Back on the Grind

San Pedro two weeks ago marked my last race since Ventura.

I started logging more miles in the saddle and it was time to dip my big toe back in the water. Lets just say it was a painful experience.

Glad to see some friends take the line with me. Kyle Stallings and Jordan Haggard have come around in a big way since last year and are on Fire. I'm pretty sure Jordan has a mandatory upgrade and Kyle is sitting right around the 18/ 19 point mark with me. Big props, you guys make the races more enjoyable. Its always fun to have guys who race well as a team and mix things up in the race.

San Pedro was a tough cookie. My goal was to stay top 5 or 10 for as much of the race as I could to keep out of trouble. This I did, pretty flawlessly. With 3 to go some attacks went and there were some bridge moves. I followed everything and nothing really stuck, the break came back... Jordan (who was in the break) attacked amidst the chaos and held it off for the V. I finished somewhere mid pack.
I had no legs for the sprint or the sprint for position into the last turn... It's always a bummer working hard and not getting results. But I didn't have very high expectations for the race. The repeated surges were a good awakening and the race was solid training.

MBGP: This course is shaped like a long Banana, with two 180 degree turns. The last turn is a tight turn in between barricades and normally is the location of broken carbon and bludgeoned riders. The strategy was the similar to San Pedro: stay near the front, work hard but not too hard, follow wheels and sprint into the last corner to try to be top 3 coming out of the last turn. The chaos happened on the last riser into the first 180 degree turn... I went from 4Th wheel to boxed into the pack... I was able to sort of weasel my way free and found the front, but didn't really want to drill it b/c I had pretty good legs... I tried to anticipate the surge and jump in, but I picked the wrong wheel and next thing I know I was boxed in again. People were yelling and breaks were squealing. Adam from NOW found a whole and snuck through and said "come on Chester lets go"... I couldn't sneak through and ended up finishing mid pack again. Big Daddy Derek Johnson ended up 5Th which is a killer result for MBGP.

Both races were solid races, despite lack of results. The training has been increasing in solidity these past couple of weeks. I still have yet to put the power tap back on. I have been training on feel. Riding what and how I feel like: So basically I have been spending a lot of time climbing. Slowly and surely the legs are coming around.

I am really looking forward to this weekend. I love the SLO venue. It is a killer race and my folks are coming out so it will be good to hang with family over the holiday weekend.

Work has been going good, but has been starting to get pretty hectic again which is good. It is nice to be busy.

School is also going good. I am taking a Business class this semester. My teacher is a real piece of work and seems for interested in quoting himself and his book then the success of the students. It is always frustrating to have a teacher who goes out of his way to make you feel bad for asking questions. But the subject matter is interesting and I will get through it.

Married life is great. Caitlin and I have sort of found our routines again and her work has been working with her schedule which helps. It is really difficult when we are working opposite schedules, but in this economy we are both really fortunate to have jobs. My garden is taking OFF! In the front I have potted hot peppers(although not too hot) and tomatoes that are starting to produce like crazy. In the back I have cucumber plants that are looking real healthy and getting big, two different plots of tomatoes in different stages of development, kale, green onions, pepper plants, bell pepper plants, one cayenne pepper plant, and a bunch of eggplants. I also have carrots that are starting to pop up. My pole beans have been more bird food then anything else. One minute they are looking great with a couple good sized leaves on them, the next minute they are trimmed down to their stalk. Several people have suggested I put mesh wire around them, but I am not really ready to go there yet. In a couple of months I should have some pictures of some bountiful harvests.

The wheels keep spinning

The Head Waffle

Yesterday was the day. I could no longer avoid it. I needed to get some Vo2max interval in my legs.
I was already making excuses on my pedal over to via Chaparral. The mind was engaged in full fledged civil war. I was already making bargins... rationalizations and justifications.
Enough was enough... If you want to do well in cycling you have to pay the pain bank and today they were calling in the margin.
Today was the day.

Pyrimiding VO2 MAX interval on Via Chaparral

There are those who believe you must ignore that inner monologue or tune out the pain. I beleive that it MUST not be ignored. I choose to incorporate everything. I do not deny the negativity or deny the pain. Instead I choose to focus on it intently. Observe the mind, bring presense into the only real reality and imbrace and focus on the pain, savoring the burn.

or somthing like that right?

Ventrura Stage Race...

Sigh...

