Gonna ride this out

This is a long one, so grab a cup of coffee, a pint of beer, and maybe a snack and get ready! Got a lot of pics also, so even if you don't like words you can look at the pretty photos.

Thursday we got home and had a ton of stuff to pack up for the weekend. I went in our guest bathroom to get some bike clothes off the drying rack and noticed a dripping sound. Hmm. Monday of last week I was in the bathroom and noticed a HUGE bubble in the ceiling near our tub and noticed it had been leaking down the wall, all over the floor, onto our towel rack, etc. Justin went upstairs and the neighbor said they hadn't accidentally flooded their bathroom or anything, blah blah. So, Thursday night he went up there again. The mom had just showered in her guest bathroom and Justin asked her not to use that shower again until we got the issue figured out. The ceiling leaked for probably 4 hours after that.

It was too late to get ahold of anyone other than an emergency plumber, which wasn't really necessary. We left messages with the HOA (never got a call back) and homeowner's insurance. Next morning we stayed home to take care of everything. HOA was going to contact the owner upstairs, and insurance said to let them know if any contents were damaged. So, we sat around waiting to hear back most of the morning, and eventually followed through with our weekend plans.

The provisions before they went in the cooler



Got up to Barton Flats Friday night sometime before 7. It was chilly (mid-50s) on the drive up there. Eek!





Dinner! And Dessert!



Justin was checking out his new birthday toys / provisions





After we got camp set up we cracked open our last 11th Anniversay Ale. Jeff was telling us that they weren't lasting, but this baby was PRIMED and ready to go. Tasted awesome up in the mountains.



Camp fire was stoked and warm



Dinner is served



So good!

We hung out by the fire for awhile





It had been fairly cloudy, but the clouds cleared and the moon (nearly full) was just gorgeous



New mini-lantern



It was a really cold night. Not the same as Crested Butte cold, or Downieville 2007 cold, but it was really chilly.



I eventually made my way out of the tent to get us some creamer for our tent coffee!



The sun was out, but there were clouds swirling around on all sides. It was warm in the sun, but the wind was cold. We got breakfast together, sat by the fire, and waited for Luke to arrive for our big ride! Credit where it's due... I sent Brian from the Path an email earlier last week asking about climbing Radford Truck Trail for a big ride from camp up to Big Bear. He suggested taking Clark's up, traversing up at the Bear trails, and then heading down Radford. His suggestion was stellar, since climbing Radford would've been challenging in spots!









My new tube holder set-up



We got on the trail I think around 10:30 (time is irrelevant when you're camping) and had the most fun of the day in the first 15 minutes of the ride! I can now say without a doubt that the singletrack from Barton Flats down to Glass Rd. is essentially ALL descent! After 25 miles and reaching South Fork campground it definitely feels like there is a lot of uphill on the way back toward Angelus Oaks, but in case that is NOT the fact that all! Soo much fun!





The boys!



We were all grinning ear-to-ear upon reaching Glass Rd, and were ready to shuttle that same 4-5miles all day! Well, we had bigger fish to fry, so off we headed down Glass Rd to meet up with Clark's Grade instead.

Starting up



I lost sight soon after. My legs felt like they were in knots. No power what-so-ever. I was doing everything I could just to tick the pedals over. The further up we climbed the cooler it got, and eventually we were in the clouds and temps continued to drop. Had we not been climbing it would've been pretty uncomfortable. I only stopped once for a route check early on, and after that kept pedaling the whole way up.







I had been alone for awhile and for some reason had a random song stuck in my head:

Had a bad day, don't talk to me / Gonna ride this out … You can't save me / You can't change me / Well I'm waiting for my wakeup call / And everything, everything's my fault

I had no idea who sang the song, or the last time I'd heard it. It must've been on an old MP3 CD that we'd been listening to from songs I used to have on CD or on my iPod. Weird. So, the song floated in my head for about 50 minutes as I climbed. I just "rode it out". Eventually I saw Luke headed back toward me. I figured he and Justin had made it up to 2N10 in Big Bear and turned around. I hesitated to ask how much further, and we chatted as we continued up. It was getting really cold!



