teaching my son to ride his bike without training wheels

Yesterday i taught my youngest son how to ride a bike without training wheels. I ran for what felt like miles hunched over his bike to keep him from falling. Today i woke up so sore! i rarely feel like i may be unable to get through a workout, but half way through today's workout i was struggling. My hands and back kept cramping and i had  to take a long time to recover between sets. I finished every set with all the proscribed weights. It was tough, but i did it.  Tomorrow is recovery day!  Yeah!

10 days left until i cant start taking creatine monohydrate again. I love creatine!  I've heard the results of creatine are individual, not everyone gets such wonderful results, but i sure do.

The 2014 Missile man duathlon DNS (did not show)

My Grandpa died. During the week we were at the funeral, visiting family, or traveling I didn't train at all. This Saturday was the Missile Man duathlon at WSMR, NM. I figured the time off was nothing more than a taper. I paid for the race, packed, and even started to drive there, but an hour into the drive to the race I had realized there was no way I was going to be able to ride my bike in a race with vehicle traffic. I DNS'd (did not show). Getting ran over by a vehicle while cycling back in 2011 really screwed me up. I only have to complete 14 more races to accomplish one of my bucket list of finishing 100 triathlons or duathlons, but I'm beginning to doubt if I'll be able to do it now that I'm afraid to bike in traffic.

Yesterday was my 1st day back at weightlifting. Since I had taken a week off coach Shane Miller had me train with slightly lighter weights than usual. He's a smart man. Even with the lighter weights I'm still a little sore today. Today I rode my bike indoors on my Cycle Ops trainer:
5 min warm up
3 min hard, 3 min recovery
2 min hard, 2 min recovery
1 min hard, 1 min recovery
2 min hard, 2 min recovery
3 min hard, 6 minute cool down

I ate like crap the entire time we were traveling. I'm afraid to see where my weight is now.

first run in many moons: treadmill tabata

I have been postponing running until I get below 250 pounds, I'm currently 260, but since I signed up for The Missile Man duathlon (formerly the Jon Stermer duathlon) on Feruary 1st 2014 I decided I needed to start running now. Yesterday I did a tabata so that I'm building my running ability while also building fast twitch muscles. I did a 5 minute warm up on the treadmil, then set the incline to 4% and the pace at 8 mph. Then I ran 20 seconds on 10 seconds off. I could only keep that up for 6 rounds, stopping at the 9:50 mark. I've also started cycling to and from work again. Until the Missile man duathlon I'll be weightlifting on Mon, Wed, Fri, and Sat's. Cycling on Tue's, and running on Thur's. After today my tabatas will be more strenuous. I'll set the incline to 12% and the pace 30 seconds slower than my latest best 5k. Then 20 seconds on 10 seconds off for four minutes or 8 rounds.

I have to say thank you to Travis from Zia CrossFit for helping me out with this fast twitch building cardio. It's new to me and I'd never have known what to do if it wasn't for your help and guidance.

first cardio since respiratory illness

I got the worst respiratory illness of my life the last week of December. I didn't feel well enough to lift again until a few days ago. Today was the first day I've felt well enough to try doing cardio. I did a tabata on my indoor bike keeping the hard sets above 22 mph. Tonight I'll be commuting to and from work on my bike. Hopefully I've recovered enough for my body to handle the cardio. I'll soon find out, I'll let you guys know how it goes.

cyclling and Olympic weightlifting

I asked my Olympic weight lifting coach ,at least he will be my coach starting on Monday, if I could bike to burn some extra calories. His response was fascinating. He told me that since I am just starting out at Olympic weightlifting I could do any kind of exercise I wanted to help me loose weight. But once I get closer to my genetic max of lifting I'll need to stop doing any workouts that build slow twitch muscle tissue so that my body can build the most fast twitch muscles possible, particularly IIB, because they produce greater peak power and more force at higher velocities. Once to that point I'll still be able to bike, but will only be able to do short explosive interval training. (I highlighted the pertinent points in red below).

