Start of a new week

Well it looks like I'm over my flu and other random crap that came up last week. I had to pretty much chalk last week up to nothing doing due to a pretty good bought with the flu that also included a bladder and kidney infection as a little bonus. Things seem to be getting back to normal, but I'm pounding Cranberry/Pomegranate like a College Senior pounds Keystone on a Friday night.

All in all though I'm feeling much better. I decided to take a ride yesterday and see where it takes me, without any real goals for distance, and I'm still not really concerned with running my Heart Rate Monitor yet. I ended up putting in 24.5 miles at about 14.5 avg. Considering the winds were blowing pretty good yesterday and I put myself directly into the headwind most of the way home, dropping my avg. And adding in the fact that I'm just getting over the flu, I was pretty happy with the results.

It's probably a good thing I wasn't hooked up to my heart rate monitor because I had my first meeting with a dog on the road in 18 years, and my Heart Rate Monitor probably would have been flashing "HEART ATTACK"... It's funny because I was just talking about the to my wife the other day wondering how long it would be before I got chased. So I got chased by two dogs... turns out they were really only looking to play, one got pretty close at first, but then settled in and just started running along side me for a while. The MUCH scarier part was later on when I was riding along and saw a goose in the road (YES, I said goose) It was just "chillin" in the middle of the road, I didn't think much of it, I gave it a little space, as I tried to pass it, but as soon as I got next to it, that son of a bitch was out for blood! It started running at me, honking and flapping it's wings... I think that thing wanted a piece of meat.

So I definitely got a couple of ,unintended, intervals in, but all in all it was a pretty good ride. I felt good most of the way, even with the head wind. And I felt good the rest of the evening after I got a shower and cleaned up. So good, in fact, Jen and I were able to run over to the Lowe's in Turlock and then come home and do some landscaping later on in the evening.

Ok... ok... so it's a work in progress. I know I have to crack the whip on the kids mowing the lawn and, as you can see from the pots etc. in the back planter bed everything isn't complete. But that's not because we (I) ran out of energy, it's because we ran out of Daylight. All in all, I think it's turning out pretty good, and I'm pretty happy I was still able to do it, just after doing my longest ride in a long, long time.

See ya out there on the road.

Amgen Tour of California, Stage 3

Well the Amgen Tour of California came to town on Tuesday. My oldest son and I went down to have a look at what was going on. I've been meaning to make it down to the race the last couple years when it passed through but have just never had the opportunity. I made sure to make time to get down to it this year (despite battling with the flu). And I'm really glad we got to go.

We made sure to get Downtown early, about 2 hours before the race was scheduled to make it in to town. This gave us an opportunity to find a good place to park and make it to the vedor booths before finding a good place at the barriers to watch the riders come by.

After we checked out the booths down the street from the Start/Finish line we made our way down to find a good spot to watch the action. We found a place about 100 meters from the Finish line where we could watch the final sprint, but we could also watch the big screen of the race footage as the riders got closer to town.

When the riders arrived, their first pass was pretty much a blur, the riders took up pretty much the entire width of the road, and flew on down past the Start/Finish. They completed 2 cicuits around Downtown Modesto, there were a couple of small crashes on the course but nothing that looked too bad. We were able to continue watching the race as it went on on the big screen behind us. When it was all said and done Ben Henderson from the Sky team dominated the Peloton beating Juan José Haedo (Saxo Bank) and Thor Hushovd (Garmin Cervelo) for the win.

Ben Henderson (Sky) dominated the peloton in a sprint aided by a fairly strong
tailwind. Henderson took the sprint from a little more than 300 meters out
and never relinquished.

Modesto is said to be one of the favorite stops for the Amgen Tour of California... A favorite for promoters and riders alike. This years stop didn't look like it dissappointed. The crowd control was great, the course was baricaded to Pro Tour standards. The crowd turn out was awesome... I'm glad my home town can play host to a stage of a truely top notch Pro Tour event and I hope it continues to do so in the future.

(There are more pictures of the event on my Facebook page.... The Prodigal Cyclist)