Great Week

6/16: (MTB) 13 miles, 1:45 time, 2,457’ elev
6/17: (Road) 34 miles, 2:00 time, 2,800’ elev
6/19: (MTB) 12 miles, 1:17 time, 2,228’ elev
6/20: (Road) 75 miles, 4:11 time, 3,739’ elev
6/21: (Road) 33 miles, 1:38 time, 935’ elev

Started the week of training off with a bang on Tuesday. Sarah and I headed out to do some new stuff for her and stuff I have only ridden a couple times before. We started off descending down No name ridge in El Moro, climbing “I think I can”, and heading over to the first of the singletrack descents (Old Emerald Falls) with some tough sections! She did awesome, went slow and had to stop once but totally did well on some steep rutted and soft sections. Then we climbed up Emerald Falls and headed off to the final descent of the day, and it was super fun and Sarah cleaned every part this time, it was awesome. We took the fenceline trail, which is some rolling fun singletrack and Sarahs favorite back to the car to wrap up a solid ride with some good climbing.

Wednesday ride I rode up to Newport to meet Slater and we headed over to Newport Coast to do some hill repeats. We started the first climb up at a good tempo pace. Second time up Slater wanted to average 300 watts the whole time and I kept up with him, we finished the climb together. Third time I wasn’t so lucky, or fast should I say? Slater wanted to average 325 this time and I basically had to wave goodbye he was out of sight quick around the second turn. Our fourth climb was back to a good tempo, and we headed back home. It was a good ride, gotta be stoked to Ride with Slater, someone who is way cool and fast that pushes you to your limits. Came back and Sarah was making an AWESOME dinner. Here are some photos of the hot chef at work!


Friday was a good ride out at El Moro. Did a couple descents down the Old Emerald Falls trail and the Old Emerald trail and was pretty stoked riding those! The Old Emerald trail is definitely the coolest singletrack I have ridden in that park. Now that I have found some of these trails and stuff, and talking with Slater there is no doubt that also combining with Aliso/Laguna woods park you could have some seriously epic rides between the two, right here in the OC. We sure are lucky to have this right here and I am definitely going to make use of our trails around here this summer. Barely anyone out there on a Friday afternoon as I finished up my ride, and the fog started rolling in and cooling everything off it was a good capper to the end of the week. Headed back to the apartment to get dinner ready for the parents and we had some good cheese, wine, tacos, and beer and some laughs over a borrowed Jim Gaffigan DVD (He is pretty damn funny doing stand up).

Saturday morning I was up early and headed down to Carlsbad to ride with James over to the Celo Pacific morning ride. Keevin also showed up and we started off pretty mellow heading north through Oceanside and into Camp Pendleton. Pretty cool riding in Camp Pendleton because the traffic is so minimal, and riding with a big peloton of guys through the beach parking also has most of the people looking and staring as we blazed by. Once we got on base, the pace picked up rapidly, surging upwards of 35mph at points, everyone passing on both sides and pushing it, pretty crazy! For the most part I stayed towards the upper 1/3 of the group, and James and Keevin were always up or near the front pushing the pace. It was definitely a great ride, finishing the out portion with a sprint to a light at SanO. We headed back starting a little mellower but quickly picking up, and the group took its fare share of weather when the light drizzle we had turned to rain and some wind. Definitely some weird weather. After pulling for too long on the way back, close to max effort, I pulled out to the right and had some dude surging up hook/nab my bars and I hit the shoulder curb a little and totally had me freaked, already out of breath almost I had to let the group go, and spent the next 45 minutes riding in the rain and making a couple wrong turns, but it was worth it in the end. Afterwards we tacked on some extra miles to make it a solid 4+ hour ride. Got back to James’ and we were both on a mission for Green Flash at that point. Within 45 minutes of our ride we were at Green Flash Brewery enjoying some fresh Pints of their Experimental Red, Imperial Pale, and West Coast IPA. No better recovery drink this side of the Mississippi!





