Its Summer! And....

It's very very hot! Summer is the only time where I actually look forward to the training in the winter months. Yet when winter training starts all I will be thinking about is training in the Summer. Ironic, I know For the past two weeks I've literally been averaging about 8 bottles of water per ride. The heat makes for good training though. The harder the better. The hottest day last week I decided to go and climb up Mt.Diablo. After I finished the climb I just thought to myself, "wow I just taught myself a lesson." I was dying the whole way up. Thank god they sell coca cola at the top cause I was feeling a little delirious.  Its become my favorite climb in the bay area. It's long, fairly steep at times, and you get rewarded at the top with the 2nd most panoramic view in the world. Not much more you can ask for. And the descent is quite technical, so it's also a good training ground to work on your descending.

When I'm off the bike, I'm usually watching a re run of a race some where around the world.  If no races are on I end up watching the Cervelo BTP (Beyond the Peleton) series. It's  the most influential and educational video on what life really is like a professional cyclist in the pro tour. Recently, I've came across trek's Driven episodes. Here's the most recent one  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vaoBztRrUE . If the UCI lets Contador race this year, there will some major fireworks on the climbs of the tour this year. Looking forward to watching it this year.  After watching Levi during the Tour de Suisse, it looks promising that he might get himself a podium position this year.  Good luck Levi!

Sacrifice

I woke up this morning with extremely sore legs.  The kind of legs that would make you think you were in the Tour de France. Yet it didn't stop me from partaking on yet another four and a half hour ride through the beautiful Santa Cruz Mountains to complete a full week of training on the bike. I must say, some of the views I encountered today were postcard worthy. There's an incredible view on one of my routes on top of Skyline Blvd where you can see all the dark green mountains leading themselves towards Santa Cruz as well as an entire view of Monterrey Bay.

I wanted to discuss something that has been on my mind. Recently, someone told me that ever since I started cycling "I've lost my personality." This upset me when I first heard this. Something to know for all you non cyclists out there,  in one year cyclists sacrifice more than the average person would in their entire lives. Case and point, I skipped my prom last year so I could go race the Junior State Road Race Championships. I ended up getting sick a few nights before so I ended up not doing either of those. Of course I was upset, but it was a choice that I made.  The last thing I want to sacrifice is my personality. Behind every cyclist there is a person. Behind names like Alberto Contador, Lance Armstrong, or Andy Schleck there are people. So it really wouldn't make since to sacrifice that. But I do understand how people might see that my personality has changed. I wouldn't say I have lost it, but rather changed it. I've changed it to fit the kind of lifestyle I'm choosing to live.

I would say it's safe to say that my knee has healed 100%. I'm back to the normal training with twice as much stretching. I'm very excited for some of the races coming up. I look forward to completing my season with some more results. Thanks for reading.