New year new races new goals

Well I have set forth my goals for 2006. They have absolutely nothing to do with a 150 mile self supported death march or a ride across a state i have never been to. More power to you who will be attempting such things. Some day I will setle down to those types of events, for now I like the pain and suffering of 2-3 hour races. I have done 1 100 miler and 2 50 milers, the 50 milers were a blast 3.5-4 hours at 75% is great, 7-10 hours at 65% is not, for me today at least. So on to the goals.

1. Consistent top 5's in Intermountaincup Races
2. Top 3 overall in Intermountaincup
3. An Intermountaincup win, Chad 'The Bull Elk' Wassmer is moving up to Pro, so I may have a chance.
4. Top 5 at National Championships - this is a crap shoot, cuse you never know who is going o show up, likely some cat 1 roadie whose time would put him in the top 5 of Semi Pro or Pro
5. At least one 5 to 6 hour ride a week . It is all about the base

I just need o stay focussed this year and keep the training consistent. I believe it is all possible. I need to race my race, not anyone elses, if I can pass them, I should pass, if I can't hold them off, let them go, I wish i was 10 years younger and at this level, I may make the upgrade to semi pro if I attain most of those goals, that way I can say I did it before I turned 40, barely.

So tonight we go to Dinner, then a formal party followed by a pajama party followed by a movie/video game party. Um, maybe I will just stay home. Tommorow we skate ski, that way I can remember what it is like to beat myself up, raise my heart rate to dangerous levels and gain very little ground all at the same time. This year I may even keep at it, I mean I bought pants just for it.

I think I will be seeing Alex at the Formal Party, as It is being thrown by the couple I believe he is stayin with, so I can talk about that crazy endurance gene with him.

Whirlwind

Whew, what a weekend. Friday consisted of a trip to Antelope Island to look at Bison. Then a trip to the Gym, I had to up the weights again, ouch is all I can say. Then The sisters man did some assisted stretches for us, lower back and quad work that about killed me, man was I sore on Saturday. Speaking of Saturday, Ty and I hit the road for a bit over 2 hours, it was almost 60, nice base ride. Went and saw Syriana that night, good movie, thought provoking, the inter relation between everything. I think they need to do a movie on the drug companies next.

Christmas day, woke up around 9:30, a theme for the Sister and Boyfriend visit, opened presents and geared up for Snowboarding. The slopes were empty and warm, I had on a tshirt and a shell and thin gloves, Guillermo, the sisters man, started out on the board and decided skis would be better, the sister spent the day on the bunny slope as it was her first boarding experience since 1999 at snowbird. Lyna and I did some easy runs and relaxed. Made nice fresh stir fry in the evening and watched a movie.

Monday was a lazy day, Guillermo and I went and saw King Kong, entertaining. Then we took Janis and G ice skating, i watched as my blisters from the week before were not cooperating.

Had to be at work at 6am today, to be prepared for disaster, which has not come, this afternoon we will head up to Park City for possibly some Tubing.

I need a vacation.

55 degrees

Wow, it was warm today, I heard it was 40 in Miami, it was awesome here. Picked up the sister and her man at the airport last night, and their mini dog. Today we actually hiked 1/2 up Mt Olympus, in an earlier post I was joking about doing that, but it was warm, dry and amazing. A great 'other' workout for all of us.

Went to Diesels birthday shindig tonight, cake and icecream.

Tomorrow is gym day, Saturday a nice ride maybe.

Exhausted an content.

Random thoughts on a few things

There are a few anti doping websites out there today. I am in total agreement with their core message. I understand most of their motivations, I do not, however agree with their tactics and methods.

RaceClean has stated that Todd Wells Dopes, I do not know if he does or doesn't, I don't believe he does, but have no proof otherwise, this site seems to have something, I can see no proof offered other than stating something about his coach, Rick Crawford.

The Dopers Suck website is one I like, it does not play judge and jury, it only reports on those who test positive, straight from news sources. Ofcourse news sources are always Fair and Balanced, like Foxnews, but atleast they are not pointing fingers without any proof.

Stolen Underground, this site was entertaining and the reason Matt DeCanio was fired from the Ofoto Sierra Nevada team last year. It WAS contraversial, It was kind of like a recording of multiple therapy sessions, DeCanio wrote in a sort of stream of conciousness manner, he had one failing in my mind, he accussed people without concrete proof, still and all his intent is pure. Now however his site has gone commercial, it is a coaching service, well a brothers got to eat. He has his anti-doping message on the site in a few places, but it is not the same.