Sunday my legs were lacking something…any power whatsoever! But it was father’s day and I was determined to get some miles in and ride with my Dad. After a ton of coffee and breakfast I was off at 7am for about 17 miles long ways to my parents. Wouldn’t have been complete without a flat on the way over and I definitely had a Nascar level pit this time, fixed it quick (Note: never buy Scwalbe Ultremo tires and use them for lots of training miles, fast but paper thin). Got in some good miles, definitely harder than I wanted to and was going back and forth sucking up all the energy I had. My dad would pull and I would be thinking “yeah its father’s day I will let him pull a little bit” and go back to thinking “what is wrong with you…exactly, its father’s day, you pull you jackass.” So that was my morning ride. The rest of the day was filled with me being totally tired and laying and sitting around up at my grandpas house, and a solid dinner even though the Angels lost the series on national TV that night to the Dodgers :(

This week is starting off a little slow. I started feeling a little under the weather yesterday but pumping the green tea, First Endurance Multi V, water, and trying to get some sleep cause I am feeling slightly under the weather. I will have it beat in a day or two though I’m hoping, I have too much riding to do! Also got a massage yesterday and apparently my Hamstrings were the tightest the masseuse had ever seen….I really need to get better at stretching all the time. Had a mellow night last night and made some wicked Sirloin Burgers with onions sautéed and marinated in A1 and some asparagus. Good Combo! And no beer for me till I start feeling better too, how much more motivation do I need than that?!

Light up the Halo!

6/8: (Road) 26 miles, 1:21 time, 1480' elev
6/9: (MTB) 13 miles, 1:45 time, 2200' elev
6/11: (Road)26 miles, 1:17 time, 1420' elev
6/12: (MTB) 17 miles, 1:54 time, 3000' elev
6/13: (MTB) 19 miles, 2:15 time, 3400' elev
6/14: (Road) 21 miles, 1:00 time, 650' elev

This was definitely a great week. I rode 6 out of the 7 days and loved every minute. Sarah definitely picked up a few solid rides and rides with other friends made the whole weeks riding pretty damn fun. I may be starting to post my riding info on a website Slater referred me to called attackpoint.org I have to setup my user profile and may be just uploading all my rides through there. It seems pretty cool and I can track my info and get into it a little more through that site with rides and everything.

I definitely started the week off right by heading out after a long Sunday of racing and driving and went on my HB-Newport loop. Legs felt alright and made it through the ride feeling ok, just trying to take it easy, which is hard with all the usual afternoon wind! Tuesday Sarah and I headed out to El Moro and my legs were feeling pretty tired. Hers were too, not to mention being sore still from the afformentioned crash last week. We sucked it up, enjoyed the afternoon and ocean views and had a good ride. Took Wed. off cause I needed it, then Thursday my Dad and I totally hammered out my local loop after work, Solid!

Friday I met up with Slater at El Moro to do a ride and possibly some recon of the Laguna Wilderness area that Ive wanted to check out but havent. We dropped down No name, climbed I think I can, then dropped down Old Emerald Falls into Laguna wilderness, a AWESOME singletrack, true singletrack only a foot wide in most spots. It was awesome, except for Slater totally biting the dust cause he had his bike setup fully rigid for his race the previous weekend. Anyway, the ride was solid. We ended up going for an extra climb before Slate had to get off to a twilight paddle in the local harbor, he is a machine!

Saturday a group headed out of El moro, including Slater and Monique, Tiffany and Joe. It was awesome riding with these guys. We did some more recon of Laguna Wilderness and discovered another new rad descent and rolling singletrack that takes you all the way to the coast in Laguna at Emerald Bay. Monique was laying it down out there, and consistently leaving us in the dust the whole part of the ride, she kills it! Slater and I agreed we have both been missing out on some of these trails, but its all going to be good riding now, we have some awesome loop ideas in the works. Just got to get James and some other fast guys to join us to do some awesome El Moro/Laguna/Aliso killer rides!

