This morning on my way to work I listened to my first episode of the The Dirtbag Diaries. This episode called “The Reckoning” highlights a 15,000 mile bike ride from the tip of Alaska to the lowest point of Chile and all that happens inbetween. It’s an incredible story.
Late last week I went to sign up for the Xterra Crystal Cove Trail Run on December 16, to find out it is sold out 4 weeks early, what the heck! How can a trail run be so popular to sell out that far in advance? Oh well, I guess I wil let somebody else win.
Dave and I did a 14 mile road spin thru Coto De Caza, home of the The Real Housewives of Orange County. It was pretty cold and by the time Dave was done doing whatever it was he was doing with his bike for 30 minutes we started our ride in the dark. It was a fun spin and gave me a real appreciation for how good of shape Dave is in. He’s like superman with the pecks and dimples.
Post ride we can ate the famous cheesless pizza from Ballpark Pizza and then headed to the 50 Mile Ride meeting at Starbuck’s. It was a good night and Carter was laughing his head off that Dave was trying to steal his pizza.
For more ride info go to: www.50mileride.com
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From Doug Grant, ride founder,
People have been asking “Are you still having your event, even after the recent fires?” And to that we answer ABSOLUTELY YES. We need this event now, more than ever.
Yes, the Santiago fire was devastating to some of our favorite trails – including the Harding Truck Trail - which was our intended “Upper Rwanda” Leg #1. This year, we intend to divert a portion of funds raised in this ride to help with local trail rebuilding. In addition, we encourage all riders to watch for and participate in volunteer trail work opportunities. Our friends at SHARE www.sharemtb.com and Warrior’s Society www.warriorssociety.org will post volunteer opportunities as they become available.
Here’s the GOOD NEWS: We’ve mapped out a NEW ROUTE, and we think it is even BETTER than last year’s! We will offer two ride options, a 50 miler and a 25 miler.
The 50 mile route will start at Cooks, enter the back side of O’Neill, proceed through and out of the park near the RSM lake, proceed to the Dove Canyon waterfall, ride the ridge trails all the way to Caspers. We’ll drop down Star Rise, do kind of a loop that includes Bell Canyon, Oso, Cougar, and East Ridge, at the end of East Ridge we arrive at a parking lot and rest rooms that will be our outermost checkpoint and refueling/aid station. From there we proceed back on Bell Canyon, Sun Rise, Cougar, Oso, Bell Canyon again and climb back out on Star Rise, tracing our route all the way back to the waterfall at Dove Canyon (an aid station will be there as well). From the Dove waterfall, we head back out to what was basically last year’s “second leg”, We will pass the Coto main gate, climb and traverse Chiquita Ridge, head down Tijeras Creek trail to Arroyo Trabuco Trail, turn back to O’Neill, through the park and back to Cooks Corner for the full 50 miles.
The 25 mile route will start an hour after the 50 mile route (approx 8am). This route will be basically the same as last year’s “second leg”. We’re changing a little to avoid some of the water crossings in the Arroyo Trabuco trail and we’ve added some fun single-track as well. To ensure everyone’s safety, please ride with your cell phone.
After the ride join us for a BBQ sponsored by Cook’s Corner and raffle with a ton of MTB give-aways.
A note from my friend Kimberlee.
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Thought this was worth forwarding to everyone.
Kimberlee Staff
P.S. The cameras are back up and running in Limestone and Weir
Canyon and the mother mountain lion and her two cubs all survived
the fires. The babies are about the size of large dogs now –
yikes! Some great news for a change regarding the fires!
This was issued by the Irvine Ranch Water District Management.
Please pass along…
ALL EMPLOYEES:
Employees are advised to drive with extra caution along Santiago
Canyon Road (especially within the burn areas) and to be alert for
deer and other wildlife. Orange County Animal Control (OCAC) stated
yesterday that since the fires, there are on average four (4) deer
per week being struck by/running into vehicles along Santiago Canyon
Road. OCAC stated the shelters and food sources for the deer and
other wildlife were destroyed by the recent fires. For example, last
week, a mountain lion found searching for food near Irvine Lake had
to be euthanized because its paws were badly burned. The County
expects that this particular instance is probably not an isolated
case. According to OCAC, the wildlife is searching for both food and
for shelter. They stated that many of the animals are now homeless
and disoriented and it will take some time before the crisis for the
animals has passed. They are asking that drivers use extra caution
within these burn areas. Orange County Public Works is considering
placing additional signage along the road other than the standard
signs to alert drivers. The fires have taken a devastating toll on
the wildlife and the County is working to do what they can to help
alleviate the problem and they are asking for our assistance.
