles per hour is fined $400, then a person driving a 6,000 pound SUV going through a red light at 40 miles per hour should be fined $342,857.14.

Or conversely, if the SUV driver is fined $400, then the cyclist with 1/857th of the kinetic entergy should be fined $0.47

Training Week March 9 - 15, 2009

2009-03-16T08:19:00.000-07:00

Monday - Lunch spin class 50 min
Tuesday - GG Park Tuesday Night race simulation - With the time change, the Tuesday hammerfest is back. Roaring Mouse guys made me work really hard. Who needs to go to Oakland for the Port ride when you can max out your HR just a few blocks from home? - Total ride - 2 Hr.
Wednesday - 45 min lunch spin
Thursday - GG Park - Polo field fast paceline ride, no sprints, just about 8 guys riding fast - 1:30
Friday - 45 min lunch spin class
Saturday - Madera - w/u, crit (pack finish), drive to TT, w/u - rode 22:07 (10 mi.) for 4th (1 sec behind Metcalfe - dang! - Lyman's 21:29 to win was amazing). - Total riding - 2 HR
Sunday Road Race - 68 miles - 2:46 by my watch - 1st 3 miles were slow neutral. 17 mile laps took about 39-40 min each. We kept it together for a pack sprint, I was a ways back. - 3:00 total ride

Weekly total - 2:20 spin, 8:30 riding - 10:50 total.

Madera 35+ brief summary

2009-03-15T16:41:00.001-07:00

Lyman killed the TT in 21:29.

We kept it together for him today in the road race and even though Innes took the stage win, Lyman still took the GC by about 10 seconds. The team rode awesome today!

GC
1 Lyman - Morgan Stanley
2 Innes - Specialized
3 Holtz - EMC
4 Metcalfe - Specialized
5 me
6 Roemer - Specialized

Also congratulations to John Ford and our 45+ team! John took the stage and GC wins today!

Madera TT warm up

2009-03-14T16:19:00.001-07:00

35+ LaBerge wins the Crit, Holtz 2nd Wire 3rd.

TT up next.

Heading to Madera

2009-03-14T09:24:00.001-07:00

GeoTagged, [N37.76424, E122.47278]

Cheer up Drywall!

Copperopolis Part 5

2009-03-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

Testing video upload with some of the things I have stored.

Training Week March 2 - 8, 2009 & Berkeley TTT

2009-03-08T22:57:00.000-07:00

Monday - Spin class was full, so day off.

Tuesday - Rain - went to 2 spin classes after work - 2:00

Wednesday - Lunch spin class - 55 min

Thursday - 1st ride on TT bike since July - Several hard 5 & 6 min intervals. 2 hrs total.

Friday - Lunch spin class - 50 min.

Saturday - Berkeley TTT with Paul. Good warm-up, felt pretty good. We went out a little hard and were slow on the hills. We finished 4th in the 70+.

Did a cooldown lap with Paul & Nate. Tried to keep up with Nate on the hills which was much harder than the race. - 3:00 total.

Sunday - City ride - rode 2 hours, with a few hard hills, then ran into Greg from SJBC and rode another hour easy - stopped to argue CVC 21202 with some irate foul mouthed bike hating motorist who said he was an off duty cop. Right after I told him we had the full use of the lane and that he should change lanes to pass us, we passed a sign that said so. I sure hope he saw it.

Weekly totals - 3:45 spinning, 8 hours cycling - 11:45 total.

Training Week Feb 23 - March 1 & Merco Races

2009-03-02T13:07:00.000-08:00

I really ejnoyed the Merco Races this weekend. Very well organized and fun events. I had several family members come out to watch the crits who had never been to a bike race before and they said it was a lot more exciting than they expected.

Thank you to the organizers for putting on a great couple of races!

So, what did I do last week....

Monday - Lunch spin class (55 min)
Tuesday - Evening GG Park ride - 4 x 6 miles tempo with half lap sprints every 5 min. (15:05, 14:54, 14:30, 14:41) - 2:00 total riding.
Wednesday - Lunch spin class (50 min)
Thursday - Lunch spin class (45 min)
Friday - Lunch spin class (50 min)
Saturday - Merco Crit - Eventually got into a 7 man break that was reduced to 5. We had 2 with Lyman and I, but unfortunately didn't use it to our advantage and got 4th & 5th in the sprint. (2:15 total riding) (Note to self, CONSERVE and save something for the sprint next time).

