Well, I guess I should have said something yesterday. But, today is Bike to Work day. So, I biked to work! Hope you did too! I went a little out of the way to check out one of the sponsored checkpoints at the Institute of Art off Mission Center. Pretty nice, I was the only guy on a mountain bike, and a long travel mountain bike so the faculty played around with it some. Nice stop, they had fruit, juice, and baby Clif bars!
Have a good day!
Over the weekend Alison and I attended the Dirt Series Mountain Bike Camp in Corona CA hosted by JensonUSA and Rocky Mountain Bicycles. The camp is a super skills clinic broken into two days, then further broken down into classes and rides. They limit the number of registrations so there is a healthy balance between the instructors and students. I signed up for the class for a couple of reasons; I’ve had some bad injuries that make me gun shy, I haven’t seriously ridden in five years, and mostly I want to be a better rider! Alison signed up for the class with me to become a better rider herself (She’s one of the best new riders I’ve ever seen. I probably wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t paid for this a few months ago given current circumstances.
We got up early on Saturday and headed up to the Jenson USA Corona store. I had checked the weather and it said it was going to be high 90s for the day. That’s fricken hot! We arrived at the store early and wandered around a little bit. Around 8:30 things started to get in order and we signed our wavers and met a few of the other riders. They announced there was demo equipment available in the back corner. Things like Raceface pads, Crank Brothers pedals, and the coveted Crank Brothers Joplin! I was standing there looking at the seatpost sitting benignly next to the pile and asked Cassandra ‘Is that a demo?’ And she said ‘Why yes it is.’ SCORE! Erik, who we had just been talking to seconds earlier exclaimed ‘GAH! I wanted that!’ (He got to check it out on Sunday) Within five minutes I had the new fancy gadget mounted on my bike and I was ready to go.
Just before departure Candace introduced our coaches. With us we had Penny Cameron, Cassandra Boon, Lorraine Blancher, Tera Card, Andreas ‘Dre’ Hestler & Wade Simmons. I apparently have been living under the mountain biking rock as I had never heard of anyone. (More on this later) Candace then got us all motivated to head out to the training site in Fontana. I think the only complaint I had about the camp was the distance between the shop and the class/riding areas. Oh, and the heat. 
The training area was a nice grassy park allowing for soft cushy crashing should things go wrong. The morning consisted of four classes. The initial warm up class getting people comfortable on their bikes and emphasizing Bike Body Seperation. Then there were three classes with smaller groups. Mine were; Downhill Braking and Rolloffs, Wheel Lifts & Jumping & Straight Line Riding. (I feel like I’ve forgotten a class, oh well)
The first warm up session was fun. It got everyone into the groove and people comfortable with their bikes in the environment. They emphasized that you are in control of your bike and how good bike body separation gives you more control. (I’m not going to give super details, if you’re interested I highly encourage signing up for one of their courses) Following that we broke into our first smaller groups. The first class my group had was Downhill Braking and Rolloffs. Penny and Dre were our instructors. We were coached on how to control our bikes on downhills and small drop offs. As well as the importance of our brakes and proper brake control. The biggest pearl of wisdom from this class for me was how to get off your bike on a steep descent without become an tangled mess and tumbling down the hill with your bike. I still need to practice that more but its much better than my usual downhill dismount technique typically composed of falling over and my bike beating the crap out of me. Its funny how you can ride for 15+ years and not learn certain things.
The next sessions was wheel lifts and jumps. This was a bunch of fun! Lorraine (our instructor) asked ‘Who here can do a wheel lift?’ I raised my hand, no one else did so I got called out. So, I did what I considered a wheel lift and she said ‘No, that’s a manual, we’ll learn that next.’ Haha, ok. So we learned the difference between simple wheel lifts, manuals, and how to lift our rear wheel. On platforms, that is a challenge. Following this we got to do manuals off of the boxes to practice. I think riding up the 2×6″ plank was harder than dropping off the box. But, as long as you kept looking ahead it was all good! Growing up riding BMX bikes jumping was something programmed into my head from when I was a child. Everything that I could jump, I did. So I was a natural at it. Lorraine asked me to be the demo jumper at the end of the session to show people what it looks like when done correctly. (I know, self promotion, but I am a good jumper when I don’t crash) So far, the day has been awesome!
