Shut Up and Pedal

Big day on Saturday!

2010-04-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

Yes Yes Yes, I am still alive! So Its been a while, so what right? I haven't felt up to blogging lately and I have plenty on my plate as Graduation is coming into focus, MBA program threatening to take over my life in September, oh... and training for STP (Seattle to Portland Classic). That said, Jennifer and I have a huge day on Saturday April 17th, 2010. The big day is a 50 mile bike ride down in Mexico. Yep you heard me right, Mexico! All the stuff on the news is focusing on a part of Tijuana that is further east then anywhere we will go. We are going straight through Tijuana and on to Rosarito right away.

There we will have a fairly quiet evening and enjoy a free dinner from the Rosarito Beach Hotel and possibly a movie that evening just relaxing the night away. Whats important about the relaxing the night before is the party that will ensure the next morning. At around 9:00AM several thousand cyclist will descend upon Rosarito Beach Hotel for the party where a 50 mile bike ride breaks out. I am sure we will see plenty of costumes like last year, or even they guy towing his blow up doll, ghetto blaster, and beer for hydration. This is a big milestone for Jennifer. This will be her first 50 miler and she is totally ready! After we finish in Ensenada we will partake of over priced tourist food and then a nice shuttle back to the hotel, where we will quickly check out and head home.

Rosarito Beach, ready or not; here we come!

More visits to the Chiropractor

2009-09-19T08:30:00.000-07:00

Well its been several weeks since my last blog and honestly had I felt there was something note worthy I would have posted. I wouldn't say today is anything earth shattering however its time to write down a few thoughts.

First off, I have changed chiropractors. The chiropractor I had been seeing was doing tons of Active Release Technique work on my knee and it just wasn't making progress. So I was out in Phoenix helping Jennifer move to California and she was chatting with her mom when her mom mentioned her chiropractors brother is in orange county. I look him up and make an appointment. Upon my first visit I asked him how much ITband injury work he had done. He is a runner too and said he himself had an ITband injury not long ago and has since fully recovered. My hesitation was reduced but I remained cautious because mine has been so persistent.

I have been seeing Dr. Adam Poole (http://poolechiropractic.com) for about a month now and I have maintained a reduced cycling regiment and no running at all. Well Last week he said to go out for a run and so I did. This was on a Monday; sure enough Tuesday morning plenty of ITband pain to go around. I was in Adam's office and he said rest, ice, stretch and try again on Thursday (9/10/09). So I did; and I rand 2.5 miles with no pain. I was so elated to have had a successful workout even though it was half the distance of my last full run nearly two months ago. Friday morning I was in Adam's office and he was excited for the progress too.

I had a 35 mile bike ride scheduled for the following day. Saturday morning (9/12/09) I gear up and head out for my peaceful Saturday morning rides. The ride was a bit more of a struggle then I care to admit. Mark my riding buddy flaked on me and my knee had mini flare ups during the ride. Nothing strong enough to stop me but just a reminder that it was there. Mark wasn't present and during our rides we occasionally chat which breaks up the ride nicely; anyhow I finish my 35 miler at an 18 mile an hour pace so just shy of two hours. I then do several minutes of ITband stretching cause I did not want it to tighten up on me.

Monday evening (9/14/09) I am thinking time for a run. I head down to the on site gym at my complex and hop on the treadmill. 1.25 miles in and I absolutely must stop because the pain is too great. I walk back to my apartment deflated that I am back at square one.

Tuesday morning and I am back at Adam's office. He does several things; ultrasonic, A.R.T., deep tissue, and adjustments like usual. He then prescribes a NO WORKOUT regiment for two weeks and start taking 3000mg of Omega 3 every day which helps with muscle relaxation some how. He said that my cycling may be preventing me from healing completely. I am completely annoyed by the prescription but I need to get better because I want to do the Tour de Tucson. This is a 109 mile bike ride that I would really like to do because my Uncle, Aunt, and Cousin have invited me to do because they are avid cyclists too.

