Great Western

This weekend I will miss the ride as I have a work event in Los Angeles. Mixed feelings as it is a great event, but will miss a ride that I normally wouldn't do as it is way out in East County. I will also miss seeing my friends in Gp 4. The ride is supposed to be a tough series of climbs, although only 40 mile in length. Altogether 4K plus of climb and it is forecast to be hot out there this weekend.
I went for a training ride thos morning and included Torrey Pines. Although I never did the "offfical" time trial, I did one of my own before I started this. Today, despite losing my chain at the bottom - which was at least 45 seconds, I shaved over a minute off my prior time without going hard at all. I think if I pushed it I could really take sometime off. Torrey pines is an interesting hill as it is long and relatively steep and somewhat locally reveered.

I added some miles at the end to round out to 40 with about 2K of climb. So not quite what I would have got tomorrow, but enough to keep fitness hopefully. Off to Europe on business next week so no riding, but back for the Oceanside ranger twist, one of 3 remaining training rides. It's getting close!

Back to Back Century's - Solana Beach to Palos Verdes

This was to be a good test of what fitness we have gained or not gained. A ride up the coast to Palos Verdes (Los Angeles) and back -- with an overnight stay. For many a "century" in riding is like a marathon in running - except you get to do it sitting down. More on that later.

We assembled in Solana Beach and I left the car there overnight-- with the window half down. I found out that a certain series of key strokes on my car key leads to a "3/4 drivers window open command" -- only I found it out on my return. It says alot for the town of Solana Beach that NOTHING was taken! Thank you!

I had had my bike serviced the Thursday before and I was eager to ride it as I had had some mechanical issues on the test ride the Friday before --

We headed North up the usual coastal route to Oceanside. Easy pace as we knew we had a long day and even longer weekend. It was nice cool morning and the group had a couple of guest riders from Gp 3- Brian and Alex -- Brian and I later shared our favorite Ali G moments!


In the "house" from Gp 4 was Hooter and Diane, Julie LS, Julie R and Dr Bob, Cowboy, Brent Snr, Wayne new guy, Calloway Rob, Rob M, David L - I don't think I forgot anyone!

Jodi and Efran didnt make it this week and Anne and Shelby were otherwise engaged.

Up through Camp Pendleton and then San Clemente, where we ran into the OCW's Amtrak Century - which I always wanted to do but 100 seemed a lot of miles-- now in the next 24 hrs we were looking a 2x that !

SAG 1 was in the campsite so after quick food, fluid and sunblock we continued North. Again these stops are critical and always staffed by volunteers

The beach cities, Dana Point, Laguana, Huntington, Newport and Seal were challenging just due to traffic and all the stop lights. It is hard to keep building up speed, slowing, stopping, unclipping etc as it becomes more like interval training

I had my new Garmin for turn by turn but haven't really got in the groove for using it yet so I got directions but was off on Heart Rate and distance to go so it was hard to judge was I going to fast etc.

SAG 2 was lunch at the Pier in Huntington Beach and real food tasted really good ! Dave L ran into a guy who just applied for a CAF grant the day before -- he saw our CAF trooper and pulled in as we arrived !!

Long Beach is a part that is less than scenic and by now it was HOT-- refuel stop at a gas station and everyone was just anxious to get the to hotel. David L in his handcycle got a flat - but was behind us with a few of the rest of the group. This is no small feat to change as he is reliant on the hand cycle he is sitting in, the wheel is attached to that and it is a glue on one too-- we waited until we knew it was ok and then headed for the last 13 miles of climb up into Palos Verdes.

Mainly uneventful up the climb, despite one lady driver missing me by inches as she made the left turn on the cell phone-- isn't there a law against that ? :-). Luckily, I was going up hill so not a lot of speed... doesn't bear thinking about had I been descending.

I watched the computer click over to 100! and thought wow I just did my first century. Total mileage for the day was 103 - 5 short of London to Brighton and back!

The hotel was a new resort - which we got an amazing rate at - to my donors - no funds go to this ! -- a strange site watching all these lycra clad, sun blocked, dusty bodies tramp through the lobby with their bikes, pass the wedding party!

After an amazing shower, we had a nice dinner on the patio overlooking the pacific as the sun went down. Original plan was for the family to drive up and meet me and stay over but soccer and life stopped that-- so I had the chance to meet some of the riders from other groups over dinner-- it was cool

I didn't make it up too late and woke up every couple of hours during the night as you do when you have an early flight to catch!

On Sunday am we assembled to leave at 7 am-- It was a nice cool morning and a short steep climb up out of the hotel woke everyone up.

