Glad I'm Not There

I've been officially out of the Marine Corps for 3 years (4 years from end of active service). Every time I see a video clip of the fighting going on in Iraq it makes me so very thankful to be out of the service. I couldn't imagine the stress of being in a combat zone. Being in a combat situation (real or exercise) is similar to being in jail. You're told what to do and when to do it. There's hardly any free time, and there's no excuses of why you can't get something done. It's tough, both mentally and physically.


Army Live Footage From Iraq - Watch more free videos
Watching this video really makes me glad I was lucky enough to dodge the "activation" bullet. The whole time during the troop build-up for Operation Iraqi Freedom I was in a state of purgatory. I had no clue if I was going or not. Every time my phone rang I thought it my be my unit telling me to "pack my trash and report for duty".
The worst part was not knowing what's going to happen. Being unable to plan your future leaves you feeling anxious and scared. Luckily I never received the call to active duty. I was able to get out about six months later when they ended "Stop-Loss". I was even luckier to get completely discharged, honorably, about a year later, which removed my name completely from any lists for possible call-up.
My unit ended up being called-up for deployment three months after I was out of the Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR).
I'm not sure if my unit suffered any causalities. All I know is my close friends made it home safely, but not before having there whole view of life and the World changed drastically.
So when I see videos like the one above I am thankful. Thankful to be home, and thankful to be able to do what I want when I want. This mindset helps me get out the door on hard training days. Whenever I'm feeling lazy or in a funk I think to myself how I could be in some foreign country acting as a bullet sponge for our Politicians, with no idea when I will be able to come home or if I will ever make it home. This usually gets my ass out the door and on my bike.

Those Crazy Japanese

This is the craziest movie trailer I have ever seen. It's so over the top I'm not even sure it's not a joke. Check it out for your self.

Rock Star does it again

The new GTA4 trailer is out and it looks like it's going to be an awesome game. Hopefully it will be better the last one.
The graphics look amazing, or at least the cut scenes look amazing.




I wonder how many times it will be pushed back.

A cold day of riding

I had a really good weekend of riding. Saturday started off really cold (High 30's is considered really cold to a Californian native). I made sure to put on a lot of layers, including a full face mask, and I finally got to use my thermal vest.
I met up with the P1/2 team and rode with them around the Polhemus loop. The ride was at a "social pace". People still went for the town-sign sprints, but for the most part the pace was pretty moderate. I made sure to sit in as much as possible and shoot the shit with as many people as possible.
Once we got back to Woodside we split up. Most of us headed up Kings Mtn., bypassing Huddart park :( . I kept a steady zone 4 pace for most of the climb. I was the first to the top, but I'm sure if anyone else could have caught me easily if they wanted.
From there we took 32 to 84E. I was suffering on 32. My legs were starting to fatigue, but not to the point where I would have been dropped.
On Sandhill Rd. I was almost dropped. I was taking a pull and started to fatigue. Everyone passed me pretty quickly on the downhill and my legs didn't have much "pop" left to jump on the train. Lucky for they hit a red light.
The rest of the way home I maintained a zone 2 effort. My legs were just about done at the 3:45hr mark. I'm sure if I had done a better job of fueling during the ride my legs would have felt better. Fueling is something I really need to work on.
By the end of the day I ridden for 4:15hrs and 80 miles. Not bad for a quiet Saturday.

BASP#4

This was my third CX race of the season. Originally I wasn't looking forward to doing this race. My last race, BASP#2, was horrible. I had been sick the week before the race, and wasn't able to maintain the intense efforts during the race. That race left me with a really negative feeling towards CX. However, yesterday's race changed all of that.
I decided to race in the A's, that way there was less pressure to podium. The first thing I noticed when I lined up for the start was the small size of the field, only 44 racers.
The start of the race was a little bit sketchy. Someone locked up there brakes during the hole shot sprint; then racers were going too hot into turn number one and pushed a lot of people wide into the course tape. After the initial chaos I settled into a good rhythm and started passing people. I moved my way up to the middle of the pack, continuing to pass people, but then my peddle hit a root and sent me flying off my bike.
I imagine my crash looked pretty funny because I was just riding along and then all of a sudden I'm bucked off my bike. Well I pop up and start to get ready to mount my bike when I'm stopped by shouting spectators telling me my chain was off. It was off in a way I've never seen before. Luckily a spectator helped me get it back on, allowing me to get back into the race, but not before being passed by numerous people. It took a while, but I started to get back into a rhythm. Once again I started to pass some people who had passed me during my crash.
I was doing well getting back up towards the middle of the pack, until I crashed - again. This time I went down in a sandy section. This did me in. I was passed by a lot of people while I tried get my chain back on.
Throughout the remainder of the race I had some mechanicals (my rear quick release came loose - twice), but I managed to stay upright. Even though I ended up 39th of 44 I had a ton of fun. It really rejuvenated my CX racing spirit. Now I'm looking forward to the last race in the BASP series. I'll be racing the A's again :)

