I work remotely on a team that decided to take a long lunch to go see the new Superman movie today. Instead of messing around while everyone was gone, I decided to try the same route again, but this time take Pomerado all the way to Ted Williams, then jump onto the bike trail when it becomes the freeway. I don’t think I liked it as much as the other way for multiple reasons, so I doubt I’ll go that way again.

Weather Underground made me expect to have a big tailwind on my way up Del Dios Highway today, but it certainly didn’t feel like it. I was pushing myself really hard and I wasn’t doing that much better than usual. The wind did pick up later, giving me a nice headwind all through Poway and especially as I headed back along the 56 bike trail.

I spent a lot of time fighting with my bike today. It is in dire need of a tune-up. For the past few weeks I haven’t been able to shift into my second largest gear on the back. Any attempt to do so would cause phantom shifting up and down between 1 and 2 or 2 and 3, depending on which direction you came from in your attempt to go into that gear. I still have that problem, but now I have an even worse problem. Sometimes when I shift down to that gear from 3rd (since I can’t go to second), it acts like I’ve dropped my chain. The derailer collects a bunch of chain and then releases it all at once skipping the gear completely. It’s very strange and makes it very frustrating trying to climb. Also my chain does actually drop from time to time. I had to put it back on 3 times today. That’s way too many.

I don’t think I’ll ride again until I get it tuned up. It’s way too frustrating, and I’m way too much of a psychological rider. Maybe I can get Charmaine to take it to the shop while I’m out of town next week. That would be perfect.

So taking Pomerado all the way to Ted Williams turned out to be a bust. The light at the intersection of Pomerado and Twin Peaks took 6 full minutes. That’s one of the longest lights I have ever seen. It’s insane. My legs were completely tight by the time I needed to ride again. It was terrible. But that wasn’t the worst part of my plan.

When Ted Williams crosses I-15 it becomes a freeway. I knew this, but I also knew that the 56 bike trail goes all the way to I-15. I thought I would take Ted Williams across I-15 and then cross Ted Williams on a crosswalk to get on the bike trail. Wrong. There is no crosswalk. As soon as I rode across the bridge over I-15 there was a big sign saying bikes were prohibited. There was no crosswalk. There was no way back. I was not impressed. I finally managed to cross when the light changed for one of the off-ramps to cross (they could only go straight or left, so I knew they wouldn’t turn and hit me). Needless to say, I won’t be trying that again. Besides, I think I actually liked the ride over Paseo Lucido/Carmel Mountain better.