not according to plan...

 friday was rad.  tom was heading out from AZ to race the Pro XCT race at Bonelli and I finished all the prep work for my saturday day cutover.  so i was able to get out of work to hit the trails at hodges with him for a bit before the sun went down.  after the ride we cruised back to my house hung out and had a couple good beers.

tom cruising.

one of the best

then the weekend didn't start off exactly as planned... i have spent the past couple of weeks preparing for a HUGE datacenter network upgrade at work and Saturday morning it was GO time.  we started at 8am and i was hoping to be out of work around noon if all went as planned.  thankfully the the upgrade was a smooth as could be (NAILED IT!).... but then we had to sit around... for hours waiting for people performing another upgrade/cutover and then to verify services.   people were lagging and i was getting antsy.  with the race on sunday i really wanted to get out loosen the legs up.

work fuel

I didn't get home until after 4 and was just mentally and physically fried.  i jumped immediately on my bike, hammered out some stress relieving miles racing the sunset, and my head was all over the place with what to do on sunday.

the thought of racing the next day seemed like such a hassle.  the race at bonelli started at 830am, it takes at least 1.5 hours to get there from my house, i needed to register onsite, so that would mean a 4am wake up call... and with the time change that would have felt like 3am. so with Bonelli being a B race on my schedule and with my focus on the Vision Quest i decided to pull the plug on racing.

the other option was to drive up to the Santa Ana's and get in one last ride on the Vision Quest before next satruday's race.  this started to seem like a hassle too... just packing up the car, driving up, and then climbing my face off seemed like more than I wanted to tackle.  after the week i had i really wanted to relax.

so... i chose option 3. beth had a weekend of back to back big rides and when i called her on her way home on saturday from climbing Mt Laguna she still didn't have anybody to ride with on sunday... so decided to just take sunday and ride 100 miles with my wife. 

so sunday morning we rolled out about 8 and headed north up the coast to knock out a route we have been talking about for the last 2 years.  we always talked about riding up to Revo, having a coffee, and then heading home.  so that's what we did and we were stoked to be joined by the Fletchers.  Slater and Monique met up with us in oceanside and we knocked out the ride.  the weather rad... the nicest day in months (70's and sunny).  the ride was perfect and just what i needed.  the pace was mellow and i felt great the whole day and better the longer we went... and we just had fun.

good combo

ride fuel - double esspresso

leading the crew back through o'side

after the week i had this was perfect for my body and mind.  as much as i do like racing it doesn't get any better than spending a long day on the bike with beth and friends in awesome weather.  i didn't regret not racing for one second... the thought never crossed my mind.

food & beer.

this is second time I've had New Belgiums new Ranger IPA.  It's REALLY good.  a light, hoppy IPA with a lot of citrus.  this is going to be a favorite over the summer.

did not like this.  Karl Strauss to the 9's.  this was a seasonal IPA and was brewed in 2009.  i don't know if it was just old or what, but i didn't even finish it.

prepping for another awesome salad.

yep... another big mahi mahi salad.