Justin made his way back also, and I found out Luke hadn't gotten up to 2N10! So, the 3 of us rode it out and stopped at the junction to put on some extra layers and grab a bite to eat before descending Plantation.







It was totally frigid! I couldn't feel my hands at all.

We hopped back on a fire road and followed some of the Big Bear Shoot-Out course



As we descended down Cabin 89 to Pine Knot the sun was coming out. Ooh, soo nice! It warmed up just a tad.



Back on 2N10 we started to traverse back to where we'd pick up Radford Truck Trail for the descent back down to Glass Rd. It was gorgeous once we descended a little out of the clouds and looked out over the valley. SART is over there somewhere!



We weren't really looking forward to climbing back out of Glass Rd and up to Barton Flats, and while I was pretty fatigued, it wasn't *that* bad…





Back at camp I was slow moving, but took a sun shower, made some PBJ's, and we got dinner set out to cook in a bit. We enjoyed some 60-minute IPA!



Dinner was so good and gone so quickly I didn't even get any pictures!

Justin and I sat around the campfire for awhile until we were both ready to pass out, and then it was time to hit the hay. We wore some extra layers to bed and wound up sleeping in til almost 7! It was sunny out again Sunday morning, and while chilly, the sun just felt so good.

French press is cooking and berries are ready for eating



Blue skies



Tent was a little moist, so we sat around and enjoyed the beautiful weather, being lazy. We had no idea of what route to do, but wanted to take it easy. We were both a little on edge, and exploring isn't my deal. For some reason I was expecting about a 6 mile route out to Jenks Lake for a bar or something, then back. Well, it was about 2 miles of fire road to Jenks Lake, and then Justin wanted to go exploring unsigned backwoods fire roads.





Eventually I asked if we could just find 38, get over to Barton Flats, ride down to SART and do some traversing, and head back. We wound up popping out at a different SART connector down 38 that couldn't have been too far from South Fork (maybe 1.5-2 miles at most?)





Made our way down to SART, traversed back toward Barton Flats, and rode that back to where we had parked.





Radford Truck Trail! We were up there yesterday



Our picnic spot after the ride



It was gorgeous sitting out in the sun.

On the way home we stopped off in Fontana to watch a buddy from college race his old Corvette race car





All in all, GREAT weekend!! Wish we could do that every weekend. It was kind of pricey for a camp weekend (next time need to share the spot and fire wood with someone!), but fun anyway. The hard part is a) camping - I woke up pretty sore/tired on Sunday morning, and b) elevation - it is tough the very next day at elevation. I think similar to the weekend before we camped the night before a race, and your body is just in a weird transition area that first 24 hours or so!

My legs were worked and fatigued anyway from 2 full weeks of hard workouts and not recovering from the race the weekend before. But, I totally enjoyed the big ride on Saturday, as painful as it was!

I also realized I really like camping! I want to do some more of that this summer. Just hope we can find a way to make it a little cheaper!

Will hopefully have a post put together before Friday about how AWESOME Rock N Road Cyclery is! Got a few pics together, but will be taking a few more and adding commentary once we utilize some recently purchased items :) Report forth-coming!

Tuesday's killer ride

Even though we still felt kind of worked from Sunday's race, and I rode on Monday (unusual, but I had to get to work somehow! Justin had our only vehicle in Anaheim for a work thing), we decided to hit up a longer ride after work last night. Luke was down for a group ride, so we hit the road a little before 5.

Justin bumped the pace right away, and at every intersection he and Luke would sprint off the front at the green lights, leaving me fighting it out with the wind just hoping to not fall back any further. He and Luke would then sit up and wait, and I would pedal by, still sitting in the wind!

We got to the first actual bit of rise and I hadn't had much recovery from another short stint. Off the boys charged racing up the hill. I wasn't even halfway up as they crested out at the top. Super effort! I hit the top and we soft pedaled a short descent, then made a left turn directly into the wind. I sat on Justin's wheel as we both tried to recover, and then I made an attempt to bridge the gap up to Luke. I eventually made it on the flats before we started our next climb, and successfully sat on Luke's wheel for maybe two minutes. He put in an attack and while I did what I could to hold the wheel, off he went like a rocket ship. In my attempt to hold his wheel, Justin fell back from mine, not yet recovered from his huge effort on the previous hill.

