I may not be updating the blog at the moment, but I have been uploading lots of new pictures in the Photos sections of the site.

This one is my current favorite:

My friends, Jen, Bonnie, and Randy opted for the hour early start. So with them starting a hour before me, I knew it was going to be really bad when 15 mins before my start I see Jen crossing the Start line in reverse, her and her bike all covered in mud. Her VQ was over in under a hour due to the mud that awaited me just up the road.

With all the rain and then the threat of more rain there was alot of last minute shuffling done by the event organizers. They changed the staging area to Oniel Park and that meant they had to shuttle everyone by bus from Oniel Park to Blackstar. This turned the 6am start into a 6:45am start. I opted to avoid the shuttle completely and just drive over to Blackstar with Jen.

So 6:45am, my first VQ finally gets underway. All I knew about the current coniditions was there must be alot of mud at least on the flat section leading to the first climb. Coming off the first straight and into the first corner we hit it. They had been kind enough to grade the first section of blackstar the week before the race, and I’m sure it would have been great if it hadn’t gotten rained on the day before. We were all greated with a nice 2-4 inches of mud on 90% of the section of blackstar they graded. If you stayed in the line, you got less mud, left the line, you got alot of mud. In alot of areas the mud was bad enough that a line couldn’t even develop as it would be immediately filled with mud. So at this point I’m thinking ok.. It’s a long race, avoid as much mud on this flat section as possible and when you hit the climb things should get better… Wrong! The mud continued up the climb as well. I would say the first half of the first climb was pretty much a mudfest. There were sections that were ok, and most areas had a good line, but even still the ground was very sticky and it was taking more energy than I wanted to be spending this early in the race. Not good.

Enough with the mud. Things got better near the top of blackstar and I was still feeling pretty good about my chances of just finishing my first VQ. I was guessing I was about middle to upper middle of the pack. Surely if I’m middle to upper middle of the pack I should make the cut-offs.

I kept a close eye on my Heart rate monitor, both for effort I was putting out and for time being spent on the course. I grunted my way through the first part of Main Divide and was very happy when I rolled up to Silverado Motorway. Stopped for about 60 seconds to stretch my back and take a quick hit from my drink mix and then down silverado I went. I opened it up pretty good coming down Silverado, still within my comfort zone, but moving pretty quick. The middle section of Silverado was a little rougher than normal and this played to my advantage as I quickly passed a handful of people in the rocks. At the bottom I pulled into Aid Station #1 and started looking all around for my friend Andi who had my food/drink stuff. I got fueled up while my bike got a couple pounds of mud scraped off it and its chain lubed and then I was off again.

At this point I was 2:54 mins into my race, a little behind what I was hoping for, but after all the mud on blackstar I figured I was still doing pretty good.

I was riding the middle section of VQ blind. With all the rain I never had a chance to pre-ride this section of the course. All I had to go on was a couple of descriptions I had read. As I started up Maple Springs I crossed the creek numerous times, the water was cold, but at least my bike was completely mud free for now. There was nothing hard about the grade going up Maple springs and then main divide, but it was fricken endless! 12.1 miles to the very top with a section about a mile long that was lose shale. I was really begining to feel it in my legs. I just didnt have the power that I wanted. Looking back, this was the hardest part of the course for me. I was keeping a reasonable pace though and don’t recall getting passed by too many people and I even passed a few. So by the time I reached the top I felt like I was at least still middle of the pack to upper middle. There is no way I can not make the cutoff if I’m middle to upper middle of the pack. I get to the top of holy jim and I know the first cutoff point is somewhere around here, and by looking at my watch I’m guessing im pretty close to the time, but with all the confusion of the late start and having to do time calculations in my head while suffering on the bike I can’t be sure. I come around a bend and there are a few volunteers pointing us to the single track. Hmm.. They didn’t stop me, either I made the cutoff or the cutoff is still to come. The top section of this descent is semi technical with some large rocks and 1ft drops mixed in with some tight switch backs. Once again this is actually helping me as alot of people are walking. I’m descending fast, but being a little more careful than I was down Silverado. I’m tired now and the trail is a little more technical for sure. There are some sections that are in really bad shape and I’m walking/running those. I cross a fireroad with more Volunteers, they don’t stop me either. Ok, I must have made the first cutoff, but I think it was pretty close. I quickly continue down Holy Jim. Near the bottom there are a few creek crossings that require hike a biking. I lose my balance in one and basically end up sitting down in the creek. Man was that cold, but it woke me up too. I roll into Aid station 2.

Confusion ensues. The next cutoff point is still a couple miles up the train, but someone just told me Good effort, like my ride is over. I ask did I miss a cutoff? I’m then told they haven’t been letting people continue past Aid station 2 for about a hour now. How can this be? Even if I’m late its only by minutes, not a hour. The story I was hearing was the organizers decided because it was even taking the fast riders much more time than usual this year, they decided to bump the cutoff time forward a hour! Part of me is relieved, my ride is over, I can rest. Part of me is bummed. I didn’t even get a chance to finish my race. Then my friend Randy comed running over and says ‘Hey Mark, take your number off and finish the course. Bonnie is only about 30 mins ahead of you and she did the same thing.’ It took me a few mins to get into the idea. I had just shifted from being in race mode, to my race being over, and now the idea has been put into my head to go out and finish the course anyway. A couple mins went by and I decided I would in fact finish the course, off the record.

