Ranchos Ride on Saturday

Decided to ride with the Ranchos group on Saturday. I really wanted to go ride with NCCC, but with Saturday being my only day that I go out and hammer, I thought that Ranchos would be a challenge. My thinking was right. The rides with Ranchos are very energetic, if I must say. They do a good roll out for about 3-4 miles before things get exciting. Yesterday, we went from the start point@ North County Fair over to Del Dios, then Rancho Santa Fe, Twin Oaks, then up to Gopher Canyon and back via Champagne and Center City Pkwy. Things got pretty sporty on Del Dios Southbound. The group split into a few different selections. I was up in the front group all the way into Rancho Santa Fe, where we had to regroup with a turn or no turn decision. I was really putting in a lot of effort with this front group. Next we went into RSF and over San Elijo and up Twin Oaks. I never look forward to Twin Oaks, as this hill has been a nemisis of mine since the early days of riding with NCCC. I used to just watch Joe and Dan ride away from me on this hill, going in either direction. I was in the front group on the way up from the West side, then an acceleration from two guys. I started to go with, but their pace was such that I believe I would've blown up. I had been watching my heart rate and it was up at the 187 range consistenly on this climb and the run on Del Dios. I was feeling good, just putting out a lot of effort. For those of you who think the guys in the front of the group rides aren't putting in a lot of effort and strategy, I say come out and ride with Ranchos. They may not have been at 100%, but I think they were close and so was I. I made it over the top of Twin Oaks at the front of the second group, although I did sit up and soft pedal at the top thinking there was a regroup waiting for folks who wanted to go up double peak, not! We then headed all the way up twin oaks into the gopher canyon area. I'm not sure of the exact road, but it cuts through a private road and heads up at about 15-16% at the end. I had been in the front group and watching the first two guys working very hard approaching this steep part at the end. As they stood up, I stayed in the saddle and spun right past them to the top. I know this sounds menial, but knowing how this group approaches the Saturday ride, it should be appreciated. I felt really good and continued on the rest of the ride towards Champagne. Champagne runs along the 15 freeway next to Lawrence Welk village and is a long grind of a hill. It's actually not that long, maybe two miles and the grade is only 5-7% I believe, but for some reason it's never any fun since the pace can be pretty quick. We ran into a group of Adam's Avenue guys, who I actually met last week and hooked up with them all the way up. I was pretty tired by the top and we cruised back to the mall via Center City Pkway and "Chris Horner's" secret path.

My garmin said that we did just shy of 4000 feet of climbing and 53 miles with an average speed of 18 mph. I always feel good after the Ranchos ride, but know beforehand that it's going to hurt.

Week Before Christmas

Been a mellow week for biking so far. Just a 20 mile ride on Tuesday and a 40 on Thursday. I'll try to get in 35 or so this morning. Been pretty busy at work this week, which is a good thing.

My cadence sensor has given up the ghost for now on the Garmin 705. I'm hoping it's just a battery, but it makes my interval workouts a little more difficult. Once you get used to having all of the cadence information, it's pretty frustrating to do the intervals right.

Looks like I'll be doing the Ranchos ride this Saturday. That's always a hammerfest. I think I'm going to take it mellow. So easy to get caught up in the front of the pack thing. Feeling like steady miles.

Waiting for the Sun to come up and I'm on the bike. See ya!

Borrego Springs Camp Review

Back home in San Diego after the Borrego Cycling Camp. I had a great time and met some really good people. It was a pleasure to ride with others who were really experienced and very helpful. Not helpful in a question and answer way, but in a way that you could observe their actions throughout the miles on the bike, with such varied terrain and weather. Some people were from the East Coast, some from Northern California. Although I was only on the bike for two days (Wed & Thurs), I did rack up almost 300 miles if you count the ride on Tuesday morning before I headed out to the desert. 17,000 feet of climbing. I think I was pretty much at my limits for the week. I have never done a 100 mile ride to begin with. Plenty of 70-80s, but not a 100 miler. I've also done lots of climbing, but never 8800 feet on the same day as the 100 miler. I know that increasing mileage too fast can be a bad thing, so I feel really good about the camp. Base miles were the goal. No hammering. I stuck to this both days. I kept my heart rate down around the 80-85% range with the exception of a couple moments.

