Young and the Restless

I just thought it was a better title the "days of our lives"!!!

I just thought I would give an upate to what is happening out here. I am back into full swing at work. 2007 is pretty much planned out and it seems we have lost one of our players. My buddy from work as choosen to work for the "Dark-Side" and is moving his family to AZ. He will be greatly missed. We had a mean daily pool game going in in our break room. He beat me 4 games to 2 in our final champion round. It was great working with him. His wife was close to K as well and they hung out alot. I guess it is good they are moving to AZ so we can visit...plus it is a small world in collections. Other then that, work is great. I will be going to Europe in 2 weeks to make the rounds. Then once I get back.....it's back on the bike for some intense training. Speaking of Bikes::::

I have been out every Saturday...I even went out on Monday MLK day. That was where I took on Sierra Road. (There is an article in Bike magazine that talks about America's 100 best climbs.....Mt Hamilton and Sierra road represented for Cali and they are both right down the road from the house. Back to the ride...this was a monster hill.. By far the most difficult of all my rides. You are flat all the way to the base of the hill, you make a right turn and....WHAMMY. It's like a wall. I felt like turning back and trying it another day, but all I could think about was this old guy on the top of Mt Hamilton he told me he used to ride Sierra Rd. in his youth and it puts Hamilton to shame. I thought I had to at least try. I was standing on my pedals by 1/4 of a mile into it. My heart was pounding at 186 bpm and I was moving along at about 5 mph. I finally found a good pace and made it about half way from what it looked like and pulled over. There was no turning back now. Once the heart rate dropped some I was back on. It was crazy trying to clip in where I stopped since the grade was 13%. I kept diggin. Now the two lane road turned into one lane type you see on the top of Alp'de whatever in France. It is not a very long hill compared to others I have been on...only about 5K. I was inspired by all the signs on the pavement where there had been other races in the past. The challenge is that there are no flats or 3-4% grades where you can recover some. I finally made it to the top and decided to go up and over the back side. Looking at the mountains around me I was at the highest spot and I knew it would be all downhill back to the valley. In total it was about a 35 mile loop from my house... I will do it again on 2/17 when they do a "mock" tour de California ride before the real riders come in on 2/21. I will be on the hill both of those days.

I went riding yesterday and I was in a funk. I could not get going. I don't know if it was the wind or this new bib I was wearing. I hated it. I bought a size too small and it cut off all my circulation in all the wrong places. I made my planned 55 miler into a 35 mile loop since I was not feeling well. These guys came by and asked if I wanted to ride with them at about mile 25. I said sure. I knew on any given Sunday I could hang with them...but not today, every downstroke with my right leg felt like my "bizznets" were going to explode. The toasted me....they even waited for me since we were all going back to the same place. Talk about frustrating. I did find an weird riding position (standing up) where I was not in too much pain so I thought I would be able to catch up to them in the hills.....not happening. I rumbled-bumbled and stumbled my way back to the house. I felt like a used rent-a-car. So if anybody is looking for a new biking bib...I will be selling one on eBay for a great price. I hope that was the reason to my pain.

K and I found a new spin class we are going to try out Tuesday night and that will be the test to make sure all my bits and pieces are still functioning.

Well...that's all I got for now. I am working from home tomorrow so it will be nice to kinda sleep in and work in my PJ's.