Death Ride….

So on Tuesday both Chris and I were given by Colin from Charmichael training, 4 X 3 minute all out sprint intervals…. I thought I had done some tough workouts in the past but this was pretty tough!!
We started our first one on the flat road going up to the steep gravely climb behind the stables and I shot off like a rocket leaving Chris behind me!… I was pretty surprised.. It was tough and at this stage you are gasping for air and everything seems to be very bright as you enter into “Super Anaerobic”.
We had 6 minute rest between each, which you would think be enough but never really is?
As we started the 2nd all out sprint we just got to the bottom of our climb which most people wouldn’t even be able to climb on a bike!! It is a steep gravel climb and as I started my rear wheel was doing wheel spins the whole way for about 30seconds until you energy runs out… by now you are beyond gasping for air and hyper ventilating with your eyes going bloodshot and snot starts running out you mouth. As you finish the second your will power starts to fade fast and you keep uttering to yourself ” I can’t, I can’t, F%$K!!!!”….. but after you are done cussing to nobody you have to keep telling yourself to do it!! Do IT!!!
Third one started and by now Chris seemed to by quite a bit faster than me on the uphill as he was riding a new XC Specialized bike and I am always happy riding my Shova ST which I usually use for Slalom.
We started out the third one and Chris shot ahead of me, as my heart rate started to climb you start to taste Lactic acid whch makes you want to puke a lot of the time!.. Yuck.. Your eyes slowly feel puffy and bloodshot, Thick mucus starts running out your mouth as you try to spit it out but always clings to your bike and your lips.. After that I had to stop quickly just to clear my throat and mouth from snot/Lactic acid taste!…. Probably didn’t help having a grape gatorade mix since I didn’t have any more power bar drink.
By the fourth and LAST one we were about 45 minutes into the ride. We started out on the fourth one Chris had pulled ahead but this time, feeling refreshed from clearing myself I started to keep with him! he had slowly pulled ahead of me but near the end of the all out sprint I started to catch up! So now I know the secret… he always started out slow and then worked up to his max HR… after that we were pretty finished and hungry and tired..! The DH part of our ride was pretty sloppy as your HR afterwards pounds in your chest for about 15minutes…. Either way the ride was still Awesome and there is a great satisfactory feeling afterwards as you know in the end it is all worth it!.. Thanks Colin for the torture ride!! it was great!!

Cheers for now.. I’m off to Connecticut today so I will see you there.

Industry 9 dirtjumps

It feels sooooooo good to be back home in North Carolina!
I’ve had a great rest over these past 3 days but today Chris called me up to go to the Industry nine dirt jumps for awhile and then to a pump track in downtown Asheville.

We pulled up to Industry nine and the jumps were a little dry and crumbly but we made the best of it and after awhile of riding them in they started to ride better and then with a little rain they were perfect!
Chris was throwing down some sick David Cullinen flatys over the hip and I was mainly working on sick whipage which for some reason now I have slowly been whipping out to the left? Its pretty cool actually because now I can throw down sick whips in both directions.!

Anyways it was just another great day of fun riding in good ol Ash Vegas!! Still the best place to ride!!

Waterfall

After Sea Otter we left on the Monday back to good ol Murrieta.
On the way back though we did a bit of sight seeing along hwy 1 which was great fun!
We ended up stoping at this nice waterfall for a couple of hours which was so much fun!
It was like a little jungle with Vines over huge Boulders, Little Caves and rock pools!

Mickey and I ended up hiking to the top of the waterfall which let me say was pretty gnarly as it was more of a rock climb to the top than a “Hike”. We finally made it though and have the pictures to prove it and let me tell you it was pretty scary, in the pic of me standing over I was about to piss myself as I’m not a huge fan of heights… plus with little gale winds coming up the waterfall it would put you off balance a little!….. scary!!!! Mikey on the other hand was loving it… as you can plainly see.

We ended up doing a little swim in the water after all the hard climbing we had done… except that the water was about 35 degrees (no jokes) I was the only one to swim really Mikey got his legs wet.
At first I put my legs in and they started to hurt pretty bad and then the second attempt I jumped in only to jump back out again… the third time I swam around for about 10 seconds before my lungs started to feel like a ton of bricks were dropped on them.

It was Crazy fun! Jody was laughing the whole time.
I got some mad photos of the place and Jody took a few good ones so take a look!

Cheers

Sea Otter Classic….08

Well Sea Otter is under wraps!
Sorry that I wasn’t able to update everyday but our Condo had no wifi in it.
It was great seeing everybody and visiting all sponsors! I got around to most of them sorry if I didn’t but I promise it wasn’t intentional.
SixSixOne allowed me to ride their new 2009 Strike helmet and let me tell you it looked great with the kit also hooked me up with some new padding (D3 knee guards)
which I must say were very comfy and flexible!
Control Tech were sporting all their new stuff which was exceptional! The DH bars we are getting in are light, Strong and old school Silver!.
My bike held up very well over this trip to California, with the Fontana race and then Sea Otter it still begged to be raced hard after no services!

