Top 10

First crit of the year and I got 9th. Not a bad start to the year. It was pouring rain on the way down to Goleta, and it kept up until about 20 minutes before the start. With barely a warm up, I was on the line. Really sketchy out there, and with 8 laps to go the big wreck I'd been waiting for happened. Luckily I was not taken out, but at least 10 other people were. So I think I'm getting used to this road racing, but two weeks out is the first mountain bike race of the year too. Season is on the way.

I Thought This Cali!?

Rain, rain, and more rain. That's what the last 6 days has been. I have been able to get out a few times, but today was the first time in the last 3 that it's been good enough to get out and not worry about fog. I still got wet today, but it was worth it. I was chomping at the bit to get outside. I get cabin fever so easily now that I live out here, you get used to taken the sun 350 days or so a year for granted. Then when it's rainy for a week, I go nuts.

The season for me starts January 30th, the first Crit of the year, Mothballs. I love this race, the course isn't techy at all, so it's going to come down to being patient and looking for opportunities to get away with some people. Not that that happens too much in my Cat. I'm still a lowly old 4, didn't really race enough last year to get an upgrade, but that's going to change this year. I have some good motivation to train and get my points. But it's time to show what I can do on a bike, show myself that is. A few more base rides and then it's time to get the top end going.

Rainy Days

This past weekend was the Giro di SLO, it's a birthday ride on mountain bike around the city's trails, a 50-70 mile ride and lots of climbing. I was planning on doing it, but with rain coming down at 5:45 am when I woke up, I wasn't about to get ready to make the 6:30 am start.

About 7 the rain stopped, I kitted up and hit the route I thought they would go to after the first bit in town. No such luck. I guess the first bit of trails were so wet, it was more like grease than mud. This meant that they skipped the place I thought I would be able to catch them. So I just did my own little ride, 4.5 hrs and some climbing too. I did have a few mechanicals, well a flat tire and a broken chain. All in all not a bad day.

A Chill's In The Air

Today I found myself part of a really great group ride. A usual time that everyone starts around here is 8am. But with the cold I've been holding off until 9 to get a little more warmth for the first hour. Even though this is California, it still gets cold at nigh here, like 28 degrees, but luckily this group of people decided to wait till it warmed up.

We took off from the shop and headed north on the 1 up to 41 and then over the hill to A Town, Atascadero for you non SLOians, and then back over the grade. A solid 3.5 hrs on the bike with a bit of tempo in there. Starting to feel better out there, getting a solid week in at the gym this week, with some running. Got to be in somewhat decent shape for the annual crazy birthday ride next weekend of a buddy, 50 miles or so and tons of climbing, I'll have my Garmin 500 on the bike and will post the details.

So I'm pretty sure that Thanksgiving isn't this warm in Minnesota. On the invite of Chris Stehula, current Collegiate National Tri champ to go south to Los Olivos/Santa Barbara area to ride Little Pine. It's a really awesome climb up a fire road for 10 miles or so, but the view is great. The decent afterwards was epic, one screw up and poof, you're gone.

After four hours, it was a drive back and then put the little bird on the grill and relax the rest of the day. Happy Thanksgiving!

Base

So lucky for me the rain broke this morning so today I started up my base miles for the year. I'm taking a slow approach to this, only 1.5 hours today, keeping the heart rate around 70%. I haven't really had myself on a structured plan in some time and I noticed some of the bad habits I got from riding with people that just want to try to drop you all the time. I find myself tuning out and just start mashing the pedals and then catch myself and chill out a bit.

Some new things I'm trying out are the Garmin 500 and a set of Quarq cranks. The power meter on the crank makes perfect sense, you don't have to worry about swapping wheels for racing or training. It's always there ready to go. So training with power is new for me. I used to train with heart rate only, but having all this tech is cool and hopefully I won't get fixated on numbers and lose sight of the goal here.

It's funny starting up base miles when everyone else that I know is winding their seasons down and starting to nestle in for the winter. I guess that's the Left Coast for ya, everything is completely different out here. But reading others blogs of the racing this year has me pumped up to get out there and give a real go this time around. Still getting my head straightened out, but everything is coming along. Until next time.

Runnin' Barriers

Had fun at the local cross race this last weekend. The SLO Nexus group did a great job with it and made a fun course too.