Great great great course. This race is one for the ages. Awesome prologue, followed by the best crit course in southern california, followed by an extremly challanging circuit race.

I wont go into too much detail.

I was ten seconds off the league in the prologue. Hung in there with only about 15 or so surviving riders in the crit course. Launched a little attack leading into the last lap to try to force some guys to cover and try to give L- Ron a little edge... L Ron didn't need a little edge. That guy is probably one of the best, most consistent crit races in the amature peloton right now. He rocks somthing fierce.

Cirucuit race blew all kinds of apart. I was working really hard at the front to try to keep things together for ron and keep several key players out of time bonuses and protect ron as much as I could. I ended up working quite a bit the first half of the race. Eventually it was the climb on the back side (and Steve Smith's massive massive attack leading into the first half of the climb) that really forced a split and the next hill a few more droped and there was another small split that turned into a larger split that turned into the winning break. Australian Gram saw the lead group peeling away and offered assistance. I grabbed his wheel and rode it right into the dirt underneath a nice big shaddy tree.

That's right, I DNF'd. At the time it felt great...lying under that tree in the soft dirt, drinking water and dousing my head in it... but that night I wrestled with all that malarky.... Feeling like a quitter, like a looser, like I let the team down:
The pitty pot

Fact is sometimes you got it and sometimes you don't. Somtimes you can not train for 3 weeks get out there and place second in a hilly road race purley on guts and will and sometimes you can't.

The lesson learned here is that mamma didn't raise no fool (and by fool, I mean quitter). The other lesson learned is I need to start training again... Get back on the white carbon pony... The mid season lull has come on gone.

Enough with the tom foolery, I got some races to win!

“A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more. Nobody is going to win a 5,000 meter race after running an easy 2 miles. Not with me. If I loose forcing the pace all the way, well, at least I can live with myself.”
-Pre

What happened to the blog?

Big time slacking on the blog front...

Big time ass kicking on the life front...

Buyakasha

Current FTP: 220 watts...
Current saddle time per week: 2.2 hours...
Current ninjability: extremly high
Current Chuck norrisability: also extremly high
Next race: Ventura stage
Favorite alcoholic beverage: whiskey straight, no chaser
Most influential book ever read: A big one & The China Study
Favorite brand of cigarette: American Spirits or camel filters
Favorite color: Blue... deep blue
Favorite Celebrity artist (ya know, the big name guys): Monet, love me some impressionism
Favorite brand bicycle: specialized (ALL THE WAY BABY)
Favorite nutritional supplement: PLATINUM PERFORMANCE BARS AND GRANULAR
Whats in the bottles: H20, ALWAYS H20 (or some flat coke)
Best audition EVER: Probably for University of Minnesota (oh man that was a hoot)
Favorite play: Inherit the wind or Henry IV
Favorite movie: probably Dead Man, but its tough to say as it changes week to week.
Favorite TV show: SIMPSONS, HAND DOWN NO QUESTION- Greatest show on Tv - but Cheers is right up there ;)

sheesh... over this right........... about............. now

Seems like another life time

... But yes that is me dance battling Sage Francis at the Troubadour...
Sage Francis IS hip hop for those who are not informed.
Took his sorry ass to school...

This still remains one of my all time favorite moments in life.

Hours

Number of hours I spent riding my bike on this day: .9

Number of hours I spent dancing my ass off in the club apocalyptic awesome master class go go dance dance revolution style: 2.3

Number of hours I spent thinking about what the world would be like if everyone knew where their food really coming from: 1.4

Sheesh, never gonna make it pro at this rate.

To all my peeps out there I leave you with this quote from Homer J Simpson:

If they think I'm going to stop at that stop sign, they're sadly mistaken!

Compassion:

-a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering
-the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it

An Ode to Cailtin

So much death in the wake the relationships Hurley burley silence that is anything but silent.

Or get the distant display on the dash that reads adjuntar fuel essence.

The real essence of the wake was not the passing of life but the lonely sound that pin point ripples in the wake of closed eyed paper dolls that like to perform metaphoric gymnastics to the poor overhauled shedding tool.

Water shed the new skin over the old to issue in the new day of programs delight…What exactly does all that mean?

So much for the glory of Rome.

I guess the main thing is that love exists where time does not

And the way that you allow me to love you is faster then light and longer then the infinite.

I am defined by you.

Souls merge and I love the way you do the things you do.