So for the next two weeks I have a daily stretch/strength regiment instead of working out.
(some exercises taken from http://coastalsportsmedicine.com/)

Week 1 - stretch daily for 5-10 minutes and ice as needed for pain
Week 1 - ITband strength exercises 8-10 reps ; 1-2 sets (M, W, F)

Week 2 - Stretch twice daily 5-10 minutes and ice as needed for pain
Week 2 - ITband exercises 10-12 reps; 2-3 sets (M, T, Th, F)

::: Stretch Work :::

1. Tennis ball along the ITband with the tennis ball on the floor rolling across it.
2. Sitting figure 4 - ankle on top of the knee, leaning forward chest towards the thighs
3. Seated figure 4 - a typical runners stretch, foot crossed over the other leg by the knee and then twist away from the knee that is figure 4 shape.
4. Standing ITband stretch - one foot placed behind the other and crossed arms up in the air and stretch outward away from the "injured side" till you reach the floor or as far as you can.

::: Strength Work :::

1. Side Leg Lifts - 2 reps; 5-10 sets (5 second holds on each leg lift)
2. Hip Hitches - Injured leg standing on a small step; relax the hip and the pelvis will tilt toward the unaffected leg and allow the foot to lower to the ground (Focus on Glute muscles)
3. Wallbangers - stand about 1-2 feet away from the wall arms extended in front of you, slowly drop and twist away from the wall until your hip touches the wall then return to a standing position.
4. Frontal Plane Lunges - shoulder width apart slowly step to the right and lower the body into a squat position then shift your weight from left to right, then rise and step back in from the right perform the same thing again but step to the left and shift weight from right to left then rise from the squat ( = 1 rep)

OK SOOOO! I have my work cutout for my ITband recovery and training for the Tour De Tucson century ride. Hopefully it will come together and I will be able to race in November that would be super AWESOME! On a completely different note... I had a really cool experience recently. A friend of mine Rachael whom I met many years ago through a mutual friend was on my mind, so I sent her an email asking how she was doing. She responded that she was taking the discussions and that she was gonna get baptized. A week before her baptism date she called me and asked if I would baptize her. Feeling excited and humbled at the same time I quickly agreed to! What a neat day that was I had the privilege of bringing someone into the fold and visit the stairway where Jennifer and I originally spoke.

The never ending IT band Injury...

2009-07-27T13:53:00.000-07:00

So as you know I am fighting an Iliotibial band injury that just wont quit. I decided to try and run on Monday July 20th. Approximately 2 miles into my run, sure enough that pain returns. Tuesday morning the commute to work was HELL!!! If any of you have had an ITband injury, you know just how painful it is to walk down a hill or take any stairs at all. As it turns out, I have several ramps, and stairs to take on my commute. As I was riding in on the train I was feeling my ITband get tight, and I remember thinking oh great here we go again... Well, right as I get off the train there is a long ramp and I remember thinking to myself, man this is gonna hurt... So I start going down the ramp, by the bottom of the ramp I am gritting my teeth and my eyes are starting to water because of how much pain I am in. In my mind I am thinking, thank heaven for the ICY HOT I will be putting on as soon as I get into my office. so I avoid all stairs and ramps when possible on the way into the office. And of course the first order of business is ICY HOT on the knee. It did dull the pain some and ibuprofen seemed to do the trick. If I sat for too long at the office I had get up and walk around to keep it from tightening up. Well Wednesday comes by and its time to see the Chiropractor again. He does about 30 mins of ART (active release technique) work on it and there are a few spots where I am like MAN THAT HURTS!!!! but See ya next week! So I continue about my business and try a run thursday night. At mile one I am feeling great, and just shy of mile two I feel my ITband start to spasm real quick to which I abruptly stop and limp for just a moment and then it calms down. Luckily I was right near my house. I head in put ice on it and think once again... FML!!! I have some more ART work this week and I have a deep tissue massage scheduled for this week also to help with the healing. I also talked to a friend who runs quite a bit and he has given me some things to do to help with recovery too. hopefully by the end of the week I will see some results. I am going to take another week off of running and focus on this recovery stuff and see if we cant get this ITband loosened up enough to start running again. I would say HAPPY TRAINING.. but my training has not been at all happy these past couple of weeks :(

P.S. Ally and I went sailing this past weekend, check out the picture above.

