Good Week

I pushed it pretty hard this week and managed to increase the hours and the miles. Wednesday was the usual ride with the Cyclovets in east county. Friday was a series of trips up Mt. Soledad. Saturday was another ride with the "vets." Sunday was a circuit around San Diego County.

19hrs 23min

262 miles

14,600' climbing

Friday: Five sides of Soledad

Yesterday was a slow climbing day up the local hill. 5 times up and down Mt. Soledad. Two and a half hours, really easy pace. It was another amazing day in San Diego.

Mmmmm!!!!

We may have a new favorite..... review coming soon. Lucha Libre Taco Shop.

Saturday Ride

This morning I was able to meet up with some of the Cyclo-Vets and join their Saturday Morning Ride. They meet down in Mission Valley @ the Coffee Bean around 8:30. The route is the same as the Chilli's Ride, but the stronger riders (or just those of us who trick ourselves into thinking we're strong) add a brisk climb up Torrey Pines for good measure. Since it can be a bit harder (In my opinion) I usually ride with this group, plus if Arnie's there I can pick his brain.

I rode to the start a bit early and downed an espresso and was able to read the UT before the group started to line up. If the weather's good (read, no chance of rain) there's usually a pretty good size group, today was sunny and clear, so there were nearly 60 at the start. We ride out past Fashion Valley to Morena Blvd picking up speed as we approach Santa Fe and Rose Canyon. Phil was putting in some work at the front, when Don joined him the group lined up behind and pinned it towards the Rose Creek bike path. There's a brief rise before we enter the bike path and Phil pushed hard up it, Don followed and I struggled to keep his wheel.

We regroup at the top of La Jolla Colony Drive, near Doyle Park, but it is a sprint to the top, and a painful one at that. Phil is obviously feeling strong and led all the way.

At the park the group splits into 3 groups, each with a slightly different route catering to their specific training needs, so a much smaller group of us rode out to do the Torey Pines climb. We headed through the UCSD medical complex and down into Sorrento Valley. After a hard effort climbing back out of Sorrento Valley and dropping into Carmel Valley we headed west towards the coast.

Phil, Don, Steve and I turned left towards Black's Beach and began the climb up Torrey Pines, passing a rider from Moment Cyclesport spinning up the hill doing ILT's! (A better man than I...). Phil ready was pushing the pace, a bit harder than I wished, and frankly a bit harder than I could do, so half way up I dropped off the back. Phil set the pace all the way up until Steve and Don attacked. Man, everyone is amazingly strong already this season... better get to work! At the top Steve said he averaged 348 watts up the climb, and at 148 lbs. that's a fair amount. Chapeau!

The other guys decided to make it a short day so that left Phil and I to drop back down into Sorrento Valley and climb up Carrol Canyon. We kept the pace slow and had a good talk all the way past Miramar and into Kearney Mesa. Phil's a treasure trove of race and training information, as well as being the California State TT Champion and an all-around good guy. It was a good ride back.

In Kearney Mesa, Phil turned back and headed out to Ramona for a few more climbing miles, while I headed out to Point Loma to do some hill repeats on Cabrillo Monument. After another quick espresso stop I climbed up to the naval base, paid my $3 and dropped down Cabrillo Road and did 9 repeats up the 7%, 340' grade - meant to do 10 but miss counted. By number 8 I was ready to go home.

All in all it was a great day.

6:08 hrs

88.6 miles

5900' climbing

HRavg: 130bmp

Murrieta Circuit Race Photos

Tour of Murrieta: Day Three

Day three came a bit early, the first morning of daylight savings time meant a mighty cold start as well - 35 degrees. After a pre-race espresso (unfortunately, from Starbucks) I made my way to the race. I gave the course a quick ride to warm up, debated about how much clothing to wear, and then lined up at the start. The race was a 3.5 mile rectangular circuit, a slightly rolling downhill straight followed by a hard right to a false flat; another right with a short, steep uphill that led to some climbing rollers; another right led back into town and to a series of streets that stair-stepped back to the start.

The first couple of the 10 laps were pretty fast, each becoming faster until the 3rd which was the fastest of the race @ 25 mph. I found myself sitting at the back of the group following wheels, I just wanted to finish the race without crashing, so wound up doing more work than I should have. It was a hard race for me, way out of shape for sure.

On the last lap, five riders tried to enter one of the final turns at the same time, one of their tires blew off the rim and took out 10 guys. The field split and I pulled in at 19Th place.

One more down.

Tour of Murrieta: Day Two

Day two of the Tour of Murrieta was an "L"-shaped criterium around the Murrieta Library and School. Turns five and six transitioned from asphalt to brick and then back to asphalt again and proved to be somewhat slick. The corners were relatively wide and with the exceptions of a few poorly placed manholes the course was pretty safe. And even through most of the race the guys were riding pretty smooth, no diving into the inside of corners, everyone holding their line, nobody doing anything too dangerous.

From the gun it was pretty fast, in fact for the first half the guys were all flying, absolutely flying. Four laps in I was gasping for air. Things settled down a bit until five laps to go, the pace picked up and the group strung out. I started to move up with three laps to go, taking corner 4 wide and fast and slinging up through the group. With one lap to go I ran through the turn full out and sped up the inside.

The sound of carbon meeting pavement happen just to the right and a few riders up from me as a couple of racers hit the deck. The guys next to me tried to avoid the crash and swung right into me. Somehow we both stayed up, the riders in front of the crash all sprinted away, while us behind tried to miss the carnage.

The group was strung out to the line with myself soft pedaling in 15th place.

Some Data for the race:

Max HR: 198 bpm

Avg HR: 183 bpm

Max Speed: 33 mph

Avg Speed: 25 mph

Avg Cad: 85 rpm

Tour of Murrieta: Day One

Friday morning was the first day of the Tour of Murrieta, which wound up being a 20K Time Trial around Fiesta Island, go figure. Start time was 7:02 for me - fourth one off, so I arrived by 6:15 am to grab my number and get warmed up.

I pulled out my trainer, my I-Pod and proceeded to spin out the legs. I'd be riding the Time Trial without the benefit of a proper TT bike, or even aero bars, so really wasn't looking for a fast time.

After my knee injury I didn't want to push too hard, the strength isn't there, plus the time off the bike has slowed my fitness somewhat. No sense in overextending myself, just get some training in before the Omnium.

I felt pretty relaxed as I rolled up to the start, that was until I realized that I was about 3 minutes late - number 511 was rolling out and I was 504. So I wound up being DFL. Hmmm, not a good start.