Training, new team, and Belgium preperations

After a rest week from my 3 week block that included the California trip, it was back on the bike Sunday for an endurance ride.  The weather was fantastic, about 55-60 and sunny, which is typical for late January to early Febuary, then it will dump on us till May-June.  The weather and upcoming racing season must've prompted people to ride at a ridiculous pace.  Despite the fact that I didn't have legs, I was sitting in the group just fine, taking my turns at the front every now and again.  About 1/2 way into the ride the pace ramps up and I head to the back.  Even though racing in Oregon starts mid February, this is no reason to "light matches" just now.  The season lasts until September, and I'm traveling to Belgium, where I'll need those "matches" in June, so going hard in a non-race environment is exactly what I don't want.

Needless to say I'm at the back of the group having this great mental discussion with myself, when we get to a particular section of the course that is part of the first race in February.  Right when we turned on that road it was as if there was money on some imaginary line, and everyone took off.  Finally getting my bearings I sat up, content with having a "nose breathing" ride home, enjoying the weather.

Ranting aside, I mentioned earlier that I am traveling to Belgium in June to race bikes until September.  Graham, from the California trip, told me he wants to come.  Having an ex-pro racer come on a trip like this, where my ultimate goal is to get a contract is a huge help and resource, not to mention a hell of a fast bike rider!  Graham and I have decided that the best way for us to prepare and travel over there is by creating our own team, just for the two of us, and try to attain sponsorship and support.  Though we would be racing under our own team in Belgium, the autonomy isn't a bad thing as we would be the "unknown" riders, which could ultimately help.




In preparing our sponsorship proposal I've stumbled across a few cool photos during a criterium in August last summer, take a look.

California Training Camp

Two weeks ago I embarked on a training camp in Ojai, CA with Graham Howard and Ross Brody, of my new team based around the local charity Bikes for Buddies.  In addition to Graham and Ross we were joined, or rather we joined, the Willamette University Cycling team.

The drive down was split (unnecessarily) into two parts with a stop in Davis.  Though driving straight to Ojai made more sense, we were able to meet a few of the riders in Davis for a morning group ride on Monday.

After arriving in Ojai and getting settled in, Graham, Ross, and I had 5 uninterrupted days of riding, though I took a break on Thursday, giving me 2+2.  Repeated 4.5-4.75 hour days felt great, especially with the usual 4-5k ft of climbing per ride.  Not a mountain of climbing, but enough to feel it.

One death march in particular found us riding through a loose definition of road, most of it dirt, and overgrown.  Granted we were following one of those little lines on Google Maps, it turned out to be quite the adventure straight over Sulfur Mountain.

Here's Ross and Graham going up the "road"

Saturday being our last day of riding, we went up HWY 33, which the WU boys had been doing all week.  The guys had been doing an out and back on 33, and we did the same, but rather than finish the ride to the 5100ft summit, Graham and I turned around halfway to ride down to the beach and through Ventura for some nice 80 degree weather.  Here's a shot of Ross and I at the halfway point on 33.

After close to 20 hours of great training, we left Ojai at 8pm for a drive through the night back to Salem. As you can see Graham was pretty tired from all of the riding...

Until next time!

2011 Oregon racing

Today marks the end of an intense training block, and starting a rest week. Racing starts in the middle of February, so after this week the training will get more intense, and races will become a part of the training program. During this rest week I'll have some time to update the blog with my bikes and recent California training camp.

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