Congratulations Cadel Evans & the schleck brothers!

My first viewing of the Tour DE France was pure beauty, To see men get pushed to there limits day after day was amazing. Just like every tour there was blood sweat & tears but i could have never excepted to see all the heart and glory i witnessed. I am very happy for cadel evans he road amazing and his win was well deserved. To have two brothers on the podium is very heart warming & I'm sure there time is to come when they will be wearing the yellow at the end. Also let me give some love to alberto contador for putting up a fight even when he was down on his luck. Beautiful experience, i will never forget.

Rapha Rising final day... 15,683m completed out of 21,125m

The feelings i hold as of right now are mixed i feel rather disappointed in myself ,not much for being unable to reach the goal since i realized that was out of reach a week back but mostly  for not going out with a bang on the last day. Besides that i am very grateful & thankful for participating in this, it was a great experience & i must thank Rapha for being so cool & also give respect to all the riders who were able to finish since this was no easy task. Rapha Rising required allot of dedication & mental toughness. I also came out of this a much better rider, i feel much stronger & in better shape. I developed my morning ritual before my rides, i learned how to properly hydrate myself, & how to eat & when to eat. So although i wasn't close to winning i still know i came out a winner in different ways. My first challenge was unsuccessful but I'm already looking forward to the next one. All i could say now is that i can't wait to ride some flat roads.

   Challenge number 1 the Rapha Rising

                                          Still young & improving, ill be there for the next one :)

You never know what ride will be your last. 806 m

Well that's kind of a over execrated title since I'm still alive & healthy but this turned out to be my last ride for the rapha challenge which is really disappointing since it wasn't nearly as big of a test as i wanted it to be. This is because i wasn't planing for this, the plan was to get some meters in on Saturday day 22 & Finish it off today Sunday with a big ride. Turned out that i couldn't fit my ride in my schedule today, this hurt me bad i was really looking forward to one adding up my total of climbing meters to 17,000, & two having this as my final test to show my improvement.

rapha rising day 22 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

Almost to the top. 1,237 m

With just a few days left , i choose mt. baldy road once again. this time i had a finish on my mind, not with the rapha challenge but with going to the end of the climb were the road eventually stops. I was doing very good , the best I've ever done on this course. I started through the switchbacks but with only 1 mile left i realized i miss manged my time schedule with my girlfriend who i told to meet me up at the bottom at a certain time for dinner. Now I'm more that confident i could finish this course something i could have never done before.

Rapha rising day 21 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

The Galibier! 1,212 m

stage 18 of the tour de France was the most beautiful display of heart i have ever witnessed so beautiful that it made my eyes tear up. To see a man push pass his limits with pure heart & will was just so amazing to me. I read old stories and see old clips of past legends, & historical moments but i never really witnessed on e in real life & today was one of those moments that should go down in the books. Andy schleck solo break was very heroic and an amazing display of heart & courage but the true moment that did it for me was to see thomas voeckler push up the final hill to cross the finish line to hold on to his yellow jersey, By far my favorite moment ever in sports. I will never forget this stage & that moment. As for my ride still trying to do something a little extra but still no big help. Today was a real kick in the butt to see so many people reach the goal but i have noting to blame but myself for missing out on the days i skipped, But i will continue to ride since 14,000 isn't a good enough mark for me.

                                                   Thomas voeckler galibier finish

Rapha Rising day 20 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

Bear on the road. 852 M

Today was just another day for me into about 4 miles in my usual ride a fallow cyclist told me that there was a bear on the road just ahead so not wanting to take the risk on how hungry he was i decided to turn around. I was only able to rake up about 468 M, knowing this was not enough i relocated to another road of mine to try and get a few more meters in, but it didn't have much to offer me with elevation gain. So not as much climbing done as i expected but i did get to spend some time taking pictures.

Rapha rising day 19 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details
Rapha rising day 19 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details-ride 2

Different strategy, 1,477 m

Coming off a rest day i felt fresh so i choose to push a bigger gear than usual. I was really impressed with this style of ridding since i been pushing small gears at higher cadence this whole time. I noticed that my cadence was much lower but so was my heart rate and lactic acid build up so this allowed me to ride more casual. This style proved to benefit me as i climbed the most meters so far. I also enjoyed this style of riding since it was such a beautiful day and i was able to soak it all in.

Rapha Rising day 18 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

Rapha rising day 16 & 17, no riding.

