On a Sunday...

Sunday group rides.  A time where you can meet up with riding buddies and do a longer ride to see how your training is going and see where others are at.  Group rides are usually supposed to be good paced rides where everyone practices doing pulls,  rotations, echelons and other tactics that you can use during a race.  All awesome things on paper... but in reality... these rides usually turn into short races..... and by usually I mean always!!!

 Here is a little snippet of a magazine article I was reading on how to get back into racing condition....lol I guess it's a known problem everywhere and human cycling nature.  Well this Sunday ride was no different.  Went out with the elites this week and I knew like always it would be a nice fast paced ride.

 On this ride there were attacks, rotations and breakaways all of which we reacted on cue and performed very well.  Towards the end of the ride Billy and I started a break away and hit it pretty hard.  Another friend Oscar and another rider came along with us and we started pushing hard.  At first I felt as the other two were giving up thinking that they were convincing themselves why kill themselves and work so hard thinking that we were going to get swallowed up by the chase group anyways.  I took it on myself to motivate the group and told them lets pick it up, I felt good.  So I picked up the pace.  In a actual race situation the breakaway is supposed to share equal amounts of pulling time, no one cyclist pulls longer than they are supposed to.  My goal was to just not get caught so I pulled for around 3 minutes then rotated through the others to do another long pull about a minute later. I was alright with that, I knew the others were in pain, always think its funny when I hear one guy yelling "PULL!!"  and in a pain felt voice the reply is "I CAN'T" lol.  Well our breakaway worked out.  Later I found out that the chase was slowed down by a couple of red lights but hey WE GOT THERE FIRST LOL....  One thing we need to work on is tactics.  Later while talking to Segio about why he did not come with us I found out that he did not want to follow us because he as well thought we would be caught anyways.  Well thats good but one mistake he made was that he is on our team and he said that he was doing 29 mph pulls in the chase group.... so he actually wanted our team to lose?  No... I think he just did not realize what he was doing... But next time we all know if we are stuck in the peleton and our guys are up front riding hard, your job is to slow the group down or just not help at all, let others get tired or not even try to chase...  All in all it was an awesome ride. Ended the ride with an awesome breakfast and smack talking like always.  I think it's kind of funny how we talk so much trash to our buddies when all we did was act like douches and busted our butts on a training ride lol...

I also noticed that my 2 week old tire is giving birth... Whore!! lol

The mancave....

And I present to you the new mancave. Well just another room where we can use trainers, clean and fix our bikes. Got to make it like a mini bike shop with all the gear organized. Still working on it but little by little it will look better. Hehe

RACE Season is upon us...

 It's almost here.  The years race season is almost at our reach...am I ready... well lets just say I'm at a better position than I was last year so...yes in a way.  Am I at the point where I want to be....No.  I got work to do. Right now I'm a little heavier than I was at the end of last race so I know and have been trying to work on that.  Basically its because I have not been riding everyday like a used to but that will change. It has to change. I have worked so hard to get to this point that in the coming weeks I will give it 100%.  No turning back now.  Everyone else is getting better, there is no option if I want to compete with the thinner guys.

Cyclist Hospitalized After Being Struck by Car...

Cyclist Hospitalized After Being Struck by Car

Looking at the that picture it is a miracle how he could have just a couple broken ribs.  Manny is part of our cycling group and this could have been any of us.  It's crazy out there and you can do everything right but you never know how the others are doing.... we can only pray and hope for the best, no matter how hard we try to be safe anything can happen...  

Cold GO AWAY let me ride....

Another day on the trainer. This time we distracted ourselves by watching the waterboy. Come on warm weather, let me ride.

We need to get out there and RIDE!...

Got in one good 45 mile ride this week before the weather turned horrible again today.... THIS IS KILLING ME!!! We need to get out there and ride! Think and hope that this is the last cold front for this year.  We got a 100 mile ride next week so thats something to look forward to...  I remember last year it was hot and it is call the Jalepeno 100 because of the heat, so I'm stoked for the warm weather. I remember when I was fat and lazy, I prayed for the cold weather, now I despise it!

The real training begins NOW...

How do you get better when everyone around you gets better, the never ending battle of reaching the top.  Everyday that you don't train there is someone out there giving it all they got.  The past couple of months we have not given it the 110% that we needed to because of the weather and holidays.  Weather has killed so many miles that we could have and should have done.  But there are no excuses now. TODAY I got to start up again.  I pulled out my caloric intake app and I'm ready to start counting calories again.  The only way to really lose weight is to count the calories.  That way you know what you are putting in and see how much you have to work off.  Got to put in more miles.  Got to wake up early again and ride.  Got to stop eating so much.  SO MANY GOT's Now on to the do's.  

Taking off on the TT.

Billy riding very strong. Came in 2nd place on TT overall,  TARGET #1

Serg.    Thats all.

Cindy trying out her first TT.  Now she knows what she needs to do

Second one out, First one in!

Individual Time Trial...Get Faster Every Time...

26:58  Not a bad time to post on the first time trial of the year. A number that I know I can and will improve on. It's a baseline on where I am at at this moment, and shows what I need to do to get to the next level. Beast Mode ON!

Keep on training...

 RIDE RIDE RIDE.....  TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN....  well what is there more to say about this morning.  I am in training mode.  Have been for the last year.  Going out there every chance we get.... taking advantage of the good weather,  getting better every day.  These guys are the guys I ride with everyday.  You need people like these to keep you motivated on achieving your ultimate goals.. You have to have your support system, when one slows down the other will push harder.

We went out for an hour ride that turned out to be 3 hours. Enough said.  Get out there and ride!

Sunday club ride or race?...

Came out ready to ride today. Felt like a beast. My heart rate was steady, my legs had power, I was in the zone. Last Sunday I got dropped three times and I was ready to prove myself today. So off the elites went and me and Billy went out for the beating along with them. Today from the beginning looked as if it was gonna be a torture fest that I was willing to endure. Well was having a great ride felt good, was not even breathing hard, and all of a sudden I hear my bike making clunking noises. My freewheel hub locked up. I was in fixie mode and if I slowed my pedaling the chain would snag and fly off crank. Scary. Well took it in easy and was glad that that's all that was broken.


Billy did great today. Getting stronger and stronger everyday. Getting out there and riding makes a big difference and he has the advantage of being young. He can get faster in a shorter amount of time. He too was a little larger before and is another example that hard work and eating right will make you a healthier and fitter person.