After Work Ride - June 15th 2010

A fast-ish, windy 18 or so miles around Rancho Bernardo.  Some steep little pitches, but a nice route.  Thoughts wandered...

SDBC Sunday Ride June 14, 2010 - 79 mi

Yesterday I rolled the dice and rode up to UC Cyclery for the SDBC "Sunday" ride.  I say "rolled the dice" because both times I had tried that before, I was either 1/2 an hour early and decided to ride on my own, or there was no such ride that day.  Apparently the printed calendar that the club sends is not accurate.  But now I'm on the weekly email list, so I get all the important updates (or so I assume) including, but not limited to, the update that the calendar is wrong.

Armed with my new knowledge, I ride the 13.3 miles to the starting point, and there is... one other guy there waiting.  Uh oh... but no worries, soon we're a group of 7, chatting and sizing each other up.  I recognize most of the group from the Saturday rides.  We take off leisurely, with some instructions from the group leader to not shirk your duties if you're at the front.

I wish I had a map of where we went, because it was a great route northeast through Poway, around the Pomerado loop to RB, through 4S Ranch, into Rancho Santa Fe, and uh... some turns, various roads, hills... somewhere in RSF... no idea... and we pop out on that road the name of which I always forget and eventually landed at Java Depot ("OMG BAGEL OM NOM NOM").  See why I want a map?  From there it was the standard "Java-Depot-to-Home" shuttle, and generally the group stayed together until Genessee, where I broke off to ride home.

The pace throughout was good, and the other folks were nice, as usual on SDBC rides.  I tried to do my fair share of work and stay at the front on the climbs, and I felt pretty good the whole time.  Approaching RSF the legs were burning, so I downed a lot of food.  Still didn't eat enough though.

The most amazing part of the day was that I didn't take a nap after the ride.  I attribute that to the later-than-usual start (read: more sleep) and eating better (although not great) so I didn't binge when I got home.

All-in-all it was a very good ride and a welcome change from the chaotic Saturday "A" group.  Hill repeats tomorrow I think.

Mission Trails June 13, 2010

Very nice ride on Saturday w/ V at Mission Trails park.  I like riding there; there's always a challenge, and I still have yet to explore the entire park.  V did great -- she's getting pretty fearless.  I actually had to talk her out of trying one or two rather technical sections.  I didn't try them either.  Maybe if we both had full body armor, or were still in our capricious early twenties.

I think we rode for about 2 hours, stopping now and then to examine a couple of snakes, one of which was definitely a rattler.  I even got a warning rattle!  Gives you the heebie-jeebies.

There are some super-duper fun singletrack descents there, but you have to earn 'em.  And one particular climb has become my nemesis.  One day I will make it up the entire thing, but I'll have to try again on a day when an there isn't an a-hole birder standing in the middle of the trail and absolutely freaking REFUSING to yield, on more than one occassion, even after he caused me to come off the bike (I was going 1 mph up an incredibly steep pitch, and he just stood there looking at me), after he saw me ride back down to try again, and after I rode back up to where he was standing fiddling with his binoculars and said to him very politely, "Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to try to climb this trail again."  I don't dislike hikers or birders.  In fact, I'm an avid hiker and I enjoy looking at birds.  I hate a-holes, and this person was one.

Fortunately, the experience didn't mar what was an otherwise lovely and snakey ride with V.

Fiesta Island Thursday Night Workout

Last night I participated in maybe my fifth Fiesta Island Thursday Night Workout / Crit Practice / Crash Avoidance Seminar.  My experience at the FITNW/CT/CAS has largely been a comedy of errors.  The first few times I had no idea where it actually started so I ended up circling until I was swallowed up by the pack, only to be spit out the back because I had to use all my energy getting up to the group's speed.  Then another week I figured out that there's actually an official START ("Oohhh there it is..."), i.e., it's not just a group of random people who glom together.  Then another week I figured out that there's actually a set number of LAPS, as if it's some kind of RACE.  Interesting.  This was two weeks ago, a workout which ended up with me being run off the road into the sand when the group rapidly decelerated for unseen reasons and everyone in front of me surged to the left.  (No harm, but I got dropped.)

Yesterday I learned another valuable lesson.  At least I think I did.  Apparently the FINISH line is not the same line as the STARTING line.  I could be completely wrong about this (there could have been a breakaway that I didn't see from my strategic aft position), but on the last lap, as I was thinking, "OK time to start hammering and see what I can do here..." everyone was soft pedaling already.  Ugh.  So where IS the finish line?  I have no idea.  All I know is I finished the workout, which felt really good.