Going Maverick on Jester

Alright, alright. I know I've been slackin. I've been letting things distract me, but it doesn't mean training hasn't been going on. Oh the contrary. Since the Supergrind we've been getting in some good workouts. Swimming has been going, well, swimmingly. I'm starting to master the drills and they're actually pretty fun once I get relaxed and have my breathing under control.

The weekend afterwards we headed to Austin for some hill training, and yes, to finally meet up with Jester. Who would win this time around? Did I have him in my sights? Or did my wingman leave me, leaving my backside exposed...I would say the latter. That hill is a b****!!! We leisurely drove into town after work on Friday and stayed at Nick's sister's place in the West Lake area. His nephews are monsters...and I thought Ethan was bad!! They complemented each other well: one was a master thespian and the other was a daredevil--he still had scars from his last attempt to rodeo at the neighbor's dog's expense. I'm thinking, the future of texas adventure racing! I'm sure Nick is thinking, the future of texas MOUNTAIN BIKING. Anyway, we got in a little late, settled in and then headed out to Jester early Saturday morn. It was a sunny day, but cold and windy. We were driving along and I look to my right and there was a road out in the distance and I was thinking, "that looks a little steep...I wonder what road that is?" Yep, you guessed it, it was Jester of course. Holy shnikeys!


I was about to cry even before getting on my bike. To test things out, I brought both my road and mountain bikes. I had originally wanted to use my road bike, but Nick insisted that I might want to use my mountain bike since I will have more gears to choose from. Man, I'm glad I listened to him. I first headed out on Masi and I was fine at first, but the road started to turn up steeply. Crap. I was still moving, but not at a sustainable pace. I was churning hard with my rpms in the low teens I'm sure. I was so dumbfounded and my lungs were burning that I finally decided to stop midway. Nick caught up with me and stopped to see what was the matter. I told him my plight and he told me to go back and switch to a mountain bike. Problem was, Jaunda had the car keys and she was heading up the hill, not intending to stop like we did. Crap. So it was either go back down and wait until they got done, or forge ahead foolishly. The mere fact that I listed two options here should let you know which one I did. After Nick started back up, I contemplated a little, about the meaning of life, if there's a doggy heaven, and how much crap Jaunda will give me if I didnt finish the first climb. So I went for it. Slowly. It hurt like a mofo and I used the switchback technique to make it more bearable for my legs. I eventually made it to the top, but my lungs were now en fuego!

The ride back down the hill was awesome, though! I hit 45 no prob, but had to slow down at the curve where the crosswind seemed to pick up. Even cars were going slower than us! It took me a bit of time to recover and I really didnt want to go back up, but Nick and Jaunda assured me it would be better on the mountain bike, so I finally agreed to try it. Nick also brought his slicks so that I could try then out with the mtb setup. We put them on and then it was round two. Though still painful, it was a lot more of a controlled, smooth effort up the hill on Eve. I was going a lot slower than I wanted to before even knowing how Jester would be, confirming that I had set my expectations too high. I let go of those expectations and just tried to get a good workout in. We did that damn hill 4 times and Nick finally called uncle. It was a great workout but I was a bit heartbroken. Still, to this day, I won't let it go and I'm set on using my road bike to do Jester in a couple of weeks. I've even ordered a set of compact cranks to change out on the Masi. This weekend I plan to test them out with the Warship.

After meeting with Jester, we headed over to Emma Long to get in some technical riding. But SOMEONE over at the Austin Adventure Racing Team forgot to let us know that Emma Long was closed to mountain bikers that weekend because there was some kind of motocross event going on. Again, stifled. So we decided to ride the greenbelt instead, which was fine with me since I haven't ridden it before. We mounted and were off in no time. It was really fun--a few rocky spots and river beds that proved a challenge, but it was just plain fun throughout. We did an out to Barton Springs and back. Packed up and headed back to the homestead to get ready for dinner. Nick's sister, Zelda, was able to get a sitter, so she joined us at this mediterranean place not too far away. It really looked sketchy from the outside at first, but once we went in, it was very cozy and inviting. We decided to go and try the outdoor heated gazebo. Not exactly what I was expecting, but the food more than made up for it. It all tasted great! Afterwards we headed to Wholefoods to get coffee for the morning...and it was tough getting Jaunda to leave that place! I got to admit all the food there looked good, too. I held off and didn't buy any of the chocolate...I must have been sick or something.

Next day was a little off the hip. I had my sweat testing with Matt Pahnke at the human performance lab at UT...same lab that Lance did his testing. And, yes, Matt confirms that Lance has broken up with Sheryl--stop asking him! Anyway, that was at noon and it took about about an hour all together. Conclusion: I sweat a lot. Actually, the good finding is that I sweat a lot of sodium, which could explain a lot of things that happenend last summer. I was on the upper edge of sodium loss as compared to the Hawaii Ironman subjects he tested. Anyway, Nick and Jaunda picked me up shortly afterwards and we decided to call it a weekend. We headed back and were home late Sunday night. Good times, good workouts.

Well, I've run out of lunch time, so I will end it here for now. Next time I will talk about Double Lake weekend.