"What'd you bring a comb for? You don't even have any hair!"

This quote from Stand by Me was going through my head Saturday morning as I waited for the black goodness to brew and wake me up. I haven't been able to fall asleep lately at all, so I think I was running on maybe 4.5 hours of sleep, with a LONG day ahead of me.

At 4:30 am on the dot Justin, Stephanie, Dan and I all piled into the packed up truck and took off into the darkness up the mountain to Idyllwild in search of 40~ other enduronuts for a really long day on the bike. It has occurred to me recently that many of the people we train with didn't get into mountain biking for recreation, fun, and general exercise. They started riding for competition, fun, training, etc. Long days in the saddle are what I truly enjoy. Sure, 2 hour hammerfest sessions serve their purpose, but I'll take 40 backcountry miles any day over anaerobic sprints!

That's why when the San Jacinto Enduro non-management first started posting up ride info I had the itch. No one even questioned my sanity, so the four of us all signed up for the ride.

It was about mid-60s driving up highway 74. Turning off to the yellow post site the rearview mirror screamed "ICE". 37*F. It was pretty downright cold getting dressed, and I knew the neutral roll-out, even behind spun out singlespeeders, was going to be bone-chillingly frigid. The road descent to Little Thomas Mountain did not disappoint.

Staging!





On the road during the neutral roll-out I looked east and saw the hints of light peeping over the distant peaks; I knew it was going to be a great day. There's nothing quite like riding your bike at dawn with like-minded souls knowing what you've got ahead of you and just feeling giddy at the sight of sunrise and the hint of what's to come.

Cruising up Little T in the dark



It begins





I remember paying more attention to the sky than the road in front of me as we cruised up the climb with Brendan, David, and a few others.



Pink sunrise kissed the rocky peaks as we traversed





I remember screaming, "I love riding my bike!" as I descended the Ridge.



It's a hilly descent, with a few good climbs interspersed with the fast fire road descending. Just over 2 hours in and we had over 20 miles covered, and a solid ascent in front of us.





Yup; we're climbing (back) up there.



Starting our ascent







The climb was surprisingly good, for me. It was fairly steep early on, but in good condition, very little traffic. Justin dropped back once as he was having chain suck issues, and he caught up as the grade eased up, and I felt like we were moving at a good clip. We got up to Idyllwild where we picked up a few "stragglers" and navigated our way back to May Valley where Mary had an aid station laid out. The brownies were heavenly.



We'd finally hit some singletrack, but sadly my technical skills had been left at home for the day, and I was getting close to bonking.

I did manage to clear the Roman Highway





Probably the highlight of my tech skills on the day

A quick break and some food later, and the four of us (Justin, Ed, and Kurt) were back in business heading toward some of the more familiar parts of the course.





Despite our breaks, a few mechanicals, and some slow riding on my part, we got back to the yellow post site to sign in around 11:23 am. Time to refill and refuel.





Then it was back at it for a few traverses of the powerline trail and the new to us Fobes riding.





We started our rocky doubletrack descent down to 74 and Justin commented as we gazed at the peaks of Thomas Mountain, "One last mountain to climb."

I had started to feel the fatigue monster creeping in pretty good as we climbed up Fobes. It was difficult to put one foot in front of the other on the short hike-a-bike, and I paused longer than normal to remount the bike anytime I got off.

We hit the highway and cruised to the turn off.



The early slopes are benign



I hadn't climbed Thomas Mountain proper in probably 3-4 years, so I had forgotten that it's not really as steep as Little T, for the most part. It felt like we were moving out pretty good, but eventually the climb in earnest set in. I asked when we were stopped for Justin's 3rd and final chain suck what the next way point was on the map. 18.6 miles - turn off to Ramona Trail.

I shouldn't have asked. We were at 15.3. My how those tenths of a mile ticked off slowly.



FINALLY we made it…



Though, at that point, I didn't even enjoy the descent. I could barely hold onto the handlebar anymore, and couldn't mentally concentrate on anything. Justin spent a lot of time waiting for me at that point. Since we entered the trail a good way down from our typical start, it went by pretty fast, and before I knew it we had made it down to the powerline trail again and were speeding back to the finish line.







9.5 hours later - all done!



Time for some refreshments, some chilling, and some pizza and brownies







Was stoked to watch the light change as the temperature slowly dropped, and we anxiously awaited Steph and Dan's return.



The evening light in the mountains…







We did a ton of grocery shopping yesterday as recovery from Saturday, and literally sat around and ate some good food!

