This last weekend we were originally scheduled to be at altitude in Colorado racing against the best the US has to offer as far as MTB goes. Well, not so long ago the decision was made that the altitude was just going to be too much for us to handle this year. It just wasn't worth the expense (vacation time and money) to travel to a race where we were going to struggle before even starting the race. Maybe next year we will have an altitude tent and be better prepared... maybe not. :)
Allison was pissed that she was going to miss her first National Championship race as a Pro XC racer, in order to help her work that angst out of her system we scheduled a 100 mile road ride for this past weekend. To make things more interesting summer arrived in Socal and cranked up the heat (hence the name of the post).
I plotted a decent route and we invited some of our buddies. The course was based off of a route that Allison found somewhere, with a few modifications by me to avoid riding on a busy highway and reduce the mileage slightly.
Here's the route: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/murrieta/798124788622716426
Most of the day we joked about the ride being a "Century Fail" due to issues ranging from Dan not having cleats for his pedals to the heat. In reality it turned out to be a great ride, a bit on the long side spending 9+ hours in the sun/heat, but a great ride with great people!!
Everyone hated on me for the ride not being a very flat hundred miles, and for the trips inland away from the beach where it was 15-20 degrees cooler...
But that is fine with me. I did my best to sit on the front and set a steady pace for my friends behind. In the end I had 108 miles and 6000 ft or so of climbing. We had two close calls with drivers that were either not paying attention or hated cyclists (both incidents were near the beach on Coast Hwy and it seems that area is probably one of the worst places to ride on days like that).
What doesn't kill you just makes you stronger right? :)
At the end of the ride Jeff suggested that we come over and indulge in some Smoked Porter and BBQ on Sunday. I can't refuse the offer of Jeffe's special reserve Smoked Porter so we decided to do a ride in Aliso. After a slow start in the morning, and a quick stop at Rock N Road for much needed items, we met up with Jeff. Funny, I guess he didn't get enough abuse on Saturday. :)
It was HOT out!
I decided to do a bit of an effort climbing up Cholla and went from the kiosk at the bottom to the fire road at the top in 3 min 30 seconds. Did I mention it was HOT!
After the short climb we went up to Top of the World and then down Meadows.
It was a great ride and Jeff is really lucky to be able to ride from his door and access such awesome trails!!!!
Unfortunately for Jeff I wasn't very good company. After a hard weekend of riding he fed me some out of this world Smoked Porter and I was ready for a NAP!
Another great weekend in the books. Thanks to those who participated!
Happy Monday!
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