On the Trails – Peters Canyon

The team has been arranging Wednesday night rides throughout the summer. I like going because (1) they’re easy enough and (2) it gets me out on the trails. I also like it because it introduces us to all sorts of different mountain biking trails around Orange County. The trails are usually beginner to intermediate, and are taken at a nice social pace. Unfortunately, “beginner” and “social” doesn’t always translate to “crash-free”. Take, for instance, the Peters Canyon Ride we did last night…

Mandatory Pre-Ride Group Picture

Peters Canyon is one of the EASIEST mountain bike rides around here. It’s not too technical and has some nice climbing. It’s actually a great place to learn how to mountain bike if you’ve never been on the trails before. For me, though, Peters Canyon is like my nemesis. I’ve ridden more difficult trails with steeper climbs and more technical descents, but for some reason, I ALWAYS crash at Peters Canyon. Last night was no exception…

Doesn’t show up too well in the pictures, but I’m pretty dirty and a little banged up… I washed out on a steep little downhill section that used to be littered with rain ruts, which were recently covered with “nice” loose sand. I’m not sure exactly what happened… all I know is that I tried to correct myself from losing control, and ended up over-correcting and completely wiping out. Slid quite a few feet down the trail and ended up covered in sand. Plus two “little” scrapes (one on the elbow and one on the knee) to add to my collection. I’m just happy this happened on Wednesday, and not before we had our e-session.

Race Report: XTERRA Renegade (San Dimas, CA)

So.. I realize that it’s been a LONG TIME (over three months!) since this race, but I’ve only just now decided to put together a race report. The number one lesson out of this race (as it has been for nearly ALL of my races this year) is a lesson in PREPARATION (or lack, thereof). I’ve been really BAD about race prep and training this season. It’s  a mix of a lack of motivation, of wanting to do other things, of wanting to “have fun” rather than train… I know it’s a bad excuse for poor performance… but in reality, I don’t think I did THAT poorly. I’ll just blame it on the fact that I had very strong competitors.

Getting transition area set up...

Swim went off without any surprises. A swim is a swim to me, and I’m usually just happy to get it over with.

Done with the swim!

The usual routine for T1.. blow nose.. spend 5 minutes trying to get wetsuit off..

Coming out of T1

The biking leg was another thing altogether. Minh and I had previewed the course, and decided that the best place to make up time would be on the “road”. If I could tuck down and haul-it on the road section, then I would be able to close a significant gap between me and the girl who swims faster than me. Pretty good advice, and I think it worked pretty well… only the girl who swims faster than me also bikes faster than me… I ended up throwing up on the bike (that took up at least five minutes.. probably more).. on the first lap, about half way up on the first big climb (not the walking one). That almost took me out of the race, but I was able to recover reasonably on the rest of the lap and decided to power through it.

First Lap... My typical riding position.. hunched over and head down.. :-/

 

Pretty butterfly Minh saw while waiting for me to finish riding..

End of the second lap on the bike... head up this time..

I felt decent getting off the bike, but I knew that the run would be PAINFUL. Honestly, before this race, I hadn’t REALLY run since December (XTERRA Crystal Cove 21k) – what with shin splints and laziness and all… So the run was mostly a walk and a slow jog. I tried to keep a decent enough pace, and tried to finish pretty strong, but I finished knowing that I probably didn’t podium (and I didn’t).

Last turn for the run.. homestretch...

Smiling because I know the race is almost over... (note Minh all the way in the back...)

Overall, I enjoyed this race. The course didn’t change too much from the year before, and I had a pretty good time. Granted, I wasn’t completely prepared for it, but they run a good race (Renegade Racing). And.. of course… I had a great time rocking my new Run Team Sparkle Skirt:

On the Trails: Santiago Truck Trail to the Luge

Last last Saturday (March 12), Minh and I were out volunteering as flaggers for the Santiago Canyon Time Trial. I’ve considered actually participating in the race, but I’m so slow going through the canyon that I’d probably start first and end up last to cross the line.

