long ride in marin today

yesterday, i took my fixie out that i usually only ride to school on, but i went out around 11 after i opened all my presents and rode with a friend from my house to fort mason and we did skids and trackstands and make a slalom course you has to skid around to complete. it was fun and windy as hell down by the buildings and the train tracks. we decided to race around the piers, but the roads were so dam bad and it was too windy, so we just did trackstanding competitions. i did one a little under 30 seconds long, pretty sweet. then on friday, i rode with my mom and 2 of her friends on a long ride in marin. we went over the bridge, tourist side sucks, and went down into sausalito, on the bike trail, up highway 1, up panoramic, up pantoll, and up summit to the top. took us about 1h 30 to get to the top, then we were planning on riding bolinas-fairfax into fairfax, but the sheriff said it was closed for patchwork, so we did the 7 sisters in reverse and down bofax to highway 1. we rode highway 1 into stinson beach and then we climbed up panoramic to pantoll and then down to the bike trail, through sausalito where about 10 fire trucks and police cars were blocking the road with their lights on. i didn't see a fire, but we got past and up to the bridge, which was by god, so fucking bad on the tourist side. it sucked no matter how much i swore at the tourists who don't understand english except for "fuck". went to emporio rulli to see the pastry chef and get some pastries and hot chocolate. then i came home and started my homework, blah. finished my italian essay and started the french outline and all i have to do is finish the french essay then i'll be done with my homework. i'll be gone next week so this will be the last report until i get back from the desert with a detailed week of fun

christmas break

last friday, has one last exam, italian, and it was harder than i anticipated. on saturday, i worked and make $97 in 7h, not a bad day. the sunday team ride was cancelled because of rain, but i went out and rode in marin anyway. did the paradise loop and got rained on for 2 of the 3h. then i was locked out and had to wait for 1h before my dad came home with keys. felt like a dumbass. monday, just rode the trainer, the weather didn't look too good and i didn't want to ride in the rain again. i watched some old james bond movies that spike was showing, but other than that, not much else was on tv. on tuesday i rode up mt. tam and did a 45 minute tempo workout. my HR monitor wasn't working, it was shooting out really high numbers for 5mins and then really low numbers for 5mins. came home and watched more tv. on wednesday, i rode 2h on the trainer and i'm going to a dinner thing tonight, but other than that not much to report. have to get started on the homework i have.

exam week

last post was on saturday, rode on sunday, team ride in walnut creek, 830am, 645 wakeup, rode the old bollinger canyon tt course without doing a tt. looked like rain so we stayed close to the lot, we never went more than 30mins away in case it poured we could get back. well at the top it started raining, and we were about 45 mins away, the farthest. by the time we got back, my hands were so fucking cold i thought they would turn black and fall off or i'd get frossbite or something. came home, started studying for my monday exams, english and physics. come monday, english essay, comparative essay, a bit challenging, nothing too bad though, just had trouble finding a good thesis, but i got it after a while. had a 2.5h lunch break in between exams, went downtown to chill and take my mind of exams with some friends, and then came back and took the physics. it was very easy, only a handful of questions i wasn't too sure about, but overall it was easy. went home and took off. tuesday, french exam, 3h long, had to read a text, answer 2 easy questions, write a plan for an essay and write intro and 1st axe of the essay. in french essays or commentaires are written in 2-3 axes. thought that exam was easy, and came home, rode up mt. tam to pantoll doing an interval and suffered in the cold all the way down. at least there was no rain though, and the bike trail was no longer flooded. studied for the wednesday exams, biology/science of the earth and history/geography. usually bio/sci is really easy, but the exam was the most difficult so far. i talked to friends afterwards and they thought the same thing. had another 2.5h lunch break and went to la boulange bakery with people to chill. came back, took the h/g and thought it was really easy, even though i don't do to well in h/g because the teacher grades very weird. came home, rode and studied for math. thursday, math exam, piece of cake, our examinator was late, but it was very easy and i got home around 11 and rode and was happy it didn't rain. for tomorrow i have italian, but that won't be too hard either. i already feel like i'm on break, i love it.

got bored and though i'd post a pic from nationals in LA in august

break time

classes have been easy all week due to exams approaching. i've studied for all of my exams by just reading over everything we've learned so far, but today, i did the majority of my physics/chemistry studying. i will also do some english tonight, but you can't study much for that bad boy, it's just an essay. same goes for french and italian. on friday, i went to go sort corks like plastic and real corks to get community service and most of all-free food. i ate my regular lunch in the classes following, but it was a bit hard in french, but much easier in english where we watched a movie and the lights were off, i just went to the back and ate. got 1h for my time, they say you need 50h by the end of sophomore year, and i have about 40, so i'm in good shape, and most people don't even do any hours, but i guess it looks good on college applications. it was nice to sleep in today until 9am, what a treat. then i helped my mom carry christmas packages to the post office and picked up a tree that we carried home. i went on a ride, i was planning to ride the paradise loop, but the high tide because of the full moon flooded the bike trail by mikes bike and the freeway, by the overpass and christmas tree lot, so highway 1 was out of the question, and a little further on, i had to ride through a puddle about 6 inches deep and 50 feet long, because there was no other way around it. i kept going, and some guy told me i had to turn around, i only realized what he said after he passed me, so i just waved at him when i passed him. but by the soccer fields, it was flooded again for good, with no way of getting around it. i just said fuck it and turned around and went through all that fun stuff again. it was a bit scary seeing the same thing could happen if some of the icebergs melt around greenland and around the world, because it could have exactly the same effect, but the water level would ride a lot more. since the ride was a bit short, i rode into the hills that sausalito's rich people live on. some really nice houses and steepass hills, about 30 percent is what it looked like, i didn't try going up that one. i went back to bridgeway and rode home over the bridge, not much wind today, but enough that my little frame was tossed around a bit going over and back, especially around the towers. on my way back, i added a little time by heading into the presidio and climbing some hills, but once i felt a drop, i looked up and the clouds were dark and i was like oh shit and rode home as fast as i could because it started to rain heavily. i hadn't noticed the change in cloud color, it was clear and sunny when i left. got home wet, ate some stuff and took a nap. not sure if i'll be riding with the team tomorrow as i have a late night gig tonight with the band and tomorrow's forecast calls for rain for most of the day.