Sunday - Merco RR - Great workout - There were a couple nasty crashes. I saw D'Aluisio go down right in front of me and missed running him over by the narrowest of margins. I hope he and everyone else are OK. I spent most of the day chasing down or getting into breaks. In the 2nd half of the first lap, I got in a 2 man break with Bryant that lasted several miles. Things looked good when Drywall bridged up with Van Sickle, but we were brought back shortly after that.
Late in the race I was in another break with Sayers, Martin, Nunes and another guy. We had the horsepower to make it to the finish, but too much infighting led to our defeat. It was for the best for our team since I would have at best been 4th in the sprint and we ended up with a 3rd from Cole. (Now there's a smart racer, I need to take lessons from him on conserving energy). (3 hour total ride)

Weekly totals: 7:15 riding, 3:20 spin classes - 10:35 total.

Training Week February 26 - 22, 2009

2009-02-23T08:25:00.000-08:00

Monday - Heavy rain - rode to Sausalito, watched ToC riders drinking coffee, watched them ride neutral across the GG bridge, rode home and watched the rest of the stage on TV. 1:15 ride
Tuesday - More rain - Evening spin class 1:15
Wednesday - Lunch spin, class was full so did my own workout - 1:10.
Thursday - Finally got in a polo field ride - did 8 sprints and a few hard lap/easy lap intervals. 2:00 ride
Friday - 50 min park ride before leaving for Ripon
Saturday - Snelling - no warm-up (spent 30 min in chip line), neutral + race was about 2:30, rode about 30 min afterward. 3:00 total ride.
Sunday - More rain, good, we need it - Day Off

Weekly totals: 7:05 riding, 2:25 spinning, 9:30 total.

Snelling

2009-02-21T22:45:00.000-08:00

Snelling is one of those too flat for me races that I avoided for my first 2 seasons. Even today about halfway through the race I reached down for my water bottle and went from 2nd to 80th place in the peloton. I definitely prefer the races with the big hills that tend to thin the pack a bit.

But, it's a big turnout race for our team, so I did it last year and did it again today. According to the pre-reg numbers we had the 2nd biggest team after Rocknasium with 9 riders.

The team rode incredible today. We had guys attacking, counter attacking and getting 1 or 2 guys in every break.

I had a bit of good luck late in the race. We had Hutch and Rich up the road in a break of 5 and me and our other 6 guys were patrolling the front of the field. I kind of lost focus for a bit and found myself about 50 riders back with Paul and I told him we better get to the front. So, I was motoring up the right side of the field and just as I got near the front I noticed that Metcalfe (Specialized) had a gap in front of the pack, so I didn't have to accelerate too hard to break away from the pack, but it took just about everything I had for a mile or 2 before I caught him. We both really buried ourselves to stay ahead of the pack that started to get real close, but after a couple good turns and some really hard pulls we had a safe gap.

A few miles later we caught the break and with 3 of the 7 in the break, I was part of a 1-2-3 Morgan Stanley sweep at the finish!

Great teamwork today guys!

Training Week February 9 - 15, 2009

2009-02-16T22:14:00.000-08:00

Real light training week due to the rain and thinking I was going to do road races on Saturday & Sunday.

Monday - 50 min spin class

Tuesday - 1 hr GG Park Polo field ride - 15 min Zone 2, didn't feel too good.

Wednesday - 55 min spin class (moderate Z 1-2-3)

Thursday - 50 min spin class (easy Z1)

Friday - 55 min spin class (moderate Z 1-2)

Saturday - SJ Crits - 45 min masters, 1 hr P/1/2 - 3:00 total riding with warmups.

Sunday - Day off

Weekly totals: 4:00 riding, 3:30 spin classes - 7:30 total.

Change of plans leads to San Jose Crit

2009-02-14T22:03:00.000-08:00

All week I was eagerly looking forward to the road trip down to the Fresno area for a weekend of road racing at Cantua Creek and Pine Flat with Paul and Scott. But unfortunately, they both got that nasty cold/flu thing that's been going around and had to pull out on Friday afternoon.

So, I'm sitting at home on Friday, all bummed and jonesing for a bike race, trying to figure out what to do. I really don't want to drive 400 miles round trip by myself and spend 2 nights alone in cheap motels in the central valley, and racing without teammates is always way less fun. I consider doing the KOM down in San Jose, but the format is some odd kind of mass start individual time trial with a bunch of corporate CEO types all over the road and there's no masters division, and the only award for the P/1/2 is a trophy for the winner, and the entry fee is $52. Still, I do love hill climbs, so I'm considering it.

The other option was the San Jose Classic Criterium built by Webcor. Since there's no 2nd race discount and I don't have a spare $104 dollars right now I had to choose between the 35+ at 8:40 and the P/1/2 at 2:45. Hutch and Dan are doing the 35+, so I decide to do that one.

The course is a little too flat for my liking, but it does have lots of turns, including a nice hairpin, and no real long straightaways for packs to build up high speeds, so it looks good for a breakaway.

