Holiday Update

It’s so easy to want to start this post with “Wow, what a ride!”

I have no idea where to begin.  My last post was 2 full weeks ago.  I had thought that being on holiday from work for 12 days would net me a BUNCH of time to catch up on internet-y things, blog, etc., but I did none of that.  I spent some time on social media, much of it on my phone, and aside from training updates and the like I didn’t spend much time on my computer.  Funny how little time one spends online when they aren’t at a computer all day every day.  I had no idea.

Since I don’t how else to get through 14 days of riding, full living, sleeping a LOT, eating too much, drinking good wine, good beer, and having a blast with friends and family – here’s a to a photo blog to start off the new year.

We began our holiday time off with a road ride from Stone Brewing, down to Pannikin Coffee & Tea, back inland to Lake Hodges, and over to San Elijo Rd. for a nice climb before descending back to Stone.

After the ride I gnoshed on left overs before enjoying a beer with Justin and his mom

Riding a lot with my winter shoes and electric heated socks. But, luckily for me we’ve had 70-80F weather, so I got away with normal shoes and socks a few times.

We kicked off holiday week by eating quite a few blueberry and pomegranate aril omelette’s

Friday, before Christmas (I know, so long ago!) Justin and I set off to ride Trabuco – Holy Jim. I got some fresh rubber on my bike: 2.2 Fast Trak Control tires. Little beefier than the 2.0′s, and new.

Sadly, I still crashed. Twice. Once descending I lost it on some rocks, and again, worse, was climbing Holy Jim around a switchback I went over some water bar bricks in the trail, into a water rut, and my front tire came to a screaching halt before a 2×4 water bar, sending me straight over the bars/into the dirt hill. I came away with a thigh bruise, small abrasion on my elbow, and an unfortunate soft tissue issue when my battery pack for my socks (clipped to my pack) jabbed with all my weight into my back ribs.

So much for new tires.

See, I’ve had a crashing issue lately. I don’t know when it started. In Utah, for my birthday, I crashed pretty good high speed our last ride out there injuring my ribs a little and getting some other bruises. No big deal. Just as that healed, I biffed it uphill at Noble (2 weeks later), and wound up taking a handlebar to the other side of my ribs. That didn’t heal for about 3-4 weeks, and racing the UCI CX race in December in LA only made it worse. I’ve crashed just about every time I’ve ridden my mountain bike for the last 2 months. I crashed again in the desert last week, and everyone I’ve run into (strangers and friends alike) have commented on or questioned my scraped up arm. *sigh*

No matter, I was still able to enjoy Mission Impossible with Nancy and Roger Friday night!!

First time we’ve been to the movies since Avatar.

Christmas Eve road ride!

Super nice day, though Justin and I were both feeling it was a bit of “work” instead of play.

Kale chips and Double Bastard to start off the holiday

Christmas Eve, after making a delish dinner of grilled salmon and veggies Justin set about prepping the turkey for Christmas Dinner (yes, we did turkey on Christmas) and making bacon wrapped dates (with an almond inside).

Pick up date, remove pit, insert almond, wrap with bacon. Repeat.

After dinner I watched Christmas Vacation and wrapped presents

Had a nice Christmas with family, and Monday packed up to head east to the desert to spend some time with my mom!

Prepping for the trip using our new coffee and tea mugs

On the way we stopped off to ride in Idyllwild, and it was an amazingly beautiful day on the bikes.

I think I managed to make it through this ride mostly unscathed, so go me!

Snooooow!

Our annual “between the mountains and the desert” overlook self-timer shot

Tuesday we got up and got to the local trails for my off-road interval workout. Heading up the wash

Saw the “1″ my first interval and could hear The Count (from Sesame Street) laughing, “1 interval down! hahaha”

After my set it was time for some singletrack descending! So fun.

Justin said I was going really slow, but I stayed upright, so there’s that.

Even Ellen knows.

Endless.Flat.

Nice day for a ride!

Thursday we were going to do some road climbing, but teammate Brandon Gritters was in town and looking for 2-3 hours on the dirt. I figured since I’d made it through 2 mountain bike rides without incident that I’d be good to go, and the practice couldn’t hurt. We climbed up Art Smith. I checked to see how soft the dirt was a few times, but it was nothing unusual (just a minor tip over here or there, no injuries), and AS is tech, so it was all good.

From the Oasis we climbed up Hahn. All smiles still.

Going…down?

About 4 turns later around a loose right hander, my front tire slid out landing me solidly on my right elbow and hip. I didn’t want to waste the water to clean up.

Old blood and new

Running some much needed errands on my Friday off day, using my new loose leaf tea travel mug. Thanks, mom!!

I was super stoked when upon returning home I had a box with 110% Play Harder’s latest and greatest mobile ice bath compression gear – the new Kick Back Quad Sleeve.

We set out New Year’s Eve to do the same ride we’d done before Christmas: Trabuco – Holy Jim.

Fun descent down Trabuco, and at the bottom we met up with Jefe for the climb up Holy Jim.

And back across Main Divide to Trabuco.

Justin had some rockets attached to his pack I think.

Stoked to end the year on such a high note!

After we showered and packed up we headed south to hang with Steph and Dan and Tink for New Year’s Eve.

Stephanie’s magical whole30 approved meal (minus the wine)

I think this went horribly wrong

I managed a 4.3 mile flat bike ride on New Year’s Day. Um, sort of managed.

January 2 we re-did New Year’s Day by getting in a super fun and nice ride at Aliso with Chanson of Bikes4Boobs before meeting up with Jefe and Renee and Tink for a killer BBQ before reality set back in and we all had to go back to work!

Real shoes and socks, just like a normal girl! It was 82.

Chanson had a blast his first time on dirt in a month!

Ended the day splitting (3 ways) a VooDoo Doughnuts Bacon Maple Ale. It smells just like Maple and tastes like Bacon. Winning.

Hope that everyone had as good a set of holidays as we did, filled with laughter, family, friends, and fun!  Here’s to 2012!!