Once again me and my bike were serviced and off I went. This next section of the course is a lollypop in shape. So as I’m riding up the first part, people that made the cutoff and are finishing are coming down. So I made sure to yield to everyone as the were finishing their race and yelled out Go ahead so they knew there was no need to slow down and that I saw them. This worked pretty well as I worked my way up the trail. As one rider went whizzing by he yelled out ‘Mark!’ and at the time I had no idea who it was. A few mins later I was pretty sure it had to have been my friend Matt and would confirm it later in the evening. I was relieved when I got to the split in the trail though as I wouldn’t have to dodge downhill riders anymore. But this also began the 1.5 mile hike a bike section. Which oddly worked great for my legs, but was killing my back. I took it easy on the hike a bike and stopped a few times to rest. When I finally made it to the top I was more than happy to hop back on my bike. All the pain was behind me, I now knew I would finish the course. The last bit of climbing on the fireroad over Trabuco Canyon went by quickly. I took the descent down Trabuco very cautiously. It was getting late and as far as I knew I was the last person coming down for the day. I hadn’t seen another rider since the time the trail split. But my excitement wasn’t over yet. As I’m coming through a rocky section I hear a loud hiss of air escaping from my back tire. Why now?!?! I run Stans, so when I get a flat it usually means I have ripped a sidewall or have a sizeable hole in the tire itself. I quickly stop the bike and get off, all the while air is hissing out of my tire. I spin the tire trying to get it to seal up and a stream of Stans going pissing through the air as the tire spins. Stan’s won’t be fixing this gash. 1/2 inch puncher in the tread of the tire. It seals briefly but rips open when I try to add more air. This brought my spirits down a little. I was starting to get cold, it was getting late, and no one was around. But some duct tape and a tube later and I was back to riding. Finished the descent and then was back to the where I had split off for the hike a bike. The course had one more trick to throw at me though. A large rock flipped out from under my front tire and smacked into the spokes sheering one off. No problem. I kinda laughed as I twisted the broken spoke around its neighbor for a 60 second fix. As I passed through the same aid station I was told my race was over at, it was completely empty. No one to be seen. I finished the ride out on the dirt road and was greated by Andi and Jen who had driven over to pick me up and cheer me on to my ‘Finish’ of VQ..

What a day.

More photos of the race in my Vision Quest Race Day ‘05 Gallery

VQ is tomorrow. Looked like it might get rained out for a little bit, but just got the confirmation email stating that it was on. Will post a full write up with pictures once I recover. =)

This weekend was my last chance to preview another section of the Vision Quest course. Of course, Friday morning the rain started and didnt stop until late Saturday evening. So not only did I have to get creative with my riding, I will be riding a good portion of the race course blind as this coming weekend I will be out of town and the following I will be tapering so riding will be kept to a minimum.

Saturday I had hoped to do a early morning road ride, but when I looked outside at 6:30am and saw it was still pissing down rain I went right back to bed. I watched it rain most of the day and finally decided I either had to ride now or I wasn’t going to ride at all. So at about 3pm I loaded up my Mountain bike and headed over to Torrey Pines. I chose the mtn bike for two reasons. First, I built up a lighter weight bike to use in the race. I had been debating this for sometime, but my Pro racer friend Heidi finally pushed me over the edge with her ‘Are you crazy!?!?’ when she found out what bike I planned to ride previously. So this bike needed to be ridden so I could work out the bugs. And lastly I chose to ride the mtn bike because its just safer than the road bike in the rain. Traction is good.

I did Torrey 5 or 6 times, I wasn’t really paying too much attention. I just wanted to ride until I got too cold to continue. It was raining the entire time. Once I was drenched I started to actually aim for the puddles and had a great time going full speed through some as deep at 4-5 inches.

Sunday I was back out of Otay Mtn. Its probably one of the only places in SD you can ride right after/during a rain and not do any damage to the trail. The Border patrol has gone through the expense of laying down a thick layer of something that resembles crushed rock mixed with mortar. Not good to fall on as I learned last week, but drains very well and if it can support a border patrol truck, it can handle me riding my bike.

As I headed up the North side of the mountain I came across a older couple walking down the road. I assume they were staying at the RV park and had hiked up the dirt road. I said my hello and then the wife said to me ‘Oh My, are you on the US team’ (The olympic training center is less that 5 miles away) and before I could respond she had looked at my LA Tri jersey and somehow decided that meant I was and said ‘Why yes you are!’. I tried to tell her no, but I dont think she heard me. So I’m sure this week she will be sharing with her cribbage friends how she saw a mountain biker from the US olympic team out for a training ride. LOL.

Made it too the peak and only spent a few mins before heading down the South side. The peak was kind foggy and eerie but at least it wasnt raining and too cold. Once I got to the bottom of the South side, turned around and headed back up. Near the top there is a old concrete structure. I’m not really sure whats it purpose is or was, but I decided I was going to take a peak inside and see if I could figure it out. As I poked my head in, there was a plastic dog house, a dog food dish, and some empty cans of dog food. At this point I stopped. I didnt go all the way in as this was really looking like someone was living there and I was all alone. I turned around and rode off. Maybe this is where Bandito lives? Shortly there after I was riding along and all of a sudden I heard this strange noise. I had my headphones in so I couldnt really tell what is was.. Some sort of high pitched noise. I pulled my headphones out and started looking around for the source. Nothing.. Then out of the corner of my eye I see Bandito running down the mountain side, tail a wagging. He jumped down onto the fireroad and ran with me the rest of the way to the peak. Obviously he remembered I was a sucker and would give him some food. =) He was right. We split a cliff bar once again.

Two down, one to go. I headed down the east side of the mountain to complete what I failed at doing last weekend. I got to the corner I wiped out on and looked for signs of my crash, the rain had washed them all away. I made it to the bottom safely and was feeling good, not great, but good. I started heading back up and after the first mile my legs started to fade some. But after some hammergel and a few drinks from my energy drink they started to come back. The nice part about the east side is the last mile or so is a very mild grade. I shifted into my middle ring and was at the top before I knew it. Woohoo! I did it.. Expect for the ride back down and the few miles of flat road back to my car.

Stats were an unknown number of miles (40ish?) and 7461ft of elevation gain with a total time of 6.5 hours! Got home, took a hot shower and then got some dinner. At 7pm I decided to take a ‘nap’. Didnt wake up until 10:30pm and then I went right back to bed and didnt get up until this morning. =P

The race bike worked flawlessly. It’s good to have gotten a good number of hard miles on it before the race. I will be trying to ride it as much as possible between now and the race to make any minor adjustments that need to be done, but so far its working great and is noticeably more efficient.

