24 HOP Video

Great video from the event, edited by Cat and Max. There are a few shots of Jeff and me, the most notable is of me with Max helping me to put chap stick on my lips.

Kona 24 hours in the Old Pueblo 2008

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IditaBike

You can check here for updates on this limited supported race.... 350 or 1100 miles in rugged, Alaskan terrain.

Good luck to all the racers....

Tour de California

A good field of athletes this year.

24 Hour Lap #10 and Bronchitis

Around 230am I came back to my camp to find that everyone was out cold in their tents, people in solo alley were all sleeping, and I was on my 9th lap, a little under 150 miles completed. I was feeling good but I started to notice a bit of a cough forming in my lungs. I grabbed my secret weapon, more clif shot blocks and headed to the check in tent.

The announcer asked me to sing "Eye of the Tiger" while I was trying to warm up and eat some snicker bars. I sang a bit before giving up..... looked over in an adrenaline-rushing gaze over at the line of riders to see if anyone would call out my name, heard nothing, so I clipped in and rode off. The gaze is just a quick glance b/c you know you have to leave the warm tent and begin to ride another lap around the same course, the course that you have practically memorized.

This was by far my hardest lap, both mentally and physically b/c as I started to "hammer" up the bitches, I started to cough more and more. I made a grave mistake by not using my Ipod up until my final laps. I wish I would have grabbed it then. More people passing me; me thinking to myself, do they even know that I am solo, do they know how many laps I have done? Silly thoughts, right? That is what you think of when ride for long periods of time, your mind wanders. Who cares how many laps you have or have not done. I had to put that aside and tell myself that I was at here to ride , and ride alone is what I do best. Focus, focus, Chad. People would pass me going up the bitches, but then I would pass them going down. More yo-yoing. Ride up, crouch down into a draft position to conserve energy on the way down.

Finally, the guys at Bravo Company ahead.... the guys I have been chatting with every time I go by. As I get closer, I realize that one of the cars is gone, the other diesel has stopped running. I can see someone inside though. Another human that is not suffering, that is a good sign. I can see the lights of the singletrack off to my left with some more howling of the coyotes (flashback to the AZT solo ride that I did a few weeks ago, at least they are not waking me up). Uplifting, very uplifting. I have been here before and have rode through the night in this very area before.

I turn off the gasline onto the singletrack. "Rider back" and "Can I pass you when you get time" seem to be happening a lot less. After the corral, I fly through the cholla section and onto the double track, one of the places where I drink some water and eat. The frost is coming down on the cacuts and small grass, there is one flat area right before you start climbing on Rattlesnake trail that is uber flat; this is one of the coolest areas where the dew is most prevalent. Ahhhhh, what a site. I ride without any body for a few miles before I get to golf.... "Good morning.... we left the light on for you," some guy utters out. One last gasline-hill, granny gear...hammer, hammer, hammer. Ahhhhhhh....more relief.

This is the longest lap of the day. His/hers trail is the perfect remedy, but wait, why is John Wayne bent over? The frost. The divets and potholes on his/hers trail seem to get harder, but worse. The nice guys at the Hotel area still have their fire blazing. Nobody is in site. Junebug trail is a quick fix to anybody that needs some more singletrack. Cross the road and begin to climb and climb back to 24 hour town. Lee the Spam-man (what a guy!) is sleeping...

Lee, how are you doing?
Who is that?
It's me Chad.
Ohhhhhhh chad. Goooo. Rideeee!

I ride off, climbing more and more, I gotta love that man, out here in the thick of it all, on the side of the trail! Coughing begins to get worse as I near my camp. Stephanie from my pit crew is up, I ask her for advice, to which she replies in her motherly tone, "you sound bad, it might be better to warm up in your tent for a bit." I succumb to pressure and head to the tent after eating some more clif shot blocks. I slept for about an hour and started to cough up flem for 20-30 minutes, before getting up to get warm around the fire. The inevitable putting-the-clothes-pack-on hit me at about 630am when Max made me some coffee.

Today, I got home from urgent care with bronchitis. Bummer.

Riding in Circles

The AZ Star had a good summary of the 24 hours of the Old Pueblo, although they are still quoting the mileage as 17 instead of 16 for each lap. There is a database that you can use to search the results also.

Looks Dave C. did pretty good up in Moab with a time of 7:46. Congrats! Still waiting to here some info on Scott's vacation (I think he was taking his bike).

Thanks again to Yuri for cheering me on and volunteering at the 24 HOP. And Tom, great job on your your solo riding, see you in March.