The "Non-Competitive" season

Well I'm still at it. Training for the '08 season. It's somewhat disheartening to not be as strong of a rider as I was during the racing season. It's much more of a struggle to get up hills. My lungs can handle it, but my legs get tired more quickly than during the racing season. It probably doesn't help I haven't been doing much climbing during my training rides.
Almost all of my training is done on flat/rolling terrain. I guess we're trying to build/maintain my aerobic engine. The strength work will come closer to the start of the season.
I guess it's not reasonable to try and maintain my fitness all the way through the non-competitive season through to next season. I would get burnt out, and I've already been close to burn-out once this month. It doesn't matter if I can kick-ass on the bike now, it only really counts during races.
Speaking of races, I have my first CX race in over a month this Sunday. I'm not too excited about it. I don't know why. I had a blast last year, but for some reason I'm not getting that into it this year. It's probably because I didn't train last year, I only raced.
Maybe my experience would change if I could hydrate during the race. My mouth gets so dry that I start mentally breaking down. I'm going to try to carry a small flask of fluids during this Sunday's race and see how things go. Speaking of which I need to get my CX bike ready for this weekend.

Road to recovery

After four days of being sick I'm finally starting to feel close to 100%. I rode my bike for the first time yesterday after being off my bike for three days. I felt really week. I'm hoping I didn't lose too much fitness.
I mostly noticed the loss of fitness when I was riding up HWY 9. I thought about riding up to Skyline, but decided to not chance it and went down at Redwood Gulch. Overall the ride went well, minus the flat tire, and it felt good to be back on the bike.
We'll see how I do today. I'm doing a 3.5hr ride with attacking sprints every 15minutes. I'm not really looking forward to the long ride, but the sprints will help break things up a bit.

Oh Where, Oh Where Have My Legs Gone?

My past two workouts have been garbage. On Tuesday I was able to do the minimum my workout required, but I was in a mental "funk". There was a lot of negative self talk during the first set of my intervals. The fact I was riding an 11-23 cassette on a steep climb probably didn't help much either. I think that contributed fatiguing my legs.
Another contributing factor was the previous day's strength session. It was the first time I have done a gym workout in over 1.5yrs and it really made me sore. That coupled with the two races I did this past weekend really drained my legs. I only hope my legs recover enough for this weekend's long rides. I have three 4hr + rides with lots of climbing scheduled for Fri, Sat, and Sun.
Getting back to the previous day's trainings, I haven't felt like this in a long time. Granted, I only started a structured training schedule a month ago, but I still don't like it. I don't like this feeling of not having any power in my legs. I also don't like not being able to complete a quality workout. It makes me feel as if I'm letting my coach down. I've been really strong up until this week, and now I can hardly ride at threshold for 6 minutes. Something is definitely wrong with my legs.
My legs were so weak yesterday I couldn't complete the minimum amount of prescribed intervals. I did two instead of 3 sets of 1-3. Oh well, at least I wasn't in my mental "funk".
As I write this my legs feel better. I'm looking forward to my recovery ride today. No pressure to complete intervals. Just a nice relaxed ride for time.
I'm somewhat nervous about my long rides because they are going to be done with some strong riders, and as I said before, up until now I have been thought of as a strong rider. Hopefully I can continue the facade throughout the weekend. Even if I don't it's not a big deal. It's training for God's sake, not a race. Racing is what counts. As long as I can continue to have good results I'll be happy.
I can't expect to have perfect workouts all season long. There will be crap workouts, and there will be high quality workouts. I still have five months of racing to train for, so two days in the "Valley" (low point) isn't a big deal.
Tonight I will get focused and relaxed for my hard workouts this weekend. I need to remember, it's only training, not racing. I'm not trying to show off how strong I am. I'm out there training for ME, to make myself stronger so I can continue to win races.