Monday, December 31st, 2007
Julie, Carter and I spent the night at the Rancho Santa Margarita Community Center at their outdoor New Year’s Eve party. Julie and I followed Carter as he walked, painted, danced, coughed, ate Italian shaved ice, played with Luke and walked some more. The highlight of the night was the BMX demo.
Carter loved watching the dudes jump their bikes. Sick!
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Monday, December 31st, 2007
They claimed a 127cm base (50’’)….and as my ski bases will tell you, “NOT A CHANCE!” Rocks everywhere, grass and other shrubbery poking up all over the place.
The irony is that the runs with good coverage and fun terrain were all CLOSED! In fact there was a black with untouched powder right below one of the lifts but as with all the other blacks it was roped off. What to do: Follow the rules toward a mundane existence or break them risking the consequences but reaping the rewards?
As you can probably guess, we ducked the ropes and began ripping the best snow of the day! Ski patrollers yelled at us from the lift but we took solace in the praises coming from the skiers and boarders who thanked us for opening up the floodgates. As we rode the lift back up about 25 people had followed suit!
Greediness doesn’t pay off though as we took a second run only to run into the red jackets and get our passes clipped….only half way, the next infraction would lead to the boot.
Fitting for a resort that didn’t quite live up to our expectations.
If you go: Try the Bugaboos Bakery Café. Solid.
Brandon Groza
outsideallday.com Contributor
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Over the last week Julie and I have had several conversations about our new year’s resolutions. We broke them down by these categories.
- Spiritual
- Family
- Health/training
- Friendships
- Work
- Fun
I’ve listed out each of my goals in my journal and plan on checking in on them pretty regularly. Below are a few of my health/training goals for January.
January 2008:
- No soda for 31 days (diet or regular)
- Lose 1 pound each week. My goal weight on February 2, 2008 is 185 pounds.
- Work out 5 days a week for a total of 15 hour or more.
There’s no better time than the new year to start fresh with excitement for things that we want to accomplish. If you can take 30 minutes at Starbuck’s sometime this week I would recommend thinking through what you want to focus on in 2008. I know that one of Dave’s goals in 08 is not being afraid of girls.
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Monday, December 31st, 2007
My friend Doug Grant and event co-founder of the 50 Mile Ride summed up the day very nicely with his email to all of the particaipants below. The day was incredible! Make sure to click on the photo link below. Scott Kennedy and his team took AMAZING shots.
Andy B
outsideallday.com
—————–
Hi gang!
On behalf of our 50 Mile Ride for Project Rwanda organizing team, I want to thank you for making this year’s event really special. Because of your participation and support, we raised over $32,000 for Project Rwanda this year! And we had almost 100 more riders than last year - we had 343 fun-loving people out enjoying the ride.
We heard lots of great comments about the ride and about the new route. The fires and rains changed our plans a few times this year – so it was encouraging to hear that we may have put together a winner. Many thanks to Roger Toubeaux and Mark Nichols and the rest of our route planning team for all their hard work. And a great big thank you to Andy Brazelton and his terrific team of volunteers. They did an awesome job of feeding and encouraging our riders all along the route. Thank you, volunteers!!! You’re the best!
I want to give a HUGE thank you to all of our event sponsors this year. Over $10,000 in raffle prizes – including our grand prize Ellsworth Ride bike from Ellsworth and Mazda USA – plus tons of other prizes from every one of our local bike shops and bike industry companies. What a generous group! PLUS we received a ton of support from sponsors such as Arrowhead Water, Bonk Breaker, Motor Tabs, Squirt Lube, Panda Express, Geoladders, Sho-Air, and Dr Julie Malley of Trabuco Hills Chiropractic – who all contributed to our success. Thank you also to Cooks Corner, our event hosts, for helping us all to feel welcome and for contributing BBQ proceeds to our cause. And a great big thank you to Mark Malatesta and Hoss Technical Gear for donating all of our cool event tee-shirts – we will wear them with pride this year! Thank you Dave Sheek and Chris Miller and Mark Jacobsen for rallying such terrific sponsor support for our event.
Special thanks also to Chris Vargas and Joe Lopez of the Warriors Society, for donating their time, their talents, and their resources to contribute to the success of our event. Their “behind the scenes” efforts in radio and logistics support helped our event run safely and smoothly.
We had Scott Kennedy Photoworks out at our event all day, and they took some great shots. Please check out their web site today, you’ll see yourself in living color (photos are organized by your bike number plate sequence). Scott is donating a portion of his proceeds back to Project Rwanda – so order some keepsake photos today!
http://www.kennedyphotoworks.com/50mileride.com.html
We’re hoping to do this event again – there’s a lot of people that would like to see our 50 Mile Ride become an annual event. If you’d like to help us plan or volunteer for next year’s ride – please send me an email. We WELCOME all the volunteers and support we can get. Please also reply and let me know if you have any other suggestions or feedback. We’re new at this event planning stuff – and we want to get better at it every year.