I wanted to find out more about the subject of the different types of muscle fibers and I found a great article on http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/fasttwitchmachine.html . I fact checked this by reading 3 or 4 articles on other web sites and they all seem to agree. This is the info I pulled off of the web page Higher-faster-sports.com:

The advantages of a certain fiber composition on performance in various sports is both obvious and well established -- For example, marathon runners have 75% slow twitch fibers while sprinters have 75% fast twitch fiber (both IIA &B combined).

The ratio of your fiber type is a result of:
(1) What you were born with
and
(2) Transformation of slow to fast or fast to slow through training influence.
Transformable Fibers

If you were to look at a muscle biopsy you’d see both red and white along with various shades of each. The white being pure fast twitch and the red being pure slow twitch. Think of eating chicken, the white meat (breast) is fast twitch. The dark meat (legs and thigh) is slow twitch. Chickens don't fly around very often yet when they do those muscles have to fire quicker, thus, their breast meat is fast twitch. Chickens walk around on their feet all day long thus their legs are slow twitch and better suited for endurance.

As mentioned before you can't take a completely red (pure endurance fiber) and turn it into a completely white (fast twitch) fiber but the intermediate fibers (IIA), which would be the various shades you see in a muscle biopsy are plastic and you can transform them into more of a red (slow twitch) version or more of a white (fast twitch) version. You can also take a pure white fiber and make it a little redder, or take a pure red fiber and make it a little whiter.
Canadian scientists, Drs. J. Simoneau and C. Bouchard, have estimated that 40% of the variance of fiber type is due to environmental influences (i.e. exercise) while 45% is associated with genetic factors. So that means you have about 40% control of your muscle fiber type, the other 45% you can do nothing about.

Real World Application

So how can you use this information and apply it in the real world? Well take someone who is say 50/50 fast vs slow-twitch. Over time and with proper training if he trains his nervous system to utilize 90% of all those available FT fibers and also increases the size of them he well then be able to outperform someone who has say an 80:20 fast to slow-twitch ratio.
In training you can accomplish this by focusing your training on strength, power, and speed dominant activities. By doing so you train your nervous system and all your muscle fibers to behave in more of a fast twitch manner. The reverse can also occur. For example, if one is blessed with a high % of FT fibers and starts marathon training the opposite will occur. I haven't talked much about endurance training but let me mention that it causes a rapid fast to slow transformation (IIb to IIa and IIa to I) without any increases in strength or power, and thus should be minimized by those wishing to maximize speed and power.

Now, for those who really want to zero in on ultra fast twitch muscle conversion there is plenty of ammo out there to use.
First a little background.

Proficiency vs Efficiency

There is a big difference between increased proficiency and increased efficiency. As mentioned in the previous article, a IIB to IIA conversion is more efficient when it comes to meeting metabolic demands. So if the body can get the job done with IIA then it will. Therefore, if you want your body to increase IIB content you need to make sure that the adaptive signals you're sending deem it necessary.

As an athlete you stress your fast twitch fibers a lot. Therefore, your body already perceives that it's a funny car and you're trying to run it on the highway. If your body needs more efficiency what do you think it's gonna do? It's gonna try to find away to make the funny car either run at a low RPM or quit burning up so much gas!! It's gonna make your engine more efficient if it can. How does it do that? One way it does that is by making your fast twitch IIB muscle fibers more endurance oriented.
So how do you get around this and what exactly does send a signal for an increase in IIB?? Well, as mentioned in the earlier article, detraining or "sitting on your butt" is one. With detraining the muscular expression reverts back to its default "fight or flight" readiness. Yet another is hyperthyroidism or overeating.

Complete detraining is not much of an option because you lose more neural efficiency and muscle cross sectional size then can be made up for by any enhanced muscular subtype. Partial detraining and tapering may be an option and I'll get into that one in just a minute. But what about training? Well, if one were to analyze the IIB fiber and MHC IIX expression he could easily come to the conclusion that this fiber type is made for dealing with simultaneous high forces and high speeds.
Some studies show IIa fibers to produce equal force at low velocities compared with IIb, so a rep done under typical strength training conditions (loads only as high as the concentric 1 RM and low velocities) can be adequately handled by IIa. Maybe if the velocity component was increased, and force was maintained or increased, and performed at a volume low enough not to signal the need for more efficiency, we'd see an increase in IIB.