Doping is a scurge on all sports, it creates an unlevel playing field. Cycling in the US has enough issues, mainly access to the under privileged. We do not need this hanging over us. The reality is people will always try and find a way around the rules, ways to win, and edge here or there. I remember a few years ago at the Wolverine Ridge Race which is the Grand Finale of the Intermountaincup series. A Clysedale Rider was DQ'd for cheating, it seems that at some point during the first lap he hid himself in the woods and some time later he turned that into his last lap and 'Won' For gods sake, it is a local race, with the winner getting a prize worth less than the entry fee. It is the clysedale class, which has no big money future, why the hell would you cheat!

Add to the equation the possibilities of millions of dollars, lets say you are Tyler Hamilton, you are decent enough to get on a Euro Pro team, your results are average, your income is OK, but if you put this stuff in your system a few times, at the right time and get away with it, you will make a crapload of money, be set for life, win a gold medal. Hell that is pretty tempting isn't it.

Recreational Drug use has a tendency to lead to addiction, I believe the same holds true for performance enhancing drug use. I believe it is a common practice in most professional sports. I also don't believe the whole Armstrongian 'I've been tested more than anyone' argument. The money is in providing the winning mixture, not the testing of it. I mean Capone gave money to the Chicago PD and no one looked at him as a saint.

Part of me believes that they should just shut down USADA, WADA etc.. and let everyone take whatever they damn well please, A whole lot of people would die and then the next generation will either make safer drugs (I don't think that is possible, drugs are foreign chemicals introduced to a well oiled machine, they cause harm, that is what they will always do) or people will realize, well that just isn't worth it.

Of course I don't use even recreational drugs, my wife has to force me to take aspirin or cold medicine. But I believe Pot, Coke, Heroin, etc should be legalized, I believe this would result in less deaths and better health, but then again I am a pinko commie bastard.

It all goes on like this...

Well day off from working out today, work was good, met with our outsourcing group, all is going well there. UK won on Saturday, it was a good game to see, thank goodness the beat Louisville. I made the mistake at looking at the UK fan board, man some people are never satisfied. I guess that is all they have time to do, I gotta stay off the boards, sometimes it makes me want to post something, then I usually start something.

3.25 months till the first race of the season, I am really looking forward to it. I hope to have a hard tail by that time, I am either getting the Canondale F4000 or the Yeti Arc. The cost is about the same, with that I will likely go with the Cannondale, Cause I gotta tell ya it is all about the LEFTY babie.

Woke up to snow and had to shovl the driveway and side walk before work, then it was like 45 degrees through the day, why couldn't it be that warm on the weekend. One of my general goals for 2006 is to get 4 to 6 hour rides on weekends, It needs to be 45 degrees or the end up being survival experiences for me. How many layers can I put on that will fit in my jersey pocket if I warm up.

1.5 days till Miami invades Utah. The Spare room is done, looks like magazine piture right now, picture in a few days.

Out

Weekend was made for....

Spent most of the weekend working on the spare room, it is done. Whew that hurt a lot, Target and Home Depot are richer and I am poorer. Saturday night we went Ice Skating at the Olympic Oval. It was fun, kind of cool being on the speed skating ice, there was indoor football games going on in the middle and an empty hockey rink. I didn't get any rides in this weekend, I don't mind but i am starting to miss it. The gym was hard today, due to all the house work, but i got through it.

2.5 days till Miami invades Utah.

Office Parties and the like

Last night Lyna and I headed to the Company Holiday, Xmas, Christmas, Pagan Ritual party. She made me, as I am a big boss type, at least 1/2 to 2/3 of the people there report to me, and that freaks me out. Well JV sat with us and 'The Girls' as well as Becker and his wife Anne. The best part of the evening was the 25 dollar Gart Sports gift card raffle prize, would of preferred the IPOD shuffle, oh well. The worst, Being a big boss type I with a few others was called to the front and got to dance the YMCA, with a cowboy hat. Nice, maybe I will call HR.

The painting is progressing, Lyna successfully defended her Thesis, so now she has offered to help. Upped my leg press weights on Wednesday, my legs hurt.

Plan a Temple Quarry trail ride tomorrow. FOr those who don't know, it starts at the Mouth of Little COttonwood canyon and goes up, it will be snowy and I'm sure those headed up the Canyon to Alta and Snowbird will question my sanity, not that that is a new thing for people to do.

Painting and Snowride

So with the sister and her man coming in a week and a half it was decided that we should finish fixin up the back room. I count it as endurance exercise, cause it hurts so much and my heart rate goes up. Painted the ceiling today, Painted it white, but it goes on pink and dries white, that is just weird. Tomorrow I prime the walls, Monday, Paint the walls, Tuesday, Second coat, Wednesday, We need a rug in there, Next weekend upload the bed and other stuff. Damn that is way too much like work.

UK Basketball is begining to remind me of UK football, not so good.