studying

easy day at school, play reciting thing went well, so did the vocab test today in english, easy words so that was good. classes are getting easier before exams, no homework, and we just study in class, nothing else. i've been studying a lot at home too, about 1h per night per subject that i have an exam in. 7 exams, 5 days. 4 new weeks of my training plan are up, looking good, getting stronger, getting a tt bike soon also, a cervelo to match my road bike, but i'll be riding that a lot once i get it.

bad teachers

let's see, my english teacher thinks it's funny to give us a shakespeare part to memorize and a vocab quiz the week before exams, when everyone's supposed to be studying, and when most people are. i'm trying to ride my bike, study for exams, and now i gotta do this crap!? annoying as hell, well the good part is today i got out of gym class, the most pointless class ever 1h early, that was a nice treat. i'll be riding in the dark the rest of the week and studying my ass off. hopefully getting a tt bike soon, i need a disc too. reese's whipps taste like crap, my bass is broken for the moment, and my band is playing saturday so i kinda need it fixed by then, could just play the guitar but it just doesn't have that same sound

To The Trees!!!

thursday and friday went to school, had band practice on friday for the 2 gigs we had saturday night, we sounded smooth, it was good, rode home in the dark, golden gate park is scary as hell at night with no lights on the street, presidio is better because there's no drug dealer who's gonna jump out in front of you and steal your bike. saturday, woke up at 7 and went to work at 9. worked till 4, made $80, not a bad day, but less than usual, then rode home, went off to the gym for 1h, then went to the 1st gig, where we only played 3 songs, but it was a jam with a bunch of different acts, it was cool, but my paul mccartney bass wasn't working...at either of the gigs, oh shit, had to use other people's, and hopefully will get it fixed for this saturday's gig. 2nd gig went well also, not that big of an audience, but we did well and sold 2 cds, ooooooo. went to bed at 10, woke up at 630 and drove out to walnut creek for the team ride. got there at 830, rode at 9, did the trees loop, my personal favorite, 45 miles, and it's basically downhill the whole ride. sounds impossible, but it feels like it, spent a lot of time on the front today to keep my HR up. it was hella cold at the start and pretty much the same at the finish. drivers suck during this time of the year. came home, hit the books, 2h of homework, and tomorrow i start studying for my exams,boooooooo

not much homework tonight-opportunity to update ze blogo

last post october 13, wow, basically 2 months ago. well we had october break, went to inverness, up north, rode a lot, beautiful up there, weather was so-so, but very fun trip overall. went back to school, went trick or treating sort of with some friends and then ate a bunch of candy and felt sick, but i'm young, i can take it. november, parents anniversary, and my birthday month, was off for parent-teacher conferences and also for thanksgiving. fun times, lots of desserts, ice cream, cake, pie, cookies, it was good. then a bunch of birthday cards, money, checks, thank you cards, blah, little pastries and more cake. yum. start of december, a week and a half until exams start and then i'm off for christmas vacation, basically 7 days left and then exam week which is like a vacation week anyway minus the exams, because no showing up for regular class is nice, going to westfield during lunch breaks, might go see role models maybe in between one of my exams if i have enough time, maybe not the best thing though before an exam. what else, band is going well,new drummer, playing 2 shows on saturday, and 1 next saturday. selling cd's, getting ready for a bike trip with the team, looking forward to that and riding a lot over the vacation, we have yet to buy a tree, but we'll get one soon. the rest of my week looks really easy thank god, and the parents are currently trying to get bike grease off the new carpet, i didn't do it, but i don't know how it got there. mystery. have 7 exams this year: physics/chemistry, french, english, italian, biology, math, and history/geography.

busy weekend-3 days

went to work saturday, made $96, but since the blue angels were flying, it wasn't that busy. then at 4 i rode home, through all the traffic from the airshow. it took me 30 mins to get home and usually it takes me 15mins. i went and got a haircut after that. on sunday i went for a run with my friend who's on the cross country friend and though i know i'm more fit than him, i hadn't ran in a couple years, and it hurt and i'm still hurting. sunday night, went to the team banquet in lafayette. fun event and i won most agressive rider and most valuable 15/16-awards well deserved after a breakout season packed with great results and a trip to nationals. i also won some sport beans and a mapei hat at the auction. today i'm chilling, will head to friend's house later to play video games and chill with more people, but for now, i have to get started on homework and study for the psat wednesday

it's been a while

last week, i had 5 tests and an oral report. this week, i've had 2 tests and an oral report. next week so far i have 2 tests. i finished reading the odyssey for school, now i'm on bel-ami for french. having absolutely no homework tonight, i've decided to wake my blog up from the dead and start it up again. currently, my cervelo is in the shop getting a fork replacement, a 3T will be on it now, because of the recalls, 12 forks randomly broke all around the world in a couple months so they did a recall. i'm taking 2 weeks off the bike to rest and it feels really good. i've been doing core stuff for a week now, slowly ramping it up every week. i did the mt. tam hill climb, rode with mike hutchinson, had the team picture day and the dinner is sunday.

