So that's why they call it the HILL Country

Great ride after work yesterday. Jennifer took me on a 26 mile loop from Soler-Tri Sports, up SH 211 to Bandera, back to Soler. I knew I was in for a serious work-out when I found out she asked others how long they had been riding before they tackled that track!
211 is basically a patch of highway that has four gradient "steps" that stretch for about seven miles, so each hill is about 1.5 miles long with 1/4 mile plateau between. The hills are long but not terribly steep. At the end of the last incline is an awesome, 1/4 mile descent that had my Cat Eye speedometer registering 30.1mph at the fastest point, which was fun, except as soon as you get to the end of the hill you make a sharp right onto Bandera and IMMEDIATELY start a brutal 1/2 mile uphill that feels like you are pedaling through crank-deep molasses. My legs were on fire! I had to stand up in my pedals to make it up the hill and i couldn't have been going more than 2mph the whole way. It was a long, tough ride but I surprised myself. I think I kept up fairly well and I didn't have to dis-mount even once to make it up any of the inclines.
I feel bad because after the ride all i wanted was a shower, some food and sleep so I didn't get to clean the "Dragon", but I will make up for it after dinner tonight and give my poor bike the wipe down she deserves, and after that we'll start planning for this weekends ride..... The adventure continues.

Cocked-N-Locked

Well, I finally got that elusive Record Label/Clothing Company deal I have been searching for but oddly enough it wasn't because of my "mad skillz" on the microphone, it wasn't even because of my movie star good looks lol! It all came about because Jennifer convinced me to buy a bicycle. Well that, and the Boss at Cocked-N-Locked Records, Jay Lee and San Antonio's best Rap Artist, SoS.A.(So San Antone) decided to think outside of the advertising box and start CNL Endurance Sports of which I have been named Captain. SWEET! I'm really excited about this opportunity and ready to get after it and train harder than ever!

CNL-ES is about more than just running, its also about doing long distance Cycling Road-Races, so there is lots of work to do. The first official CNL Endurance Sport event will be 2010 San Antonio Rock-n-Roll Marathon but you will definitely see me out in the streets of San Antonio before then. Lots of training runs and smaller warm-up events to crush between now and then. First up, The Carrabbas Classic, 1/2 Marathon Relay June 19, then the Los Chupacabra De La Noche 10k July 23.

So, we'll see you out on the road...

Wow, What a whirl-wind weekend

Back at work after an awesome weekend of family fun, food and road-trips.

Friday was Cousin Alicia's Celebratory dinner for graduating Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Texas A&M at Ruth's Chris Steak House. The Steak was velvety soft, and the Shrimp were prepared to perfection and if you didn't get excited about the creamed spinach you just don't know creamed spinach. For dessert they brought out cake topped with fresh strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries and a heavy sweet cream sauce that I know i should have passed on but it was soooo delicious and did I mention it had fresh berries, so it had to be at least a little good for you, no?

Saturday, Jennifer and Betty got up nice and early to participate in day one of the Tour-de-Cure, a two day bike ride from San Antonio to Austin to raise money for Diabetes Research. The boys and I drove to San Marcus which is the finish line for day 1 and the starting line for day 2 to meet them and bring them back to San Antonio so they could change and then we drove to Pleasanton for Alicia's going away BBQ seeing as she is leaving to D.C. for a Summer Internship.

The BBQ was great. It was Texas, more Texas and waay Texas... BBQ, Beans, Shiner Bock and Lone Star Beer. I even got to hand the Mayor of Pleasonton his beers all night since I was sitting on the cooler! I got to hear lots of stories about Jennifer's family from Uncle John (I still shake my head at the story of how Betty traded her 454 Trans Am for a Ford Fiesta!) and he took the boys and I to race his 40MPH RC Truck.

Sunday, Jennifer and Betty got up early once again and drove to San Marcus to begin Day 2 of the Tour-De-Cure(59 miles day 1 / 80 miles day 2!) and the boys and I met them in Austin so we could have our annual after Tour-De-Cure meal at Steak-n-Shake. Then it was back to San Marcus to pick up Betty's truck then home for some much needed rest for them. (They are troopers and I don't know how they did it.)

It was a great weekend and I'm going to have to work very hard on training this week to make up for it but it was completely worth every extra mile and every extra crunch that its going to take just to get back to zero!

