ripping my legs off...

first of all... the biggest new of the week. my lil monster landed an epic job. she made it through a gnarly interview process and is now an official school psychologist

i really like riding my bikes....

week one of this tough 2 week block is in the bag. the week was definitely challenging but left with me a lot of motivation and confidence that what I am doing... training my ass off, recovering, and sticking to Trevor's plan is definitely working.

this week was all about finding some motivation during my rides. in my last post i mentioned that I PR'd my race loop (hell track) on thursday morning. i pushed really hard and i was out there solo early in the morning. sometimes it's hard to get motivated to push really hard out there by myself but after looking at the race results from last weekend's Rim Nordic XC race, where I almost let my lead and the win get away, i needed to step up my game. i thought i had held griffith by about 30 seconds but in reality it was only 9... yeah... 9 seconds. way too close, especially when i had over a minute lead heading into the last lap.

i just didn't push hard enough when i was off the front in the race... didn't keep the hammer down. so that's what i thought about during my hell track interval. just staying motivated to push hard and keep hammering even though i am not tracking anybody down or can see any one chasing me. it worked.

saturday was about a whole different kind of motivation. the motivation was to not get dropped and try to hang with some super fast guys. earlier in the week i rounded up a crew strong dudes (luke, slater, & sean) and planned a killer route. towards the end of the week I got an email from Brent asking me if I wanted to come ride with his crew. they were doing a similar route but incorporating some stuff I had never ridden before. I ran it by the boys and they were down so we joined forces.

the route:

i was kind of nervous for the ride. i was going to be riding one of the toughest routes in our area and with a bunch of strong guys... most of them being roadies. so i knew i was going to have to work to keep up. I think we rolled out at 7am 15+ deep and ready to hammer.

pre-ride fuel. gluten free waffle, Nuttzo, banana, & agave nectar.


elevation profile.


the ride lived up to my expectations and was epic. the highlight for me was the climbing palomar (south grade). my goal was to set a new PR and i new with the crew i was with that if i just dug deep and stayed with the top guys I should have been able to do it. it didn't really play out as i expected. i was on the front, leading a group of 5, working hard, and trying to not blow up. i ended up leading for about 90% of the climb and then Brent came around and it was just me and him for the last .75 mile of the climb. he lead me the rest of the way. mission accompished. new PR!

there was still plenty of hard riding ahead of us but i got through it. great day of riding with a cool, talented crew. i was definitely out of my comfort zone for quite a bit of the ride but i will be better for it. i hope that I rode well enough get back on some more epic rides with these guys.

the ride:
duration: 5:22
distance: 94.6 miles with 8500+ ft of climbing
work: 3343 kJ
normal power: 223
avg power: 175 (672 max)
avg heart rate: 151 bpm (190 bpm max)
* I weighed in at 133lbs the morning before the ride.

Palomar comparison.

Old PR: 5.25.2009
duration: 1:11:15
normal power: 251
avg power: 249 (384 max)

New PR: 8.15.2009
duration: 1:07:05
normal power: 267
avg power: 263 (429 max)

so it's been about 2.5 months since i set my "old PR" back in may and the numbers don't lie. i am getting stronger and faster! stoked.

the original plan was to back up Saturday's epic ride with another hard effort on the SART (Santa Ana River Trail). That just wasn't in the cards. Luke and I were pretty shelled after saturday's ride, slater and sean were heading out for a longer day than i could commit to, and ryan was nursing a tweaked hamstring (just like he nurses his beers!) so we decided to bag it and save it for another weekend.

i was kind of stoked because i raced last weekend and have not slept in for a couple of weekends due training and racing. so we ended going out saturday night and having a killer time with some friends and just relaxing. i actually slept until 7am on sunday (late for me) and then headed out for some more mellow road miles. I would have rather of hit the trails but got in another solid 60 miles on the road. my legs felt pretty good. after the ride beth made me a killer brunch and we just relaxed around the house all day... eating. we were both pretty beat from some solid weeks of training.

"recovery" snacks


so yeah... a big week. the biggest ever for me mileage wise. 299.95 miles! I should have spun around the parking lot on saturday to hit 300!

I have another hard week ahead of me, including the first race of the Dirt Dog XC series (it's gonna hurt!).