So after a week straight of riding i noticed my performance was slowly decreasing, unfortunately it took a Sunday soccer game to realize how tired my body really was since i was way more tired than usual for my game. So i ended up taking this Monday off with no exercise just a good oh lazy day. I also thought that since i won't be hitting the 21,100 meter mark i will spend a little  more time on the photography side of my ride since i been to caught up in the riding and have only used my cellphone camera.

Rapha Rising total as of today- 10,109 meters

Today was rest day... well not actually since Sundays are soccer Sundays for me but i did have a day off the bike. I have now reached 10,109 meters and have about 11,000 to reach the grand total. At this time i realize that this goal will not be reached, not only did the other competitors already reach the goal long before me i just also realize that this would be a lot more climbing that I'm capable of. This does not mean i will throw in the towel  since my new goal is to get at least in the top 50. I would be really satisfied with this result considering my bike experience. So far on  strava.com i am ranked 81 out of 533 with 5 more days remaining.

DOUBT... 1,125 m

Rapha rising day 15, This was a very interesting day for myself. It has seem that all this riding has finally caught up to me because since the time of waking up to watch the tour all the way up to about 30 minutes of riding i just seem to be in a very hazy mindset, pretty much i just didn't want to ride but i still forced myself to. I noticed the lactic acid in my legs built up ride away, here i knew it was going to be a long day so instead of trying to speed up the climb as fast as I'm capable of i decided to pace my self & that seem to be the best thing i could of done because with this slower pace i realized that i shouldn't get caught up with the obsession to see constant results and always try to beat my last time. I almost forgot about the true beauty of biking, it's to enjoy yourself and the beauty around you, & if i have to pull over to take a break then i will because i deserve to enjoy the beautiful view that i worked so hard to reach. So what started out as a morning full of doubt soon turned out to be one of the best things i learned.

Rapha Rising day 15 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

Mt. baldy round 2. 969 m

Another ride on Mt. baldy, the one that always pushes me both mentally and physically. On this ride i acutally climbed up with my best time so far. It was a very tough ride like always & still was unable to get past the infamous switchbacks but still got close to 1000 meters.

                                               The rest area right before the switchbacks, my usual checkpoint

                                                                  Peanut butter jelly time!

Rapha rising day 14 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Detail

A cloudy day isn't always a sad day. 852 m

Day 13 for the rapha rising was a good ride for myself not the most feet/meters climbed but a great ride for myself. As i get more used to the roads i know what gears to push, today i pushed bigger gears than i usually do & it was so far the fastest i reached the top of what the locals call GMR. The weather defiantly played a big roll in my ride, since it was mostly cloudy the temp was around 75 degrees compared to the brutally summer heat of 110 degrees on day 1. I was really surprised how little watter i needed when it's not as hot so less water weight was a little help on the climb.

Rapha rising day 13 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

Tuning It Up. 1,038 m

Tuned up the bike & tuned up the hair, feeling a little fresher i was ready to tackle my 1000 meters. I started off feeling great really good into about a hour in my ride i got some of the most worst  knee pain I've experienced yet. Now i have no idea what's going on here i was almost sure that i have adjusted my bikes saddle and seat post enough, my only guess could be my cleats might possibly be off? well almost turning back i decided to finish of the ride since i got past most of the hard part.

Rapha rising day 12 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

Going to battle with the beast. 954 m

Day 11 of the rapha rising & i went to war with the toughest local climb ,Mt baldy road. This is the climb that always gets the best of me no matter how good i feel. It's definitely a Cat 1 maybe even a HC with grades reaching around 12% or more. Although she got the best of me i still pushed hard and long in the zone that i only experience with cycling. Also i passed the two spots were my mind seems to always crack on the previous rides. Now ill give Mt baldy the win since i didn't get passed the switchbacks but i do plan on completing the switchbacks before July 22.

Rapha rising day 11 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

Rapha Rising day 10- 640 m

rode one of my favorite climbing courses  today it's not as elevated as my other routes probably a category 2-3 so didn't get to many meters in but i am happy to notice much better results, i felt much stronger and better in shape. today's ride really felt effort less compared to how i use to feel before i stated the rapha rising so very happy to see results. Also there is now 483 competitors i am currently ranked 144, i really hope to move up to at least top 100 before the week is over.

