Labor Day Weekend

On Friday, Luke mentioned that he would've enjoyed sitting on a patio with some Spanish white wine, so when I stopped by the store on the way home, I picked some up! Sounded like a good idea.





Looking back, I probably should've added some non-vegetable, non-alcoholic carbs into that meal!

I'll be honest: this weekend didn't really turn out as planned. I had some weird delusions of hitting up some massive volume and good riding for the 3 days we had off.

For Saturday, Justin needed to pick up some parts at The Path, and also get his fork looked at, so we knew we had to head over to OC. We planned to do another dawn-ish ride on the road to start out the weekend right with 2.5 or so hours of riding on the flats.

NOT the breakfast of champions...



Right away my heart rate was skyrocketing with the smallest of efforts. Since we had another ride planned, I was trying to take it easy, but my body wasn't really cooperating. I just didn't feel that great.

Sky sure was awesome, though







We did manage to get in some mileage and a few short efforts, but turned around early. Got back home, and Justin cooked up some delish breakfast burritos!!



I felt a little better after eating, and eventually we headed out the door, with the plan to ride the Luge in some way shape or form once we had taken care of some errands.

View of the fire from THE 91



We got the bike shop stuff done, picked up some necessities, checked out the new Stumpy HT Comp (sweet bike, actually), and then headed south to Oakley. Justin wanted them to check out the cracks that are ever increasing on his Flak jacket prescription lenses (I just noticed a new crack in my left lens as well - sucky since it's around 7 BUSINESS days to be without sunglass vision). We also got some new "flair" - different Earsocks!





It was hot out over there, especially at 3~ pm. We suited up in the crazy heat anyway and headed out to do Whiting - Luge. We had planned on maybe doing an O'Neill - Whiting - Old Camp route, but that was a bit too much for me!

We saw four hikers and one other mountain biker on the entire route, and not much wildlife! Pretty much just hot and dry out there.



Mustard was hot and tough, but we hit it pretty hard anyway, and I was putting in some efforts, but the power was coming and going! I likened it to the waxing and waning of the moon. I'd charge a section and feel great, and then the next short rise have nothing left.



I was pretty stoked to be hitting up the Luge again, since it's been almost a year.







It had felt pretty good to get out on the mountain bike afterall, but I was definitely fatigued post-ride!

Since Justin was grilling up some carne asada for taco's, we decided to open our last beer.



Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous... the chronical







Dinner!



We weren't really sure if we should spin on Sunday or just kick back. I wanted to at least get out on the bike in some semblance of a ride. So, we left the house later in the morning and set out on about an hour regen ride. At the turn off street, we both agreed to get a little more volume and head around the lake. Sounded like a good idea at the time!



It doubled the ride time (as I knew it would), and we both wound up running out of energy on the way home. Luckily we had about a buck fifty, so once Justin scrounged together the extra change we were able to purchase a 12 fl oz Pepsi can (seriously, everything else was too much $$). That got us home!

We had some post-ride fuel, got prepped, and headed south to see Justin's sister and cousin, hit up REI, and stop by La Jolla to see the sea lions.

It was gorgeous down there at the coast!





We got home pretty late, so didn't get much done, but were both able to prep for Monday's planned ride: Idyllwild! I warned Luke that I wasn't sure I'd be physically up for 3-4 hours, but we were going to head up and see what we could do anyway.

Once in the lot, we realized that there were a ton of people out pre-riding for the 24 hour event in a few weeks, so we decided to cut out the first part of the course (climbing the 24 hour course descent) and just headed out on course. I was pushing, but feeling ok, and only fell off the pace of Luke and Justin a little on the early climb.





I was pretty stoked to *finally* clean the rock wall



We rode some singletrack, hit up some fire road climbing… and generally had a really good time. It was just what I needed; singletrack stoke and no masses!

























Since it was Labor Day, yet another American grilling holiday, I had picked up some ground sirloin and sweet potatoes from the store so Justin could grill up some good American cookin'!

For those of you that like to see Justin's meat, you'll have to check back later! I left the pics on the camera :)

All in all, the weekend worked out pretty good. It wasn't as fruitful as either of us hoped, but we got in some solid bike time, a little beach time, and tried to rest up. Taking the day off hoping we can get back to it tomorrow!