Adam Hodes
Mt. Tamalpais Hill Climb
9/27/08
Juniors 15/16 mixed with 17/18
Field: 35 in all
Time: 48minutes
Place: 8th overall, 5th or 6th in 15/16s
Teammates: Kevin, Dylan

I drove to the race and got to Stinson Beach a little before 8. I went and registered and then got on the rollers for a 40minute warm-up. I went to the line, already knowing who to watch out for. There were some 10/12s and 13/14s with our field and the Highway 1 part was sketchy. A team Swift guy attacked and then another bridged up. Andreas (DBC) started brigding so I moved up to the front to keep an eye on things and the move never got more than 5 seconds. Whole Athlete put their team on the front before the turn onto Bolinas-Fairfax and I moved to the front. Tyler Brandt (Swift) attacked first and I got on his wheel and stayed there for a mile or so. He kept whittling down the group until there were about 6 people left. Chris (Swift) and John (Whole Athlete) got a 10 second gap and then out of sight. We moved on to the 7 sisters, 7 painful rollers. It was really hot out on the rollers. Will (Whole Athlete) attacked every time a roller started. On the steepest one, the 4th or 5th, I got dropped from the chase group of 4. Ben Sukys (ETS) caught me and he pulled the rest of the way. Another Whole Athlete guy caught us and we caught the chase group right before the finish, but I didn’t have anything left to sprint. Overall, I’m happy with my time, because I knocked 4minutes off last year’s, but I was hoping for a better placing.


Adam Hodes
Mt. Diablo Challenge
10/5/08
Wave 1
Time: 53:30
Place: 37th overall, 2nd in juniors

I registered and warmed up in a little neighborhood just off Diablo Rd., next to the school. I warmed up for about 30 minutes and then I headed over to the line, with 20 minutes until start time still, but already people were lined up. I had a good spot up near the front, about 3 or 4 rows back. On the start line there were people saying “Oh well, this is the first time I’ve ridden my bike all year” and things of that sort scared me, especially since they were in wave 1. Once we started, it was one big mess. There were people all over the road and people weaving around. There was one group that shot off with the really fast people and then there was a second group, going a little easier, but still hard and I was in that group. It was about 25 strong as we went past the 1000ft. elevation sign. Eventually, we would catch riders being dropped by the fast pace of the front group that was out of sight. We kept charging, going through Rock City, I made sure I had a draft behind a big fat guy. Right after we passed the junction, the pace was lifted. The group of 25 was now down to 5. We went through the steep part and where it leveled out there, I just couldn’t hold the pace anymore. I rode on my own for about a half mile past Juniper and then people started catching me from our original group. I made sure to be on someone’s wheel right after Devil’s Elbow because a headwind had picked up. I passed the parking lot where all the festivities were and I heard Lance’s voice yelling at me. And then Andreas passed me on the wall. I was like oh well, and he beat me by about 10 seconds.

making a dent in homework

finished off the english oral, halfway to finishing the french oral, had an essay in french to do, so that set me back a bit, started on svt, still need to type and go over. today, slept in, that was chill, got a gig at the rogue cafe at 2pm, then headed off to a sheryl crow concert in concord. we'll get back around 9, and then tomorrow, doing the group ride with mike hutchinson, tt specialist, should be fun.

wow school takes up a lotta time

rode tuesday over mt. tam with the AC group ride and coach. it was hard. my legs are still sore. for school, working on oral reports for english on the odyssey, science on the oort cloud, french on a german writer during the french revolution. have a h/g test monday on athens, in 5th century BC, it's like jesus christ

past few days, been really busy

did the twilight crit, 31st of 100 in cat 3-4 amateur, came home, watched the pro women's and men's, that was a ton of fun, rode on sunday to mom's company picnic, drove home, went to school today, then rode after school, windy as hell, tomorrow planning to ride up tam with a big group, gonna have to rush though, and ride fast as hell to meet them

wednesday, a bit harder

went to school, in the middle of lunch, someone told me i was in big trouble because during summer, i made a facebook for my french teacher and well he found out today, had a fit, told my principal, who basically was speechless saying he couldn't believe i did it, now i gotta write a bunch of apologies and i feel like shit

tuesday was easy for me

woke up, went to school, today was really easy, don't know why it just seemed that way. came home, rode the bike, but the GG park race/rides are over for the year now. oh well. might start riding in marin with the coach on tuesdays, his team does rides up mt. tam every tuesday.

easy monday

went to school, rode actually, didn't do much today, monday's my easy day of the week, came home and just rode the trainer, just didn't really feal like heading out today, will be heading out the rest of the week though, so that'll make up for it, loving the cold weather. trying to get all my homework done for the week, hopefully i can do so, i'm about halfway there right now. still have some french reading and questions on the reading and other questions not on the reading to do.

group ride, first one in a long time

woke up at 630 today, my body wakes up automatically now, it sucks. drove out to walnut creek for the ride, the bridge was really busy, but other than that, it was fun. parents wouldn't let me drive back, guess i'm not too experienced yet. group ride was fun, we headed out to orinda, easy and down san pablo dam rd., through hercules, rodeo, and by the refineries, through crockett and past port costa, through martinez and pacheco back to longs. fun ride, i set the pace most of the way as the strongest guy there. came back, going to watch some tv, and then fall asleep

work, otherwise, a boring day, but better than school

woke up at 715, went to work at 830, thought it was going to be insanely busy, but it was insanely slow for a nice day like today but whatever. got a cash register to put money in, that was super cool, made $96, came home, eating burgers for dinner, got to do some homework...

