Cutting Edge? I think!

Cutting Edge! That is the theme of 2008 for me already. Everything that I’m doing is focused on who I am on the inside. 2007 was such a great year that I’m going to most likely stay true to that same schedule of racing doing road starting in March, and closing that campaign down in July, then taking a break to change over for the mtn bike season in the fall (If I’m still living here)

When the season didn’t go so well at the beginning I really started to feel the true warrior come out and I tried to keep him at bay, because that person will go right to the edge to win. I had always tried to justify not going to the edge by the fact that I didn’t have money as a motivator which was what my driving force when I was in table tennis. I always felt like I trained hard, but I was not fanatical about it on every single aspect, on every single level. In late October I started to feel that coming together because I wanted respect. Not from my peers, but from myself. If I was not going to respect doing the effort like I know I should, then, well, quitting was not an option. So I dug deep into that table tennis resolve and trained while visualizing myself having a good performance, and put out 2 great performances as a result. I did that on the bad side of my form, so I know those were performances of defiance and not true riding form. After that I was not amped up to prove anything else to myself, as I already started thinking about 2008. Now I proved to myself that I could implement the attitude to train and compete like it was an event that was just as important as a table tennis event.

That table tennis resolves always takes me places. When I was 13 I found table tennis while I was in the middle of being state champ in Tae Kwon Do, and playing football. I quit them immediately and started playing table tennis. I felt like it was an alternative sport in the US and more alternative people played it. That has always led me to seeking out alternative things. Those came in the form of living in obsure countries like China and Romania. It really doesn’t even seem normal to living those countries, and it’s especially not normal to be living in those countries playing table tennis. So here I am applying my alternative attitude to racing bikes.

Once I’ve been this convinced, I’ve,"NEVER", not exceeded my own expectation. All the other years I have just wanted to race hard, and enjoy being something more than a weekend warrior. Naw! Not this year, I’m going to front and do some damage. The last weeks I did training that led up to my performance I was shouting out gangsta ass affirmations, and my favorite one was, "Speed MutherF**#ing Pacer, holla at your I drops bitches". That may not seem like much, but chant that shit for 3 weeks, and it turns into something. So I have the master plan in affect to 2008, and those riders are already dropped or put under some pressure, they just don’t know it yet.

What’s on tap for 2007?
For the racing edge you now know I have the CAT Altitude System in my bedroom, and that has a multitude of benefits for any endurance athlete. It has an average benefit of 1-3% in race results, and that is the difference between 1st and last at the Tour de France. Results have been as high has 4-8%, so you know that is where my range is. If I’m going to spend that amount of money, hamper my life by living in a bubble, then I’m looking for something more like a 5% improvement in performance. I have not as of yet spent one night in it, as I’m in my fast.

Fasting, which is what I’m at the end of right now and I tell you a couple of things. Courage, heart, interpersonal strength had better be your backbone if you are going to start and finish this plan without going crazy. I had wanted to do 10 days at the start, but as more time went on I realized that I could actually go longer, based on will power and health. The average body can fast for each year they have lived. I have no intentions of fasting for 35 days, but I’m on day number 14, and this day is the best day I have felt so far. Today is my last day, as I end it on tomorrow. My longest fast before this was 15 days.

There are some simple things to understand about the body, and the first one is the body needs to maintain a ph balance of 7.365. The body will do everything in it’s power to maintain that level in the blood, and that is still true in the case of a fast. On day three once you no longer have food in your body, it kicks into a stage called " Ketosis". The body starts to focus on waste, waste, and more waste. The first waste is visceral fat, which is the fat that aligns itself around your internal organs. That is why a person with a normal body, can have a beer gut. During this stage the body gets rid of that waste. Another waste is toxic waste. Again, thank our wonderful body for putting those toxins in our joints, internal organs and connective tissue. Another waste is metabolic waste, and that comes from over-acidification which comes from excessive exercise, and over-acidic food. What does it all look like. I won’t gross you out with the details, but all I can say is waste, waste, and waste. Imagine the crud that you crape off you grill after a big cookout.

I have had serious highs and lows on this fast. They would go from feeling good, to watching the food network to motivate and torture myself at the same time. There would be days I would ride the bike for 40 mins, and then I would have the most vicious cravings for stuff pasta shells with every kind of meat and cheese in it. Days 6-8 were exceptionally difficult.

I started with a weight over 199.6, and after 14 days, I’m 178lbs. The weight lost this time as been slow because I have actually been drinking much more water this time out. The other times I did not drink enough and I became dehydrated during the fast so more of my weight lost was water weight than waste and fat. This time around a have a digital scale that reads my water percentage, and I have keep it between 57-60% water weight.

My hope is to make the body more efficient on every single level after this fast. But it has to be different this time. In all cases I have gained back the weight around 1 year, and that is going to change this time around.

I have found just the product, and it’s called a Water Ionizer. This is it for me. This closes all the circles of concern regarding, water, hydration, alkalizing, etc.

Regarding Water
I really want to have one basic water source to get my water from. I’m really tired of hearing the next best water that is out there that is going to boost performance, etc.

