Is That The Sun I See?

I recently heard on the news that we're having the coldest month of March since 1921. Even though it was the KTLA Morning News, I still believe it. This month has been, to quote Mark Foist & thousand of Bostoners, "Wicked cold." It finally began to warm up today & just in time for the Redland Classic. Good. I won't have to freeze to death as I watch from the sidelines. At least I'm over my sickness & back on the bike. I actually managed to get a training race in last weekend, which, by the way was wicked cold.

Ryder & Denise (not shown) kept me warm during the month of March.

VAIL LAKE XC

While everyone else was road racing around Bonelli at the San Dimas Stage Race, I got my sick ass out of bed long enough to race on Saturday morning. I haven't raced at Vail Lake in at least 2 years so it was cool to get to ride there again. There isn't much climbing, but it's a fun course & due to the recent rains, the dirt was perfect. Here's the short story. Chuck Jenkins & Ty Kady stuck it to us bad. Jenkins easily won the Pro class & Ty easily won the Semi-pro class. I was right in there - for about 5 minutes.

One cool deal was a gnarly up-hill that carried a $200 bounty for any Pro, Semi-pro or Expert strong enough to clean it. I never came close, but I'm told 2 dues made it. I'm not sure I believe it, because there was a horrible run leading up to it, but if someone did clean it, I want to know who it was.

My legs were soar as hell on Sunday, which means I'm not riding enough, but I didn't really need aching legs to tell myself that. I finished the 4-lap, 24-some mile race in 10th overall, allowing some Semi-pros & Experts to beat me. Templeman faired better in his class, winning the Sport 20-29 class.

A pirated shot of me at Vail Lake. So sue me.

Random...

According to Canari, Team K&N Performance clothing won't be done until April Fool's Day. No joke.

Someone I know got a speeding ticket doing 90 mph in his Civic Hybrid with this boss in the passenger seat.

Denise is running again. Here & Jeannie did a 10-miler last weekend & an 8-miler (pushing Ryder) the weekend before that. She's training for the Redlands Half, while Jeannie is training for her first 26.2, which will be the Rock n' Roll Marathon in San Diego.

There's a story coming out in the Redlands Daily Facts in conjuction with the Classic with some stuff about Christie. If all goes well, we may get our first sponsor plug.

Two more days until The Tossers...

Meanwhile, at work...

While most everyone else was time trialing 3.8 miles up Glendora Mountain Road, I was stuck at work. It wasn't all bad. We took one of the K&N vans out & hit some triple jumps. On the third go-around the front bumper finally came off, so we called it good & went back to work.

Tomorrow Templeman & I are going to Vail Lake for a XC race, rain or shine. Yeah, I've been sick, but I figured, "What the hell. If it doesn't kill me or give me pneumonia, it will make me stronger."

Before the bumper fell off.

An Email From Trevor

"Not sure who Scot Martin is, but ran across this and thought you'd appreciate it:

'To be a cyclist is to be a student of pain....at cycling's core lies pain, hard and bitter as the pit inside a juicy peach. It doesn't matter if you're sprinting for an Olympic medal, a town sign, a trailhead, or the rest stop with the homemade brownies. If you never confront pain, you're missing the essence of the sport. Without pain, there's no adversity. Without adversity, no challenge. Without challenge, no improvement. No improvement, no sense of accomplishment and no deep-down joy. Might as well be playing Tiddly-Winks.' -- Scott Martin

-Trevor"

Purely Subjective

Gotta go. Ryder's waiting for his dad to come home & play with him.

No Redlands Classic, No San Dimas Stage Race, No Direction

They say bad things happen in patterns of threes. Well, they’re right. First, I find out that the composite team I was going to ride with did not get accepted in to the Classic. Then, I went to register for San Dimas & the 2s were already full. Finally, I had a ton of bad stuff happen at work. All the stress & disappointment finally came to a head & now I’m sick again – for like the third time in six weeks.

This all left me with no direction. I spent my time training for big road races & now that I’m out, I don’t know what to do. I suppose I should start looking toward Sea Otter. Since the weather was crappy last week, I did do more mtb riding than normal. I guess that means I've started training for Sea Otter. And while San Dimas is going on next weekend, I’m planning on doing a mtb race at Vail Lake (if my health gets better). So that’s the current lackluster plan.

Saturday's ride on Crafton.

Joey - the Bearer of Good News
He called last night to inform me that The Tossers are playing House of Blues in Hollywood on March 25. If I were to race the classic, I wouldn’t be able to go, so I guess one thing came out of not making the cut. I will be doing a road race in the Fresno area that day, but the current plan is for Denise to drop me off in Hollywood on the way home & then Joey & whoever else goes will drop me home. It doesn’t matter how worked I am from the race; The Tossers will definitely light a fire under my tired arse.

More of picturesque Crafton.

Southridge
Instead of racing the crap circuit race in Murrieta, I went out to Southridge to root Christie, Teri & Jeremy on. The dirt was perfect & there were times when I wished I was racing, until I put in a little bit of an effort & realized how crappy I felt. Turns out, I was only hours away from coming down w/a cold, so that explains everything. Anyway, Jeremy pulled off a second in his Sport age division class aboard a Trek Fuel 98 on loan from Johnson. The girls, in their first Pro race, lined up against Jimena Florit, which in-itself was a victory of sorts. Teri pulled the plug after the first lap. Turns out, she came down with the same bug that I did later that night. Meanwhile, Christie stayed in it & fought shifting issues all the way to the finish. They were both down on themselves, but they need to remember, it’s early & we have a long season ahead…

Evolution