Man, it certainly has been a while since I actually posted on here. Life has pretty much been keeping me busy and it sux that I havn’t had the chance to update the website. So hopefully beginning today, I’ll have a chance to start back logging and put all of my cycling activities up.

Went out at lunch again, still trying to get back into shape

Went out with Phil and Zo for another great ride up at Demo. Getting a little bit better at doing some of this technical stuff

Went out for a good ride today.

Went out on my SS today at lunch

Against my better judgment, I decided to get out and go ride today. I had a crap load of stuff to do at home, but I felt like I deserved a break from doing the house chores, so that’s exactly what I did, take a break. Phil had been talking to me for a couple of weeks now about doing Soquel Demonstration Forest, I knew his bike was made for this type of terrain, and from his known riding style it would fit. I finally confirmed with him more or less on Friday about the ride.

Zo had also been itching to ride, even though he rides like every week, but what better guide to have than him up at SDF. I called him on Saturday to see if he was able to ride, and true to form, he was. Zo met up with me at my place and I drove over to pick up Phil for the ride up.

In the parking lot, we met up with Phil’s other riding friends, Nick & John.

Zo did not disappoint with his trail choices. After not being in shape for so long, the ride was a little tiring for me at the beginning. It was hard to keep pace with this guys and I played the role of Slacker as I have always done. The trail had it’s drops, jumps, roots, everything that you could enjoy. I followed Phil through a few sections that I probably shouldn’t have, but did anyways. It was a nice challenge. There were some things that probably surprised Phil as well, as he was right on Zo’s tail following him through some of the paces.

Nick & John played it a little safer as from what I understand, their history was on their mind, I don’t blame them, this is not a fun area to crash, but it does happen. Fortunately, we only had one minor spill, that was Phil coming off a log.

As we were getting close to the bottom, my legs were starting to give out. I was cramping so bad, I couldn’t stand up straight at one point. The climb back out was painful for me, I was last. It was painful, not because my heart was out, but I was fighting the cramping pains to get the wheels turning.

All in all it was a good ride, a little masochistic, but a great ride none-the-less.

Well for those of you who normally follow my blog, you know that it’s been quite a few months since my last post. The reason for this is that I’ve been taking care of some things on a personal level. Nothing bad, but it just kept me off my bike.

A couple weeks ago, I helped my friend, Phil locate a Nomad, very similar to the one that I have. Well he was wanting to ride and explore ever since he got this thing, so on Saturday, we decided to head out to Santa Teresa and utilize the travel that in this bike.

Now if you remember, the last time that I rode on this trail, it was right before the race and it was with my other buddy, Fluffee. I had ridden the trail using the Blur, well with the race out of the way, I wanted to make good use of my Nomad as well.

We started out from Stiles Ranch, to give myself a much needed warm up. After the first few minutes, my ass told me that I hadn’t been on a bike in a while. It actually took a little bit to get comfortable in the saddle again. I felt like I was doing okay. I had been hoping that I was able to retain some of my balance, which I had. What I hadn’t retained was my stamina.

There upon I came a technical section where I didn’t want to risk riding and ruining my day, so I decided to get off and hike it. This proved to be an interesting event, because as soon as I stepped off the bike, my heart rate started to slow very rapidly. Pretty much it was pegged at around 190bpm, and slowed down to 58 within about 2 or 3 minutes. To the point where I was feeling like I was going to black out. I sat down to recover and reduce the risk of falling down and cracking my head open, or worst, drop my bike.

The rest of the ride was pretty good. I got back into the grove of things. Thank goodness for the overcast, as the weather helped keep the ride cool.

As we climbed to the top of the ridge, we ascended into some mist, which felt good as the climb itself was still as tough as I remember it.

Coming down Rocky Ridge was still as exciting as the first time, and was still the full body workout. You see as you come down this rock and boulder ridden trail, you must let the bike dance beneath you, no matter how much suspension you have.

All in all it was a great ride.

Go ahead. Pick a fight against cancer on Sunday, July 12 at the LIVESTRONG Challenge—7:30 a.m., San Jose’s Center for Performing Arts. The LIVESTRONG CHALLENGE is the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s signature fundraising event inspired by hope, courage and the perseverance of Lance and the nearly 12 million Americans affected by cancer. Choose to walk, run, ride or support the individuals standing together to fight cancer. For more information on donating, volunteering or registering to walk, run or ride, visit www.livestrongchallenge.org.

alright this is just a place holder, but we had a good race.

The race is tomorrow, even though I did the pre-ride a few weeks ago with Fluffee and Puff, I wanted to reaquaint myself with the trail again. I’ve learned in years of riding that with a little weathering, the trail does change.

UB and our other Teammate, Michael B. left for the pre-ride. By the way, this was the first time I’ve ridden with UB in a long while since his move up north. Both UB and MB didn’t want to ride the whole course so we set out for just finishing at the top of Hurl Hill.

The course was very fast and I enjoyed the pay-off from all the riding that we had been doing. My heart was racing, however I felt calm. The only sketchy part that I felt was the confidence I had in the tires. You see, before this ride, I just put on some new rubber, same tread pattern as what I had on there before, but for some reason they didn’t give me the confidence in them. It felt like it was all over the place - not good.

Anyways, when I got back to the campsite, I let some air out of the tires and prayed that this would help out.