yeah it's the weekend

went to school, was busy, got a lot of homework to do, including an oral report on the odyssey, f-that. went to band but drummer wasn't there, said he had a headache from the heat. came home, doing homework now, going to work tomorrow, rode easy today for 1h. my legs are tired from a season of racing and they want rest

busy thursday

had school, was busy at school, no homework though, so that's cool, went for a long ride around 4, in marin, up highway 1, panoramic past pantoll, down panoramic, through stinson beach, up bolinas-fairfax, down the big hill called mt. tam to home. long ride, feel really tired, really tired, 3h, 53 miles, lots of climbing

first 2 days of school

new teachers, packed schedule, basically i won't have much free time this school year. rode both days, tomorrow, hoping to do the mt. tam hill climb course should be under 50mins, hopefully, i'll get home before dark. already have homework in classes, and i'm stuck on my first math assignment. I HATE MATH! watched the RNC to laugh pretty hard, and did so. watched the daily show and colbert report and laughed hard again, because republicans are so stupid

oh snap it's september and school starts tomorrow

did the Giro today, here's the report, don't want school to start tomorrow:

Adam Hodes

Giro di SF

9/1/08

Cat 3s

Field: 90

Place: 43rd

Avg. HR: 185

18 miles – 43 minutes

Feel good: 8

Teammates: Peter

I rode to this race, it took me all of 10minutes. My race was at 2:10, but I rode over at 10:30 to watch other races. I watched the end of the 4/5s, the 45+/55+, the 35+1/2/3s, the kids race, and the women’s 1/2/3 while I was warming up. Because of crashes in earlier races, my race was delayed by about 30minutes. I warmed up on the rollers for about 50minutes, longer than I wanted to, but it didn’t matter too much. I went to the staging area, and lined up in the second row. The race started and I placed myself somewhere in the middle. I definitely liked being on the inside on all the turns, but there was one where I was always on the outside, and it worked for me. We were doing 24 laps and and I started getting tired with 12 to go. I was gradually falling back. With about 5 to go, I tried moving up. The downhill was the best place to do this, although I hit some bumps too hard I guess, because my bars dropped dramatically. Since I usually ride with my bars lower than other people, it didn’t bother me too much. SF streets are the worst by the way. So with 2 to go, I was somewhere in the middle again, and there was a crash exiting turn 6, the last turn before the finish. It took about 15 people out, but it was far enough ahead of me, that I was able to steer clear of it. I just stayed where I was for the last lap, unable to move up, and happy I made the top half.

sunday

woke up at 7, left at 8 to ride in the marin headlands, came back at 9:30, after doing a 16minute interval up a hill. felt fine, came back, went out to a picnic downtown, met up with people, played soccer, frisbee, at food, chilled, it was fun, racing tomorrow in SF

saturday

today, woke up at 7, went to work at 8:30, stood for 7 longass hours selling oysters, but made $104, so that was cool. now my legs hurt, and i'm making brownies and potato salad.

got the stiches out, last free day

got up early, went out riding in the headlands of marin, doing intervals, but it was hot, too hot for me, i want FOG. i came back, went to the doctor to get stitches out of my ear and leg and then came back and watched tv and i'm going out to band practice later. and i'll drive home from that and then i'm going out to dinner someplace

hard, hot ride

today, slept in, then drove over the bridge to marin. parked the car and headed for a ride with mom on bolinas-fairfax, up the backside of mt. tam. i was doing jump intervals and it was hot as hell outside and it was just hard. it was 45 miles in all and about 4000 feet of climbing.

mercredi

i had to wake up at 7, because i had my second driving lesson today. we went on busier streets, with 3 lanes and pretty fast, but no freeways yet. i came back, rode the trainer for a bit, now i'm chilling at home watching tv, doing laundry. later, i'm going to the bike coalition to get volunteer hours for school.

monday and tuesday

yesterday, i had my first driver training session of 2h, i thought it went pretty well, there were a couple complicated parts, but all in all it was good. my instructor was chinese and i couldn't really understand her all that well, but whatever. i came back, went to a friends house for the rest of the day and then went out for dinner at a mexican place, so much better than casa. tuesday, i was supposed to have a driving lesson, but they canceled, so i washed my bike and i'm doing the GG park race later

shitty rr - university, just a bad day

Adam Hodes

University RR

8/24/08

Cat 3s

Field: 60

Place: near the back

Avg. HR: 166

45 miles

2 hours

Feel good: 5

I arrived at the race and we drove the course the opposite way and the hills didn’t look that big or hard. The race starts halfway up the main hill, goes to the top, descends, and goes back up the hill to the finish. 1 lap is 3 miles and we did 15 laps. While getting ready to warm-up, I pulled something in my neck and it hurt to look forward. I warmed up for 20 minutes and I just spun a lot. I lined up near the front and the race started at a good pace. The inside was the place I liked best, because it was really easy to move up there both on the hill and on the descent. With 12 laps to go people were starting to get dropped and my legs started stinging a bit, so I took an endurolyte. I got dropped on the hill with 10 to go and I was mad because most of the group was still together. Some people caught me and I really didn’t feel like racing anymore. But I went on and the laps got harder. With 2 laps to go I got lapped by the field that wasn’t so big anymore. I got on the back, but couldn’t hold the pace. I just soft pedaled into the finish, disappointed with my place, but I just had a bad day, even though I was feeling good every other day this week. When I got home, I had a big bowl of butter pecan ice cream.