A week ago Sunday I headed out to Otay Mtn. again for a training ride. The plan for the day was to do Otay Mtn. from all 3 sides. The weather had been pretty nice leading up to super bowl sunday so I didn’t bring any rain gear with me. Well wouldn’t you know, it was kinda cold and chilly when we started at 7am and it never warmed up. When we reached the peak it was raining lightly and my riding partner was looking very cold. We put on all the clothing each of us had and started to head down the South road. About 1/3rd of the way down the wet rainy and cold road my riding partner called it quits. I wasn’t feeling quite as cold as she was, so I pressed on looking forward to turning around and heading back up the road as I would be warmer. Sure enough, by the time I got to the bottom I was out of the rain and actually had to take off my vest as I was overheating on the climb back up. Anyway, I’m going to skip ahead a little bit and get to the good part.. or not so good part if your me. Got back up to the peak and ran into my old friend Bandito. He was beggin for some food and I was cold again so I got my vest out of my pack and we split a cliff bar. I contemplated calling it a day at this point as it was raining again and I was kinda chilled. But I felt really good. So I decided to press on. This would later turn out to be a bad idea. So off I went down the east fireroad in the rain, my glasses are covered in rain drops but I don’t dare take them off as I getting pelted in the face by Rain and dirt that is flying off my front tire. This time the rain is following me all the way down the hill. As I near the bottom I’m once again looking forward to turning around so I can warm up. Then it happened. 20mph into a wet slippery corner and my front tire washes out on me so fast I had no time to react. Next thing I know im on the ground sliding. Pain surges through me as I push myself up off the dirt and look down at my knee, the blood starts to flow. For some reason the level of pain was much higher that I would have expected. Maybe I hit the ground harder than I thought as it was so unexpected. I started to feel sick to my stomach and everytime I blinked I would get a nice flash of white. Not good.. I’m all alone and I havent seen anyone since my riding partner called quits. Ride is over at this point. All I want to do is make it to a paved road incase I pass out so someone might find me. After sitting on the ground for 5 mins I forced myself to get up and at least get riding. The first few pedal strokes were painful, but after about 5 mins, I actually felt ok. Found my way to the paved road and then had about 8 miles of road to ride back to my car. First time I ever actually thought about calling someone while on a ride. “Uh Yeah, im out of the middle of nowhere and I just crashed. If you dont hear back from me, send the rescue crew to this point.”

Had a slight case of burnout right after I got over being sick. Missed a few workouts, but they were the midweek shorter workouts. Seems like the last 6-weeks of a training program is the hardest time to stay motivated. But I’m back on track now!

Vision Quest is 4 weeks away now *gulp* and I really only have 2 solid weeks of training left. Then I’m off to Bend to visit some friends and do a little winter sports stuff. And then its time to taper for VQ. Where did the time go? And more importantly, am I ready?

I’m really begining to question my choice of bikes for this event. I don’t really have a race style Mtn bike that is built up right now. I ride what is commonly referred to as a trail bike. Its more oriented to going downhill and riding over rough terrain but at the cost of effieciency while climbing and weight. With all the recent rains, the trail conditions are not in the best of shape. For example, this is what we ran into on San Juan last weekend:

Vision Quest takes place in the same mountain range that San Juan is in. That extra 4lbs of bike weight combined with a slighly less effiecent ride up hill is going to require a fair amount of extra energy output on my part over the 52 mile course. We are going to ride another section of the actual race course itself this weekend. If I run into the same type of conditions as we saw on San Juan, I might be building my race style bike back up. We will see. =)

Recent workouts:

I’ve been trying to mix things up a bit to combat my slight case of burnout and also get some longer midweek workouts in as I wrap up my training. Last week I rode 47 miles around Fiesta Island. Talk about boring.. round and round and round. My original goal was 50 miles, but I ran out of battery on my bike light so had to cut it a little short.

Last night, I took my road bike over to Mission Trails on the Santee side. Rode up Mission Gorge road, over the big hill, down to MT Park HQ, Through the park on the road, and repeated 6 times for 30 miles and 2500ft of elevation gain. Then I tossed my bike in the back seat of my jeep, drove over to cowles mtn, put my hiking boots on and hiked to the top of Cowles Mtn. Then for my 3rd event, I hopped back in my car, drove over to Chipotle, and picked up a Steak burrito. =) Mmmm it was goooood.

Cowles Mtn Coyote Posse. A little side note on hiking Cowles Mtn in the dark. There is a pack of coyotes that go on the hunt at about the same time I go on my hike. It never seems to fail, I get out there, start my hike up, and then they start yipping and howling to call everyone together for their nightly hunt. One night I was treated to being right in their path as they headed out. I could hear them calling to eachother all around me and then I started to see glowing eyes jumping through the brush. They knew I was there and kept some distance, but I had then all around me running by as they headed out. I was pretty amazing and very cool. Last night it was actually pretty errie up on the Mtn. The wind was blowing, I saw no other person on the trail (never had that happen before) and then the call to hunt went out and they were really close by. I’ll admit, it kinda freaked me out a little. =)

Time for an update, been way to long.

Lots have happened since my last update. The weather was still horrible after my last update forcing me to be inventive to get my riding in. Weekend before last I knew it was going to be raining the entire weekend. Little water never killed no one right? I decided I was going to get out and do a ride no matter. The trails were way to wet, and the roads still slick with rain. So I decided it would be best to ride my Mountain bike single speed on the road. This would give me alot more traction on the wet road than my road bike and the single speed would give me a good high intensity workout if ridden at the right place. So it was back to torrey pines for more hill repeats. Rode up the outside of Torrey 5 times and up the inside 2 times before calling it a day. Doing it on the single speed turned out to be a good deal harder than the road bike.

Then I got sick. ugh! Not what I needed. The minute I felt the scratching in the back of my throat I stopped all workouts and just focused on getting rest and getting my fluids and vitamins. This really seemed to help as it turned out to be one of the mildests colds I’ve ever experienced. Three days later I was back on the bike and I hadn’t missed any of my high mileage base building rides.

This weekend I was on pager duty for work. So now that the weather was unbelievable, I was limited in what I could ride as I needed to stay within a hour or so of home. My training partners both decided to do a road century ride that was held out in the desert, so I was on my own. Given my limitations and the fact that all the local trails are still drying out, I decided to ride up Otay Mtn… Twice. This would give me the climbing I needed and if I got paged by work I could always just turn around and be back at the car in under 30 mins.

The climb up the North side of Otay Mtn appears to be the steepest route to the top. I have ridden the East side road and it is much easier and the South side road also appears to be much easier. On my first run up to the top I felt pretty good, considering I was still getting over my cold. The road has been washed out in 2 places now making it impassible to the border patrol agents in their 4x4 trucks. For being just outside of town, Otay Mtn really gives you the feeling of being out in the middle of no where. Not many people seem to know this place exists and is a preserve. You can even drive yourself to the top, though I would recommend going up from the south side as it seems to be the best mainetained of the 3 routes to the summit. Anyway, when I reached the top the first time, I felt really good. I paused for a momment to take in the view, cursed myself for fogetting my camera, and then turned around and road back to the bottom. There I mixed up a fresh bottle of perpetium, had some hammer gel, and then started my 2nd climb to the top. I was still feeling pretty good until I got toward the mid point on the climb. Then I just started to feel ill. It wasn’t a bonk, I just felt sick to my stomach a little. By the time I reached the first false summit, I wasn’t doing to well. I pulled over and just sat at the side of the road for about 15 mins. I was going to regain my strength and then head back down and call it a day. I hopped back on my bike and started to head back down the hill and then for some reason I turned around. I had come this far, it was only another 20 mins or so to the top, and the last section is the easiest part of the climb. I pressed on to the summit to complete my 5600ft of climbing for the day. It felt good to make it to the top given the fact that in my mind I was completely ready to cut my ride short and head back. I took in the view one last time and then headed back down the hill.

