Year in Review, Chapter 2

Ms. P and I make the trip out to Vegas to get married, and I get a chance to catch up with all my boys from table tennis as I have been retired for over 3 and a half years.

I decided to stay at the Stratosphere because it was the host hotel for the US Open, and I could see my friend every night without having to hotel hop. I had to convince Ms. P that it was a awesome hotel for two weeks, even though it was at the end of the strip. With her parents being executive at the Marriot in Orlando, she is tough on hotels.

She was quite pleased with the hotel after we checked in. The place got the stamp of approval as soon as we hit the 12 dollar breakfast buffet. The hotel got extra points when she was able to get her rich, white girl coffee in the morning.

It was perfect that the place we were getting at was across the street from our hotel, so we made the trip to sign our lives away.

We got in and sign some paperwork, and see some famous people that got married there. Damn, Bruce Lee, that's alright.


After that we took a trip over to the courthouse. The lines were incredible. The temperature was awful, and we had to stand in line to get the marriage license in 117degree weather. That is the only way that would every be outside in that kind of weather.


I took a ride over to the convention center to see some pong, and it was just like old times in seeing the old character. I went by our booth and saw that they still got my picture up. Man they better get some new talent up there, but I'm still a little flattered.

Here is the ping pong dracula.

I had to make appointments for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with all my table tennis friends. The first night I met up with my first ever coach Bowie Martin. He was the person that put the racket in my hand in Wilson back in 1986. He owns Butterfly table tennis, and both of his son are number one in the world in golf in there age groups. Damn, I wish he would have gotten me into golf back the day. I would be godzilla paid. They took us to the show at New York New York called Zumanity, and man was that show sexy. Here is pic of us at a Steakhouse at New York.

The next day was a bust as I couldn't take the heat. We went up to the top of the Stratosphere and the 110 stories was enough for me.



Ms. P went to some spa in the hotel, I played some blackjack and spent the rest of the day in the hotel. My boy Rocky gave me a call and asked me to meet him at the Bellagio.

I met Rocky back in 1987 when I took my first out of town trip to Maryland to play in a junior table tennis tournament.

After dinner we go over to Paris Paris and the blackjack table. We play, and lose and call it a night. We had made a point to walk from there all the way down to the Treasure Island then take a taxi. We obsverse the sites on the way.


This is my favorite picture that I took in Las Vegas.

After about 3 hotels Ms. P broke down at the Imperial Palace and we had to get a hotel because 98 degrees at 10pm was too much.

The next day I was not nervous about getting married. I was quite excited about it. Living together and working out the issues really does knock off the stress of feeling like it's going to be different. Some quick highlights of the day.





I'm a married man, now. Halle Berry, sorry this Haitian will put that voodoo on my head and it will shrink like beetlejuice if I get with you.

I get home a new man, and about 7lbs heavier and I know I got my work cut out for me to get back in form. In the meantime, Mike Bush walked away with the last race and won the damn series.

I now was 197lbs and straight up chonky, bloated, swollen, and I had a 6 week plan to get to just under 190lbs. I was getting ambition with with 180, but 185-188lbs seemed realistic and much easier to maintain. This is meet 2 days after I got back.

The plan was to get lean without riding the mtn or road bike. PONG! I'll hit the pong scene for 6 weeks. I played 4 time a week, for a 2hr workout. My avg heartrate for the first 3 weeks was 150bpm. I know that is hard to believe, but imagine hitting a heavy bag for 1hr, then for that second hour add in some kickboxing.

In the meantime, I was upgrading the Sith(Racer-X) for the upcoming season. I got some new Bontrager wheels.


I "PUSHED", my Fork and Rp3.


I changed my crank. Last year I had the Q-Rings in the 23-33-45, and this year I upgrade to the 24-34-44, the Agilis Crank, and Ceramic Bottom Bracket.


I only used my middle chainring and based on having it the 34 teeth rings acts like it is a 36teeth chainring in the power zone, and 32.5 teeth chainring in the dead zone. Damn I"m techy when it comes to some stuff.

Then I decided to start to upgrade what goes in the mouth, and spent those six weeks eating 2 salads a day. I became Wholefoods best customer. Juicing wheatgrass is not for the faint at heart, but the benefits are so overwhelming that it just can't be ignored. But you need to sneak up on it, if you don't, you gonna get your socks knocked off.