From here one could logically conclude that a training program incorporating movements with a premium on creating a lot of force at high velocities would preferentially induce more expression of these fibers (IIB). Thus far, there are a few studies that have looked at this and found this hypothesis to be true. Training methods that duplicate a lot of the tasks seen in gymnasts do exactly this.

Exercises That Increase IIB Expression

These include:
plyometrics utilizing loads, plyometrics, "drop and catch movements", jump squats, olympic lifts, drop jumps, depth jumps, speed squats, speed benches, Reactive squats, as well as most ballistic type activities in which either high speeds, and or supramaximal forces are employed.

The force from a "drop and catch" type movement utilizing loads, or a plyometric type movement, exceeds that which is created with weight training. More importantly, the velocity component and the speed that force must be created is much greater. Put into practice one could start from the top and perform a quick "drop and explode" in a chinup, dip, squat, or olympic lifting movement. The force created at the reversal from eccentric to concentric is great and must be applied extremely quickly or progress will not occur.
Another option would be to simply perform the drop and attempt to stabilize the load towards the bottom as quickly as possible. Yet another option would be to simply de-emphasize the lowering phase of a movement by letting the load come down fairly quickly yet still under control. From here you'd then concentrate on an explosive positive phase. Fred Hatfield stated he used to train like this when he set his world record squat of 1014 lbs. and said it made him 15% stronger.
Short duration heavy isometrics (<10 seconds) in the weakest joint angle of a movement may also be useful to create strength gains without causing negative fast to slow conversions but the jury is still out here. The one thing that should be avoided at all costs is any eccentric movement incorporating loads below 100% of 1rm done at low speeds such as done under typical bodybuilding protocols and/or normal regular paced repetitions. This type of training induces the type of damage that signals the exact adaptations we're trying to avoid. With the aforementioned "high force" methods if the body wants to increase the true "proficiency" of the movement it has no choice but to create a more effective and faster muscle to do it with.

Stimulate Don't Annihilate
There is one caveat with this training and that is it must be prescribed in a dose so as to induce better proficiency without inducing efficiency. In other words, you don't want to be sending any signals to the body that would cause it to think it has to create adaptations just to better deal with the "volume" of training you're throwing at it. You also wouldn't want to send a signal that the body is under a lot of stress or food shortage, thus dieting is a no no. The message you're sending needs to be loud and clear but "stimulating" not "annihilating". Whether you're creating the proper adaptations should be manifested in your results.

To illustrate, if you do highly intense plyometrics everyday you'll soon get to the point where you can do them practically all day without getting tired as your legs will "adapt" to handle the volume. You'll probably see an immediate VJ increase as you become accustomed yet over time the magnitude of performance that you can demonstrate, or the maximum height you jump, will either stagnate or be negatively effected as the body adapts to the excessive volume. Therefore, performance should take precedence over junk volume.

To better describe this think of a movement like the jump rope. Say the goal is to perform 6 consecutive 3 minute rounds. Initially there is a learning period as one learns how to swing the rope and how to coordinate the feet and arms etc. After this, the main limiting factor is the ability of the feet and lower legs to tolerate the lactic acid induced from the repetitive jumps. In someone who jump ropes chronically, (eg. 30 minutes 4-5 days per week), all things such as bodyweight and strength being equal, you will tend to see a decrease in maximal vertical jump as this adaptation sets in. The opposite is also true. Lower the volume down to 1 day of jump rope per week and you'll see an improvement in VJ as muscular efficiency lowers.

A Sample Cycle

If one wanted to put together a short mini-cycle strictly to focus on this one could set up something like this.
Guidelines:
fairly low volume - 2x per week per bodypart
progress at every session (If you're not improving then take an extra day of rest)
No lactic acid
No Cardio (dynamic warm-ups, easy gpp, walking, and very easy intervals are ok)
Eat at least enough to maintain bodyweight **(some fat loss will be ok but once you have to substantially restrict food intake as opposed to simply engaging in better eating habits you're gonna reach a point where you start to shoot yourself in the foot)
Get plenty of sleep
Rest Intervals should be fairly long (2-5 minutes)
All movements should be performed at relatively high velocities

Zia CrossFit group ride and weight gain- muscle or fat?