Is it 2005 already?

Celebrating New Years is not very conducive to training for a mountain bike endurance race. Didn’t feel up to riding on Saturday, but did get out for a ride on Sunday. Once again the weather is limiting my training options. So instead of doing a nice long mountain bike ride with lots of elevation gain, it was Torrey Hill repeats for me. This allowed us to get our distance and climbing in while staying relatively close to shelter in case of a down pour. Did Torrey 10 times with every 3rd lap up the inside of Torrey standing. This resulted in 5000ft of elevation gain when you include the ride over to Torrey and back. Good workout.

Last night it was raining.. again. So I put the bike on the trainer and did a easy spin indoors. Can riding on a trainer be any more boring? I finally broke down and started reading a book. That helped, but only for a little while. May be time to up the excitement level and get a set of rollers for riding indoors. For those that don’t know what rollers are, think of a treadmill, but for your bike! You actually have to balance yourself while riding. So its not only a good way to get in a workout, but its suppose to be great for your form. Tonight is suppose to be a rest day, but I might try to get a hike in weather permitting.

Over the years I have come up with my own personal set of rules I tend to follow while Mtn. Biking. Things like ‘Don’t ride anything you don’t think you can handle’ and ‘Don’t ride offroad after dark alone’. Well I broke the later rule on Monday night, but I made up some new rules just for that ride to compensate. =)

With a winter storm rolling in late Monday, I was hard pressed to find anyone crazy enough to go night ride with me for fear of getting stuck in a downpour. So watching the weather maps carefully, it looked like I should be able to squeak a ride in before it hit. But that would mean breaking one of my long standing rules. I typically ride with one light and that’s it. My logic is I can following someone else out worst case if mine fails, which has been done on occasion. So taking those two things into account, I came up with two new rules just for this ride. I would take my head mounted light that I use for running at night and toss it in my camelback, just in case. I would also not ride anything technical and keep my downhill speeds in check, just in case.

New rules in hand, I drove over to Penasquitos Canyon. I Did the quick change in the car from work clothes to bike clothes, and then was on my way. Down the old fire road I went into the canyon, keeping my speed in check of course. My route for tonight was up in the air. I wanted to get a good workout in, but didn’t want to ride up onto the mesa where I would have to ride a couple semi technical downhills if I were to follow my normal route. After 20 min’s into my ride, it became clear to me I wasn’t fully recovered from the weekends activities. So I decided to take it easy and stick to the main trails in the floor of the canyon. Plus, being on the main trails meant if something happened there was a chance someone might come by. So I simply rode up the South side of the canyon and then crossed over the creek and headed back down the North side. The bridge at the East end of Penasquitos has been replaced (but after the rains we just had, it could be gone again). Making the creek crossing truly a no-brainer now. When I made the final creek crossing on my way back, I bounced off a rock in the creek bed and had to put a foot down in the water. Doh! Outside of that, it was a pretty uneventful ride. As usual, the Penasquitos deer were out for their evening grazing. The climb out seemed to hurt more than usual on the singlespeed.

…

Well you will notice I am saying ‘we’ and ‘us’ in my descriptions here. A couple friends of mine have decided to do the Vision Quest ride as well. So when we can, we train together. Usually on the long weekend rides. So I haven’t invented some sort of imaginary Mtn. biking friend that goes along with me on these training rides (at least not one that I will admit to!).

With it getting dark out around 5pm, all of my rides during the week have turned into night rides. In an effort to avoid traffic at night, I have been hitting Fiesta Island a couple times a week and doing laps in the dark with my mtn. bike lighting system. Riding Fiesta at night makes it a little less boring, but it is still just flat laps around the island. One night last week I got out there and shortly after I started my 10 laps, patches of fog started to develop. What was interesting is the fog was forming right over the road and was a narrow band only about 1-2ft thick and hovering at chest height. So as I rode, I would enter these strange carpets of fog where I couldn’t really see the ground below me, but I could see in front of me just fine. It was really an odd feeling not being able to see the ground flying by as I was cruising along at 18mph. Almost like flying. As I finished my last lap, the sections of fog got thicker and I had to situp slightly to maintain my forward looking vision.

Saturday (yes Xmas day) was my long base building ride. The ride this day started out by Otay lake. We began with a nice fun run along the tight twisty single track the follows the east side of the lake. We then continued east on the road a ways and at the base of Otay Mtn, we turned and headed straight for the peak. Talk about steep. I had ridden to the top of Otay Mtn once before, but had forgotten somehow how steep the climb was. It wasn’t as steep as some of the climbs on Main Divide, but it was sustained almost the whole way to the top. Once at the peak, we headed down the East side of the Mtn to its base and then turned around and headed back the same way, thus climbing Otay Mtn twice. On the climb back up we ran into a local resident of sorts. A young dog started following me, looked like a German Shepard mix of sorts. He was very interested in playing. He would run along side me and then sprint forward and back all the while I was suffering on the climb. It was quite funny and kept my mind occupied during the climb, though I did worry for him. What was he doing out here in the middle of no where? Did he have a home? He followed me all the way to the peak. Once I got there he sprinted striaght to the border patrol trucks that were parked at the top. Obviously he knew where to go for a hand out, one of the border patrol guys offered him up a sandwich. I over heard the officer say to his buddy ‘This guy gets around! I see him all over this Mtn.’ Made me feel a little better that at least ‘Bandito’ was from around the area and maybe had a home on one of the ranches to go to. Stats for the ride were 36 miles total distance and 5000ft of elevation gain. Felt pretty good at the end of that one.

I have temporarily disabled the comments feature of the blog. I will re-enable it soon, but need to spend some time making it more secure.

Figured I would revive my blog to cover my road to Vision Quest and indirectly Solvang. I say indirectly as I’m not really going to be training for Solvang, but I will be doing the event as it occurs the weekend after Vision Quest. My Training for Vision Quest will more than get me ready to ride the Solvang century.