The way you move your hair, and the way you act like you don’t care.

I wrote a song once in the wake of ecstatic auras, crippled by drug induced psychosis, on the brink of accepting fates infinite plan...

I can safely say with you breathing heavily, securely in my arms,

I have never been the kind the man I am when I’m with you.

The kind of man my parents are proud of and the kind of man that I am proud of and the kind of love that makes the whole thing worth it.

The kind of friendship that insists upon itself.

The kind of companionship that makes all the others dull by comparison…

sort of like dessert before dinner.

Except you are the whole ecosystem: the water, the nitrogen, the sun light.

This kind of love is cyclical.

This kind of life is love.

DEVILS PUNCH BOWL/ CHUCK PONTIAS RACE REPORT

DEVILS PUNCH BOWL:
First lap went off hot with only about 15 riders left at the top of the climb. Most of the field were able to chase back on the back side and I was pleased to see all three team mates Smitty, Derek, and weixy were among those who made it back. We noodled along for a little bit along the back side until several fierce attacks launched off the front as several riders were putting the hurt down through the start/ finish hill leading into the 2nd lap. By the top of the main climb on lap 2 only about 14 riders remained the rest of the 60+ field shattered in the barren wasteland that is the landscape of Devils Punch Bowl. The last main climb whittled the field down to 10. No one had any team mates. There were a couple pure climbers who were pretty tore up from putting in the big digs and attacks early in the race. They weren't going to be a problem. It was the 6 footers that I was worried about and there were about 6 of em. You know the type. The riders who dish out the pain field sprint after field sprint after field sprint... The kind of riders who you hope get eating alive by the 1400 feet/ lap elevation gain. The back side was fast with rider after rider launching attack after attack. My plan was simple: Survive. I had no interest in attacking... I had no interest in chasing. As the riders jumped, I waited for the wheel in front of me to go and I sucked that wheel will all the might I could muster. About 1/4 mile before the final turn heading into the start finish rider one of the larger riders countered and this time the field was too tired to chase. A couple of guys made some digs but most guys looked around. "look like were sprinting for 2nd boy-os" I said, hoping that I could get some guys to start their sprint from the bottom of the hill and maybe, just maybe make my jump early enough to catch what I knew would be a fading riders OTF. They boys started to wind It up and I jumped wheel to wheel until I hit the wind about 250 M from the line and started to open it up. I looked down and saw a wheel behind me... I looked up and saw the rider off the front... I came across the line with a comfortable gap on the rider on my wheel and only a couple of bike lengths from 1st for a solid 2nd place finish.

I think I played it right... The guy who won, deserved to win.

The second place finish pushed me into 4th in the cat 3 SoCal Cup.

CAT 3 RESULTS:
Chester Gillmore 2
Steve Smith 21
Steve Weixel 31
Derek Johnson DNF

CAT 2 RESULTS:
Chris Walker 4
Seth Zaleski 9

CHUCK PONTIAS:
I was a little more active then I should have been early in the race... Launching attack after attack, trying to get a group of guys to come with me and start working OTF. Derek rolled up and said I am going to attack... You counter. Just then another group launched off the front and Derek and I rode towards the front... Finally the pack game together and Derek launched an attack of all attacks. I rode towards the front getting ready for the counter... Derek was caught and another couple of riders countered before I could get around to it. Finally, a couple of riders made a bridge move, which I followed and then Blew right through on the wheel of Patrick lee. Eventually 2 became 4 became 7. We built a good gap with Derek and smitty in the pack slowing things down, and then a chase group of about 6 bridged to us. So we were 16. Brian McCulla jumped of the front with a rider in tow, another rider bridged. Patrick Lee made the move to bridge a little too late and the 3 OTF finished 1,2,3 with Patrick Lee rolling across the line 4th. I started my sprint a little too late and finished near the back of the break for either 10th or 11th.

I feel good for having made the break but should have learned my lesson from last year about the fast downhill sprint. I needed to be top 1,2,3 heading into that last corner b/c it is very hard to actually pass riders once everyone is already up to speed.

A great weekend of racing by all the platinum boys and a good way to start the second half of my season.

CAT 3 RESULTS:
Chester Gillmore 10th or 11th?
Steve Smith DNF
Derek Johnson DNF

I Believe in this...

Click the link...

http://web.mac.com/thelastpintaturtle/Voluntary_Simplicity/Home.html