Picacho Time Trial #2

Sunday was my second race, same course 20k TT. I showed up early and got to warm up on the trainer. I had fixed my saddle nose, brought it down out of the atmosphere, and it was immediately more comfy even on the trainer. We started 30 min late but I got a clean start and settled into my cadence quickly and started and stayed aero alot more this race. I think I only came out of aero to climb the one overpass at the turn around. My first half had a headwind again, but not as bad and I was able to keep my average speed higher this race. I didn't drop below my target of 15.5 mph till the climb. On the return I again averaged 20mph and the last 1k I kicked it up to almost 23mph for a in-aero sprint. Overall I finished in 0:41:44, which means I cut exactly 2 min off my last time! and I didn't get to train between races. Next race, same course, is the 27th and I plan to train and cut more time off! yay bikes!!

New bike and first race

First off the Torelli rides even better than it looks and it looks AMAZING!! (click the picture cause I can't get it to format smaller)
Took it out for 20 miles on Saturday morning and fiddling with the seat position. Its still a little off, but better. I need to mess with it on the trainer, the nose of the saddle is a little too high. Anyways, the race:

I was up early, 4am, cause I had to be there at 5 to help run registration. that was done at 630-640ish and was windy the whole time. My start time was 7:22:00. I didn't have time to set up on the trainer for warm up but rode on the frontage road with my friend who started a minute behind me for a little, but not enough. They started late because of a larger than expected number of racers running the 20k. I started clean but was hit right away with the 12mph avg headwinds for the first 11-12k. After the first 4 miles I was hurting and slowing down and losing cadence. I made it up the overpass where the turn around was at only 12.5 mph or so. Like I said, bad. But then the down hill from the overpass and the tail wind helped me spin and feel better. The whole way back i stayed aero and didn't drop below 20mph and my cadence stayed right where I needed it to, around 85rpm. I finished 20k in 0:43:44, 17.05 mph. That is about 1-2mph faster than my normal ride time right now. I feel pretty good about it. Lots of room for improvement, but I lost 3 weeks of training due to no road bike and there was a decent headwind right away. My goal for next race, July 6th, is under 40 min. I think with training i can cut out 3 min. Pics as soon as the are posted to the photographers site.

Mt Lemon by bike, kinda

Saturday was my first ride with my team and first group ride ever. I have always ridden by myself or with one other person. 6 of us, including Dann, were ready to go at 8am and headed out. It was supposed to be and easy 7 miles to the base of Mt Lemon then climb while you can/till you can't. Problem is, I haven't been getting the ride time in like I need to the warm up was at 16.5+mph. I need a warm up around 14 so i was working pretty good from the start. Also I forgot to start in my small chain ring so my cadence was only 65 RPM or so, way to slow for warming up.

I started mid pack and was pulling with one other person around mile 4 at 17mph+. I had never pulled before and was not even warmed up yet! By the time we got to the base my legs were already cooked from no good warm up, not to mention my breakfast from 2 hours earlier was about to come back to haunt me. I couldn't even make it 1 mile up Lemon. I had to stop and get off my bike and sit down, I felt light headed and like I was bout to hurl right there on the side of the road. I was toasted. The old man of the club, who helped start it back in the day, had stayed back with me as I fell off the back of the group around mile 6. I told him to keep climbing as I turned around. All the way in was a slight incline so as I headed back I was able to spin pretty well and feel good by the end.

Lessons learned: experiment with pre-ride meal (two eggs, 1 piece of toast with peanut butter and milk 2 hrs before didn't work), spin faster in small ring to warm up, don't be afraid to turn down a pull if its above my skill, and finally, don't stop riding. On the way back I felt that if I hadn't stopped to take a breather I could have gone a lot farther up the mountain. I should of just kept pedaling.

All in all, I learned a lot and am much more motivated than ever to ride more and get better. Hell, I have a race up that same mountain in August, I'd better get better :)

chasing toys

About 2 feet to the shoulder, 80 pounds, typical black lab build but with a deeper chest and the face of a German Shepard. Oh yeah, he has ADD. Make that ADHD, with an emphasis on the H. That is Jessie. He is my Uncle Sean’s dog and he is fantastic. He lives for one thing and one thing only. The toy. Toy=life for Jessie. It is that simple. For now toy is a rubber bone, round on both ends with studs on the center part. If you throw it right it tumbles across the yard, which causes Jessie to kick it into another gear and accelerate even faster. When he gets his toy, he gladly returns to whoever threw it and waits at their side until it is thrown again. He will chase the toy until he has no more energy to give and has to lie down in the middle of the grass until he can go again. The point is really simple. Toy is life. One goal, one aspiration, one driving force. Get the toy. I think more often than not we are the same way, myself included.

You see it every day; the career man ignoring his family for work, the student who never leaves school because she has to be just a little bit smarter and more prepared, the kid throwing a temper tantrum in the grocery store aisle because dad won’t buy him that box of Super Duper Sugar Bomb breakfast cereal. Each person is focused solely on the one goal in front of them, forsaking all other things to get to their “toy”. It leads to frustration, exhaustion, being fed up with life. But what of the one “toy” that we are supposed to chase with everything we have. In Jessie’s pursuit of his toy, there is a beautiful picture of what a life lived with and for Christ is supposed to look like.

We are to pursue Christ with everything we have, until we can run no more, then get up and keep chasing after Him. God doesn’t care about our “toys” or how hard we work to get them. Yes, he wants us to be happy but what He really wants is someone who will live their life trying to be more like Christ everyday. It is not that the pursuit of Christ-ness means we won’t be happy. Not at all. It means that our definition of happiness and contentment will change to fit what Jesus has for us. He will make his “”toys” (his passions and desires) our “toys”, so we will want to chase after the same things He does. That is how we become like Christ. We desire to see “His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” What toy are you chasing?

