Last Chance Spin

Hey we're off the sunny Chicago this morning so I got up early to get some spinning in. It's my last chance to 'ride' a bike for a few days. The rest of the week will be spent on a treadmill. Usually I like to bring some gear suited for the weather but with all of the stuff required by a one year old it's just easier to pack some shorts and be done with it.

The reason we are headed to Chicago is for the Unified auditions. Each year we take our Senior theater students to audition for over 30 colleges, universities, and conservatories from across the country and parts of Europe. We always have a good time with the kids. It's not all business. I'm getting together with some old friends/new teammates Brad and Chris for lunch. They are the Chicago branch of World Bike Relief-Siren.

Ride on!

p.s. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for taking Finn for a few days.

It's coming togehter

I've been getting some good training in this week. Good thing, Old Pueblo is coming up fast and next week I'm in Chicago without a bike which leaves my only one week before the race to get ready. Next week I'll settle in with some time running, so I'll keep my endurance up, and then a taper week. But what am I tapering from? I think one needs to be training with some regularity to actually be in a taper.

Outside of training we've been working to get things together for the new ride to be unveiled at O.P. I think we're going to go with a World Bike Relief-Siren color scheme. Black, red, and white! All super fast colors. I'm really looking forward to this race.

Guess who's stirring. It's play time!

Ride on!

Just what I needed

I had a great training day yesterday, but let's go back one more day to Friday. The show opened to great reviews. It was a relief to finally have it up and running. The kids did a great job and I couldn't be happier with our student designer.

We got back from the show around 10:15 Friday night and I tried to get to bed as fast as I could. We ended up hitting the hay around 11:30. The plan was to get up early Saturday morning and start riding down to Temecula for the season opening race to the 12 Hours of Temecula series. Mary would pick me up along the way. I got up a little before 4:00, ate, drank some coffee, did some packing and headed out the door.

I've lived on this mountain for 10 years and I'm always still impressed with how very different the weather can be just a half mile from where you are at any given point. I leave the house and it's almost misting, by the time I reach the edge on town it's raining. So I turn back and get some rain pants and water proof gloves and head back out. From the edge of town through mountain center and up to Keen summit it was coming down pretty good and since I don't have fenders it was coming up pretty good as well. The rest of the ride down was nice. Here is a shot as the sun was coming up and working to break through the clouds just south of Anza.

I got in just over 40 miles before Mary picked me up. Now some of you might be thinking 'Todd how are you going to be competitive if you spend 2.5 hours of your bike before a 12 hour race'. As you know we opened a show the night before which means we have another show the night of the race. I knew I needed to head out by 4:00, only giving me an opportunity to race for 7 of the 12 hours. I figured I get get some miles in early knowing full well I could secure last place with no trouble, especially since I was placed in the Pro category, racing a single speed.

The race was a blast. Jason the race director mixed it up a bit this this and didn't put in some trails that are signature, but I think this loop was my favorite in the three years it's been going on. Over all I was happy with the day. I wanted to get in 7 laps and I did so in just over 6 hours. I got to ride a bit with Mary who was just rocking it out there. Early in the race I was able to hang with a strong single speeder I met from Durango, who I believe either won the single speed category or took second. As I was pitting for myself, I lost him after I need to stop and mix up some bottles. Like I said I got to ride a bit with Mary. On my last laps I waited a bit and for her to come into the pits and refuel and then we were off. I got a couple of nice shots of the race course along the way.

A+ day. Good riding, good friends, nice course, great weather, once I got through the rain, and a near prefect run of the show last night.

Ride on!

Just a quickie

I'm super busy so I'm going with just bullet points.

- Show is almost ready.
- I picked up the single speed song.
- Discovered I'm out of shape on a morning ride to school.
- Getting things ready for 12 hours of Temeucla this weekend.
- Fleshing out the details on the new secret weapon for O.P.
- Going to run the girls before a lunch meeting.
- Rinse and repeat if necessary.

Ride on!

Commuting

Fun on the way to work.

Traffic was light all the way in.

Ride on!

I'm off for a hike in about 15 minutes so this will be a short entry. Yesterday I was a triple threat. I spun in the morning, hit the road in the afternoon and got some dirt in along the way. Today I'll knock out some miles in the afternoon, and again this evening. Work is going to be real busy staring tomorrow so I need to get miles in while I can.

After a family walk around town yesterday afternoon Finn and I needed a snack.

Ride on!

I got a good ride in yesterday. We were invited to spend the day down in La Quinta with some good friends at their condo. I started down to Garner Valley by way of trails off of Cow Bell. As you can see from the first picture there was still some snow on the trails. Once I got about half way through the valley the Santa Annas really started kicking. As the road started to tip down I thought I might get a bit of a break, no such luck. I needed to pedal even when riding down hill. I ended up getting a better workout than I had anticipated. Good thing too because I need it.

In the distance the first snow capped mountain is where my ride started from. The other snow capped mountain is where the family we were getting together are from.

This morning Finn and I got out for a short hike.
Ride on!

Back on the Hill

Hey we're back on the mountain. After a relatively painless 12 hours of travel we pulled into town about mid afternoon. On a much needed walk to town to get the mail and some fixin's for the third square of the day I saw that Brendan was in the shop so I stopped in. We got to talking about the new secret ride. There is nothing else like it out there. We'll be showing it off at Old Pueblo. I just hope I'm as fast as this bike will be.

Yesterday was a good day on the hill. It started with walking the girls and then hanging out with Finn while Bonnie got some things done around the house. When Finn went down for a nap I got an hour and a half of spinning in. In the afternoon I went on a hike with Gray and his horse Cool Hand. The evening was spent chasing Finn until he went to sleep for the night. Then we did the same not too long after that.

Today we are back to work. We have some students coming in to get some much needed work done on the set. It looks like training won't happen until tonight.

Ride on!