Christmas week 09

I pretty much took it easy this week as far as riding goes I was busy finishing of Christmas stuff and Andrew was down for the few days so after work on Wednesday I ran him back home so he could be with his mom on Christmas eve.
Thursday after work Amanda and I went over to her Uncle Ricks house for a family gathering Amanda's family usually celebrates Christmas on Christmas eve so we all opened most of are gifts that night. After getting home pretty late Amanda and I opened the rest of are gifts on Christmas day before she headed to work for about four hours. So I jumped on the mountain bike for a 2 hour spin around Meadow view. Everybody had a good Christmas and it was good to see and talk to everybody including my Dad, step mom and my sister Kim.It was back to Ricks house for dinner on Christmas day, I watched some of the Bolts game before we had a good dinner.

I was up early Sat morning for a ride thru Deluz and Fallbrook with the crew from Temecula velo boy was it cold that morning at 0800 hrs but we had a great ride 50 miles and over three thousand feet of climbing and I was back home before noon.when I got home Amanda and Karla were itching to head up to Big Bear to play in the snow and to see Tony so we gather all the warm clothes we could find and headed out, unfortunately everybody in so cal had the same idea we did it took us for ever to get up the mountain so we ended up meeting Tony for dinner and headed back home , we stopped by Taylor's house and brought her back home with us so we could have her open her gifts.
Monday was my off day so I ended up doing a 2.5 hour spin thru the wine country and then relaxing with Amanda before she had to go back to work tonight.

Christmas dinner 2009

The view on the way up to Big Bear on 12/26/09

Taylor's new bike

Amanda and Nicco

R/C Winter series race #1

I been getting some pretty good riding in over the last couple of weeks weather has been cool but with some rain but there been enough break in the rain to sneak in some rides. Wednesday after work I heeded over to Meadow view and hooked up with the Temecula velo group for a mtn bike ride 12 riders for the first official Wed night ride. It looks like there will be about 3 or 4 of us that are planning to team up and do the 12 hrs of Temecula in January that should be a lot of fun if it works out because I have always wanted to try one of those races out.

Sunday I carpooled wit Ric and Danny down to San Diego to race the first race of the R/C winter series, great turn out 24 riders in my class. All sport riders did a mass start I don't know how many of us there was but it was allot. I started about mid pack and settled into a good hard pace I was passing a lot of people for the first lap and a half I maintained the intensity thru out the race the course was great with a little of everything in it cycle cross, technical down hills and short climbs. I had a great battle with a guy from my class he would gap me on the climbs and I would reel him in on the technical sections and the flatter sections He finished wright in front of me I tried to pass him with one corner to go but to make the pass I would had to take his front wheel out so I backed off. Overall I felt strong I pushed hard and hung tough and that was a good felling I ended up in 7Th placed out of 24.Danny was in my class he finished 10 not bad for his first mtn bike race Ric also did well finishing on the podium in 4Th place in the expert class.

Nice technical down hill section

Rocky and loose terrain

Battling for 6th place on the last lap

Team AMR

The weather has definitely changed this week a lot cooler and its rained almost every day.I didn't do much riding I was tired from last weeks rides but I did get in three days of stretching, arms and core workouts in at home after work. It looks like the Wed night mtn bike rides are up and running at Meadow View area so hopefully I can get out there with the Temecula velo crew.Friday I managed to squeeze in a 2 hr mtn bike ride before the rains hit that day.Sat morning we helped Amanda's mom move up to Sun City and I jumped onto the trainer in the afternoon after that Amanda and I did a on demand workout video boy those thing are tough.

Paul one of my supervisors from work called and asked if I was going to be at the Tinsel Triathlon on Sunday for sure I said and actually its kinda funny because he mentioned it to me a couple weeks ago and I figured yea sure we talk every year about it and someone always ends up flaking out so I was surprised when he said it was a go this year.So I was up early Sunday morning after it rained cats and dogs all night long but the weather looked pretty good Sunday morning I meet up with Paul and Travis from work at our support trailer that they had out at the venue providing first aid to all participants. Our goal was to beat all the Hemet PD and fire guys. Paul was to due the run I did the bike leg and Travis the water polo guy to do the swim.The turnout was awesome over 1000 people raced. Paul did well on the run around 24 min I hammer the big leg ave 23 mph and finished the 12 miles in just under 30 min Travis banged out the swim in no time, our overall time was 58 min and some change good enough for 3rd place in the relay category just 4 seconds off of 2ND place and we think were about 60Th overall. It was nice to place in our first attempted as a team, and we did manage to crush all Hemet PD and fire crews it was nice to have our operations manager Jack out watching us and taking some pictures. So now we are going to challenge other AMR divisions to step up for the Redlands, Loma Linda and the Temecula triathlons early 2010.