And all the rest of this stuff that made things simple and boring for the taste buds.





After 6 weeks I had got to 186lbs, and I was ready to go to Bahama Breeze and have a big pasta dinner.

The entire time I was not on the bike I was using this device called the Power Lung, and it is very hard and I realized that I need to learn how to breath deeper.

August 15th I got back on the road bike and immediately felt stong and fresh. I had went to 2 spin classes per week, so it was not like I did not pedal at all. I went back to the dump ride and went right back to animating the ride and winning the sprints. I had been watching the Tradewinds Series in Coconut Creek, and when they had $3000.00 on the top 3 places I decided I would get in on that last race. I had been watching the results and the riders, and I felt like I had a chance to get something if it was that same group so I put that on the schedule.

I got back on the mtn bike and that took a little more work to get my form back. Taking 6 weeks off was tough on my hands and ass. My hands had became soft holding that racket for 6 weeks. I was riding ok, which meant I could building once I was in the season. I was doing long rides because I was anticipating doing my first 6hr Race at Santos. In 2008, I'm going to really have fun with doing races I have never done, like some of the NUE Series and Sea Otter to start. I was going to do Sea Otter this year, but opted to get a new road bike. I'm going to do that race next year. I still tried to spend most of my time on the bike by myself, because that was what the protocol would be like for Santos.

The week of Santos came the Tradewinds race, and I hooked with Bob, and he pulled me for 20 miles all the way up to the race and decided to watch it. I got out there and it was way more than the 50-60 riders they normally have. Herbalite, AEG Tosiba, BlueStar, and B&J had teams out in force. There is no way in the hell I'm going to be able to finish top 3. I would ride hard, but it is just too many major players to be able to get some money. OK, really hard training ride is option 2. On the line Carlos said, "We have 99 riders, please be careful". Damn, it's on.
The first lap was suppose to be a parade lap so that Gunther Volkswagon can get there limelight.
It was not a parade lap to me as the pace was between 27-32mph, so we were racing to me.
I was in the middle of the peleton and it was very hard to make a move to the front because the pace was so fast, so I just settled in.

It was really nice to see so many riders and I took a moment to enjoy just as beautiful it was.

Then the attacks started coming, and the pace picked up so I couldn't enjoy the scene any longer.
This section was the most dangerous because the course went from 2 lanes to 1 and it was break checking everywhere on each lap. Look at my boy LaRue in the red on the left riding on the outside of the group wasting energy. Man, I see why he gets dropped sometimes.


There were no sprints in this race and I don't remember the pace every going under 26mph, and I can remember going over 30mph more times than I can count.

The surges started coming left and right, and I was wondering if it would make the group shatter, but it kept coming back together. But I noticed that some riders were on the sideline as I would come around each lap.
On the next to last lap 3 riders got away and they had to be motoring because we didn't go under 30mph, and they were able to stay away.





We were going 35-37mph before the last turn, and I was really finished, but managed a 19th place finish and a hell of work out. I got home and checked the avg speed, and it was 28.2. Damn, that's fast.



I knew the legs would be shattered, so I decided I would try my first ice bath. I got it from reading Eddie O's blog. By the way he just got a Pro deal with his wife Nam, and my old rival John Sanborn out in TX. I know they are going to have a great 2008, I'll be watching.

I got the bags of ice, filled the tub up, and got my timer.

Yeap, that shit hurt and my legs were numb and cold for the next hour. The next morning my legs didn't feel heavy at all. So I decided to make my trip over to Bahamas Breeze and have a nice pasta dinner for my 6hr Race. I don't know why Mrs. P looked like that, she only had 1 drink.

I got to Santos late Saturday, jumped in and did a lap with 2 riders from Tallahasee and my legs felt great. I think we ate at Carrabbas and turned in for the night. The tough thing about having a lap dog is he has to be in the bed with us. Man, this dude is really missing up my routine to get some booty. What is why I keep snacks to lure him out of the room.