Knee Injury Update

2009-07-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

So as you know, I was complaining about an knee injury last week. Well on Monday of last week I decided to go for a short jog, after two miles on the treadmill the pain was returning after icing if for a few days and resting, so at 2.5 miles I called it quits. So I saw the Chiropractor that specializes in ART (Active Release Technique) He identified that I had a typical knee injury among runners and cyclists called ITBand syndrome. This is where the Iliotibial band becomes inflamed for any number of reasons. (see picture above) The picture above illustrates exactly where the pain was in my leg. So on Monday Morning Dr. Hansen of http://hansenchiropractic.com worked on my knee and IT band for the better part of 45mins. I could feel him breaking up the scar tissue in the band and though it was painful it was feeling great the next day. On Wednesday he worked on the upper portion of the IT band and the lower part of the anterior tibialis. My knee was feeling much better and today (Saturday 7-18-09) was the first day back to working out. I did a quick 25 miles on my road bike and even met up with my sister along the way. I am trying to get Monica to do the Rosarito to Ensenada 50 mile bike ride with me in September. I am happy to report a 20mph average today which felt great, and then I have a run Monday night and see the Chiropractor again on Wednesday for one more visit. I must admit I was pretty reluctant to going to see him because our family had bad experiences in the past with them. In this case My knee is feeling tons better and I am readdy to get back to the business of training. On the Docket is Rosarito 50miler in Sept, Sprint Triathlon, and half marathon in October, and possibly 100miler in the Tour de Tucson. So its back to training for me! yeah!

A lil catch up; knee injury woes :(

2009-07-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the slow update for those who read my blog here. I have been nursing my injury and haven't felt much like blogging. My training was going just fine and not much to report. I have noticed my speed on my running is improving. I shaved about 10-15 seconds off my mile average over the last couple of weeks which feels really nice but that has come with a price for sure. I mentioned in a blog recently that I was starting to feel some knee stiffness, so I decided time for new shoes. so I bought some Nike Zoom Structure Triax; I purchased the cause I was starting to feel the pain and these shoes are designed for people who pronate. Well it has swelled to much more than that. First my anterior tibialis gives me stiffness for about 10mins or so. (See the picture with the muscle highlighted in red above) The next item of business is a serious pain I have been feeling in my knees. After my runs I have medial and lateral meniscus pain most likely due to running on asphalt. The other is the LCL or Lateral Collateral Ligament (see above picture of knee anatomy) was so painful earlier this week I could not even takes stairs. If I attempted stairs at all the pain felt like electricity in my knee. NO FUN at all! So in talking with some local experts I know (Thanks Judy as usual!) and an appointment coming up with the Chiropractor I am hoping to reslove this knee annoyance, I wanna get out and run dang it! So thats my story of woe people; thanks for reading and happy training!

Keep plugging away!