Clutter

Clutter besieges me. It is all around me. In my room. My mind. My heart. The room I can clean. My mind I can bring into moments of focus, but not for long. My heart is another matter. Have I strayed that far from God. I feel as though my heart and spirit is tie-dyed. So many things swirling around that no one color is discernable. And not a pretty tie-dye. One of pale browns, greens, mustards. It all just mixes and convolutes into this strange quagmire that cannot be easily defined. Such is the substance of my being right now. I cannot make out all that is going on in me. I beg for change in my life yet the things that need changing are like the colors, I just can’t make them out. No matter how hard I look or how hard I try, it remains out of focus. The clutter is discouraging. So much is circling through my mind and heart, it makes even writing difficult. There are words I want to get out, thoughts and feelings I want to express but they just get tangled in the undergrowth that is my heart and mind. And it seems I can’t find a machete to hack my way through. Maybe a more delicate, careful navigation through the scrub is required. Moving slowly, deliberately. Working through one bush, one tree, one tangle at a time; so as not to become overwhelmed by the scope of the journey. I have planted some of this, ok much of this, underbrush my self and now I must be the one to clear it out. Not completely alone, but they are issues I must face and deal with. So, in I go.

Rhythm

“1,2,3,4…1,2,3,4…1,2,3,4” I think to myself. The little screen in front of my reads 84 RPM. My mind and legs settle on that cadence…1,2,3,4,…1,2,3,4…1,2,3,4. My mind and body are now fixed on this count, this rhythm. It is cathartic. In this rhythm all seems right. There is no work, no school, no sickness, nothing but the road and the rhythm of the pedals. I feel as though I could do this forever. Of course my legs don’t agree with my mind on that point yet, but they will. Sometimes life seems as if its rhythm is like the dancing flame of a fire. No pattern, no predictability, nothing to help anticipate its next move. I can find rhythm on my bike fairly easily, yet more often than not that same rhythm escapes me in most every other aspect of life. I like rhythm. On my bike a good rhythm keeps me going for a long distance. It allows me tackle hills and descents, flats and turns. Yet part of me thinks that were I to find a good rhythm in life (whatever that actually means) then my life would be useless for the sake of Christ.

Does God really want someone who knows what each day, week, month, year will bring? Certainly not! He wants us to be ready to do His hearts desires and follow after Him. More often than not, at least in my experiences, that means a disruption to my regularly scheduled life. I like knowing that Monday is guys group, Tuesday is Dann’s etc., etc. That schedule, especially Tuesday nights, helps to keep me sane and moving forward in life. But I also know that to be most useful to the Kingdom I must be…flexible. The more I think about it the more I believe that there is a rhythm to being a follower of Jesus. It is not the usual rhythm of the same predictable thing time in and time out. It is a rhythm of growing closer to God, working on that relationship. I can’t say with any certainty what tomorrow will hold. But I can say with absolute certainty that God does and I will do my best to have my relationship with Him be one that is open to follow His leading. The rhythm comes in my spiritual walk. Developing some life skills that I put into practice on a regular basis that grow me closer to Christ. Things like prayer, quiet times, fellowship with other believers, reading the Bible. If I can make these things a part my life’s rhythm then I am on the right track. That is the rhythm that will get me up the steep climbs and through the long rides. Not a set schedule of things I do, but a life of regularly and consistently chasing after God and the Son. That is the rhythm of life as it should be.

Randomness

So I’m sitting on the airplane from Dallas/Fort Worth to Raleigh/Durham, which means that this blog is mostly randomness, and thoughts collaborated from whenever.
Saturday as I was leaving work I saw a huge group of the riders in the El Tour de Tucson. It furthered my resolve to ride in next years El Tour. Hopefully the 109 mile race. First part of that goal is actually buy a road bike. That means saving up some scratch, but it will happen.
I watching Family Guy while writing this and one of my favorite part goes as follows:

Meg is sitting outside the Hooters Shooters bar waiting for her mom to come back out with a fake I.D. for her to use and then a Priest and a Rabbi walk into the bar as the Rabbi says “Did you hear the one about us?”
Priceless, so easy to go there yet so funny. Family Guy usually provides good times.

Hiking

Last Thursday I went hiking to Romero Pools in Catalina State Park. I love that hike. It is about 5 miles round trip. Not hard but enough elevation change and rockiness that it is fun and slightly challenging. Near the end of the hike there is a point where you can look down on to the pools and hear the water running. I love that part. You still have about 20-25 minuets of hiking before you actually reach the pools but you can see and hear them. It reminds of walking with Him. There are so many times where we get a picture of where we are going in life or where God is calling us to: college majors, career decisions, future spouse, etc. etc. But there is still work that has to be done before you get to the end goal. The last 20 minuets before the pools have a little bit of everything; up hill, downhill, switch back sections. It has some interesting, ankle attacking sections. That’s not a negative, it just is. When you finally get to the pools you are rewarded with some beautiful scenery and more than a few glorious sand bars in which to nap in the shade. Kinda like in life, there are hardships in the way of getting to the final destination. Yet I would venture to guess that if it weren’t for those hardships and “ankle grabbers” the destination would not be as fulfilling. Hardships create memorable experiences and those experiences create faith. I have hiked Romero Pools multiple times before last Thursday so I knew from experience that the pools were just 20 minuets from the first time you encounter them. Likewise I have been through hardships in life and have seen God bring me through them, thus creating experiences that are basis to strengthen my faith that He will take care of me in the future. That faith comes from hard time. 1 Peter 4 talks about the joy that should come from suffering. It builds and strengthens your relationship with Christ. And that is the purpose of being a follower of Jesus isn’t it: to get to know him better and strive to more like Him.