saturday

going to work today selling oysters from 9-4. i'll make some good money, but it's not the best thing for my legs to stand up for 8 straight hours. i'll put my legs up tonight after i ride the trainer for 1h doing openers for tomorrow. not much else to say...

friday

my leg wasn't bleeding today which was good. i watched some tv and then i rode for 30mins on the trainer taking it easy for a race i'm doing sunday, university rr in santa cruz around the campus, 15 laps or 3 miles, 1.5miles up and 1.5miles down. cat 3s, it's gonna be a sufferfest. so i'm taking it easy today, watching what i eat, drinking protein shakes....then i watched another old james bond movie and i'm doing laundry and then we're all going out to dinner to a bistro

thursday bloody thursday

so i woke up and my leg was bleeding from my surgery yesterday. i put a bigass bandaid on because i didn't want it to bleed while i was riding. i went into marin and did 4ME intervals and 4 sprints. it was insanely foggy in the headlands where i rode it was sooo cool. i had to keep my glasses off the whole ride because otherwise i couldn't see anything. i'm finishing up my write-up on the odyssey right now, i think i did pretty well on it.

wow wednesday has been busy

so i sorta slept in, but i left by 9 to ride in marin-the paradise loop i always do-42 miles in 2.5h, with 3 workouts that were hard. it was really foggy and there were some extra stupid tourists riding bikes and who didn't know how to move where you're heading straight for them. came back, watched part of an old james bond movie, that was cool, then i started my english summer homework on the odyssey. pretty boring, but i got that over with in under 2h so that was cool. then i had a 4pm doctor's appointment-dermatologist, skin doctor, hafta go every year so they can look at my skin cuz i'm so dam white. so they looked at my skin, at my moles, told me i didn't have skin cancer yet, and then they operated on me to remove 2 moles, wtf?! so it didn't hurt at all, but i have hugeass bandaids on my ear and leg. then i walked home with my mom and now i'm trying to get gigs for my band.

lots of stuff - last night/today

so last night i wrote a song for my band called summer's great, but i don't know how appropriate the title is if we're gonna be playing it year round. anyway, we successfully taped some cycling on nbc in the olympics i thought it was fucking impossible with all their fucked up times and bad coverage, why show 10 minutes of cycling and a whole 3h tennis match, it's like wtf?! yeah and my band got a gig too just after school starts, so that should be cool. today i'm gonna ride about 1h on the trainer in the morning and then i'll do the GGpark race/ride in the afternoon to prepare for university rr on sunday. never done it before, heard it's really hilly, don't know what to expect.

lundi

i slept in late today because i woke up at 5:30 yesterday. watched some tv, then got on the bike on the trainer and watched an old james bond movie. then i did my exercises and chilled the rest of the day, and i made some salsa and ate brownies.

Napa metric century

had to wake up at 5:30 today and it's a sunday, that wasn't so fun, but we drove to napa and got there around 7:30 and we met up with carlo and rick and all their friends, i was the only junior though, in the past there has been about 5. anyway we rolled at 8:15 and i pushed the pace up the first climb, and we did a paceline through pope valley to the rest stop where we got some food. we continued up ink grade and i pushed the pace again. we got to the top and descended really fast but we stopped because one of the old dudes had a flat. we got to silverado trail and we did a fastass paceline to the photo booth where it was just me, carlo, and carl left. we got back after 67 miles in 4h 30 and got some lunch and then we left around 3 for the city. we hit some traffic but nothing much, i finished my french book, and now i hafta read the odyssey for english and do a writeup before school which starts in 2 weeks. tomorrow is a rest day, but i'll probably spin 30mins on the trainer nice and easy.

foggy saturday

today i woke up at 7:30, cuz i'm working today. because it's so foggy outside, business will be slow probably until lunch when the sun comes out and everyone else does. i'm taking today off from riding except to work and back which is like 2-3 miles each way, no problem. tomorrow's gonna be fun, the tour of napa is a great ride and it's fun to drill it on silverado trail.

yeah it's friday

happy friday to you, today is gonna be a busy one for me. in the morning i'm doing a ride in the marin headlands with some hard workouts then later i have to go to the dry cleaners and safeway to pick up potatoes for dinner. then i hafta figure out if i'm working tomorrow and i'll watch some tv

sleeping in is fun

so i was up late last night seeing pineapple express with some friends, that movie is sooooooo funny. so i slept till 10 and that was nice. then i went on a ride around town, my normal loop, and i'll stop at my favorite bike shop to pick up the receipt for my track bike. then i'll come home, read a little french book for school and watch some tv.

rest day

i have 2 rest days this week and today was one of them, i basically watched tv from 8-5, and read my book for school on commercials. in the evening i'm going to meet people who used to go to my preschool, and we're gonna see pineapple express, that movie looks hella funny

eventful tuesday

i went on a ride early, the paradise/tiburon loop in marin, 41 miles and i went easy to finish the ride in 2h 45 at a bike shop to pick up my track bike. then i cleaned my road bike and took both bikes for short spins to make sure the road bike is shifting fine and getting used to the track bike. i haven't ridden a track bike for more than a year since i raced at districts last july. later me and my dad are going to pick up my mom at the airport and if i'm lucky, he'll let me drive.