Manning the "Tunnel"

Since we were out in the area, we decided to get a nice mountain biking ride in. Minh let me choose the trail (like he always does.. except this time he didn’t say: “Are you sure you want to do that trail.. ??”). I decided on Santiago Truck Trail to the Flagpole, then down the Luge. I’ve never been up to the Flagpole and never ridden down the Luge, so it was all new to me. The ride was actually pretty tough. First, you have to climb up Modjeska Grade Road, which is no easy feat. It’s steep and long. I managed ok with my granny gear, but Minh had to walk quite a bit of it since he’s running a 1×9 on his mountain bike.

Once you get past that devil of a climb, then it’s fairly “easy” climbing to the top. There are some steep sections, but it’s mostly rideable if you’re in shape. I can’t remember if Minh said it was worst or easier than Blackstar, but I was dying. There were several times that Minh said we should turn back because of my unsteady heavy breathing (I think he was afraid I was going to throw up), but I told him to keep going. We took several breaks, but eventually made it to the TOP!

First time at the Flagpole.. signed my name and everything...

The view is pretty nice at the top too.

View from the Top.. pretty nice if you ignore the smog..

Now it was time for the “fun” part. I have to say that for me, going down the Luge was fun, even though I went really slowly. It’s the longest stretch of technical single-track that I’ve ever done, but in the end, I kinda loved it. Once I get a better grip on my bike handling skills, I think I could take it a lot faster and make it even more fun (maybe add some elbow and knee pads in there). Minh, on the otherhand, didn’t enjoy it so much.. but he also doesn’t really like downhills or singletrack… or really mountain biking for that matter.

A Little Preview – Bonelli Park

Coming out of the “off-season”, I knew I would be out of shape… but I didn’t really anticipate how severe my laziness and lack of training really affected my overall endurance, fitness, and ability to ride/run/swim/train.

The weekend before the US Cup race at Bonelli Park, Minh and I headed out to do a little course recon and to determine whether or not I thought I’d be in any shape to race. We quickly discovered that I wasn’t in any shape to be racing… the new course is a lot “more fun”, which means more technical, more punchy, and less forgiving. My bike handling skills just weren’t up for what would be a brutal beat-down the following weekend, but I was glad we got a preview of the course (rocky downhills, singletrack switchbacks, off camber, rock gardens, logs and all…).

Here's Minh riding through some singletrack with a nervous look on his face...

While we were out there, we did a pre-ride of the Xterra Renegade course that I will be racing in April. The course is the same as last year (at least that’s what we assumed), which meant that I had already done the course before. There’s just one hike-a-bike section that will slow me down, but for the most part, the course is completely ride-able and with some focused training, should be fairly “easy”. I’m actually pretty excited about this race, which will be my first triathlon of the year! Now if only I could get my legs to cooperate so that I could get some good runs in.

Dirty dirty bikes after the ride.. thanks to all the mud...

After the ride, we stopped by The Hat for some pastrami and delicious onion rings… grease and fat – the two necessary ingredients for the perfect pre-ride meal… yum!

Condiments GALORE at The Hat!

mmm.... Patrami...

greasy and delicious onion rings

I dream in watercolors…

Came across this post from Elevation Outdoors Magazine in my daily blogroll. I don’t think I had ever visited the Ibis Cycles website before… but this post definitely sent me there. Check out these awesome watercolors from Chris McNally… this is kind of what my dreams look like.. some of them at least..

Image Copyrighted by Chris McNally and Ibis Cycles

Image Copyrighted by Chris McNally and Ibis Cycles

Image Copyrighted by Chris McNally and Ibis Cycles

Image Copyrighted by Chris McNally and Ibis Cycles

They’re actually quite beautiful.. and I wouldn’t mine a few hanging in my room.

All images copyrighted by Chris McNally and Ibis Cycles (via Elevation Outdoors)

The Best Laid Plans…

How does that saying go about the best laid plans…?

It would seem that I shouldn’t post training plans on my blog. It ALWAYS ends up that I NEVER follow them, or something comes up that throws them for a loop. For instance, on Friday I had posted my training plan for the weekend. This included 4 laps around Fullerton Loop and possible swimming, trail running, and time on the wobble board. Here’s how the weekend really went… (I didn’t have my camera with me.. so we can only live in crappy computer drawings)…

Headed out to Fullerton and started mountain biking at about 9:15AM.. late start, but not too bad. Weather was gorgeous. We kept it pretty quick to start, and were keeping really good time. The goal was to do each loop in about an hour. Fast forward to about mile 7… where we encounter a downhill section that is separated from the hikers by a fence…

Mile 6.08 (this is at the start of downhill section BEFORE the relevant section)... Should have heeded the sign...