Regarding Hydration
I have always had problems with cramping up in hot weather or long races. It really didn’t matter if I did a lot of hydrating the night before or not. I really do want to get involved in doing the NUE for 2008, but they are 100 XC Endurance races. I had big problems cramping up at the 4 hr mark at Santos last year, so that was pretty much out of the question. Well, until now

Regarding Alkalizing
I wanted to have one water that I can drink that encompasses everything I need without having to supplement it with drops, salt, sodium tablets, etc. I think I have found this with the Water Ionizer.

What does it do.
This machine make the water cluster from your tap water smaller than anything that you can buy. The average water cluster is 15, and this water reduces the cluster to 4 or 5. So you get 3 times more hydration than all the water that is on the market. Reduced cluster water is hydrogen rich, and that is what is needed to activate the cells to perform at their best. ORP stands for "Oxygen Reduction Potential", and that is a number that measures the ability to reduce or oxidize toxins. A positive ORP allows toxins to settle, and a negative ORP can detoxify the body, hydrate it and feed it with more oxygen. That leads to better digestion, better metabolism, less stress, more energy.
I think I have killed a bunch of birds in the tree with one stone. Here are the uses of the machine.


The 10.0 preset level is the highest and has a negative ORP around -400, and good for:
Cooking Soup
Washing Vegetables
Cooking Meats and Rice

The 9.5ph is the optimal drinking water with a ORP of -319, and good to prepare coffee or tea This is also best level for all adults to drink

I’m looking forward to mixing this water with my workout powders, and after workout powders. This level of water has the ability to emulsify canola fat into water, so imagine how it’s going to break down all powders. That means no clumps at the bottle of the bottle, and more assimilation.

The 9.0ph water is a good water to start out with when first drinking this type of water. It has a negative ORP of 239

I can keep going on and going but the benefits are plenty, just go to www.waterforlifeusa.com and do you own research. The great thing that has been happening so far, is that the benefits of 9.5ph water have not been refuted on any site I have went to.

There are a lot of companies that are making these machines and they aren't of good quality. If you go to their comparsion page, you will see this is the best one to get. They even break down every other popular unit on the market

On top of that, they have a payment plan if you are one of those people that don't want to put out all the money at one time, or like me being just a bit skepical. You can put down $500.00, and they'll send you the unit. They give you a test kit and ask you to go out and buy water from all the usual suspects like Avian, Aquafina, Dasani, Fuji, etc. Then you can do a test to see which water has the highest ph. You can also do a chlorine test. And for any reason if you are not satisfied with what the water has done to increase hydration, increase health, etc in 60 days you can send it back and get your $500.00. That's gangsta. That is my new program for 2008.

I really took a hard look at where I could really make a big jump. The first one was the bike, which was nothing to worry about. I may get more detailed about how well the bike is functioning, but not to the point that I may become anal like some other riders. I know that being anal is not good, and that will come back to bite you in the ass somehow.

The second factor was the training, and there were no problems there at all. I exceeded all expectations regarding my ability to put together a training block and have success thereafter.

My obvious answer was making changes in the body will be much more profound for the New Year. That first came in purchasing the CAT unit, so the benefits on that are a slam dunk. I'm even going to use it when I do my CTS workouts on my ipod when I'm on the trainer.

The second form of improving the body is doing this dreaded 14 day fast which ends on Tuesday January 8th, then I'll follow that by drinking organic squeezed OJ for another 2 days, then I'll start introducing food in the form of soup and broths to make the transition easy for the stomach. Oh! Don't think I haven't been wanting to eat what I see on the commericals like Papa Johns, KFC, Chili's, etc. I think breaking the fast, and starting to put food back into the body is just as important as fasting, so I'm taking this stage very serious.

But you do have to be hardcore to start a "Water Only" fast on xmas day, and skip the New Years partying, eating and staying out late to stay in the house and focus on ridding the body of internal waste. When I played table tennis I was fanatical like that an especially how I ate, so I'm bringing that back for 2008.

The last improvement on the body is getting a Alkaline Water Ionizer which improves the hydration by up to 700%. 700% is just a crazy ass number. What I think this means for me is that I can do some of the NUE series. What is even better is if this is successful for me and I have better hydration and digestion during these long distance XC Endurance races, then that means no cramping (or at least, much less), and more energy from my food being assimilated easier.

I'm still doing Yoga, plyometrics, table tennis and core training, so I'm doing enough to keep training and racing on the bike fresh and not boring at all.

I was talking with a buddy of mine and he kept asking why do I always take a hiatus. I told him that I don't believe in the athletes that compete throughout the entire calendar yet. That is a luxury especially living in South Florida, but it's not as functional for your program as you think. In fact, I almost feel sorry for them. I like to step away from it, because that is when you truly do see what happened that year. If you let yourself go through that period, you will find so many things you want to change or improve upon for the next year. I just don't don't like trying to do the improvement on the fly. Stepping away allow me time to really work on my rpm's and I already have really, really high rpm's. I was able to improve upon that, and learn how to timetrial while riding singletrack. My list of things to improve was long, and you can't properly approach them and give them full focus unless you have stepped away to take a 3-dimensional look at it.

So this is my concept for "Project 2008". I'll starting riding on 15th of January, and as things start to come together I'll keep you up to speed.

Pacer Out!