Saturday night was definitely a night to remember, and what this post is titled for. Light up that Halo baby, Angels are dominating the pads like no other! Beth and James headed up from SD to BBQ and head to the Angels game at 6. We bbqed spicy bbq chicken and coleslaw tacos, cucumber and tomato salad, and had some awesome Green Flash growlers, GF 22's, Lagunitas IPA's and so much more beers. Suffice to say James and I were ripping each other apart with trash talk it was truly awesome. I'm sure the girls were not amused as we continued to sling it all the way to the stadium about everything Angels/Pads. It was awesome, laughing and joking with James, definitely a cool night. Our seats were great, and we got to see Torii Hunter knock 3 homers alone against the pads pitching, Great! James and I were definitely not of the ability to drive after all the ruckus, and Beth and Sarah were driving for sure, love those girls!

"Just another Halo Victory..." Light it!

James thought it would be funny to buy me a pink rally monkey, like I wouldnt like it. He has always given me crap for having a monkey as the mascot, a whole nother part of our trash talk at the game. This guy nicknamed "Carlos" is going to love it hanging with my everyday in the car!

It was definitely another really great weekend. We got our Sarah/Dad/Ryan group ride on PCH in this morning, complete with me snagging a huge 1inch roofing nail in my tire with a mile to go. Got a workout in afterwards washing the Tacoma, and right now I'm enjoying some leftovers, and my very own Growler full of Imperial IPA from green flash that James brought me, such a good friend!

Green Flash Imperial IPA, probably on tap in Heaven..

Belated SB Bike Fest Race Post

6/4: (Road) 26 miles, 1:18 time, 1,500' elev
6/6: (Road) 30 miles, 1:26 time, 900' elev
6/6: (MTB) 16 miles, 1:55 time, 3000' elev
6/7: (MTB) 16.5 miles, 1:31 time, 2,900' elev

Still recovering and have been getting in a good amount of rides since the weekend. And with some other stuff I have definitely procrastinated on posting because I wanted to do a good one, with pictures and everything.

The leadup week of the race started off well. I took the afternoon off and washed and sealer hand waxed the new truck. It needed to be done and it definitely looked showroom quality afterwards.

Before

After

So usually I take the monday off, it was an especially big weekend before I may take Tuesday off or really mellow. Well the week didnt end up going so well with work and other things coming up, basically just got started on Wednesday and Sarah took her first real bad digger 10 mins into a ride at El Moro. Our friend Travis was with me and we took off down a rutted fire road, she was right behind and then all of a sudden wasnt there. I panicked and rode like Lance back up the hill to her, she was pretty scratched up and all dirty and out of it. We bagged the ride, and I was kicking myself too for not getting her some full finger gloves...bummer. But she was totally a trooper and was back on the bike on Saturday for some pre race course recon. I did get in one ride on Thursday and took Friday off to make a good dinner and relax with Sarah.

Saturday I wanted a decent long day on the bike, So I met up with my dad in the morning and did a 30 mile hard loop before the drive up to SB. It was a good ride but my legs were feeling a bit stale. Rushed home after a flat, and started packing and loading up some stuff getting ready for the weekend. James and Beth showed up, we loaded up, and all four of us were off. We went straight to the race course and registered. We didnt get any cool race bags for this one, but the number plates were cool (they were, but its all we got). We rode two loops of the course with the girls, Sarah was definitely weary of most of the decents and tight switchbacks, but it was fun riding with both Beth and Sarah and James too...sort of. haha. James and I rode another loop of the course. The course was pretty cool, shorter loops, mostly singletrack and only a couple real climbs on the course. It was a great day, how can you beat Elings as far as the view (of the ocean) and it was just a really awesome pre ride day having Sarah and Beth there too.

We took off for the hotel (sketchy at best). Loaded up on water, check out the Angels game and then took off down State St. for some food. We found a pretty cool restaurant that Beth and James found that had healthy foods and printed your reciepts with the exact calories of each thing you ordered no matter how you modified it, pretty cool, but not for all the time! We also discovered a cool deli place where we could get breakfast stuffs in the AM, and Sarah and I got some pre race beers for back at the hotel. James definitely took some ribbing from me for not having a beer with me, but he definitely backed it up the next day at the races!