Halfway down this section (which is not too steep and should be fairly easy to ride)…

Red Arrow is the location of "not too steep" section...

Youc an probably already see what's about to happen...

I tumbled about 10 feet and to the other side of the trail (about 4 feet to the right). I was a bit tangled up in my bike, as my left thigh was stuck between my turned around handlebars and the bike frame. I know I had hit my head on the trail as I tumbled because I felt it, but luckily for the helmet, no scrapes or injuries on the noggin. I laid there for a while, but was able to untangle myself before Minh reached me on the trail (he was further back that I thought.. which was good because he didn’t run into me, but bad because he didn’t get to see the crash). Rodney (a co-worker) stayed up the trail a bit to warn people that I was down and to steer clear. I took about 15 minutes to collect myself before continuing on. Still had 5 miles to ride back to the car.. suffice it to say, we did not continue on.

Injuries sustained:

It’s not as bad as it would seem on the stick figure… no blood..

I was lucky to not have broken anything or to shed any blood (which would have been a different story on the road), but I was in loads of pain the rest of the weekend… which meant.. no swimming (banged up shoulders), no running (bruised and scraped up quads and shins/calves), and a lot of lying around. And today, I’m still very sore and the bruises on my quads have turned the expected black-blue that makes me look like a domestic-violence victim, my neck and left shoulder are a bit sore, and the muscles in my back are achey.. but I’m totally hitting the gym tonight to see if I can still swim (if only very very slowly) and maybe some easy lifting.

Lessons Learned:

Number 1: Ride within my abilities. I wouldn’t say that Fullerton Loop is beyond my abilities. It’s a beginner ride that Minh and I have done plenty of times. The real lesson is to not become complacent because it’s a beginner course. I picked a bad line, which resulted in a bad crash. I should have been looking further ahead and seen that I needed to change from the left side of the trail (where the ruts are) to the right side (where it was nice and open and smooth).. but I didn’t. I thought that I could handle it.. and I ended up being wrong.

Number 2: Keep my plans to myself (and Minh.. and whoever else will be riding with us).

This isn’t going to keep me off the bike, but it will definitely make my riding a little slow for a while. Crashes always tend to do that.. :-/

Oh.. and that saying..

The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley,
An’ leave us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!

- Robert Burns, To a Mouse

The Saddest Day of the Year

British studies have shown that TODAY is the saddest day of the year. The idea is that by this time (the third Monday in January to be exact), the high from the Holidays have worn off (presents have been opened and exchanged if needed, New Year sales are dwindling down, relatives and friends have gone from visiting or you’ve returned from travels, etc), resolutions have been made and broken, the daily grind at work has started up again… I found it a little surprising when I heard this since the third Monday in January is usually off (for schools and federal offices) in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr,’s Birthday… but seeing as how this was a British study.. you get the picture. Perhaps this will explain why I’m feeling abnormally depressed and out-of sorts today (especially since I don’t get today off).

Anyway.. Working out has been better since I got the gym membership. I’ve been trying to hit the gym for swim and/or weights and Stairmaster about 3 to 4 times per week. Haven’t been back to running since my legs are still hurting (I’ve self diagnosed my shin-splints to be caused be overuse and jumping back into running to fast too soon on the treadmill). I’ve decided to give it time to heal up before I aggravate the injury further. FINALLY got back on my mountain bike this weekend since BEFORE the holidays…

It took a lot of energy to hold up the bike against the wind..

Minh and I took an “easy” ride up Maple Springs to Four Corners. I was DYING… so we decided to turn around there. It was actually a beautiful day for a ride, and I’m very happy that we went, but was a little disheartened that I wasn’t able to go further or faster. Looks like I have a lot of building I need to do to be ready for Traverse in May.

I tried to smile.. but was very tired..

The rest of the weekend was spent recovering and getting errands run. Tested out the BOB trailer on the back of my road bike (since the skewer was not long enough for the mountain bike)…

Testing out the BOB trailer

Pretty cool, huh?

