California Roadtrip

Sorry that the blog has been a wee bit quiet this last little while. I'm currently on a sweet little roadtrip to my most favorite winter training destination....Salona Beach (near San Diego) CA.

So here is a quick update on my adventures....

We left Squamish last Wednesday night and put the pedal to the metal to get down here, pulling over at 2am just outside of Portland, OR for night #1 and then at a windy little campground outside of Sacremento on Thursday night. Friday mid-day we arrived to Cyril's and Sylvie's house in Santa Monica with a fully loaded car, ready to play.

I was feeling super restless so Friday I did a nice tour around the Santa Monica area, checking out the scene and getting the L.A. feel. I was almost back to the house when the hanger on my bike sheered off, sending me flying into a parked car and leaving me with a good case of road rash on my right leg. Yes, OUCH!!!! Anyway, after cruising back to Cyril's, I got lucky and we managed to get my bike all fixed up and ready for riding.

Saturday morning, Cyril, Christian, Norm and I headed out to the 24hrs of Adrenalin MTB race near Idylwid. Cyril was racing the 24hrs and Norm and I teamed up to tackle the 8hrs. Christian was our amazing mechanic. The race was awesome. Sweet California singletrack, good technical climbs and ripping smooth and sandy downhills on a 9 mile lap course. We competed in the 2 person-open category and out of 30 teams, finished 5th. Not too bad considering that the other 4 teams were all 2 person male. Just as the sun set and the temperature dropped huge, I finished the last lap and back to L.A. it was, only to leave Cyril out there to push through the night. He finished 2nd - sweeeeet!!!
Ok, so Sunday, race #2 of the roadtrip. We loaded up the car and headed to Malibu to do our first Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP) race ever. Ahhhh, it was so much fun! Great weather and really friendly people. Some awesome paddlers were on the start line including rock-star and probably the best SUP'er in the world, Chuck Patterson. Ya, I saw him at the start and then not until the end. Anyway, it was a 7 mile down-winder paddle (umm, no wind was present) and I completed the course with a really stylish wipe-out in some big surf at the finish line in front of everyone. Had a good time on the SUP and finished 2nd for females (let's just leave it at that. Let me enjoy my 2nd place, BUT, it's pretty safe to say that I have LOTS of work to do if I want to compete with the best.) However, new sport and I LOVE IT!!

Sunday evening was a nice drive down to Newport Beach. Cat was the hostess with the mostess there, and Monday I got a great ride in all over Newport - what a sweet place! Then Monday night, Bob kicked our ass at his Crossfit class! It was a good time and it even left me with 2 bloody hands after my calusses split open on the pull-up bar! On the plus, I've made good progress on the pull-ups but the downside, hands are destroyed and in pain!! Thanks Bob, good times :) I've been loving my Crossift back in Whistler and so it was cool to see what other cross-fitters are doing around the globe. What a great group of folks here in Newport!

Then it was time to head even further south on Tuesday en-route to TR's. Great drive down the coast, checking out Dana Point along the way and arriving at my most favorite beach house ever in Salona Beach. Such a great set-up here. TR's is 1 block from table-tops surf spot so we've had a few session out there already. I had a great road ride today to Carlsbad and even managed to get a lift from the local lifeguard and meet some great folks at the Encinitis bike shop. My ride was cut a bit short but I will make up for it tomorrow on a ride to Torre Pines and Delmar. Anyway, we finished up the day with an evening surf until the sun went down.

So, there you have it...the California roadtrip continues and I'll keep ya posted!

Adventure onwards.....