During our jumping session I was watching what was going on over at the straight line riding course. This is a skill I haven’t worked on much and was a little nervous about. And, it was our next session. Apparently I wasn’t the only one nervous which made me feel a bit better. As it turns out, if you keep your head up and eyes forward, its not as tough as it looks. I think its more of a mental state. 
We rode planks, then elevated planks, then planks with drops and finally, the teeter-totter plank. I had never ridden one of these, and somehow got to be the first in the group to go over it. Very weird feeling. You’re going up, then you’re going down really fast. Candace coached us on how to manage that. The subsequent runs were far more controlled and way more fun. Then, she made the big teeter-totter which was twice as high off the ground. What was the difference? Nothing really, a bit steeper. Same rules apply, keep your head up and eyes forward and control the rate of the drop using the techniques she showed us. Once again, we were shown some bail out techniques. One of the reasons I would get off and walk some obstacles is because I did not have good bail out skills, nor knew how to develop them. This was my second pearl of wisdom for the day. Knowing and practicing these skills are invaluable. Having this knowledge in your head leads to greater confidence on gnarly terrain.
We broke for a short lunch after these sessions having some tasty food from Qdoba Mexican Grill. After swapping the pedals from the platforms to the clipless we did some socializing and met a few other people who live pretty close to us in San Diego. During lunch they showed us the class options we could sign up for the following day. Basically, you could choose two classes and focus on the skills you wanted to improve on the most. The plan for the afternoon was to break into different groups based on what you wanted to work on. I had signed up for improving my downhill skills. With lunch over, the bikes prepped we headed out.
The afternoon groups were smaller. I think there were just five of us. Tera was our torture master for the ride. She made us tow her up the hills, it was brutal! (Ok, she didn’t, but she’s a prankster so I was trying to perpetuate this lie to harass her) Tera is a spectacular coach. She managed the group very well (As ‘diverse’ as we were) I had decided when I signed up for this course I wasn’t going to chicken out of things. That’s not to say I would do something stupid. But, I would take what I learned, apply it, and improve myself. I feel the biggest improvements I had were during this short ride. We rode some difficult terrain, nothing world class, but difficult for someone just getting back into the sport like myself. I really felt the gained confidence and improvements in my riding having some of the additional knowledge and skills from the prior courses. Most if it, was in my head somewhere, it just needed to be brought back forward and applied.
After we all finished our rides we headed back to the shop for dinner and some bike workshops. I signed up for a bike fit by Wade Simmons (Again, I’m clueless about this guy at this point) and sat in on a suspension clinic by Luis. Alison took the tire changing class (Now she can change my tires!) It turned out, my bike was pretty well setup for me as is. My bars are a bit higher up than Wade would suggest, but otherwise he said I was good to go. Off to sign up for the Sunday classes! I already knew I wanted to do High Speed Cornering but I wasn’t sure what other class I wanted to do. Tera was there taking sign ups and said “Oh, you didn’t get to do the riding over obstacles, you should totally sign up for that!” I figured, sure, what the hell! With that out of the way we had a couple tasty adult beverages, socialized some more, and went off to the hotel for the night. The hotel was marginal. The bed was eh, and the shower had two temperatures. Lava and Magma. After a hot day a super hot shower is not preferred.
Alison and I got up early and got breakfast at IHOP. Better for you than a Clif Bar and a Dr Pepper (I still had my Dr Pepper, not much of a coffee drinker). We rolled over to the shop around 8:15 and made sure we were all set to go. We got Lise’s bike loaded up, we had transported her bike on Saturday too. While getting ready to load her bike she had bought a brand new one!!! Congrats! A new Rocky Mountain bike was getting prepped to be sent back to her home in Michigan. Driving to Aliso/Woods was waaaay longer than I expected. We left the shop and arrived at the class location about an hour after we left. Alison wasn’t feeling too well. She had been sick the whole week prior so she did the smart thing and took the day off. I don’t blame her, it was fricken hot. And Sunday was hotter than Saturday was. I wussed out and took the shuttle up. I think the riding group had left already by the time we got to the site anyways.
