Peach Podcast
Two guys and an occasional guest breaking open topics on: Purpose, Energy, Attitude, Commitment and Health through shared experiences.
Peach Podcast
S4EP12: From Sea Level To 10,023 Feet: A Haleakala Ascent, Lessons In Grit, And The Power Of Team Support
We climb Haleakala from sea level to 10,023 feet, turn a vacation into an adventure, and learn why support, fuel, and mindset matter more than perfect legs. A friend’s injury reshapes the day, the descent gets dicey, and we end the year grateful, active, and ready to keep momentum.
• why Maui for year-end and how the plan formed
• fueling strategy matters
• Eric’s injury and pivot to support MVP
• mental tactics of 1,000-foot chunks
• summit push, thin air, and emotional payoff
• freezing descent andcoffee warm-up
• active vacation philosophy and daily training
• running milestones, rucking for recovery, process focus
• community shoutouts and a 49ers win
• “no resolutions, just keep it rolling”
Hey, hey, hey, welcome to the Peach Podcast. Just a couple of dudes and an occasional guest breaking open topics from everyday life on purpose, energy, attitude, commitment, and health. So if you're ready, listen in as we live to learn from our losses, to gain from our gratitude, and to laugh as we level up. Always remember if you ever feel stuck, all you got to do is just start. Come on, let's go. And we are sitting here in a penthouse suite overlooking the ocean, the beach, a beautiful pool, and we are at a resort that I forget the name. Daryl, can you please uh remind me of the name of the resort we're at?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we're in uh the Outrigger in Cannipali, Maui. Um, beautiful place. We've been here uh for about 10 days now, and uh this episode was supposed to be about a bike ride, but I think it's gonna be about a bit more now.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it is. And you let's talk about that bike ride for a second, Daryl. But before we do, before we do, I just want to be transparent uh with the audience. It is because it is New Year's Eve, um, we decided to, and we knew we were gonna be in Maui, we decided to record this episode on the last day of 2025. And I have a nice tall cold glass of beer and a small shot of tequila sitting by my side to end this new year with all the listeners. For those of you who consume libations, and for those of you who don't, Daryl's got a nice can of bubbly water on his side to celebrate with all you non-drinking folks. And good on you, good on you for sure. But uh we want we want to end this year with all you guys, and we also probably talk a little bit about what's going into next year. But let's recap this 2025. But let's start with uh how we got here. Why, why are we here this this time of year, Daryl?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, um, Josephine and I both are very privileged to uh kind of have um both time off of work um between uh Christmas and New Year's. And uh we've been married over 15 years and we've always talked about going on vacation, and we never have uh during this time. And last year uh we pulled the plug and we said, hey, we're gonna go to Maui. So we came out here. Uh we had Alyssa, Ava, we had the chief here, and we had a beautiful time. And I'll tell you, Doug, it was a couple days into it and feeling that warmth on our uh on our skin. I know you're gonna, it's awesome. And uh I did a bike ride up here, and it's probably day five or six, and Josephine and I said, Hey, let's come back. This was last year you're talking about. Last year. Okay, last year you did five. Okay. And uh we uh we said, you know what, let's invite our friends. And so I put sent a text out to uh team Peach and said, Um, hey, 2025 Maui, let's see if we can do it and join me on a bike ride. And um, Doug, I gotta admit, um, pretty awesome. A year later, we're here.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yes. You you put out the invitation. I think out of the five of us, uh, two of us took the invite and we jumped on a plane and we are here, myself and Eric, uh, easy e-train. He's got multiple names. He's also Ultra E. He keeps getting different names. But uh, him and I are here. And uh thank you, Daryl, because uh that was a very generous invitation. And I'm so glad we came because it was a bit frosty and a bit cold in Northern California where we're from. And it was so nice getting on that plane knowing we were gonna come someplace warm. So let's talk a little bit about the ride you did last year. There is an actual episode, so we're not gonna go over complete detail what you did last year. I'm just gonna give you the basic parameters of how long the ride is and how much feet of elevation it is climbing, and what inspired you to that's really what inspired you to invite us to come back and do this with you. Uh, you also did it under the context of doing a Masogee. And for those of you that didn't catch the Masogi episode, it real briefly, a Masogi is doing something freaking hard that you've never done before, with very little preparation and more of a will and a desire to see what you're made of. And so Daryl decided to take on this Masogee last year by himself. He came out here, rented a bike, and he decided to climb uh Haleakala. Did I say that right? Absolutely perfect. Okay, way better than me.
SPEAKER_01:I butchered it for the last year.