2009-06-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

Week of 6/15-6/20
So this is gonna be short and sweet. Monday was a nice run, I did about 5 miles and kept in my zone the whole time. It was a tad slow to start though. I have noticed a minor pain on the left and ride side of both knees. It seems to loom a bit at the beginning of a run and its especially noticeable after a long run. So my Tuesday ride was definitely different. I opted to cycle 15 miles in my area, so I mapped it out and it was pretty good, some areas had high traffic so that made me a tad nervous but there were a few good hills along the way that made it worth the ride. Wednesday was another night of 5 miles of running and about the same, felt good, had a descent pace and only minor knee stiffness for the first 5-7 mins of the run. I decided to slack on Thursday and Friday for some reason... but Saturday morning meant a long bike ride with Mark. Mark charted out a 30 mile course and away we went. Immediately we were in Carbon Canyon and Marks' last workout was almost 2 weeks before that aside from his job. So he was feeling a tad out of shape and he had given platelets the day before too. So he gets a coke and a smile for making the effort to show up for the ride. I told Mark about 20 mins into the ride to go ahead and set pace and I will just follow him so I dont leave him in the dust. Needless to say Saturday's workout was a nice easy workout. Parts of the ride were in these hilly residential neighborhoods, which is fine cause we could use the hill practice, but Mark kept saying... I dont remember this on the route. BTW, never try to eat an energy bar while trying to climb hills in a busy residential area. I almost fell off my bike trying to do that. 1000 calories burned which was good! Till next week, Happy Training!

Major hurdle cleared?... Check!

2009-06-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

Another week of training passes by and it's been going well. This weeks' Monday and Wednesday run workouts weren't anything special because I knew I could do them but didn't feel like a rock star this week for some reason. Monday was 4 miles, and Wednesday was 4.5 miles. My Tuesday night cycling workout also, nothing special felt mostly like a maintenance workout. Thursday night I missed my cycling workout cause I was getting ready for a trip to Arizona. Friday morning I was off to Arizona with my friend Diana; she was going to see a guy she met in Hawaii. After arriving at the Hyatt Place hotel in North Phoenix, I headed straight for the gym. I found a nice stationary bike and put on a spin workout and cranked out 13 miles and 650 calories of work WOO HOO! that was a good spin workout, it felt great!

The major hurdle I was facing last week was my long run. I don't remember the last time I had run 6 miles. If I were to venture a guess it would probably be when I was training to prepare for the Rock N Roll marathon. Due to a knee injury while running, I was unable to complete. That would have been early 2007. Needless to say I was a bit nervous for the run. Well I finally got the (cajones) to do the run around 11:45am on Saturday morning. I then debated between running outside on asphalt in the Arizona heat (90 degrees) or on the tredmill in the sort of air conditioned gym at the hotel. Well I decided on the hotel room even though running in place for 6 miles was gonna be torture. This advice comes from my personal expert in all things cycling, running and swimming (Judy). The first 2 miles were the worst mentally. My body was warming up and getting loose ok but I kept thinking man this is gonna be a long run on a tredmill. Well to my suprise my heart rate stayed right in the zone I wanted all the way up to mile 4.5. then it went up about 5BPM's so I slowed just a tad and it was fine, another mile (5.5 miles) in and it went up 5BPM's again at this point I decided I only have half mile to go, I will just deal with it. So I am feeling great mentally, and physically, so much so that I hold out till about 6.5 miles before I finally cool down. One funny thing the tredmill did was even though it was in manual mode it kept trying to cool me down after about 5 miles. it would drop in speed... strange. Anyhow, one final note, never forget your body glide on a long run! I forgot to bring mine, yep, a couple of hot spots. (dang newbies!)

Submit to the almighty Heart Rate Monitor!

2009-06-08T10:21:00.000-07:00

The week of June 1st started out as a typical workout week. 2 cycle workouts and 3 run workouts was on the schedule. Funny thing happened this week. You know how last week there were the Korean girls plotting against me to take my coveted treadmill time? Guess what, they were all but non existent this week. W00T! Well this past week I recieved my HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) I decided for this week I would workout how I normally do and just observe my heart rate but not make any changes in what I am doing. Well I found out why I loathed running workouts. My heartrate was well beyond what it should be and of course my cycling workouts were right in my zone so I felt I could do thouse all night long. SO sure enough, my run on monday and wednesday after wards I felt like poop and of course wishing I felt better but I figure that will come with time. Mind you I am only running like 3 miles on the mon, wed run. This is not a long run and I shouldn't feel this miserable. Because I would be sore tuesday and thursday i would grumble a bit as I would head to my cycling workouts. after a few minutes in the saddle, I would loosen up and be happy again.