The Riding Over Obstacles class was actually something I was already generally proficient at. As a matter of fact Candace and Tera gave me a hard time about it. But, I told them I was there because ‘this is where all the pretty women are!’ Which, ensued another round of harassment. I didn’t mind though, it was nice to hone some skills especially on the new bike. (And, I did get to hang out with the pretty women rather than the mob of sweating guys following Wade around)
High Speed Cornering! Wow! What a fricken blast!!! This is one of those things that most people won’t commit to doing because well, its really easy to crash while you’re doing it. Wade and Dre were our instructors (Again, I’m still totally clueless about these guys). They set up some corners using the rope and cones and then demonstrated. Holy crap those guys are good. Then, they demonstrated the turn like you were racing and they both raced through the turn together. Yeah, I’m not worthy, haha! Erik and I were in this class together. After we had a few solo runs at the high speed chicane Dre and Wade told us to pair up with someone and choose alternate lines to see how it feels. We had done our afternoon ride together yesterday and found were pretty compatible. Man, this was probably the most fun I had all weekend. I couldn’t stop smiling. Erik is a good rider, very strong and I had a hard time keeping up with him or not getting passed by him. The next step in the high speed cornering was handling tight turns while coming at them with speed. Wade called it a ‘cutty’. Basically, you come into the turn and use your rear brake and your body to slide the bike around to align for the turn. Again, a total blast! (See picture above)
We broke for lunch and the prize give away. The sponsors for this event are great. There was a prize for everyone. Fox, Sugoi, Dakine, Luna, Kicking Horse Coffee, Brave Soldier, Giro, & Addidas all had stuff for them to give away. The full list of sponsers is on their site. I plan to write a personal letter to each of these sponsors thanking them for supporting the Dirt Series, and encourage them to continue to do so. I can’t express how awesome it was that Rocky Mountain and Jenson USA made this event possible. Thank you!
After lunch we split up into ride groups. My ride leader was Wade with Kurt from Rocky Mountain as our sweep. Riding with Wade was incredible. Well, as much riding with Wade as I could do. He’s just awesome to watch flow through the terrain. If I didn’t know better I’d say that Rocky Mountain added some magical dust to his bike or something. We rode up the road from Canyon View Park to the top of Cholla. From there we rode down Lynx. I have probably doubled my downhill speed using some of the techniques from the two days. I wouldn’t say I’m blazing fast, but I’m definitely not a total slowpoke now either. At the bottom of Lynx we climbed back up Chollo. At this time, I’m wishing I had put my clipless back on the bike. I made it all the way up with only one spot I had to get off. There was a 12″ or so lip I just didn’t have enough momentum to make it over. Awesome trail though! We headed over to Meadows trail from here passing through some residential areas. When we got to the trailhead Wade lead out, Kurt followed, and I was right behind them…for a little while anyway. I didn’t know the trail, and with all the greenery so high it was hard to see where the next turn was. Eventually the lost me, but the time I got to ride behind them was great! Meadows dropped us off not too far from the vehicles so we pedaled on over finishing off our ride.
The post ride activities were great. I’ll refrain from posting any incriminating evidence but lets just say much hilarity ensued. After an hour or so of socializing with the gang we all had to head our own ways. Alison and I had dinner with Erik at In and Out (My favorite post ride eatery).
Now, back to me being clueless about our instructors. Every coach has an awesome and impressive resume. They are all wonderful people and very talented. I personally had no idea I was riding with legends. I have been out of the sport for a few years. The legends I grew up with like Ned Overend, Tinker, Missy Giove, etc.. are out there but I have no idea where. Sunday night, Alison and I were flipping through some magazines a local shop had given us and we started reading an article in Decline and there was Wade and Dre!!! I told a new mtb friend of mine about the class and said who our instructors were and his response was “You rode with Wade f%#&ing Simmons!!!??? And Dre Hestler?!?!?” Honestly, everyone who coached is now a legend to me. Thank you all for putting on such an amazing class! Hopefully see you guys in Blue River!
Note: If you want to improve your riding skills, I highly recommend this course. I’m already working on getting signed up for a second one later this year.