Please pass this information onto other drivers in your family to
alert them to this situation as well.
Julie and I ordered this yesterday. It’s our big Christmas gift to the family. Amazon.com has it on sale for $168.00, which was to good to resist. Julie and I did a lot of research on what to buy and from what we understand, this is the safest brand/product on the market.
Aunt Alison and Uncle Alex are going to buy Carter’s helmet for Christmas. I’m super exicted to start riding as a family.
For year’s I have walked by the classes at the gym with a mocking grin on my face thinking to myself how dumb everyone is the BO smelling room looked shaking their gluts to a hip-hop salsa beat. I’m not exactly sure what changed my mind to make me try one of these classes, maybe it was my brother-in-law mocking me on Thanksgiving, maybe its the year’s worth of work with little pay off for weight loss, or maybe it’s my need to look like a tool. Either way, I have on the calendar 2 Pilates work outs each week. The focus is the core and my goal is to drop to 180 pounds by March 27, 2008 for my next race.
Weekly training breakdown for December 07 through March 08:
- 2 morning swims
- 2 Pilates classes
- 2 - 3 runs
- 2 - 3 bike rides
It’s a good week, a really good week, goose bumps on your arm type week (or maybe that’s just razor burn on my legs from shaving). I was off work for most of the time and was able to hang with family and still manage to get some training in.
Monday - Disneyland with Carter and Julie. He’s been 5 times in November and can eat a churro by himself.
Tuesday morning - A nice road spin with Bill Daily down Serrano Trail. It was in the 14 mile range.
Tuesday evening - Crazy Dave (the guy is nuts) and I did a 2 hour, 25 mile road ride all over Newport and Irvine. He has a great light that floods the road and scares the critters off the trail. The highlight was sushi with Robbie after. He’s a crack up and kind of looks like Jesus. Dave talks about hitting on ever girl he sees but I’ve yet to see him pull the trigger. Typical.
Wednesday - Errands, oil change, the office and Dan In Real Life with Julie. She gave the movie a 12, I give it a solid 8.
Thursday - We drove 2 hours to Lebec to Julie’s families 100 acre ranch. Carter watched the Incredibles and Monster’s INC on the way. Good movies. The ranch is at 5,200 feet. Alex, Bryan and I did a 10 mile mountain bike ride on some incredible hardly ridden single track. This was by far the highlight of my week and I plan on going back up there soon to ride it again. The turkey was good to. Julie makes a mean homemade apple pie.
Friday - Mellow 14 mile road ride around Rancho Santa Margarita. I stopped in at Rock N Road to fix my bike computer. The wind was whipping. I felt like Dave in a pro Cyclocross race I was getting whipped so bad!
Saturday - Alex and I did a long lap around Aliso Woods. We rode for around an hour and 40 minutes and then celebrated with burritos at Taco Mesa. Later that night Julie and I went to another set of movies, she saw Fred Claus and I watched Beowulf. I give it a 7.
Sunday - Carter and I did a 30 minute run around RSM lake and then played at the park. I then did my first ever Pilates class! Six pack here I come, or never.
Since early October I have been on the road. It has been amazing with hints of drudgery. Traveling is a gift. Put me on the road and I thrive. Add three-hour meetings, hierarchy, tense over-achievers and I forget to smile or say thank you. So before the next trip to the desert begins tomorrow I thought it would therapeutic to get some waves and type out a few pictures.
Sunrise run to the Juarez border through downtown El Paso with day workers passing me heading north; a cold AM hot tub in a Phoenix thunderstorm; a morning walk in Kentucky’s fall colors across a gravel road past a pond reflecting the reds, yellows and oranges of an approaching winter; mid-day taxi cab ride down Las Vegas Boulevard passing through the consumption capital; a lunchtime run next to the Rio Grande in downtown Albuquerque – picking up cactus and scarring my leg; afternoon miles through Monument Valley Parkway and Colorado College; Sunset body surfing with friends on the North Shore; Bronco Greenbay MNF and a Favre 82-yard OT pass; after dinner wine, while Kellen slept, with Chris and Khristine.
Now that is all down on the screen I reflect on how amazing it has been.
Yesterday morning, before I packed my suit for Tucson, I paddled my way through a light crowd at the jetty near where I live. A two-foot wave popped up and I turned my blue single-fin Jacobs towards the shore. Two strokes and I rushed to the nose. Placing my feet over the nose - the jet fumes disappeared and I found myself gliding through.
