3 days of quick updates

Limited internet so I will do a quick update then add pictures and such after\

Prologue-
Hot but short. Paced it really well. Roade thru lots of burned areas. Almost cancelled prologue due to fires. Still smoldering as we rode by. Looooooooooose decends played it safe. Very happy with results.

Day 1- tough day. 36 degrees (africa hot) shorts felt hot against skin. Agian rode within the limits and gained on groups thru out the day. Beautiful views at top of mountain overlooking Gordons Bay and the ocean. Long day and was way more defficult then any stage at previous Epics. People who have done all the Capes call it teh toughest day ever!! It was ll about hydration and nutrition. I felt strong and was able to help out on the road sections. Ate lots and in bed by 8:30.
Managed to arrange a 1 hour massage everyday...YAHOOOO


Day 2-
You may have noticed the drop in placing....Greg blow out a sidewall at km 37. Good patching and wrapping the tire to the wheel with electrical tape did the trick. However Greg had to ride cautiously for the rest of the race. He also kepp rolling his front tire off his wheel. He now owns 2 brand new tires. Good day when we hit the road. Grabbed some fun pace lines and got cooking. Neither of us felt bad as we had to keep stopping to fill the tires and do repairs. Looking forward to tomorrow. I am send all htis from the internet cafe in the racers village. Pretty sweet hey?

Looking forward to tomorrow.
Cheers,
Jeff

Travel, rest Travel, prepare, ride

I will have to give you a short version of what has been going on. I have been saving all my blog posts on my computer and it now has dementia and cannot remember how to connect ot the internet.
The travels were good not surprises and we got to stay at our friends Bruce and jen's house in Dubai. Coconut, fig, banana, avocado trees. Nice!
Did a pre-ride of the prologue and it was good to stretch out the legs ofter so much down time. Loose gravel on hard pack for the downhills. Sketchy!!!!!
Greg and I decided to run a smooth and well paced Prologue and that is just what we did. Smooth accelerations constant pace from start to finish. Greg is flying on the downhills with his 29er I have to be off the breaks all the time to keep up.
We are VERY happy with our placing 67th overall. The list of goals-have fun, ride hard, top 100 and the dream of top 60. So close but we still plan on riding a smrt race.
Legs feel good and as soon as we get to the tent village all the logistics settle down. We all are herding cats to get things done each day. It is just the reality of trying to keep 13 people on track. Each person steps up and keeps everyone in line. It is nice sometimes just to be told what to do. 7am start with a 5am wakeup. It won't matter as we all are in a different time zone anyway.
Scenery is spectacular, people are great and life is good.
I will try ot post some pics and reports but I am unsure of the internet situation. You may have to wait to hear the real story behind the times.
Cheers,
Jeff

Dry Run in Phoenix

What could be better than leaving -22C and going riding in Phoenix at +24C?? Not that I am rubbing it in as we still had to come back and spend the last frigid days losing our tans and acclimatization. It was still good to get out and feel the joy of riding again.
We took the West Jet flight down where my friend Paul and I got to sit in the front row thus completing one of Paul's life goals. Steve, not wanting any part of us sat several rows back and proceeded to sleep the whole flight.


We were able to get a ride in that night at the McDowell race loops. This is the location of the old Cactus Cup races that were so popular n the late 80s and early 90s. There are 3 separate loops-the Long, sport, and technical loop. The whole reason for this trip was to work out the bugs. I forgot my shoes and broke my seat clamp. How do you like them bugs. Steve lent me his shoes and my wife Alana, being the superstar she is lent me her seat clamp and drove to the bike store for replacement.



Steve, Paul, and myself started on the Technical loop. None of which are over the top hard but you should meter out your excitement for riding on your first day. Steve crashed 30 seconds into the ride on the first drop because he was so excited to be riding again. He graciously picked himself up and we continued on with no further events. We rode for about 1 hour and were treated to a beautiful sunset all the while singing laughing and wondering why we live somewhere that you can't ride year round.



