Slow start
by Rob Blue on March 27th, 2007
Sunday was the first race in the Sothern California State Championship Series at Bonelli Park, I was not there. As I mentioned in my last blog posting, my work schedule is killing my riding. There are times that I really enjoy my day job and there are times when I would love to be doing something else. Just about anything else. Usually after a good long ride I am back to thinking straight and know that I am really lucky to have a good job that allows me to do the things that I enjoy doing most of the time.
Anyway, I was not feeling well on Friday and had to work all day Saturday so at the last moment I decided to not kill myself trying to race at Bonelli. I know myself and once the race begins I am all about trying to win and go all out. In my current state this probably would have just made me weak and susceptible to getting sick. Competitive cycling takes a huge toll on your body and if your immune system is weak to begin with and you push yourself too hard you greatly increase your risk of getting some bug or another. I can’t risk that right now, I have a movie to deliver.
So I got together with my buddy Zach and we set off to do a long slow ride off of the Las Virgenes trailhead. As Zach put, we arrived a few minutes too late to beat the crowds.
Not to worry though, where we were headed there is a whole lot of nothing and you don’t see a lot of people out that way.
Part of the reason this is a bit off of the beaten path is because of the steepness of the climbs. There are a couple that are just unrideable and give you quite a good burn just hiking up them.
The payoff of course is the amazing view at the top. You can see in the photos below to the right and left of Zach and I are the fireroads that we rode up (and hiked up) to get there. Pretty cool stuff.
I like this ride because it is one of those that you can just sort of cruise through without having to do a lot of concentrating. A good one for getting out and relaxing while at the same time you get in some good conditioning from the profile.
We ran across a really cool potato bug on one of the climbs. It is rare to see these out in the open. They spend most of their time underground. They are a relative of the cricket I believe and are pretty common in flower beds and gardens out here although you may never know they are there. Their defense is there meanacing appearance with the bee-like striped back end. They are completely harmless.
March 27th, 2007 at 11:25 am
those potato bugs freak me out man. I saw one of those suckers in my house one night and though aliens had sent it down to invade my house and steal my oreo cookie stash. yikes!