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