Sunday we headed down for some breakfast and coffee, I got some Peets for everyone in the AM before and then we went and got food after we said goodbye to the Sh*&hole hotel. (I sleep pretty hard, but with the exceptional uninsulated and thin as hell walls, we heard all the conversation of two idiots playing video games and eating fast food from 12-2am). I was feeling more pre race jitters especially stomach stuff, really nervous, and it must have been for Sarah. I just wanted her to have a good time and love racing and riding as much as I do. After Sarah and Beth started, and James and I were all stoked, laughing and smiling and super excited to see them start and do the first climb and kill it, I started feeling a little better. Watching the girls race was way cool, I was yelling for both of them, and they both finished super well, James and I were both super proud (Beth 1st, Sarah 3rd same AG). Pretty badass to both podium at their first race.

My race was maybe 45 mins after Sarah finished and I went and got suited up and did a shorter 20 min warmup. It was warming up so I was definitely warmed getting to the line just in time, maybe 3 mins before the start. It worked out well except I didnt go back to the truck to get my bottle of calories. I was going to keep the calorie bottle for two laps, then get handed a water for the last lap. Well I wasnt super clear in telling Sarah to give me the bottle in the truck after the first lap instead, and so after the first lap I came in dropped my bottle but nobody had my calorie bottle. Bummed, I headed out for my second lap with nothing. I was totally feeling it after the first little climb and after I killed the descent after (I was loving the descents on that course, felt good and most of all confident if nothing else I felt fast, who knows if I really was). After the second climb and no bottle I was on the verge of starting to break. Amazingly a spectator sees me riding up the end of the 2nd climb and offers me a bottle of H20 saying he saw me miss my bottle at the feed zone. I was so grateful said thank you and was off and definitely inspired and feeling more upbeat immediately. It was a great race, I never really saw the leader after that but I finished it up strong, was really happy with my race, and claimed my first podium spot with a 2nd place finish!

We hung out and I claimed my first beers after (3 for 8 bucks) Sarah had one and I had two. No union jack kegs but the firestone pale 31 was a good substitute...I guess :/ Beth, Sarah, and I all were super pumped for James, and I was yelling and cheering for him the whole race it was pretty awesome. After James had some bottle troubles of his own Beth and I recovered and got him some needed gels and bottles and he ended up totally killing it, four laps and he won by 4 minutes, his first win in a mtb race...I think. So it was an awesome weekend to say the least, we hung out had some more beer and watched James get on the top of the podium. Very cool.

This week has started off well, Sarah got in a good ride and is getting back some comfort on the bike which has me smiling for sure. More on this weeks riding in a later post, hopefully not so much procrastination next time!

one of the many bruises

James "ansel adams" Walsh

the champs!

Dominating the guys

Sporting the new 53x11 kit

off on the last lap

tearing up the descents (in my head)

james where he belongs, by the beer

James totally won and dominated the race, it was awesome

post podium

Week full of BBQ's and long rides

5/25: 29 miles, 3:20 ride time, 5,650' elevation gain
5/28: 26 miles, 1:17 ride time, 1,400' elevation gain
5/30: 26 miles, 3:00 ride time, 4,530' elevation gain
5/31: 53 miles, 2:50 ride time, 2,100' elevation gain

Well another week of "unstructured" transition base mile type training. I am basically just playing it by ear, seeing how my body feels and my head feels after rides and work throughout the week. I did do some upgrades mechanically and other to the road bike, and since I tinker and install all the stuff myself it takes a bit longer, also because I am ultra picky about the shifting on my road bike. I can't stand any type of noise whatsoever, and you would think my hearing would be getting weaker and weaker being on loud construction sites alot, it can always hear the lightest of bike mechanical noise. So its a process for sure, I changed the cassette, chain, derailleur cables, and housings, and put on some new spify bar tape to match the green on my white and green sidi's....because looks are all that matters in cycling. So the road bike has been overhauled and is ready to attack some serious hills with a 12-27 cassette, instead of the 11-23 I have always run on my road and tri bikes since I can remember. So it will be good, the gearing a little closer to what my MTB gearing is.