Our race starts with 3 guys from Form Fitness blasting off from the gun, so fast I didn't even notice them go off the front. One of them immediately flats on the first lap, but the other 2 get a nice gap, even though the guy in 2nd is too far behind his teammate to gain any draft benefit and he can't seem to close it. I decide to chase them down since, well, that's what I always do and no one else is doing it. So I take off and go right by guy #2, but it takes me most of a lap to get onto the leader's (Dennis Hopp) wheel. After a short recovery I come around and take a pull and the 2 of us get into a nice rhythm of trading pulls every 1/3 of a lap, so we each get the same head wind sections every other lap. Over several laps we build a nice little lead and because of the hairpin can keep a good eye on the field that is now about 20 seconds back.

Then I see Hutch bridging up with another guy, so I start pulling a little less hard until about 2 laps later Hutch drops the other guy and I let Hopp know that I'm can't pull until he catches us. Once Hutch joins us, I go to the front and put on the gas to build our lead back a bit and discourage the 2 guys trying to bridge (Wire was 1 of them I think), then the 3 of us work it and as our lead continues to grow Hutch whispers to me to wait for him to attack first.

Just after the hairpin with under 6 laps to go Hutch attacks after Hopp's pull, but Hopp is able to cover it with me on his wheel. As soon as Hutch sits up I swing to the other side of the road and go, get a gap and TT in the last 5 laps for the win! Hutch (thanks!) came in 3rd and Dan who had been jumping on any bridge attempts ended up 3rd in the 45+

Since I don't get to win too many crits, I'm very glad I decided to do this instead of Cantua!

I even won enough cash to pay the entry for the P/1/2 race, so I decide to enter it since it looks like the dry conditions are going to last and no interval workout is as good as chasing down a bunch of berries. Having so much time in between events I'm also able to enjoy watching all the women's races.

The P/1/2 race was....harder. It's not quite so easy to get away in that race. I did get off the front once for a lap early on and even won a prime.

5 pounds of Ironman Coffee! I hope it's good because I'm going to be drinking it for a while.

But, most of the race I was near the back, just moving up near the front a few times for fun. The winning break of Stewart, England, Hernando and Moore got away with around 10 laps to go. After that there was no way I was getting off the front again and I don't participate in pack sprints, so I just faded to the back and finished. I think we had delValle in the money though and maybe Hutch too.

I'd still like to do Pine Flat tomorrow, I just don't want to drive down there and back.

I think the 2 races today will hold me over until Snelling.

Rainy Wednesday

2009-02-11T14:41:00.000-08:00

It’s great to see that the Tuesday/Thursday night polo field workouts have really caught on. I’ve been going out there just about every Tuesday & Thursday night for the past 4 winters. I was mostly alone for the first 2 years, then Greg was there all the time last winter. This year we’ve had a couple roaring mice and several bike forums riders join us. We had about 12 out there last night. It sure is nice to have the company, especially when you’re not feeling great.

When to you decide to quit a workout? I’m usually pretty good at toughing through them, but last night I could feel that I just didn’t have it. The legs were flat and the power wasn’t there. Maybe it was the 2 races on Sunday, or this cold/cough that I can’t seem to shake, but after the first 6 mile interval (which was over 1 minute slower than last week), it started sprinkling and despite having a great group out there I decided to bag it, go home and rest. I was a bit sad as I rode off and saw the long string of red blinkie lights continue going round and round, but I had to listen to my body.

Looks like the rain is going to continue just about every day for the next 10 days or so. Too bad for the tour of CA, both the riders and the fans. I sure feel lucky that we had such great weather for our camp last month.

Speaking of the tour of CA, unfortunately I won’t be able to see as much of it live as I’d like to. I’ll be down in Coalinga/Fresno area this weekend for the Velo Promo fun. I’m trying to find out if there’s a bar in the Fresno area I can watch the prologue on after the Cantua Creek race. Maybe I can even make it up to Santa Rosa in time for the finish on Sunday after Pine Flat.

At the very least I’ll catch them coming through SF on Monday. I wonder if Robin Williams will be out in his yard since the race goes right by his house? Isn’t he buddy buddy with that Lance guy?
Tuesday is iffy. I’d love to go out to Sierra Road again, but it’s going to be tough to get out of the office, speaking of which I've got to get back to work.

Training Week February 2 - 8 2009

2009-02-09T09:10:00.000-08:00

Lots of lunchtime spin classes this week and with a Sunday race no long ride this week.
Still have a few symptoms, but finally getting rid of this cough/cold I've had for over 2 weeks.

Monday - 55 min spin class (moderate)
Tuesday - GG Park Polo fields - Huge turnout (10 of us). 4 x 6 miles in about 14:30 each with racelike attacks/sprints every 3rd lap. Great workout. 2:00 total ride.
Wednesday - 55 min spin class (moderate)
Thursday - 55 min spin class - sprint simulations (did 8 x 30-40 sec all out with high resistance)
Friday - 45 min spin class - easy
Saturday - 1:45 park ride - did a few "openers" to get ready for Sunday.
Sunday - Cherry Pie Crits - 45min in 35+ and 60 min P/1/2. Attacked a lot in the 35+, just chilled in the back in the P/1/2. - 3:00 total riding.