Picked up some Spaten Oktoberfest to go with breakfast burritos




And then got another 4-pack of Maui Brewing Co. Coconut Porter to have with pork chops and veggies for dinner



Justin has been the mad-pomegrantate de-seeder lately. It's the only decent substitute for blueberries that I can find.





I also had to get a shot of this...last week we got all the colors of the rainbow!

Labor Day Weekend

On Friday, Luke mentioned that he would've enjoyed sitting on a patio with some Spanish white wine, so when I stopped by the store on the way home, I picked some up! Sounded like a good idea.





Looking back, I probably should've added some non-vegetable, non-alcoholic carbs into that meal!

I'll be honest: this weekend didn't really turn out as planned. I had some weird delusions of hitting up some massive volume and good riding for the 3 days we had off.

For Saturday, Justin needed to pick up some parts at The Path, and also get his fork looked at, so we knew we had to head over to OC. We planned to do another dawn-ish ride on the road to start out the weekend right with 2.5 or so hours of riding on the flats.

NOT the breakfast of champions...



Right away my heart rate was skyrocketing with the smallest of efforts. Since we had another ride planned, I was trying to take it easy, but my body wasn't really cooperating. I just didn't feel that great.

Sky sure was awesome, though







We did manage to get in some mileage and a few short efforts, but turned around early. Got back home, and Justin cooked up some delish breakfast burritos!!



I felt a little better after eating, and eventually we headed out the door, with the plan to ride the Luge in some way shape or form once we had taken care of some errands.

View of the fire from THE 91



We got the bike shop stuff done, picked up some necessities, checked out the new Stumpy HT Comp (sweet bike, actually), and then headed south to Oakley. Justin wanted them to check out the cracks that are ever increasing on his Flak jacket prescription lenses (I just noticed a new crack in my left lens as well - sucky since it's around 7 BUSINESS days to be without sunglass vision). We also got some new "flair" - different Earsocks!





It was hot out over there, especially at 3~ pm. We suited up in the crazy heat anyway and headed out to do Whiting - Luge. We had planned on maybe doing an O'Neill - Whiting - Old Camp route, but that was a bit too much for me!

We saw four hikers and one other mountain biker on the entire route, and not much wildlife! Pretty much just hot and dry out there.



Mustard was hot and tough, but we hit it pretty hard anyway, and I was putting in some efforts, but the power was coming and going! I likened it to the waxing and waning of the moon. I'd charge a section and feel great, and then the next short rise have nothing left.



I was pretty stoked to be hitting up the Luge again, since it's been almost a year.







It had felt pretty good to get out on the mountain bike afterall, but I was definitely fatigued post-ride!

Since Justin was grilling up some carne asada for taco's, we decided to open our last beer.



Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous... the chronical







Dinner!



We weren't really sure if we should spin on Sunday or just kick back. I wanted to at least get out on the bike in some semblance of a ride. So, we left the house later in the morning and set out on about an hour regen ride. At the turn off street, we both agreed to get a little more volume and head around the lake. Sounded like a good idea at the time!



It doubled the ride time (as I knew it would), and we both wound up running out of energy on the way home. Luckily we had about a buck fifty, so once Justin scrounged together the extra change we were able to purchase a 12 fl oz Pepsi can (seriously, everything else was too much $$). That got us home!

We had some post-ride fuel, got prepped, and headed south to see Justin's sister and cousin, hit up REI, and stop by La Jolla to see the sea lions.

It was gorgeous down there at the coast!





We got home pretty late, so didn't get much done, but were both able to prep for Monday's planned ride: Idyllwild! I warned Luke that I wasn't sure I'd be physically up for 3-4 hours, but we were going to head up and see what we could do anyway.

Once in the lot, we realized that there were a ton of people out pre-riding for the 24 hour event in a few weeks, so we decided to cut out the first part of the course (climbing the 24 hour course descent) and just headed out on course. I was pushing, but feeling ok, and only fell off the pace of Luke and Justin a little on the early climb.





I was pretty stoked to *finally* clean the rock wall



We rode some singletrack, hit up some fire road climbing… and generally had a really good time. It was just what I needed; singletrack stoke and no masses!

























Since it was Labor Day, yet another American grilling holiday, I had picked up some ground sirloin and sweet potatoes from the store so Justin could grill up some good American cookin'!

For those of you that like to see Justin's meat, you'll have to check back later! I left the pics on the camera :)

All in all, the weekend worked out pretty good. It wasn't as fruitful as either of us hoped, but we got in some solid bike time, a little beach time, and tried to rest up. Taking the day off hoping we can get back to it tomorrow!