My favorite bike ride is riding from the 599 rail runner stop south of Santa Fe New Mexico to the Sandia Rail runner in Albuquerque. I take highway 14 to route 66, then Route 66 to Tramway all the way down to the Rail runner station. That route is called Turquoise Trail, it's a famous stretch of road because of it's history and beauty. I haven't ridden that route in almost 2 years. I'm motivated to give it a shot now. I'm motivated because I'm finally losing weight, because of the fitness competition I'm in with fellow blogger "I suck at CrossFit", and also because I'd really like some of the people at my new gym Zia CrossFit to go with me. I really love the people Zia CrossFit. They're wonderful. They're supportive and a blast to be around. It's more like a big family than members of a gym. I'm trying to get as many of them to go with me as I can, I want to share the pain!

I weighed in this morning at almost 242 pounds. I was heartbroken. I've gradually been creeping back up from 239 a week ago. I've been working out a lot, eating 100% Paleo, I feel like I should be losing weight not gaining! In mid December I had measured 6 areas of my body in case something like this happened. I wanted to make sure if started gaining weight I had some way of being able to tell if it was fat or muscle. Here's the results:

+1/4 inch circumference arms
+ 3/8 inch circumference forearms
- 1/2 inch circumstance waist
- 1/4 inch circumference neck
-1/2 inch circumference thigh
+ 3 inches circumference of my chest and back!

Well, thankfully it looks like I'm losing in all the right areas and gaining in areas that is good to gain! A gain of 3 inches in my chest and back! That's pretty awesome!

duathlons, bloody nipples, and other uncomfortable things

I hadn't trained much in the last 14 months, so I knew I'd be sore the day after yesterdays race, but I forgot that there are things that hurt from racing and/or training other than muscles. One of those things is bloody nipples. Sounds painful doesn't it? It is. It's pretty common though. If you run and bike for long distances, and your shirt rubs your nipples each time you take a step running or peddle, it eventually rubs them raw. So this is the end result:   

 

And my arm pits are chaffed raw where my tank top style shirt ended in my pitts. The shirt got rubbed back and forth in between my arm and arm pitts as I ran, and this is the result:

 

And my butt crack is chaffed- don't worry, I didn't add a picture of that.

And my gooch is rubbed raw. Are you new to cycling and don't know what a gooch is? A gooch is a cycling term for the area of your body you sit on when cycling.

Makes you want to go out and do a duathlon or triathlon doesn't it?

low carb induction phase

This was my 4th day back to the low carb diet induction phase and 4th day back to duathlon training. The 1st few days of the induction phase I was grumpy, tired, and light headed. My workouts had been horrid. This morning I woke up and felt great. During my 17 mile bike ride today I also felt wonderful. This morning I weighed in at 230 for a loss of 6 pounds in 4 days.

The training program I'm on right now will have me peak for the Missile Man duathlon on Saturday Febuary 2nd at White Sands Missile Range New Mexico.

finding a training program that works

A week and a half ago I stopped dieting and working out AGAIN. I feel like a broken record. I realize I need to change some things or this cycle of starting and stopping training will continue repeating itself. I need to start doing what I can and change the things that I cant stay consistant with.

I still love competing in triathlons. I still enjoy running but I currently have issues with cycling, so I started a run focused training program with just enough cycling to be able to finish the bike portion of a triathlon. I wont be as well rounded of a triathlete without a lot of cycling, but training consistently is more important than having a perfect triathlon training program that I dont follow. Now that I've addopted this new training regimine I seriously doubt I'll be finishing races with the caliber of athletes I used to. And I can pretty much garentee I wont be beating Arnold Ceniceros anytime soon;-( But those things aren't the reason I fell in love with triathlon anyways. I love triathlon because I love challenging myself, because of the amazing people I meet at triathlons, triathlon training keeps me healthy, and allows me to keep up with my babies!