Weekly totals: 6:45 riding, 3:30 spin classes, 10:15 total

Cherry Pie

2009-02-08T22:56:00.000-08:00

35+ 1/2/3/4

Race plan - try to prevent LaBerge from winning again, preferably by getting one of us Morgan Stanley's in a breakaway that would make it to the end.

Result - FAIL.

Still, we had a lot of fun trying, Hutch and I alternated trying to get away and each time we'd make it for a few laps, but in the end it was the same old story with LaBerge the victor.

Kellin ended up 7th and I was 10th.

I also picked up a nice bottle of Cycles Gladiator wine for being most aggressive.

Training Week January 26 - February 1, 2009

2009-02-01T22:45:00.000-08:00

Monday - 50 min spin class - easy

Tuesday - Polo field evening group ride - 5 of us did a paceline for 30 laps (20 miles) at about 23 mph. 1:30 total ride.

Wednesday - 50 min spin class - went hard.

Thursday - Polo field evening group ride - Sprints - Good size group of about 8. We did 10 half lap sprints with a 2 lap recovery. 1:30 total ride.

Friday - 50 min spin class - moderate

Saturday - Paul's "3 Climbs" ride with Steve, Dave and Tom turned into a 1 and a half climb ride due to a mechanical that took 45 min to fix and at least 6 flats in our group of 5. Still, I finally got to climb Mt. Vision, which was incredible! Total ride time was 5:30. Hammered home the last 90 minutes.

Sunday - Slept about 11 hours then spent most of the day tuning up my bike and finally upgraded the Force shifters to Red and replaced all cables. Rode around the block twice to make sure the shifting was working OK.

Weekly totals: 8:30 riding, 2:30 spin classes, 11:00 total.

Training Week January 19-25

2009-01-26T08:19:00.000-08:00

Tough week getting back to work after camp and having a nasty head cold.

Monday - Last day of Camp - 55 miles, 3 Hrs.
Tuesday - PM easy 1:15 ride at the Polo Fields
Wednesday - 45 min spin class
Thursday - Off
Friday - Off
Saturday - Early Bird RR - Really thought I should skip this one since I wasn't feeling great and it was thretening rain, but I was close by visiting my sister, so I decided to do it. Weather ended up being great. We had 3 of the 10 in the 35+ 1/2/3 race. It was a good simulation of the 2nd half of a race with a 10 man break. I tried to get away on the hill and hold it all the way back, but Hernando could see me ahead and was able to pull me back in a few miles after the descent. We traded even pulls the rest of the way and had a good sprint where I just went a little too far left to get around him. After my relegation we finished 2, 3 (Cole) 6, (Dyrwal). It was a fun race and glad it was short. About 3 hours total between race, warm-up and cooldown.
Sunday - Off

Weekly totals - 7:15 riding, 45 min spin class - 8 hours total.

Camp update part 2 - & Training Week January 12 - 18

2009-01-20T09:50:00.000-08:00

Weather continued to be perfect, or maybe even too warm.

Saturday - 82 miles about 4:45 riding including the 55 minute Figueroa climb. Riding as hard as I could, I still couldn't beat 1 of my teammates, he'll be our secret weapon.

Sunday - 88 miles in 4:15, pace was real fast on the flats, I finally won a KOM on the last climb of the day.

Monday - 58 miles in 3:00 - a relatively easy final day.

Camp totals - 6 days, 25 hours riding, 475 miles.

Weekly Totals (Monday through Sunday) - 23:20 riding, 442 miles.

Camp update #1, this is January?

2009-01-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

The weather has been too incredible to believe. No need for any of the usual January peripherals, leg warmers, arm warmers, vests, whatever. It's been about 60 at the start and 80 by the end of each ride.

Wednesday - SJ to Big Sur with extension in Pebble Beach - 112 miles, 6 hours
9 to start the ride, 5 of us rode the whole way with the others taking turns driving support.
Thursday - Big Sur to SLO - 106 miles (I took a drive shift and only got in 80 miles in 4 hours).
The coast was incredible!
I won the city limit sprint for SLO, mostly because the other guys didn't see it until I had a gap.
Friday - SLO to Los Alamos - Great riding through Pismo Beach. 55 miles, 3 hours - easy pace. Resting up for the big ride tomorrow.

So glad to be in CA. I hear the weather in the midwest is a bit chilly this week.

