The 4th Face

Thursday night means climbing Soledad Mountain. It was a very rough day after staying late at work last night and getting an very early start today to meet all my deadlines. My last of three meetings let out at around 3:30pm. I decided to take the afternoon off and make the early (5pm) group at Soledad. I usually can't get there until nearly 6pm and go out with the later group. One advantage of making the earlier time is that you have enough daylight to make a third climb. One disadvantage of the earlier time is that you have enough daylight to make a third climb. Life is confusing that way sometimes.

Lead rider was Coach DJ. Also along for the ride was fellow B3 Orrin and Tonya and my mentor Lisa from the B2 group. First climb was our standard Lamont to Soledad Mountain Road to La Jolla Scenic to the top. Not quite a walk in the park but I've been there done that. At the steep part of the climb, DJ calls for everyone to get into their climbing gears. I scoff and inform him that I haven't used my small ring in 5 weeks.
Pride comes before the fall.

At the top, DJ says we're going to try a new route. The group splits at this part and everyone else but me leaves to do the Nautilus face. We take off westward and then scream down La Jolla Mesa Drive aka The west Face aka La Jolla Mesa Drive. It's a blast doing the downhill. I get into the biker's tuck and look down at my bike computer. 42 MPH! Wow. At some point during the downhill, I start to feel a sense of dread creeping in. It's been nothing but downhill and you know what that means...all uphill on the way back. At the bottom we turn around and I almost strain my neck looking up at the slope I'm about to climb. DJ gives a little devilish grin and away we go. Grind, grind, grind and guess what?...I had to do the whole thing in my climbing gear. The main part of the climb is about 3 straight miles of what has to be 4-5% slope. Brutal.

I finally reach the top gasping for breath and get the high five from DJ. I inform him that if he makes me do a repeat of that face, I'm quitting the program. Laughter ensues. At the top, we meet up with the other group and everyone but Orrin decides to pack it in so Orrin, DJ and I tackle the next face.

Cardeno blvd. Mums the word, with DJ and we start down . It's a beautiful curving road past many gorgeous homes...and it's straight downhill again. Fooled me twice, shame on me as the saying goes. After jokingly complaining about the last climb, I was duped into making an even harder one. I can't really describe the climb back up but it's safe to say that it is the hardest one I've done in the program. I get some good climbing advice from DJ. He shows me a technique where I scoot all the way back on my seat and push forward, through my pedal stroke. It works a different muscle and provides relief from the quad torture I had been enduring. We reach the top with my legs on fire and my heart nearly bursting out of my chest.

Trial by fire, rite of passage or whatever you want to call it, I was damn proud of being able to do all these climbs right after another. I've come a long way in the few months that I've been training.

Coach DJ


















This man is a sadist