I weighed in at 236 this morning.

cyclng outdoors

Cycling on rollers or indoor traininers are good for cycling fitness, but I dont think riding on rollers or indoor trainers create as much cycling strength, explosiveness, endurance, or speed as riding outdoors.

I've had a problem riding outdoors since I got ran over by a vehicle a little over a year ago. I don't know what to call it, fear, anxiety, PTSD? I need to figure out a way to be able to ride outdoors so today I tried listening to comedy routines on Pandora radio while I rode. I was a little nervous about riding while wearing ear phones and not being able to hear the things going on around me so I rode out near Galisteo NM where there isn't much traffic (see picture).

It was a success! I was able to finish an entire bike workout! I wasn't fast, but by George I finished it!

While on my ride I found my dream house! #60 Camino San Cristobal, Galisteo NM. It's for sale too! Only $536,000. Look at those views! See picture below

triathlon fitness: a long way to go

Tonight after laying our three babies down to sleep my wife and I watched a 45 minute TV show on Netflix and I hopped onto the indoor rollers to gain a little extra cycling fitness. I felt this was appropriate since cycling is my weakest sport and it is Arnold's strength. Plus who couldn't use a little extra calorie burn? My average for the workout was much better than it was this morning. Tonight I averaged 12.9 mph, this morning I averaged less than 11. I'm out of shape, but it doesn't matter where I'm at, it just matters where I'm going. And tonight I moved in the right direction.

There aren't many wives who would be OK with their husband riding a bike, breathing heavy, and sweating in the room while she's trying to watch a television show. I'm a very lucky man.

This morning I weighed in at 227 pounds. I'm down 9 and have 27 more to get to my goal weight. 27 pounds is a total of 94,500 calories, but who's counting right?

chasing Arnold day 3

Friday was my first day back to training after having surgery on October 12th. I ran a little over three miles. Considering how little I've trained this year I felt pretty good.

Saturday was a triathlon rest/recovery day for my kids soccer and some time for my wife and I.

This morning I rode my bike for the first time in a VERY long time. I started a little before 7 AM when there was enough ambient light to ride safely. After only a few miles a large truck passed me pulling a horse trailer and I immediately came back home and finished the rest of my workout on my indoor trainer. A little over a year ago I got ran over by a vehicle while cycling, since then I've struggled to ride outdoors near traffic.

I've lost most of my cycling fitness in the last year, so my indoor cycling workout was terrible. My rpms kept slipping below 85 and when I tried to increase my cadence above 85 per minute my heart rate would sky rocket into zone 3. I wrapped up my workout after an hour so that I could get the kids up and ready for church. In that hour of riding the rollers my average pace was less than 12 mph. I have a LONG ways to go until I'm able to accomplish one of my personal goals of beating Arnold Ceniceros, the champion (multiple years) of the Clydesdale open division in South West Challenge series. At the Eagle in the sun triathlon in El Paso Texas in September Arnold Ceniceros swam 400 meters in 8:06, biked 12 miles keeping a whopping 20.2 mile an hour pace, and ran 5 kilometers keeping an average pace of 9:36, he finished in 1 hour 16 mintues. My average race swim and running times are comparable to his, but I've only had a few races in my life that I was that fast on the bike, and I'm no where near average right now. If I'm going to try competing against ol' speedy Ceniceros I have to get MUCH MUCH faster. There's a LONG road of training ahead of me.

afraid to cycle

Last year I was involved in an accident while on a bike ride. Since then I've been having difficulty cycling. When cars pass me my heart rate jumps up 20 beats a minute and I cant descend without freaking out and riding my brakes. I end up skipping most of the bike rides on any triathlon training programs I start, then get frustrated about all the missed training sessions and stop training altogether. Consequently I haven't been able to train consistently and have gained 65 pounds in the last year.

Last week I was on a run and having a blast! While on that run I realized I still love running. There's no reason for me to give up on endurance athletics just because I have anxiety cycling. I need to change sports at least temporarily. I believe I'll try being a pure runner until my subconscious starts to forget that cycling is so dang dangerous.

My next step is to find a running race that gets me excited and motivated. I have a few ideas. I'll let you know as soon I decide on one.

