Holiday Ride

Been away from the blog (and bike) for a while. Work has been very busy but now that the holidays are winding down I managed to get back on the bike for a ride today. I had no real goal in mind beyond doing some medium level mileage. Gotta keep the base conditioning up. I'm between seasons and have been nursing a knee injury so I thought I'd make a run up and down the coast and take it easy.

It was pretty chilly today and there weren't too many people on the road. I rarely ride solo but today it felt like a good choice since I didn't really know how the knee was going to feel and knew it would be slow going.

I started at DeAnza Cove in Mission Bay and made my way up through the Rose Creek Bike Path across Interstate 5 onto the Rose Canyon Bike path. Regents road and then Nobel road then climb the big hill on Via La Jolla Village Drive to the UCSD campus. I cruise around there exploring for a bit and meandered back towards the coast at Torrey Pines. Took the screaming downhill. The bike lanes have been repaired and all the of the bad cracks, tree roots and other obstacles I've memorized over the last two years are gone. Smooth sailing! Hit a top speed of 36.3 MPH. Felt good. Got to the bottom of the hill and was enveloped in fog.

Decision time. Straight is up the coast, mostly flat, more traffic and lots of stop and go. Right along Carmel Valley Road is inland, more hills, less traffic and hopefully less cold. Do a quick check, I'm at 20 miles and the knee feels fine so I head inland with no destination in mind, cross the Interstate again then the 805 to the Highway 56 bike path. This is a great little path that runs east-west towards Poway. Very little traffic today so I turned it up a notch and raced through it at a nice clip. Got about 5 miles in when I had to stop and turn around. The bike path was flooded from the recent rains and looked a couple of feet deep. Made the U-turn climbed up to the surface streets made my way across and picked up the bike path again and headed on. Rode it for another 5 miles to a Mobile station with a convenience store and stop for a quick lunch. Packaged turkey sandwich, banana, smoked almonds and a bottle of water. Sit on the side of the road, smear mustard on the sandwich and take a short rest. Times a wastin' so back on the bike turn around and head home. I was slightly worried about the climb up Torrey as it would be a pretty good test for the knee. I decide to take it very slow and ride up carefully. Nothing to worry about. Backtrack through the Rose Canyon bike path and zoom by Captain Jack going the other direction. A quick salute and wave and I'm flying solo again. There's a headwind and it's chilly so I decide to turn it up a notch and fly back the rest of the way to my car. Great to be back on the bike again.

Totals for the day were

43 miles
2500 feet of climbing
Average pace of 12.0 (so slow!)
3190 calories burned

Knee held up great so it's looking like I will be doing the local Stagecoach Century in a couple of weeks. Training for Tahoe starts the first week of February.

















Map of ride