Another weekend in the books!

I was bummed last week seeing rain in the forecast AGAIN, but Justin and I had our plans set either way. Saturday we'd race the 5th and final Southridge USA Winter Series race in the morning, head north to pre-ride the Bonelli course in the afternoon, and try to hit the dirt with Stephanie and her new ERA on Sunday somewhere.

I was pretty sure Krista would be coming out with her new bike to race, but was stoked when there were 4 of us on the line! I introduced myself to Essence Barton, who I've heard of, but had never formally met, and unfortunately didn't get a chance to greet the 4th and final woman.

We staged behind the Pro Men and started in the same wave. Once off, Essence pulled in front of the women's pack, with me right on her wheel. We stayed pretty close to the back of the men's pack, and I made a pass around the 4x track, and tried to catch back on to the men's field. Once I hit the pavement, I was feeling good, so tried to put in some efforts and make some passes. Since I'd had no idea if I'd be racing alone, my goal for the race was to keep within the men's field as much as possible and have a good race, so that's what I what I did!

I'm still getting used to the 2x10 gearing, and made a few gearing selection errors through my 4 laps, causing either tripods or short hike a bikes where normally I've been fine. The 26/36 is just too easy of a gear to get much torque on super steep stuff, so I know I need to be down further on the cassette to really utilize the 26T chainring. The 36/36 is too big if I'm not spun up and accelerating before the steeper stuff, and the recent rains have left some rain ruts where normally they didn't used to be!

Overall the course was in great shape (though Donny didn't send us up the hike a bike in the beginning since it's not groomed) and I had a blast out there going back and forth with the other racers. The weather held out and was pretty perfect for race conditions.

Thanks to Krista's phone and Derek Hermon for the photo!



I saw on the results sheet the 4th woman had DNF'd, but it was Amber Neben! How freaking cool is that!! I hope she's out for some more local races, as that is pretty sweet.

After awards Justin and I headed north west toward Bonelli to try to pre-ride. Rain was threatening, and we really had no idea of what the course(s) were going to be, but we set out to get some time on the course, and just started following course tape until we ran into the man himself - Scott Tedro! Scott was nice enough to show us around for part of the loop, and then we set off to ride a little more. It was getting colder, darker, and later, so we wound up not finishing up a lap and instead stopped by Rock N' Road in Anaheim Hills for some nutritionals and much needed bike parts! Had a great time hanging out until closing!

Justin was the early bird on Sunday morning getting up before 5 am and making banana pancakes before our big "bag the peak" ride we had planned. It was about 7 and no one had called the ride, so we loaded up to hit the OC for a few hours of mountain bike fun.

The clouds were low over the mountains, but it was clear as we drove over. We could see patches of snow up near the peak, and the local foothills had a dusting.







As we got to Irvine we saw more snow up on Santiago and knew we'd be in for a bit of a cold and snowy day!



Got to Cooks around 9:15 and temperatures felt "ok", but it was cloudy with no real sign of clearing into a gorgeous day. Our pack set off up the road toward Harding around 10.



Blue skies ahead!



The peak is hidden by clouds



We hit Harding and had a 9 mile climb ahead of us





Around halfway up Justin managed to SLICE his rear tire. This guy could flat in a padded room.



The higher we climbed the thicker the fog got



Until it cleared up again!



The crew at Four Corners



From there we headed into the mist and up into the colder clouds as we neared the peak



Snooooow







There at last!







The sound of the snow and ice melting off of the towers was scary at first! It was really coming down good as the wind gusted.

Soon we set off for a slight bit lower elevation…



We got down to the bottom of the first singletrack, where it was exposed to the biting wind, so headed down to the top of lower Holy Jim where we all huddled for warmth. It was awesome.



Thanks to Potts for the camera and CHanson for the editing!

Chugga-chugga



Almost there, and the sky darkens





So, the ride wasn't as long as planned, and it wasn't all that intense, but I ate a lot of food anyway







Killer weekend overall. Next up is the US Cup Triple Crown Race at Bonelli!

Powering it up on the dirt

A few weeks ago my CycleOps power order came in with my aluminum rollers and my mountain bike disc brake PT hub.



In the meantime we had been waiting for a new Stans Crest rim to come in so Justin could build it up!