Today, I slept in!!!! Well, until someone called at 7:30. Gah! It was a recruiter calling about another position which resulted in an interview scheduled for 9 AM Friday. Today, I had another two interviews. The first one was great! I’m actually really excited about it. It is a contract but the timing would work out great as it would be wrapping up right around when I’m looking to take off three weeks. The second interview was a phone interview and it had to be the weirdest interview I’ve had in a long time. I was being asked questions that seem to be from a pre-defined script that the interviewer may or may not know the answers themselves. It was very awkward.
Before all of that I did get to eat lunch with Tim and Chris. Tim has landed himself a contract gig that starts up next week. Sounds like a neat company. They do some stuff with video for the military, and they make a bat-gun. It sounds like a pneumatic gun that fires a grappling hook. I want to see if he can get us one. I don’t know what I’d use it for, but it sounds fun!
Post interviews was Dart Night! Mellow night, had fun. The games are getting closer now instead of one person completely stomping everyone. Makes it far more interesting. But then, winning isn’t the reason we do it. Its an excuse to hang out and spend time together.
As a follow on to the mountain biking death ride into the abyss. I’m worked. Pretty sore but its a good sore.
I had a few interviews today. I think the in person on went really well. I have a follow on next week. I have two more interviews tomorrow afternoon and another one tomorrow morning. I’m actually pretty excited about both of the interviews Thursday afternoon. I’ve had a few more ‘no degree’ rejections. Par for the course.
Tim got to see me all spiffed up in a suit yesterday before our ride. I should of had him take a picture so you all can see how well I clean up. At least I’ve lost enough weight that my suits fit! I got to ride with Tim and Tracie yesterday evening. There are these really fun and nice trails just north of Penasquitas Canyon. We founds some new areas down there. I also got to break my lycra cherry. In all the years of riding my mountain bike I’ve never NOT worn baggies over the bike shorts. But, I forgot to pack them. One thing I discovered when you don’t wear baggies over your riding shorts, is when you go through water you end up with serious soggy bottom. I always have a great time riding with them (and my other friends). I really enjoy their company. Looking back, the best thing that came out of DivX for me was the friends.
On the way home from riding, I got a call from Morgan (Different Morgan) who works at Bicycle Warehouse to see if I wanted to join them for one of their night rides. I happened to have my super light in my gear bag. (I know, no shorts but I have a light!) I figured ‘why not?’ We met up off Mast Blvd at Mission Trails around 7:45. Morgan, intimidated by my awesome physique (In the lycra shorts) told me I needed to wear an extra pair of his baggies. By 8 PM we had our bikes all ready and we were geared up.
They’ve talked about these rides before and how they are pretty easy and I shouldn’t have a problem. NOT! They murdered me. We must have pedaled up hill for about 45 minutes. Then, we got to the top of this hill, and turned around and rode most of the way back down it in 8 minutes, to then, pedal uphill again for another 35 minutes. Riding at night in the dark is an interesting experience. You can only see what your light shows you. A few times riding up the trail it felt like I was riding through the abyss. I didn’t know if there were cliffs off to the side or man eating rocks around the next turn.
At one point along the ride we heard a pack of wild coyotes off to our left howling and yelping. I can only guess they were saying “Yes! Slow dude about to die on the way!” Their dinner, breakfast, and lunch for tomorrow would be secured. Fortunately I out rode the coyotes at my blazing 3 mph uphill speed! The downhills are fun if not scary at night. I was definitely slow going up and going down. As we got back near the truck we hit a fire road which is apparently owned by Bob the Skunk. This little guy would not leave the fire road. He just kept trotting down the road right in front of us. We kept our distance, but I couldn’t withhold playing a joke on those guys. As they got closer to the skunk, it raised its tail. I said “You know those things have a 20 meter range?” They skidded to a stop so fast that I almost ran right into them. I got Jeff again while we stretching by the cars in the dark. He tried to scare me right after the skunk by yelling “He’s right there!” I was too tired to care. But, while were on the ground, I said in a quiet voice “Hey Jeff, that skunk, its right behind you.” He bolted upright so fast he almost fell right back on his ass again. It was hilarious.
