Been busy!

Work has been about as busy as training lately, so not much blog-love. I know you guys love it when I go on and on and on about what I'm doing and eating.

Not specifically a photo blog, but here goes...

The weekend after Ray's we tried to set up to get back in the swing of big weekends on the bike. Fairly successful as we did a near-century on Saturday from up the highway to the coast and back, and then followed it up with a few hours on the dirt (it had been far too long for me) on Sunday with Steph and Dan.

Got in some solid training in between on the road, then we hit up a desert-style training camp this past weekend near Palm Springs. Did a roadie up near Joshua Tree, and hit up a solid few hours of singletrack yesterday.

Meanwhile, I also got my first order from CycleOps in the mail last week! Aluminum rollers followed by my mountain bike power tap. SAWEET. Waiting on rims and spokes right now so Justin can build it up! Can't wait to have some power metrics from dirt also.

Last Sunday, after the storm(s) we hit the dirt again, and I had a blast on Justin's HT







Stephanie was "fresh" off of her 12 Hours of Temecula Pro/Expert Win!



This past weekend on the road again...



The boys are nice enough to let me pull sometimes so I can obsessively hold all of my zones.



We stopped for a quick break before heading into what we thought was a road closure. So, we didn't fill up our bottles. As we road head first...into the desert...



Long road ahead with some awesome scenery





Ahhh...water at last



Check out this mini banana! Random, I know. Phone is for reference only



Luke brought out some killer wines for the evening. I really dig the Wiens Family Cellars Crowded.





Sunday we got up and headed for the "mountains" to hit some singletrack. Pretty perfect day, if I may say so myself. I was carrying a bit of fatigue monster on my back, but managed to pull out a decent climb near the end before we descended back to the trailhead. Felt pretty good.

STIL







Crouching Justin



Steph muscles it around



Perfect



Riding









Needless to say, didn't want to come back to work! Ah, the life...

Holiday Travels

The week before Christmas Justin and I spent a good amount of time in the evenings cooking up way too much food. Justin made almond milk, and then we made some festive raw nog out of the almond milk, bananas, nutmeg, and spiced rum and Kahlua. It was delish. The Kahlua really makes it!







We also made sure to pick up provisions since we didn’t inherit our beer tastes from our parents!



We got all loaded up to head south for our first stop at Justin’s mom’s house for Christmas Eve hanging out. Justin was able to finish up the rack last week and got some lights on there also.



All green and red on the way down to the desert



Justin graciously cooked a delish Christmas Eve dinner of lobster tails and ahi while mom and I roasted up some veggies.



That was the end of eating paleo for a few days!

Grandma brought her homemade cookies for Christmas. YUM.



Yes, I ate quite a few, and no, I don’t feel guilty.

Justin and I went on a long road ride Saturday to try to burn off Christmas dinner. I didn’t have room for the camera, but we rode on some pretty wide open empty roads, and a few narrow crowded roads, and ended up climbing up Box Canyon toward Joshua Tree. We turned around midway up the canyon to head home. Long day on the road and it felt great to get back and relax!

Sunday we slept in a bit and then got ready for a few hours on some new (to us) singletrack.

Brown Santa had brought me some new grips before we left, so I was stoked to try out the Ergon team green GA1 grips. Previously I’d only used the GP1 and GX1 grips, or the GX2’s with bar ends. At first it was a little weird for me to not have the bigger platform for my palm, but as we climbed up the uber tech singletrack on Art Smith I was totally lovin’ the GA1’s. I got used to them really quick, and even with the tech riding uphill and down my hands felt great the entire ride. I can’t wait to try these out on more and different trails while training and racing this winter.

I really felt like I had a lot of control and grip ability, and full maneuverability to get the front end to do what I wanted it to do. I don’t think my previous GX1’s were holding me back, but I did feel like I was better able to control the handlebar with the GA1’s. They just loved the techy climbing.

Big thanks to Ergon USA and Jeff Kerkove. I’m more than stoked to be getting support as an Ergon Factory Rider for 2010.