Memorial Day I ended up meeting up with Luke, Slater, Monique, and some other guys and we had a solid 3 park loop through Aliso, Laguna, and El Moro parks. I have always been curious of what a good route would be through these parks and how to do it so I was really excited to get out there. Each park you can get in a max route of maybe 1.5-2 hours without doing the same thing twice, so looping them all together will give me the opportunity to now do some longer rides closer to home! Headed over to Slater and Moniques in the AM and had some bomb cappucino and then picked up Slaters bike at the airport. Met up with everyone and started the ride off solidly, as we were already keeping a solid pace with Luke and his buddy up to Cholla. We took a descent called "stairsteps" which I havent done before, and that was pretty awesome, with a couple cool technical sections, definitely a challenge on the hardtail. Anyways I won't go into the entire ride details but we had some great singletracks and some tough climbs, including the last climb of the day, made even tougher cause the parks have been grading all the fire roads and leaving loose and tough to pedal on terrain. Finished the ride descending meadows, and headed back to the cars. Unfortunately I had to ride in Luke's Denver Bronco adorned car back to Slaters so we didnt have to follow. Just kidding Luke...kind of, just suck it up and come to a game this year with James, me, and other Charger fans this year, it would be awesome! We finished the day with an awesome BBQ with friends over at Slater and Monique's place, I definitely didnt want to go back to work after such a great Monday off!

I picked up a new Garmin 705 with the maps and cadence and all that. Eventually I will be picking up a Powertap one day, maybe after the wedding. But I needed a new Garmin so I thought may as well go bigtime (My Garmin 205 has slowly been being sketchy and unreliable so it was time to make a move). Here is a nice photo of my Tuesday afternoon getting the new 705 out of the box with James' favorite summertime beer!


Also, Sarah and I definitely got our BBQ on this week with friends and family. A solid 3 days of BBQing this week, love it.

Saturday my buddy Travis and I did our own version of the 3 park loop that the group did on Monday. Travis has been riding alot more motorized bikes than the mtb type lately so we cut some climbing out of the ride, but it was still pretty great. It stayed overcast the entire time, and we dealt with some even more graded and loose fire roads than on monday. I dont understand why after they run through and grade they cant have a water truck hit all the loose stuff and help pack it down. Beats me, because its so loose I dont know how they can use it as an access path for vehicles its brutal! Well, after some great descents and some not so fun hike a bike climbing, especially at the end entering Aliso again and heading to Top of the World in Laguna we were ready to call it a day. We descended Meadows and had a nice tailwind back to the truck. I was still feeling great at the end of the ride and am really feeling happy with how my body is responding to some good rest and longer rides. I havent been skimping on the intensity at times either so I am pretty happy with everything training wise. Then Sarah and I went to a sweet kids b-day party at the Skate Center that most all of us had skate days that the school would organize back in Elem. School. It brought back some interesting memories, still smelled the same, and had the exact some 80s-90s decor. I dont think they even changed the extremely faded snackbar signs, or anything at all in the whole place actually! It was fun though, and then we got to have a BBQ with my parents, some great wine, and some Marie Callendars pie and ice cream afterward (great way to carbo load for sure).

Today we did a great road ride. I met up with dad and we did our 20 mile loop before meeting up with Sarah and her brother Joe who is in town from the Pacific Northwest. We ended up doing a good ride and some hills. It stayed overcast and was even foggy and drizzly at a couple points, especially up at the top of the Newport Coast climb, I joked with Joe about it being alot like Seattle! It has been great riding with all these great riders, friends, and family. Everyone makes it so easy to get in miles, have fun, and challenge me in every way. I am just having alot of fun on the bike lately and its pretty nice. Definitely also a good outlet to release some work stress out too!

Dad and Sarah

the 705 and the ever so stealthy lime green bar tape!

Still trying to figure out my race schedule for the next couple months, but nothing is stopping me from alot more riding whether its in a race or not! Summertime is on its way too, have to stock up on Sunscreen asap! This afternoon we have our first softball game with Sarahs family, so I am going to get some rest, watch the Angels stage a comeback right now (hopefully), and have a couple beers. Hope everyone had a great weekend too!