The next morning my strategy would be to stay with the front group of people that were in the 6-hr race and things would sort themselves out later. Here is a pic of me with Bob and Oscar just before it went down.
The run was chaotic as usual, and I was able to enter the course in the top 10 and I quickly get in to the top group. I'm only looking for racers with 800 on their plates. The plan paid off and I got with Greg D. and another guy and he was hammering with G and I were sitting in. We finish the lap together and keep things going into the next lap. Halfway into that lap Sean Smith joins us and he lifts the pace. Soon after Bob joins us and it's fun in the sun. He sits on our group and Greg D and Marcio hit the deck and Sean gets a gap, I slowly bridge up with Bob in tow. I didn't surge as I knew those guys were going to bridge back.

Then, Greg was back on us at the end of that lap, but Marcios is gone. We keep things going and we are trading pulls. Sean pulls through and Bob lifts the tempo. Soon after Drew bridges up to us and attacks. That sets it off, and Bob jumps and the are gone in a matter of a minute or two.

Sean, Greg and I find order and continue to take pulls. I go over a rock and bend my big chainring and make it impossible to shift into my lower 2 cogs. I kept having to look down so I let Greg by to inspect it. That 30 seconds of trouble shooting did me in as I could not bridge back, so I settled into my own Speed Pacing.

As each lap went on I felt the power slowly leave my legs, but I only losing about 40 seconds per lap. We went so fast the first 3 laps, that we got a huge lead on everyone. So I found myself in no mans land for quite some time. At about the 3 hour mark my legs started to get that tingle. And it happened at the 3hr and 55min mark. Bam! The left hamstring locked up as I ripping up a small climb. It took about 15 mins to ride it out. The new problem that arised was I had some problems with overheating.

I was around 4 hrs of racing and close to the hottest heat of the day. That heat really upset my stomach and could not get any drinks down. As a matter of fact I was not even in the mood to drink which was the reason for the legs cramping up. But I forced myself to get some fluids down and the cramping went away.

The cramping came at the same place the next lap and it was both legs this time. I was able to ride it out again, but none I realized that if I can drink an extra bottle, then maybe I keep it bay. I had 2 more laps to go, and I was feeling like I was suffocating it was so hot. I come into the pit, and poured 2 water bottles all over my body, and it was refreshing for about 6mins. But one piece of ice had my left nipple so hard it could tear through my jersey. I finish that lap, and I do the same thing and I go into the last lap feeling good about holding my 3rd place.

About halfway through the lap, the temperature drops dramatically. I actually started to feel better and at the 24 minute mark Russell Hagen catches up to me. He is on a Sport Team, and I jump in behind me and he has a good pace going. I decide to sit in and ride this out. I only have about a couple of more minutes before I let myself get dropped. Then the rain hits, and it's so refreshing that I started to feel better. It starts coming down so hard that I had to take off my glasses.

Then both of my quads and hamstrings lock up, and I let Russell go with the wind. The wind had branches coming down, and the water in the trail was bottom bracket deep in some places. I'm able to finish the lap off, but I have slowed down dramatically. I come in and stop right after finish line and Tom is there to take a photo.

I was very humble that I was able to finish on the podium my first time out. I have a lot of respect for the 6-hr Endurance race, and I'm looking forward to doing more of them next year.
I put this plaque up for a couple of weeks in a special place, and the wife shuts it down and put it in the spare room on top of the other plaques.

For the next 2 weeks I could not get my legs to work, and I was suffering on all mtn bike training rides. I felt good on the road, but in the dirt I felt like a dog. On the Wednesday before the race was the first good workout that restored my confidence in being able to race at my normal form.

The wife had to sit this race out because she had something to do with her company on the weekend, so I hit the road by myself. I put in James Patterson Judge and Jury book on audio, and I was there in no time.

I get there and find a South Florida crew. We chat a little and I catch up with everyone's summer has been. This was the first race that they introduced a Time Trail. It would be the left side of the course which has very violent climbs and no place to recover. I go in and do a lap, and I'm reminded of just how painful this course is. I then do the time trial course and it's just as painful. After doing one more full lap I decide to bow out on time trial course. Anyone that goes full bore on the time trial will most certainly take a lap out of the bank for the race on Sunday.

I sit there in my chair and do the chatterbox thing as each rider comes through, and boy do they look awful.