Weather is changing

Not to many exciting things have been happening just been doing some riding like normal I have been doing long rides on every other Monday .We went on the jax grand opening Sat morning ride and froze are you no wants off I think Amandas toes were frozen for about one hr after the warm shower the grand opening was good we had Taylor with us so she played in the bounce house and had some hot dogs while we watched the bmx show Sunday I meet up with the crew from Temecula velo and did a mtn bike ride out at Meadow view area some really cool guys and some new trails near the house were shown to me from the crew.
Thanksgiving dinner went well I worked during the day and work feed us and it was double time all day which is nice after work I meet Amanda at her Uncles house for dinner.Taylor came with us and she played with Amandas moms new dog Nicco.The weather has been getting a lot colder and we have had a few days of rain recently it might rain all weekend so it might be time to start riding the trainer indoors.Amanda got the good news she was hoping for today she got excepted into nursing school that starts in Februrary, so congrats to her.

Century ride 11/22

Lots of things have been going on I been doing some longer road rides and meeting a lot of new people on the Jax bike shop rides and I meet up with a group today from the str website and did a mtn bike ride out near Vail lake area. It sounds like we might be getting some more organized road/mtn bike rides in this area which is much needed. Last Sat we went over to the park near our home and meet up with a friend to watch the police dog competition some pretty cool stuff on display like the sheriff swat team and the monster energy truck Taylor had fun seeing all the dogs and playing with all the swat gear and motorcycles Monday i went out on the road bike and ended up doing a 100 mils in about 6.5 hrs good times i felt really good nutrition and fluid intake was good. We went ring shopping one day down in the OC but didn't find anything special so the search continues.Andrew was over this weekend and we hung out and went to the mall and a few clothing stores for him so he could stock up.

Amanda and Chuck

Taylor on the monster energy motocross bike

Taylor all swat geared up and ready for action

Taylor and her new friends from Oceanside PD

Longer rides on tap Nov-2 / Nov-8

Good week overall of riding i think i logged about 160 miles, i did a 50 mile ride on Mon while A manda took her nap after work. I did a mtn bike ride on wed up the power line rd around Temecula it was real nice out not to cold yet and a full moon made it nice. Friday i road the same road bike loop out to french valley that i road last Friday and Sat morning i meet up with Johnathan from Jax bike shop and did there mtn bike ride out at Santa Rosa plateau fun beginner type ride they had about 10 riders show up we ended up with about 12 miles on the normal trails we did see a good size bobcat cruising thru the main area on the way back to the cars.Sunday i road around lake Elsinore counter clock wise the grand prix was going on all weekend i stopped and watched for a short period of time, boy that brought back allot of memories of my motocross days. After getting back to Clinton Keith I was still feeling pretty good so i headed up to the plateau and down into de luz let me tell you boy there is some seriously steep hills back there. I headed home thru Rancho cal rd great ride over 55 miles and 3.5 hrs later i was back home after a wick shower i joined Amanda for a well deserved nap.Hopefully these less intense longer rides will help me build up some endurance.Next weekend Amanda finally has a weekend off so we plan on doing some more ring shopping and spending some quality time together.

Halloween 2 Oct 26- Nov 1

Good week overall I had to take a class in Riverside on Tuesday so I took the mtn bike and got in a one hr ride in the afternoon at sycamore cyn nice and cool out and some good climbing to be had. Friday I got out on the road bike for a few hrs good ride out thru murrieta and around french valley. Sat morning I headed over to Jax bike shop for there ride meet up with 3 other guys and did a ride out past ie bikes and out scot rd and back thru french valley again good times and good company a little cold and dark at 7 am these days but the time is changes tonight.I had Andrew and Taylor this weekend , trick or treating was on tab sat night and we went to see the new movie paranormal activity on sunday afternoon after we dropped Taylor off. I have to say pretty scary stuff good movie though.Andrew seems to be doing well Taylor was happy to see him and I think he enjoyed himself while he was here. Amanda got dressed up for trick or treating and we got to visit with some of our neighbors quite a few houses were fixed up very nicely.