SPEAKER_00:He decided to climb a volcano called Haleakala here in in uh Maui. And a little bit about Haliacala, it's going up. I'm just gonna give you the mileage going up. It's 35 to 36 miles going up. All right, and this is from C literally, you dip your back tire into the sea, which Daryl and I did this year, um, and he did this last year. And then you get your you carry your bike over the sand, you get it back on the road, and you start riding up this mountain 35 to 36 miles. And when you get to the top, to the very, very top summit. Oh my gosh, and that last half mile is brutal. But I didn't know this, but this is what Daryl did by himself last year. Um, you go up and you tap this sign, and the sign says 10,023 feet all uphill. So Daryl, real quick, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Go ahead. You can say all uphill, but it literally is all uphill. It's I mean, it's the most bizarre thing. You can go type it into YouTube, uh, and it's amazing. It literally, they say there's a quarter mile that is like 1% downhill. I never saw that. I never saw that section. Yeah, but it's kind of crazy because it's 35 to 36 miles, depending on where you start uphill. And then the crazy part is also 35 to 36 miles downhill on the way back.
SPEAKER_00:So it's uh and it's the same 35 to 36 coming down, but man, I feel like we're in you're in a whole different environment because by the time you get to the when we were climbing up to the top this year, it was sunny and beautiful, no wind, it was just gorgeous. I mean, we couldn't have picked a better day to climb Haliaku. Could not have, could not have. So um, yeah, we'll talk about the downhill in a little bit. Because that's just a whole different scene. A whole well, if there is a scene, I don't know. It's like fog, clouds, rain. It's crazy. It's crazy. So, Daryl, what uh you you wrote up last year and you sent a message to the team saying, Hey, you guys got to come do this. But I gotta tell you, Daryl, and we we did. Eric and I came out this year. We took uh we took your invitation seriously. Uh, we bought our tickets, came out here, and uh we rode up that mountain. But Daryl, I'm gonna tell you, there were not just one, not two, not three, but several, multiple times in my brain, I was thinking, how in the hell did Daryl do this by himself without any support, without any, uh, without a SAG vehicle? Because this year, um, which I'd love to talk about, Daryl, is uh we ended up having a support vehicle. And I tell you, man, I just I after having the support vehicle, I was thinking, how in the hell do you do this without a support vehicle? Because it's 10,000 feet up and there's not. And like last year when you did this, like you you heard about where there might be stops, and but you know, you don't you you might get a flat, you might get this, you might break a chain. And how do you plan for all that stuff? But I guess that's why they call it a Masogee, right? Because you just don't know. You got to see what you're made of and how you get through it. And but Daryl, I got I once want to give you massive kudos, bro, because I'm telling you, there was so many times, I can't even remember how many times, I was thinking, damn, Daryl did this shit unsupported, all by himself, all alone, climbed this hill. And I and it was a struggle for me doing it with you and having E be our support person. And let's talk about E being our support person because he actually came out here to do a ride.
SPEAKER_01:He did, he did. So let's get that out of the way. So, first of all, pretty similar to last year. Uh, we rented bikes uh from uh Maui um uh Sunriders about four or five miles. We picked them up on the 24th.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Uh we rode back, kind of got all our gear and everything kind of fitted out. Um, big shout out. They're about uh four or five miles away from here. Uh we got our bikes and we decided we're gonna do it on the 26th. So we had a wonderful Christmas here uh with our families and everything else. And um, I don't know, Doug, I think you were up at like 3:30 in the morning, something ridiculous. Yes. Um, but we left at five and we went out there. Um, but the day before uh we were out at the ocean and uh it was Christmas day, and we decided to kind of do some boogie boarding, and Eric went out and um, you know, he um ended the day he uh you know he cut his foot and uh he came out of the water and said, Oh, I cut my foot, and okay, no big deal. But um, he really cut his foot.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that was a deep, deep cut. He actually it mostly affected his big toe, which, you know, a lot when you're pedaling and stuff, a lot of pressure gets applied up in that area. But I mean, it was gashed open. We had to get some butterfly stitches on it and some of that glue stuff to kind of seal it closed. And he was he was all in to see how he felt in the morning and not make any rash decisions in the moment. But uh Ian I were having a few libations, so he might have not realized just how deep that cut was. It was I you know what I appreciated about that whole thing, Daryl, is A, he was he cut his toe and he realized it was gonna impact and affect the ride. He wasn't out in the beginning. He thought, let me recover, let me see what I can do, let's see what happens. Then the next day came and instead of him pouting and saying, I can't do this, he shifted his mindset and his just whole posture about his position on this ride with us. And Eric was part of this ride in a bigger way, and in a way that I appreciate I certainly appreciate in a in a bigger way as a support person. And uh, you know, it just goes to show you that you know, even the seasoned athletes, people who cycle a lot or run a lot, shit happens. Things, you know, you get thrown curveballs all the time, but it doesn't mean you're out. It just means it could simply mean that you're just have a different role, a different position. And Eric took that on and he made this ride for us so dang pleasurable. So, E, I know you're listening to this episode. Just a big shout out and a lot of love to you, brother, because man, you made the ride so much more fun. And it was a painful ride, but you made it fun.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I'll just kind of add to that. Um, when I look back on it a couple days later, um the reality is um we uh at the end of the day, uh, spoiler alert, we got up to the top. Um, it was epic. We'll go through a few things there, but Eric was truly the MVP of the day. Yes, right? Um zero, zero debate on that. He won the day, right? Yep. Um and uh we're up there, we're just I mean, the emotion and the awesomeness of being at the top and us three taking the pictures, I probably a year from now one of you remember that he didn't ride. Yeah. Because he was, I mean, he was in the pictures. He's in the pictures, he's part of the team, he was part of every little thing there. And the cool part, and I mentioned this before, um, you know what? As we went to bed the night before, right? You know, we were leaving at five, you know, you know, wheels down on the on the truck at five in the morning. We had everything packed up. Thank you, Doug, for letting loading up the night before. Yeah, for sure. We're ready to go. And uh, he walked out and he was ready to go.