A little bit of everything

5/13: (MTB) 12 Miles, 1:36 ride, 2,500' elev.
5/16: (Road) 68 Miles, 4:00 ride, 4,000' elev.
5/17: (Road) 40 Miles, 2:22 ride, 2,400' elev.
5/19: (MTB) 12 Miles, 1:20 ride, 2,300' elev.
5/21: (MTB) 11 miles, 1:24 ride, 2,000' elev.
5/22: (Road) 27 miles, 1:18 ride, 1,100' elev.
5/23: (Road) 36 miles, 1:40 time, 500' elev.
5/24: (Road) 34.5 miles, 1:37 time, 400' elev.

Well it has been an extra week since my last entry. Not much happened the week after the Traverse. I only rode once during the week, went out and cruised El Moro with Slater and Monique. My legs were feeling the four weekends of racing that I had completed, so I decided to just take it easy and being really busy at work almost forced me to lay off some workouts.

Saturday I headed down to Carlsbad and James and I hit up a solid 4 hour road ride. San Diego is such a double edged sword, I always love going down there to ride, the routes and less traffic/stoplights have me so stoked, and then its such a bummer cause I live in Orange County. But whatever, I get to drive down on weekends and get my ass handed to me by James on some always epic long road or mtb rides. After our ride, we went down and got some food near PCH and had a couple 30th Street West Coast pale ales in Encinitas. James' buddy Rob was in town and it was way cool talking baseball with them and hanging out, I know Beth loves talking baseball! Sunday we were planning on doing a club ride, but neither of us were really feeling it so James led us out on a pretty sweet 40 mile loop back through some different routes. It was a great couple weekend rides for sure. After the ride, we (Sarah, Rob, James, and I) headed down to catch a train to the Padres game. If everyone couldnt tell how excited I was to be having beers on a train...well I was pretty excited. We really need a train here in the OC to take everyone to Angels games, it can run right down the River trail from PCH to the stadium...that will be my next project! The game was awesome, we ended up meeting up with Trevor and Jess and watching the 9th from their rooftop right near the stadium, it was pretty awesome. Afterwards we all went down to a bar that had pitchers of Racer 5 ipa (Bear Valley brewco). Are you kidding? This really made the day if it wasnt already a near perfect Sunday. Afterwards Beth and James BQed for all of us, what awesome hosts thanks again guys! Check out James' blog for some photos of all of us on Sunday.

Sarah's purple glasses at the Pads game

Monday I was really tired! Tuesday I met up with Slater to get in a good ride at El Moro. I have been riding here almost exclusively during the week, reason being it is closest and easiest to battle traffic after the ride too. I get off work earlier than most since im there at 5:45 every morning, so I like to get the workout in after work but usually puts me in "rush hour" after. If I ride El Moro I can just take PCH home afterwards and it usually isnt bad. After the ride Slater took off on a T-run, definitely don't miss that! But Slater is dominating Xterra races so far this year so its working.

Thursday Sarah and I headed out after work to El Moro, and Sarah totally earned beers from the Yeti pint glass after our ride. We have a little thing set up where if you totally own your ride, do something you havent done, or something like that you get the yeti glass that night. Totally lame but awesome in the same way! Anyways Sarah owned one of the steeper short sections she never has ridden the whole way before, and some others. The one took me way longer to do when I started MTBing so I was really proud of her. She also had a great ride this Saturday with Monique over at Aliso, she is starting to love it I think!

This weekend I have done a couple rides out local on PCH with my dad. These are some hammerfest ego trip rides for sure. Basically the wind works against us most of the ride, but its almost a full on race pace the whole ride. My legs are worked, the mileage isnt necessarily impressive but the efforts leave your legs tight the rest of the day. Right now I am just enjoying a nice new IPA Sarah and I found along with some others yesterday. Sarah also got me a really awesome Green Flash Brewing Company clock and I mounted it right by the doorway. Kinda cool, she picked up the artwork off their website and went designed the clock on a different website. Definitely cool to always know its Beer:30!

love my fiance!

There wasnt alot of photos from the last few weeks, kinda weak on my part but what're you gonna do, I've been busy! I'm updating and fixing some stuff on the soloist, my front wheel has had some issues, broken spokes and looks almost untruable to a certain extent. I hate buying stuff for the road bike but whatever, in the meantime I will be using my dad's pretty nice Easton wheelset until I find a good deal on something. Keep your eye out for some lighter road wheels!

