San Diego Epic Ride

As I’m leaving San Diego for Northern California I put in my last Saturday ride with the San Diego Cyclo-Vets a couple of weekends ago. Naturally it turned out to be an epic ride. An epic ride…every roadie has had an epic ride at least once in their cycling career. This is a ride where something happens to make that ride particularly challenging. It could be running out of food and water, getting lost, going much farther than you originally intended, getting rain, hail, snow, etc., on the ride.

On this, my last Saturday ride in San Diego, I got several of the above conditions. The ride started as usual and we made it to the first regrouping point without incident. As we left for the Torrey Pines part of the ride it started raining. Not a downpour just a light rain. It turns out that San Diego roadies hate and fear rain more than most as they are used to 72 degrees 24/7 and 12 months out of the year. Since my primary residence was in the Mojave desert, where we long for rain, it was no big deal for me but the other Cyclo-Vets panicked and wanted to end the ride. After much discussion it was decided to keep riding but alter the ride to head East and North and into the neighboring city of Poway. The idea was that the weather was coming in from the West and by heading East we could avoid it.

This diversion worried many of the riders as they had not been in this direction before. Now myself, the non-native of the group, wasn’t worried a bit because I take this same ride on my own on Sundays. My only problem was that I didn’t eat as much as I usually do for breakfast as I was only expecting a 43 mile ride of various intensity levels. I also carried water and food for a trip of about that length too. Though I was wearing arm warmers I didn’t have leg warmers or any other type of cold weather gear – this is San Diego after all.

Well to make a long story shorter, the ride out to the far point of the ride went without a hitch, with the exception that the weather did not improve but only got worse. We were now climbing the tough pitch up Scripps-Poway Pkwy road and I’m now consuming more calories than I planned on. I’m also cold and wet but realize I only have to ride 12 miles or so and I’m back in a warm apartment with plenty of food. We get to the top of the grade and wait in the drizzle for the tail end of the group to finish the climb – this takes longer than I expected as the last guy had fallen pretty far behind. My teeth even started chattering from the cold and this is San Diego in the early summer. Thank God, the tail end guy comes up and says, “go without me, I’ll be okay.” So off we go down the screaming descent of Scripps-Poway Pkwy road. Somewhere down the descent I realize that I can hardly feel my legs as they are actually getting numb from the wet and cold and I also realize that I’m hungry and I’ve already eaten my one and only power bar and have drank most of my sports drink and water…but I’ve only got 10 miles to go, on what has now become a 50 mile ride instead of 43.

We finish the descent and make the left turn onto Pomerado Rd and the group wants to stop again, this time at a mini-mart for food. I’m real hungry now and pretty short on fluids too so you would think that I would welcome this stop but I get impatient. I’m smelling the barn and have done this ride many time in the past – so I say my goodbyes and take off on my own and figure I’ll be home in less than an hour. Look at my MapMyRide map at the end of this post and you can see what went wrong and how I ended my last San Diego ride in Epic proportions. I should have stayed on Pomerado Rd but for some reason, probably because I was feeling sorry for myself, and had my head down while I was riding, I failed to make the left turn to remain on Pomerado Rd and instead was now heading West on Spring Canyon Road. About 2 miles in, I realize I’ve never seen this particular scenery before and must be going the wrong way. To make matters worse, I took a right turn and realized I have no idea what direction I’m going. The cloud cover and drizzle prevented me from getting any bearings and stupid me, I forget I’m riding with a GPS unit (Garmin Forerunner 205 though I now have the 305) which has the capability of giving me heading information. So I do a U-turn and back track and end up on Scripps Ranch Road and the Scripps Ranch neighborhood. This friggin neighborhood is all vertical and all the roads start with Scripps this or Scripps that. I’m now completely out of food and drink and realize that I loaned my emergency money, the $10 I keep in my bike bag, to my daughter the other day. I grab my cell phone to call my wife and find out that the battery is dead…damn, I’m going to have to stop and ask for help. I find a guy working on his front yard and he kindly tells me how to get back to Pomerado Road but his directions sound like, “take Scripps (fill in other part of name) to Scripps that, turn right on Scripps this, and another right on Scripps that and you’ll be there.

I finally make it back to the apartment, wet and cold. I’ve covered 63 miles and have sat on the bike for 4 hours and 19 minutes. I expected a ride of 43 miles and a total bike time, including regrouping stop points, of around 2 hours 45 minutes. I usually eat a large bowl of oatmeal and drink orange juice before a long ride but since I didn’t expect this, I had only a half bowl of cereal and no juice and didn’t even bother to completely fill one of my water bottles. At least the other bottle had a sports drink in it. I didn’t even bother taking my gel flask as I figured the single power bar and sports drink would be enough. There is a moral in this story somewhere…now I have to spend the next 6 hours moving all the stuff in our apartment into a 16’ truck for the journey back to the Antelope Valley to prepare for our move to the Napa Valley...