SPEAKER_00:He was he was definitely ready to go, and he was ready to be in that new role. Yeah, I like he embraced the hell out of it. But Errol, um Darrell, let's talk about a little bit about the I loved the strategy because I hadn't done this ride. You done it the year before. This was my first time, and uh, you know, I can get a little cocky sometimes and like, okay, yeah, let's just let's just ride this motherfucker, let's go. But uh you you had a plan. It's like, hey, we're gonna do a thousand feet at a time. Yep, and man, I'll tell you what, people, my climbers out there, okay, because I live in an area that's a lot of hills, but this was uh like you reached a thousand feet in three miles. Every like three miles, it was a thousand feet, and it was insane. I'm like, what the hell? We just did a thousand, man. And I mean, you're grinding and you're pushing and pulling them pedals, you're doing everything you can to get to those thousand because it's not so much that it's steep, it just comes up on you quick, man. And and uh, well, I want to say it comes up on you quick because three miles seems like it's quick, but they're slow three miles. They are a slow three miles because you're just grinding in easy gears, moving along, getting up the hill. And it was just cool. I love that strategy where every thousand feet Daryl um Eric was gonna meet us, have and he had the trunk open with uh waters and goos and gels and all kinds of stuff, and it was just epic. So, Daryl, did you is that the strategy you you used last year? And but you didn't have a vehicle. I I didn't have a vehicle, and uh I did that work.
SPEAKER_01:I I gotta admit, uh, as we talked about it as writing up, I kept saying, How the hell did I do it by myself? But I think I purely had pure fear like the year before. There was nothing other than you were fueled by fear. Yeah, so let's break down the ride a little bit. So um I had to chunk it up. There's a lot of cool videos out there, really cool, and we watch a lot of them. I was hyper focused. Uh, you guys were all texting me the whole way up. I felt like you guys had my back the whole way. Right.
SPEAKER_00:So this is again, Daryl's talking about last year when he did it.
SPEAKER_01:But let's talk about the ride. So, first of all, you know, the goal is to flee between about 6 and 6.30. It doesn't get dark in Hawaii until about 6.55. So we wrote about the first 30 minutes in the dark, but it's really not dark. It's kind of kind of dusk. Sunset's coming up. Yeah, uh sunrise coming up. We're all good. So the end of the day, um, you know, we got there, we loaded up, uh, you know, we said a little prayer, um, which was definitely needed as you're ready to take off. Uh, we dipped, just dipped our little uh uh tire in the uh the water. Don't want to put any uh salt water on any of the components. Exactly. And then we got going and we head up. And it's about six and a half miles to the first little town. Um, and uh about a mile in, you took out your phone, Doug. Yes. And you took a picture and you said, Daryl, you didn't tell me how beautiful this was. He's I mean, I was like, Doug, are you riding or are you videoing? And the problem was I couldn't even keep up with him. He was like, pictures, video, and everything else here, right up to little town, and that's about six and a half miles, like said Doug. So that's a that's a stop. Uh, we we caught up with Eric there. Um, it's beautiful. And uh the next stop is about 14 miles at the last store. Right. Um, and uh and you you stop there. Eric had breakfast and he met up there. You're probably about 14 miles in and you're right about 4,000 feet. Right. That's the last store. That's the last time you can buy anything. Or get water, I think. To get water or anything else. We have one more water stopping. We're going 10,000 feet, people. Listen up. It's pretty, it's pretty intense. And um, the thing that's pretty crazy, and I'll I want to hear your perspective because I've done it twice now. You're just gonna ride uphill for five to five and a half hours, Doug. Mentally, that's kind of that kind of messes with you, right? And you have to you have to break it in chunks, Doug, because thinking, okay, I'm gonna be in pain for five hours is not something you want to take on all at once.
SPEAKER_00:So great, great perspective, Daryl. And I gotta tell you, I I was massively humbled because the day before and the night before, I'm like, okay, I see what Daryl did and and all that stuff. I said, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna try to get up there in four and a half hours. And uh so, but to be completely transparent, Daryl, my at the by the time I got to the top, it was six hours. Okay, so talk about humble pie. It was very humbling, but at the same time, it was beautiful. I mean, I didn't beat myself up or anything like that. It was just like, okay, I get it now. I see why it took Daryl, you know, as much time as it took, because this ain't no joke. It's a hell of a ride, it's a hell of a climb. I mean, it's not you know, Daryl, if you were to compare it to uh death ride, pain cave kind of stuff, what would how would you compare the two?
