LA is no SD

Casa de Mikelson served well as the training headquarters this weekend, but the SD locals were less than thrilled with some of the LA riding.

Friday night Kevin and Brian showed up just after Tawnee & I had polished off our post swim Chinese food (lots of it). Saturday's call to duty had the gents in the saddle for 5hrs and the lady for 2. So about 7am we mounted the steeds and met up with BT for some PV riding. Palos Verdes has some great riding, but if your looking for big miles, and trying to avoid too much climbing, its not so great. I had initially planned to do a loop of PV, head to the LAX area through the beach, spin a loop down there and back up to PV for a reverse loop. However, the Hermosa Beach AVP was going on this weekend, so that plan got scrapped as traffic (cars & intoxicated pedestrians) would have made that difficult. Instead, I opted to "treat" my guests to 4 loops of PV trying to vary the route as much as possible. 95miles and 5hrs later it was done. The guests' consensus, was: "Some good, some not so good, but better than expected."

Back at team headquarters we found Tawnee had survived all on her own, and gotten in a good ride. Then it was smoothie & grub time, with some feet up relaxation before the afternoon run. I decided all the troops needed to see all the beach has to offer, so we ran 19mi from Redondo to LAX and back and through the Hermosa AVP (eye candy always helps on the long runs).

Brynn & Ryan showed up on Saturday night just in time for the feast. The menu consisted of BBQ Salmon, Terriyaki chicken, pizza, grilled corn on the cobb, grapes and applesauce and cereal (for some, uh... one of us) and whatever else people could lay their hands on.

Sunday was the long day, and that meant NORTH. After 2 mechanical issues, we were finally off, joined, and then pulled, by Sean before he had to turn back. 3.5hrs, and just shy of 70mi of PCH later, we were in Oxnard. Refueled and ready we started the road back and were greeted by an "awesome" headwind. Kevin earned MVP honors by sucking it up and taking a much needed and appreciated pull at the front to power us back to the coast. From there it was smooth sailing along the beautiful Pacific until we hit Santa Monica and Venice. At that point in time I am sure all were cursing my name as we wound and fought our way through traffic back to the headquarters. In the end, 7hrs and 137mi, left us hungry and happy to be off the bikes.

Cleaned and fed, the crew departed. I am pretty sure none will be too excited for a return visit, as SD has much more to offer, but in a pinch, it worked out well. I think it is safe to say though, that my standing reservation at the Wernick Manor Resort and Day Spa, is going to remain just that; standing.