SCNCA Masters Championships - Bakersfield, CA

Finally, I've got a race under my belt after having my head bounce off the road in Murrieta. The Southern California Masters' Championships took place in Bakersfield, Ca today and I raced the 50+ group. I took 18th place but I was inches behind a friend of mine who took 11th and I sure didn't see 6 guys between him and me so I'm not sure how they pick the places. The funny thing is, I could have won the damn thing. With about 200 m to go in the 31 mile race, I was right behind 5 guys that were spread out across the road lane. They were not sprinting hard, just cruising in the 24 mph range or so. I assumed that we were a chase group and that others were off the front and that's why they were moving relatively slowly but I looked out to the finish and saw no one - I was sitting in 6th place and I'm a strong sprinter! The only problem was that they were completely blocking the road. In frustration I yelled, "start sprinting or get out of my way!" Instead, they actually slowed down, which slowed me down. I started to look for a way out on the left...bad choice; a gap opened on the far right and a whole bunch of guys went screaming up that side. I was out of altitude and air speed. By the time I spooled up to top speed, really standing on my pedals and driving hard, I had to be content to travel on the groups wheel, leaving the 5 blockers back in the dust. But I'm happy. The last two weeks were very bad training weeks for me as I did a lot of traveling to NorCal and back, which left little time for training. I even gained 5lbs somehow, so I had low expectations going into this race. Now for the play by play - see the map of the course below as outlined by my GPS and MapMyRide...

Bakersfield is 1.5 hours from my home in the Antelope Valley so I was up at 4:15 am and out the door at 5:00. I hitched a ride with Randy, a fellow 50+ rider and the guy that took 11th place. We were the 3rd group on the line at 7:30. The Cat 5 guys were first, followed by the women 35+ group. As I type this into my computer, results have not been posted online. When they come in I'll update this blog with full results and a link to the Kern Wheelmen site that put on the event.

As I'm straddling my bike at the starting line and listening to the pre-race instructions I was gazing at the overcast skies and wondering what the chance of rain was for my event - turns out pretty darn good as a light rain started right after the whistle was blown. It was already cold enough for me to have my arm warmers on; not a usual event for Bakersfield in June. The whistle was blown and off we went. It seemed like about 40 guys or more in my race group of 50+ guys. We headed North up Granite Road at an easy pace. My Garmin was showing a steady 2% grade and nobody seemed in a hurry to "put the hammer down." Since I had been off my bike a lot in the last two weeks I decided to stay near the rear where I wouldn't be tempted to pull the peloton. We also had a 5-7 mph head wind and I wanted to protect myself from that as well. The course was reported to gain about 1500'of elevation over the single 31 mile loop, MapMyRide shows an elevation gain of 1358' - not bad.

We crested a slight rise at around mile 3 and our speed dramatically increased. There was some movement in the group but still no one took a flyer off the front. I was content to hang back and enjoy the 40 mph ride. The steady drizzle had me a little concerned as the road seemed slippery, judging by my back tire sliding out a little in a couple of places. The road was also a little rough and cattle guards make for an interesting diversion. At one point, a calf started to walk into the road right in front of the peloton. That caused a little excitement and the yells chased the calf back off the road and back into the weeds. The descent leveled out at around mile 6 and stayed level until mile 10. This was an area for some attacks but nothing really stuck. I never felt concern but I did have to get out of the saddle a few times and really pick up the pace to avoid any gaping between me and the leading group. I did notice the pace changes were enough to drop a few weaker riders and we haven't even hit the only hill on the course. It was around this time that my heart rate monitor failed. The damn thing had been acting up over the last couple of weeks. I kept assuming it was a battery problem but I'm on my 3rd battery now in 3 weeks so I'm thinking it is time for Bob to upgrade his Forerunner 205 to either a Forerunner 305 or an Edge - now to convince his wife of the great necessity of this device...

At mile 10 the race went vertical - that just sounds good. It really was a much easier course than either Boulevard or the UCLA road course at the Devil's Punch Bowl (see my earlier posts on these races.)The climb was about 5 miles long and switched back and forth up Round Mountain Road. I moved to the back of the group just to keep an eye on everybody as no one was attacking off the front. I really didn't know the course and kept thinking that it must get a lot harder near the top and that's why no one was attacking. With my heart rate monitor out I had to go on feel and my feel was telling me that I was working hard but that I had a lot left if I needed it. Still, guys kept dropping off in front of me and I continually moved up the peloton by attrition. We crested at mile 15 and the real fun stuff started. The descent was about a minus 6% grade with a lot of switchbacks - in short, a technical descent. To make matters more interesting, the rain kept falling and all the riders were fighting the wheel spray from other racers as well. Normally I'm a guy that loves to bomb the descent but I'm still pretty sheepish from my crash so I kept my speed at around 40 mph at the top end and rode pretty loose down the hill as far as my placement next to other riders. As we leveled off at mile 20 I stomped on the pedals and closed the gap with the lead racers. I was feeling so frisky that I even went to the front and took a few pulls. At one time, I ended up with a group of three, 20 m off the front. Had we taken off at that point I think we would have kept the gap and beaten the peloton. At around mile 27 the road began to go up at an easy 1-2% grade. I positioned myself in the top ten and stayed there with less than a quarter of mile to go. Now go back to the top of this post and read how I could have placed in the top 5. But that's bike racing and I sure love it.

