Normally I would have been in the pool today, soaking up the sun. But there was no sun today. Instead, it was cold and dark outside. I decided to skip the swim and spend a little time riding my bike. I need to be riding more than a hundred miles a week if I’m going to ride the double-century STP in a reasonable amount of time this summer. So I was happy to put in a couple hours on the bike.

It rained last night and the remnants of the storm were everywhere. I was getting blasted with wind in my face coming off the ocean almost from the very start. I was dodging the occasional puddle. There was little chance I would overheat today, even on the big climbs. In fact, my knees got pretty cold several times throughout the ride.

But it was still a great day to ride.

https://app.strava.com/activities/49003196

I did the ultimate out-and-back today. I headed down El Camino Real to Carmel Valley Road, then up to the 101 and straight north through Del Mar, Solana Beach, Cardiff, Encinitas, Leucadia, and most of Carlsbad. When I got to Carlsbad Village Drive, I headed east for a bit. I was looking for a good way to loop back to the 101. I didn’t find anything great, but that’s what I get for not having a plan. I did loop around and find my way back to the 101 at Carlsbad Village Drive.

Heading south I took a few minor detours off the 101. I stayed on the 101 through Carlsbad, but then moved over to Vulcan Ave through Encinitas. I dropped back down to the 101 along the strand and up into Solana Beach, but then headed quickly west to avoid all the construction they have going on that side of the street. I cam back to the 101 for the climb up through Del Mar, then headed east on Carmel Valley Road and right back up El Camino Real.

I was pretty tired by the end. I noticed that my handlebars are not aligned perfectly with my front tire. That probably happened when I crashed on the big ride last week. I’ll have to fix it. I also had my hamstrings tighten up a few times and I wondered if my seat was slightly too low.

It was another amazing day today. The weather was perfect. The pool was open, but I decided not to swim. What?!? It was a tough decision, but I need time in the saddle if I’m going to have any chance of completing Seattle to Portland in one day. So I decided to ride instead.

https://app.strava.com/activities/48240365

My legs were feeling a little shaky from the 10k run I did yesterday, so I figured I wouldn’t go too far or too fast… just get some time in the seat. I didn’t have a real plan for where to ride, but I thought I would go ride up Torrey Pines and then come back. On the way down El Camino Real, I was feeling really slow. I was pedaling pretty hard, but it felt like I wasn’t able to go very fast. I wondered if I had a break pad rubbing. No, my legs were just jello from the run yesterday (really from taking so much time off and then doing that run). So I decided not to do the Torrey Pines hill climb and just turned north into Del Mar along the 101.

I started feeling stronger as I made my way through Del Mar and up into Solana Beach. I was still taking it easy, but I really enjoyed the salty sea air. When I hit Cardiff, I turned off the 101 and rode along Vulcan. I always ride Vulcan south, but this was my first time riding it north. It’s a whole different animal going north. The road is really rough and I kept thinking I may lose a tire or two. I’ll stick to the 101 going north through Encinitas from now on.

Somewhere around the power plant in Carlsbad a guy on a bike with a small gas motor passed me. I wasn’t happy about it. He wasn’t pedaling at all, except going up hills. I decided I was going to pass him back. He wouldn’t expect it. I pushed hard and made up a lot of distance on the flats, but he was able to keep me at bay on the climbs. I made a big run on one of the climbs and caught up to him as we approached a light that was turning yellow then red. The other side of the light was a descent. I knew I would blow right past him on that descent. But then he ran the red light. I wasn’t stupid enough to follow that lead, so I waited a full minute before I started trying to catch up to him again. I did finally catch up and draft behind him for a while before passing him. He turned east shortly after that, so I don’t know how long I would have stayed in front, but it didn’t matter. I won. I wound up setting a bunch of PRs on the segments where I was chasing him down.

When I got to Oceanside there was a strong wind coming in from the ocean. I thought I could use it to my advantage and head up the bike trail along the river. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to get to the bike trail. The road I was on either got on the freeway or turned into a bridge over the river. I tried a bunch of ways to get down to the river trail, eventually turning around and giving up, only to find a sign with directions on how to get there. I was right about being able to use the wind. I flew up the river trail averaging well over 20 mph. That was really fun. But then I was at the top faced with a decision about how to get back home. Should I fight the wind and head back to the ocean? That didn’t sound fun. Should I head up through Vista and San Marcos? That sounded like a lot of work too, but that’s what I decided to do.

Somewhere along the way I thought I had missed the turn I wanted to take. It was my first time riding the loop this direction, and I didn’t remember the names of the roads or the distances between them. Eventually I saw a road that looked pretty big, so I turned. It wasn’t the right choice. I got lost. I turned to Google Maps for help. It wanted me to climb a huge hill. I decided to try something else. I got lost some more. I found my way to several dead-end streets where I had to turn around to get out. Eventually I worked my way through some really nice sections of Carlsbad and found El Camino again. I rode that south to La Costa and stopped at a gas station for a refill.

I checked my phone. It was already 5:00! I had wasted a lot of time climbing, getting lost, etc. I texted Charmaine to see if she wanted to ride home with me. I figured I was far enough south of Oceanside now that she would be passing by sooner or later (unless she took the train). I didn’t hear back, so I rode La Costa out to Vulcan and texted again. Still nothing. I called and left a voicemail. No response. I took that as a sign she was not on the train and was actually riding. I decided to head south along Vulcan going slow. She would eventually catch up to me.

