Waiting for payment...

Hi All! How's the week been? I'm sitting here after another delicious dinner consisting of the usual roasted vegetables, salmon, and a bit of bread. My wife and I have been eating a lot of salads for dinner lately, and I really believe all the cooking at home instead of dining out, has helped improve my performance on the bike significantly.

This weekend on the bike was one of the hardest I've had in terms of a training weekend in quite some time. The week began by taking Monday off as a rest day, then trainer intervals Tuesday (ouch!), a nice 2-1/2 moderately paced ride Wednesday, another rest day Thursday, a 2-hour endurance ride Friday, then the real punishment!

Saturday I left my house around 7:30am to ride down to Nytro to subject myself to the infamous "Swamis" ride. I met up with my friends Mark Palmer and John Bailey (of Bailey Bikes), and the ride rolled out promptly at 8:30. I was feeling good and had hopes of surviving longer in to the ride then I usually do. Typically I get dropped off the lead group coming in to San Elijo town center as the ride turns on to Harmony Grove Road. This time I was able to stay with the ride almost the entire way through Elfin Forest, finally getting dropped at the chicken ranch, due to the extremely difficult pace that John Bailey himself was pushing at the front.

I met back up with Mark and John at the church in Escondido, and we decided to tackle the "long" route, but instead of riding up Lake Wohlford Road we were going to head straight up Valley Center Road. This was the first time I had ever ridden up this road, and I much prefer it over Wohlford because of the shoulder all the way up. I ended up with 68 miles on the day, and a whole lot of work!

As we rolled back in to Escondido, Mark mentioned something about riding together the next day and doing hill repeats! I thought he was joking, but as it turns out he was dead serious. I say that, because after the third repeat up Scripps Poway Parkway, followed by a ride in to Ramona, back down Highland Valley Road, and eventually back to Mark's house in Carmel Valley, I felt pretty close to death! 60- miles for the day, and again, a whole lot of work!

So here I sit, two weeks away from the State Championship RR in Bakersfield, which I'm totally amped to do, and waiting to receive payment come June 6th during the RR for all the work I've been putting in to get ready. I'm just thankful that I enjoy all the training and the process of getting fit to be ready to race, almost as much, or possibly even more then the races themselves.

Hope all is well! Until next time...