SPEAKER_01:You mentioned that, and we talked about it a little bit. Um, I think as we got up to the top or on the way down. Um, I think it's harder. Um, and the only reason is death ride, you climb a hill, right? Two to three thousand feet, right? Then you got a nice downhill. Yes. And then you go climb another hill and then you got a downhill. This is straight up and straight back. So I think mentally you just got to get in that perspective that you're gonna be going through this. So I'm gonna go with a little harder. I don't know. That's how I felt about it. Right. Um, and when you get to uh the store, which is a beautiful store, you kind of your last little thing. The next big thing is you start to hit Doug the switchbacks. Oh man.
SPEAKER_00:First, we hit the short switchbacks, is that right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the short switchbacks were actually the short ones are basically between 3,500 and 6,500. Right. And uh that gets you to the uh national park in the ranger station.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Uh and uh those those kick up a little. Yes, those are a little steeper, those are more in the six to nine percent, kind of shorter, and they're literally there's total 37 switchbacks all the way up. 37. Okay. Uh there's about 18 at the bottom, and there's a I think there's like 19 at the top, something like that. Okay. Um, you go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and then you go through this little forest area, and then you get to, and that actually we did really good, Doug, because we actually didn't stop at a thousand. We did 2,000 feet on that climb. Right. And we got to the ranger station, and then you enter the national forest. And I'm telling you, Doug, you go from Hawaii to this ain't Kansas anymore.
SPEAKER_00:Amen. On that, man. As we got, you are you talking about when we got closer to the top when it looked like we were on Mars? Yeah, when we were on Mars.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yeah. All volcanic rock, and it's like, wow, yeah. So we paid our we paid our$15 each. Each, right? I'm not quite sure what the$15 is for a bicycle. Yeah, I don't know what kind of damage we do at the national party.
SPEAKER_00:I was riding past the the station, and the girl sticks her head out. Hey, you gotta get back in line and pay. I'm like, so I'm like, what? Because from California, we don't pay bikes, don't pay to get into national parks. And so it said national park. I thought we were part of the national map here and being in the U.S. But anyways, Daryl and I did make a U-turn. We went back in line about eight, nine cars back, and kind of walked our bikes behind the cars. And and um, and I totally had just put my wallet into the car because I'm thinking, why do I need my wallet? And then so Daryl, thank God Daryl had his and uh he got us in the park.
SPEAKER_01:So you get through the national park, and uh Doug, you you mentioned to me on the way there. Hey Daryl, um uh you know, can you see it from the ocean? You look and from zero feet, you see the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I was asking him, can you see the top? Can you see the top? Yep, you can see it. You're gonna see you, you won't be able to not see it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it's this huge, big, enormous mountain. It's just gorgeous. And so um, we stop at the last rest stop uh that has water. It's got a little like for hikers and other things, got a little hose in a thing, and that's 6800. And the cool part about that is once you're at 6,800, okay, guess what? We basically said, okay, we're gonna stop at seven, we're gonna stop at eight, nine, and then at the top. Right. And so we had a really nice plan. And from then on out, it's tough, it's painful, but it's beautiful. It is. And uh, by the way, somewhere Doug about six thousand feet is where you start to kind of climb above the clouds.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. Because when we started climbing, there was no clouds. But man, you could see the clouds coming in from the east or west. I don't know. I'm all turned around here. They were coming in from some direction and they were just slowly creeping in. And by the but by the time we got, like Daryl said, uh maybe 8,000, 7, 7,000, 8,000 feet, the clouds were there, but they were below us. And it was so cool because you look out and all you see is you're on top of these clouds, man. And it was just a beautiful, beautiful scene.
SPEAKER_01:And we talked about the switchbacks, they're short at the bottom, but the top, they're very long. Yes. So um Eric would go ahead with the car. We'd say meet us at 7,000. Doug and I are going back and forth and back and forth, and then we'd see the car. And Eric was there, trunk open, taking video. He was like, Savior. You'd stop. I gotta admit, Doug, I'm gonna give some humble pie. I was riding strong. Yes, you were. But I look like I was 90 years old trying to get off my bike. I would pull up, I'd pull up to my bike, I'd unclip, and I was like, How the hell do I get my leg over this uh over this seat?
SPEAKER_00:I remember hearing Eric once coaching you going, Come on, you can do it. Just swing your leg over, Daryl. Just swing your leg over. You can do it, just like when you're doing something ever again. The struggle is real. Um but uh but I loved when we got to 9,000 feet and I look back and you're over there kissing the damn 9,000 foot sign. I'm like, what the hell is he doing? Oh, he's kissing that sign because the 9,000 signifies that you just got a thousand left to go. Yeah, but that last thousand, Daryl, that ain't no joke, man.