I was a little concerned at the start of my second day. We had planned on the Borrego Loop which was 80 miles. As it turned out, we ended up doing the Borrego Loop opposite of what the route sheet had printed up. This meant that we would start with the climb out of Borrego via Montezuma Grade. It was 11 miles and 4000 of climbing. I wouldn't have been concerned about it other than the previous days 100 miles and 8800' of climbing. This was going to be a good test of my body. I was conservative at the base of the climb and as it turned out, conservative to all the way to the top. I was surprised to be in the front group as we crested the top and went into Ranchita. Probably the highlight of the two days was staying with the lead group on this climb. I was able to do this and keep my heart rate down. I never went anerobic and felt great the whole climb. One thing that was bothering me was that I only had a 25 rear cog for my lowest gear. It had been reccomended by my coach that I get a 27 atleast for all of the climbing. I was unsuccesful at getting one before camp, so I went with the 25. It was definitely a bit of a hinderence on this climb. Not too noticable on the previous day. We ended up going into Santa Ysabel via Mesa Grande, another climb that would hurt a little.

I came home on Thursday morning via the Montezuma grade. This time driving the RV, towing the Toyota truck. That climb took a lot of time to drive, let alone ride up. Great couple days at camp. I was able to measure my fitness and strength with other riders. Pretty much everyone out here were in some form of racing or another. Some pros, category and age group racers. Everyone and I do mean everyone was great. I'm looking forward to going back next year and being able to spend the full five days on the bike.

Borrego Springs - Mt Laguna and back

Today was a great day on the bike. Rolled out @ 7:30am on our way to Mt Laguna. The ride was supposed to go to Salton City and back, but since I missed yesterday's ride due to weather, I thought I would go with a small group up to the mts. It was a spectacular ride. It was probably in the mid 40s when we left borrego, with the temps expected to be in the 30's at Laguna. I've never ridden with any of the other 5, so I was pretty cautious. Also, I know that there is another 80 or 100 coming tomorrow. I tried to keep the hr down around 80%max, as the whole idea here is to build base miles. With 8300 feet of climbing on the 100 mile route, there were times that the hr was above 80%, but I tried to minimize it. Lots of ice on the road up towards Laguna. The last 10 or so miles. Not bad on the way up, but had to be very careful on the way down. People in cars would stay behind us for long periods of time, for the most part giving us plenty of room. More than one car was taking pictures of us. Probably wondering what nuts would be out riding with ice on the road and these temps. Great experience!

I took along a couple bananas, 4 gels, two bottles of Heed, with a baggie full of powder for the refills. I felt good all day, other than after the break @ Laguna. It was a little hard to get back in the saddle after a thirty minute rest. I kept high energy all day and finished off the ride with a great climb up Yaqui pass and a great paceline back down into Borrego.

It's nice to be able to measure my fitness with some other riders. No egos today, everyone was great. Everyone that I was riding with today races (pro & amateur), so I felt good with being able to keep up and have some left at the end of the day. Also, got to do some pretty quick descending coming out of Julian back down to the desert. Picking lines is pretty easy after the car racing stuff, so I'm pretty comfortable keeping up with everyone.

Was quick to get back to the rv and get some food in my system. A bottle of water and heed, bowl of pasta with meat sauce, and a pizza for dinner. Lots of water too. Not too often do I do that. I got a Pepporoni and Pinneaple pizza from Carlees in town. Great food. I haven't ate the whole thing yet, but I'm sure I will.

Don't know what to expect tomorrow, as I've never done back to back 100 mile rides. Tomorrow's ride should be a little less climbing, so a little relief there.

Base Camp Borrego Springs

I've had cycling camp on my calendar for a couple months now. My coach, Rob Panzera of Cycle Camp San Diego, is putting on a camp out in Borrego Springs this week. I've scheduled my clients at work around this week, so I could head out and get in 300+ miles this week. And wouldn't you know it! The biggest storm of the year hits San Diego on Sunday Night. I've been watching the weather the last week or so and saw this one coming. My plan was to take our RV out and stay in the Borrego Camp Ground at the base of Montezuma Grade. Most of the people going to this camp are probably from places where the weather is terrible this time of year and traveled to southern California knowing how good our weather is year round. Ouch. Although we have got a couple inches today in San Diego and Borrego, it looks like tomorrow will be okay for me to head out to Borrego. There was no way to make it out today. Winds are still gusting to 60-70mph in the mountains on the way to the desert. Not a good plan for a 35' rv towing a toyota truck. My plan is to go for a bike ride here in San Diego in the am, as I couldn't get to Borrego early enough to get settled into the campground and meet the group by 8. I will head out early afternoon. About a 1:30 drive with the train in tact. I'm really looking forward to this camp.