So lets see. Vision Quest is now less than 12 weeks away. How did that happen? Seems like last week VQ was 6 months away. So with this in mind, I already started training for VQ about 2 weeks ago. My training plan works out to be something like this:

Mon: Road ride of 25 miles/Or Hill repeats @ Torrey
Tues: Rest Day
Wed: Road ride of 25 miles
Thurs: High intensity Single Speed Mtn bike ride of 20-30 miles
Fri: Rest Day
Sat: Increasingly High Mileage Mtn or Road ride typically with lots of hills
Sun: Easy Recovery Ride Road or Mtn.

Thats the plan.

The Saturday rides will also include doing some course previews of the different sections of the VQ course. The first of which we did last Saturday. The route was Up Blackstar Canyon to Main Divide, over Main Divide to Silverado Motorway, Down Silverado Motorway back to the cars. Here is an image with our route on it to give some perspective:

Can you say lots of climbing? The ride was about 28 miles long but it had 4200ft of elevation gain! The first 9 miles or so were pretty mellow. Uphill, but a nice grade. I kept my Mtn bike in middle ring the whole way up. Then we hit Main Divide. I have heard stories of Main Divide. Its a fireroad that runs along the top of the Mtn range. If you look off to the West you see Orange County, off to the east you see Lake Ellsinore. Very pretty and the views were amazing. It’s a good thing the views were stunning as this part of the ride was either straight up or straight down. Very steep climbs, often finding myself dropping into my granny gear. After 9 or so miles of this we finally made it to Silverado Motorway. I don’t know the history of this trail, but the name suggests that it may have been a road of one point. Well let me assure you it’s a road no more. This was a rocky, loose, semi-technical descent. It was alot of fun, but being my first time down a little sketchy too. There were some major penalties to pay for going off the trail at certain points. This section was maybe 5 miles long, but you lost alot of elevation during those 5 miles. Then it was an easy road ride back to the cars.

I felt pretty good after the ride, but the idea of riding another section like that wasn’t very appealing, and that is what I will have to do during the race times two!

More to come…

That’s the question I keep hearing.. “So What’s next?” “When is your next Race?”

Well to be honest I don’t know for sure, but I will be doing something!

I have some events that are on the radar, but they are still a ways off. I’m pretty sure I’m going to do the Solvang Century, the Warrior’s Society Vision Quest, and depending on how my training goes either the Brianhead 50 on my single speed, or the Brianhead 100.

What about Triathlon? I would like to do some more Tri’s, and would also like to do a Xterra event (Triathlon with Mountain biking and trail running). I’m also going to look into some sprint distance adventure races. Right now is kinda the off season for all of this stuff though. Though living in SoCal there isnt a real need for a off season.

So I will try to keep updating my blog. I plan to have a couple new videos posted in the coming weeks now that I have been back on the mountain bike.

Race day has come and gone and I have not yet provided everyone with a race day summary.

Sunday the 12th of Sept., 2004 was Race day… What I have been training for for the past four months (that’s alot of fors (fours?)).

The night before the race everyone on the team got together for a group pasta dinner and then we all hurried back up to our hotel rooms to try and get as much sleep as possible. I set my alarm for 4:00am and then crawled into bed… where I laid for a couple hours doing the ‘What have I forgotten game’. At some point I actually feel asleep.

4:00am Sunday morning.. Race day. Got up, got dressed, and then forced myself to eat my raceday breakfast. For me it was a bowl of oatmeal and a cliffbar with peanut butter smeared on it. Eating at that hour is hard enough. Toss into the mix a nervous stomach and getting breakfast down wasn’t very fun. Got all my gear together and headed out to catch the elevator down to the lobby. Our bus was scheduled to leave sometime around 5-5:30. Get to the elevators and there are already a couple other racers there waiting. They inform me they have already been waiting for about 10 mins. Each elevator that stops on our floor is already full. Just as I’m about to head to the stairs another racer comes by and notices us waiting and then says ‘Guess I will take the service elevator again’. Service Elevator??? Show me the way! The service elevator was there in about 2 mins and completely empty! Nice!

Met up with Brian in the hotel lobby and after checking in we headed outside to get in line for the bus. Team in Training had their own private set of buses which was pretty nice. We got loaded up and as soon as our bus was full we took off for Venice beach.

I’m not sure what time we got to Venice beach, but it was still dark out and people were already in the transition area setting up. We went in and setup our area and then myself, Brian, and Wendy went out on the bike course to do a quick warm up. We were only gone about 20-30 mins, but when we came back the place was a mad house! We had to wait in line just to get back into the transition area. By the time we got back in I only had 35 mins before my start time. I wanted to get in a quick swim, but it just didn’t work out. We did a team photo and then by the time that was over they called my wave to the starting line.

As I stood there on the beach with about 200 other guys in my wave I was somehow able to remain relatively calm. I guess at that point I realized I could only do the best I could. All I had to do was fall back on my training, and I was confident that for the swim and bike at least, I would do just fine. The run, well I was still concerned about that. =)

Coach came by about 60 seconds before the start of the race and gave me a pat on the back. He didn’t say anything.. He just smiled, there was nothing to say at that point. 10, 9, 8…. Go! And we were off.

I ran down the beach towards the water and as the funnel of spectators widened I continued to run towards the outside of the course. I wanted to be far enough to the outside to avoid getting pummeled by the main group of swimmers. This would also allow me to just settle into a nice rhythm and swim my own swim.

Into the water I went, diving under the incoming waves. Once out to about waist deep water I did a final dive forward and began my swim. I headed towards the first buoy but stayed toward the outside of the main pack of swimmers. Not getting a chance to get wet before the race was showing some minor ill effects. The first problem was with my goggles. They were leaking as I had to put them on dry. I stopped briefly a couple times to drain them and try to make a good seal. Finally I got it fixed. The next problem was I started to overheat. The inside of my wetsuit wasn’t getting wet fast enough. So once again I had to stop for a second and pull the neck open on my wetsuit to flood it was the cold ocean water. Problem solved. Both of these were very minor and only cost me about 30 seconds total. Nothing to panic about. I settled into my swim and just focused on everything I had been trained to do.