SPEAKER_01:Oh no, and I I gotta admit, I'll I'll tell on Doug a little bit. Um, Doug, I don't know. Doug was about six to seven. You had a little bit of uh, you're kind of struggling. You you were really worried cramps. You're really worried about uh was it your I don't know, you're a hamstringer or something.
SPEAKER_00:You were you're twinging yourself. See, I was I was feeling like my uh muscles were gonna seize up on me. And for cyclists or runners, if you've ever had that feeling, you know what that feels like. And once you seize up, you're done. And I didn't want that to happen.
SPEAKER_01:So it's like six to seven, I think you were you were you you just said, hey, I'm gonna back off a little, right? You're a little bit behind me a little bit. And then I think we got up to eight and uh we pulled over. And think about eight. You only have nine and ten, so you only have you're a little bit, and uh we were doing a great job on hydration. I think I think our fueling was good. Um, I think we did awesome, and having Eric there was a huge plus. But you took a goo, and you said you hadn't had a goo in like a year or two.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, probably a couple years because they were messing with my stomach, but I was I was kind of freaking out a little bit about the last couple thousand feet and thinking, you know what, I'm gonna just take whatever it takes to get up these last couple thousand feet. And I had a uh a rock, what's it rock? Rock tane. Rock tane, rock tane goo with the caffeine, plus a regular goo. Yeah. And uh the last couple thousand feet. And man, Daryl, what happened after that?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I'll let's say, let's say Doug was in my rear, and uh he was I'm when I say rear, he's probably you know hundred feet behind me, right? And then all of a sudden we go to take off, and I say, All right, great, let me get my position ahead of Doug. And Doug was like, hell no. And let's call it Coach D fresh, like he always is, was leading the pack. He let it up from eight to ten. He was crushing it. I'm telling you, I thought you maybe got a shot of something, you know, like some steroids or something, but you were crushing it, those last two thousand.
SPEAKER_00:It felt like it, man. I'll tell you, it's you know, new it just reminds you how important nutrition is and uh you know the science behind these things like goo and these um what else was I? What I did I buy? The um oh scratch. Scratch you tried that for the first time? The first time I tried it was and it was cool, man, because I didn't know that had carbs in it as well. So that worked out well. I use that going up the mountain as well. So we'll have to make sure we hashtag Scratch on this bad boy and goo um and uh Sunriders, Maui Sunriders.
SPEAKER_01:But Doug, you get up to 9,000 feet, you're about a thousand feet above the clouds. Doug I've this my second year doing it. There's not too many better experiences I've had. Oh no.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, it it's you're like in heaven, number one, and you're looking out, and the weather's beautiful, and you're with your boys, and it's just you're feeling the love, you're feeling the pain, the the pain that we purposely enlist into our lives, you know. And uh it's just a it's just you're right, there's no better feeling, man. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_01:You're not just looking at the clouds, you're looking at clouds, you're looking at other islands in uh you're looking at the islands out there, the sea, everything else. And the cool part at 9,000 feet, Doug, what can you do? You can see where you're going, you see the top, you see the little towers, the visitor center, the satellites, and then the very tip top. And um you go from 9,000, you got a half mile, um, to this bottom parking lot, and it says 0.5 miles to the top. And when you see that 0.5 miles to the top, it goes from 5.8 to 6% to about 20% straight up.
SPEAKER_00:It makes that 0.5 miles feel like 10 miles, and I was just turning my pedals over it barely. I mean, there was a there was at least three to five times where I thought I was gonna have to unclip. And somehow, somehow, miraculously, I got that damn pedal around and kept going. And it was, and I think Eric has some video of that shit, but it was it was brutal.
SPEAKER_01:And um, Dr. John uh that I uh saw last year, he gave me some advice, and he's like, No matter what you do, don't walk. And I kept hearing him, don't walk. And I saw you were ahead of me, and I saw you kind of making your way up, and I was maybe about maybe three, four hundred feet behind you, and you make it up, and you get all the way up this painful part, and then you go into the parking lot and you know you're there. It's like the angels sing, oh and then you get on the little uh accessible thing that they have for the people with wheelchairs, and you make it up, and you get to the top of the sign, and uh you're you're at you're at 10,023 feet, and you made it, and you're at the sign, and you take a deep breath, and you take pictures, and um it's just epic. And uh it was cool. Eric was up there taking video of us, but um, Doug, you know, I it's my second year. I'll tell you what, this year was just as impactful as it was last year. Was it Daryl? I don't know, man.
SPEAKER_00:Come on, keep it 100 with me, keep Daryl, keep it 100.
SPEAKER_01:It was cool because I had people up there with me.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, that yeah, that's so but that's a different experience. I mean, last year I gotta imagine, dude, because I can I'm telling you, I I thought about it multiple times. Like, damn, this fool did this shit by himself, and you know, without knowing where all the water stops were, and and you know, what would he do if he broke down? And you know, I had the massive convenience of knowing that Eric was there, yeah, at every turn, just in case. And uh, so that's man, again, kudos to you, Daryl. But it, but I guess you know, definitely a killer experience to do it with with your friends.
