Route Planning

The past two weekends Bethany and I have planned and executed Saturday bike rides. We decided the usual Del Mar 101 Olympics ride was getting a bit old. She’s doing the Solvang Century and I just like to punish myself, so we figured hills would be a great option. Our first ever R&B ride…hmm I just thought about that, and it may stick. (we both have a pretty horrible sense of humor.) Anyway, it was the Valentine’s Day hump ride counterclockwise through the Great Western Loop. Brought to you by your TCSD sweethearts. The ride went well…for us! The poor souls on the ride…I think we had 25 people show up. Around 6 flats and 1 crash. Everyone is okay. But still, there was a little guilt felt by us. But it didn’t stop us from planning another ride the following weekend.

We’ve been discussing an LA train ride for a while and the end of February worked for most everyone involved. We took the Metrolink from Oceanside to Orange and followed a more inland route back south. This has now become my favorite ride. During one downhill curvy tree cave section I was smiling the entire time…even through a smelly horse farm. We had 10 people come up and all 10 make it back…it was great to see everyone working together, even when one of our riders was having a rough day. 73 miles. 3000ft climbing. A good ride…minus the part where a bee flew into my helmet and stung my forehead!

Yesterday wasn’t really planned by R&B. The boys, Brendan and Stephen (BS, wow that was too easy) somehow duped us into it after we had a couple beers post train ride at Pizza Port. What’d we sign up for? A 85 mile 5600ft of climbing out and back ride from Solana Beach to Palomar Mountain to watch the final stage in the Tour of California. R&B had our moments, but somehow we made it. Palomar was great…going down! The TCSD put on a great party with a much needed cheeseburger…great fuel for the way home! Seeing Lance and Levi was amazing, even if I was subjected to the infamous TCSD borat thong’sters. Wow. 5:55:55 in the saddle (sweet, I know)

This weekend’s rounded totals…160 miles on the bike. 10 and a half hours. Two full days. 200 miles weekly total. I just made it over the 1300 mile mark on the Guru. PS I didn’t totally forget about running…I ran 6 miles Friday night after work; and enjoyed it!

Last weekend Stephen and I went to Snow Summit with Anatoly and Mystique. Great fresh snow, finally! Hopefully we’ll be able to make it out once more this season.