Flagstaff Weekender

On Saturday, I rode Schultz Creek-Little Gnarly-Jedi Master-Little Gnarly-Lower Brookbank-Sunset on Top of Elden-Red Onion-Back to the Top of Sunset-Upper Oldham-Sunset-Little Bear-Back down on Schultz-Rocky Ride-to the Downhill Parking on Mt Elden Road where I found that Andy had broken his collar bone while dh'ing. After making a make-shift sling and heading to the hospital with Max, I decided to cruise back to the campsite via Mt Elden Road and Schultz Creek. I finished the day with 38 miles and 2.5 climbs up Mt Elden (nice training for the Mt Lemon Time Trail on August 19).

On Sunday, I woke up and made an amazing camping breakfast: eggs, sausage, and toast. Afterwards, Max and I rode Weatherford-Secret Trail-Super Moto-Lower Moto and rode to the campsite to shuttle the downhill crew down from the top of Mt Elden. I was surprised to see 8 cc motorcycles on the top of Super Moto as we were coming down. Ok, back to the shuttle. We decided to go in on the shuttle and raced down from Sunset-Red Onion-No name trail, then back to the campsite via Rocky Ride. Good ride, but nothing compared to Saturday's solo ride.

Total Mileage: 56 miles

Argyle Jersey

After going out with Dave C in Flagstaff last week, I realized that it was time to update my ghetto jersey's that I had. I bought two from twin six. In the wake of the Tour de France doping scandals, I must admit that the tour must do something. I stopped watching the reruns on VS and opted for my riding this week.





I went for a morning ride today, 28 miles. A quick jaunt since I am still in "recovery week." Still working on plans for the Tour de California, mostly the logistics of where to leave the car.

The Pacific Coast Highway

I went to Phoenix yesterday for a few purchases. One of them is a BOB trailer that I am going to use on Highway 1. It is hard to believe that we are leaving in 1.5 weeks. Plan is to park my car at Kendall's house in San Diego and set off up the seaboard on bikes. Kacy is driving back to Tucson this next week from NY. In the meantime, she is riding a little more for the big trip.

The picture of the BOB trailer:


The trailer is going on the back of the road bike with another few bags on the bike (handlebar and stem). I am hoping to take it out for a ride this weekend to test it out.

After a weekend of toying with buying a time trial bike, I decided to buy one.

2006 Trek Team Time Trial Bike, all dura-ace components, and sweet XXX Bontrager carbon aero bars. The bike's MSRP last year was $5400. I should have it ready for next race on September 15th.



Still have to put the bike together since it is new. I am still tapering from this past triathlon in Flagstaff, so I have been taking it easy all week. I'll try to have all the cables on by this weekend so I can take it for a spin around the neighborhood.

Mountain Man Triathlon Results and Post-Race Ride

MountainMan Triathlon: This is the best-organized, best-attended, and prettiest location for a triathlon. The night before, Nick Tanner from Tricats fed me and let me stay the night at his place. Props to the tanner family for making my race possible. The next morning, everyone got up at 430 to head over to Upper Lake Mary.

As I was setting up my transition area, I realized I had forgotten my helmet. I had to ride back, grab it, and come back with less than 10 minutes before the start of the race. I ran barefoot along the horribly paved road and boat ramp only to realize that I was too late for a practice swim. I jumped in the 72 degree water and put my goggles on. A few moments later, my nervousness plummeted to utter despair as my goggles broke, more specifically, the little rubber band that holds the two lenses together. At this point, I thought I would be doing this race without goggles. But could I really swim 1.5km in a lake without goggles? I tried to fix them with what little time I had remaining. With less than 2 minutes before the start of the race, I fixed them, McGyver-style with some rubber that I found.

I put them on and heard the 30-second warning. Man, that was close. My firefighter friend Nick once gave me a piece of advice about swimming... "You just need to keep your head in the water, face down, and continue to swim no matter how tired you feel." I had decided that this was going to be the race that I "kept my head in the water" without doing the backstroke, doggy paddle, or breast stroke... 100% freestyle in order to get a new PR.

As I rounded the first buoy, I was surprised to see a large pack behind me. The classic pounding, beating, and pushing at the beginning seemed to pale in comparison to my Xterra races. About 100 meters after the first buoy, a guy kept waving his arms at my feet. The beating continued intermittently between my strokes. A triathlon is one of the few sports where it is normal to kick an opponent that is hitting you. I increased my kick to warn him. He backed off a little. Now it was time to focus on my tempo and technique....Second buoy, still going strong. I was breathing unilaterally on my right side, so I as turned to head back to the finish line, I could see everyone behind me. Face down, breathe out your nose, long arm, cup the water, pull, face out and breathe... I kept doing this until I realized the greenish water looked a little brown. Oh, I made it already, I was at the exiting boat dock.

I looked at my watch 29 minutes. Sweet, my new PR. I ran to the T1 to get my back and shoes. I had a trouble putting them on since they are not really my size (hence the 2 minute transition). I ran out the exit. "Water or gatorade," a kid yelled in my direction. I had three bottles, probably too much for 26 miles of bike ride.

