XXC mag V2

In case you didn't read about it elsewhere - check out the latest version of XXC Mag brought to you by Jason Mahokey!

Direct link to the e-version

Coverage includes: Cohutta 100, Cape Epic, Kokopelli Trail, Baker's Dozen, Trans Iowa, and more!

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!

Dirt cruise

Thursday's have been rough the last two weeks. Justin and I got back into the gym the week following Idyllwild Spring Challenge, and we did legs on Monday that week. So, by Thursday we were good to go for Tempo Thursday. Last week we wound up taking Thursday off. It was easy to use the excuse that we were getting in volume on the weekend, and also that we had guests coming over so needed to prep food.

This week...along comes Thursday. All day I tried to psyche myself up for an easy ride in the dirt. And, then Thursday evening comes along and where is that motivation to ride? Right out the window! We were midway through making evening plans to grocery shop and get the weekend stuff prepped when I decided that one week missing a ride was okay, two weeks was not. You skip out on something two weeks in a row and it becomes a bad habit!

So, we got kitted up and headed up the hill for a nice easy spin in the waning evening light.



Saw some familiar faces, and otherwise had an okay cruise! I kept looking at the clock, but the last 15 minutes went by fast and fun. Glad we got out there, even though it pushed back dinner and bed by a little bit!







We were kinda disappointed, though. Universal Sports wound up showing about 55 minutes of not Giro TT for the morning broadcast, so we started watching the 8-10 coverage live. Justin fell asleep around 9:20, and I shut the TV off at 9:40 or so. Didn't get to see much of the front runners. Hopefully today the coverage will be ON! :)

This weekend has some good stuff on tap, but likely not many photo ops. From here on out it's all hard weekend workouts!

Weekend Report

Started off the weekend right by partaking in Bike to Work Day on Friday. Put in some extra time and mileage to make up for being lazy on Thursday night. I blame Luke.



Kidding!

It was good news for me that we had another weekend of slower, steady long miles ahead of us! I was looking forward to getting back up to SART, and also heading out to Cuyamaca, where I've only ridden once before.

Friday night Steph and Dan came up after dinner so we could be up and on the road to Mentone in the morning. Ever since Brian turned us on to climbing up from Loch Leven that is our new starting point for SART. It's a good warm-up climb that takes place on pavement, dirt, fire road, and a bit of singletrack (overgrown fire road).

It was warm when we arrived at the trailhead, but honestly… I don't recall temps ever being all that bad. A lot of the trail is shaded, and while it wasn't a squelcher, it wasn't cool, either. Temps were just right!

Up, up, up



Taking a pic, of Stephanie about to take a pic :)



Train!



Heading out behind the PO



He'll be ridin' all over



About to descend, yay!



Fun singletrack for sure







We hadn't stopped a whole lot, but finally did at Glass Rd for a break. I hadn't taken in many calories, so it was time for one of these to get me up to South Fork!



Yum.

The trail ahead



Snow in the background



Once we got up to South Fork it was time to fuel up for sure. I took in a MASSIVE amount of calories. I just could not stop eating. I figured I'd wind up with a lot of stomach issues on the way back to Angelus Oaks, but I kept eating anyway. Naturally!

Made it back to Glass Rd with no problems, and continued on. My only issue was my right foot. It was giving me a LOT of trouble wearing my old Sidi's. I used to love those shoes, and now they just generate a lot of pain and discomfort. Weird.

Stephanie as we head back down to the creek crossings



We had waited a bit at the trailhead for Luke. I had unfortunately missed his email the night before asking on start time, so I wasn't sure if he was going to show. We took off, and he had actually caught us as we hit Middle Control the first time around, before heading up to Glass Rd. He did a bit of bonus mileage!





Justin approaching the post office near the end of the day



I had been a little sad we were shortening the ride by over an hour, so I did a pretty good effort up Middle Control back to town. We sat around a bit wondering where Luke was at (he had already headed back down to Loch Leven), eating, resting… and eventually made our way down. It was less than 25 minutes to descend, and over an hour to climb! Good one.

We stopped and ate at Cuca's. The chicken burritos are seriously killer!

We got some sleep, but not enough, Saturday night, and were up early to get packed up and head out to Cuyamaca. Warm temps greeted us once again, but we loaded up and got on the trail!

Uber blue skies all day





We visited more than one park



The crew





Steph and Justin





Some fun traversing





Gorgeous views



We did some route finding with the crappy map they sell. Er rather, Dan tried to do some route finding with the crappy map :)



The steed! Watch out, he bucks around horses



Chillin' before another climb



Love the views…







Stephanie







One last big hill ahead… steep pavement



The best



Friends!



Parting shot…



Overall, great weekend. I didn't feel very good the rest of the afternoon. Not sure if it was due to heat or nutrition or whatnot, but I felt pretty bad. Felt great this morning, but then did a gym workout, and now I'm WORKED again :) So much for regen!