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.