As I stated before, they murdered me. These guys are in great shape and for them the ride was no big deal. They’d get ahead and hide in the bushes to jump out at ya. They’d climb stuff that I’m like “Uh, yeah, bwahahahaha.” I’m looking forward to riding with them again though. I’ll only get better by going with them, and besides, they are in great enough shape to carry my dead body out should I perish on one of their death rides.
I wrote this post the morning after. Indeed, I got whooped. My legs, hate me. My back, hates me. Regardless, I’d do it again. Nice side effect, today was the first day I’ve slept in since I’ve been out of work!
…except you get to hang around with your workin’ friends!!! We had a great weekend camping in spite of the cold and windy weather. It would have been fantastic had there been no wind. We got packed up and headed up to Laguna Mountain to camp for the weekend on Friday. Getting up there was pretty uneventful other than me forgetting stuff and having to return back into the house oh 5-6 times. Once we were on the road we linked up with Dan and NJ and made our way to the campsite. The site was gorgeous!!! Parking the trailer was a little interesting. I would classify myself as an expert trailer driver (One of the two things I attribute to the Army). It must have taken 15 tries to get the trailer backed into the spot. Once in there leveling the trailer was another challenge. I have these neat Lego like leveling blocks, but apparently not enough. We tried at least five configurations before I got the shovel out and dug out the dirt on the other side of the trailer for the tires to settle into. As the evening came on the rest of the gang showed up. Lasagna, fire, & good friends were the fare for the evening (Don’t use lighter fluid to start a campfire, it sucks. Gasoline is much better)
Saturday morning we woke up to super wind and pretty cold temperatures. Rather than stick with the original menu of cold cereal and fruit, we busted out the pancakes and bacon to warm everyone up. Tim and Tracie showed up finishing off our riding quorum prompting us to get ready to roll. Starting out in the wind and cold made everyone doubtful, but as soon as we pedaled up the hill a little bit the wind was mostly gone. Our campsite was situated at the edge of a meadow just inside the trees. Basically the wind gets funneled from the meadow right into the campsite. Get inside the trees some, and it was beautiful. The trails up there are in pretty good shape and a pleasure to ride. The altitude however, kicked a few people’s butts.
More Photos
My two favorite areas of the ride were Chico Ravine and Gatos Ravine. We rode up Chico Ravine and came down Gatos, but I think most would agree we all would have preferred the other way. Chico Ravine’s trail was just so smooth and nice. We had no major mishaps along the ride and had a total blast. We rolled back into camp, and our spot was still windy. Not as cold, but stupid windy. Fired up the grill and made Carne Asada and Pollo Asado! DELICIOUS!!! While all of us hid in the trailer from the wind we laughed at the kids playing in the tents that looked like they were about to fly off to Oz any moment. Tim and Tracie headed on home and we spent the afternoon playing Uno and Scrabble. It was just too fricken cold to hang around outside.
Alison and I attempted another ride where we would reverse the Gatos/Chico ravine route. But our legs just would not warm up. We started the ascent and it just wasn’t going to happen. We explored some of the flatter areas but kept it a pretty short ride. For dinner we fired up the grill to cook hotdogs and hamburgers. We had to put it on the other side of the trailer to keep the wind from blowing the flames out. It was so cold at that point you could see your breathe when you were talking. With this in mind, Dan & NJ decided to head on home after dinner. Gregg & Amanda were soon to follow. We packed up Vaugh, Jen & the kids in the trailer and crashed out for the night.
Sunday was pretty lazy. We weren’t feeling up for a ride so we cooked a big awesome breakfast and cleaned up the camp. I tried to start another fire but the wood just didn’t want to burn. After packing everything up we scoped out the rest of the campgrounds to find one that would be better to park the trailer in for the future then pointed ourselves home.
Great weekend! Thank you everyone who came along. I’ll be planning another one next month!!!
Here are the current photo albums. I’ll post the other links when I have them
Jason’s Photos Alison’s Photos Paco’s Photos Dan’s Photos
Another morning ride with Tim, Seth & Iwo. On the way up we saw this awesome display of East County Americana. Its cooled off so it was a great ride. We rode up near Ramona and found some really fun trails, and got lost a little bit. All good fun! Looking forward to checking more of that area out. There are a bunch of signs along the trails up there talking about how the plants and animals recover from the fires. Very resilient. I think the local flora and fauna recover better than we humans do.
