TJ Woodruff ONLINE

A couple of low key days have been the order recently. I’ve been letting the legs rest up before the last round of training to come prior to next Thursday’s Sea Otter kick off.

I’ve been thinking about dreams or long term goals, trying to consider what value they really hold in our day to day lives. I’m realizing that they can be pretty huge, but only if we take strides towards actualizing them. Dreaming is one thing, but doing something about it is so much more valuable because this is when and where ‘life’ happens. Whether or not the dream is achieved someday almost becomes of secondary concern to the experiences we gather taking every step towards it. For me right now, ‘life’ involves toeing the start line with the sport’s best and gaining the experiences necessary for success in our sport. I don’t expect to win, but I do expect to learn how to race faster and to continually improve.  For me, it’s all part of keeping it ‘real’ and enjoying the ride.

Needless to say I’m pretty pumped with the thought of racing with knobby tires soon. I may or may not drive down to San Diego for a race this weekend. I’ll have to see how things play out for that. It would be nice to get in a ‘tune up’ race, but things might go just as well by doing some hard rides without having to travel. Sea Otter will likely be the toughest field I’ll race in all year. Nothing like jumping right into the thick of things!

We’ve gotten some rain the past couple days and highs were about at 50 degrees, so by the sound of things, the weather in Wisconsin was actually nicer for the first time in a long time. Fortunately things dry up quickly around here so I can get off-road a bit before driving up to Monterey. It’ll be good to reconnect with some fellow racer-friends there. Later,  -TJ

Another weekend jam packed with action… Friday it was an interval workout that almost got the best of me, followed by some moto action over at Willow Springs race way, followed by sushi dinner. The motos were just practicing on the track, but it was still pretty cool to watch them fly around, diving through the corners. Big Tuna had a pretty good all you can eat deal. I didn’t keep track of how much I actually ate, but it was a fun time at a pretty cool place. They did a good job of keeping the fish coming! The only downside of the evening was waiting to get seated for about an hour.

Saturday I was up early and really looking forward to doing this group ride. I had heard from the local shop that it was a pretty fast group so I was up for the challenge and ready for a change from just doing intervals all of the time. Unfortunately this group ride was very much a “social ride� and the worst thing was that I had set my alarm to leave the house at 7:30 to join in. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that we did 15 miles. That’s right, it didn’t even last an hour… So needless to say I headed off on my own and found some cool canyons to ride tempo in for another three hours. I was pumped to see that after 60 miles of Tempo I was still able to maintain some good power at LT, as if I had just begun the ride in fact Turned out to be a great day on the bike.

Today I went back south for some more canyon riding. It was some tempo up Bouquet, three repeats on Spunky, one up San Fransiscito, and another flat TT coming back on Lake Elizabeth.  The hill repeats are so worth it here because at the top you’ve got switch-backing descents to rally down at 40+ mph.

Only eleven days until the Otter takes off. Wow. There will be some serious horsepower at this event, so it will be good to see how things shake out over the four days of racing. Thanks for tuning in. -TJ

I saw the sunset over the Pacific on my up the 101.

Then I rode amazing country roads at the CTS Buellton Camp.

SRAM kept us well fed with Powerbars and made certain that our bike were running smoothly on the roads; they also cleaned them all up for each and every ride. Amazing support! These guys like to keep drivetrains as clean as I do!

And when I got back to Rosamond, this bad boy was waiting to be built up. I don’t think I’ll be invited into any weight weenie contests because this one would win hands down.

The SpeedCity’s are on there now, but I’m waiting the arrival of my ProStock wheelset from Stans NoTubes to arrive. They are building me up a pro wheelset with a non-production rim that Mr. Kabush has race tested and highly approves of. Estimated wheelset weight is 1250 grams. That’s a half pound lighter than any Bontrager wheelsets out there!

I’ll try to keep more photos on here. They are easier than typing sometimes. Keep it Real.  -TJ

This update is a bit overdue, so I hope you haven’t been too bored without something to read.  The SDSR ended up being a pretty good weekend. The GC never really changed after the TT, so I finished 18th. Not too spectacular, but the racing got the spider webs out of my legs at least. To be completely honest with you, the road race on Saturday was the first ride I’ve done with other people since sometime last fall. Both of the final stages ended with bunch sprints so we all got the same time as the leader.

I was in a break during the RR but that never materialized; at least the fast racing made for good workouts… I’m now up in Beullton, about to retire tonight before day two of the CTS training camp. Today’s four hour ride was on some of the coolest roads I’ve ever seen. I’m talking super narrow, twisty, and steep stuff that’s totally littered with cracks and potholes. It was awesome! All of the people here for the camp are super cool too. I’m riding with the “A” group along with Chris and Derick as the other coaches. Tomorrow morning I’m going to help out with the climbing repeats workout before heading back to Rosamond.

On the drive up here I got to watch the sunset over the Pacific with the costal mountains in the background. I dug through my bag for awhile, but couldn’t seem to find my camera just now, so you’ll have to check back for the ocean views next time. Keep it real, -TJ

Friday’s TT was a pretty good test to start off the season with. The course had a bunch of switchbacks but never really got too steep ever. I was pleased with my effort, though somewhat surprised by the efforts of everyone else here racing. The GC is pretty tightly packed, but there are 20 riders ahead of me so I’ve got some work to do on that…

The weather was sunny but windy for my TT run and no more than five minutes later the skies really let loose. It rained steadily for the remainder of the afternoon then.  Things are so much greener on this side of the mountain, its cool to get the real life geography lesson on how the mountains affect the precipitation patterns. I saw Brent Bookwalter today, which reminded me of how nice this rainy day was compared to the weather at collegiate nationals last October…

I’ll try to get some pictures on here, but at least I’ll update after the RR. Until then, TJ

After the second block of intervals I’m much more comfortable with the workouts. This second week went better than the first, even at the higher wattages. I’m now resting up for the third round, which will also be the final bunch before I begin racing. Racing will be much more fun than the interval workouts and a very suitable replacement. The first event will be an uphill TT, which I’m pretty pumped about!

This is my final week here in Lake Havasu so I’ve been tying up a lot of lose ends such as consolidating student loans, doing taxes, applying for a passport and cleaning up my portion of the garage. I should have all of this busy work done before I head out, then I won’t have this to-do list waiting on the back burner any longer. Last month it was getting my health insurance all setup so once this week’s tasks are done, I’ll pretty much be set up for the year.

Yesterday FedEx had four big boxes for me. One was the SpeedCity wheelset I bought off eBay with a low-ball bid. They cleaned up nicely and look brand new, perfectly straight and true. The other three boxes were full of Powerbar products and gear. Powerbar has officially set me up for the next two years. It’s nice that they make a full range of products, not just bars, so I won’t need to worry about any of the training or racing nutrition from now on.  Most of the stuff tastes pretty good and I like the fact that their products are created with scientific research, not just consumer appeal in mind. They actually have some pretty good nutritional tools on their website too.  I’ll be trying some of these out to see how precise they are. Give it a shot and see for yourself. If your nutrition is off, it’s likely that you could be training and racing more effectively. Not only for serious athletes, these tools are helpful for anyone who exercises regularly.

Well, it’s time to go spin the legs a bit before hitting the “to-do” list again… Keep it real, TJ

Money and Points for Pro XC

This is great news for professional mountain bike racing. Not that I’ll be getting rich this season, but it makes what we all do that much more legitimate and “professional”. And the upgraded UCI event status will help the American Olympic campaign for Beijing. This is all great news that was long overdue.

Maybe I’ll come up with a complete post later today, but I wanted to get this on here. It’s ride time here in AZ… Keep it real, -TJ