24 HOP Results

The unofficial results have been posted for the men's solo. I managed to crank out 13 laps for 7th place, mostly with the help of my amazing pit crew (Stephanie especially, but Brett, Max, Kevin and Cat also) and friends/family watching the live results online. Thanks to everyone for my 1st successful 24 hour solo race.

I did succumb to sleeping at 430am after finishing lap 10, party due to a cough (that I still have). I slept for about an hour and coughed up mucus for another hour before mustering up courage to get back on the bike for another 3 laps. I rolled in at about 11:50am, 10 minutes before the cut off and opted to call it a day instead of doing one more lap. It was great riding with everyone that came out, Brett, Jeff, Max, Toby, Kevin, and Mike.

Things I learned from my first solo 24 race:

• Buy new shorts, my new Pearl Ultra Sensors were amazing, I did not wear chamosis (nor have I ever) and walked away with no butt problems after 22 hours in the saddle. Using the paper race bib for toilet paper works when you have to go in the middle of the course
  
• Drink coffee early and often, I only had one cup of it in the morning... I needed to drink more
• Find support. Pit crews are priceless. Friends and family online, anything to keep you going. Tell them your lofty goal so you are accountable to walk the talk
  
• Carry some quick links with you so when you chain breaks, you do not have to limp back to camp
• Cliff shot blocks are the key to nutrition. In an earlier post, I toted the love of Hammer Gel, nothing is further from the truth when doing a 24 hour race. Shot blocks are oh so yummy and are square gummy works, plus they are easier to eat and the wrapper is not all gross when you put it in your back pocket. I must have ate about 15 packets of shot blocks.
• Eat plenty of Spam. One of the most classic memories was riding by Lee every night lap. He was on the side of the trail with a campfire, cooking Spam and handing it out to fatigued riders like myself from a stick. He is one hellova guy for being out there with weather in the 20s..
  
• Changing gloves, shorts, jerseys, shoes is not necessary, just do what you do best... ride and ride. I rode 200+ miles with the same everything, just had to change my bike since my full suspension's chain broke and lights/batteries
• You cannot drink beer after you ride 200 miles if you are sick, you have to suck on melted, old cough drops that have been in Max's truck for weeks
  

Snow on 24 Hour Course

Taken this morning at the starting line of 24 hours of Old Pueblo, a friend of my Mom's sent this photo to her. I am still packing and plan on heading out this evening to the course.

24 Hour Race in the Old Pueblo

Picture from Tom, my neighbor at 24 Town this weekend

It is raining here in Tucson today and I have still not had a chance to fully pack my gear and go set up camp for tomorrow's race. My solo effort will start at (enter western music) high noon on Saturday and end at high noon on Sunday. The plan is to ride the entire time. This roughly equals around 200+ miles, assuming I can stay at roughly the same pace.

For those making it out, here is a link of the map.


We will be camped on Granite Constuction Rd, close to the big rock drop that everyone rides down. As you start to make the turn right, we are on the left side of the road. Look for my benz if you plan on going out. If you do come out, they usually charge $5 or canned food for parking (since it is on AZ Trust Land).

Any friends and family that are out-of-state, you can check up on race results by going here. Knowing that a few of you out there in cyberspace are watching the results or dreaming of watching me at 3am when I want to go to bed might help me to do one more lap until the sun comes up.

I am finishing packing and repacking things today, a few of the items:

• 4 Red Bulls
• 4 Double Espresso Shots
• Coffee
  
• Bags of fruit
• Enough hammer gel/HEED to live on the Space Station for 3 weeks
• Camping gear
• 6 pack of 1554 and 3 large Trader Joe's Vintage Ale 1.5 pints
• New Ultra Sensor bibs (Cat hooked me up down at Performance with a huge discount)
• Warm clothes and more warm clothes, booties
  
• Rain clothes
• Picture of Lance to tape on my tent/bed as a reminder not to stop until its over or I collapse.
  

50% chance of rain

Rain is in the forecast for the Kentucky Camp Epic. The race has about 50 races coming from all over Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. Currently, we are hashing out whether or not we should postpone the race due to the rain. I am suggesting we move ahead since we will not really damage any of the trail (a lot of it is on fire roads). We need to decide tonight since Tom Purvis from CO wants to leave tomorrow.

Results from Mt Lemmon Time Trial

MT Lemon Time Trial Results from yesterday.