The first part of the ride was out through the rolling hills of Palos Verdes back down to the 7/11 from yesterday -- out through Wilmington where the smell of breakfast burrito's was making us all hungry we continued to Long Beach and to Polly's where they make fresh pastries.

We tracked very much the same route home and other than Rob's spokes breaking we were lucky on mechanical on the way home. The Garmin was sort of working -- I'll figure bugs out this week! and the numbers at the end of the days were:


Sundays Numbers

Time: 07:14:36
Distance: 105.08 mi
Elevation Gain: 4,174 ft
Calories: 6,018 C
Avg Speed: 14.5 mph
Max Speed: 34.2 mph

Avg HR: 118 bpm
Max HR: 156 bpm

What was really nice was we were riding through the campsite and Camp Pendelton late Sunday afternoon and there was very little traffic and it was a beautiful late summers day - can't really describe it -- other than it was really nice.

People were starting to feel the weekend and I know for me the Oceanside to Solana Beach part was very much an "are we there yet" kind of session. A fast ride through Carlsbad and then the welcome faces of Tina and Vikki met us at the cove.

I stopped at Starbucks on the drive home and enjoyed a very cold Strawberry / Banana Vivvano -- and it tasted really good. After cleaning up and putting on fresh clothes I felt human again.

This weekend was a good test of the longer days on the ride and having done it -- I still know that those days will be very challenging but feel that it is not out of the question -- this was a big check mark on the training progress.

Elfin Forest Training Ride

A local favorite, the Elfin Forest ride is a mixture of rolling hills through Harmony Grove and the famous (or infamous ) Del Dios Highway. It was a shorter than normal training ride but none the less both fun and challenging. I decided to ride to the start of the ride in Solana Beach so that - depending on time I could still make my daughters soccer game at 11:30. I left the house at about 6:15 am in the dark and rode the first 13 miles or so hoping cars could see me and that I didn't find a pothole in the dark that I didn't know about. The nice thing about this weekend is that is a little cooler than previous weeks so that was going to help.

I had cheated a little and done the ride the prior day - in the reverse direction and although it was a little less steep the way I did it, it was good to get 50 in the day before so that in essence I was able to do back to back 50's with about 3200 feet of climbing on both days in preparation for the back to back 100's next week -- that have just a little less climbing (2900 ish). That one promises to be an interesting weekend!

The EF ride was nice.. I forgot to eat breakfast but managed to grab a Cliff bar at the Java Depot as it opened so wasn't on "empty". Group 4 was a mixture of some new faces with some "regulars" and it was nice to see Julie back - first time I had rode with her since Palomar, Diane and Hooter -- our fearless leaders were there and Effran, Rob M from the Radio contest, Cowboy, Webby, Brent Senior, Kristine and some "new faces"-- mood was light and jovial as we headed out. No Anne, Shelby or Jodi this week - Jodi recovering from an indepth conversation with the corner wall on the bike path last week. She wasn't too badly hurt, but a little banged up and I heard she is planning to be back for the big weekend.

It is funny how you get into a rhythm with a group and at first we struggled to get the right "running order" as we went east on via de valle-- with a couple of near misses with cars for some of the group. Once we got onto the Rancho Santa Fe track though we all sorted out the spacing etc and got into the 'groove". I chatted with Alex, the Radio contestant from Group 3 who 4 weeks earlier had shoulder surgery for the fall on Palomar. Very brave of him to comeback so soon and I can't help feeling he will be one of the final few in the Radio Contest.

Got to chat with Julie a bit (mainly about the health care debate ::-) ) and spent sometime with Kristine talking about riding "bubbles"

Del Dios was hard but with the cooler temps and being a little fitter -- and knowing what to expect - didn't seem nearly as hard as last time -- I think a large part of that was the temps but it was still pretty humid

After a very quick SAG stop we enjoyed a fast (20mph) roll through Elfin Forest into San Elijo hills. We waited for the back of the group - 2 flats that Diane had to deal with -- Pretty straight forward to the coast and looking at the time I was able to turn north and leave the group to do the part I had done earlier that morning. I rode the 5 or so miles home and rounded out the 50... legs a little sore this am but rode a "recovery" 35 this am to bring the grand F-M total to 170 miles.

Ran into a friend who was riding on the way home so rode the last few miles with him and his friend.

Next week will be the challenge and given I was fighting saddle sores this week, I am going to take it easy this week, get the bike serviced and save some legs for the weekend. I will try to get one spin class and maybe a light ride on Friday in.

Looking forward to the LA trip