Day 1

Today I rode my bike. This was the 1st time in months that I got time in the saddle so this felt like a huge accomplishment! I seem to have found some motivation to start training again. That motivation is a late season race. I'll let you know what that race is if I'm able to continue training consistently.

I weighed in at 234 pounds this morning. My goal is to be back to 197 by my first triathlon in the spring.

Bikes may use full lane

Now that's what I'm talking about!!!!!

US Gravity Mountain Bike Nationals awarded to New Mexico in 2013

Angel Fire Bike Park in Angel Fire, New Mexico, will host the USA Cycling Gravity Mountain Bike National Championships in 2013 and 2014. Exact dates will be announced later.

The event, which was held independently from the cross country national championships for the first time in 2011, features dual slalom and downhill races. The 2013 and 2014 contests will use part of the downhill course ridden during the 2011 USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships in late October.

"We're very excited to bring the USA Cycling Mountain Bike Gravity National Championships to Angel Fire in 2013 and 2014," USA Cycling National Events Director Kelli Lusk said. "Angel Fire has a long, illustrious history of hosting gravity events, so we're looking forward to having the gravity national championships there."

"Angel Fire Bike Park is extremely honored to host the most prestigious gravity event in the United States for 2013 and 2014," Angel Fire Resort Bike Park Director Hogan Koesis said. "We look forward to showcasing the most exciting and challenging courses in the Rocky Mountains. Let the racing begin!"

I got this article off of cycling news.com.

cycling intervals and a little more overtime!

Today I wanted to trash my legs. I decided to do some self punishment using intervals on the bike. I started out with sets of 4 minutes hard and 4 minutes recoveries. I continued with the 4X4 until I could no longer sustain a full 4 minutes hard. Then I did 2X2 minute sets until my legs couldn't sustain the 2 minutes hard any longer. I finished with 1X1 minute sets until muscle failure. I'm trashed! Feels great!

Now I'm off for another 12 hour overtime at the old pinta! The 1st pay period of this year I worked 86 hours of regular pay and 93 hours of overtime. The next pay period I worked 86 and 72, & this pay period I'm on track for another 86 and 72. I see a lot of disgruntled employees at the State Penitentiary, I feel that most correctional officers have no idea how good we have it. There's no doubt that the Penn can be a dangerous and stressful place to work, but I couldn't imagine a job where my entire family of 5 had to live off a straight 40 hour work week with no overtime available. I'm grateful that the good Lord has blessed me with a career that I can pull extra shifts from time to time to help my family catch up on bills.

NMBRA 2012 New Mexico Road Series (NMRS)

I found another local series here in NM that I'm excited about. It's the NMBRA, which is a cycling specific series. I hope to do at least three races in this series in 2012. The info from thier flier and the series info is posted below, or you can find it on http://www.nmcycling.org/NMBRA/NMRS_2012.html,
or
http://www.nmcycling.org/

The NMBRA New Mexico Road Series (NMRS) awards are intended to recognize the best all-around road racers throughout the racing season in a number of categories. The NMRS is intended to encourage participation and competition among racers throughout the racing season.
2012 New Mexico Road Series events:
Date(s)


March 10-11
TriFecta Omnium
TT, Crit and RR will count separately, not Omnium.
Las Cruces NM

March 17
Oso High Lobo Classic RR
Albuquerque, NM

March 24
Tierra del Sol Road Race
Belen, NM

March 31 - April 1
Adoption Exchange Classic
TT, Crit and RR will count separately, not Omnium.
Albuquerque, NM

April 21-22
Cavern City Classic
Each RR will count separately, not Omnium.
Carlsbad, NM