SPEAKER_01:It was, it was super fun, it was super fun. So we took some pictures, had some fun, and then you have to go back to shit.
SPEAKER_00:And we talked about it at the top. I had jokingly, but kind of not jokingly, said, Well, shit, you know, the the whole point of this is to ride up it. Why don't we just throw the bikes in the truck and drive back down? And and you kind of said, Hey, I'm down, you know, like whatever you want to do. You I you kind of let me lead that decision because you had done it before and you were okay either way. But I was like, after sitting up there for a minute, I said, you know what, we rode this shit up, we're gonna fucking write it down. But and we did write it down, Daryl. And what you know, we I had planned and you had planned. I had done Mount Diablo multiple times where you get to the top and you're sweating balls, but then you know coming down, it's like anywhere from 10 to 20 degrees colder. So you have to bundle up. So I did bring some stuff to bundle up with, but not quite enough. Thank God you brought your sleeves and didn't need them because I I wore those bad boys. But I had my vest, I had neck gator, I had my gloves, which I put on at the top, and I was still, still freezing coming down. Tell tell us a little bit, what was that ride like coming down, Daryl?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I think two things. Um, all the videos they they they say you gotta you gotta pack up warm clothes. You have to. Yes. You're like, ah, okay, but you have to. Yes. Um, because in the afternoons, uh, not only do the clouds come, it gets a little bit, you ride down, you're sweaty, like you said, and that's fine. But once you get about 8,000 feet, it really packs in. And Doug, this is not dropping some 10 degrees. This is dropping probably 20 or 30 percent, misting, um misting my ass, man.
SPEAKER_00:That shit was raining. It was raining.
SPEAKER_01:It literally is to the it really is to the point. And by the way, you're going 100% downhill having to break. You literally have to wipe your hand over your glasses about every uh 50 to 100 yards because sometimes you can't see. Um, on the way down, there's cattle that could be on the road. Right. And uh it's probably about um, by the way, let's just kind of give a perspective. You're riding five to six hours up, you're only riding about an hour and 10 minutes down. That's the difference. You're going as fast as you can. And Doug and I got um about uh three 3,500 feet down, and we pulled over and we looked at each other, and we both I I couldn't feel my I couldn't feel my hands.
SPEAKER_00:I couldn't feel my hands were numb. Not only did they were numb from the cold, but you know, I got a carpal tunnel and all this other crap going on, and you're breaking. I mean, because it's all downhill. So you're breaking going down, you're using your hands and you're shivering, and your body's tense because you're freaking freezing to death. And uh yeah, I couldn't feel my hands either, Daryl. So we kind of said, and we've got a car right in front of us that we can put our bikes into. Okay, and we debated, and I was kind of being a we probably had that decision go back in our hands, and like we pulled over multiple times. Should we get the car? Should we get the car?
SPEAKER_01:And he's like, and I'm like, Eric, how um how far is it here? When can we get and he's just looking at me like, all right, just just whatever.
SPEAKER_00:Eric pulled over the first time, and he's like, Hey, you guys, this is dangerous. Like, this is raining, it's wet, this is dangerous. Get in the truck, and we're like, Well, we'll we'll see, we'll see.
SPEAKER_01:So he finally made a call that we're gonna make it down to a coffee shop. I'm glad we did. We made it down, found this killer coffee shop. Oh, that was awesome! Oh my goodness. Uh, I don't well, yeah, you had a mocha. I had a mo a coconut mocha, yes. Oh my god. Eric had a mocha, I had a latte, we got some scones. You know, they had to kick us out. Yeah, they literally were like, we're closing, you can leave now.
SPEAKER_00:Like, it was cup a little longer. My hands want to feel this warm cup a little bit.
SPEAKER_01:But uh we we got down, and then all of a sudden, after that mocha, we got into a bit of the warmth and we could see the sea. And I'm so glad we rode all the way down. In the last five or six miles, we were just jamming, and uh, we got down to the end, we loaded up the bikes and went home, and um, it was epic. And I I know I I think you and I both had that same thing. I truly was more proud of Eric than what we accomplished, and it was kind of a weird feeling. It was kind of like you're thinking about him. Like, let's just be really clear. Yeah, that was chicken shit, and he made chicken salad. Oh, he had a bad situation that happened, he was dying to make it up to the top, yeah, and he had the best mindset and literally made that the most enjoyable day. And we have pictures of all of us all throughout the entire ride. Yes, and uh, you know, he he's the MVP.
