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.

Closure

I've been back on the bike for two weeks now, and couldn't be any happier. Even though my riding has been temporarily reduced to 1-2 hours a day, it's still riding. The four weeks that I was off the bike there wasnt a day that went by where the thought or just riding my bike raced across my mind. There are times where your dragging yourself up a 30 + minute climb and suffering in 40 degree weather and you think to yourself " Man, I would kill to get off my bike right now." But when your riding privileges are taken away from you all you can think of is suffering up that climb in 40 degree weather. That's the most enjoyable part of the sport(to me that is.)

Although I was off the bike for four weeks, I haven't raced my bike for two months! Its come to the point where I honestly don't care what race I do, I just want to get out there and race my bike. Rain, snow, wind whatever. But, I've learned to be patient and give my body the proper amount of time it needs to recover and heal. Sure I can make goals and time lines of when I want to be back on the bike, but in all honesty its not up to me. It's up to my body. Lets say your at Disneyland and you want to go one of the more popular rides there and you get there and the wait is like two hours. Then there's the other line right next to it called the fast track and the wait is like two minutes? Well that's exactly how I feel right now. My mind just wants to go go go. But by body has other plans.


I'm about to ramp up the training once again for the rest of the season a.k.a the second half. Overall it was a good rest period for me mentally and physically. For the rest of the season I will be getting results to secure a spot on a team that I'm looking to join for the 2012 season. Some of those races are Cascade and Tour de Nez. I'm very confident for Cascade. I know the courses well since they are the same courses that they used for Nationals last year. I'll give an update later down the road to let you guys know how the training is going. Thanks for reading.

Healing

Sorry that I haven't updated this thing in awhile. The truth is, there hasn't really been a whole lot to talk about. My knee has taken a little longer to heal than expected. But it has definitely started to get better. I know in my previous post I said that it was Bursitis. Well turns out that was the wrong diagnosis. I actually have Patella Femoral (PF.) So basically my outer quad muscle, my IT band, was so tight that it was pulling my knee into an irregular position. Stretching daily has really helped. My next race I'm hopefully going to be able to do is the Pescadero Road Race. If I'm not ready by then, I'll be going back up to Oregon for the Cascade Cycling Classic.

Lesson Learned

As I promised, this is the current update on the condition of my knee. Well, after last weekend it started to feel better. So this Tuesday, I decided to go out for a little hour and a half spin just to see how I felt. Bad idea. The doctor recommended two to three weeks completely off the bike. Given my ego I thought I was capable of cutting the minimum amount of recovery in half. Lesson learned. If the doctor recommends two weeks off the bike, you take two weeks off the bike. Sure it means I'll be missing some races that suit my strengths, but in the end its not worth injuring my knee even more and possibly jeopardizing my entire season. Which also brings me to my next point.

In a few months my family and I are going to try and haul my bikes and myself to the hot and humid Augusta, Georgia for Nationals. To be honest, I much rather prefer blistering hot temperatures over the finger and feet numbing cold temperatures.  Although if freezing cold temperatures meant that I could race my bike, then it wouldn't be a problem. I feel I excel in extreme weather conditions on both side of the spectrum.

As for the training I continue for yet another week into my brief hiatus. Really hoping the pain levels will start dropping the next couple of days. Someone asked me how the Bursitis all the sudden happened. Well, it didn't. A few weeks ago I encountered on a 33 hour week on the bike. It was right up there with some of the stupidest things I've ever done considering its April. At least I enjoyed doing it. That's about it for now. Thanks for reading.

33 Hours Later...

Last week, I endured the longest week on the bike. It was fun. Everyday was very eventful. Whether it meant exploring new roads, occasionally managing to get myself lost, or even partaking in the Spectrum ride it was a fun week on the bike. Unfortunately towards the end of my week, I began to develop a rather annoying pain in my right knee. By the end of my ride on Sunday, the pain really decided to make the last twenty kilometers miserable.  I got it checked out this afternoon, and was diagnosed with Bursitis. So a solid week off the bike. Which also means no Sea Otter. Before I got injured I was able to convince my mind to go and race it, but I guess my body was on the other side of the spectrum. I'm not really too disappointed I wont be racing this weekend  because I finally have a reasonable excuse to take time off the bike and actual do this thing called recovery( which I haven't had much of.) In this brief hiatus from training, I have been spending my free time watching just about every tour ever filmed. So like I said, I'm not really too disappointed. I'm just looking at this minor speed bump in the road as a chance to recover. I'll give a brief update later on next week about the knee. Thanks for reading.

The 21st Annual Bissell Pro Cycling Classic

Today's ride consisted of wind. Lots and lots of wind. I wouldn't even call it a ride but rather a five hour battle with one of mother nature's most forceful weapons. Part of my morning routine is giving my attention to one of biggest liars on the planet, the weatherman. And today the weatherman's forecast was light to no wind in the morning, but a little breeze in the afternoon. On parts of my ride today I found myself using all my strength attempting to stay upright.  I think it was safe to say that the winds today were nothing short of violent. Normally when I am told that the winds will be higher than normal I will try to avoid going to the coast. More specifically Half Moon Bay. I've encountered some pretty strong winds before, especially back on my old training grounds in Sonoma County, but none are comparable to winds near Half Moon Bay.

Anyways, I think that's enough complaining/ rambling for one day. This past weekend I participated in the Apple Pie Criterium up in Santa Rosa. There was a lot of talent in the p/1/2/3 field. I got to the start  to see that I would be racing with both our current national criterium champions. The first couple of laps were pretty comfortable. It wasn't till about mid way through the 90 min crit were I just went downhill. I was coughing up phlegm every other lap. I even started to get lower back pains, which hasn't happened to me since nationals. Anyways, I just sat in the pack waiting for the finish. I ended up finishing in the pack for 17th. Nothing spectacular, but then again I really wasn't feeling spectacular.

Ever since Apple Pie I haven't really been feeling like myself and has left me in debate on whether or not I should attend Sea Otter Classic. After analyzing the registration list it seems that the race will yet again be another race dominated by Bissell. For those of you who don't know, Bissell managed to win every event last year along with getting at least three of their guys on every single podium. Its a big race that I really wanted to do well in this year. But whats the point of racing if your not feeling well along with your competition being one of the best Continental teams in America? I'll see how I'm feeling the next couple of days, but as of right now its up in the air.