Sunday, November 21, 2010

Winter bike training trip finale

I'm home. Got in last night at about 9:40. Looks like I beat the winter storms that were supposed to hit the mountains. I got up and had breakfast with Grandma K and went and saw HG once more, hit the road. Had the wind behind me most of the way. I'll post more stuff later.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Winter bike training trip day 5

Friday
Miles driven=360
Miles ridden = 0
hours in seat = 0

Woke up early and packed up everything so that I could get to Phoenix. As I was getting up I noticed that even though it was still dark it was warmer than when I went to sleep. I wasn't all that quiet packing, seeing as the neighboring campers thought they needed to keep everybody up late into the night.
I took the scenic route through the Anzo valley and then a fun curvy road that drops into Palm Springs



The rest of the drive was on I-10, which is not the most exciting. Got to spend some time with my grandfather in the hospital and had dinner with my grandmother.
Will probably head home tomorrow.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Winter Bike Training Trip Day 4

Thursday
Miles Driven = 170
Miles Ridden = 42
Time in Seat = 2:50

Today's drive brought me through LA and I am now on the northern edge of camp Pendleton. I timed my LA drive just right and had very little traffic. It's a lot easier and less stressfull to make that drive in a car versus a pickup pulling a fifthwheel. I am at the San Clementi state park which like last night's campground is pretty empty. I guess it is normally a lot colder than it has been this week.


Todays bike ride took me south through camp pendleton to Oceanside and back.


 I was able to get a lot more miles and still had a few hills to deal with. I wish I would have started on the south side, because I had a pretty good wind to deal with on the way back. Nothing like 21 miles of head wind. Riding across the base is neat. I saw camp edison the area that 22 years ago in boot camp I learned to shoot the M-16.

I was also buzzed by a Cobra attack helicopter.

Well it's probably a good thing I am winding up this trip tommorow, as the weather is starting to cool off and they expect rain by saturday.
I'll leave for Phoenix in the morning.


Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Winter bike training trip day 3

Wednesday
Miles driven =329
miles riding = 26
hours in the seat =1:48
As I sit here in the campground I can hear the waves breaking on the beach a couple hundred feet away. It has cooled of as the sun went down, but was a nice day with the temps in the seventies again. I woke up in San Francisco, and drove to Carpinteria. I checked into the campsite, setup the tent, and went for a ride.


Another day of hills, not a lot of flat roads to ride on. So even though I didn't get a lot of miles, the legs did get a good workout. One stretch was about a mile of 12% grade. Maxed the heart rate on that one. Nice area withe lots of avocado trees. I know because I had to keep dodging them.
Tomorrow I'll head down near Oceanside

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Winter Bike Training Trip Day two

Miles Driven = 40
Miles Pedaled = 27
Time in the seat = 1:52

After a good 10 hour nap I felt better this morning. I was able to take care of  few chores, and then met up with Erik. We had a good ride up LaHonda road, past Skyline to a nice overlook out to the Pacific.




The ride back was fun until it got a bit dark at the end. Had a good dinner and visit.
Tomarrow I'll head down the coast and see what happens.

Winter bike training trip

After breaking my collar bone in October, I made some vague plans to go someplace warm once I heal. With the boken bone, I knew that I would miss most of the best riding time. I also new that I would be out of shape. Another factor was that I needed to use some leave time at work or I would loose it. So here I am in San Francisco, temps in the high 70s getting in a weeks worth of riding. I don't have any firm plans, but will be heading south on Wednesday.
I left Sunday evening and got out to the bay area around 3pm. I have driven and walked across the golden gate bridge, so this time I rode over on the bike, kind of cool, the open the west walkway to bikes only, but you still have to dodge a lot of tourists.

 Before riding across I got some climbing in on the hilly roads of the fort on the north side of the bridge.

Not a lot of miles, but hey I only had two hours of sleep.
I met up with Al Hom for dinner an then crashed.

Stay tuned.