4th of July Weekend Hi's and Low's

Let's start with the Low's:
It's a Porta Potty Nightmare. I took a piss in the porta potty and washed my hands using the foot pump to dispense the water. To my horror, the water that came out of the dispenser, was NOT water. It was the piss and shit water from the packed high porta potty. I freakin screamed like I got shot. A cop comes over and checks on me and I just unloaded on him. Smell this? And I lifted my hands up to him and he just about threw up. Then he rushed me to the ferry restroom, where I washed my hands under scalding hot water for an hour, and it was not enough. When I told Jenna, she screamed "Aaaahhhhh, and jumped out of her seat. The same way you all did when you saw the movie, The Crying Game. Nasty!

I also crashed at Davis on the 4th, banged up my knee, but finished the race.

Hi's:
AJ won the Elite District Criterium Championships in style. He pinned his head to the stem and rode solo away from the stacked breakaway. It's the biggest prize for our team and the sickest win of the year. It was a brutal race, 100+ starters and only 20+ of us finished. It was a mental suffer fest with the challenging course and the scorching heat. I had a lot of converations with myself in order to keep digging myself out the pain. In the end, my mind won over my body this time. It was a personal success.

And the swelling on my knee stopped thanks to resting a 6pack of ice cold Amstel Light on the bruise. And chugging the 6 pack, killed the pain.

It was a great weekend all in all. And hopefully, I'll get my leg speed back soon.
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American Velodrome Challenge - Keirin Finals Video

Don't you just love surprises? Making the finals and placing 3rd was a big surprise - an enjoyable one at that. I think I may do more of this Keirin stuff.

My Other Church - Hellyer

I go to my church St. James on Sunday's. But not often enough as I should. I enjoy going to church for many reasons. First, it's the peace and comfort that I get from sitting at Church and listening to the sermon. Then, it's the community of like minded spiritual people. And connecting with them during coffee hour. And also the free childcare service is a nice touch. We drop off our kids and get a chance to be alone, relax and reflect on many things.

Hellyer is similar in many ways. First of, I don't go as frequently as I'd like to. It's just a long drive from SF especially if there is no one to share the ride down in the carpool lane. But when I do get to the track, I'm usually glad I did. I get to hang with my peeps, chill between each hard effort, and find that pain zone during the ride. Every church has a preacher and at Hellyer, it has to be Ruggy. There's no one better than Ruggy at giving advise. It's the way he does it and the way he delivers it. It's a standup comedy act and lecture all packed into one. I enjoy listening to Ruggy for many reasons....he's usually right, and his one liners crack me up "Spin to win....Fly like an eagle...Bet that gear is talking back to you now." And there's always a proud story bout his wonder kid, Daniel "Dholla." Interestingly, everyone at the track, for the most part, are all glad to help each other out. It's a great community, where riders compete and connect altogether. It's unlike any other bike event. It's a great feeling going to the track, and that's why I consider it my other Church. But, it still is a house of pain, full of moments that test my resolve. This is great b/c I think racing is really a mental exercise to have steady command of my thoughts. Sometimes I win and sometimes I just hang in. But most of the time, I have a blast. We should all be so lucky to have a track community like Hellyer. AMEN!

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Beers and Dim Sum and Willpower

While walking home from preschool, Payton asked if we could stop to get some dim sum. Reluctantly, I said no. He says "how come?" I say "cause daddy needs to slim down and get back in shape again." I thought of just stopping and picking up a few orders of shrimp dumpling, pork shu mai, sesame balls, steamed bbq. pork bun. (just writing this entry makes me hungry). But I realize that if I did buy it for Payton then it would be hard to pass it up. Actually, I know I wouldn't be able to say no. So it's best to avoid it altogether.

According to a NY times article, "the brain has a limited capacity for self-regulation, so exerting willpower in one area often leads to backsliding in others." In other words, I shouldn't use up my limited will power by resisting food and drink temptations like dim sum, and Belgian ales while I get my self back into shape. Because, right now, I need all my will power just to get up at 6AM to ride some intervals in the cold foggy San Francisco morning. But, the nice thing is that when my wife, (not me), brings home a bag of Trade Joes chocolate covered pretzels, I just don't fight the urge anymore. I simply devour the whole bag knowing that tom. I at least will have the willpower to get up early and ride again.

This article brings up an interesting point on the impact of a stressful day at work and how it sometimes can lead to our inability to suffer altogether. This neurological reasoning, explains why good coaches make sure that you are mentally fresh before a key competition because you will need the willpower to suffer. A year ago I was asking Larry Nolan what he recommends as a good tapering schedule. He responded in terms of asking about my mental state. After reading this article, his response makes absolute sense.