Off to Camp

2009-01-13T08:58:00.000-08:00

I'm leaving for team camp tomorrow for the ride down the coast to Los Alamos with Morgan and the Stanleys. We should have 9 for the ride down and another dozen or so meeting us for the camp on Friday afternoon. Long days in the saddle and good times ahead.

I can't wait for dinner on Friday night.

Training Week January 5 - 11, 2009

2009-01-11T17:12:00.000-08:00

Monday - spin calss was full, so went on a 40 min lunch run with Dan & Matt. First run since Thanksgiving, but felt OK.

Tuesday - Evening polo field intervals - 4 x 6 miles, Zone 1 & 2 with hard last minute of every 2nd mile. Legs sore from run, but felt good. - 1:45 total ride

Wednesday - Spin class 50 min.

Thursday - Evening Polo field - 10 x 45 sec build up sprints with 5 min recovery. 1:45 total ride.

Friday - Spin class 50 min.

Saturday - Long Marin ride with Tim and Paul to Pt. Reyes Station & back on 1. 5 hours.

Sunday - Easy park ride 1:15

Weekly totals - 40 min run, 1:40 spin, 9:45 riding. 12:05 total, 170 road miles.

Training Week December 29, 2008 - January 4, 2009

2009-01-05T08:23:00.000-08:00

Monday - Last spin class of the year - 45 min - only about 10 in the class. Next week will be tough to get into a class with all the new year's resolution newbies.
Tuesday - Evening on the polo field - 90 min with 3 x 15 min Z1 with last minute of each 5 at Z4.
Wednesday - easy 60 min ride with 3 x 30 sec hard.
Thursday - San Bruno Hill Climb - 15:15 - about 1 hr warm-up, 30 min cool down - 1:45 total riding. ~ 25 miles
Friday - Rain - 1 hr afternoon ride. ~ 18 miles
Saturday - Hans' Birthday ride - 6:15 riding, ~110 miles.
Sunday - Polo field Zone 1 ride - 2 hours ~ 36 miles

Weekly total: 45 min spin, 13:30 on the bike, 14:15 total.

2009 Totals: 11 Hrs, 189 miles.

Happy 48th Birthday Hans!

2009-01-03T21:14:00.000-08:00

We had about 15 on the ride out to Marshall today.
Here are a few of the crew who came out to wish Hans a happy birthday.

Hans on the way up from Stinson Beach

Ride total from SF - 110 miles, 6:15 riding.

I think I'm ready for the Figueroa Climb at team camp in 2 weeks.

Happy New Year for Fun Racers!

2009-01-01T18:46:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year from San Bruno!

Though "serious" racers may scoff at the idea of racing in January, especially early January, a couple hundred hearty souls decided to brave the chilling fog and start the year off right with a little "oh yeah, that's what going hard feels like".

Here are a few of the podium pics I snapped.

P/1/2 Winner Tracy Colwell and runner up Evan Pickett

Clark Foy takes the 45+ a couple days before his 45th. Ain't "racing age" great!

I decided to race the 35+ this year, so instead of being on the front line I was back behind the P/1/2, Elite 3's, W 1/2/3 and Juniors. It took me about 8 seconds to get to the starting line, but I rode the same time as last year so I was actually a little faster. Luckily for our group, the pace at the front wasn't Nolanesque like in 2007, so the masters guys were able to join the elite leaders at the front before any breaks occurred. There was no one person dedicated to setting a fast tempo, so several of us traded pulls and attacks but we still had a fairly large, though a bit strung out group by the turn at the start of radio road. (thanks to gstein for the video).

As we started the climb up Radio Road, Even Pickett (Metromint) , Tracy Colwell (Webcor) and I had a small gap.

Once it started getting steeper I attacked and after a couple more surges I had a gap that I was able to hold to the line.

Thanks to Peninsula Velo, Pilarcitos and everyone else who made this event happen, it's a great way to start the year!

Training Week December 22 - 28, 2008

2008-12-28T22:41:00.000-08:00

Monday - Off (YMCA Closed)

Tuesday - PM - Intervals at the polo field - no one else showed up. 1 x 6 mi Z1 (15:52), 1 x 12 mi Z2 (15:31, 15:18 - 30:49), 1 x 6 mi Z3, last lap Z4 (14:51) - 1:45 total ride.

Wednesday - office closed at 3 - only able to ride 45 min after work.

Thursday - Christmas morning - raining - single speed ride in GG Park - 1 Hr.

Friday - Rode to SportsBasement, met Pete & Ramon, ro

de to San Bruno Mtn. Did 2 x hill - 18:45, 17:20. 3:15 total ride.

Saturday - 1:45 Zone 1 ride in GG Park

Sunday - Lyman's Napa ride - Great group, 10 completed the whole. Not too cold, just a little rain, only a couple flats for the whole group, 3 big climbs (glad Lucas didn't go hard). 4:45 total ride.