SPEAKER_00:I think you should make that a book. Eric, if you're listening, you need to write a book called From Chicken Shit to Chicken Salad. I love that. Yeah, great, great, great takeaway. But yes, he was definitely, I mean, not to not not to say that I wasn't thrilled for myself and and making the the ride and and all that stuff, but you know, it's when you when you're with a crew, when you got a team, and you know, I think we're we're all conditioned to really help each other succeed, and we want to see our fellow, our peers, our our other, our team members rise up. And uh Eric did. He might not have felt like he rose up, he felt like he, you know, there's a lot a lot of uh maybe remorse or guilt or something because he got fucked up and he wanted to do the ride. But you know, I hope he knows that man, what he did was epic and how he shifted that mindset and turned, like you said, chicken shit into chicken salad. That's the best way to put it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and uh we got back, and by the way, along the way, we had amazing support. Our family, our friends, our friends here in Maui were texting us, you know, Ava, everybody else, tons of encouragement, had a great time, got back to the got back here, um, had a wonderful uh dinner. Um I'm very impressed. The next day we actually woke up and we weren't wrecked. No, um, I was a little surprised. I was fatigued, uh felt pretty good. I think we all did a little workout, went on some light runs, walks, uh, felt good, had an amazing time. And uh this has just been a great way to end the year.
SPEAKER_00:So, Daryl, on that note, let's let's kind of recap the uh just a little little bits and pieces of recap. We don't have to do a major recap, but on that note, uh your uh your one of your co-workers or or uh peers from uh where you work, um I can't remember her name right now. Julie. Oh, Julie. Julie Marshall, right? Yep, yeah. So shout out to you, Julie Marshall. Hope you're listening. But uh she we're friends on Strava and and with Daryl and all that stuff, and and she had made a comment because the next day after doing that ride, she sees you working out, me working out and running and all this other. She's like, what the hell? Are you guys on a are you guys on vacation or at a boot camp? And I commented back to her on Strava saying, Well, boot camp is vacation. Like, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_01:It's been a nice uh it's been a nice time. In fact, uh Doug, we I'm trying to think, we landed at 150 in the afternoon. Yes, we had a little bit of uh rental car fun, and uh we won't go with that.
SPEAKER_00:Let's just say Daryl stood in line for two freaking hours to get our rental car while we took an Uber back.
SPEAKER_01:So we got we got set up about 6 37 and uh we had some dinner reservations um I I think down somewhere, and Doug and I just weren't quite up for it. And um, so we threw on a running shoes and went for a run. Yeah, you know, we did. Remember first night. We were like, I was like, Doug, I know you can't see anything because it's dark, but we're running by the ocean. Yeah, it's like I hear it, but I don't see it. Yeah, and um that's kind of how it's been. And um, by the way, I mean everyone, if it's Tony, if it's Jamie, if it's uh Alyssa, Josephine, of course, everybody else. Um, you know, Eric, uh, you know, Maria went for some walks, Angelina, you know, Adrian, uh, you know, uh you name it, Nate, everything else. It's we've been active and it feels great.
SPEAKER_00:It does. You know, Daryl, on that note, I remember a season in my life where you would come to a place like this, and it was just about drinking and laying around. And I can't imagine coming to a place like this and just drinking, lay around. I mean, I it there's so much to see and so much to enjoy. Like, how awesome is it to be in this environment and to run? Or be in you? What did you and I do this morning? We went out into this big grassy field. It's like the size of a football field. We went out there and Daryl says, Hey, come down, I'm gonna do some sprints, and I said, Okay, well, I'm gonna do a little hit version of and so uh, you know, we didn't do the same workout, but we went side by side with each other and supported each other. And uh, you know, but just to work out without a shirt and you know, sweat and having this warm environment, oh my gosh. It's heaven, it's heaven on our for athletes, I believe.
SPEAKER_01:It is, it is, and uh, I think we're very blessed. We're very blessed. I really want to thank our listeners, all the people that have contributed to uh, you know, uh what we're going through. Um, you know, uh saw a post this morning I I mentioned to you and we talked about it from uh from Jonathan. He's actually over in Oahu uh right now. And uh yeah, everybody's just kind of recapping the year.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, Jonathan Pasqual.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, JP. Yeah, he's over there and just kind of recapping the year. And um, you know what? Just very blessed.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's all I can say. Absolutely. If you haven't listened to Jonathan Pasqual, uh, that was about one or two episodes back, you gotta hear that story, man. You got to hear that story. But Daryl, speaking of hearing those stories, big kudos to you, brother, because I know for a fact that you have run over a thousand miles this year. Congratulations.
SPEAKER_01:I have, I have, and uh yeah, I was pretty uh pretty excited. But you know what?
SPEAKER_00:Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Daryl, as much kudos I want to give to you. I you gotta give me some kudos because when we first started this podcast, you were not a runner, Daryl. And I had to put the mojo out and the and the vision out into the world and say, please, people tell Daryl he's a runner. And all of a sudden, now I'm just shitting you, Daryl, but I don't know if I take any kudos, but seriously, you it's a big encouragement.