Thanks again for all that you did to make our event successful. Have a safe and sane New Year, and we’ll see you on the trails!
Monday, December 31st, 2007
Friends,
I have to apologize for the lack of posting lately. With the holidays, 50 Mile Ride and my computer being out of commission for a few days it’s good to be back and sarcastic as ever.
Thanks for your support of the blog going into 08. Please make sure to click on our sponsor banners and recommend sites! Your support of our sponosors is what allows us to keep this thing going.
Happy new year!
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
Check out the outside temp this morning on my way to swim practice.
Solid work out this morning with lot’s of peeps in the water. Dave and I are meeting at 9:30 this morning to ride Irvine Park. Right now I’m waiting at Starbuck’s for Doug Grant to talk last minute details for the 50 Mile Ride.
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
As winter sets in it’s difficult to get outside to climb but the gym provides warmth, challenge, comraderie, and tendon busting intensity. Here are a couple workouts that are fun and also beneficial to things like power and strength endurance.
Add On. This is a great game to play with three to six people. The first person hops on the wall using one hand hold and any feet and makes a move in any direction holding the hold he moved to for two seconds. The next makes that move and adds one of his own reaching his hold a holding it for two seconds as well (to show he has the ability to move off of that hold).
This pattern continues with only one rule: if you fall at anytime, you are still in but have lost the right to add moves to the end of the climb. Works best with traverses.
Burnout. Pick a couple partners (the more the merrier as you’ll be able to rest longer – but not too many as you actually want to get something out of it!) and a short climb, two grades below your max onsight. Climb the problem as smoothly as possible until your partners decide your effort wasn’t clean enough or you fall, and then you are out. Variation: 4Xs – pick the same climb and climb it four times. Focus on smooth purposeful movements.
Up Downs. Pick a climb well within your range and climb it from start to finish to start. Stay in control the whole time avoiding “falling” onto holds on the way back down. Move “statically”.
Remember to drink plenty of water, warm up properly and take full advantage of rest. More climbers injure themselves at the gym than anywhere else.
Brandon Groza
outsideallday.com Contributor
Friday, December 21st, 2007
This sale just hit my inbox.
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Friday, December 21st, 2007
I didn’t want to wake up this morning. My bed was warm, my eyes were still tired and the wind was howling. My bed just sounded better. But, I got up and was in the water by 6 am. I began the work out with 6 laps on the pull buoy and transitioned to the kick board and fins for a few form building laps. From there 12 laps, back to the kick board. Then 14 laps, back to the kick board and some pull buoy laps. Finished off with 20 laps (.25 miles). The big moment for me this morning came with my breathing. I didn’t feel spazzy and jerky but instead smooth. All of my laps were slow to focus on form.
Thanks to Alison and Alex for my new kick board. It floated a fat man well.
I love coffee after swimming!
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Friday, December 21st, 2007
A friend sent this email from Georgia Gould, US National Mountain Bike Champion (Team Luna Bar) as she is expressing her concern for equality in sports (Cycling) with her petition:
“Hi Everyone-
Please sign my petition for equal prize money for the top-5 men and women in UCI races. Thanks, and spread the word!”
-Georgia
Link to the petition: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/equalpay/petition.html
I have heard and read a lot of conversations about equal prize money for women before but in the worlds of Surfing and Snowboarding. The bummer is it is always a controversial topic. Competitors or event promoters (men generally) remark with comments such as, Women generally have less competitors at a competition… I specifically remember reading one article with a professional snowboarder who said, “When they can go as big as the guys they can have the same…”
This is an interesting conflict so I have attached the link to the petition for those who want to get involved or if you are interested in reading a recent interview with Georgia and Velo News click the link.
Velo News: Pay Day: A conversation with Georgia Gould
-DSheek
Don’t hate me. I still can’t go as big as the women…
Friday, December 21st, 2007
My biggest hold ups are not commitment to training, skill, fear of pain or time management. Although, each of those are valid reasons to be a slacker. My most significant hold up is food, good food, bad good, coffee, Vitamin Water, Diet Pepsi, over eating, too many meals, nice steak dinners, Golden Spoon, In In Out, Pizza Friday’s, snacks, gifts from people…FOOD!
I feel like I’m in a funk and I can’t get out of it. January 1 is a new day and I need to get there badly, being fat sucks and dragging extra fat through the water is even more sucky.
Swimming tomorrow morning in the rain,
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Thursday, December 20th, 2007
I received a gift card for Christmas and picked up this light last night. I’m looking forward to giving it a try out tonight!
Petzl Tactikka Plus LED Headlamp
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
On Sunday Dave and I ventured into Holy Jim canyon to ride Holy Jim trail. We started from my house at 7:30 am and I expected to return by 11 am or so. Little did I know that Dave was taking me on a 26 mile epic journey into the pit of hell. It didn’t help that it was 45 degrees. The first 3 miles of the ride is on a boring dirt road through Holy Jim canyon with a slight uphill grade. I think it was the peanut butter toast that was not sitting well but as we rode I received a sharp shooting pain in my right butt cheek. It was a unique pain and it felt like it was located smack dab within my right cheek. The pain was so great that I had to walk my bike to the Holy Jim parking lot to have a conversation with Mr. Porto Potty. This ordeal set us back by 45 minutes butt after I was good to go. Time well spent and Dave entertained me with his long tangent driven stories that I’ve grown to love. I’m glad it wasn’t a hemorrhoid.