The next day the 8 of the 10 "CAPE CREW"(Jeff, Alana, Steve, Fazian, Paul,Matt, George, Kim), rode the National Trail. The "Teacher of Terror", as the guide calls it, was a true test of every ones skill, and courage. 10 minutes into the ride I fell over backwards and dislocated my left pinkie. I would have a photo but I was a little too freaked out about my finger pointing sideways to snap the shot. My Mom says she can now sleep well at night knowing I am married to a Nurse Practitioner. Alana came down the trail pulled my finger, hehehe, and it just popped back into place. Steve taped it to my other finger and we continued on.

Fazian and Matt trying their hand at the technical climbing.

This trail has it all. Technical ups and downs, ledges, buff single track, double swooping trails, elevation, good breaks, the works!! We all hit the dirt at some time. Kim may take the prize here but for a guy who has only been a mtb bike a few times he was doing great.

Kim and I comparing wounds at the end of the day.

The Teacher of Terror, just one of the very none forgiving downhills. Steve leading his Cape partner Alana thru the mayhem.

George bringing everyone home on the Desert Classic.

The Desert Classic wraps up the whole loop on some swooping double track. It is almost Zen like to push a good tempo pace and rail the corners especially after having to walk down most of Telegraph Pass.

We always try to squeeze in a hike up in the Superstition Mountains before the plane ride home. We made it up to the water falls and enjoyed the view before heading back to the land of snow and ice.

It is just days away before we travel 43 hours to South Africa. A cleaning and tweaking of the bikes and we should be good to go. The dry run was all that it was suppose to be.



















































A quick eat ath the boys house and Alana, Paul, Steve and I were looking for our second ride. The boys had put in an earlier ride waiting for us to get organized. The first words out of my mother-in-laws mouth Saturday morning were "all you can eat pancakes". I was out of bed and picking up Paul and Steve in no time. We ended up being the talk of breakfast. 4 hungry athletes chowing down on flapjacks. They could not bring them fast enough. Word travels fast around the Park and most of the folks we sat with knew the whole story of South Africa. After making pigs of ourselves we were a little late to the trail head. oops.



















We finished off a splendid Saturday in style.

Preparation for the Cape Epic 2009

Well in less than 2 weeks I will be finished Day 4 of the 2009 Cape Epic. I am trying to figure out the best tires for DRY, WARM conditions. This is quite the contrast to the wet snow and low of minus 9 today in Calgary. Tires, Dry lube, 3 liter Camelbak, lots to think of before we go.

Even though the race is only weeks away there has been so much preparation. The training has been the biggest and most constant item. So what does it take to complete this race? My season started October 28th with the first of my spin classes. Since then it has been 3 days a week of indoor cycling. Tuesday night for 90 minutes, Thursday for 2 hours and Saturday morning for 2 hours. We have started with 20 minutes of E3/Tempo riding and pedaling drills and have progressed to 120 minutes of E3/Tempo riding last Saturday. Sundays are for long xc skiing or hiking. Add to this Core class every Monday, weights and a 1 hour run on Wednesdays. I did a phase of 1 hour extra workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays to build some leg strength. It leaves me with Fridays completely off and time to wrap up some life things. When I get back I will do 2 workouts on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Weekends will be racing and long 4-5 hours rides.

My plan for this race is not to peak for it but use it as the final push in my Base building phase. My partner Greg is a very strong rider with a great competitive streak. We have been talking and agree to the following goals: 1/ Have Fun, 2/ Ride Hard, 3/ top 100 out of 600 teams, 4/ and if we are feeling really good go for top 60.
I feel that this year I have improved once again and now that I have year over year data, all the numbers support this improvement also.

With all the training and working it has been a real balancing act. I have to watch the diet and sleep so that I don’t get sick or run low on energy. I have dropped some weight but will not be down to race weight probably until June.

It is off to Phoenix this weekend to ride outside. Yippee!!! We planned this trip as a dry run for what we will need to bring and to get some bike handling skills. There are 14 Canadians going to the Cape Epic this year and 10 are our group from Calgary. There are 8 of us going to Phoenix this weekend so it will be good to meet, ride and socialize before we go to the big show.

Only 5 classes and 12 days left. I had better go do something productive like find my helmet!!

Jeff