Not that anyone has ever referred to me in this way but with teaching, parent conferences, and trying to maintain a workout schedule last week, everything seemed like a chore. This weekend was a total release of this balled up tension as I spent a little more than six hours on the bike just cruising putting in some long steady base miles. It was another no-brainer realization that exercise and the outdoors are two of the greatest drugs we can give our bodies.
Get outside, exercise, and release that unwanted Holiday tension that is going to start building or do as I do don’t shop.
Due to the fires whiping out Whiting Ranch, Limestone, Harding Truck Trail and the Modjeska Grade where is everywhere riding? I’ve been in O’Neil Park a lot lately and have noticed tons of additional MTB traffic.
With 25 days of travel in the last 40 days, stress at work, a 16 month old son, commitments to church, family, fires destroying trails, I have felt unmotivated to train. Actually, that’s probably an understatement. During my downtime in November I almost refused to. I’m sure that 90% of the people reading this post can connect with the commitments that I listed. You may have an even worse situation than me. What I find with myself is that the longer I stay away from training, the more difficult it is for me to jumpstart again.
This thought has created a larger conversation in my head. Why do I exercise? Is it because I want to win races, have a 6 pack (sike that will never happen……ever, ever, ever), train with other people, be known as the tri guy, have the privilege of shaving my legs, have great calves, because I love being outdoors, for the adrenaline rush? It’s funny because all of those things make up why I enjoy exercising but it’s one thing that has made me passionate about it and that keeps me going. Deep deep down inside I want to be healthy. I’m passionate about being a healthy person that can live a long life spent with his family. This is my sole reason for training. If training didn’t offer me that benefit I probably wouldn’t do it. I think by nature I’m just to lazy.
To answer my own question I work hard to be healthy. If being healthy is as significant of a motivator as I make it out to be then getting back at it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. I guess we will see. I’m back at it on December 1 in preparation for the Ironman Oceanside 70.3. Hopefully that gives me enough time.
With the cold weather coming the purchase of a new beanie just felt right.
The North Face Soma Swirl Beanie - Women’s
I picked up mine in brown. Little did I realize that it’s a woman’s beanie. Oh well, it looks good on me
In light of the Orange County fires it feels all the more necessary to continue on with the 50 Mile Ride. So yes to answer all of the questions, the ride is still on. If you would like to volunteer to help with the ride please comment on this post and I will contact you back. If you haven’t signed up for the ride yet please do so by going to http://www.50mileride.com. 99% of the money that we raise goes to ProjectRwanda.org.
Get involved and come and have a good time with 500+ other riders!
This past weekend racing cross was fun, yet frustrating with mechanical problems in both races. The first was in the single-speed race as I was doing well and on my last lap, my chain decided to jump off my singleator (better change that product review) and cog, leaving me on the side of the course putting my chain back on and moving back to 4th place.
The second was the better of the two. I was doing well in the race and as I came around on my second to last lap my seat post snapped. I went into the dry creek bed portion of the course and came up the other side a little to fast smashing my genitals against my seat, which caused the post to snap from the force of my pelvic thrust.
The result of my thrusting was me leaping off the bike like a cat being hit with water as I flew about eight feet into the air. After a short rest, rubbing my boys and picking up my saddle. I remounted my bike carefully to finish the race (18th yes!).
I don’t mind losing but I hate Mechanicals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m on the tail end of an 8 day trip to St. Louis currently sitting in the Denver airport for a layover. It’s been a long trip with lots of late hours and crappy hotel meals. For the company I work for it was a success, for me it was difficult.
My lack of self control becomes apparent when traveling. Because of the work hours required its next to impossible to exercise and even more difficult to eat right. For some reason junk, fat guy food is really easy to find. I know I would be fine if I ate right and still did not exercise. The consequence for me is weight gain and lack of energy, even though in the moment the snack “seems” like it would help.
Tonight Julie is picking me up at the airport and I can’t wait to see her and Carter. 7 days is way to long to be gone (oh wait, I have to do it again next week). I’m excited to have 5 days of being normal and I plan to go on a recovery run tomorrow afternoon if the air is good.
A few weeks back Alison and I and our wonderful team Kiss My Mud consisting of Kendra, Jason and Stacy (all friends of Alison and I) competed in the Camp Pendleton Mud Run at Lake O’neil near Oceanside, CA.
The Mud Run race was on Saturday, October, 20th at 8 am.
Mud Run details:
10k with a part of the run called suicide hill
Multiple obstacles including (3) mud pits and slippery hill.
The race was so great, it was well organized, fun and it was challenging! It is definitely a run that everyone needs to experience!
P.S. Updates will be coming in on the latest race Alison and I competed in which was a Bike/ Run called Muddy Buddy, I think you can see a theme going!
