Sunday 27th Sept - Change of plan - Oceanside Ranger twist

This week was supposed to be an inland ride of 82 miles with 3368 of climbing, but we were having exceptionally hot weather so at the last minute the route was changed to San Clemente and back.

I had been in Germany the week before, so flew back on the Saturday - which is 23 hrs door to door, which meant that getting up and driving to the start at 5 am was not high on my list -- so I decided to ride and meet the group on the way up the coast for the start of what I thought was the Ranger twist. I soon found out that the ride was through Camp Pendleton - which meant I needed my drivers license -- which of course I didn't have.

I was hoping that as part of a group (all wearing the same outfit) that we could talk to the sentry and get on -- we were able to do that but I was wondering for the next few hours what would happen if I couldn't get back on the return- I knew the only option was to ride I5 on the shoulder - not that was that appealing :-). We had done this ride before and a couple decided to turn around and cut it short. I wanted the miles though and so with a mixture of some of group 3 and 4 we continued North.

On the return, I started to feel the effects of the traveling and week before. Mainly it was dehydration, I just couldn't seem to get enough fluid in me. I really started to fade after about 60 miles and kept going the best I could. I was determined to get 80 miles out of it .. so continued down with Francesca until I felt that I would have the 80 once I did the U turn.

I then headed North on my own and made it home in not the best shape! If you look at the numbers it looks something like this:

80.27 mi
Elevation Gain:
2,886 ft
Calories:
4,823 C
Avg HR: 145 bpm
Max HR: 181 bpm

It's funny, when we started this, an 80 mile ride would have seen enormous -- and if it had not been for the dehydration this would have been fine. It just shows how the training program is working.

Was fun to get to know some of the group 3 riders too