The Red Dragon

Yay for me! The Red Dragon came home with me from Roger Solers Tri-Sports yesterday afternoon, just in time for Jennifer to tell me we were going on a leisurely 35 mile ride with only a few hills. Turns out she mis-calculated just a tad since it turned out to be nothing but hills(she says all the other routes were even hillier(sp?) so I'm glad she chose this loop) for the first 20 miles and the length of the ride was actually 46miles! Oh well, it turns out that I really love road-biking and couldn't be happier with my choice, even though I didn't know that until AFTER the ride. During the ride all I could think about was trading my bike in for a shiny new iPad! Now that I've had my Baptism by fire, I realize that I'm going to be a cyclist for life and it's just up to me to get better and stronger. Hopefully the cycling will make me a better runner also.

Shirt of the Day

MMMMM BEER! Today's shirt of the day, belongs to yours truly and is perfect seeing as I will get to wear it when I go for a ride on my new bike this afternoon. Yay me!

Thursday Run

Awesome run this morning! It must have been because of the new Pearl Izumi Socks I got yesterday, seriously they felt great. The pace we had this morning (sub 8:30) is the pace I'd like to carry into the Rock-n-Roll Marathon, but there is plenty of time to worry about that later I'm just happy with today's results.

Western Conference Finals Game 2 Update: Lakers 124 Suns 112 LA is up 2-0.

just chillin

Sitting around the house this evening. Jennifer and I are watching game 2 of the Los Angeles Lakers(yes, I am a Laker fan living in Spur country) vs the Pheonix Suns. Well, to be honest I'm watching the game, she is nose deep in a Sudoku book. One of these days I'm going to learn how to do those.

I am very excited, because I go pick up my new 2010 Felt Z100 Race Bike after work tomorrow. The plan is to go to Roger Soler Tri-Sports and get the bike fitted, get the computer hooked up and get my SPD Pedals put on, then Betty, Jennifer and I will go for our first ever ride together, SWEET!

Game update:

Ron Artest just hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to end the first quarter Lakers 33 Suns 24.

Got to go games back on.

Shirt of the day update

Carol sent me a picture of her new shirt. I felt I owed it to all (3?) of you to share because it is so awesome.
I'm really liking this Shirt-of-the-Day segment.

I told you this was gonna be "random".

179 to go/ T-shirt of the day

Great Run this morning. Watched the Biggest Loser last night and the last four contestants ran, and more importantly, finished a Marathon. I was very impressed, especially by Daris who ran it in 4hr 2mins. There are 179 days left till the San Antonio Rock-n-Roll Marathon, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't freaking out a little about it. Oh well, like I always say: put in the time and the miles will come.

T-shirt of the day is from 2008. I was race crew for the Inaugural Rock-n-Roll Marathon, 2009 I ran the R-n-R Half-Marathon 13.1miles and 2010 I am going to go for the whole kit and caboodle 26.2miles!

Shirt of the Day

This is Carol's shirt. It's Awesome. I gotta find one for Jennifer.

Thoughts of the day for the Zen Runner in you

Treat a Marathon as your best long run ever. - Anon
Be patient and relaxed in every step. - Anon
Feed off runners; don't compete against them. - Anon
Banish negative thought. - Anon
Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up - Dean Karnazes
If you want to win something, run one hundred meters. If you want to experience something, run a Marathon. - Anon

Is this thing on?......

Allow me to introduce myself, my name is J.P. and I am going to give this blog thingy a go. I am a father to two great boys, boyfriend to an awesome chick, runner and fledgling cyclist(when I get my new race bike on Thursday).



I have no idea where its gonna go, or what direction I even want to point it in, so when I say "Random Thoughts" I literally mean, RANDOM!



More than likely, this will just be my runners logbook, as my girlfriend Jennifer,(more about her later) and I are in training to run the 2010 San Antonio Rock-N-Roll Marathon.



I'm fairly sure no-one outside of my immediate family and select circle of friends will ever actually read this, but if you do happen upon it I warn you now; I am prone to rambling, misspelling and all types of egregious grammatical errors. Sorry, that's just how I roll, so if any of those are deal-breakers for you, may I suggest you take this opportunity to exit stage left.



Anyway, enough for now.