Weekend warriors...

and here I am on a Monday scrambling to pack my bags to fly to WA for the week, enter a few more bike races, fit a 2 hr ride in before the airport, mail off bills, print off notes for a wine tasting tonight, dinner plans for tomorrow, order new doors for the house, appliances, etc.....phew..

Man that Sattley TT thing was a tough slog back...the drive I mean after a 3+hrs of climbing on the TT rig at 300 watts with Buckley and Tracey. I did come back to find that I had the fastest time of the day. Everyone was gone, but I got a nice BIG hug and kiss from Tracey. Thats really all that counted.

All aboard!

A day in the MJH life:

Weigh in..on track for lowest since 1988.

SJ to SF and have a meeting with my financial guy..."you have a high risk portfolio"..there's a shocker..

Go to Pete's for a lowfat Latte

Take a car nap in the Marina for 10 minutes...got some kind of 8 hr sickness..wonder if its still recovering from Hood???

TT final fitting with TT ace John Hunt

Sell some vino on the phone

Get stuck in traffic on the way to Napa.




Ride with legendary winemaker Randy Lewis (also drove in the Indy 500 5x) we talk about super secret wine project

Host a 6 course dinner of Spanish wines on the Napa Valley Wine train for 50 of my new best friends.

Get home at 11:02 and check email, wander in the demo zone of a home and go to bed.

Race against the clocks..Sattley TT is almost here.

Every year Sattley gives me a chance to see if I'm getting faster at something other then going bald. The TT thing is a race against more then just one clock..for aging masters like myself there are two. One clock for the race and one for the how much longer am I going to keep on doing this bike race non-sense??
Sattley first
A couple of years ago when my GF and I made the annual drive up to Sattley, she said" who are all these people, I don't know any of them" the TT breed attracts all types. The flatlanders, Tri guys, and there are always a few specialists that show up to spoil the show.

For me its not so much a race against the clock, but a race against myself and I have high hopes this year with both time and watts in mind.

The one thing I love about the TT's is its just plain and simple.

Here are a few tips.
After a proper 30 min warm-up with a few 1-2 min efforts put the bike on the road and give it a test. Accelerate hard on the rear wheel to make sure there is no slippage. One last gu.
Have bottle half full of h2o for the race.
PSI-120 lbs in the rear, 140 front
No need for a gear larger then a 53x11=42mph at 109 rpm and the closer the better.
Ramp up speed slowly in first 2 k to target speed for way out. Get a feel for the wind by looking at visual cues..flags, grass, etc. If its a headwind understand that you will be faster on the return.
Shoulders and head tucked in.
Cadence 110
Power...
HR...
Feels good???
Pass first rider...don't get excited its only the first 10 min..get the next rider, focus on the pedals, keep aero, get to the turnaround and you can have a drink, check target time for turnaround..stretch the legs, back and beans ... Do the half time math quick..reverse split...get back up to speed steady..now start dialing up the watts..speed...catch a few more riders...now just hold as much as possible for the next 5 k...get to the max hr, start to hyper ventilate, not much air, keep it to the line, one more k= 1 more minute and its over, keep on pedaling to the line and its over.

See plain and simple.

Crit today in Hood River..then Full Sail beer tent!

Looking forward to this crit today, its always been a favorite. But we'll see if I still feel that way after Navigators puts the hurt on Healthnet for the time bonus. This crit is like Santa Cruz, a bunch o turns and a uphill leg grinding finish. Then I get to have some beers with Justin England and Sean Whelan. Spine Teamates from the past, we did this race together 5 years ago. That was the year we shot Fuentes off the back on the last stage and Justin was my leadout man on the climbs. Now I just read about his ride on Velonews as I'm too far back to see him attack.

I'm already thinking about my next stage race in Boston...problem is I'm strugglin...Pro 12 or Master...I'm thinkin I'll give the Pro 12 a run at Fitchburg. I can't wait!

Epic stage!

Ok sometimes the word epic gets used to often when describing a road race stage. This is the only word I can come up with after finishing today's race. It was amazing, beautiful, challenging, and one of the most physically demanding stages I've ever raced. The descents went on for miles and were straight as an arrow. There were three main climbs with a 5-6% grade that hurt when the attacks started..they started early and often. This week was a big piece of humble pie and I'm in awe of the Pros who are actually racing for every stage. I've just been a passenger holding on as long as this bag skin and bones are able. Its been great training I think..

After the 87 miles I rode back to the car which was mostly downhill for another 15 miles. I was beaming from ear to ear with a bit of my own personal glory of finishing yet another stage in this life I'm living.

Hot damn that TT was FUN!

Hood TT 18.5 miles

Today my legs are starting to come around after a couple of very very hard days. The new TT course here at Hood is awsome! Its like that first kiss, not knowing what to expect around each corner, over the climb, thru the parking lot and the tunnel.
I always spend time getting to know the courses, this was the exception and I don't reccomend it if your really trying to do the GC thing. For me my racing has been getting better as the form is coming back from a few weeks of pretending. Just two more stages then rest up for Sattley:) I wanna break into the 50 min zone...20 years ago I was happy with 55min.


Bev on the other hand..I guess I should have not been such a whimp and soaked my legs in the Hood River a bit longer. It seemed to work fo her in the TT as she finished second and I was 25th.

Click it or Ticket....

Men in Blue with nothing to do..piss me off before the am coffee....$102 clams.


Oh well, yesterday was another hard day. 1/3 of the field got shelled in the first 10 miles and never made it back. 25 dnf's and 4 outside the time cut of 55 min...

Klye had a huge ride and finished 11th and moved up a ton in GC. I got shot out of the back with 10K to go and lost 9 min..


Today my 30 sec man in the 18 mile tt is the ex-national TT champ...Ian M from BMC.

I'll have to have an extra shot today in the latte.


All is well.