May 12
Galisteo Road Race
Galisteo, NM

June 2-3
Santa Fe Stage Race
Double points for overall GC.
Santa Fe NM

June 10
Crest Race
Albuquerque, NM

June 17
Los Alamos Road Race
Las Alamos NM

August 5
Santa Fe Hill Climb
Santa Fe NM

Three (3) event minimum / All (up to 15) results count
Race Groups/Starts
The following seven race starts will be run at all 2012 NMRS events:Men Cat 1/2/3, Men Cat 4, Men Cat 5, Masters Men 50+ Cat 2-4Women Cat 1/2/3, Women Cat 4Juniors 16 and under (Juniors 17-18 will race their category)
Overall Awards
The 2012 NMRS will give overall awards in the following categories:
Men
Women
Juniors
Winners' jerseys will go to the overall winners. Prizes (cash, gift certificates and/or merchandise) may be awarded to the top three (3) overall in each category, depending on availability.
Purely for the purposes of bragging rights, overall standings corresponding to the race group starts will also be tracked.
Scoring
Each rider's results in all 15 events will be used to calculate their overall point total.
Points will be awarded based on field sizes according to the following scales:

All finishers receive one (1) point per event.
For timed stage races, points will be awarded based on final overall (GC) results only, and will be 2 times the values in the table above.
For omniums, points will be scored for each individual stage only, and not for the final overall results.
Points are awarded according to the race group you ride in. The only exception to this rule is that juniors 16 and under who race category races will be scored as 17-18. If you ride in different race groups from race to race, you will accrue points in the corresponding NMRS categories. Points will NOT be combined for the overall awards.
One-day licensees and out of state riders do not accrue NMRS points, but do displace points for eligible riders.
If pros are in the SM 1-2-3 race (at the discretion of the race directors), they do not accrue NMRS points, but do displace points for eligible riders.
The following are examples of how scoring works.
Men Cat 1-2-3 Race, 27 participants:
1st - 36 year old Cat 1 racer : 30 pts in NMRS category SM 1-2 35+2nd - 42 year old Cat 2 racer : 27 pts in NMRS category SM 1-2 35+3rd - Colorado rider : No points awarded4th - 19 year old Cat 2 racer : 22 pts in NMRS category SM 1-2 U235th - 28 year old Cat 3 racer : 20 pts in NMRS category SM 3 23-34etc. Men Cat 5 Race, 42 participants:
1st - 26 year old Cat 5 racer : 40 pts in NMRS category SM 5 23-342nd - One-day licensee : No points awarded 3rd - 45 year old Cat 5 racer : 33 pts in NMRS category SM 5 35+4th - 17 year old Cat 5 racer : 30 pts in NMRS category JM 5 17-185th - 22 year old Cat 5 racer : 28 pts in NMRS category SM 5 U23etc. Women Cat 1-2-3 Stage Race, 11 participants:
1st - 51 year old Cat 2 racer : 40 pts in NMRS category SW 1-2 50+2nd - 38 year old Cat 2 racer : 34 pts in NMRS category SW 1-2 35+ 3rd - 45 year old Cat 3 racer : 28 pts in NMRS category SW 3 35+4th - 17 year old Cat 3 racer : 24 pts in NMRS category JW 3 17-185th - 22 year old Cat 1 racer : 20 pts in NMRS category SW 3 U23etc.

The New Mexico mountain bike, cyclocross, time trial, criterium, and road cycling schedule

The New Mexico mountain bike, cyclocross, time trial, criterium, and road cycling schedule

January
January 15, 2012
NM Regional Cyclocross Championship
USAC Cross
Albuquerque, NM
Rio Bravo - Promoted by DASH


February
February 10, 2012 - February 12, 2012
Valley of the Sun
USAC Road
Pheonix, AZ
website

February 18, 2012
Mount Taylor Quadrathlon
Multisport
Grants, NM
website


March
March 10, 2012

Las Cruces Time Trial
USAC Road
Las Cruces, NM
NMRS

March 11, 2012
Hillsboro Road Race
USAC Road
Hillsboro, NM
NMRS

March 18, 2012
Coyote Classic
USAC Mtn
El Paso, TX
NMORS

March 24, 2012
Tierra del Sol Road Race
USAC Road
Belen, NM
NMRS

March 31, 2012 - April 1, 2012
Adoption Exchange Classic
USAC Road
Albuquerque, NM
NMRS

April

April 9, 2012
Dawn to Dusk
USAC Mtn
Gallup, NM
website

April 21, 2012 - April 22, 2012
Cavern City Classic
USAC Road
Carlsbad, NM
NMRS Omnium