After the ride we were all tired and hungry and very pleasantly surprised to see the awesome buffet Carm had laid out for us. Here Hans really piles it on.

Weekly total 13:15 riding.

Training Week December 15 - 21, 2008

2008-12-22T15:55:00.000-08:00

Monday - Spin class at lunch 45 min
Tuesday - Back to back spin classes after work 1:45 total
Wednesday - Spin class at lunch 45 min
Thursday - Sick of spin classes, rode bike in rain after work - did a few sprints - 1 hr ride, 1 hr cleaning crap off bike.
Friday - Happy birthday to me (39) - It was raining and I didn't feel like getting my Tarmac dirty, so I rode the single speed up twin peaks 3 times. - 1:15 total. - Office Holiday Party - drank too much.
Saturday - Yea, no rain!! - Rode to Marshall with Drywall - lots of Zone 2 & 3 stuff & I won the 7-11 sprint - 6.5 hour total ride.
Sunday - Dang it, rain again - tooled aroung GG park on the single speed for 1 hour, then watched 8 episodes of Lost on DVD. Only 22 more episodes before I'm all caught up and ready to watch season 5 when it starts next month.

Weekly totals - 3:15 on spin bike, 9:45 on real bike. 13:00 total.
Gained a pound back this week.

Training Week December 8 - 14, 2008

2008-12-14T22:02:00.000-08:00

Monday - Off

Tuesday - Evening Polo field ride - 3 x 6 mile tempo Zone 1, 2, 3. 16:15, 15:33, 15:01 - 90 min total ride.

Wednesday - 50 min spin class

Thursday - Evening polo field ride - Sprints - 10 x 30 sec sprint with 5 min recovery - 90 min total ride

Friday - 50 min spin class

Saturday - 5 hour ride to Pt. Reyes Station & back on Hwy. 1 - mostly with Zteam guys - felt much better than last week & week before.

Sunday - Rain - I'm no pro, so I took the day off and walked to the Academy of Sciences with K. Finally saw the really cool new Planetarium show.

Weekly Total - 1:40 spin class, 8:00 riding - 9:40 total.

Sunday waking weight - 141.5 - Yea, I can start eating dessert again!

Training Week December 1 - 7, 2008

2008-12-07T19:33:00.000-08:00

Monday - Spin class full of people trying to work off Thanksgiving dinner. I had to wait until class was over - 50 min ride on spin bike low resistance, high cadence.

Tuesday - Evening intervals at the polo field. 3 x 4 mile tempo (10:29, 10:15, 9:51) - 90 min total

Wednesday - Spin class - 45 min high resistance, low cadence.

Thursday - Evening intervals at the polo field - 8 x 30 sec sprint with 5 min recovery. 90 min total

Friday - 45 min spin class

Saturday - Rode to San Bruno Mtn. - 3 Hr total ride

3 x climb with descent recovery. 18:33, 17:35, 17:09

Felt harder than I thought it would. Hope to do them each 1 min faster next time.

Sunday - long easy ride to Pt. Reyes Station & back - 5 hrs, mostly Zone 1. Solo on way out. Rode most of the way back with Doug from the OC.

Weekly Totals: 2:20 spin class, 11:00 riding. 13:20 total.

Weight: Monday AM - 146.5, Sunday AM - 1:42.5

Cookies = training setback

2008-12-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

I was making good progress getting down to my New Year's Day goal weight of 139, but then we received 3 big boxes of cookies in the office today. I just can't resist them and will grab one every time I go by until they're all gone.

They all appear to be from legitimate vendors of ours. Haven't received a box from Anderson, Metcalfe, Innes & Roemer Consulting yet.

Training Week November 24 - 30, 2008 - No More Running!

2008-12-01T08:33:00.001-08:00

Monday - Easy 25 min lunch run
Tuesday - Off
Wednesday - Easy 25 min lunch run - Office closed early went out for a (3) beer (s) with Village crew.
Thursday - HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Crystal Springs Turkey Trot - 19th year straight. Felt worse than ever before and ran my slowest time since my first year of high school (18:49). Worst finish ever 21st, and lost to Jeremy (on the left, ran about 17:30) for only the 2nd time ever, so mow I'm 17-2 against him. We have a bet to see who will keep showing up the longest. We've both been there 19 straight, but our CSM coach Bob Rush (center) has been there for over 40 years without missing one and is still running strong. Way to go coach rush!
This was also the first time I ever saw the winner (Paul Wellman 14:57 - awesome time!) finish while I still had over 1K to go. After the race I had a nice easy cooldown run with many old friends, then it was over to coach Rush's for bloody Marys. 40 min total running.