SPEAKER_01:Um, and you know, and uh, you know, I'm I'm so thankful not only for the cycling we've done, but for the running, uh everything else there. Running is a very interesting perspective. We've talked about this a lot, and so awesome seeing you train for uh the CIM a couple years ago. Really, you know, in the back of my mind, put some hugest kind of kudos and motivation and just like, damn, that's crazy. Because I'll be honest with you, running's hard. It's really freaking hard. I mean, I love cycling and it's hard, but running is a different kind of hard. I don't know how to describe it. And I think Josephine's kind of got that bug, Alyssa's got that bug, many people. Yes, and uh it's really mental and it's awesome. So it's cool breaking the thousand uh mile mark, um, and uh just a great way to end the year.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, this year today, this morning, or after our little hit session we did in the grass, I ran two miles. And you know, for uh for someone like you, an ultra runner, and and someone for myself, like two miles, like why just two miles? Because I just needed two miles to get 500 miles for the year. Nice, nice, nice.
SPEAKER_01:I was wondering because I uh when we're leaving our little workout on the grass, you said I'll see you there. And then all of a sudden, like an hour later, I called you and you're like, Oh, I'm just on a little run.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, and I and and you know, I'm not I'm not too bent up on on statistics and all that stuff and and the stats on as far as but when you're that close, when you're two miles from running 500 for the year, I'm like, and again, 500 compared to your thousand. Again, I'm not comparing, I'm because comparison is the thief of joy. Yeah, I'm just saying, um, for me, after the year I've had with the the foot injury and all that stuff and not being able to run for several months, I was like, wow, and still got in 500 miles. That's pretty that's pretty awesome. And it just so what I've learned through that process is to trust the process, to know that you're going to need to shift and refocus, and that's when I started rucking. I stopped running and started rucking. And what I learned from that was that that actually gave me better running posture. I was running more upright, still got to tilt forward a little bit, um, and running stronger, and like all my ankle uh muscles and joints and all that stuff got stronger, and it just running now feels so much more structured and in place um due to all the rucking I did while I was waiting for my foot to recover. My foot hasn't fully recovered, but who cares? I'm just going forward and gonna see what happens.
SPEAKER_01:You're looking strong, man. You're looking strong. By the way, uh, you did two miles today, you only did 12 miles yesterday. I was like, Where's Doug? And they're like, I don't know. Doug, I think ran to Wahoo yesterday and back, but I'm not quite sure. But we can't close this episode without talking about one of the highlights of our trip. Okay. Which one? And that was the Niners' win.
SPEAKER_00:Oh shit. We we had this whole.
SPEAKER_01:We're so fortunate to uh have been able to watch the Niners and uh Bears, which was probably one of the more epic games that I've seen in my very, very long time. And we were we're we're literally in Maui. We were at uh down at the beach uh over at the West End. Then we watched the second half uh from our hotel. And uh by the way, I think Doug from the uh from the 10th floor uh basically had about 10,000 people chanting go Niners when they won. But uh it was an epic, epic evening, and uh Niners got to keep rolling. But um it's been uh one first of all, Doug, thank you so much for uh the great year on the podcast, all that you mean to Team Peach and everything else. It's been awesome. And uh I don't think we could end a year better than this.
SPEAKER_00:No, no, no, absolutely. Peach Podcast is where it's at if you're ready to level up, if you're ready to take your life to the next level and um you know break through some barriers, mindset all that stuff. Uh we got it going on here, man. And Daryl, you know, this if you look back, Daryl, let's just look back a little further, right? We started, we were on a run. Was it a 10-mile or a half marathon? We were on a 10-mile run. And you were saying, when are you gonna start your podcast? And I said, Why don't you do it with me? You said, Okay. And we both did it for the same reason, really, to be beginners at something, to be to enter into something without knowing how to do it, just to go do it. And here we are recording who knows which episode this is, but man, congratulations, brother. We're finishing another year of recording some epic shit. We've been told by our our friend, our good friend Ted Ania, that we're extreme sports people. And at first you and I were like, What the hell are you talking about? We're not extreme, but you know what? Because that's who we surround ourselves with, other people who are doing massive shit. But today it was funny because Daryl was about halfway up Haliakala and he goes, You know what, Doug? Ted, I think Ted is right. We're fucking extreme.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. We gotta, we gotta work on our uh seven-year-old pickleball uh podcast. We gotta start getting that going now.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, it's good shit, brother. Good shit. But yeah, congratulations on another epic year.
SPEAKER_01:As I'm looking right now, it's 4.02 Hawaii time. Hawaii time, right? So we got a little less than eight hours for the rest of 2025, and it's been epic. And um, you know what? Um, I'll be honest with you, Doug. I I don't need New Year's resolutions. Just keep it rolling.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, man. You know what? That I think that should be a t-shirt. I don't need New Year's resolutions. Let's just keep it rolling. Yep. Yep. That is fucking awesome, Daryl. Great, great quote. Let's get a t-shirt. Where's Josephine? All right, brother. Hey, let's sign off, man. And I'm just gonna sign off like we always do, like we always do. God bless and peace out. Peach out. We're out of the way.