Karla's pumpkins

Taylor with all of her ducky friends at Harveston lake

Andrew blessing us with a smile amazing for a teenager

Andrew teaching Taylor how to jump from the swings.
A little bike ride out to the lake and park.

Taylor all ready to go and get some candy.

Karla, Taylor and Amanda trick or treating.

Oct 19-25 Halloween Party

Vampire Amanda

The girls

Micheal Jackson and his deadly doctor

Witches brew

Mummy fingers

Eye balls

Vampire Jim

Back to reality on Tuesday after our mini vacation up in Big Bear last weekend. Pretty uneventful week but busy,I did a couple short work outs at home during the week and rode the Mtn bike out at the Santa Rosa plateau on Fri afternoon and i headed out to Vail lake Sat morning and did 2 laps of the 12 hr course coming up in Nov.Fri during the day we spent running around getting things ready for the Halloween party that the girls were planning for Sat night.We picked up our costumes of course we are all being vampires this year.The party went well the girls did alot of cooking and tony and i helped decorate the house, mostly everybody that was invited was able to make it so all was good, great friends ,good conversation and some good costumes as well.Our neighbors also were having the second annual block party that night so we went over and visited for a short period of time and brought some sweets for them try out.Sunday after a little cleaning up Amanda and I went out to Moreno Valley and picked Taylor up from a birthday party she was at and we headed over to the punpkin patch in Yucaipa for more Halloween adventures.Taylor played some games went to the petting zoo and went thru the corn stock maze . Last week before the time change i guees i'm going to have to join the gym or start running again.

MTN Biking Heaven Oct 12-18

Great week of mtn biking unfolded with a short one hr ride around the power line roads in Temecula on Weds and a short ride at Simpson park in Hemet after work on Thurs, i got to try out the new nightrider lights awesome they really light up the trail. Friday morning i meet up with Richard from work at the Cranston fire station and we car pooled up to Hurkey creek for some single tracking nice and warm out good 17 mile ride and allot of fun playing around on the rock sections, we ended up riding for about 2.5 hrs before Richard started to cramp up.

great views from Hurkey Creek

Friday afternoon Amanda myself Beth Karla and Tony headed down to the bull pen a local sports bar to watch the Angel game it was allot of fun but the Angels lost with a calamity of errs, after that it was still early so we went over to the country bar the Stampede for a while to give Beth a chance to check out the local cowboys. Sat morning i got out around eight on the road bike for a couple of hrs meet up with Amanda and Beth afterwards for a bagel.I picked up Taylor and hung out around the house the rest of the day.Sunday morning we were up early to pick up Amanda from work and up to the cabin in Big Bear for sun/Mon, once we were their Amanda needed to take a nap after working all night so i got out on the mtn bike up around the back side of snow summit and road for about three hrs great day nice and clear with perfect temps.

Big Bear lake

Fall colors

Monday morning we were out on the bikes for close to two hours riding along the lake around snow summits trails and into town for some lunch. Overall a great weekend great weather great views and great company.

Nice and clear up in Big Bear on a Monday morning

Cant beat that smile, these little vacations are addicting.

Weather is changing Oct 5-11

This week was pretty uneventful easy three days at work.My training is going thru some changes since the time and weather is changing, the goal is to concentrate on eating healthy losing hopefully ten more pounds and work on upper body strength and overall better fitness along with being more flexible. The idea is to do activities like tennis , running, swimming, weightlifting, hiking and continue riding the bikes. Only did one short road bike ride after work this week its getting dark so early now and allot cooler in the evenings. I have been keeping up with the 30 min work outs and home.

Friday morning i got out on the road bike and made it up the the top of the Santa rosa plateau nice and tough climb, that night Amanda and I along with Karla and Tony headed down to Del mar fair grounds and went to there haunt night attractions it was pretty good the horror house was the best along with the haunted hay ride.

Saturday i got out again for approx 2 hrs on the road bike cool and windy in the afternoon.