Friday - Post turkey day ride in GG Park (I noticed that about 1 million people decided to go to the Academy of Sciences today since no one else would be doing that on the day after Thanksgiving. Longest lines I ever saw there). Riding around the CX course I hit a wet root and went over the handlebars and tweaked my shoulder pretty good. Decided to do laps on the polo field track and caught and passed some guy on a Pista who was too cool to wear a helmet or say hello when I greeted him. 1:15 riding.

Saturday - Long ride in Marin - 1st time on the road bike in about 2 weeks - Rode to Roasters to meet Paul, Hans, Eric, Chris and a few others. Went to Pt. Reyes & up Limantour then south on 1. I was feeling pretty sapped all day, then bonked on final climb on Hwy 1. Everyone dropped me on the final climb today - enjoy it while you can fellas. 5:15 riding.

Sunday - I decided that it was not a good day to try my first cyclocross race and just rode the single speed to the Cow Palace to check out the bike swap. Lots of great deals on stuff I really don't need. Resisted the temptation to buy the Red brake calipers, cassette, wheels and lots of other things and ended up just getting a pair of new winter gloves for $20. - 1:15 total ride.

Weighed myself after dinner and was 148, so I started drinking water until I hit 150. It was the first time I've been at 150 in many years. I better get back down to under 140 by January 1st.

This month is so tough too since the goodie baskets from our vendors start coming in this week.

Weekly totals - Running 1:30, 7:45 riding - 9:15 total.

Training Week November 17-23, 2008

2008-11-24T21:36:00.000-08:00

Monday - 50 min spin class - moderate/hard effort

Tuesday - 20 min lunch run - easy

Wednesday - Off

Thursday - 45 min lunch run - moderate. Eve - polo field ride 1:30 (2 x 10 min moderate tempo)

Friday - 50 min spin class - moderate/hard

Saturday - 1:30 park ride on single speed

Sunday - lead bike for PA champs XC race - 2:30 easy/moderate riding.

Weekly Totals: 1:05 running, 7:10 riding/spinning 8:15 total.

This week it's back to Crystal Springs to race the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot, then on Sunday I think I'll try the CX race in GG Park.

Training Week November 10 - 16, 2008

2008-11-17T08:42:00.000-08:00

Monday - 35 min lunch run
Tuesday - PM polo field ride - 1:30 with 5 x 30 sec sprint.
Wednesday - PM ride in San Mateo (8-11 PM) with bikeforums group - 3 hours with lots of hard hills
Thursday - 35 min lunch run - felt like crap
Friday - Off
Saturday - 3:30 solo ride to Stinson & back - very warm for November (80 deg)
Sunday - Off

Weekly total: 8 hrs riding, 1:10 running.

Only 45 days left to train for the San Bruno Hill Climb

Sea Otter 2009

2008-11-12T08:23:00.000-08:00

Let me be the first to complain…

I really love the Sea Otter road and circuit courses, but the tweaking of the schedule has me wondering what they were thinking.

When I looked at the original 2009 schedule about a month ago, the 35+ 1/2/3 road race was on Thursday afternoon and the circuit race was late Friday morning. That would have been great to get in 2 races and only have to stay in a hotel Thursday night, and still have the weekend free for a couple long rides near home.

But now, they’ve added a flat crit for those who don't go uphill as well and I guess what I’d call a “rest day” on Saturday to the schedule. The crit is on Thursday, the circuit race is on Friday and the road race has been moved to 7:30 AM on Sunday, so no going home after the circuit race and coming back Sunday morning unless I want to wake up at 3:30.

Hey, why not just add a TT on Saturday and make it a 4 day 4 stage race? Nor Cal could really use a stage race with some hills.

Training Week November 3 - 9, 2008

2008-11-11T08:17:00.000-08:00

Monday – 45 min run (6.5 miles)
Tuesday – Voting – 1 Hr 15 minutes – it was worth the wait.
Wednesday – 35 min run (5 miles)
Thursday – 1:15 easy polo field ride
Friday – Off
Saturday – 50 min run (7 miles)
Sunday – Off

Weekly total – 2:10 (18.5 miles) running. 1:15 cycling.

Only 50 days until the San Bruno Hill Climb, I better get to work!

Training Week October 27 - November 2, 2008

2008-11-03T08:20:00.000-08:00

Monday - 35 min run.
Tuesday - 1:15 Polo field ride easy
Wednesday - 25 min run
Thursday - off
Friday - 35 min run with mile on track (5:27)
Saturday - off
Sunday - Morgan Stanley east bay training ride - Rockridge to Diablo junstion & back. About 5.5 hours riding including ride to BART & back.

Weekly Totals - 1:35 running, 6:45 cycling - 8:20 total.

How fast can I run a mile?

2008-10-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

If the individual time trial is the race of truth in cycling, then the track is the place of truth in running. You can be in any city and in any country, but a 400M track is a 400M track no matter where you are. Before I started cycling I used to go to the Kezar track at least 2 times a week for interval workouts, but I had not been there in nearly 2 years when I showed up today.

