It's been a bit crazy lately, a job change (one that I'm very excited about) has meant that I've been more focused on work than riding. But a few weeks ago I managed to carve out some time a began to ride with purpose.  I really want to upgrade this year, so time to focus.

To that end I've been doing the Sunday Great Western Ride with some of the Cyclo-Vets and Todd from Cal Pools / Dewalt.  We've been concentrating on on the bike strength training which means a lot of turning a 53x15 gear at 50 rpm up 8% grades... not a lot of fun, but it definitely makes you stronger.

This past Sunday, Todd mixed it up a bit with a surprise ride up Kitchen Creek instead of the usual Great Western Loop.  Kitchen Creek is a local climb up Laguna Mountain - it gains 2600' in just under 12 miles.  Portions of it are pretty steep, but it averages about 4% over the entire distance.  It's a great ride, tough, but with fantastic views and a closed road that begins in the sage desert and tops out in the pine forests.  Awesome.

The group was meeting at the park n ride just off the 8 / Descanto exit around 10:00 Sunday morning.  I decided to add a little "extra credit" and ride up from Rancho San Diego, doing the first leg of the Great Western and adding around 3000' of climbing and 50 miles to my daily total.  It was a peaceful ride up, I tried to keep the effort low, realizing what lay ahead.  I was also trying out some new nutrition products from Honey Stinger and Hammer Nutrition (seriously, I think I could live on the Honey Waffles alone...).  I have to say that the Hammer  Sustain really works!

The climb up Dehesa was nice, and on the trip up Japatul it got quite a bit warmer and windier.  Just after "the wall" (never noticed the tin name plate before...) I caught up to a couple of the guys riding up from Alpine and joined them for the rest of the trip to the park n ride.

The rest of the riders were prepping their bikes when we rolled in.   After some talk, and some begging for water off of Todd, we were ready to head out.  We dropped down Old Hwy 80 towards Descanto and then began to climb to Pine Valley.  A couple of guys pushed the pace a bit, so I sat in - I was already starting to feel it a bit in my legs.  After riding through Pine Valley we regrouped at the I-8 overpass and then continued down Old Hwy 80, through the border check and on to Kitchen Creek Road (I forgot to turn on my Garmin - so no data on this portion of the trip).  We regrouped at the driveway just past the overpass.

Todd suggested that if we hadn't already done so that we should treat the climb as a Time Trial, that way have gauge for future improvement.  With nearly 5000' of elevation gain in my legs by this point, I thought I'd just play it by ear.  A rider from the Cash Call team had passed shortly before we left as a group and as we hit the road he was a good 400-500m up ahead.  I set a goal for trying to catch him, not that he knew we were racing, but...

We rode straight into a head wind.  Not the way you want to start a climb like this, but we couldn't complain too much, It was Nov 26th and 70 degrees out... gotta love San Diego.  The first few miles of Kitchen Creek are a series of fairly steep ramps.  I tried to keep my heart rate below threshold, and spin an easier gear, it seemed to work and I slowly spun away from my fellow riders and chased after the local pro.  I never really got that much closer, but I have to admit that I am almost too happy that I never really fell behind - I held my own on my one sided "race."

After cresting the initial climb you quickly drop down into a small valley, with a creek flowing through it, and the the climb starts in earnest. The road runs along the creek and after a mile or so, doubles back on itself. A small dirt path to the left of the security gate allows you access to the rest of the closed road as it winds upward and back into the headwind.  It was shortly after this that I began to feel some soreness in my legs, I also was pushing hard through this section, maybe a bit too hard and began to exceed my threshold.  I tried to back off but it was hard to slow my heart down.  Eventually I calmed it down and was able to increase the pace a bit, but it definitely affected the rest of the trip up.

The views from this portion of the road are fantastic, looking to the left you could see all the way to the Pacific - it was actually that clear, to the right the Anza Borrego - fantastic.  After topping this rise I once again drop down a hundred feet or so and climbed up through another security gate, just on the other side was an empty Border Patrol Jeep.  As I passed by I hear some rustling in the sage on the edge of the road, some of the guys who passed by later said that they saw a couple of machine gun toting Border Patrol Agents emerging from the those same bushes.

Towards the top of Kitchen Creek the wheels started to come off for me,  my heart rate dropped about 10 beats per minute and I felt like I had almost no energy.  As I entered the pine forest that signaled that final mile or two of the climb I significantly slowed down.  I ground through the find climb using every bit of my 39x28 and crested exhausted in just over 68 minutes.  Not a fantastic time (I think the record is somewhere around 51 minutes) but one I'll take this early in the year especially considering the length of the ride up and that I'm carrying about 8 extra pounds (that's worth an extra 4 minutes over 1 hr right???).

After waiting for the rest of the group to arrive the trip back was mostly characterized by my just barely hanging on to the last guys wheel.  A few of us took the I-8 short cut back to Alpine, and after saying good bye I dropped down Harbison  Canyon and into Rancho San Diego - dreaming of a hot shower and some food, only to find my car battery was dead... good times :).

All in all it was a 97 mile trip with just over 8500' of climbing.  Best ride yet of the season.