24 Hours Round the Clock pre-ride

Tony Bravetti, Jesse Nofziger, Aaron Griffith and I headed over to Spokane, WA for the big deal this weekend.

After setting up camp we headed out for a lap of the course and it was like no mountain bike course I have ever ridden. One word: FAST.

core

Made it to the gym today but that was it. Oh well, I'll just call this a rest prior to my race this weekend.

Last week (or was it two weeks ago?) core felt great, this week it sucks. Me no get it.

treadmill run | cardio

Another slooooow day. I think the rain is bringing me down.

Once I got to the gym this morning my run felt quite taxing, not sure what's up with that. It was difficult to breath at first and it took a solid 10 minutes for my body to stop freaking out about the effort and to settle down. After that I was fine. In fact, the longer I ran the better it felt. I guess 30 minutes just is not very long to figure shit out.

On the upside my right hamstring did not do anything today. Nice.

At lunch I went down to the IMA for some cardio. It was agonizing getting going but then once again I felt fine after about 10 minutes.

Not my day I guess.

treadmill run | core

I took yesterday off because I deserved it. :)

Since the forecast was for rain today I planned in advance NOT to drive down to Pacific Raceways and so hit the gym this morning for a nice, little jog. How did it feel? Like it's been too long since I ran. :( Oh well, that will come back and no doubt next year when I try to focus on running I will end up jonesing to ride my bike. Such is life.

My weight is WAY up. Damn.

Core was really hard.

Today was discouraging.

my own personal Rocket Ride

I met Gabe Templeton and Travis Dougan for a social outing today. The weather (and my legs!) were not as stellar as yesterday but hey, it was dry. For a short while anyway. Today we decided to ride the HSP Rocket Ride route - albeit at a less than Rocket Ride pace - as this loop is super scenic.

Here is an abbreviated (cuz I'm beat) summary of what transpired.

• Riding to Log Boom Park I'm thinking, "Hey, it's pretty warm out! I could have left this vest at home."
• I take my vest off.
• As I sat down at the park to wait for Gabe and Travis I got sprinkled on. What…?!
• We took off and after Norway Hill met Tony Bravetti who professed to be just as tired as I was from our MTB race yesterday but then proceeded to drill it up Hollywood Hill.
• I get another nose bleed. WTF? This sucks.
• As we climbed it started to sprinkle (mist?) again.
• On the descent Tony turned off and went home. Whew.
• In the Carnation Valley Gabe went to the front and pulled at about 25 mph for about five miles.
• Gabe has a fancy rain bike with fancy fenders that I saw a lot of during this stretch.
• Gabe imploded.
• The mist becomes a light rain.
• I put my vest back on.
• Travis and I start dropping Gabe on every little incline.
• My hands start getting cold.
• We drop Gabe off, I drop Travis off and suddenly I'm faced with 15 miles of solo riding to get home. Did I mention that I'm wet, cold and filthy dirty?
• I almost pull over to have a good cry.
• There is some organized ride that goes from Redmond to Seattle and back on the trail and I am like a salmon swimming up stream heading home.
• I manage to man up enough to not stop riding.
• AS I get close to the UW it warms up about two degrees.
• My spirits lift some and as the distance left to cover gets to be less than five miles I feel like I can do it.
• I get home and can't unbuckle my helmet unless I use two fists to compress the buckle.
• I clean my bike, wash my clothes, shower, eat some food and pass out.

That was what they call a 'tank emptier' for sure.

Stottlemeyer 60 MTB Race

My season started today.

Everyone has their "A" races and for me in 2012 it's the NW Epic Series (put on by 4th Dimension Racing).

I used to mountain bike a lot. For some reason that tapered off dramatically some years ago. I guess road and track took center stage and you can only do so much on any given day that the weather is nice. But then two years ago I lost some of my enthusiasm for the track and then last year I entered these races on a whim. What a blast!

ASIDE - this series has a short course option and a long course option. Of course I opted for the long course. :)

The Stottlemeyer 60 was a bit of a rude introduction to mountain biking when I rode it last year for sure as it's quite technical (and I bit it twice!) but the rest of the series was tons of fun and today I had a MUCH better day than last year. Talk about night and day.

BIG FAT RETRACTION

How does one even do this? Once you post something it's out there and in a very real way you can never take it back.

Tuesday I said that, "Dave threw a hissy fit" and I was straight up wrong. Turns out he was just expressing some personal frustration regarding being able to get in the type of workout he wants at Pacific Raceways and I made the bone head maneuver of taking second-hand info as gospel.

This just goes to show that:

• Martin has a big mouth.
• Martin is no journalist (one with ethics anyway).
• Positive statements are good, negative statements are bad.

Dave has got to be one of the most upright people I know and does pretty much everything that he does do on principle meaning for a reason. I so admire that.

My errant comment - regardless of how it was meant - severely impacted a very important friendship and for that I am very sorry.

core

Man, all I felt like riding today was a couch! I made it to the gym but that was all she wrote. No cardio, no run, no ride. I'll just call this the taper for the weekend. :)

I barely even made it to the gym! Once again I dorked around for way too long after waking up and almost ran out of time. I had to blaze through my core workout ultra fast and I was really out of breath at the end. But I did it.

(long) commute

This morning I turned my alarm OFF in hopes of getting some decent shut eye. It sorta worked.

It was sunny out so I wanted to ride! I also figured I would attend the Ride of Silence after work which is for a great cause. But all did not go as planned and here is what Martin learned today.

• As fun as my Town Bike is to ride, 29 miles is a bit much and I was ready to call it quits at around 25.
• It got kind of breezy later in the day and me in my sleeveless shirt (trying to maximize that UV exposure dontcha know) was getting cold.
• The Ride of Silence is a great idea but lacks something in the execution. I'm not sure how a bunch of slow moving cyclists with no signage or news coverage holding up traffic will do anything to bring awareness to the issue of bicycle accidents in traffic? I had every intention of participating but then when I realized I was getting chilled and the 'ride leader' asked us all to move way over there so he could speak (which would make me even colder) I bailed and went home. Plus I was starving.

cardio | commute | Pacific Raceways

The last time I went for a run I got sore. Doing some zero-impact cardio the next day seemed to help so I did it again. This time I was not nearly as sore (my run yesterday was mostly on dirt and I wore my Hoka Combo XT shoes) but why mess with a successful routine?

I have NOT been sleeping enough and I suspect it will catch up to me tonight. Yikes. Of course last night was voluntary sleep deprivation because I went to the best f'ing concert I have attended in years - Rammstein were in town! One word: AMAZING. I took my lame-ass camera along and got some pictures and video but they don't do the show justice.

In other news the weather is still KICKING ASS which is just fine with me. Any time I hear someone complain about cramps or that it's too hot (it will come, trust me…) I feel like slapping them. And telling them to think back just one or two months. We NW natives need to relish the summer weather that we get. I for one am going to do that every damn day it's warm and dry.