The next day at the race I get in about 7th place and LaRue is doing his normal routine in going to the front and slowing everyone up. We go up and down the cadillac trail and cross over. On the big climb 5 riders get away. I get around LaRue and I decide not to bury myself to bridge back.

I come into first lap in 7th place, and I'm chasing Jimbo Smart on his 29er. Just before the bmx section Mose is on the side of the trail, and I think he is out, or taking a break. I got up and down the cadillac trial chasing Jimbo. Darien and Scott bridge up to me as I'm felling tapped out.

By the time we cross over to the other side, I start feeling good and drop both of them. On the first big climb, here comes T-Wiz and I jump on and he is motoring, and I'm happy to jump on. We catch Jimbo and drop him going into the 3rd lap. Tim charges up the cadillac trail and it puts me under pressure. Coming down it I have a problem getting around a rider and Tim is gone. At the first big climb I get caught my Eric Smith and he is charging. He is a local that always does this race and does well. I'm surprised that he is charging so late. I let him by and he is off.
I go into the last lap, and my legs feel great. I charge up cadillac and coming down it I clip a tree and hit the dirt at 15mph chest first. I hit the dirt so hard that my shoes comes off. I'm talking the kind of crash that makes you moan to get your breath back. I know I need to get up because I know Scott is about 1 minute back. I'm surprisely up and riding after about 40 seconds, and because I'm riding down cadillac I"m able to gain my composure. Observe the dirty left side, and unbuckled left shoe.


I hit the bmx as hard as I can and bring it in riding full speed, and I'm able to hold my 7th place finish.

2 weeks later I'm at Reddick and I had put in a lot of intervals. This race will be quick as I don't have any photos. I got in the course and was feeling good for the fist lap, then I started going backward for the last 2 laps. After the race I spun the rear and it immediately stopped. I played with the bike the night before and I breaks started rubbing.

I took 4 days off to rest the legs, and I got to Jacksonville and it was a mudfest. I almost considered not even doing the race, but I needed the points. On the line it was only 12 riders, and the other riders that didn't attend were actually the smart ones. The next day I get a decent start, but I'm in the peanut butter, and it hurts.


12 minutes into the race I put my foot down and my left is completely extended when my foot hits the ground. I thought I broke my knee and I hit the ground with the other foot still clipped into the bike. I get dropped by everyone while I'm laying there and it take me about 2 minutes to get back on the bike. The entire left leg, hip, knee, and ankle are tingling. Going through the mud I have lost all power in that leg, and motivation. Chris was doing well in the Sport class so we would still get good points for the team, so I was thinking of pulling the plug.

I finish that lap and make an attempt to do another lap, but I pull the plug after 15 minutes.

My knee was hurting so much that all my workouts were erractic and when I got to Gainesville, I felt that I had almost all my power, but not fully. I'm on the line, and I feel good, I had been drinking this new thang my brother convinced me to try he called the Incredible Hulk. Man that shit sucked. On the line I was unsure how the leg would hold up for 5 laps.

The first lap I'm in the top 6 and the leg is feeling ok. Sean, Greg, Trent, Mark are up the trail and the rest of us are spread back. I'm in 5th and I'm in no mans land as I have a nice 40 second lead.

The second lap I keep my position, and going into the 3rd lap I can feel myslelf losing power. At the halfway point Scott catches me and I put up a little bit of a fight.

But I was starting to go backwards and soon I was caught by Jay T, and T-Wiz before I finished the 3rd lap. The 4th lap was when I fell apart and seriously way behind on all checkpoints. I got caught by Clint going into the 5th lap and I fought for 80 percent of the lap, but could not keep up. I went away feeling like I needed the race to be 1 lap shorter.

The next week I was in Alifia in another mudfest. I pre-rode 1 lap because I didn't want to destroy the bike the day before the race.

I got in about 8th place and was stuck behind Ryan Saylor for about 15 mins. By the time I was able to get around him I was exhausted and could only sit on his wheel. Me, Ryan, and Luis C finish out that lap together. We drop Ryan, and in 10 mins he comes storming back on a fireroad. I sit on for about another 5 mins, then I'm dropped and I'm freaking going backwards on the second lap.