And.. I’ve paired down the race schedule a bit because I’m not nearly as ready as I wanted to be at this point, and feel like removing some races will make me better at the ones I really want to do well in. So.. Mostly, I’ve elminated most of the Kenda Cup West races, with the exception of Bonelli because it’s close. Since the real focus this year is Xterra and Traverse, I want to make sure that I’m ready and in tip-top shape for those.

Hopefully my sad state-of-mind will end when the saddest day of the year is over.. till then.. HAPPY MONDAY!

December 1 – Blackstar Canyon

December is upon us!!! ALREADY?!?!?!?

Sometimes I feel like days and weeks move so slowly in the moment, but then out of nowhere months past and we’re at the end of the year… CRAZINESS!

After Friday’s adventure in the mountains, Minh and I headed out yesterday for a nice night ride up Blackstar Canyon (gate-to-gate). It was cold, and got dark fast (as the days are in December). Minh was having a hard time since his legs had not yet fully recovered from Friday’s ride. He ended up having to walk a lot. I took this opportunity to do some sprint and out of the saddle hill “intervals”… stopping occasionally to let him catch up. For a while, I thought we should turn back because he was huffing and puffing and I though he was going to throw-up.. but he stuck it out and we made it to the top.

Made it to the GATE!!!

View from the TOP.. much better in person..

And here's MINH!!!

On the way down, we took it a little easier since it was dark. Even though we were going slower, the darkness actually made me a little bit braver going over rocks and crevices and such. I think it was because I could only see where I was going and couldn’t see all the other things around, so I was a bit more focused. It actually made me think that riding in the dark would actually help improve my (lack of) technical skills because of the added focus.

This nice bit of TRASH was waiting for us at the car... :-/

It was definitely COLD, but the ride was well worth it in the end. We were out for a while because we had to stop a lot, but I still got a good workout.

On the Trails: Post Turkey Day Biking

Since Minh and I weren’t going anywhere near the malls or shopping centers on Black Friday, we headed out to the Santa Ana Mountains for a nice long-ish mountain bike ride. Since we were going for a longer, more difficult ride, Minh said we could take our geared bikes. This meant no work for me since I have two mountain bikes, but loads of work for Minh since he had to convert his singlespeed back to a geared bike by adding a cassette to the back (and all the other stuff that is needed, i.e. shifter.. and then the tuning and adjusting). What was supposed to be a 15 minute job ended up taking about an hour, and Minh ended up giving up. For some reason, he couldn’t get the chainstay adjusted properly, and he was getting very frustrated. Instead, he took his cross bike.. it seemed like an OK idea at the time.. but ended up being a very very very bad idea…

Our planned route was Black Star Canyon – Motorway. This was a good training ride and eye-opener for what to expect for Traverse in May. I’d never ridden this before, so it was definitely a humbling experience.

The first part of the ride was pretty straightforward… head up Black Star Canyon to Beek’s Place. I’ve done this before… easy peezy. The rest of the ride was not so straightforward. After we pass the big white ball, each foot of riding is a foot further that I’ve gone into the Santa Anas, each foot of extra elevation gained is a foot higher I’ve been in Orange County. It was fun and exciting being on my bike and seeing new places, but it was also a little terrifying since I had no idea what to expect and no idea where I was going. It was also a lot of stopping and waiting because Minh’s bike (and legs) stopped working for him and started working against him. The brakes weren’t working so great, so he had to walk most of the downhills. And the easiest gear ratio on his cross bike was still harder than the one on his singlespeed, so he had to walk a lot of the uphills (after his legs died from powering up Black Star Canyon).

No brakes means having to walk the descents...

... or carry the bike down the descents..

... or figure out that it's too heavy to carry that far and just walk..

Eventually, he told me to just go on ahead. So I did. What I didn’t hear him say was to wait for him at the white gate. My plan was to go ahead until I saw the turnoff to head down the mountain and wait for him there. I completely misse the turn and kept going, went past it about 3 miles before a truck came by and told me that Minh was waiting for me eating a sandwich. Lucky for us the truck was on the trail, or else I could have gone on forever (well.. not forever, but a long time). My phone had also died while one the trail, so Minh had NO WAY of contacting me.

here's the trail sign that I COMPLETELY missed...