April 28, 2012 - April 29, 2012
Ft. Davis Hammerfest
USAC Road
Ft. Davis, TX

May

May 2, 2012 - May 6, 2012
Tour of the Gila
USAC Road
Silver City, NM
website

May 5, 2012 - May 6, 2012
La Tierra Torture
USAC Mtn
Santa Fe, NM
NMORS

May 12, 2012
Oak Flats
USAC Mtn
Albuquerque, NM
NMORS

May 12, 2012
Galisteo Road Race
USAC Road
Galisteo, NM
NMRS

May 19, 2012
12 Hours in the Wild West
USAC Mtn
Ruidoso, NM
website

May 20, 2012
Sante Fe Century
Road
Santa Fe, NM

May 26, 2012 - May 28, 2012
Iron Horse Bicycle Classic
USAC Road
Durango, CO
website

June

June 3, 2012 - June 4, 2012
Santa Fe Stage Race
USAC Road
Santa Fe, NM
NMRS

June 9, 2012
Pajarito Punishment
USAC Mtn
Los Alamos, NM
NMORS

June 10, 2012
Crest Race
USAC Road
Albuquerque, NM
NMRS

June 16, 2012 - June 17, 2012
24 Hours in the Enchanted Forrest
Mtn
Gallup, NM
website

June 17, 2012
Los Alamos Road Race
USAC Road
Los Alamos, NM
NMRS
June 23, 2012
Olev Rapido Road Race
USAC Road
Albuquerque, NM

June 24, 2012
Olev Rapido Criterium
USAC Road
Albuquerque, NM

July

July 7, 2012
Event Lab Gran Fondo
USAC Road
TBD
website

July 14, 2012
Volcan Time Trial Series #1
USAC Road
Albuquerque, NM

July 21, 2012
Volcan Time Trial Series #2
USAC Road
Albuquerque, NM

July 21, 2012 - July 22, 2012
Frazer Mountain Madness
USAC Mtn
Taos, NM
NMORS

July 28, 2012
Event Lab Criterium Series #1
USAC Road
Albuquerque, NM
website

August

August 4, 2012
Volcan Time Trial Series #3
USAC Road
Albuquerque, NM

August 4, 2012 - August 5, 2012
Cedro/Sandia Peak
USAC Mtn
Albuquerque, NM
NMORS

August 5, 2012
Santa Fe Hill Climb
USAC Road
Santa Fe, NM
NMRS

August 6, 2012 - August 7, 2012
Cedro Peak Challenge
USAC Mtn
Albuquerque, NM
NMORS

August 8, 2012
Lobo Back to School Special
USAC Mtn
Albuquerque, NM
NMORS

August 11, 2012
Volcan Time Trial Series #4
USAC Road
Albuquerque, NM

August 12, 2012
Signal Peak Challenge
USAC Mtn
Silver City, NM
NMORS

August 18, 2012
Event Lab Criterium Series #2
USAC Road
Albuquerque, NM
website

August 25, 2012
Event Lab Criterium Series #3
USAC Road
Albuquerque, NM
website

August 26, 2012
RGRT Time Trial
USAC Road
Belen, NM

September

September 2, 2012 - September 3, 2012
Record Challenge
USAC Road
Moriarty, NM

September 9, 2012
Enchanted Circle Century
Road
Red River, NM

September 16, 2012
Horny Toad Hustle
USAC Mtn
Las Cruces, NM
NMORS

September 22, 2012
High Desert Screamer
USAC Mtn
Gallup, NM
NMORS

September 22, 2012
Event Lab Road Race
USAC Road
TBD
website

September 29, 2012
Event Lab Criterium Series Final
USAC Road
Albuquerque, NM
website

September 30, 2012
Can You See Us NOW? ride and rally
Advocacy Event
Albuquerque, NM

October

October 6, 2012
Road Apple Rally
USAC Mtn
Farmington, NM
NMORS

November

awkward cycling moment of the year

The awkward cycling moment of the year happened to me on Friday on the tail end of a 2 hour bike ride and 3 bottles of Gatorade:

"Well.... ummm..... I'm watering your bushes ma'am."