2 Girls + 2 Bikes + GWL + Laguna Loop = 1 Fun Day & 104 miles
Stacy and I love to ride the Laguna Loop and the great Western loop. We always have to choose between the two loops and we were sick of it. So today, we did em both. We've become accustomed to starting our rides in Rancho San Diego. We know all the water stops available, places to pee without getting pickers in your shorts and places to get the emergency Starbucks double shots. We also even know the dogs that frequent the ride and sometimes greet us with a tad bit too much excitement.
Descanso Store. Home of the best bike beverage selection around.
We started our ride at 7:00 a.m. in Rancho San Diego. It was cool at that time but we knew it wouldn't last. We headed out and exchanged stories up "The Wall." We headed towards Descanso and decided to talk about how far we wanted to go when we got there. We rolled into Descanso and decided we still had an awful lot to catch up on (gossip). We grabbed some Gatorade for extra calories, G2 to be exact and headed toward Pine Valley. Today was one of the rarest days. Stacy didn't have to work at all. I told Tim we would have leftovers for dinner. He now knows the pattern. 2 big meals with leftovers equal a big day of riding. Leftovers is code for I'm going to ride all day long. Stacy and I had plans of riding this day. We had no definite plans of how far or where. We had no time constraints. We decided to evaluate how far we wanted to ride by how we felt. Neither of us were particularly rested. Then again if there is not a long race involved, hell will freeze over before we will ever show up to ride on fresh legs. Yeah, fresh legs are saved for expensive entry fees. For Stacy, fresh legs might be saved for podium finishes. That girl can't seem to get off the podium.
We spent the first segment of the ride catching up. She was telling me about this impromptu crazy trail run she entered while vacationing in Hawaii. I had to pry it out of her but finally she confessed to winning first place. If I wasn't such a nosey nose she would have never fessed up to winning. All she would have told me was the post race food was good and she got lost three times. I think she wants to be on "Team in Eating" with Tim and I. She thinks we'll let her join if she keeps eating Humble Pie. Poor girl. Doesn't she know it's cookies we eat?
Our bikes rest in some shade moments before they got kicked off the porch.
"No bikes allowed"
We refilled in Descanso with Gatorade products and killed the climb into Pine Valley by discussing the effects of high fructose corn syrup. We hashed out the links between HFCS to obesity, type 2 DM and beyond. We noted G2 didn't have any high fructose corn syrup. We wondered exactly how much HFCS could be in a 32 ounce bottle that contains a total of 200 calories? We weren't sure. We decided we didn't need to worry about it. Certainly it wasn't going to be our feet getting amputated due to type 2 diabetes.
We then discussed the question on the employee wellness exam I was faced with. I hate to tell a lie but it asked "Do you have a low sodium diet?" I don't think the screening tool was sophisticated enough to account for my hobbies. Stacy said I could check yes. I swallowed a couple salt tabs to ward off cramping. Our conversation had become sidetracked. We were already at the base of Mt. Laguna and certainly had more to talk about. We were going to need a really long ride to catch up. If we went up that mountain we would be well on our way to "bragging rights" and queens of the "Loop of Doom." (I swear fast fit Philippe Krebs called this the ride the Loop of Doom)
We thought about turning back but our bikes wouldn't let us. They started to scamper up the mountain side. What choice did we have. The next thing I knew I was pausing briefly for a photo- op before stopping for 2nd breakfast at the store on top of Mt. Laguna. This was our longest stop of the day. We sat in the shade and enjoyed the best popsicles ever. This was also our correspondance stop where we texted loved ones of our where abouts. We formulated a "Who to call" list if we bonked or had an irreconsilable mechanical. We divided the list into groups: who would come but make fun of us. Who would come but be ticked off. Would come no questions asked. We didn't want to use the list but it went pretty deep. I think the TCSD cares program is the funniest idea. Do you think Brian Long would pick us up in the TCSD van? If we asked really politely?
We needed no outside assistance other than the popsicle and Gatorade. After the worlds best popsicle we were fresh as flowers. We left the store full of excitement. We were ready for the cyclist equivilant of dessert, the big descent. I love the Laguna loop but hate the hour drive to get there. This time I got to enjoy the ride without the drive.
Mother nature wasn't on board with the little girls who could. She tried to blow us off our bikes. We held on tight and worked our way down the mountain. Might I say it is scary to see the road turning left when the wind blows right. I was glad we each had 3 full water bottles to weigh us down at this point. I told Stacy we should fill her skinny jersey with rocks for extra weight. I was ok I had Cliff bars in my jersey.... or under my jersey in my belly;)
We made it down like champs, just bummed we had to use those devices called ....what's the word? Brakes. Yeah, those things. Who wants to use those? We sighed at the turn off toward Julian. Julian: 6 miles, the sign said. We would get bragging rights but only briefly at this distance. We knew if Tim was there the bar would raise and we'd be tacking on 12 additional miles for the love of pie. Although mathematically speaking, if Tim was there the extra 12 miles would be nothing as we could draft him the entire ride.
Stacy believes in no shortcuts. Staying true to this we added an extra mile and headed home via Lyons Valley Rd instead of taking Skyline. We were blessed with some shade and decided to stop and get fresh cold water for the final leg of the journey. What a treat. Ice cold water was pure heaven. The store owners son David was there to greet us. He said we couldn't enter the store or use the restrooms without a card. He gave us a card to enter. The card said ENERGY. This was sort of a surreal and hysterical moment. We got so excited over the ENERGY card that our new friend David tried to take it back and throw it in the trash. "Nooo" I cried half believing if the card went in the trash I might fall apart for the last 10 miles. We bribed David to take our picture and get us more water. He offered me his personal backwashed Gatorade and didn't understand why I passed. Then David's ride came. He jumped up and shouted "shot gun" as if Stacy and I might oust him from the front seat.
With that we were off and headed towards the car. We cruised through Lyons Valley fresh as flowers. We hit Jamul Drive and hammered to the parking lot. We arrived at our cars giddy with excitement of taming the "Loop of Doom." We need to rename the ride now.
Disclaimer: Stacy and I would like to thank our sponsor Scripps Health.Org for giving us the same day off to ride and providing us with paychecks sufficient enough to be spent entirely at Moment Cycle Sport on our nice shiny little bikes. We would like to thank our families who feed us when we spend our entire paychecks on race entries and bike supplies. We would like to thank the guys at Moment who designed our dream-mobile bikes and fix them whenever we break them.We would like to thank our families/friends who would have picked us up and taken us out for ice cream cones if we failed and our mission. We would like to thank our super secret support crew who sent us cheerleader texts all day. To the folks we saw on top of Laguna, who passed us on the climb up (with their car) but couldn't believe how fast we rode our bike up the mountain... Thanks, we were flattered. To the men on top of Laguna, who were convinced we were twins or at least sisters, Thanks we had a good laugh. And to David, his energy card, his slobbering dogs and enthusiastic "Shot Gun."
Scripps Pier
Mission Accomplished