Grip-eye view



The trail went on endlessly!



STIL and RTIL (Rockier Than It Looks)



Grip and Go



I was looking and looking for Dunn Road, but at this point we were only halfway there!



Bombing back down the trail



Up a small hill, through a small wash, down a small hill.



Man-reinforced structure



Rocky descending

Full Weekend

All in all, it was a good weekend. Lots of fun with friends and family, and a pretty chill Memorial Day with some pool time.

Saturday Stephanie, Dan, Justin and I hit up Daley Ranch for a fast-paced 14-mi loop. The group splintered right away with Justin going on the attack before we had warmed up at all, and shortly after I followed suit. He slowed up a bit, and gapped me a few times, especially on the steeper climbs. He'd wait up, then continue with me. I knew the only climb where I could possibly keep Justin in sight was coming up, so I made it my goal to stick to him once we got there. He put a small gap on me, but I stayed within 2 bike lengths throughout the climb and was stoked! The workout was really short, but solid from an effort perspective.

My recovery wasn't stellar (a banana and half a container of Bloks, followed by about 1.5 hours of easy spinning, standing, and no food), but it was time for the Dust Bunnies beginner women's ride! I went over and met a few of the women as they congregated and a little after 10 we headed out to start a loop.









Ride leader Shalyn (taking a break from tearing up the local endurance scene!) on the right



Regroup



A few of the true beginner women struggled on some of the early hills, so I suggested we head back and climb up the pavement, descend down to the Ranch House, and do a short stint on Jack Creek Meadow. We lost a few once we got back to the parking lot, but a few continued on to the Ranch House and Jack Creek Meadow, and we all wound up regrouping one final time back at the Ranch House.





It seemed like everyone had a good time, and I enjoyed pretty much my first women's only ride! It was cool to ride with others that had a much different scope of experience and I hope to head out to these rides in the future and help lead and teach!

I had to get back to the truck to get some food in me, and once we had a bite to eat we headed north to pack up for our final trek out to the desert! There was a ton of food awaiting us.

Saturday night we had a big bbq with veggies, smoked salmon, and a huge pot of quinoa. I was stoked with plenty of leftovers!

Went to bed a tad late, didn't sleep all that well, and soon enough it was up and at'em on Sunday for a full day at Hurkey Creek! I was shooting for somewhere between 3 and 5 laps. Justin wanted me to do 3 race pace laps, which would've been great. Lap 1 was an endurance paced loop to warm up. I almost think I should've just gone from the gun since the next 2 laps were tough knowing how much more fun an easier lap was ;)





I only got through 2 race pace laps, with #3 being much slower (albeit similar effort) to #2. Time to pack it in. I went back out for #4, and while I finished it out, it wasn't pretty. Got back to the truck and downed my recovery ProCharge with milk, and had my ABJ sandwich and did some hanging out. Dan had been MIA since in between laps 1 and 2, and he pulled in about 20 or so minutes after Justin and Stephanie had gone out for lap #5. Crazies!

Dan and I hung out in the shade and got in some early "recovery". Eventually it was back to the desert for more bbq and a Young's Double Chocolate Stout! Hell ya!



We got to enjoy a good bottle of Wiens, even!



I know there are quite a few racers that enjoy knocking a few back on the weekends (or even during the week), but I've found whenever I have more than half a beer or a glass of wine I wind up being totally unmotivated and generally not feeling all that great the next day. No hangovers for me over the weekend, but I don't think alcohol enjoyment is going to be on my to-do list anymore, unfortunately! Someone remind me of this on a regular basis, though, okay?

Monday we slept in a bit and then had a serious date with some pool time.



After that it was time to pack up and head back to reality! 3 of us had bikes in need of service, so it was off to the bike shops before closing and then home to watch Monday's exciting Giro d'Italia stage!!

Got back to it yesterday and today. So far this week I feel much better about how training is going than I did after Sunday's ride. Going to unwind a bit the next two days and put in some good time this weekend. Should be fun! Hopefully I'll have a few more ride photos after next weekend!

I can't believe it's Wednesday already!