Sunday the plan was to get in a short hike in out at the plateau then watch the Angels play Beth and Amanda's Mom came over for breakfast and the game , thanks to the hottie red head for a great Sunday morning breakfast.The Angels game was nerve racking and awesome with there late innings heroics, congrats to them. Go Angels .After the game i went and picked up Taylor for the afternoon, we went to lunch went bowling and spent some time at the punpkin patch in Yucaipa good times by all.

So Cal Fat Tire Epic looking good before the leg cramps.

Ups and downs 9/27-10/4

This week was pretty low keyed with a few ups and downs, with the fat tire epic happening on Saturday I decided to take it easy this week and I only did a few short mtn bike rides on Tues/Thurs thinking I would be on the bike all day Sat, well that plan didn't work out.I really didn't feel well all week not bad enough to think I was getting sick just kinda tired, I was up early on Sat morning headed out to Vail lake the weather was nice I felt good on the start and was riding a comfortable pace not to hard knowing it was a long race, overall I was about mid pack and happy with that. I keep thing about one hour into it that I should be drinking more heed and taking electrolytes capsules but I just couldn't do it I was not bloated, the only I could drink was water.Well about two hours in I felt the the bonk starting the legs were already tired on any little hill that came up, so I tried to keep drinking but to no avail on one climb heading back to the camp ground I could feel the legs getting ready to cramp up and they did left hamstring and right calf at the same time not fun painful and difficult to get off a bike and try to stand up during this episode I'm glad nobody was close enough to witness this event it was pretty ugly.Well that ended my race I coasted back to the pit area and tried to recover, bummer I was disappointed that I could not finish.Time to reassess my plans, I think my mind is stronger then the body, these events look like fun and I think it would be awesome to be able to finish long distance races with a respectable time but I currently don't have the conditioning to pull it of right now, I don't get enough long rides in during training to improve my endurance oh well back to the drawing board.

That afternoon was fun Amandas friend Beth came over and we all headed to the driving range , Beth just bought a set of pink breast cancer awareness clubs.Beth lost the putting contest so she was buying the first round of drinks at dinner and I learned I have a wicked slice with my golf swing.Off to BJ'S we went good food and good times had by all.Once back at home we all played a few games of wii which the girls picked up last week.

Sunday the plan was to pick up Taylor at noon in Beaumont and head to Palm Desert to take Andrew out to lunch for his birthday.We went to Islands we all had a good time it was good to visit with him it seems like thing are going good, Taylor was real happy to see him. After Andrew opened his cards we headed to the mall to look for Halloween costumes no luck but but Taylor surprised us by saying she wanted to get her ears pierced today, this has been a ongoing saga for a bout a year or so.Congratulations to her she pulled it off with only a couple of tears and a few minutes of looking pretty pale, we thought she was going to pass out or get scared and chicken out again.On the way home we stopped at Dairy Queen for ice cream So this week had some ups and downs bummer about the race but good times with Andrew, congrats to Taylor for over coming her fears and Amanda for spending time with us.

Congratulations to Taylor on her ear piercings

Recovery week 9/21-9/27

Well vacation is over and reality is starting to kick in, today Monday we slept in and our main objective was to get unpacked and get ready to go back to work for Amanda she was starting her new shift on Tuesday 2300-0730 ouch that is going to take some time to get used to.We did manage to get out on the road bikes in the afternoon for a easy one hour spin up the bike path

Tuesday back to work and getting up at 0430 which sucks overall, not to bad of a day at work good to be back and see everybody from work, everybody interested about our trip good times telling the stories. After work I jumped onto the mountain bike for a ride around Temecula road on the power line access roads for about a hr before it got dark.

Wednesday I planned to ride again but we got a late call and ended up getting off work late so I did a 30 min strength workout at home before heading to bed.

Thursday after work I headed to the jewelry store while we were in Florida Amanda and I started looking for her engagement ring, she found one she liked so we went to checked it out again at our local store here in Temecula. We wanted to up grade the center diamond to make it perfect, they made it seem like it was no problem to do that but once it game down to it they weren't willing to work with us and it was going to be to expensive to make the change so the quest continues to find the perfect ring.

