I chose to ride instead of run at lunch today. Part of that is because I need to put in more miles to prepare for STP in July. I think the Strava Junedoggle challenge may have played a role as well. No matter what got me to do it, I’m glad I did.

I decided to try the 3 Witches climb at the end of San Dieguito Road. I have heard a few people talk about it, but I’ve always turned off San Dieguito at El Apajo to head north. Today I didn’t turn. I rode San Dieguito all the way to the top, then headed south on Camino Del Sur until I hit Carmel Valley Road. I took that to Del Mar Heights Road and took that the rest of the way home.

It was really windy today. It was blasting me as I headed down El Camino towards San Dieguito. I wasn’t sure if it would be a cross wind or a tail wind until I made the turn onto San Dieguito. The wind was at my back and I used it. I wondered if I could beat the time we set going up San Dieguito as a group last Saturday. I pushed hard all the way to El Apajo. I knew I didn’t have anything to compare against past that, so I let myself relax a bit. Well… I was dead tired and the road starts the 3 Witches climb right there, so there really wasn’t much rest to be had. But I did slow down quite a bit and didn’t push myself quite as hard.

The climb itself wasn’t that bad. There was some construction going on, and I found myself riding next to a concrete barrier part of the time. I don’t remember if that was on San Dieguito or after I turned south on Camino Del Sur, but it’s amazing how much motivation a concrete barrier can motivate you to ride fast until you’re past it.

When I turned onto Carmel Valley Road, it was like turning into a wind tunnel. I was going down a steep hill, but had to peddle hard to keep moving. Then when it changed to a hill climb, I had no strength and even less motivation. The wind stayed in my face all the way home.

It was still a really fun ride. I’m sure I’ll do that same loop again sometime in the near future.

Charmaine changed her work schedule so that she’s through with work early in the afternoon on Mondays. This means I try to finish my own work a little early so we can go for a quick ride before it gets dark. That’s exactly what we did tonight.

There was a pretty good wind blowing from the west which helped push us up the trail, but was really in our faces on the way back. It didn’t matter too much, because we were mostly just taking it easy. Charmaine was practicing staying on my wheel and I was practicing blocking the wind. I don’t really need to practice that; it just sort of happens naturally. We pushed a few times, but mostly just had a nice relaxing ride.

On the way back, we took Carmel Mountain Road from Rancho Peñasquitos. I think we were hoping it would connect us to Camino Del Sur, but instead it wrapped us back around to the 56 Bike Trail, which was also fine.

This morning we met up with Ryan and hooked up with the San Diego Bike Club for a skill development ride. We practiced paceline rotation along San Dieguito Road. It was interesting riding with the group. There were all sorts of skill levels in the group. Most the group was pretty good, but there were a few guys that were wobbly. One guy was wearing a bag over one shoulder and would swerve all over the place when he would shift his bag back up when it fell down. Despite that, it was a pretty good ride. We had a lot of fun.