Well Saturday monring is usually my long cycling ride (45+ miles). My daughter opted to stay home this weekend instead of going to her moms. That meant no long ride saturday morning for me. Instead I decided I would run that evening when Ally went to bed. So 9:30 rolls around and I am still debating if I should run or not. I tell myself, I will do a short 20 min run. I gear up and head out. A second decision is to stay within in my designated workout zone and see how I feel. WOW what a revelation! My heart rate is down, I am singing out loud to my music (good thing no one was around to hear it) And about 50 minutes into it, I have completed nearly 5 miles and feel great. I felt like I could have done 50 more minutes without hesitation. The downside was that meant I was running slower, but I felt so much better running, and over time, my speed will naturally increase. That said I have decided that I will submit my fitness agenda to the almighty Garmin Heart Rate Monitor! Happy running!, cycling!, swimming! (You pick!)

Those interested in the HRM I have follow this link.

Do It Anyway!

2009-06-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

So this blog is about 4 days late about my workouts the week of May 25th. Really there isnt a whole lot to report. There are a few more people working out in the gym at my complex then there usually is. There is a set of girls, Korean I think that have decided to monopolize the treadmills from 9-10pm. Now, I usually try and do one treadmill run and one outside run during the week to switch it up and to get used to running on the harder concrete. Anyhow I stop by Monday night and there they are using the treadmills, so I go out for a neighborhood run. No big story there just another run where I start out feeling good... about 1.5 miles get my usual right side cramp that goes away in a few minutes then I feel loosened up, then by mille three I am ready to end my workout. I know "currently a wuss" Anyhow, so on Tuesday I go in and there they are again, which is fine cause its cycling day. Again nothing major to report just another good workout while cycling. Wednesday night comes, sure enough there they are again, and I am totally annoyed and have to do another outside run. No major news on the outside running just over 3 miles and ready to be done and go to bed at that point. Thursday night comes along, sure enough I head over for my cycling workout and look who is there... a couple of high school aged Korean girls monopolizing the treadmills. Well Friday was a day off from working out but Saturday morning was a different story.

Saturday morning Mark and I opted not to do the Santa Ana river trail instead we mapped out this ride on Mapmyride.com. It was really quick and really cool to just draw out a route and go for it. here is the link to the ride we did. Something is up though because our mileage showed we did 46 miles, anyhow... so we did the ride and we had hills right away which we are not used to. Mark even threatened to turn around early on but he muscled through it and we pushed on through Carbon Canyon. Going north on Central st was a 6 mile constant climb it was a tad annoying but we need this kind of real world route training if we are going to do a half Ironman in March. SO We make a Left on Holt and start the worst 5 miles ever ridden in the history of cycling. There is a stop light every few feet and of course we have to hit almost all of them and we are not it a great neighborhood well around mile 30 we stop and refill some water bottles and take a quick break. We head on out and the we are thinking ok maybe a hill or two and the rest is down hill, um NOT!!!! the serious climbing was saved for the end. I have decided I don't like Pathfinder road and Fullerton road all that much. Pathfinder proved to be a formidable opponent but when we got to Fullerton road HOLY CRAP!!! Mark and I are cranking the pedals hard and we have put on about 35 miles at this point so we are not nearly as fresh and we are just doing a snails pace up this hills. Well we finally get our reward. Down hill; 40mph+ got to love that feeling. The rest of the ride was uneventful which was good. Back at the starting point I poured my first recovery drink under the Hammer Nutrition family. I was a bit worried honestly but Recoverite turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Good day of good hard cycling! Till next time...

Late night workouts with Kevin

2009-05-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

This week was particularly unique for my workouts. I have been putting in some overtime at work which happens every couple of months. I didn't want to let the overtime allow me the excuse of not working out so I didn't! My planned workouts this week were 2 cycling workouts and 2 run workouts.