Here’s what I ended up doing actually riding…

The little "tail" on the right is the "extra bonus" that I biked...

Actually, I ended up having to walk a lot. My quads stopped wanting to climb and my morale was deteriorating fast since there seemed no end to the trail. I went through some emotional ups and downs since I had no idea where I was, no idea where Minh was, no idea where I was supposed to stop, and no one around crossing my path at all. That and I was a little afraid of mountain lions after I saw some tracks. We were EXTREMELY lucky that a truck was out doing trail maintenance work… if not for the truck, I would probably have gone on for 10 miles, stuck in the mountains with no communication and only half a ham and cheese croissant sandwich and some gels. Minh was actually worst off, since he also had no idea where I was and couldn’t ride much (he had also cramped up pretty bad). He waited for me for a while at the white gate, but eventually started walking towards my direction looking for me, stopping every five minutes to yell out my name just in case I had fallen off the trail or gotten hurt. It really freaked him out…

Lesson Learned: Don’t go on ahead… and if I do… make sure I stop at regular intervals to regroup.

Weekend Recap: Nice Laptop Bag

This past weekend wasn’t that exciting, but there were a few things that I wanted to post about… So here goes the Weekend Recap…

Parking Lot Spin Class

Saturday morning, I volunteered to help out with the Santiago Canyon Time Trial. It’s pretty funny, because the parking lot of the Rock’n'Road Mission Viejo store literally looks like a spin class. All the time-trialists have their trainers set-up next to their cars and are spinning away for a warm-up. It’s pretty funny.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day for a parking lot spin class..

I was stationed by the tunnel that goes under El Toro. It was pretty cool to see all the racers go by.. there’s a good hill coming up to the tunnel, so they weren’t going very fast. Since I was on course-marshall duty, though, I didn’t get a chance to snap any photos. This would be a good race to help gauge your fitness level throughout the year, since they do several of these each season. The record is 24 minutes and 20 seconds (26 minutes and 6 seconds for the women’s) and has stood for several years now. The course is about 11 miles.. so that averages out to just over 27 mph!!! That’s FAST!

What Happend to All my Gears?

While I was helping out with the race, Minh was out riding his singlespeed up Santiago Truck Trail to the flag pole and then back. I met up with him later and we rode (both of us on singlespeeds) Whiting Ranch and Santiago Truck Trail (again for him.. but not all the way up to the flag pole). It was HOT and it was HARD being on the singlespeed. Mine has 53/20 gearing, Minh’s got 52/20. I was dying.. and we weren’t even out for that long. It’s probably also a result of not having been on a mountain bike since Over the Hump. My upper arms were sore too, since I was on a rigid.. I’ve never felt my arms vibrate so much.

About halfway to the flagpole.. I'm not going any further...

Nice Laptop Bag

The rest of the weekend was pretty chill. Had dinner with my cousin who was visiting from out of town. Got my first round of Thanksgiving grocery shopping done (non-perishables and goods that will last at least two weeks). Picked up a “new” used trailer to haul bikes and stuff. Killed time reading magazines at Barnes&Noble. Then the Team Velosport end of the year banquet. Minh and I got lost on the way down, but at least we weren’t late. It was a pretty good time and the best part was that Minh won this Oakley laptop bag at the end of the night.

Nice Laptop BAG!!!

But guess what was INSIDE the laptop bag…

It's like unwrapping a PRESENT!

THAT’S RIGHT!!! Minh (and I) won a new 16 GB WiFi iPad (!!!!).

YAY!!! New toy for TRAN!!!

I stayed up late last night trying to get it started up (had to install new iTunes on my laptop) and then trying to pick out what Apps I wanted. First things I downloaded was the All Recipes and Angry Birds apps. I accidentally downloaded the Angry Birds for iPhone.. so then I had to download the HD version for iPad.. at least the first one was only $0.99.

Debating downloading the Martha Stewart Cookie App, but it’s $7.99 and I JUST bought the 2010 Holiday Cookies magazine for $7… what to do?? The App looks so cool…

What are your favorite iPad apps? Any suggestions on what you can absolutely NOT live without?