Rapha rising day 10 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

Losing my focus to the DARK SIDE. Rapha rising day 7,8,9-513 m :(

 It was Friday morning coming off a great ride the day before & really focused to move up the rankings of the rapha rising i knew Friday & Saturday would be crucial days to put work in.... Well i find out that it's my friends birth day and all the boys are going to celebrate by going camping in the mountains that i usually ride. So i had a tough decision but decided to let loose a little which turned into a lot. Since we were camping in the mountains were i ride i tried to get a little ride in which only came out to 513 M but that was not the upset for me, the real upset was how i indulged myself in alcohol all night with the guys acting like a teenager again into i finally passed out then waking up with the usual hang over that comes with the punishment of acting like a fool, i new my Saturday ride was doomed. Now as for Sunday... another soccer game for me so no ride. so three days lost, & let me not forget to mention that two riders have officially finished so winning this thing has been long out of reached but i will still be happy to see how far i could go just for myself so not giving up.

Rapha rising day 7 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

A rest well worth. another 1,289 M

After taking two days off for Rapha risings day 4 & 5 i rode my best ride yet for day 6. I felt very strong today my knees were felling a lot better but still a little sore. I also signed up for strava.com to track my results for this challenge since it seems that most of the competition is using this website. although i still enjoy garmins website i am liking the more user friendly strava better i found that it keeps your results more in dept & shares your info to others a lot better, it is easy to find local riders & clubs but the downside is that you do have to pay if you want to upload all your rides. Anyways the reason i am mentioning this is because it also let's me see how the competition is going, out of 269 riders in strava i am currently ranked 48 in this Rapha challenge which isn't a bad result so far but there is about 5 really solid riders that are almost impossible to catch up to but i will not stop ridding. My goal is to at least rank top 10 on strava.com

Rapha Rising day 6 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

No dice for Rapha Rising day 4 & 5

Well only being a cyclist for about 6 months now & not wanting to spend the money on getting professionally fitted finally caught up to me. My knee pain finally got the best of me after every ride i realized that i had to adjust something with my saddle height and seat. Turns out that  my saddle height has been a couple inches to low & also my seat was pushed to far back so i was over extending my knee. After spending these two days icing and resting i feel good enough to get back on the road again. These two days off definitely hurt my chance to finish the goal since i had to ride at least 1000 m a day but maybe i could make up for it with the future rides.

                                                         :( get your bike fitted! or else!

972 m + Fireworks! Rapha Rising day 3

Despite it being independence day & witnessing a great win by tyler farrar i was not much in the mood to go riding. I found myself complaining about the heat, stiff knees, & feeling like i was about to overdose on Carbohydrates, but being about 20% Spanish & 50% Mexican i told my mind that i ride better in the heat & it worked. Besides my knees acting up i felt like i had a strong ride today & it turned out to be a good choice to go riding but as my other rides i still think i climb a lot more meters than i really do. This is no easy task i have now realized that this is a true challenge, I just hope i could stay focused & consistent for the upcoming  days.

Rapha Rising day 3 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details  

 

                                            We had the roads all to are selfs today :)

                                           the 4th of July American independence day

No biggie but somethings better than noting, 604 m in the books.

So i had a tough decision today between my Sunday soccer game or  to keep up the climbing. Well i ended up splitting it up  to just enough climbing to not get to tired for my game. It was sort of a bummer only getting in 600 m considering how much fellow competitors are racking up but i did get something in so that's better than noting. The best thing is that i am  not tired & feeling strong for tomorrows ride. I will definitely have to have a great ride tomorrow if i want to stay close to the others.

Rapha Rising day 2 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

                                                not the steepest but this is how the roads look

                                                                  Nice & smooth

                                                     We shall meet again

                                      Not the best cook but this is my recovery meal

1,168 m in 45.0 °C weather = Worst Bonk ever !

So my first ride for the rapha rising didn't go exactly how i thought it would. Within the first hour the sun teamed up with Mt baldy road to destroy me they cracked me like a egg and tried to turn me over easy, as i was on the verge to call it quits early i decided to take a little break to rehydrate and cool off, i soon got right back on my saddle like pancho villa and road right up mt baldy road then up to glendora ridge road at this point it would be half way of what i finished but what i didn't know is that i would soon be out of water. Being a new rider and this being my first summer ride i figured 45oz of water would be good enough well *WRONG* as i started my descent back down i was pretty much in zombie mode. The worst of all i thought i climbed way more than i did the route i chose was not good enough for the climbing so i will be changing my route. On the bright side im still alive and ready to give it another crack.
Rapha Rising day 1 by thewolverine33 at Garmin Connect - Details

                                                                      Gearing up

                                                          loading up on the carbs

                                                       My arch rival. So pretty but yet so mean