I hit the dirt and hurt the entire right of my body. I lose all my power again, and I stop at the feed zone to spray the dirt and blood off my right elbow. I go into lap 3 and I'm going so slow it is funny. I can't sit on anyone's wheel, so I park it on a picnic table and wait to get lapped by everyone so I can get my points for the team.

Now, I'm about to get concerned about the bad form, and damaging both side of my body. I have 2 weeks to rethink how to put this together. I look back at all my charts from 2007 to find the best training block I had before a good performance. I found a training block in the first 2 weeks of May, and I copied it verbatim to the tee for 12 days. If I didn't have a promising performance then I would think about pulling my the plug on my season as I don't have any form to be out there.

I get on the line and I'm actually at peace because all of my training has gone according to plan, just like in May. I get in 6th place behind all the usual suspects with Luis and I being the newbies to the group. Tim is putting the smash down to shatter the group. The second group has Mark, LaRue, and Nixon. Mark gets off the front but dangles with almost being able to bridge up to us.

Tim put in another monster surge going into Rocky Mile, and that surge unhitches Luis. In the second lap, I'm surprised that I'm able to stay with the group and I'm not hurting at all. Tim walks off the front and noone makes an attempt to bridge. I was not doing any work as I was just happy to still be hanging with the ballers. We stay together for the entire lap and Tim has not come back to us, so he is putting the smash down.

In lap 3 Trent is doing his thing, with me, Greg, and Sean in tow. At the end of lap 3 Sean lifts the pace and that unhitches Trent. Sean is working it and we have gapped Greg going into Rocky Mile, but Greg bridges back to us. I'm riding inspired because I think I have got more than I bargained for in recovering my form and racing well. In lap 4 I move to the back and watch it unfold.

Sean would do a surge, then back off, then another surge then back off. Those surges did me in as my left leg started cramping up. They walked away from me just before Rocky Mile, and I lost 30 seconds and I was happy that I got unhitched in the last 10 minutes of the race.

This is actually my very first podium in the Expert Category, so I'm going to sit on this one for confidence for as long as I can.

I had another race the next week in town at Markham, soI followed the same training protocol and went into the race feeling the same as Oleta. If I had a cramping up problem at Oleta, then it would be worst at Markhum because the course really does have fangs.

I get on the line and I feel great, and I decide that I'm not going to wait for it to go down. I'm going to set it off myself, and I do that by going into the rock garden and making a surge. I get a gap on everyone and I find a flow. I don't make any attempt to ride away, but I don't slow down either. I get out of the gun range and most of the group are still together. I know I'm going to get caught by them, but in doing that it shatters the group.

I get caught at the end of the first lap, and Trent and Sean go for the broke, and the only people to immediately keep up was me, Mark, and Greg. I don't stay long as Trent and Sean have a serious agenda, and it doesn't include keeping their teammate Tim with them. I spend most of the lap with Mark and I let him go to preserve the end of my race.

I got into the 3rd lap and I'm able to keep Tim from catching me. Greg does catch me at the end of the 3rd lap, and he is surging godzilla fast. I don't even make an attempt to stay with him as I'm starting to feel the cramp of a lifetime. I'm able to keep it at bay by backing off, but I can see Tim coming fast. He catches me right after the gunrange, and I now know it's going to come down to a sprint at the end. We have about 1 and a half miles to go. We then figure out we have no money, and it becomes pointless for us to sprint it out. So we decide to come into together. I'm sure next time we will have to fight it out, but we were both happy with getting through it without killing each other.

And that is the end of my season as I missed Santos and Alifia with a busted fork. Then I decided not to do the last race as I had 8th place locked. Had I done a few things differently I could have finished 5th, and that was the best that I could do. So I'm happy that I ended my race season riding better than I have ever rode before.

My form is so good that I'm decided to keep training to ride out how long my form can last. I'm riding faster now than I was last year. I'm in Vegas from the 17th through the 24th doing videos for Butterfly Table Tennis, and I'll be working out everyday at altitude. Hopefully that can push my form up a little higher as I may do the 6-hrs of Oleta.

Thanks for taking time to read my blog, and I hope you have been enlighten, and entertained. I know that I have in writing my thoughts. I can promise you that I haven't even come close to running out of things to write about. And it's going to only be about me, the bike, and my many experiences.

Have a great Xmas, and a happy New Year

Cheers

Pacer.