The swim just seemed to go on forever and you can never really get a feel for where you are in the pack. As i rounded the 2nd to last buoy I was pretty much all by myself. I could see some swimmers about 30 yards in front of me, but there was no one in my general area, which was nice. But it got me second guessing myself. Was I off course? I poked me head up a couple times just to be sure, but as far as I could tell I was still on target. The closer I got to the final buoy, the more confident I was that I was on course, I think everyone else was simply playing follow the leader and took a slightly different line to the final buoy. I rounded the final buoy and could now see the beach. How confusing to look at. All you could see was activity. Where do you aim for? I spotted what appeared to be the swim exit and swam to it. Close enough. As I got close to shore I kept swimming until I got to about knee deep water. Then I stood and began to run out of the waves. I dove back in to body surf a couple waves and actually passed a few people that decided to just keep running. Finally I hit dry land and ran straight up the funnel of spectators, all the while unzipping my wetsuit and pulling the top part of it off. As I ran I heard a few people cheering me on from the crowd.

Into the transition area I went. We came in through a entrance that I had not seen before, but luckily I had spent enough time walking in the transition area to quickly correct my path and headed straight to my bike. Coach was there to and yelled out something like ‘Great swim Mark!’. I stripped off my wetsuit, tossed on my helmet and sunglasses, and then stuffed everything into my Tri bag as I wouldn’t be coming back to this transition area for my run. Transition area 1 and 2 are located in two completely different sites. Grabbed my bike and headed to the bike exit point. As I crossed the mount line I jumped onto my bike, placed my feet on top of my bike shoes, and got myself up to speed. Once up to speed I worked my feet into my bike shoes, took a quick drink, and then settled in for the 24 mile ride from Venice beach to Downtown LA.

The bike was fun. This is the only time of the year you can ride from Venice beach to Downtown LA on a completely closed course. My goal for the bike was to go out as hard as possible for the first 20 miles and then use to last 4 to let my legs recover a little for the run. The course is mostly slightly uphill the whole way, but was fast. I was averaging just over 20 miles a hour. I passed a number of riders and only got passed by a couple though for the most part the road was pretty clear being that I was in wave 1. As we got close to downtown LA I began to think maybe I had put a little too much into the bike. I was starting to feel it a little, but before I knew it I was in those last 4 miles of my bike and cut my effort back a little just like I had planned. The end of the bike ride includes a steep uphill followed by a really steep downhill. I took both with alot of speed. On the downhill I clocked 42mph. Not the fastest I have been on a bike, but plenty fast indeed. A few turns later and I was at the Staples Center. Off in the distance I saw the entrance into the bike to run transition area so I quickly worked my feel back out of my shoes. As I hit the dismount line I carefully jumped off my bike, not wanting to accidentally unclip a shoe.

I ran into T2 and was directed to a 100 yard long bike rack that said 300-400 on it. Ok.. my bag with my shoes and running hat is somewhere in this 100 yard stretch. I ran all the way to the end of the rack and hadn’t spotted my bag, turned around and ran all the way back and then finally saw my bag sitting between a couple other bikes. Racked my bike, grabbed my bag and then quickly put on my running shoes and then off I went.

Oh man the run.. I fear the run.. The past two times I had to run after swimming and biking were just horrid experiences. Lots of pain that didn’t end until I crossed the finish line. As I went out of the Staples Center parking lot, I passed a group from the San Diego chapter of Team in Training and they all let out a big cheer for me. I had to smile enough though I was in pain and it really lifted my spirits. The run had the most spectators on the course and it seemed like every 50 yards or so I would run past someone that knew what Team in Training was and they would yell out ‘Go Team!’ just because of the shirt I was wearing. It was amazing, these strangers were cheering directly for me!

The first couple miles of the run were going as expected. My back and legs were sore and I was having a hard time running at a good pace. To top it off, the run course has a pretty major hill you have to run up and over. As I crested the hill on the way out, I started to feel a little better. By the time I hit the bottom of the hill I was actually feeling pretty good and was able to pick up my pace a bit. Hit the halfway point in the run and turned around to run back the same way I had come. As I was running back right before I started climbing back up the hill I saw Brian on his way out. He started 14 mins behind me, but my goal was not to let him pass me before the finish. I picked up my pace a little. The cheers kept coming with shouts of ‘Go Team’ still coming from people I didn’t know. Then one of them shouted out ‘Go First Team in Training person!’. What!? I’m the first TnT person? Granted I had started in the first wave of the day, but there were at least 10 other TnT people from other chapters in my wave. That was all the motivation I needed. I really didn’t want Brian to pass me now. Once I got onto flat ground again I was able to really turn up my pace. I knew I had only about a mile left and I still felt pretty strong. All through that last mile I continued to increase my speed. Finally the finish line was in sight and I gave it all I had. When I crossed the finish line, Annie and her husband were there to greet me and were taking pictures. I managed to tell her to get ready for Brian as I knew he would be right behind me. Sure enough about a minuter later Brian crossed the finish line. But I had met all of my personal goals for the race.

Here are my results. Times are based off of my own watch as for some reason the chip I was wearing didn’t register my splits, just my overall time.

79th out of 196 in my age group. Swim of 33:30, bike of 1:10:00, run of 56:30. Total race time of 2:47:51

Once again, thanks to everyone for the support!

Our race is less than 2 weeks away!

Sorry for the lack of updates, work and training have been eating up all of my time lately. Seems like I am home just enough time to sleep these days.

Last Sunday we had our course preview up in LA. A bunch of us from the team drove up to LA early early Sunday morning to swim in the ocean and then ride the run and bike course. This turned into quite the adventure.

First, the surf was reasonably big. La Jolla shores has been pretty flat lately so we haven’t had to deal with big surf. Getting out past the breakers took a little more effort, but the fun really began on the way back in. When I was coming back in for the first time, I looked back and saw a wave cresting.. so trying to be efficient, I decided to try and body surf it in some. The wave had other ideas. Next thing I know I’m falling from the top of the wave dropping about 5 ft and landing at its base.. then it decided to roll me around for the next 15 seconds.. felt like I was in a washing machine. Finally it decided to take my swim cap and goggles off my head. So as I’m tumbling in this wave, I quickly reach up trying to grab my goggles and swim cap and my hand hits something so I grab it. Its a pair of goggles! Just not mine! What are the odds.. Paula also got tossed by the same wave and had her swim cap on goggles torn off too. It was quite amusing to blindly come up with her goggles. Luckily I was able to find mine a couple mins later.

Then we moved to the bike and this just turned into the longest 24 miles I have ever ridden. We were hitting all the stop lights. That and the heat, were starting to take their toll on the group. By the time we got to staples center, almost everyone looked like they were done. But no.. we had to ride the Run course yet and then make it back to Venice beach. After riding the run course, 90% of the group decided that was the end of the preview and headed directly back to Venice beach.

