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.