I have also been figuring out some races to finish out the year with, and right now I think James and I are planning on doing a pretty dope finale at the end of the year including a 8 hour 2 man race, next weekend US Cup XCT in Vegas, and weekend after that the Socal Epic in Temecula. Can't beat that, and then its all about beer, football, and awesome cool fall weather for some epic and more mellow mtb rides with friends!

Sarah also did the painting above the tv too, a belated b-day present for me a while back!

Pretty sure I hate the dodgers, and right now this is my view. Totally excited to see my halos take the series from the Hollywood blue. Have to drink more beers to keep myself awake to the "put you to sleep" voice of good 'ol Vin Scully (I know he's a legend, but basically puts anvils on my eyelids). Also pretty excited to have James and Beth down here for the Angels v. Padres game so I can talk smack to James as the Angels likely will have the brooms out!

Hope everyone has a safe and fun rest of their Memorial Day weekend.

2009 Traverse Report

5/5: (MTB) 15.7 Miles, 1:38 time, 3,000'
5/6: (Road) 27 Miles, 1:20 time, 1,100' (Ride with Dad)
5/7: (MTB) 11 Miles, 1:20 time, 2,000' (Ride with Sarah)
5/9: (MTB) 44 Miles, 5:22 time, 8,300' (Traverse)
5/10: (Road) 22.5 Miles, 1:10 time, 400'

Well I am sitting here watching Monday Night baseball and thinking about my traverse race after the back pain and knee pain have worn away. It was definitely a different approach to a race, that I have never had before. All week long before I was doing the right prep and riding, having fun, but having a certain dread about doing the race and just not really motivated at all. It turned out to be an awesome race and ride, great conditions, and I am really glad I did it and stopped being a bitch.

Friday Sarah was supposed to be going to Vegas, but she surprised me and stayed for work and to be there for my race and stuff. It was great to know I would have her there for me at the start and finish and that definitely helped pump me up a little bit and motivate me. The night before we made some salad and pasta and had some good beers of course, and I prepped my bike, ipod, and got everything ready.

Saturday morning I actually slept in for the 7:00am start! I usually wake up massively early for work and so I woke a little later at 5:00 and got my breakfast and coffee, was feeling good and left the house just when I was planning, well it turned out after one pit stop that I was going to barely make the start. I made it to blackstar with about 15 minutes to the start. I got all my gear on, pumped my tires, got my ipod set and although it was foggy and a little chilly decided to forgo the arm and knee warmers, a total rarity as I love my knee warmers usually all the time. I made it to the start with less than 60 seconds and off I went.

Thanks to Joe Salancho (STR guy)

I used the first 15 mins or so of false flat Blackstar to warm my legs up and was feeling pretty good. I let alot of guys go ahead and didnt push it at all, not used to that after 3 straight weekends of XC races leading up but this was going to be a long day. Totally glad I stuck with that mentality as I felt way better throughout the day with that outlook. Once you got up about 500' out of the canyon you were out of the fog, and it was already warming up! So glad I didnt don the warmers and wouldve ended up carrying them all day. I ended up passing 10-15 people on the Blackstar climb, and as I passed "the golf ball" I began to settle into a solid groove. My shifting was giving me a little heck, but I adjusted it with the barrel on the rear shifter and ended up messing with it throughout the day but it worked out. It worked out because it forced me to stay in tougher gearings on the rear cassette. I went back and forth with a few guys up till four corners.

Thanks Eric Foltz Photography (STR guy)

I felt good, and knew that right after four corners the climb to Trabuco peak is what totally broke me off during Counting Coup. Granted this was a little earlier in the race than the climb was in CC but mentally I was ready to get after it this time. I ended up making a couple passes, and felt pretty awesome considering how tired my legs began to feel at the peak. Descending down to Lower HJ I wanted to just finish strong, and be smiling at the finish. I tackled the rest of the climbs pretty well, considering my back was pretty tight and the knee was beginning to give some pain. But it really wasnt bad, I blocked it all out, realized it really was an awesome day on the bike, and was literally out there enjoying it all with no one around. Minus the gnats in the shady climb areas everything went well! The descent down Trabuco definitely wasnt my best, but I felt like I did pretty good on it and passed a couple guys who were having mechanical issues. I stopped to offer my CO2 to one guy but he already had some pit stop, which I was hoping for his sake would work, I have never seen it used!



