The Day After

Vision Quest 2009 was SICK! I am totally stoked about the experience and like the last two years, it was a unique experience for sure. I have a full race report on the way but I just wanted to get some quick "log" stuff down...

Food -
1 powerbar, 3 GU flasks (1200cal), 2 bottles Vitargo, 1 BOM bottle(Vitargo), 3 E-caps, 1.5 Nuun

DrainBramage -
4 crashes, 1 broken derailleur hanger, 1 broken/3 bent spokes, busted bottom bracket, dented fork and 1 flat.

Times -
Motorway Aid 1:52, Holy Jim Aid - 3:58, Trabucco Peak 5:20, Finish 5:54
With my GPS I can calculate my "virtual Counting Coup time" with my Holy Jim aid station time (3:58) and the fire road out (14min) of 4:12. Good enough for a 1st place finish and at VQ pace. cool.
It was a long fun day and the memories have been swooming my head since then. Monique cleared the entire course with room to spare on the cut offs and I am so proud of her that words just cannot describe... It was great to see so many friends out racing and supporting and I dont ever want to forget that... I am so grateful for everyone's support and company on race day! Racing in the top field all day and finishing 5th place overall was a bit above my expectations. I dropped just under an hour off my time from the previous year and finished in 5:54. Stoked!

So what do you do the day after an effort like vision quest? Well, our plan was to head up to Monique's parents for her sisters baby shower but I knew that Jason and Seth had their bikes packed for an assault on GMR. I was inspired by Coach Clancy's weekend madness and I have been kicking around the idea about what it would be like to do a stage race. This would be a good opportunity to hammer the hills two days in a row so I thought I would pack up my bike too... "just in case"


That was all I needed to get me out the door. I didn't feel as bad as I thought that I would and after a little warm up I was actually feeling pretty good! The start of the Glendora Mountain Road has a good 10+ mile climb out of the gate so I though I would push it a bit...Check my watts on tired legs.

To my surprise they responded and Jason, Seth and I kept that up for the next three plus hours, 5,600 feet of climbing and 43 miles. I totally forgot that I even raced yesterday! I have been averaging about 100 miles a week so to put away that much (at "race pace" intensity) this weekend felt so good. Its amazing what you can do when you are not held back by injuries or the worries of the world ;-)


Super fun ride with the guys and Jason is freakishly strong for just starting to ride. We were slingshoting eachother with drafts all the way down the Baldy ski resort road...I topped out a 49.3 miles per hour. SICK! Road riding is fun too.

In the AM I am catching a flight to San Francisco for some Riverbed training all next week. Perfect time for some recovery and reflection while I am learning it up!