TJ Woodruff ONLINE

The past four days made for a training stress that is brand new and bigger than anything I’ve done in the past. 17 hours and 4 or 5 of them near, at, or above LT effort. On Wednesday Paul, Wenk, and I did a hard ride out to Kitt Peak and back. We did hard rotations the 45 miles out and also on the entire way back. The 12 mile climb at 7% grade was tough, but the heat was the real factor… I followed this ride up with an hour of LT climbing on Lemmon before tempoing up to mile mark 20 and flipping it back down. Friday was 90 minutes of singletrack ripping at Star Pass on the MTB. Saturday was a hard shootout ride with Madero Canyon thrown in for that extra intensity and distance. That final hard day was when I felt the best and surely set some new PR’s in the wattage department. Of course today I’m feeling quite drained so I’m making the most of the recovery.

Mentally and physically I’m ready for some racing now. The fitness is largely here and now it’s just some fine tuning in the workouts to come. With NMBS #1 in just two weeks, next Saturday’s state series race ought to be a great trial run. Rumor is that the Trek Factory team will be there racing too, so it ought to be a fast one – excellent. I might have to roll out on MTB #2, a new option for 2007. I picked up a carbon hardtail so now I’ve got that sub-20 pound option for the STXC’s and climbing courses… I’ll have to introduce you all soon, but some final components must be assembled first.

Today I did some real shopping and found myself a new tool bag along with a few new items to carry in it. Years past I’ve always carried a small tool box, so this bag will keep my tools nicely organized and it’s also easier to tote. Not to mention that I can fit way more goodies into it. New tools include: dead blow hammer, really long needle nose pliers, side cutters, magnetic parts bowl, and some fresh speed ball metric allen keys. Keep it Real, -TJ

I guess when you turn 24 life goes by at even a faster rate. My days are productive and they seem to go by in a blink lately. Training has remained in full swing and the power is coming along nicely. The routine as of late has been a sequence of double days, done back to back. I won’t give away the specifics but these four rides create a serious training load. So far the legs are responding nicely and my mind is also adapting to a new level of workload. It’s awesome how we can continue to set new personal standards, breaking through with workouts that once seemed off the charts. I love the challenge to continually go to new levels and with adequate recovery built in that’s been the training regime as of late.

Last weekend my mom married Phil at his brother’s place in Phoenix. Chloe and I made it up there for the occasion and it was a great chance to hang out with the family and meet some new family as well. I’m really happy for the two of them and with them the best. Of course another bonus of a weekend in Phoenix was a couple stops at In and Out Burger. That place gets better every time!

My birthday was last Wednesday so my roommates, Chloe and I went out for some Mexican food. It’s hard to beat a good burrito and the company of friends really adds to it. Not having dishes to wash was icing on the cake. We followed up dinner with some RC Car racing on Speedway. We all came home smelling like race fuel, but watching the cars rip up the track was pretty cool. Paul has been flying/crashing his RC Helicopter in the living room, so he found out about the car racing when he was in there buying replacement chopper parts I think.

Race plans are starting to take shape and I’m having a hard time deciding between some of the big events. Unfortunately the Tour of the Gila once again conflicts with the Fontana NMBS event. Last year I did Fontana, but for some reason I seem to have a real attraction to the idea of racing the Gila. I hear that the cat 2 race has a history of success amongst pro mountain bikers that have toed the line. With this as the big question mark everything else seems to be fitting together nicely. The first race will be the Valley of Sun which is coming up soon, February 16-18.

Tucson’s weather turned for the best today as temps hit the 70’s. It was absolutely perfect out there today. Those of you suffering through the sub-zero days in Wisconsin likely will no sympathy, but last week I did ride in the 40 degree rain on four occasions…

Thanks for your interest; I’ll keep the updates coming.

-TJ