After taking off Monday and Tuesday, followed by a light ride on Wednesday, by Thursday I felt much better for Friday's two hours with short thirty second max efforts. It was the right amount of intensity to test the waters and see how I was feeling after hitting the wall last week. I felt great! I was even able to ride with some Pedal Pushers teammates for a little bit. Thursday I shuttled Mount Falcon with some midwestern friends whose weak lungs couldn't handle too much climbing in altitude. It took me awhile to acclimate myself so I felt their pain. After the ride, I rushed to pack and make it to the airport for a much deserved weekend trip to Santa Barbara, CA that my wondeful wife surprised me with. She is a flight attendant (therefore we fly free) so we try do these weekend trips whenever I'm not training or racing on the weekends. Best wife ever! Biking, travel... yep, I have a rough life, I know.
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| My trail bike, 2008 Giant Trace X1, on Mount Falcon. The gold RaceRace Atlas handlebars and Crank Brothers Joplin dropper seatpost is my sad attempt to make it an all mountain rig... gotta love the gold bling though! |
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| Picture of me climbing White Ranch and somehow smiling... yes, I love the climbing as much as the downhill... I'm one of those weird kids. |
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| Balcony of the hotel in Santa Barbara, CA! Can't believe I'm saying this, but the humidity feels nice with the 70's degree weather... and humidity is one of the big reasons I left the Midwest in the first place! |