Monday was a day off of working out so I enjoyed the break :) Tuesday night I was not feeling motivated to workout as I had worked a little late that evening so I decided to do a hill climbing workout. I got all geared up and went to the hill near my house known as the BOHS hill. The hills is only about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile long. I decided I would do this hill a few times. It was about 10:30 before I got out to workout so this was going to be a short workout. Well After climbing the hill over and over for the next 35 mins I decided I had enough and so did my legs so I headed home and went to bed. I woke up wednesday morning not feeling any soreness which dissapointed me because; again that meant I didnt work out hard enough. Oh well I thought, tonight will be different.

Wednesday night I decided 10:30 was too early to go workout so I decided to go for my run at about 11 pm. I did a 3 mile run around my neighborhood instead of on the treadmill. After that workout I was definitely feeling it. The next morning, good and sore! To me I was satisfied with that workout. I did learn that I need to get out and run in the neighborhood more. Different parts of my muscles were sore and even the little hills would bug me so, more outside running is in the perscription for success.

Thursday night I decided yet again that 11pm was way to early to get started and after a late night at work I was thankful it was a cycling night and not a running night. I had some money I needed to deposit so I decided I would make the deposit part of my ride. I cycled down to my bank and made the deposit. When I got back to my house it had only been eight miles. I needed at least seven more to be satisfied... So.. I headed towards Brea downtown and then took a sharp left at Brea blvd. heading south. After creating 3.5 miles of distance between my house and me it was time to turn back. This was a cadence workout and not a hill climbing one so I twas a nice relaxing workout.... wait did I just say that???? Who am I??? OK back to the report.

Saturday morning I decided late night workouts were LAME and before I headed into work I needed a run workout. I opted for a treadmill run because Ally was with me. I was happy for a three mile treadmill run it was easier on my body and I had to head into the office for a full day of work. Ally sat and txted with friends and played her DS while I jogged in place :) I was happy to wake up Sunday morning feeling well enough I could workout right away YEAH!!! I am making progress! The week of the 25th is a move to 5 workouts 2 runs and 3 cycles. I will meet the challenge! I have decided I need a night Hi-viz jersey for cycling and some lights if I am going to continue to cycle outside at night.

We are snail pace hill climbers!

2009-05-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

Last week was not a very strong week for working out. I only did one run and one cycle workout. I know I know... you dont have to say it; I know I was a slacker last week. Just a brief thought on my 3.5 mile run. About 3 miles into it I found myself a bit bored and wanting to stop. I tried to focus on good form and posture while listening to some tunes on the treadmill. I have decided that a treadmill run is only gonna get me through about a 3-4 mile run then I will need to go outside and see some other scenery. Anyhow, my excuse for laziness this week was... well, I guess I dont have one, I was just lazy. Now onto the weekend ride.

My friend Mark and I decided to head out to Arizona this past weekend and get a cycle workout in with someone significantly better than us. Judy was kind enough to let us come and ride with her on Saturday morning. Judy is a Massage Therapist, and she is currently training for the Ironman Coeur D'Alene. She met us at about 630am and we quickly went to a 20mph cadence. At approximately 16 miles we were faced with some hills Mark and I aren't used to. before I continue the story, I will say this; Mark and I prepared for Rosarito to Ensenada and we did great but El Tigre (800ft ascent in < 2 miles) was a serious hill definitely and kicked our trash but we pushed through and were successful, OK back to the story. So we start these hills and I try to crank through pushing myself more that I should have. about 1/2 up the hill Judy stopped for us to where I got off my bike and had a few moments of my body wanting to bring back up what I had for breakfast. After some drinking it subsided and we pressed on. I decided that I needed to take it easy on the hills at that point. So I was the slow poke in the back for the rest of that hill. We then dropped down onto a highway that was a nice downhill. Mark and I kept right up with Judy at nearly 30mph for several miles. Mark decided he needed a flat tire so Judy took charge right away and that tire was changed quick! Judy will insist that Mark helped some. I was too busy trying to take a photo of the quick action I do not recall the event in question anymore. So after the flat we took a quick refuel break at a gas station and then pressed on. We went south down some street I don't even remember anymore that had about 8 inches of road for us. On the right was a 4 inch drop off which meant instant crash for us roadies, and on the left was certain death by zooming cars. I wonder if Judy was trying to test our nerve??? That last several miles were fairly uneventful; so I will take this time to talk about gear and food.