Had two phone interviews today. Both seemed to go pretty well and I’m anticipating some follow up from them or I’ll be following up with them myself. One of them is something I worked on 14 years ago. That would be kind of neat to work on that project again and see how its evolved.
Finished up some of the camping logistics for this weekend! And, I got my single speed conversion done on my old Univega. Basically its a simple single speed mountain bike that only weighs 15 lbs. Its kinda ugly, but I love it anyway.
As remarkable as it is, I CAN’T sleep in. I’ve tried all week and no luck. I woke up at 6 AM this morning. Refused to open my eyes in the hopes I’d go back to sleep. After about 30 minutes I gave up and got out of bed. Washed the Nomad so it wouldn’t be all nasty when Morgan at the Bicycle Warehouse in Kearny Mesa tunes it up.
Afterwards I cleaned up and headed on over to DivX to turn in my paperwork, get my stuff, and receive my final check. It was pretty nice to see some of the people I didn’t get to say goodbye to. I’ll miss working with so many people who became my friends, but I won’t miss other things. Someone had already looted my desk, but that’s to be expected. They didn’t take anything that looked personal so that was nice . Of course, they were having Waffle Day, one of my most favorite things about DivX. I was going to take a waffle, but I decided against it as I wasn’t a part of the place anymore.
Got a bagel and read my book some. Then took the bike over to the shop to get its tune up. After leaving there Diane texted me and asked if we could take off Dart Night since she had poured toxic contact cleaner in her eye (In a failed attempt to become a pirate I guess). I offered to drop her off at the doctor’s office on my way to a lunch interview with a familiar recruiter. The irony of the matter, is it was the recruiter that got me a job at the once great DivX. Good thing to keep good relations with people.
From the lunch a few possibilities have rolled in. I don’t think it will take long to find a new job. I’m planning on finding a place that will be fun to go into as well as personally and professionally rewarding. So far so good!
Wrapped up the afternoon by picking Diane back up and getting her home. Visited the ‘new’ Adams Avenue Bicycles. (I worked at the ‘old’ one about 14 years ago as a part time gig) Hit up REI for a few munchies and a really cool Gorilla Pod. Picked up the bike and headed on home. Finally I rolled the trusty Husky out of the Toybox Trailer to make sure she ran before Kevin picks it up tomorrow. Now I’m down to just my BMW and my Nomad in the ‘toy department’. In the last month I’ve sold my 350Z, Three Jetskis, Two Mountainbikes, Xbox, PS2, Wii, Computer & Monitor, and a ton of other things on Ebay.
Tomorrow Kevin and Karen arrive. Perhaps I’ll take a ride out to the mountains to scope out the campspot for next weekend’s trip…
Yesterday I was laid off from DivX. It is what it is, there is plenty of opportunity out there. I think of it as an opportunity for new adventures! I figure this week I will take some time to unwind and figure out which way my compass is going to point me. As a part of that Tim, Seth and I went out mountain biking! I’m really happy that I’ve had the opportunity to work with Tim and Seth, and I am certainly happy that Tim and I have become friends. Riding the bike has a certain kind of cathartic release and I find I have some really good time to think of things, put them in perspective, and invent new things.
Today was also great in the fact it started out with free Jamba Juice, a mountain bike ride, free dinner, and free beer! I also discovered that the museums are free in Balboa Park to locals on Tuesday. I think next Tuesday I’m going to spend a day in the park.
With all of that said I have made contact with several people about employment possibilities. Very positive so far. All said, not a bad day.
Just some pictures from the fun ride we had last weekend. Chip and Kevin did awesome! Alison got to ride her new bike. She’s officially the teams ‘Goater’ She can climb hills mo’ betta than anyone else.
And for your viewing pleasure. Chip demonstrates effective crashing techniques
Kevin visits the tadpoles!
You can see the rest of the pictures from the day here: 3-29-08
Hope to see some of you out there soon!
Saturday was the first ride on the new bike. What an awesome day! The new bike is great and a blast to ride. It will take me a little bit to get used to the ride but I look forward to riding everyday. Rob and Gregg joined me and we had a great time. Here are a few photos and a map of the route we took.
