Tuesday, March 7, 2006
And they call her ìWindyî

No not me, but it was damn windy today. We started out on our Seven Hills course and were getting blown all over the road. Tom suggested we turn back (phew). So we got in a little over six miles today. At least we were out there.

Tonight, I have my weight training. I do super-slow weight routine once a week. Iím leg-pressing 420 lbs and bench-pressing 130 lbs. Hence, even though Iím burning all these calories, Iím not losing weight because Iím still building muscle. Iím also always hungry, but Iím getting that under control and we should begin to see the pounds coming off soon. My goal is to lose ten pounds by the AMBR date in June (that's ten pounds I don't have to lug up the hills in Tahoe!

Sunday, March 5, 2006
Personal Bests

On Saturday we rode from Green Valley to Lake Las Vegas. 37 miles round trip. Iím pleased with that accomplishment, the longest Iíve ever ridden to date. Having driven to Lake Las Vegas, I never thought that I would say that I rode my bike out there. Itís a lovely ride once youíre out there, giant Italian inspired villa perched on the sides of mountains with a small shopping village and casino Lake-side. There was one tough climb back into one of the neighbourhood. We rewarded ourselves at the halfway point by stopping at Starbucks for a snack. Tom, who was the first one up and down the hill decided not to wait for us and continued on to the entrance to Lake Las Vegas. To anyone out on a Saturday drive, Tom was the one doing yoga stretches on the side of the road. Tom, in spandex, doing yoga ‚ you heard it here first!

Sunday was a different story. We drove out to Lake Mead to tackle a 24-mile on the road that follows the lake, Lakeshore Drive. I started out with no legs and I ended with no legs and no stamina. The entire ride was difficult and exhausting to the point of nauseousness, but I rode the entire length. The road is hilly but clean and the scenery is really serene with the brown mountains against the blue waters. My intension is to return this weekend take back that ride.

After the ride a few of us drove into Boulder City to have lunch at Miloís Wine CafÈ. Itís a fantastic little spot nestled in amongst Indian jewelry stores and bric-a-brac shops in downtown Boulder City. I hope to patronize it again this coming weekend.

March 3, 2006
Back in LV

After spending the weekend through Thursday in L.A. itís good to be home and back to training.

I was much inspired by the pros we saw at the Tour of California: Hincapie, Leipheimer, Salvodelli Ö all excellent looking specimens in tight fitting gear. Of course, some of our fellow the enthusiasts were a bit of an eyeful.

New Rule: if you canít see your feet, do not wear spandex. I donít care how much you claim to be cycling, there are some things the public does not want to see. As you can see from my own pictures, cycling gear seems to add ten pounds. Itís like television, only not as forgiving.

On Monday and Wednesday I spent an hour on the stationary bike in the hotel gym. Iíd have to say stationary bike is not fun. My positioning on the bike was strained, my level of effort was taxed and I the scenery was pretty boring.

As Tom mentioned in his bike blog, we have foregone entering the Zion Century ride this weekend. Having only ridden a maximum of 26 miles in one day, I do not have a level of confidence that I could complete the 50 to 62-mile ride from St. George to Springfield UT. I know the road, weíve driven it often to our favorite camping spot in Zion National Park. The road is mostly undulating hills with a couple of pretty steep climbs around Hurricane (pronounced hurkin). Iíll definitely be ready for the Cactus Hugger Century at the end of March.

February 20, 2006
Happy Presidentís Day!

Today I followed the example so often set by our current ìPresident in residentî and I took the day off from bike riding.

It was a good weekend for riding despite the inclement weather: a little rain, a little wind. Sunday was a beautiful 20-mile ride through Seven Hills and up St Rose. Same ride we take every week but with the mountains shrouded in snow clouds, the valley streaked intermittently with sheets of sunlight and rain, it made for an entirely new landscape

As Tom mentioned in his bike blog, we have foregone entering the Zion Century ride this weekend. Having only ridden a maximum of 26 miles in one day, I do not have a level of confidence that I could complete the 50 to 62-mile ride from St. George to Springfield UT. I know the road, weíve driven it often to our favorite camping spot in Zion National Park. The road is mostly undulating hills with a couple of pretty steep climbs around Hurricane (pronounced hurkin). Iíll definitely be ready for the Cactus Hugger Century at the end of March.

February 14, 2006
Happy Valentineís Day!

Today was an easy ride through Seven Hills. I say easy, but thatís an accomplishment! Today is the first day I can say that the steep hills throughout our neighbourhood did not kick my ass.

The DJ in my brain gave me a befitting tune for the day. I hummed along through the latter half of the course to Paul McCartneyís Silly Love Song.

Iím doing a contest to name the DJ in my brain. My entry is ìDJ Spazî but I welcome your input. E-mail me by clicking the ìContactî button in the upper right corner of this page.

February 12, 2006
Iím please to announce that today I rode almost 27 miles on the bike today. It was broken into two rides.

The first ride was in East Las Vegas in the shadow of Sunrise Mountain. We met with our Team in Training Southern Nevada Chapter group and headed off on a 4 mile loop that went past horses in stables and almost to the edge of the city where the desert wilderness starts. I stayed at the front of the pack with three other riders and we did the circuit four times.

We got on our bikes a second time an hour later to do an abbreviated 10-mile ride around Seven Hills. My quadriceps burned for most of the ride due to the lactic acid build-up from the first ride.

I am confident that will achieve my next goal of 27 miles in one ride which I will tackle next weekend.

February 11, 2006
Good ride today. We started out at Blue Diamond on Hwy 159 around 9:30am. The sun was bright and the sky was cloudless (an incessantly recurring backdrop in the desert) the air was cool but not cold. Blue Diamond is a small community on the road to Red Rock outside Las Vegas. We did our standard route of twenty miles out and back. The Blue Diamond road features a two-mile climb on the outgoing. This is OK because it turns into a 30mph+ two-mile descent coming back.

The mountains that rim the Blue Diamond road are craggy peaks that feature fantastic striations of limestone stained red in places with iron deposits and weathered by wind and rain. The wind today was only about 5 mph blowing from east to west. It did not offer significant resistance, but it was loud as blew past my head. I turned into it about eight miles out and noticed a funny thing, I had a soundtrack in my head.

Under tremendous effort I usually start counting, just counting numbers, usually in time with each pedal stroke. But I was on a slight downhill grade and even with the wind in my face I was still clipping a fair 22 mph. My brain was playing a soundtrack to entertain me along the way. Featured tunes today were ìSheís Like the Windî by Patrick Swayze and ìRide Like the Windî by Christopher Cross. Thatís when I noticed how loud the wind really was. And yes, Iím embarrassed to say, my brain tunes to crappy thematic pop tunes of the eighties when under mild duress.

I made it back to Blue Diamond in about 1 hour and 27 minutes having ridden almost 22 miles. I entertained the thought of taking Blue Diamond road to Hwy 160 which would have added another six miles to the ride but I deferred to the plan that I would have to do it all over again in a Team in Training team ride on Sunday so I called it a day.