Everything was going good on the way back, but people were very tired. About 5 miles from the parking lot however, Wendy had a pretty nasty fall. We were in a pace line when she accidentally ran up on the person in front of her and clipped their back tire sending her crashing to the ground at 20mph. Not good. I was right behind her and was able to avoid running her over/crashing on top of her. None the less, she got scraped up pretty badly and it was pretty bad to watch first hand. Both palms of her hands have serious road rash along with other both parts that made contact with the ground. She took it very well though, immediately got up and then was talking about finishing the ride. We were able to get Joe on the phone who was driving in the area and he came and picked her up. She is now healing up and expects to be able to do LA.

Saturday was our full blown practice Tri down at Fiesta Island. We did Sprint distance which in this case turned out to be some unknown amount of swim (1000m maybe?), 12 mile bike, 3 mile run.

The plan was to treat it just like a real race, and that’s what I did. Arrived a little over a hour before our race start time, got my transition area all setup. Once that was done I went out for a mile warm up run, then a 8 mile warm up bike. After warming up I jumped into my wetsuit and we all got ready to start.

Let me start by saying that swimming in mission bay is kinda nasty. We all got in the water, then coach had us all group together and blew his whistle to start the race. My first error of the day was in picking my start location for the swim. I placed myself behind too many people. Come race day I need to make sure I get closer to the front. I wasted a good minute just fighting my way past people and trying not to get beat up by everyone. Finally I just gave up and swam off to the side about 10 yards and then continued on the swim across the bay. This seemed to pay off. I was able to just focus on my swim and didn’t have to worry about everyone else. On the way back across the bay I got behind Michael and was able to draft off him for a bit. Here is a picture of me coming out of the water:

I had a pretty good transition to the bike, considering I took the time to put my socks on. I think it was a 1:15 transition time. Brian’s was one of the fastest at 40 seconds or so, but he goes without socks. Hopped on the bike and then worked my feet into my shoes while riding down the course.

I decided to give the Aero bars another shot and I think they actually may have done some good. I rode about 98% of my 3 laps in the aero bars. Here is a pic of my on the bike:

Coming in from the bike I had another little mishap with my bike shoes. I came in pretty quite to the dismount line, feet already out of my shoes. I jumped off but apparently twisted my foot as I jumped unclipping one of my shoes! Doh! Coach started yelling at me “Go back and get that shoe, that’s a penalty!” I kinda paused for a minute as I was already at my bike rack.. Do I turn back with the bike or rack my bike and then go get the shoe? I racked the bike, then ran back and got my shoe. Coach hasn’t posted the times yet, so I don’t know if I got a penalty or not. So the whole shoe thing cost me about 15 seconds total I would guess. Tossed my running shoes on and off I went. Here is a pic of me on the run:

While I don’t like running, it has gotten easier for me lately. It may not be fun, but it doesn’t kill me like it use to. Well that is until you add a swim and bike ride right before it. Whoever decided the run would be the last event knew exactly how to torture people. My back was hurting, my legs were hurting, my ankles were hurting. It just plain sucked. While I did better than I did at Solana Beach in the run, it still hurt quite a bit. It took everything I had in me to just keep running. All I wanted to do was walk, but I knew if I stopped to walk I would not be able to start my run back up again. Somehow I managed to finish the run and I was so glad to cross that finish line. Here is a pic of me after everything was said and done:

Yes I am smiling.. I felt so good to not be running. =)

I will post the results once I get them. I think I finished 6th overall. I was in 3rd overall at the end of my bike. I am so not looking forward to the run at LA.

I just wanted to thank everyone for their support. I have really enjoyed reading the comments and I appreciate the donations that everyone has made to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

If you haven’t donated yet, you can do so by going to my fund raising webpage.

http://www.active.com/donations/fundraise_public.cfm?key=tntsdhMWeidin

Race day is coming!

When I first started training for this Triathlon, Sept 12th seemed so very far off in the future. Now its only 3 weeks away! How far have I come? Well I went from having not swam at all in recent memory to having swam over a mile in the ocean! From not running at all to running 8 miles non-stop on trails with hills! The biking was a given, but I have improved there too. I have become a faster rider in every aspect of riding! My fastest time up Torrey Pines before starting to train for the Tri was 8 minutes 30 seconds or so. My most recent record is 7 minutes 35 seconds!

So once again thank you all for your support.

The results for our last time trial are in. We did 40k, my 20k split time was 34:08 and my 40k split was 33:09 with a total time of 1:07:17 with a average speed of 22.29 Mph. Brian was 1:27 seconds faster than me.

I ran the furthest I have ever ran in my life last Monday. Monday morning I got up at 5:45 and drove over to Penasquitos Canyon. Pulled into the parking lot and I was the only person there. Took a few mins to stretch and then took off for a long distance jog through the canyon. I ran all the way out past the waterfall, which is 3 miles from where I started, and didn’t see anyone else except for a deer that shadowed me for a bit running along side the trail. On the return trip, saw a few other early risers out on the trail also getting in a run. Total distance ran was about 6.5-7 miles in about 1:15 mins. I ran the entire distance non-stop including all the hills. This is farther than I will have to run in the race, so I now know it is possible.

Later that night was Velodrome. I thought I was going to really suffer after my run earlier in the morning, but it wasn’t all that bad. We did a 12 lap points race, but I didn’t fully understand what we were doing so I ended up not doing so well. I probably could have got a few points if I had known what was going on. I thought points were awarded every lap. Turns out points were only awarded every 4th lap. Doh! Oh well.

Tuesday Morning I snuck in a mountain bike ride with a few people from my Tri team. I had never ridden with them before so I didn’t know what to expect, but they both turned out to be good riders. We rode much further than I was expecting and further than I probably should have ridden considering the previous days workout. But overall it was alot of fun. Nice to ride the mountain bike again for a change.

Tuesday Night I met up with a few people for a quick little swim in the ocean. Wendy, Kate, Julie, and myself all swam out to the 1/2 mile buoy and back for a swim of probably just over a mile. Coming back I stated to fade a little from the ride I had done earlier in the day. I really needed a rest day at this point, but knew I wouldn’t get one until Friday.

Wednesday was our weekly coached track workout. We did running hill repeats. Ugh! We would jog down this hill until we go to where we thought would be 50 seconds of 80-90% effort from the top. When the whistle blew you would run up the hill to the top. We did this 12 times! First few were ok, but by the time we got to 8 I was getting pretty tired. We then wrapped up the workout with a half mile run at race pace.