The rim arrived in the OC at Rock N' Road on Friday afternoon, but oddly enough, not the shop he was at ;)

Due to the impending storm, and current rainfall, we didn't settle on a weekend riding plan until Friday after dinner. Justin set out to build my PT hub for the mountain bike so I could race on it Saturday morning. It meant for quite a late night for him, but he is the best husband ever, so he got it done.

We got up a little late on Saturday due to the rain, and when we arrived at SRC it was coming down pretty good. We parked, registered, and then hung out with the Denmother and Roger for a bit under Wendy's nice and dry EZ-Up. A few people mentioned the race start was being delayed. D'oh! Resolve was going to be tough to come by after another hour of rain submerging the parking lot.









At about 9 am they decided to start the race on time, which meant it was time for me to get on my bike and make sure the brakes were at least partly broken in. Brand new brake rotor, new brake pads, new hub. I rode around trying to warm up and then alternately slam on my brakes, or ride with them engaged for a few minutes. The course had rivers flowing heavily through some parts early on. Quickly enough it was time to line up.

There were a few other women out there, but no Pro Women except me, and I started in the back of the first wave. The course differed slightly from the first race, and we went through a raging stream, a puddle, and then a 2.5-3ft deep puddle before trying to negotiate a steep section that was rendered fairly unrideable on lap one due to erosion from the torrential rains.

The rain was off and on during lap 1, but as I came around for lap 2 the skies were actually clearing up nicely, the dirt was tacky and worn-in and it was looking like a good day was in order! Just as I got to about 2/3 of the way through the third and final lap I came down this dirt hill, crossed over a concrete section and was hit with torrential downpour and a headwind. Crazy! It rained like this the rest of the last lap, and continued after the race.

I needed some volume, so told Justin if we were riding we needed to head out now before I got cold! So, we grabbed fresh bottles and hit the road for an hour endurance spin post-race with Xterra racer Mike H. Clouds parted a little now and then, and we just made it back in time for awards.





PT data for the mountain bike race was awesome. Will be great to utilize this in the future on training rides and perhaps another race or two now and then.





Sunday we hit the road for a few hours and got it done. Roads were mostly dry by then. Killer Superbowl! Have been a huge Brees fan since he was a Charger. Most accurate QB in the league. Very deserving.

Sunday's Stuff and Getting Fluid

Sunday we planned to hook up with the DenMother for a short ride before the SRC Member Awards. Since it was close we went out to Sycamore Canyon by UCR. I'd never been there before. It's somewhat urban (you can always hear the roads/freeway), but otherwise fun. A decent mix of fire road/double track and singletrack.

It was effen cold when we started. I saw a hill on the pavement to get out there and I freaking hit it to warm up. Waited at the top for the group. HR was lower recovering than it had been upon waking up.

We hit the dirt and I tried to keep a good HR on the climbs. I did some waiting here and there. It was ok, just really cold ;)

We got to a section with a techy(ish) rock bit. I actually wasn't even nervous when I looked at it, but rolling to it I found that there was no momentum to gain anywhere, and I was nearly stopped when I started to roll down. The rocks sticking up here and there were spaced out just enough to stop your tires from rolling...

Made it!

We finished up the ride, got changed, and headed over to the country club for the SRC awards. We were there pretty early, so hung out, snacked, and chatted with others. People slowly filed in and they began the XC awards, some raffles, the Super D, 4x, DH awards, and eventually the rest of the raffle.

Anyone get a better shot?

Justin won a nice set of brakes (needs rotors):

Not gonna be an Expert Women 34 & Under group next year!

Is he switching teams?

Got home Sunday night and I was in a mad rush to get stuff done since I knew I'd be putting in ridiculous hours at work this week (10+ hours yesterday). Then I got an email saying my new trainer was in at REI! So, naturally at 6pm we drove up to RC to pick it up.

I wound up still getting up before 5 am this morning to do my "secret training". Tonight? Dinner, some relaxation, and hopefully bed around 9!

The new trainer is pretty cool IMO. I missed having "18 miles" in the morning... today I only managed to do 12 with this new fluid trainer! An hour is an hour, though.

Photos tonight.

For now? Back to the grindstone.