Swimming is fun and all, but biking is what I live for. I felt calm and collective as I started to pass people slowly during the ascent up to the turn around 13 miles ahead. Trying to lighten the atmosphere, I tried to talk everyone I passed.

One hour and 8 minutes later, I was biking into the T2, feeling like I did very well on the bike. you'd think that running is my stong point, but for the last year I have been battling achilles tendinitis in my both of my heels. Adding to the problem, was the one-mile climb up to Marshall Lake, a little under 1000 feet of ascending/descending. I managed to finish with a respectable 46 minute 10k run, not what I wanted, but I was content.

Overall, I came in 39th place and 7th in my age group. Results

After the race, Dave Chenault and I went mountain biking to Fisher Point and continued on the Arizona Trail C into downtown. A picture from Dave's blog of me at Fisher Point:



Dave has a sweet new Lenz that he was been working on the entire week, but a well spent if you ask me since Dave was descending like a madman, schooling me most of the ride. While in the downtown area, we stopped into Absolute so he could get a few things tweaked and shot the breeze with the staff.

We went to the brewery for a chicken sandwich and beer, and headed back to the cars via Faye Canyon.

Badwater Ultramarathon

The Badwater Ultramarathon in Death Valley Starts today. It starts in Death Valley and goes to Mount Whitney.

Badwater Ultramarathon

San Diego-Santa Barbara Bike Tour

Plans are slowly coming together for a 4-6 day bike trip from San Diego to Santa Barbara, roughly 250 miles one-way. Still working out the logistics, but the plan is to start on August 5th of 6th and continue until returning to my family reunion in San Diego on the 10th. More info to come in the coming weeks.

La Jolla Rough Water Swim Sept 9th

This is an open water swim in San Diego, CA. I am going to do the 1-miler and seriously contemplating doing the 3-miler. No wetsuits are allowed in the race. Water temperature hovers in the high 60s and is super buoyant due to the salt. No floaties allowed of any kind. There is something to be said sitting on the edge of the ocean, looking at the buoy 1.5 miles away, knowing that you have to swim there in back with just some speedos and goggles.

La Jolla Rough Water

Mountain Man Triathlon

This weekend I am headed up to Flagstaff to do an Olympic Triathlon on the new bike. I pimped out my bike with aerobars, new bottle holders behind the seat and on the frame, and finally a nice little trisports handle bar bag for my GU/snacks.

I am doing this race solo and still working on some plans to carpool with some guys in the local triathlon club here in Tucson.

Stats on the race: Swim: 1.5k Bike: 40k Run: 10k
Mountain Man Triathlon

New Bike

Well, the time trial bike that I looked at last week was a little too big, so I decided to buy a quick, cheap road bike. This is what I came up with. Rides great. I have a ride this Saturday with the gang on the road bike. Then I am headed to Starr Pass with the AZT 300 Race Crew (Zach and Tim).

Tour de France

The Tour de France started last Saturday with an amazing time trial prologue in London. Today, the racers are on Stage 3, crossing the border from Belgium into France. Those looking for some great road action, tune into the Versus channel every morning.

I finally caught the "roadie" bug. Instead of buying a triathlon bike, I bought a road bike yesterday from craigslist. I had a great ride today to Sabino Canyon and back, stopping at Starbucks to yuck it up with some other roadies. I must admit, I really enjoyed the ride. You might see me a lot more on the road bike than the mt bike in the next few months.

9 Hours of Swimming: Swim Marathon

Check this event out in NY:

28 Mile Swim video from the New York Times. This would be one event that would take me a few more years of training. Plus, the entry fee is $1200!

La Milagrosa Ride

Max, Chris, and I headed to Reddington early this am to do the 42 mile Italian Trap-La Milagrosa Loop from Agua Caliente Park. Chris and I carpooled and met Max at 5 am at the park. After some small talk about rigs, we headed up to tackle the steep, uphill climb. Chris was having some trouble with his ss, so Max and I left him to do the hill climb up to Bellota Ranch while we adjusted our route to only La Milagrosa.

We turned on the AZ trail instead of doing the Italian Tank loop (cutting off about 20 miles from the originally planned route). Here is a picture of Max at the AZT turnoff:



A few miles down the road, I got 2 different flats since I am not running stans in the back. Here is a picture before the flats. Notice I am happy and carefree, flats and flying over my handlebars are not on my mind.


The two flats were from a bad thorn and a pinch flat. We continued on to La Milagrosa turnoff. I have some fond memories here of the AZT 300 Race in April of this year. I passed this section at night, cold and ready to camp. Now I was passing it in the heat of the day with Max showing me his sweet downhill ability. I flew over my handlebars a few times, but no serious injuries. I still need to perfect some of my technical on trails like Bug Springs and La Milagrosa.

I made it back to Agua Caliente park at about 930 to pick up Chris. We headed to Einstein's for some OJ and breakfast bagel. Mmmmmm.

Map of the loop