Final numbers: 18th out of 40? 30.9 mile loop with 1358' of elevation gain. Average speed of 22.8 mph. 2,128 estimated calories burned. Oh, and the rain completely stopped and the sun came out right after we crossed the finish line - just another beautiful day in Bakersfield, California.

Look Keo Pedal Recall

I've got Look Keo pedals on both my racing and time trial bikes. I really like these pedals so I was surprised to run across information regarding a recall of these pedals in a bicycle forum post.

The recall only affects the first generation of Keo pedals with a chromoly axle. Check out Look's website for more information. The recall affects those pedals manufactured between January 2004 and December 2005. As it turns out, both sets of pedals that I own were built in 2004 and are under the recall notice. How do you know the manufacture date of your pedals:

The date of manufacture stamp is pretty small. I had to take my glasses off and use a flashlight to determine the date on my pedals - it's tough getting old.

Look's website has a link to find the nearest dealer to you who will replace the axles for free. I took both sets to my local REI store in San Diego. It took them about 10 minutes to replace the axles, so no big deal there. Look's website does not tell you what will happen if you don't do the upgrade, so I asked one of the mechanics at REI and he said he was told that you risk having the pedal break off at the crank - ouch.

New Bicycle Club for 2009

It's official. I am now a member of the San Diego Cyclo-Vets Bicycle Club. I have been spending just about every other weekend in San Diego since my wife and oldest daughter moved down here for work and school respectfully. We can't sell our house in the Antelope Valley in this terrible economy and I couldn't switch jobs so we have had two residences starting last July. It's not a great situation but it is always better to make "lemonade out of lemons" so I enjoy riding in San Diego's weather as much as possible.

In my attempt to learn routes in the San Diego Area, I started hooking up with a couple of local bicycle clubs. The first group I tried was the Swami's. I still love their hard Saturday training ride up to Escondido and back but it was a pain to get to their starting point on the coast. The Cyclo-Vets also have a great Saturday ride that starts out of the parking lot of "The Coffee Bean" located at Mission Valley Mall right off of Camino de la Reina. Their starting location is just 6 miles from our apartment, which is located just North of Qualcomm Stadium. I can get to the starting point of Saturday's ride by bicycle. I drop down the bike path that starts at the South end of Murphy Canyon Road and ends at the North end of Qualcomm's parking lot. From here I exit the parking lot at the SouthEast end onto Rancho Mission Road, take a quick right on Ward Road and another quick right on Camino del rio North and just keep going West until Camino del rio North becomes Camino de la Reina. I stay on Camino de la Reina until I get to the Mission Valley Mall and The Coffee Bean on my left.

The Saturday ride leaves at 8:30 am and has several variants; see the Cyclo-Vets website for further information regarding this ride. I always ride the Torrey Pines loop. It is the longest of the options and composed of a very spirited group of riders that travel at race pace at various points of the ride. There are at least three regrouping points for this ride to allow more sedate riders a chance to ride with the group again. The Cyclo-Vet's website does not give a "play by play" of the route but I've made a map of the route by using my garmin and MapMyRide site. It is not complete in that I show the end on Aero and West Canyon Rd but that is where I jump off and head to our apartment. Other riders branch off around this point too. There are a lot of ways to get back to the Mission Valley Mall from this point. You could go back to the Mall by using the bike path North of Qualcomm as described above or take Balboa Ave back down to Moreno and back track your way to the Mall. I get about 47 miles in from my apartment to the Mall and back to my apartment.

It Never Rains in SoCal...it Snows!

I was just looking at my total mileage for 2008 and it is at a respectable 4,542 miles as of Christmas Day. Not bad since I really didn't start training until mid-June. And last week I actually had to take a couple of days off the bike due to, of all things, snow!

Now snow in the Socal might seem unusual, and it is for most of Southern California but we live in the high desert, 60 miles and a mountain range North of Los Angeles. At around 2500 to 3000 feet in elevation here in the Mojave Desert towns of Lancaster and Palmdale, collectively known as the Antelope Valley, we get snowfall every few years or so and by Mid-West standards is pretty anemic. But this snowfall was around 10" plus and that's enough to paralyze any area in Southern California. The snow actually stayed around for a few days. It started falling Wednesday morning on 12/17 and stopped Wednesday night. I was back on the bike on Friday but the roads were pretty sloppy and I still haven't cleaned up my bike yet.I Got good rides in Saturday to yesterday, Christmas Eve, but today on Christmas Day it's raining and blowing wind at around 40mph - makes riding a bit tough. Time for the trainer and my weight lifting workout just to keep my wife's opinion of me as a "fanatic" in tact.

Merry Christmas Everyone!