I want to Thank the Cane Creek boys! They were awesome this weekend as they let me pit with them and helped me out a ton with servicing, tech support at the DH and DS and they even took me out for an amazing Dinner!! Thanks guys for the help!

The weekend started out beautiful, we had amazing weather all week really besides the huge gale force winds we had on Saturday that blew a lot of guys off the slalom.
The Slalom I qualified 22nd which was not bad as there were about 150 pros all trying to grab a spot in the qualies and as there are only 32 spots the competition was tight, you had to be near perfect in the gale force winds to have even the slightest chance of placing in the top 32 so it was tough. My first round was up with Kovarik so I knew I had to push hard but I was confident that I could keep up with him unfortunately my first round with him I pulled out of my pedal at the gate so stumbled a bit and was then trying to catch up all the way down. Second round was no better, I started off pretty well except for a little slide from the wheel and then as I was pedaling around the large berm my tire popped off the rear wheel and the tube got caught up so couldn’t even finish which was quite upsetting. The rest of the Slalom was great Chris Herndon advanced through the first round and then was defeated by Brian Lopes in the second round but mad props go to him as he was giving Brian a definite run for his money!
Minnaar ended up winning the Slalom with Steve Peat second!

Downhill was next. The day started off very well we had amazing weather all day. The course on the other hand became very rough as the previous day all the beginners and Sports riders had almost destroyed the whole track creating huge holes in corners and in jumps it was like riding a different track!
Practice wasn’t great for me as I had one little mishap. The race went well enough I had planned to pedal hard on the smoother parts of the track as I didn’t want to waste to much energy on the lower rough sections but in all I think I could have pedaled a little more on the rough parts and maybe not have boosted the first jump with that good whip but I couldn’t resist!… It was way too much fun and the crowd loved it as everyone was standing right there and so far everyone had kept low over it so I think I can give myself a star for that! haha. I ended up 30th which in most peoples eyes is not a bad result but for me it was not a great result as I know I can do better as I had a 20th last year. Oh well its mostly a media covered race and considering many pros did the same I think I was pretty happy with everything.
Greg Minnaar won the DH also so was a one for one for Greg who cleaned up this year.

Check out the pics I have also check out this website for pics: http://www.jodygomez.com/g/geritt

Cheers for now

35lb Race machine!

Pit Area

Mike riding with a Cane!

Cali….Fornia

Well its been a great couple of weeks out in California.

I have been staying with a great family out here many know as photoMA.. or Jody Gomez. I have been working on my DH skills a bit and doing a bit of dirt jumping. As for as training goes, Colin at Charmichael training has given me some pretty tough days of all out sprints which has been about the hardest days of training I have ever done! Trail riding has been pretty good except for the masses of little black flys that love to commit suicide into your eyes… The trails up here are very rocky and dry but does wonders for your skills. I will usually end the ride on the Wiashall trail which is pretty fun on a 5.5 inch Morewood Shova ST and is perfect for the tight and steep turns that end my epic rides.

Yesterday we had a pretty good surprise.
We had planned to ride DH on a well known trail just off the 74Hwy but only had 2 of us to take turns shuttling as one of our other guys didn’t show up to help with shuttling.
As we pulled up to the bottom of the trail I noticed a big grey Tundra pull up behind us and it turned out to be Kyle Straight and Griz from Decline who were shuttling so we caught a ride with them so that was pretty great not to have to shuttle and just get to ride with some other Pro’s…

I’ve had an exceptional time staying in Cali as its always great to get away from the Cold weather of North Carolina.. but I am now looking ahead for the Sea Otter race which is coming up this next weekend so keep an eye out for my next post!

Cheers for now!…

Fontana and New Kit.

Well Fontana National is OVER!…. The race itself wasn’t a huge success but was a good indicator of where I stand fitness wise and mentally.
Qualies went great and felt really smooth and calm through the top half but as I exited out of the steep section towards the pedaling half I caught a sand trap on my front end and got spun around… even with that mishap I had a 2:31 and top 5’s were in the 2:26’s so I knew there was a chance of getting a top 5 as I have always done pretty well on this track.
Coming into the Final run the wind picked up a little and had 2 little bobbles which cost me but I caught up a little time I think on the pedaling part as I was told was one of 2 pro riders to have sprinted the entire “Wall” section. With that thought it kind of made my forget about the 17th place that I ended up with and made me more sure of myself for the Sea Otter race.

All in all was a great race as its always great to see all your friends again and see who is getting faster and who is looking flashy!… in that note… Our new Kit is SICK… with the White Royal shorts and my new Team Jerseys the combo looks very nice.. here are some pics from Jody Gomez…