Monday Madness

It was memorial monday and we were now off to ride some more with a group of friends.  We decided on the 3 park ride from aliso to laguna woods to el moro and back!  We couldn't have asked for a better day with such beautiful weather.  

Slate just flew home from alabama the day before and his bike must have enjoyed being out  of california so it took a trip up to washington, phoenix and then back home in time for our early morning ride.  We picked it up on the way and were off to meet up with the crew.... below is a pic of slate putting his moots back together from its trip right before our ride : )

Above is the crew headed back up to top of the world.  After the ride it was back to the pad for some Food and Fun!  

group rides

It was early sunday morning and with Slate in "ala'bama" for the Xterra Cup Race, I decided to venture out on my own group ride. It was hard getting out the door, I was tired from my girls mountain bike ride yesterday with the sexy lady "my singlespeed" sarah and tiffany out in aliso woods.


From my house to Main St. where I hit PCH is about 5 miles which is a great warmup. Once I hit PCH I was scanning the roads for a group to test my limits... There was no one so I peddled through the lonely wind tunnel. Sunday morning was a ghost town, I kept looking around for other bikers and they were all heading west on pch. I hit newport and finally a group of guys cruised by, stoked group ride #1, keeping up with man in white, man in red and two old dudes. Group #1 - man in red kept trying to stay up ahead and didn't want anyone to grab his wheel, man in white nice enough to give hand signs once he realized i was hanging on. old dudes on my wheel. 20mph. Hit Back Bay and was alone again for my bb loop.

Group #2 - slow dude and old lady on tri bikes heading back home. wasn't having much fun in that group. A couple lights down the road we caught up to group #3. So I ditched boring #2 and hammered with my next group. It was a group of 5 guys and 1 girl. Not that friendly of a group, they were probably wondering who this chick was changing positions within the mix of their cool group ride, all in their fancy kits.

I needed more of a challenge so i peered ahead and caught sight of my #4 group the one man band... It consisted of one guy on a tri bike right up ahead of #3. So we hit a hill and I hammered past group #3 and caught up to my #4 one man band. His pace was 25mph so I got up on him and hammered.. anther guy pulled up behind me and we were now the three stooges - a guy on a yellow tri bike, me on my cross bike w/mt bike shoes, and an old dude with a sweat shirt on. HAha pretty funny.. we all stayed together for a couple of miles and then I just couldn't hold on much longer... so i drifted off and cruised the rest of my ride down to sunset beach and back home. What a great day! I love group rides!

Life is good, and I had such a fun day riding along the ocean! I'm addicted and ready to be a regular weekend groupie, as long as I don't have to chose one group : )

So if you feel some random person riding on your butt... it's prob another groupie like me!

"INTENSE"

So this week after the Del Valle Xterra, was my first time doing intense work in my training schedule. Even though my schedule is "do whatever i feel like for the day" as long as I get some hours in : ) My workouts consisted of an el moro ride with slater & ryan, hill repeats in aliso, an off road track workout, a 40mile ride where i was able to grab the wheel of some guys and hold on down pch till i hit my back bay turn off "thanks guys" and an ocean swim pushing my pace.

For my first time i'm planning on trying to stick to a training schedule for the Xterra Tahoe City which is in June. Im super excited to train "specific" for a race and see the results. I am "finally" at the point where I can go the distance and now its time to drop the Hammer! Slate is going to help me put together a little som'tin som'tin and i'm counting down five weeks until the race!  

Xterra Del Valle

Well if I were a mother this would have been how I would want to spend my Mothers Day! Racing hard with my husband and enjoying mother nature! Lake Del Valle up in Livermore is a awesome place to be. I couldn't believe all the different birds up there, and all the deer that we saw. The single track along the waters edge was a nice change, compared to the dirt that surrounds our single track in the OC. The water was crystal green and I just wanted to jump i and view the mountains from below...

The Xterra Del Valle was the 2009 inaugural race that was put on by the Big Blue Adventure Series. The race consisted of two 600yrd loops with a run in the middle... I was not able to warm up before the race because I was running late so my swim started off good and then went bad... before I race I need at least a 30 min wu and so without it I choked on the swim. I'm also super slow at swimming and I just enjoyed my time out in the water and tried to breath bilateral with every other stroke (usually i stick to one side for a while and then switch). I think I was one of the last 10 people to finish : ) I need to spend a lot more time doing swim workouts instead of floating in the pool! HA

I was ready to get on the bike but I was worried because my legs have been super heavy the last couple of rides before my race, and I knew the 17 mile bike course had tons of steep climbs. I hit the first long climb on the bike and I saw a couple of people up ahead pushing their bikes so I just kept telling myself to stay on my bike. I was gaining on the pushers and noticed one was in my age group, so I peddled even harder to the top of the climb, 1 down. On the single track down hill I was able to pass another AG, 2 down. I was stoked to have been passing people this race, because I'm usually the one being passed. Next was a long downhill fire road, 3 down. I couldn't believe all the hills on the course and I was glad that I was able to pre-ride some of it.

The run was a super fun 6 mile run, trek and swim. It started off on a dirt road and then down into the creek. I felt like I was in an adventure race, I loved it. The water felt so good and in one part I was up to my waist so I laid back and floated for a second. It was just what I needed and it took my breath away. It was a refresher and ice bath all at once. I was ready to continue on and finish strong.

Below are the race stats for my AG:

I need lots of work on my swim : )

30 - 34              ======= 

1  Monique Fletcher #1030           :32:24  02:16:34  01:15:42    4:04:40      

2  Dana Katz #1033                  :25:36  02:40:02  01:08:19    4:13:57      

3  Elaine Seasly #1032              :28:22  02:34:40  01:21:57    4:24:59      

4  Melissa Popkin #1031             :27:55  02:53:11  01:35:57    4:57:03 

In the end I finished first in my AG. Super Stoked! Slate finished 2nd in his AG and 9th place OV, he did awesome. We had a great time and can't wait till the race in Tahoe!