Monday - back in the cold

I rode my usual loop today and it was nice being back in the cold fog as oppose to Anaheim's hotass humid weather. I did some SFR and ME intervals but went easy for the most part. In the afternoon, me and my dad took the car out for a 30 minute spin, and I drove the whole time, some scary shit. It was fun most of the time and I only messed up once. i must finally start my summer reading, 2 books to read and essays to do on each of them in 2 weeks time. it's possible, but i don't want to do it, and one's in french too.

Nationals

SUNDAY

I woke up at 7am and drove 6 hours to the house we were renting in Anaheim. We arrived at the house at 2:30 and we unloaded the whole car. It was really hot and humid. I rode on the trainer for 1h with the AC on high and then I did some stretching and core exercises. Then I washed my bike and shaved my legs. We were sharing the house with Peter and his family. We ate dinner around 7 and watched Little Britain.

MONDAY

I slept well even though I woke up at 7. I had breakfast and around 10 I went to pre-ride the RR course, the RR was on Friday. Peter was on his rest day, but I ran into Joel and Andrew (both Specialized) and rode a couple 8k laps with them. All of us thought the loop was counter-clockwise, but we were wrong, and I pre-rode it the wrong way. So then I went back out and rode it again. The course starts at the top of a small hill and shoots downhill before a wide right-sweeping turn. It continues on a 3 lane road before turning right uphill into a high school. It winds through the parking lot of the high school and turns left still rising. It turns left again and goes uphill some more and then descends a fast mile where you do a U-turn and climb a mile back up to the finish. It was about 90° when I rode at 11am. When I came back, I put my aerobars on for the TT on Wednesday. Later we chilled in the pool and watched more Little Britain.

TUESDAY

I slept well again and had breakfast around 8. At 9:30, we left to pre-ride the TT course. We met up with Jason where it started on a bike trail. It started out slightly uphill on the trail for about 3 miles, then it turned right into a tunnel and a sharp left out the other side. The trail lets out on a road which is uphill for about 1.5 miles and then descends quickly for 5 miles to the turnaround. It comes back uphill for 2 miles before the finish. It's 18k and I liked the course. There were so many people out pre-riding the course today and teams were motorpacing a lot. Then I rode the RR course with Peter because he hadn't ridden it yet. We just did 1 lap. We came back and ate lunch and around 4, we went to register at the official hotel. Afterwards we listened to people speak. One of them was Ben Sharp, the man in charge of sending juniors to Europe. We came back and put our numbers on our bikes and cleaned them.

WEDNESDAY

The day of the TT. I ate breakfast 4h before my start time of 11:54. We left around 9 and arrived around 9:30. We setup everything and then I waited until 11 to start my warmup. I tried the cooling vest technique that Slipstream uses, but it didn't work too well for me, I preferred just being in the shade. I was feeling very good during my warmup. I did some ME intervals but nothing more because of the heat. I left 15 before my start to roll down to the starthouse. I rolled around as I was a bit early. I stood in the line and knew my objectives which I had set the night before. Pass my 30second and 1minute man and not get passed. The hills come early on and it's all downhill from there, so I wanted to be tired by the top of the hill. I started out fast and within a minute I was breathing hard and my HR was up at 175. I passed my minute man on the hill, but my 30second man was nowhere in sight. I kept going and arrived at the turnaround which confused me because they had cones all over the place. I overshot the corner slightly, but I recovered from it. I passed my 4minute man going towards the finish and I could finally see my 30second man. I sprinted to the line and I felt like I was going to throw up because they made us do rollout right after we finished, no chance to cool down or spin or anything. The announcer said I had come on 16th for the time being. I ended up finishing 39th out of 83 at 4minutes and 2seconds behind the winner. I was pleased knowing I didn't use a TT bike or disc wheel.

THURSDAY

The day of the crit. I ate a big breakfast 5h before my 2pm race time. I ate little munchies

All throughout the morning. We left at 11:45 and drove 5 miles to the Anaheim Angels

baseball stadium. I pre-rode the outside of the course inspecting turns and pavement.

There was only 1 dangerous turn, a sweeping U-turn. I warmed up for 40minutes and went to the staging area. I squeezed into a spot on the first row. There was a headwind on the finishing straight. The race started fast and I slotted into the top 15. I was taking a drink, but had to drop my bottle, because someone braked hard in front of me. That meant 13 more laps without water in really hot weather. This race was insanely dangerous. There were so many close calls. With 5 laps to go I started moving up. With 2 laps to go, a 5280 guy clipped a pedal on the U-turn and then rolled a tire, taking down about 15 people behind him. The 5280 was 5th wheel. Everyone tried to go around, but not everyone could. Huge gaps started opening between riders as a result of the crash. Yesterday's winner, Lawson, took a flyer and almost won, but he was brought back. I was 24th out of 75. I was pleased. Peter was stuck behind the crash, but he didn't go down.

