Le Tour

Man, the Tour is fun. Even if you are not a cycling fan, watching the end of a stage and seeing the drama unfold is cool as heck. Seeing these dudes battle over 3 weeks or seeing them suffer in the mountains or even seeing the tactics take place is addictive and exciting. What's also cool is that there are 2 US teams in the Tour this year, Team Columbia and Team Garmin-Chipotle. Both teams have represented well thus far. I like the Garmin-Chipotle team not only because they have cool kits, but they have 3 Americans on their team and 2 former bad ass Gary Fisher mountain bikers, Ryder Hesjedal and Trent Lowe. They should do well overall but I don't expect too much from them with David Millar as their GC guy.

Team leader David Millar sporting some fly kicks...


American Christian Vandevelde representin the red, white & blue...


Team Columbia has a good GC guy, Kim Kirchen, who is doing very well. They also have old man Hincapie, a solid young rider in Lovkist and sprinting stud Cavendish. These guys are and will continue to make some noise over the next few weeks. I'm eager to see how Kirchen holds up over the long haul and also eager to see Big George get a stage win.


Every year me & the boys bet on the top 3 Tour finishers, with the winner taking home a beer prize from all participants. This year my top 3 goes- 1. Cadel Evans 2. Carlos Sastre 3. Alejandro Valverde. So far all of them are doing ok, especially Evans, but the truth teller will be the mountain stages. We also picked dopers this year since the last few years have focused as much on doping as the actual final podium finishers. I can't remember who I picked but hopefully this year we'll all be able to enjoy the race for what it is and not have to hear about the never-ending doping scandals. Cycling really needs a clean Tour and this one promises to be a good one with all of the unknowns and the wide-open field.

Vive le Tour!

Racing

So its already July and it's getting awful close to football season...AND the fall race series! The Florida State Championship Series in the fall is the main focus of my annual training and racing plan. The schedule for this year's series has changed somehwat, with a few new additons and one key race missing for me, Hanna Park here in Jacksonville. There are also a few races that I want to do before the series starts in September. Its hard to plan to do a lot of these races so most of the time I will do them if they fit into my schedule just right. After doing the bike leg of this Saturday's sprint triathlon in Ponte Vedra, the next race that I would like to do is either the Trail to Trail (mtn bike-road bike-mtn bike) race on August 3rd at Loyce Harp Park in Lakeland or the the Georgia Series XC race in Macon, Ga. From there I will do the Jacksonville Cycling Classic the weekend of August 9th, which is a downtown criterium on Saturday and a road race on Sunday. I may hit the next Trail to Trail race the following weekend at Santos Trails in Ocala, Aug 17. My last race before the the fall series will be the 8 Hours of Labor endurance race on 08/31 at San Felasco in Gainesville. I look forward to that race to see where my endurance is at and to kick start some fitness for the fall. I have done a couple of 6 hour races in the last few years and even though I totally suffer, I have experienced a decent bit of personal success.

The fall series, which I plan to do the whole thing for the 3rd year in a row, looks like this:
#1 09/14 Gainesville, FL (Haile's Trails)
#2 09/28 Fernandina Beach, FL (Ft. Clinch St Park)
#3 10/12 Tallahassee, FL (Tom Brown Park)
#4 10/26 Lithia, FL (Alafia River St Park)
#5 11/02 N. Miami, FL (Oleta River St Park)
#6 11/16 Alva, FL (Caloosahatchee Park)
#7 11/30 Alachua, FL (San Felasco Trails)
#8 12/14 Ocala, FL (Santos Trails)

Char and I also have a trip planned for the XTERRA National Championship on October 5th in Lake Tahoe. We plan to ride the course the 1st day, her race and then me ride the 2nd day, and then we are going to stay for a few days and hit more trails between there and Reno, which is where we will most likely stay.

So I have a full plate coming up but I hope to find that this year's hard training and the addition of coaching will soon pay off. If, for some reason, I don't fare better than last year's final standings (10th overall in expert), I may have to re-evaluate my focus and start looking into doing (possibly) some sprint triathlons, XTERRA off-road triathlons, and even some running (5K's, 10K's, marathon?)...

Go shorty, its your birthday!

Happy birthday to my nephew Lukas, who turned 1 today! Tear up some cake, little man!

Fireworks at the beach...


Char and I had a pretty good time for the 4th. After spending some time at the pool, we rolled down to Jax Beach to watch the fireworks. Afterwards, we jumped back on the beach cruisers for more drinks, appetizers and laughs at Sean & Steph's pad. I tried not to drink too much or stay out too late because I had a long ride on the 5th. Well, we stayed out a little late and I ended up getting started on my long road ride about 4 hours later than planned. Not that this is a bad thing, but at 11:30 in the afternoon, it was already awful damn hot!

Leaving for my journey...