When the descent was over it was the part of the race I had been least and most looking forward to. Least because of the hardtail, and my back and knee were already giving me feedback, that road is wack! Most because shoot, its almost over. Well, I did get passed by two guys on the Trabuco Creek road, kind of a bummer but whatever, I gave it my all but just couldnt hold either of their FS paces on that road. When I saw Sarah I was pretty happy, it felt good to have it be over, and I went straight for some cold water and actually a little coke, which made my stomach feel weird of course (I rarely ever drink soda!). But it was a great day of racing, and I think I may have made it into the top 25 overall, we will see. Although my GPS crapped out and erased the file somehow (have had it for 3 years now, a new edge 705 is in my near future though :)I am happy with my day for sure, and even happier to have a recovery week this week and to be done with 4 straight weekend races. I nailed my nutrition the best I ever have thanks to some tips from James and trail and error at CC, although I have some to improve on still as far as nutrtion goes. All the racing has been awesome but I am looking forward to a little break and to more rides and beers with friends and family in the near future.

Yeti Pride

Idyllwild Spring Challenge weekend Wrap up

4/28: (Road) 30 miles, 1:35 time, 1,100' elev
4/29: (Road) 27 miles, 1:27 time, 1,200' elev
5/1: (MTB) 12.6 miles, 1:21 time, 2,500' elev (rode easy, but will be my new race sim loop)
5/2: (MTB) 18.8 miles, 2:02 time, 3,100 elev (ISC Race)
5/3: (Road) 27 miles, 1:22 time, 500' elev (easy flat recovery)


This weekend was a pretty good one. Friday night Sarah and I did some bbq and salad and had a mellow night watching the Office and Parks and Rec. We woke up Saturday morning early and had some coffee and food and got on the road out to Idyllwild. We were meeting up with James to get in some warm up at around 8. We drove through the beautiful town of Hemet and finally made it up the hill to Hurkey Creek Camp. There was definitely a brisk wind which made it a little chilly, but the sun finally broke for the race start. Sarah and I watched Allison, James, and Luke make their start an hour before me, and I used the rest of the time cruising laps around in the parking lot staying warm. I was a little worried about my knee going into the race so I wanted to make sure I was all stretched out.

Time came and we started, it was of course a tough pace from the start, and the altitude had my heart rate above normal and not recovering as quickly with any slowing of pace. Also, not having pre-ridden the course left me a bit slow and frustrated all day. I definitely made the best of it though (how can you not love that course and the scenery?). I took the day as a good time to put in a hard effort, and started to really feel better halfway through the course. It was too late to really reel people in but I really pushed hard and was overall happy with my performance considering not knowing the course. It was a technical one, but next year I am going to be well prepared, cause I plan on riding that more than just a few times before then!

I ended up catching James near the end of both our races (my course was 11 miles shorter) and I rode the last bit of the last descent behind him. It worked out pretty well because about 5 mins after crossing the line and chatting with Luke, we hit the road without a thought and headed for the promised land. Wow, it didnt disspoint, we showed up and there was a ton of people in there, a bunch of James' meathead buddies but after they knocked a fire extinguisher off the wall and it exploded, the place cleared out and left the place to us, and Beth joined us too for some beers. I ended up taking home a growler and had a blast, I know Sarah and Beth liked it too, but doubftul as much as James and I love it (James' third/fourth trip their that week, ha!). Afterwards had a great BBQ over at James and Beths with some fresh Green Flash, it was a perfect ending to a hard race day.

Other great news, my knee seems to be improving from the last couple weeks, hopefully it continues to get better too. Next up, the Traverse...it will be a good race to get some hard endurance riding and base miles, not going out there to win but have a good time and earn my beers.

Race Start

James' finish

Right behind

Thinking about Green Flash...

...Happy with Green Flash