It was going to be a tough ride!!

Once up on the plateau things chilled out a little bit, but due to the incessant headwind it was hard to keep the HR in check. Another really steep climb left me off the back and gasping for air!







Soon enough we hit the fast and furious 20% grade descent! Descending on the road bike is toooo much fun. We hit some rollers and I worked like mad to keep the boys in sight. Often it was fruitless, but still fun. Traffic was super light and we would bomb down a descent in aero tuck, then pedal like mad to make it up the next steep ascent.

Eventually got out to a fairly extended flat section



Then it's one more climb, and the big descent down to town.

We bid farewell to Luke and Justin and I headed over to BJ's for a large pizza and some beer. There was one piece of the pie left when the waitress commented she thought we would've saved half to take home. Um, no. When it comes to food - Justin and I don't mess around!! We finished off an entire BJ's large pizza between us. SO STUFFED. It was too good, though.

Ride stoke today is a bit on the EXTREMELY LOW side. Woke up all into it, and then the thunder storms hit in a serious way. It's been off and on all day since about 10 am with periods of heavy rain, hail, and lots of lightning brightening the dark sky. We've even had two brief power outtages at work.

Hoping the weather clears up just a tad for a post-work ride. I've got a ton to do this week and am low on sleep, but man do I want to get out and pedal!

High(er) elevation fun!

Early last week we all got the idea to head up to the mountains for some high (er, for So Cal) elevation training! Saturday was to be laps at the latest 12 Hours of Rim Nordic course, and Sunday would be the Big Bear Shootout #1 for Justin and I. Steph and Dan were going to ride, possibly Rim Nordic again, and Luke was going to head out for a hike with his sweetie, then hit the road once he got home.

Justin and I were up pretty late on Friday, so got a late start Saturday morning.

My balance for the evening did not get in the way of us heading out...



We had to hit up wally world for a new camp grill, and the grocery store for a few minor provisions. The sky was pretty grey at home, but once we got about a mile up the highway on the way up to the mountains it was gorgeous.



Nasty stuff down below, though. It wasn't all just haze/clouds. Lots of smog.



We got up to the middle of the mountain sometime around 11 and once suited up, we figured we'd head up what we thought might be the end of the course until we met up with the crew already out pre-riding. Could've been interesting if we were wrong, but about 1.5mi later we ran into the group descending down and almost at the finish.









Unfortunately I wound up sliding out pretty bad on a loose corner and wound up with a skinned/bruised elbow, and bruises on my hip and knee. Yay! Kept riding since the parts all worked fine, and the scrape dried over eventually.

I was covered in a fine dust all day



Ominous clouds rolling in



Steph gettin' her prep on



Weyland contemplates



Luke and I headed out for my first full lap and his 2nd shortly after, and Justin and Steph transferred the course file from 705 to 705 (sweetness).

Was it humid? Or, was I just working too hard?



Luke leads it out, but we were conversational the entire way



Until Justin caught up and pushed the pace!



Justin was done after one, but I was determined for 2. Steph and Dan went for a bottle refill and I hung out. Dan mentioned the clouds looked pretty dark on the ridge. No sooner had Justin showed up from putting the camera away (just in case) when rain started to fall. At that point I was pretty cooled down from lap 1, and we hit the road. Sprinkle showers fell for the next 30-45 mins, but no real rain hit that I could tell.

Think it'll fit?



Justin and I drove down, passed our campground exit, u-turned, and then I had the brilliant idea to drive all the way back up past Rim Nordic to Big Bear Lake to check-in for the race and get some bandages and tape for my arm (so I could sleep/race). So, up up and away we went. Registration wasn't open yet, but we hung out and chatted with Gabe and Lety, checked in, stopped in at Rite Aid for some not Telfa and non-hurt sticky tape. Also, I was walking to the register and caught sight of THIS so had to buy a bag.