Went for a MTB ride today, from the house to the ZOO on the shoreline trail over to the base of dry creek. The snow was well packed down and all rideable, a few sketchy moments on the steeps, but no worries. It was nice to get out and about

Climbing up from the Zoo

I am quite sure my HR is not supposed to be that high this time of year

Ummmm Tasty Inversion, That is Salt Lake below that muck somewhere

Dry Creek, Elizabeth Smartwas hid up there, we saw her captures regular like while riding this very popular trail, little did we know, my wife was convinced they were spiritual gurus of some sort. Well maybe they are, how would I know. Tomorrow I may ride up them hills and skid my way back down.

I am so Punk Rock

You're a True Punk. You know that punk isn't all
about studded jackets and mohawks. If you're
political, you're actually informed. Most of
the stuff you love is from before the 80s,
though you know bands like Fugazi kept the
spirit going.


You Know Yer Indie. Let's Sub-Categorize.
brought to you by Quizilla

Spin Class

Weight workout followed by a spin class last night. A 30 minute spin class, you gotta be kidding me. 30 minutes hat the heck can you get out of 30 minutes. The instructor, who I nicknamed 'The Screamer' a few years ago, stood in the fron of the class leaning on the bike with her slippers on in in a barely audible manner said, standup, yeah up your resisitance, you are climbing now. Sheesh, good thing i just was spinning at around 145 Bpm on the HR. I could do a better job in my sleep. A few people have asked me to, problem is, it does not match with my training plan at all.

The Sister and her man are coming out for Christmas. For a week, that will be some fun for sure.

It got down to 2 degrees last night, this fellar will not go ride if it is under 25. Just no reason for it.

Sock Monsters

Ok, the first picture is undisturbed evidence. This is what the sock monsters do at my house. I'm telling you it is a regular occurence, daily at least.














One of 2 things happens.

1. if the bike sock drawer in the basement is left slightly open the sock monster will open it the rest of the way and spread bike socks all over the house.
2. If the clean clothes are in a laundry basket in the basement the sock monsters will knock it over and spread the clean socks all over the house.

I am calling these 2 the prime suspects.

The shifty, devious type.














The innocent Eyes














I am sure they are working together in some crazy scheme to take over the world one sock at a time, or maybe they are in cahoots with the dryer. I don't know, but I need to figure it out.

The sister and her man are thinking of a Utah trip for Christmas, This will likely include 4 to 5 days of cardio excercise somewhere in the Wasatch mountains, sister will probably complain about coldness and her man will probably want to climb Mt. Olympus. It will be fun, they may want to head to Moab or southern Utah, nice excuse to go biking in December. We will definatley be snowboarding on Christmas day at Solitude, it is a tradition.

Double Workout Day

So I have to get in 1.5 hours of cardio sometime today, as well as do weights. I did not want to do 1.5 hours on the elliptical or stationary bike, so I went out for an hour ride. Since it looks like this out, i knew it was gonna be chilly.














I rode the old GT ZRX cross bike, I will never ride it in a cross race, but it can handle the elements much better than my 5200. I bundled up quite a bit.

Woolie Bully Socks
Shoes
Pearl Izumi Winf socks
Exte-Ondo - Wind Stopper Fleece lined Bibs with Chamois (worth skipping a mortgage payment for)
REI Capilene long sleeve shirt
Weather Warrior Wind Bib
Fleece long sleeve cycle jersey
Cannondale Convertible jacket
Team Revoluton vest
Swix Lobster gloves
Nike ear band
Helmet and glasses

So i stayed mostly warm, I headed east at first to warm up as it is up hill, then south, mostly flat, when i turned around there was a nice headwind blowing snowfall sideways into my face, well my face was numb and i had to descend back home at some time. I made it home intact.

Last night Lyna and I went to see Aeon Flux. It was entertaining, but I gotta admit, I think the cartoon Aeon is hotter.

Goodnight and Good luck

Saw this movie earlier tonight, a few observations (disclaimer: not bike related and Mcarthy would of fried me due to my leftward leanings, well that is what my conservative father would say).

1. It was in the smallest theatre and the Century 16 in South Salt Lake
2. I was the youngest person there and I am 37
3. One 50'ish couple left in a visible and audible huff about 10 minutes in
4. The movie just ends, nice every now and again
5. The black and white was a bit much, I mean this is the 21st century, right
6. I enjoyed it

From what I understand the movie is true to the actual happenings, I also consider rather timely, it is amazing how history has a tendency to repeat itself. I think there is a message in there for all to hear, make up your own mind, investigate and choose.

Well I think we will get to the bike stuff now. Spent lunch at the shop, it is always amazing the things that you hear there. They had a new Cannondale Road Bike, the six 13 Pro, Dura Ace and retails for 3 grand, they can't be making much on that. I have to ride tomorrow and the snow may mean it is on the trainer, rats, maybe I'll go to the gym again.

out.