A good article about racing bikes in the NY Times today. The most notable quote is:

“Real bike racing is a rich man’s sport,” said Mike Dee, a messenger and an organizer of the race, called the Staten Island Invasion. “This is like the bike race for the rest of us — people who like to drink a beer in the mornings.”
NY Times Article

A little food for thought as I decided which races I am going to do in the next few months.... freebies or $ registration?

Mt Lemon Time Trial

I finished in 1 hour 5 minutes (unofficial results). Not where I wanted to be as far as time, nevertheless, this time trial showed me areas that I need to work on. This is my first road bike race I have ever done, 12 miles, 3,000 feet of climbing.

Click on this picture to view the profile of today's climb


When climbing mountains, it is best to look to Lance for some wisdom. He said:

This is not Disneyland, or Hollywood. I'll give you an example: I've read that I flew up the hills and mountains of France. But you don't fly up a hill. You struggle slowly and painfully up a hill, and maybe, if you work very hard, you get to the top ahead of everybody else.

In some sections of today's race, I was in pain. Just shows I need to ride some more this week. So, I have decided to increase my bike training a notch in order to meet some personal goals. What does "notch" exactly mean in this case? More long rides, one 4-5 hour ride a week.

I will post pictures and results soon.

Badwater Ultramarathon

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

Badwater Ultramarathon

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

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!

Tucson 5000 Race

Brian and I ran the Tucson 5000 yesterday Click here for the results

I got 33rd place, finishing the race in 19:35. I have the 12-Hour Mountain Bike Race in San Carlos, Mexico this Memorial Day weekend. It starts at 8 pm on Saturday and ends at 8am on Sunday. The post-race activities include sitting on the beach.

Cinco de Mayo 10k

My friend Brian and I ran the 5 de Mayo 10k out near Star Pass. We finished together. Here are the results from the race: Results

My goal was to finish the race under 44 minutes. At 42 minutes, I almost tied the 2003 race that I ran. Here is a picture taken near the finish line, I was having a great time!

Elephant Head 1st Annual Mt Bike Race

My mom and I drove out to Green Valley this morning to do the 16-mile Elephant Head (part of the AZT 300 that I did 3 weeks ago).
Here is a guide of the drops and climbs: GPS Guide

I started out in the top 5, but I had to pull over when I had some disc brake problems. I dropped a few places after I continued near the Agua Caliente wash. The next section was super rocky, and with my 40 PSI tires, hard-tail bike, it made for a rough ride. I was bouncing, jumping and rolling over all the rocks. It reminded me of my days in Mexico with my biking friends. They used to call me Bronco since I was always bouncing and bucking on my old bike.

Anyways, I pressed on to the flatter section only to find my legs and arms were very tired. I came across the finish line in 8th with just a few scratches. Thanks Mom again for the support and the pictures!

SHAC Run for your Life 5k

Kacy and I ran a 5k this last Saturday. We ran together for about a mile, then I ran ahead to finish in 24 minutes. Kacy finished in about 32 minutes. During post-race raffle, I won a free pass to Jamba Juice! We tried their new Pomegranate Drink, it was very good. Next running race is the Cinco de Mayo run next week.

AZ Xterra Triathlon

Justin, Nick and I drove up the day before to do a practice swim. It was supposed get me familiar with the lake but it had the opposite impact: I was more nervous after trying to battle the cold, choppy water. We camped out in Usery Park outside of the Salt River Recreation area on Friday only to get rained on at 4:00am.



We woke up and headed on down to Saguaro Lake. It was a tad bit nipply I must say outside, but the water at a "warm" 66 degrees. I was very, very nervous for the swim section of this race. It was a water start, so we were wading in the lake for about 5 minutes before the race started. During the swim, I had to do the back stroke a few times since I my pace was too fast. I though I was in last place, but after swimming the 1500 meters, I was surprised that I had manged to stay close to a friend Nick. I got on my bike and rode the 13 mt bike miles with little problem, passing a few people. I made the transition to the 6-mile run without any problems (and had no problems with the Achilles). I finished in 55th out of 200 with a time of 2 hrs 39 mins, about 30 mins behind the leaders and 30 mins.


On the way home, we picked up some In-n-Out. Mmmmmm. Attached you will see some pics from the race!

RESULTS: AZ Xterra Results from Race

EVENT DESCRIPTION:
Swim 1500m
Mountain Bike 26km
Trail Run 10km





On the future race calendar:

Elephant Head (mt bike)
Cinco de Mayo Run
Sahuarita May 28th
Show low June 3