Back down the mountain we headed. Clouds were looking dark, and I wasn't looking forward to a night in the rain, but we met up with the rest of the camping crew, and toward our campground for the weekend near Green Valley Lake (all that was available).

The road down to the campground was fairly bumpy, but not horrible. Just a long 4-mile slog that left a fine coating of dust on everything in the bed and on the bikes. We got down to a big water crossing and Steph and Dan determined their car just wasn't meant to run through it. Luke and Charressa carried on, and eventually Justin and I crossed as well, and the campground was about 1/4mi later. Really quiet and pretty nice (your basic FS campground).

We unloaded and set up camp. Sky was blue and temps were pretty good.

Provisions





Our new grill



Justin preps the bikes



Set up



Charressa and I set up their new campstove, hooked up the propane and created fire!! Don't laugh, I'm not very camp-savvy!



Dinner





After dinner Justin and I cooked up some really old smores (nothing was bad, but it was old stuff!), and then we all shared some Jiffy pop. Lots of bike talk, training talk, racing talk. Good stuff!

Hit the hay some time before 11. We were up before the sun and for some reason camp was extremely loud. Someone blaring a car radio, and another group of campers yelling back and forth. Weird. It wasn't even 6 am yet! We had planned on sleeping in til 7, but had had breakfast by then ;)

I filled this Thermos with coffee Saturday morning around 7:30. Sunday morning at 7 am it was still warm!



Justin and I packed up camp, bid farewell to our camp-mates, and headed up the hill to Big Bear Lake once again.

We stopped in at the restaurant to use the facilities and saw Slater and Monique out there! Remembered that this race was part of the multi-sport Open Air Big Bear series. It brought out quite a few first time mountain bike racers! After some chatting we drove up to just near the start and chilled out. Justin did last minute bike prep and chain cleaning, and I hung out in the truck. It was pretty warm out, but a spectacular day on the mountain.

Eventually it was time to hit the warm-up, final prep and then we rode up the hill to the start! Good turn out for sure, and they started right on time. There were 5 pro women (the usual!) and we took off in a mad flurry.

My legs felt stellar! For about 5 minutes. Then the power dropped way off. I did what I could to hang onto Joy's wheel for awhile, but that became futile. Kicked it down a bit, spun, and hoped to recover on the rollers. I'd come back feeling pretty good after a short break, and have her in sight, and then she'd take off again! Sarah caught back up as well, and we battled it out for 2nd for a bit. I think I finally was able to make a small gap on a descent, but everytime I looked back there she was!

I nearly went down on the singletrack loop that the long course includes, and once when I pulled into the bushes to let another rider pass my right calf cramped up. That has never happened. I've felt pangs of cramps before, but never a full on cramp. I tried to stretch it out, but it felt worse, so I clipped in and figured I'd give'r until my body quit. I managed to reel Joy back in again somehow, but once we hit the fire road off the singletrack she put in an attack again and was off the front.

I slowly spent the steep fire road climb back up to the main fire road reeling her in, and just caught her as we hit the turn. We both hammered like crazy across the rollers, and I spent the first singletrack on her wheel! It was a blast descending down behind her. We hit the fire road again and she gapped me a little, and someone got between us. After trying to pass some of the lower categories, on a steep climb section the SS in front of me dabbed, and I was forced to dismount and run. The gap grew. Another rider in between us, then another, and the first guy behind Joy would not let anyone pass. The rider in front of me had a few unsuccessful attempts at passing, and eventually got around, but it was pretty techy and narrow, so I was stuck behind. I couldn't make up the time, but eventually went around and hammered to the line.

Great race! Had a blast out there. Justin and I tried to cool down spin back UP to the truck (that was fun!), used the sun shower to rinse off, had some food and headed down to the restaurant for free taco's and awards!



We had a good time hanging out, but after awards I was ready to hit it. Long drive back down the hill and we had a ton to unpack/clean up after our camping weekend.





The after math



Dinner!



Yeah, I had a lot of cereal yesterday ;)