I did some calculations and found that Mark and I would consume about 30-50 calories an hour on the high end. After some research and talking to our local triathlon god (Judy) we found that we needed to be consuming 200-300 calories per hour of working out while cycling. I will say that the CLIFF Blocks (like big gummy bears) were pretty good! Thanks Judy for that recommendation. Also at our 30 mile stop I had my CLIFF peanut pretzel bar which was also a recommendation by Judy; again, thank you! Because the weather was over 95 degrees by 9:00am we were needing to consume lots and lots of liquids. We tried a new drink by Hammer Nutrition. It is in a gel form and you mix it in with your water bottles. I was surprised at how light the flavoring was; which is good because I dont care for heavy syrupy tastes while riding. I tried to drink as much as I could; I got through about 40oz. of water an 1 1/2 water bottles so that is a huge improvement in comparison to previous rides. I never felt like I was going to hit the wall but I did feel my muscles did have to work more than they have been which was good training. No soreness the next day which means, we could have worked harder :-/

After our ride Mark and I walked into a cycling shop called DNA Cycles. It was a neat little shop in Mesa. I decided to buy a jersey from there cause I liked it so much. True story: Mark and I were just finished with our ride, our road bikes in the back of my truck and the sales manager starts talking to us and just chatting, he decideds he must show us the carbon Epic, now; I have never heard of this bike and he walks us over and points on the wall above our heads this several thousand dollar mountain bike. I am scratching my head at this point cause I don't know why he is wanting to show us a Mountain bike. Then a moment later it dawns on me. Mark and I are both wearing cargo riding shorts, and mountain bike shirts. Judy said we need to look more the part, and after our experience at DNA, there may be some truth to it.

Its time to join a Cycling Club

2009-05-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

April 9th 2009 Mark and I ride on Saturday mornings but this saturday morning was to be a bit different. Usually we cycle for distance and endurance. That Saturday we were going to do some base building meaning increasing our speed over shorter distances so in the future our regular cadence speed will be better. We got a late start due to my fault.. baby sitter issues and all. Well we get going and we had commited 20 miles to the ride. I decided to try at set my pace at around 20 miles an hour. I had difficulties keeping this as my muscles arent used to that speed and we had plenty of wind in our faces :) At mile 10 (the crash park, the little park I experienced my first bicycle crash) we stopped and talked about our 10 mile faster pace. We opted to go with Marks cadence back at about 17.5 miles an hour which felt good and didn't strain too much. Well this cycling club passes us and is doing 20+ I say to Mark, lets go draft them. Sure enough we tuck right into their draft and we are doing 21-22 mph and it feels nice. We followed the cycling club all the way back to our turn off point to which both Mark and I decide we need to join a cycling club immediately. We have started to look into a local club called Canyon Velo and think that may be a good fit for us. It will force us to grow as cyclists and we need it!

Rosarito to Ensenada was Awesome!

2009-05-11T10:41:00.001-07:00

INTRO: Regularly I will refer to "Mark" Mark Thompson is his name and he is a friend and training partner. We have embarked on our quest to be active and compete in local cycling races, running races, and triathlons. I had a conversation with my brother-in-law Ryan H. Turner near the beginning of the year telling him this year was the year that I was going to "break the cycle of laziness" It is now May and I happy to report I regularly workout now and on April 18th Mark and I did the Rosarito to Ensenada 50 mile bike ride. That was an amazing experience to say the least. We loved it so much we are doing the race again in September. http://www.rosaritoensenada.org Come and check out photos and video from the ride on my Picasa Page: http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.behunin