FRIDAY

The day of the road race. It was 56k, 7 laps of 8k. 35 miles in all, a short, short course. My race was at 2pm and it was the last of the day. I arrived around 12 and warmed up on the road. When I went to the line with 10minutes left still until race time, I was very surprised to see everyone already lined up. I had to settle for a spot in the way back. The field was 80 strong. I knew I had to move up. The race started flying down the hill and I moved up through the high school. Going downhill towards the U-turn on the first lap, 2 guys touched wheels and about 15 people went down. Ryan Eastman (Swift) broke his collarbone. I was right behind this crash and had to accelerate hard out of the U-turn to catch up. During all this mayhem, 3 guys broke away. Anders Newbury (Hot Tubes and a cat 2), Alex Battles-Wood (Team Power Train and a cat 2), and this Australian kid. You don't have to be a permanent resident unless you are competing in 17/18s or U23s. They built up a 20 second lead but nothing more. Lawson, the TT winner made many attempts to bridge, but was unsuccessful for the time being. On one occasion, he attacked before the U-turn and slid out. He caught back up though, he's a cat 2 and very strong. (Anders, Alex, and Lawson all went to Belgium this summer). With 3 laps to go, these two guys start fighting for a wheel and the one who lost, lost control of his bike and started grabbing my leg to stay up. I could see he had no chance of regaining control, he was basically making me pull him, while he dragged on the pavement, so I hit his hand away and he took a couple guys down. With 2 laps to go I was feeling great. I pulled up next to Daniel Tisdell (Specialized) and I asked him if he wanted to bridge. He said no because the break was being brought back, but I disagreed. Lawson attacked around the U-turn like before and since nobody chased him, I followed his wheel. I knew he would be able to get us up to the break. Tisdell joined us and that helped a lot. We were halfway across the gap when I started getting tired. We had 1 lap to go and I started skipping pulls. Turning uphill into the high school, I was dropped. The field caught me and I stayed in there. I could see Daniel and Lawson make the junction and I was pissed because I know I could've been up there. I was dropped from the main group going towards the finish on the last lap and I finished 2minutes and 1second behind the Australian kid who won. I was 32nd out of 80 and it boosted my confidence knowing I almost made the winning break. It says I finished 33rd, but the guy in front of me crashed out for sure.

SATURDAY

I went easy today, doing a 1h ride around Anaheim.

SUNDAY

We drove back. I though Nationals went really well for me and I think I can improve next year.

typical saturday

so i'll be working today and i'll ride the trainer when i get home for 1h. tonight i'm going to a concert and i have to pack before that for the trip down to LA, i leave tomorrow at 7am, oh man thats gonna suck. i don't think i'll have a computer down there, but if i do i'll post stuff, and i'll post stuff after i come back for sure on the 10th, next sunday, not sure if i'm doing the ride yet, depends how i feel.

it's been a good friday

i rode about a little more than halfway up tam today and i was feeling really good. i did a 30min interval of tempo, but i wasn't too tired after that. my ibike wasn't working for the 2nd day in a row, i hate that thing

boring thursday

today's my rest day so i have nothing planned except a lot of tv watching, some reading, psh, and i'm going to see batman with some friends

wednesday was good to me

although i didn't get to go on an adventure ride today, i did do the paradise loop and i felt really good. then i came back and studied for my permit test. so after i waited for like 45mins for the people at the DMV to call my number, i finally got to take the test, which was 46 questions, and i only got 3 wrong. and the ones i got wrong were all stupid, like how the hell was i supposed to know that stupid law about animals in the back of a pickup. i wonder if the DMV knows they are located in SF and not in farm country. then i went to my favorite bike shop with 3 bikes to get parts swapped and stuff so i put some new pedals on my cervelo and i'm getting them to build up a specialized langster from 2006 for winter training. tomorrow's my off day, means a lot of tv watching

a better tuesday

today i rode easy for 1h on the trainer in the morning, then i studied my ass off, which isn't much, but i studied the dmv book or whatever for my permit test i'm taking tomorrow. i can't drive until i complete one 2h session behind the wheel with an instructor. i watched some tv and cleaned my bike which was really dirty, and then around 530 i left for the GG park race/ride i do every tuesday. It was fast and fun and it was hella foggy. i even won some sprints and some people told me i had a great sprint. i need some new pedals though, theres too much float on mine, i feel like my feet will pop out when i sprint. i talked to one of the guys who is the strongest guy there by far, he's a cat 1 and wins like every race he enters. in all it was a better day than yesterday and my totals were 43 miles in 2h 45 and my average HR was 145.

crappy monday

today i did the paradise loop but i felt like shit, i couldn't get into a rhythm and i just felt like crap. it was 41 miles ridden in 2.5h and then when i got back i went to ihop with some friends and the waiters got pissed at us, it was funny. tomorrow is gonna be my easy day in the morning and then in the afternoon, i'll be racing in GG park

sunday and finale of the tour

I woke up early today as usual for my weekly team ride around the east bay. today we did the norris canyon/redwood loop. I did some tempo riding and i have an easier week next week of only 15h. the ride was 41 miles and then i came home and watched the tour. cadel evans looked like a dumbass with his kangaroo. glad sastre took it

weekend

today i'm selling oysters. it's my off day from riding, but i'll ride my mtb bike to and from the job. i got the tt taping right now, can't wait to watch sastre put evans in his place, that would be 2nd. i hope vandevelde moves up over kohl

friday

today i went on a ride over in marin and along highway 1 and into muir woods. it was 35 miles total and i was riding fast tempo throughout the day that's why i did a shorter ride. then i saw chavanel win the stage even though i dont really like him. the peleton is damn stupid to forget or leave it too late to close down. i'm going to bicycle film festival tonight, should be fun

happy thursday

today was another long day but i cut it kinda short. i rode from my house over the bridge with all the dumbass tourists, and up highway 1 to panoramic highway to pantoll to summit rd. that's aka the top of mt. tam ~2800 ft. not as high as diablo, but longer and harder i think. i was feeling great today and my tube just popped at the top so i had to fix it, and then i ran out of c02 so i rode down on 60psi. i stopped at a bike shop, pumped it up and rode back. in all it was 46 miles, in a little under 3h. then i watched tv, burghart or however you spell it is a beast.

