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

"The rest is silence."

Well, today was my last race of 2009. It's been a pretty long season, and I think it's been a good one.

I am really glad to be done. Today was a difficult race. First of all, it was my first race in a long time that I had no competition. It's always difficult to push through pain and lingering sickness, but when you are out there alone it doesn't make it any easier to keep pushing! I had a few strong moments, but mostly I was just waiting for the finish line :)

As always, the singletrack was awesome, but pushing through the fire roads was tough at times.

I plan on taking about 7 days off the bike entirely. Justin is already balking. Me? I'm looking forward to the planned break. I need it mentally, physically, and emotionally. We've got some fun stuff planned, and then, I am sure, sooner than we know we'll be back to training.

For now, let's break it down. One last time.

Last week, I had a head cold. It started to come back on Saturday, which I wasn't really stoked about. A day of full rest, and I was back to my wacky insomnia.

Justin decided he wanted to spend the weekend camping up at the lake with his mom. So, we drove up Friday night. I stopped to get some ice and beer on the way up and had a super unfortunate event.

The remnants (keep reading...)








We got up there, got set up, and got to making dinner.

James and Ryan, these are for you!





"I think we're gonna need a bigger boat."




The rest of the remnants... I'm still really sad about this.



I had packed our coffee mugs, and just driving across the street to the grocery store the bag must've gotten all up-ended and out fell my coffee mug when I opened the door.

The view from camp on Saturday



Justin and I left from camp and pre-rode the last half of the course -ish. It was good times. My HR was a bit higher than my RPE, but the legs felt good. My head cold wasn't feeling so hot, though.



We finished up with just about an hour thirty, stopped by Bear Valley and talked to Derek and Steve, and headed back to camp to eat and "ice bathe".





I took a short nap, then we registered. Then it was time for dinnah!!!



I was so hungry I didn't even get a shot of the finished product.

I actually woke up super nervous today. Even after I got Joy's email that she was out due to illness, I expected Natasha, or Heather, or some un-expected Euro-Pro to show up. I stood there by the Pro Women 11:01 sign and no one showed up. Except Larry Longo. He wanted to race Pro Women. Lucky for me he stayed in his own category!

I struggled a bit between feeling sick, feeling tired, my legs just not showing up at all, and wanting to still make a good showing, despite being the only Pro female out there!!

My time was respectable, but not great. I soft pedaled a few descents, and basically just got through it.

I was thoroughly trashed in many ways post-race.





Oops, deleted my victory dinner picture. Yogurt, granola, blueberries, whey protein, and red wine. By myself. Oh ya.

2009 - thanks for the memories.



PS - 20 points to whoever can name the quote in the title.