Since I began running again during the off season, I've only been doing lunch runs twice a week along the Embarcadero with no sense pace, but I guess that I've been running between 7 min and 7:30 miles.

This morning I was going to go for a ride, but it was raining, so I decided to go for a run instead and ended up at Kezar. I was reluctant to step inside the gates, but it looked pretty deserted except for the groundskeeper getting the field ready for the next HS football game, so I went in and jogged down to the track. The plan was to try and run a 6 min mile, starting with a 90 and if I felt good I would pick it up on the last lap. I was sure to start on the mile start line that is about 9.5M behind the start line since this is a 400M track.

On the first lap I surprised myself and ran a 79, but about 200M later really started to tighten up and I could feel myself slowing down. I came through the half mile in 2:42, then slowed down a little more, coming through 3/4 in 4:06. The last lap really hurt. I hadn't felt this flavor of pain in quite some time and just pushed on through the line in 5:27.

Not as far from Sub 5 shape as I thought, I think I can get back there with a few interval workouts.

After my run, Karin and I finally went to the Academy of Sciences and had a lot of fun.

USA DOMINATES WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS!!

2008-10-29T22:52:00.000-07:00

of baseball.

Yes, the baseball world championships (aka the World Series) is over and the USA has once again dominated!

1st - Philadelphia (USA)

2nd - Tampa Bay (USA)

3rd - Boston (USA)

4th - Los Angeles (USA)

5th - Chicago (USA)

Way to go USA!

I believe that's 31 in a row for the USA and 105 of the last 106!

Training Week October 20 - 26, 2008

2008-10-27T09:07:00.000-07:00

On the Chileno Valley Loop

Monday – 35 min run
Tuesday – 1:10 Polo field ride
Wednesday – 25 min run
Thursday – Noon – 45 min run (6.5M), PM – 1:20 Polo field ride with tempo
Friday – Off
Saturday – 6.5 hrs (about 112 miles) SF to Chileno Valley loop & back
Sunday – 1 Hr easy ride

Total – 11:45 (10 hrs cycling, 1:45 running)

Training Week October 13 - 19, 2008

2008-10-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

Monday - Easy 35 min run w/ Dan to Aquatic Park (a little smoky from Angel Island fire)
Tuesday - Park ride - Polo fields - 1:10
Wednesday - Easy 30 min run
Thursday - Park ride - Polo fields - 1:15
Friday - 30 min spin class
Satuday - Bikes for Tots Ride - around 3:30 total ride - 16:25 up Ink Grade.

It was a really great ride for a great cause with lots of friends.

Though, unfortunately not without incident. Luckily Dan is doing much better than his bike and I hear Roger is healing up well too.

After the ride there was lots of good food and wine (and one too many Klondike bars - thanks Craig!)

Paul, you gonna eat that?

Sunday - OFF

Weekly Total: 7.5 hours

You Knew it Would Happen!

2008-10-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

http://palinandplumber2012.com/

Talk about scary! Just in time for Halloween!

Training Week October 6 - 13, 2008

2008-10-13T16:40:00.001-07:00

Monday - 30 min lunch run
Tuesday - Off
Wednesday - 30 min easy ride
Thursday - 30 min lunch run
Friday - Off
Saturday - South bay ride with John & Eric 3:30
Sunday - Nephew Christopher's 11th birthday party. Why is this squid not wearing pants?

Weekly total: 5 hours

Mt. Diablo Challenge

2008-10-05T21:57:00.001-07:00

Today was the Mt. Diablo Challenge, a non USAC race up to the summit. They get about 1,000 riders and it's a very well run event. It didn't take long for things to sort out with Zteam's Nate English putting the hammer down early. His teammate Justin Laue and I were only able to stay on his wheel for about 8 minutes before we had to let him go and settle into our own pace. Justin and I traded pulls until we were abut 15 minutes from the top when I ran out of steam and had to let him go too. I slowed to my own pace and was able to hold off yet another Zteamer, Steve O'Mara for 3rd. At least I was the first somewhat old guy.

Nate rode 43:33, and destroyed Greg Drake's course record by 1:25. Someone has already made the change on Wikipedia! Way to go Nate!

Also, congratulations to Jody & Steve Archer for destroying the tandem record, riding 55 min and change!

I downloaded a neat little app for my iPhone called trailguru that tracks distance, speed, route & elevation. Maybe not as accurate or as detailed as the Garmin or other similar devices, but it's not bad for something on a phone that I carry anyway.

Here's the link.

I started it a few minutes early and stopped it a few minutes late, so the time is off by 6 minutes.

Now it really is the off season. Nothing hard for a while, at least until I have to race Hutch up Ink Grade at the Bikes for Tots ride on October 18.