Two faces of Mount Soledad

My second mid-week ride was a blast. The team met up at DeAnza Cove for another trip up Mount Soledad. This week, Coach DJ was the ringleader and took us on his super secret route to dodge most of the traffic. We then navigated up Mount Soledad road and up La Jolla Scenic to the top following the same route as the week before.

It has become apparent that my seat position is still wrong. Arggh. I'm definitely too far forward again. At the top of the climb I get the tools out and make the adjustment. Ahhh, much better.

At the top we determine that we have just enough light left to make another run (aka repeat). DJ takes us on another route down the hill via Nautilus avenue. It is a very steep fast downhill. We go quickly from 840 ft at the top all the way down to the ocean in Point Loma. Want to get our money's worth, right? After dipping our toes in the water (not really) we turn around and make the very challenging climb back up. That's one mother of a hill, particulary the 1/2-mile where I have to get into a standing climb position to make it up. Whew.

At the top, we gather the horses and the head back to our cars. It's getting pretty dark and there is a decent amount of traffic so it's an adventure. At one of the stoplights, a guy walking along shouts out our rallying call "Go Team". He cheers us on and let's us know that he is a former member of the TnT cycle team and Tri Team. It's a real boost when someone notices us and gives us encouragement. Re-energized, we cruise the rest of the way back to our cars.

Totals are just a hair over 15 miles, 1680 feet of climbing and 100% of fun.