The goal of the camp is to continue building a strong base. There will be lots of miles and climbing, but with low intensity. As far as I can figure out, the stronger the base, the stronger the top of the pyramid during the racing season.

I'll try to post from Borrego each evening, as this is somewhat of a get away for myself. Work has been hectic (in a good way) for quite some time now and it's time for me to get away for a little solo time.

Thanksgiving Week.

Busy week leading up to Thanksgiving. Taught a Recurrent King Air class Tuesday & Wednesday. Had a nice Turkey Day ride with NCCC. Turned out to be just the long group showing up , so Chip and I headed out with them. We chose the freeway instead of the dirt bike path and ped bridge, so we split with the group and never saw them again after about 8 miles. I was taking it easy until we came up on Scripps-Poway Pkway, my usual tt. I was pretty warmed up after 1:20 so I went ahead and hit it hard from bottom to top. I pushed the lap button on the Garmin to see if I could beat my 9:30 best. I didn't know it until I got back and downloaded the ride, but I made it up in 9:23, so 7 seconds better. I attribute this to the intervals and low intensity riding that I have been workin on for the last month or so. It was a hard effort, keeping 11mph for the most part for the 7-8% grade. I'm by no means a pro or anything, but have never had anyone pass me on this hill. I have passed numerous people climbing this hill. That's why it's so hard to believe that the pros would be running 16-17mph constant up this hill. When I started timing myself, I was in the low 8mph range, so maybe improving more into the 13-14mph range is possible. The rest of the ride was average pace, although Chip started hauling ass on the run into Ramona, as usual. Chip doesn't climb too well, but certainly pulls quite fast on the flats. I'm so keyed into climbing that the flats are where I recover or look to suck someone's wheel. I always feel like I'm waisting energy if I'm hauling on the flats.

Friday was a ride with Bill, a guy from Ranchos that I met a few weeks ago. It was a good ride from Mira Mesa through Rancho Santa Fe and back through Hwy 56 bike lane. Turned out to be an easy 45 miles. I pushed it once on a grade coming up to the 56 and was quite pleased with the effort. I'm really able to push hard and hold the effort for quite awhile. Not sure why I like climbing so much. My body structure (6'2" and 188) would lend itself better to sprinting than climbing, but it's just the opposite. I guess I love the challenge of the climb and can see the improvement on a constant basis.

Saturday's ride was rained out, as we got quite a bit of rain here in San Diego. We needed the rain, so it was a worthy sacrifice.

Did my long intervals today. 6 x 3 mins (50-60 rpm) and 3 x 2 (60 rpm) on leg intervals. I used Scripps Poway Pkwy for my 6x3's. Three sets sitting and three sets standing. Worked out great. Easy to get the lower cadence with plenty of resistence from the climb. Back onto the flats for the one leg intervals. Other than leaving the house without my waterbottle, it was a great day.

This week was just shy of 200 miles @ 11:00 + on the bike.

Brrrrrr in Socal!

Left the house for a quick 20 this am, as I had to be at work by 8:45ish. This was the first day that my feet actually got cold and stayed cold the entire ride. I guess those shoe covers might not be a bad idea on these early cold mornings. It's only cold for an hour or so, but that's when I'm out. With the air so dry this time of year, it heats up pretty quick with a high of 80 today, where it was high 30's in the am. That's quite the spread for temperature. Only possible this time of year in southern california.

I did a quick set of leg speed intervals. Best place to do these is on the East end of Rancho Bernardo Road, as it turns south and into Espola Road. I did 5, two minute efforts with one minute in between. This road is just a slight uphill (1-2%) to put a strain on @ 100 rpm. Still in the base portion of training, so intensity it staying low (hr around 80%). As hard as I try to keep my heart rate below 80%, it can get abouve with the terrain around here.

Looking forward to moving into the next phase of periodization training. My base is pretty strong. I will be dedicated atleast a couple more weeks to base training, as I'm heading out to Borrego Springs for a cycling camp with Rob and some others for an unofficial camp. Something like 300-400 miles total for the week is planned. I may only make it out for a couple days, depending on the work schedule. Looking forward to it. More miles, ahhhhh!

Nothing special about today, tailwinds......