This week's ride was another rough one. I skipped last week's ride and stayed home sick. I am still not 100% but I was feeling a lot better so I decided to ride.
We started the day heading north from Mission Bay up through UCSD before making our way East onto the Highway 56 bike path into Poway. I was feeling pretty so-so and the ride up until that point was nearly all uphill. I was having no trouble on the straights which was a relief after the last time I rode. I was also hanging tough on the climb. Then things got interesting. The next 25 miles were a real struggle for me. I started feeling pretty blah and a little weak. We were also as far East as Lake Hodges and it was downright hot out there. More climbing and I'm starting to lag behind again. I'm really heating up pretty badly, too. We crest a large hill and I have to call "time" and get the group to stop. I remove my gloves, and my wicking fabric headcap that I'm wearing beneath my helmet and unzip my jersey and squirt some water over my head and down my front. Back on the road and I'm feeling much cooler, with air shooting down my helmet cooling me down. 5 miles later, we stop at a CVS to fill up on water as a couple of us are nearly out. I drink a large Gatorade and sit in the shade for a few moments and we head to our next SAG stop which is right outside a gas station. I head into the station and soak my face and head with cold water. A peanut butter/jelly sandwich and a large handful of trail mix and we are back on the road with another 25 miles to go.
Things are back to normal and I am feeling not just better, but very strong. Our pace line is working and we are hauling. We turn south along the coast and there's Torrey Pines Road again. If you remember, I limped up the hill the last time I rode it. Mentor Chad says that we will climb as a team, which is code for climb at Steve's pace because I had confessed to him that I was hurting earlier in the day. Well, I'm feeling good and take the lead and shoot up the hill at a minimum pace of 7 mph which is a very respectable. Saturday comeback. Having redeemed myself, we continue on. We are riding along a very low traffic frontage road after leaving the Rose Canyon bike path when all of a sudden Donna and Ashley who were riding at the back of the line, just blow past us at full speed. Chad smirks and says to the remaining three of us..."go get 'em". So we line up, with me in front, followed by Jeff and then Brian and try to chase them down. They had a huge jump on us but we hit it hard. I'm sprinting up front, breaking through the wind, and flashing back to my sprints at the Track. I go until, I start to fade, and then rotate off to the back of the line and Jeff takes over. More sprinting, then he rotates off for our anchor, Brian and we finally rein them in, all gasping for air.
Thanks, Chad ;)
Feeling good, we coast to our start point...and ride right past it! I wave goodbye to my car as we roll past. We proceed up the road a few miles to Fiesta Island and go about a mile and stop. Chad tells us we are going to practice our river crossing. The Tucson Century ride I'm training for requires crossing two dry river beds. He gives us a few tips on how to carry our bikes, showing us three different methods and then we head through the middle of the island over sandy beach with our bikes under our arms. The last thing I expected was to have to walk through sand carrying my bike after riding 70+ miles.
Next we lined up in a pace line to head back home having just completed the last bit of the shorter loop and were heading back out to the entrance. Chad was at the front of the pace line and I was at the back of the line. We had just passed the last few fire pit spots before veering
right along the paved road to go to the exit. A very large truck appeared just as we were rounding the corner directly in our path. The truck was going the wrong way on a one way road! Traffic on the island goes counter-clockwise but the truck had taken the left off the main entry road and was going clockwise clearly against the signage and traffic paint. There was little time to react and Chad and the driver both tried to veer to miss each other but both ended up going the same direction. Chad looses control of the bike and goes into a long slide, thankfully out the path of the truck. The rest of us brake hard and spray out to miss him laying on the road. The driver pulls over and runs back scared and apologetic. Chad is curled up on the ground, conscious but in obvious pain. His clothing is ripped and he's got bad road rash from his hard slide. Donna was instantly on the cell phone trying to reach 911 and couldn't get through. She tried to call our Head Coach, Ricky but he didn't pick up. We were looking for the phone number for our Support and Gear (SAG) volunteer but it was taking too long. We were a mile away from everyone we were trying to reach so I just decided to head back to the start point and bring someone back. I took off and sprinted the mile back to the parking lot. I arrived so out of breath that I could hardly relay the message but thankfully Donna was able to reach the SAG volunteer and he was already on his way. A few minutes later, they arrive and Chad is looking ok.
I heard back from him today that his visit to the emergency room showed no serious damage beyond the road rash. He was very lucky.
Totals for the day was 77.5 miles with about 4,000 feet of climbing and two very serious sprints.
Here's the map of our route.