Sastre is in yellow!!!

I went on an easy ride this morning, 18 miles, with some minor hills. then i watched the tour, holy shit. that was a hella exciting stage, 3 HC climbs. sastre attacked time after time and finally got away, kept increasing his gap and is now like 1m20s over frank schleck. but sastre definitely needs more time on evans going into the tt. if only he'd learn like the rest of team csc how to tt, but he sucks at it. right now, my bets on evans to take the overall.

boring wednesday

today i'm just doing an easy 1h spin around SF after 3 long days on the bike. thursday, friday, and sunday will be more long days. i hope cadel evans falls down the side of the mountain today like the barloworld rider yesterday. pretty epic fall. i wonder if he got his bike back, i assume he did. i'm watching the tour on alpe d'huez right now, csc is dwindling the field, i really hope schleck gets more time on the others.

today's ride was hard

so i did the bolinas fairfax loop and i'm wiped out, half asleep watching the tour. i just got really hungry halfway through the ride,ate it all then, and then when i got to the top i was hungry as hell because i had nothing to eat. i rode 53 miles today and got a flat on my way back but i rode it slowly home. tomorrow's gonna be an easy 1h ride after 3 long days back to back

different tuesday than others

I watched the tour early this morning live, saw dessel take a really tough stage, menchov and vandevelde lost some crucial time. schleck is still in the lead i hate cadel evans. I'm going on a 4h ride in marin over the backside of mt. tam. it looks hella cold outside, i'll freeze coming down the mountain. then i'll watch tv the rest of the day, i gotta fill out some dmv forms to get my permit.

busy day

so i'm going on a 3h ride in the morning, visiting a bike shop for some new bartape and cycling caps and then I'm going to the DMV to get some forms i need to fill out to get my permit. rest day in the tour, schleck needs to put some serious time into cadel, kohl, menchov, and vandevelde before the tt because they can all whoop his ass in the tt.

Team ride and le Tour

yeah so this morning i did my team ride like every sunday morning, went out to the trees, small group, it was freezing, ended up with 43 miles in 2.5 h of riding time. made sure i got some work in on the front, there was a strong headwind. then i love seeing cadel evans dying on a climb and schleck taking the jersey, that was cool, csc has a strongass team. i don't like cadel he sounds like a girl when he talks. i watched 5h of tour tv today and dpate almost won. i got a 20h week next week wish me luck

Saturday, it's the weekend!

Today's a rest day for me from riding my bike all the time, I'll be doing 4h tomorrow with the team. I'm gonna go watch tv then I have to go carpet shopping because I got bike grease on mine. then i'm going to a concert at the greek theatre in berkeley. i'm also getting a track bike, a 56cm specialized s-works.

Today

So today I rode the paradise loop in marin and did jumps intervals, i need to work on those. Then when I got home I watched today's tour de france coverage into Nimes, I've been there before. Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen are complete idiots I must say. Well Cavendish is 4 for 4. That guy is really strong, I need to learn how to jump like him

What I'm up to

Yeah so that report was from Sunday, but I've been too lazy to post it. Today I rode easy for 1h 15 on my trainer and I watched today's stage of the Tour de France won by Cavendish. Right now I've been watching tv for 3 hours and I'll watch tv until 6 when I have to help make dinner, ughh

Lafayette Crit race report

7/13/2008

Cat 3s

Place: last or 2nd to last

Field: ~50 total

Feel Good: 8

Time: 50 minutes

Average Speed: 24.6mph

Max Speed: 35.8mph

Average HR: 183bpm

Max HR: 194bpm

Teammates: Chris, Jason

I arrived at the race around 9 and went to register. There were a lot of TD riders there which was pretty cool. I had a lot of time to kill and grabbed 26 Cliff bars. I had improved significantly in my last 2 races. I was 2nd at Diablo and 3rd in Davis, but I didn't think I would do that well in the 3s and if I was going to do well, I had to get in breaks. I warmed up for 20 minutes on the rollers and then I rode the course to get familiar with it. I lined up in the 2nd row and slotted in somewhere in the middle of the field. I stayed there for a while and then a break was established. It had 6 riders and they had a 10 second lead. I thought they would stay away and I wanted to bridge, but an opportunity never presented itself. A rider tried to bridge and I waited a couple seconds and chased after him. I was halfway across the gap and then going around the sweeping uphill bend I clipped my pedal and my rear wheel jumped 2 feet to the right and it scared me really bad. I kept going chasing the guy down, but the field was right there so I sat up and slotted into the middle somewhere. The break eventually gets caught and there are now 5 laps to go. I was in a bad spot to attack so I moved up with 4 laps to go. On the backside I attacked. The field was hugging the right side of the road, but going on the left was shorter, so I went on the left. I had a decent gap and increased it slightly going up the hill. As I crossed the line with 3 to go the announcer said something like "These moves hardly ever work out, but people always try them". I was thinking to myself that this guy should be encouraging me, but I had a big enough fan club by the McDonalds. I was getting tired, but still had a gap. I swung onto the hill with 2 laps to go and the field was closing in. As I crossed the start/finish they caught me and I was having trouble staying last wheel in the field. I was dropped with one lap to go and just eased up to cross the line in last, but I think I passed one guy.

I'm Adam Hodes

So this is my blog, I'm 15 and I like riding and racing my bike. I live in San Francisco, and I'm going into 10th grade.