After staying up late consuming oat sodas, eating bad all day Friday and it being hot as hell out, I think I bonked about 3 minutes after this picture was taken. Considering it takes me forever to warm up, I kept thinking I would come around once I got going. I felt like crap at 1 hour, then at 2 hours, then at 3 hours but I kept pedalling. I was going through 2 bottles every hour and a half and I had a hard time eating anything. I was riding rather slow in order to keep my heart rate in check considering this was an endurance ride. I kept thinking that I would come around considering that last Saturday's 4 hour and 10 minute ride felt absolutley great! But no, I felt like dog-poo from start to finish. I averaged 1 mile an hour slower than last Saturday's long ride. I ended with 84 solo miles in 4 hours and 40 minutes, while burning over 3900 calories. The average temperature during my little spin was 96 degrees and almost all of it was in the direct sunlight- really no tree coverage and NO clouds. Beautiful beach weather... Anyhow, from here I spent the rest of the day parked in the living room watching the Olympic Trials and the Tour de France with Char, who was also spent from a tough afternoon brick workout.

Sunday we got up and headed to Panera for breakfast with Mayfield. From there we took her to Dogwood Park to let her run loose with all of the other dogs. This park is HUGE and is totally sweet for dogs! She had such a blast and we had just as much fun watching her run around with all of the dogs as she tried to figure out who to play with next. She ran her little heart out...


Made some new friends...


...and was ready to bounce as soon as we said, "Let's go!" When we got back home we eazed back into "chill mode" and turned the Olympic Trials back on, which we had recorded. By the way, did anybody watch this? Man, watching the track events and then the pool events in HD with all of the crazy cameras and angles is downright amazing! We couldn't turn it off! We also took a little time to catch up on the Tour, which I also have recording on the DVR. Its nice to be able to watch these things, whenever, so much faster when they are recorded. Anyhow, bad weather rolled in and even though I tried to wait it out, the rain never let up so I missed a ride that I was anxious to do. I really wanted to ride, but I had no desire to hop on the trainer in place of the real thing. I try to limit my trainer time in order to avoid burn out...

Happy 4th!

Ok, I need a good post with pictures. I just got done washing my X in the blistering heat so I think I'll cool off at the computer and give the ol' blog some love...

Mark and the gang left for Louisville this past Monday. We had an excellent time while they were here. Thursday night we headed to Clark's Fish Camp for dinner. Clark's is a mandatory visit for all of our guests. Its set back on a creek and has wild turtles and gators to feed off the deck. Inside offers a taxidermy heaven- almost every animal known to man is stuffed and on display. They have a crazy big menu with everything that comes out of the water is deep fried. Ok, they have a few other things too but its a great atmosphere and always a good time!

A few shots of the gang waiting outside for our table...

Friday we loaded up and went to the water park at Adventure Landing. It was a hot day and the water slides were awesome! I'll have to be sure to get back here before the summer ends...

Saturday was a bike day at Hanna Park. Since they all brought their bikes we needed to show them the trails at Hanna. Mark and I hadn't been to Hanna together in ages. We parked under the trees along a creek at a picnic area and hopped on the bikes for some trail action. We had a good time but was rushed out of the park by yet another storm.

Saturday night- oh boy, Saturday night. After a week of doing things with the kiddos, the adults needed a little time out on the town to let off a little steam. After getting the kids situated with a babysitter, we rolled up to Harmonious Monks in Mandarin for some adult beverages, some music and some dancing. HM is a cool little spot that usually has a band that is totally interactive with the crowd. They also allow the girls to dance on tables, which is always a good time! Anyhow, we had a solid blast! Um, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Yeah, Mark and I got hammered and spent Sunday paying for it. While we slept it off, the girls went to the beach. Afterwards, we ended the week with a trip to Tijuana Flats for dinner followed by some Rita's. Rita's kicks ass!

This week was a short week at work but a long week for riding. I have close to 14 hours of saddle time to get done this week, including a 4-1/2 hour ride tomorrow. Sunday would be a great day to hit some trails, so maybe I can get down to San Felasco or up to Ft. Clinch for a 2-1/2 hour spin. Speaking of Felasco and Clinch, the fall series schedule just recently came out and both places are in the series. There are a few new places, including some trails down near Ft. Myers. I'll put up a schedule of my remaining races for 08 in a later post.

Tonight we plan to meet up with Sean and Stephanie at their place and hop on our beach cruisers and zip down to the beach for fireworks. This'll be the 3rd year in a row that Char and I have done this with them. Its always a pretty fun time- a few beers, the beach and fireworks...good friends and a good girl to share it with always makes it memorable!

Next weekend Char's brother Damien and his family will be staying with us as they make their rounds before heading to his next Army post in Italy. Char's other brother Al, who lives in Gainesville, and his family will be in town for the weekend as well. Should be a packed house but will no doubt be fun. That Saturday is the last Beaches Fine Arts Series sprint triathlon. Damien and I will be doing it as a team. He'll do the swim and run and I'll do the bike. I have a little pressure on me to have a stellar time on the bike. We'll see how it goes...