Part III: Winter Base Training, California, and Travel

After my last Deschutes fly fishing trip and last break from cycling, I began to buckle down and train consistently. I also did some fun domestic travel with Allison.

Since I left my job, I had planned on spending my winter somewhere with a better climate than Seattle. I had been working with a coach, Bruce Hendler, out of the Sacramento area. I got in contact with him through a connection I made at the Nature Valley Pro Ride. After a lot of discussion, the Sacramento area seemed to make sense for both winter training and early season racing--I'd get good roads, good weather, and incredibly competitive local racing scene, and access to the majority of the early season stage races. I settled on Auburn, CA as it was very close to all the good roads and outside the hustle of Sacramento. With the help of Bruce, I was able to find a place to stay and moved in the middle of November.

I spent my first week in Auburn getting familiar with the roads, meeting some other cyclists, and getting a great block of training in. By the end of the week, I had a visitor! Allison and I spent a night checking out all the crazy night life in Auburn, made a trip to Nevada City for a great dinner, and did a cool hike down to the South Yuba near Nevada City. I also did my first group ride since the summer.

After a few days in Auburn, we made a trek down the California coast. We stopped in San Francisco to visit friends one night before making our way to Carmel for a night. I had a much needed day off in San Francisco before getting some great riding in out of Carmel. The scenery was incredible.

After Carmel, we battled Thanksgiving traffic down to Los Angeles. We spent the rest of Thanksgiving week with family and friends in Malibu and Santa Monica. I got to see some of the great riding in the Malibu hills and had an absolute blast with family and friends.

This marked my last rest week before Christmas week. I got in more 18-20 hour weeks in December. I spent a couple weeks in Auburn before making my way back to Seattle for two weeks of holiday goodness. One more post and we're up to real time! After the updates, I'll have a bit more thoughtful content rather than timelines. Might be a bit of a stretch though until racing begins in February.