I stopped when I got the train station in Encinitas. I had a bunch of texts and missed calls from Charmaine. She left work a little early and had already ridden all the way to Solana Beach where she was waiting for me. I tried to hurry, but I was wasted. I had already ridden almost 60 miles on nothing but water and shot blocks. We rode slowly through the back roads of Solana Beach and then down through Del Mar.

We tried a new way home that was sort of interesting. Instead of going all the way through Del Mar and then up Carmel Valley the way we normally did, we turned east on Del Mar Heights road and then cut into the neighborhood to the south. It was still a steep climb, and I was still wasted. At one point I was trying to start climbing and get clipped in, but my left foot would not clip in. I was pushing pretty hard and managed to tip myself over to the left. I successfully unclipped my right shoe as I went down, but I still went down. The crank rolled over my right calf, then scraped it and stuck in a second time. That was fun. I think it’s the first time I’ve crashed while moving. I wasn’t going very fast, but it still wasn’t great. I had to realign some pieces of my handlebar and check everything before finishing the ride.

I was quick to point out that despite riding way more miles than I originally planned, and despite the crash, it was still a great ride and much better than spending the afternoon sitting in front of a computer working.

After about a year of researching, test-riding, researching, etc. Charmaine pulled the trigger and bought a new bike. She narrowed it down to a Trek Madone or a Specialized Ruby. She had done several test-rides with each, but never at the same time. No cycling shop (that she could find) carries both brands. So she rented the Trek for a day and took it to the Specialized shop. Finally she rode a few loops with each of her favorite bikes and realized right away there was a clear winner for her… the Specialized. After a good fitting, some adjustments to the bike, some adjustments to her shoes, etc. She was ready to ride the Kitchen Creek loop today.

Let me just say that I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. We had originally planned to meet up with Ryan and Julie at their camp site on the shore of Lake Morena and ride from there. But after we arrived in the morning, we decided to adjust the route a little to avoid riding along Buckman Springs road on the south side of I-8. It’s a 55 MPH zone with narrow lanes and no bike lane. Also there was quite a bit of traffic on it and nobody was going below 60. That’s not ideal, so we cut it from the ride.

Instead of leaving from their camp, we parked our car at the rest stop where Buckman Springs Road meets I-8 at Exit 51. From there we took Old highway 80 around to where it meets Kitchen Creek Road where we started our ascent. I didn’t give my legs a day off this week, and I could tell on that ascent. Charmaine was also discovering that the new insoles in her shoes and the new geometry of her new bike were causing her to use her muscles in a slightly different way. Bottom line: we were hurting. Ryan, on the other hand, was a climbing machine, but he was kind enough to wait for us from time to time so we could all stay together.

After about 8 miles there was a sign that said, “Pavement ends 400 feet”. Suddenly I wondered if we were even on the right road. I hadn’t paid any attention whatsoever to our planned route. I had no idea how much climbing there would be or what roads we were supposed to take, etc. Luckily, the pavement didn’t end. The two lane road ended and there was a gate. Beyond the gate was a narrow single-lane road about the width of a golf cart. It seems that it’s only used by cyclists. Suddenly the ride became awesome.

Still showing my lack of understanding for what was in store, I started snapping pictures with my phone of the road leading up to where we were. In my mind the top was just around the next corner. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The golf-cart sized road seemed to go on forever, and almost always up. Every now and then it would flatten out and even descend a few tens of feet before heading right back into another climb. The climb wasn’t steep, but it just kept going. I think we climbed about 14 miles straight before we finally hit the top. But it was awesome in the true meaning of the word. We took our time, stopping often to take more pictures, drink more water, and just rest our weary legs (in my case, at least). It was great.

Then we came to the other gate. We had climbed from 3200 to 5800 feet with almost no flat spots and almost no descents during the climb. The narrow lane of Kitchen Creek Road was in pretty bad shape. It would be dangerous and probably stupid to ride this loop the other direction (descending Kitchen Creek instead of ascending it). But I wondered what the descent would be like on the Sunshine Highway. I didn’t wonder for long.

Within minutes we were down. It took 2 hours to make the ascent and only a few minutes to make our way back down to the car. The Sunshine Highway isn’t in the greatest condition, but it’s a big road and I found myself going faster than 40 MPH on several occasions. That descent was really fun.

We rode back to the rest stop along Old highway 80. I was surprised to see a checkpoint setup by Border Patrol on that road. At first I didn’t know what to make of it, but they didn’t care a bit about me (I was heading towards Mexico and not coming from Mexico). I had made the descent a little faster than everyone else (finally being bigger pays off), so I just made my way to the car and waited for everyone else to get back. That was a great ride.

https://app.strava.com/activities/45549744

After uploading my ride to Strava I noticed that my heart rate monitor crapped out on me about 40 minutes in to the ride. I’m not sure what happened, but I’m not too impressed. I’ve been having a really hard time getting my phone to see the monitor. I have to unpair and repair it via bluetooth almost each time I use it. That doesn’t seem right to me. But still, I had a really good time on the ride today.