Sunday was my birthday; and like past years I once again set out on a big ride to celebrate. The extra hour of sleep from the ending of Daylight Savings Time helped a bit, plus it was already light by 6am. The goal was to head out to Rancho San Diego and meet up with the Sunday crew for a training ride up the Great Western. First was a quick stop in Linda Vista for an apple fritter - hey, it's my birthday right? No such luck, all out and not even 7am yet, so with empty stomach I headed east.
I made a quick coffee stop @ Cosmos Coffee in La Mesa, coming out just in time to see newly retired Kelly rider Neil Shirley heading out for a ride... here's wishing him good luck on his next adventure! On the way to the meeting place I ran into Phil and rode with him the rest of the way. I hadn't seen him in a while so it was great to get caught up again.
There was a pretty big group waiting at in Rancho San Diego for the start of the ride, Riders from the Cyclovets, Cal Pools/Dewalt, the USA National Team, and other assorted bike nuts all milled about and waited to Todd to pull them together. After a few comments and direction we pulled out and headed up Willow Glen to Dehesa.
The 5% grade of Dehesa signaled the first training interval: seating big gear climbing; which meant for me using my 53x14 @ about 55 rpm. Painful, but it felt good to get back to pushing big gears after spinning for most of the year. Over this interval Dehesa gains about 800' over 3.2 miles. After regrouping at the top, we started the second interval; Standing big gear 53x13. Smiley faces painted on the asphalt let you know when to stand or sit. This stretched for 4.6 miles and climbed an additional 1120'.
We regrouped and turned right on Lyons Valley and headed back to "Four Corners." Whenever the road tilted up we did Low Cadence ILT intervals. After the first two sets of standing intervals, switching to ILT's proved somewhat painful, but it'll pay off later. There's was another regroup at Four Corners. Instead of waiting to participate in "Anarchy" ( a series of race pace attacks and chases back to Rancho Santa Fe) Rigo, Don, Bobby and I rolled through and dropped down Skyline and Mexican Canyon. We hit the long drag to the flashing light sprint pretty hard and did a fair amount of work.
At the bottom Don and Bobby headed back up for "Extra Credit" while Rigo and I tried to find some water. At the 7-11 I ran into Mike (RAW rider and ultra distance rider extraordinaire) and Janel (USA National Team) and headed back up Mexican Canyon for some "Extra Credit." I was good to get caught up with Mike as well, sounds like he's gearing up for a solo assult on RAAM in a year or two - crazy stuff. We made a loop up Lyons Valley and back the way we came. Back in Rancho Santa Fe we hooked back up with Don and Bobby and headed back to Mission Hills.
The final damage for Sunday's ride was 101 miles with over 7000' of climbing. A great way to spend your brithday.