Thursday we did the road bike thing up the coast and back. 30 miles this time instead of the usual 20. We had less people with us and the pace ended up getting pretty brisk at times. Coming into Del Mar on a flat section of road I took my turn pulling at the front with Brian and Wendy right behind me and I looked down and we were doing 29mph. Pretty quick for being on a completely flat road. But along with the speed and traffic comes some danger.. It was pretty crazy out there with rush hour traffic, Del Mar Races going on, and People at the beach. We had a few close calls involving drivers who just were not paying attention. Guess that’s why I always assume the worst outcome when I see a car pulling out of a driveway, or paused to make a turn.

Friday I took the day off from training.

Saturday we had our coached workout at Moonlight beach. We were doing a full transition practice. So you brought everything you were going to use during the tri and this was the time to try it all out. Started in our wetsuits in the ocean, ran out and up to the parking lot where we switched over to the bike, and then did a quick lap around the parking lot and switched to the run. We did this twice. It was good practice. The first time I had a couple mistakes. When I went to get on the bike, I had my bike shoes already clipped into the bike. I put my feet on top of my shoes and then accidentally clipped out my right shoe and it fell to the ground. LOL. It was pretty comical, but not something to do during the race. Then when I switched to the run I started running with my helmet still on. Got about 10 feet away from my transition and had to run back and put the helmet down. Second time around I did much better though. We then packed up our stuff and went out for a 20 mile bike ride.

After Solana Beach, I was pretty tired.. that was my 7th workout in a row so I decided to skip velodrome on Monday and just take it easy.

Tuesday night I joined up with Paula down by Ocean Beach for a base building run. This turned out to be the farthest run I had done to date. Ran about 6 miles in 1hr 10 mins or so. But my shins were hurting pretty bad both during and afterwards. I felt like I had accomplished something for sure though.. 6 miles of running for me is a big thing. I don’t think I have ever run that far before in my life. Pretty crazy for someone who really doesn’t like running.

Wednesday night was our weekly Track workout. Coach has been on vacation this week so we skipped the inspirational speech and just sat around talking until finally someone suggested we actually do the workout. =) We ran 1200m, 1 min rest, 800 m, 1 min rest, 400m, 1 mins rest, 400m, 1 min rest, 800m, 1 min rest, and finally another 1200m, all at race pace. My shins were killing me. No more running for a bit, have to let them heal up. I think the pain originated from running barefoot on the beach.

Thursday night we did our weekly 20 mile ride up the coast and back. I was taking it pretty easy, leading the group out as we were short on organizers. Stopping to make sure we were not losing anyone.. Get to the turn around point and Wendy mentions one of the girls turned directly into Swamis and asks me to ride over there and make sure she is ok and all. So I take a few of the other riders with me and when I get there, the missing rider is no where to be found. Hmmm.. Not good.. She must have already started back! So I let the other riders know that I’m going to speed down the road and try to catch up to her to make sure everything is ok and to get everyone regrouped. So I’m heading down the road, riding at a pretty hard pace… Still can’t find her. So I pick it up a little.. Still can’t find her.. Is she really this far ahead of me? Finally I get all the way into Del Mar and still have not found her.. She can’t really be in front of me.. not possible. Pull over, call Wendy.. Oh yeah, she is right here with me. Doh! Oh well, guess I needed to workout. =)

Friday night we had our weekly coached swim, sans coach. This was the first time we were to swim out to the half mile buoy and back. That buoy is way out there!! I couldn’t even see it. Everyone was asking ‘Do you see it?’.. ‘I don’t see it’… ‘Well just swim towards the cove and eventually we will see it’. It was kinda comical. It wasn’t anywhere near as hard as I thought it might be. On the way back in I saw another really large leopard shark.. They look so cool just swimming along the bottom.

Saturday… 40k bike time trial.. Redemption day?

So Saturday we had our 40k bike time trial down at Fiesta Island. As I’m unloading my bike, Brian walks over and says ‘Hey, come check this out’. So I walk over to his track and he pulls his bike out.. He has a disc wheel on the back! Great..

Did a couple warm up laps, then it was time to start. I was third is our group to start and Brian was 12th. I was wishing it was the other way around, so I could try and catch Brian or at least get a visual on him to see how far ahead he was.

Everyone lined up and it was time to go. Michael started it off, then 10 seconds later Paul went, then 10 seconds later I went. Got up to speed as quickly as possible and kept a eye on my heart rate. I was planning to ride at 90% the whole time. Passed Paul and then passed Michael on the backside of lap #1. Then I had no one to gauge my pace off of. I focused on my HRM and just tried to keep it right at 90%. First lap went by and I was averaging over 21mph. Second lap and I was still right there. Same with the 3rd. Then Brian pulls up along side me and says ‘Grab onto my wheel’. Crap! You punk! Not only do you pass me, but you tell me to grab onto your wheel so you can pull me! Ok fine.. you can pull me.. don’t expect me to do the same.

I let him pull me around for a full lap and then he pulls off to the side a little and asks ‘You wanna pull now?’. I responded with a stern ‘No!’. We argue back and forth for a little while, I’m really just playing around with him. I pull for most of the 5th lap and then he pulls for the 6th. We are cookin around the island. I’m 3-4 inches off his back wheel the whole time. Finally when we hit the rough backside of the island, now was the time, I went as hard as I could. I knew I couldn’t make back all the time he had on me, but I wanted to try and get at least some of it back. I probably still had a mile to go at this point, but wanted to give it my all. I hate the backside at Fiesta.. its too damn rough. I’m riding on the painted line seeking out the smoothest ride I can find. I see my HR climbing.. 92%, 93%, 94%… sweat is dripping onto my sunglasses, my vision is blurred looking through wet lenses. Shift up a gear and it hurts so much.. my legs are on fire. 95%, 96%, shift up another gear and its too much, shift right back down and push as hard as I can, I’m about 100 yards from the finish. 97%! and I’m just thrashing on the bike.. My hands are squeezing the bars and I’m using every muscle in my body to push those pedals now.. I cross the finish line and just hunch down on the bike. My legs are screaming at me. I think I got back about 15-20 seconds on Brian, but he still beat me by about 1:40 overall.

I’ll post our times as soon as I get them, but even though Brian beat me, we both did amazingly well.

Maybe I can pull a upset in LA. =)