SF Entrepreneur Challenge

The SF Entrepreneur Challenge is a contests in another aspect of my life that I want to win. Getting voted to the finals will be my success metric. In order to win, I will need your support by voting me into the finals where I will get to present my business to the SF entrepreneur community and a great panel of judges who might be able to open some new opportunities.

Checkout my profile and help vote for me - http://community.sfentrepreneur.com/member/steve_pelaez

Thank you for your help!

April - Hi*Baller of the Month (Headwind Award)

In 2007, both my son, Payton and I raced Burlingame. He did the kids ride, came in last, but in style. He took his jolly time and soaked up all the cheers on the straightaway to the finishline. The photo above is from the Ryan's Ride Ad for 2008. It was a surprise to see his photo with the caption about the ice cream. It's actually appropriate. No kid enjoyed his ice cream more than Payton that day. He's a true Hi*Baller.

The Hi*Ballers for the Month of April are Shawn Hatfield and Jenny Oh. Shawn got a PR on his 200m tt (11.75 sec.). I think the coolest part about his PR was that he actually really enjoyed it. I know cuz I shared some beers with him that night and he said he wasn't thinking about tom. or a future goal. What mattered was that on this particular day, he hit his PR. He was living in the moment, a rare and special feeling. That's a great attitude. Jenny wins the women's award b/c she's a bad ass. She's always at the races and working towards finding improvements measured against her own standards rather than who she beats to the line. Ballers for sure! As part of the award I will be giving them each a $50 gift certificate, a cool Baller shirt, and a case of Hi*Ball energy drink.

Btw, instead of making the award a weekly contest, I think it's best to have a Hi*Baller of the Month. Who'll it be for May - I'm voting for Elliot Logan.

Winning

I was in a sales interview the other day and the VP of Sales asked me what is one of my weakness. This is one of those unnerving questions cause no one usually likes to talk about one's weakness. But I've learned that awareness of your shortcomings is definitely what helps you grow. My answer was simple. I think my weakness is that I want to Win everything I put my mind into - seriously.

Why is this a negative, right? In sales, it sometimes leads to win loss situations where the deal is no longer proftiable. In real estate, you end up paying too much for a property. Like today, Jenna and I were shopping for another investment property in SF. I was pretty luke warm on a property that my wife really likes. Then when I went back to see the property the 2nd time around, I saw all the potential that Jenna saw in the property. When this happened, a trip wire went off in my head, and I made up my mind that I wanted to Win this house. In SF, buying a house is cut throat competition and you have to overbid significantly to win a deal. When I overheard one other couple saying that they really like the house, I got all fired up. It just added fuel to my desire to win the house. I thought of telling them, "Sorry, you're going to lose, and I'm winning this house, whatever the price." Obviously, it's not advisable to invest this way. You need to find your walk away position. Otherwise, you'll lose your shirt.

In cycling this Winning attitude can easily become a negative for a number of reasons. First of, it's impossible to win all the races. In fact winning is a very difficult thing in cycling and wins are usually distributed to a select few. Moreover, I think there are times to burn the matches and when not to. I only have a limited number of bullets and when I use one up for a training race, then that's a wasted bullet. I did this before the LA world cup and dug a little too much at an early bird crit, where I tried to close a 30 sec. gap to a strong break of 8. I almost caught the break, but I dug myself a hole and was flat in LA. Finally, winning as an absolute thing like who crossed the line first, is the wrong way to look at bike racing. I've learned that it will leave you feeling empty and demoralized since as discussed above, the winning moments are few and far between. Better than absolute is to define your win. I was talking to Roman about this. As a pro for Healthnet, he defines his win in terms of how well he is progressing towards being a great team domestique and personally, if he's continuing to improve as viewed objectively by his coach and training data. How you define your wins can help you enjoy racing better.

This reframing and redefinition of what it means to win is a lesson I have to continually remind myself when I get on a bike. Believe me, everytime I get on a track bike I want to kick everyone's butt - right Warren? My chilled out demeanor belies an internal rage. I hate losing even if it's a training race and I'm grossly out of shape. I don't care about the excuses. So it's especially hard for me. But then, I'm reminded of my friend, Craig's story. Craig finished the Wildflower triathalon long course close to the bottom of his age group. On paper, he was 2+ hours down on the guy who crossed the line first. But to his friends and family, who knew that 5 months before Wildflower, he had undergone chemotherapy and radiation to batttle an aggresive lymphoma cancer, Craig was the Winner. But, if you only measure winning in absolute terms, then the guy who crossed the line first, won. However, if you defined winning as living and courage against the face of death, then my buddy Craig is a Winner.

In terms of the Headwind Award, look for each riders' silent evidence - the non obvious, the next time you want to observe a winner. Everyone has a story and I encourage you find it and share it to the track community.
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