There is a great benefit ride for Zap next Thursday in Newberry Park, Ca, outside of LA. I did the ride last year. The proceeds went to Roy Knickman’s family. This year it is for Zap and the Espinoza Family. He wife Ronette, recently passed away from cancer. This ride is awesome. The climbs are beautiful and it is super well supported. Last year, Chris Horner, Dave Zabriskie and a lot of other Pros came out in support. I’d expect the same this year. I plan to go out and meet up with Andy Hampsten and Jimmy Mac (editor of Mountain Bike Action). So, if you are close, try to make it. It is on Thursday, November 3rd.

Here’s a link that has more information.

Zap.

Yesterday I helped Trudi build a couple cedar planters to put in the front yard to get the strawberries more sunlight. Today my legs are so sore. And that is just after less than two hours of, not even, manual labor.

I’ve always been amazed how bad cyclists are at doing other things with their legs, other than riding their bikes. They aren’t good at standing. They get tired walking too much. While Christmas shopping, I have to “rest” while shopping. It seems nuts. A rider can pedal continuously for 6 hours at a stretch and can’t go shopping for two hours.

I run pretty okay. I ran a 4:16 mile during my one semester of college. But I’ve never been able to run downhill without being destroyed. I’ve run a few 10 km and even a half marathon once. Uphill, I could breathe through my noise, downhill I would be sprinting as hard as I could go as the other runners were nearly talking.

One year after the National Road Championship, 3 of us from Kansas decided to go hiking in the Grand Canyon. We loaded up our packs, the day after the race, and hiked the 9 miles down to the Colorado River. The next day, not one of us could stand up. I had to use a tree to get vertical. We ended up staying not hiking for another 3 days and when we started moving along the plateau, we mostly walked backwards when we went downhill.

The same after hiking Mt. Fuji with Ned and Trudi, after a Cactus Cup in Japan. Uphill, a breeze. Downhill unbelievable hard. Ned couldn’t step off a curb trying to catch a cab to the bikeshow, since he couldn’t walk anymore. Trudi was fine. Not sore the least. I was destroyed.

I remember reading that Zoop Zoetemelk, who won the Tour in 1980, did a Superstars competition and couldn’t do one pull up or dip or something involving his arms. An European road cyclist wouldn’t have done very well in the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstars.

I know we’re all trying to get more balanced and most cyclists are doing some core work, etc., but it is nothing compared to the amount of time we spend riding. And, it seems, that is only good for doing that, making our legs go around in circles.

Cutting the wood in my driveway probably was what did in my hamstrings.

Obviously not done. It is going to be around $100 to get enough dirt delivered to fill these. That seems like way too much.

I saw this guy on the way back from riding yesterday. I'm not too much into the commercialization of Halloween, but this guy was great. His head moved back and forth. Pretty scary.