From the parking lot you quickly hit the trail head. The first mile of trail is very technical with numerous water crossings and steep climbs. Due to not being on my MTB much I kind of felt a little in over my head. The technical side goes away as quickly as it started and your soon climbing 12 switchbacks and then continuing up and up for around 12 miles. The ride isn’t steep which is nice but it is long. I had NO IDEA that once at the top, we would be less than 300 yards from the towers on the top of Saddleback mountain. It was quit the accomplishment. Along the way I got passed by the Rad crew. I didn’t know who they were but Dave was gawking about their greatness.
After we hit the top I pounded a Bonk Breaker for recovery and continued on another 4 miles along the ridge. It was at this time that I really started hating Dave. I was amazed to see that we were over 4,000 ft and had been riding for 3 hours!
“The descent is just around the corner. I’m serious” - Dave “Liar, no sense of direction” Sheek
The ridge is comparable in length to a Whiting Ranch ride (RIP) but after relentless climbing its about the last thing you want to do. Along the way we hooked up with the fire road you would take to access Saddleback mountain. My buddy BMO told me that he hits Saddleback by driving his PT Cruiser, er FJ Cruiser from the Ortega Highway. The view from the top allows you to see from the 949 to the 909. It’s as good as it gets.
The glory of the ride is in the descent. It feels a lot like riding Motor Speedway. I would say it’s incredible and worth the effort.
I’m hoping to do this ride again within the next 2 weeks. It was challenging but fun and I need to keep putting these long LSD rides in.
*LSD = Long slow distance. Only pro roadie dorks like Dave talk like that though.
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Saturday, December 15th, 2007
Look at our So Cal Cyclocross Event Coverage Section for the latest reports and results I am receiving daily as these fair weathered racers are out battling the cold, ice, and storms of Kansas City, Kansas for the US Nationals of Cyclocross.
Tonight they are expecting to receive 3-6inches of snow and racing begins again tomorrow morning in the sub 30 degree temps. Good luck ice racers!
DSheek
-If its snowing and icy give me edges!
Friday, December 14th, 2007
Gatorade tastes better than water and Bonk Breaker tastes better than EVERY other energy bar on the market! If you haven’t tried one of these little PB&J bars yet now in the time. They are donating like 1,000 bars to the 50 Mile Ride. I can’t wait for 50 Mile Ride, riders to fall in love with the product like I have. If you can help spread the word by asking your local shop to begin carrying them. Often times we get what we ask for.
I’m thankful for things that taste good, thank you Jason at Bonk Breaker!
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Friday, December 14th, 2007
I have a pretty sweet TV. It didn’t cost me much and that makes it even cooler. My friend Kurt Johnston, recently turned me onto a show that I cannot get enough of, and it looks really good on my sweet TV. It’s called Everest: Beyond The Limit and it airs on the Discovery Channel.
My recommendation is to download season 1 on iTunes for $10.99 and then being watching season 2 immeditatly on Discovery and buy the rest of season 2 on iTunes. It’s that worth it.
Sherpa’s are the bomb!
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Friday, December 14th, 2007
I just finished reading an article titled Weight-Loss Goal Turns to Life-Changing Lesson in Competitor Magazine. It’s funny but the story is familiar similar to mine.
To read go to:
http://www.competitor.com/article/?Guid=e72432f4-baaf-4892-a00d-73d1c574e10f
Enjoy,
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Thursday, December 13th, 2007
I can’t fully describe why I love Patagonia so much!
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Thursday, December 13th, 2007
Hours upon hours upon hours have been put in by my buddies to support the the 50 Mile Ride. My guess would be that if we tallied it up there would be over 1,000 hours put in collectively to make it happen. You can’t even image how many different facets make up putting on a ride.
- Permits for the course
- Food
- Volunteers
- Website
- Picking the course
- Marking the course
- Raffle prizes
- Sponsor management
- Safety
- Radio support
- Etc, by 1 bazillion.
The real pleasure for me in being involved with the project is the friends I have made along the way. Some very amazing, selfless people are totally committed to our local MTB community and helping coffee farmers in Rwanda feed their families. This bonds us all together. It’s fun to spend time together.
Even if you can’t make it to the 50 Mile Ride, consider volunteering somewhere else in your community. You will be surprised how much you get out of it.
Rock on,
Andy B
outsideallday.com
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007
Stop waiting and buy the gear junkie you love something or email me and I will send you my wish list. Moosejaw has a great store, deals, and check out the Moosejaw gear… It looks good like their prices.
Check out the latest exciting promotions at Moosejaw.com!
-DSheek
I need more t-shirts, so I don’t have to do laundry as often.
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