Friday the plan was to go pre ride the fat tire epic 50 course at Vail lake since it changed while I was gone on vacation I talked my friend Shrek from work to come join me , he hasn't been riding much so this was going to be a long day for him.We got riding about 0900 and it was already hot not a good sign, our main objective was to check out the new sections on the back side of the lake let me tell you that first climb after the damn makes the damn climb seem like a breeze I think I under stand the word epic a little better now, good lord Jason your a brutal man, this is a tough course one lap was hard two laps will be difficult to complete least for me.One nice thing we ran into two other guys doing the same so it was good company and we saw Jason on course doing some trail marking, once we made it back to the campground we all jumped into the pool , that was nice, by now it was about 104 degrees and almost four hours since we started but we had a lot of stops checking out the course, fixing a flat and talking to Jason overall one good day of riding though.

Saturday at it again today was the last race of the racers/chasers summer series out at Cahuilla creek mx park,up early and and headed out.During warm it was already getting warm pretty decent turnout of riders. The race went well I got a good start and was in third overall out of all sport riders, three laps this time which is one more than the last race so allot tougher. The first three guys were pretty fast I hung in there pretty well with the fourth place guy I ended up fifth on the day and third overall in the series real happy with that. There was a little problem with our category scoring but Rob and his crew were open to hear the concerns and the facts and it was corrected in a timely manner. Props to them I know it can be difficult keeping track of everybody and the amounts of laps between categories.After the race it was off to pick up Taylor for the rest of the weekend. Amanda's friend Beth was coming over tonight and we all were going to the concert in the park here at the Harveston comm center the theme was songs from the 80's.It was good times good company, free drinks,popcorn,face painting for the kids.


Sunday a happy birthday goes out to Andrew today he turns sixteen. Easy day planned hanging out and letting Amanda get some sleep since after last nights concert she had to go work.Yesterday after the race I was going to head down to Palm Desert to take Andrew out for his birthday but he already had plans with his grandmother and two uncles so we talked and were going to get together next weekend and celebrate the big 16th.

Vacation week 2 9/14-9/20

This week the plan was to take it easy and hang out around the pool and do some training. Monday we were up early getting the boys ready for school, once they were off we decided what the heck its vacation we went back to bed and sleep into about ten.After breakfast we took off on the bikes and did a little riding for about 1 hr the ended up being a quest to see if we could spot a alligator, we were successful but the pictures did not come out .Later that afternoon we did a 30 min strength work out at the gym. The rest of the day was spent lounging in the pool.


Tuesday was busy after we got the boys off to school we headed over to message envy for our messages on this day the company was donating a portion of the cost to breast cancer so Amanda made us a appointment in the couples room at noon, after some lunch we headed home for some pool time.Later that evening we hit the gym for about a hour did some arms, core workouts and spun on the stationary bike, for dinner I grilled up some chicken breasts and we made burritos.

Wednesday I got out on the bike and road over to the preserve that is located about four miles away, its a real nice place to ride bikes,run or Rollerblade,no charge for entering the preserve that is about 15 miles of paved roads and a few dirt single tracks and lots of wildlife. I did not make it back home before the thunder storms hit I got a little wet but is was a blast,Amanda saw how much fun it looked so she jumped onto a bike and we road around the neighborhood for a while longer. Once the boys were home from school we had to take Cody to FSU for his music lessons, back home and after dinner we watched a couple of movies before heading to bed.

Nice water stops at the preserve

Thursday we took it easy mostly hanging around the pool, we did managed to hit the gym for one hr. I did a run on the treadmill with Amanda for thirty mins and another thirty min spin on the stationary bike.That night Cody had a football game that the band was playing the half time show so we headed for to watch and support him, no rain tonight that was nice.
Friday morning I got up and went for a two hour ride out at the preserve and ended up with about 30 miles. Another tough day lounging in the pool,that night we watched a baseball game and a movie.

Saturday the plan was to rest up and get the house cleaned, Amanda' parents are returning this afternoon. After picking them up it was pool time once again. We spent the rest of the day telling stories of our week with the boys and hearing about there trip as well.


Sunday was travel today for us we got up lounged one more time pool side drinking some wine eating juicy steaks and snaking on crackers and cheese. In the after noon we said our good byes and thank yous and her dad took us to the airport and guess what it started to rain once we were there of course it was pouring , our flight was only delayed for 30 mins though.After take off things were peaceful we were both really tired, short lay over in Dallas and two hrs later we were back in San Diego Karla picked us up and we cruised home and right into bed. Vacation is officially over, Bummer, Bummer.Off to work we go.