Firestone to Work to Home Point to Point Ride

Today was one of those days where you plan everything out, and it actually ends up working out just like you hope. I love those days.

With vacation prep in full swing and a list of errands to do only partially complete, I wanted to find a way to combine some of my chores with a road ride. I was way overdue for an oil change in the Tahoe, and also had to pick something up at work in Escondido before we left town, so I started thinking about dropping the bike off at Firestone and riding the road bike to work.

I got on mapmyride.com, put together a route, and uploaded it to my Edge. The area near North County Fair in south Escondido was a bit of a mystery to me, but I found a neat site online that provided great instructions and an excellent map, so I figured I'd be fine.

I dropped the truck off at Firestone and headed north. I crossed the relatively new Hodges pedestrian/cycling bridge for the first time on a road bike, and successfully navigated the North County Fair connector thanks to the map. That area behind the mall was a short but beautiful section to ride, and I enjoyed it very much.

Time and miles passed quickly from that point, and I made it to work in just over a half hour. I grabbed what I needed to get and was back on my way two minutes later. Instead of doubling back, I headed west. After a brief stop for a Jamba Juice in Escondido, I headed down Del Dios Highway toward Rancho Santa Fe.

I had plotted out a course on mapmyride using google maps, but it became clear as I began climbing up Del Dios that the turn I had plotted on the map wasn't there. Still, I soon saw a sign for the entrance to The Lakes community, which I knew was part of my route, and headed down the road to the guard gate.

I had initially thought that there would be a pedestrian gate that I could just go through without issue, but that proved to be incorrect. After negotiating for several minutes with the guard, I was granted a day pass to go "check out the model homes" and was back on route! (I am extremely grateful that the guard hooked me up, because the alternative involved riding through all of Rancho Santa Fe back to San Dieguito Road. That would have meant time I didn't have and miles I wasn't prepared for.)

I cruised through The Lakes, which is a beautiful development, and soon found myself back on Camino del Norte headed home.

It was an extremely fun and interesting ride. Uploading the route to the GPS worked pretty well for route finding, but I still would really like an Edge 705 with street mapping capability to help when I get lost or miss a turn. Now that I know the route from RB to Escondido, I can consider commuting to work from home sometime, which would be nice. I am also amazed at how much more ground I cover in less time on the road bike as opposed to the mountainbike.

Here's the report:

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Firestone to Work to Home Point to Point

Santa Luz Loop from Home

Before leaving on vacation next week, I wanted to get in a MTB ride. Time was scarce this weekend with packing and other prep-work, so I decided to just stay local and ride the Santa Luz loop from home.

In keeping with my desire to ride new dirt this year, I attempted to at least put a slightly different spin on the ride. I left from home, and instead of riding the 4S trails to Carmel Valley road up to Black Mountain Community Park, I headed west into Lusardi Canyon and rode the steep trail up the back side to the Park.

I had ridden that trail a few times before in the past, and never cleaned it. This time I did. Its not technical at all, just steep, and I grinded away all the way up to the top. From there I rode along the fringes of the soccer fields and hooked up with the Santa Luz singletrack.

The singletrack ended way too quickly, as it always does, and from there I rode along the doubletrack that winds through the Santa Luz valley.

As I reached the brief paved connector street, I spotted one of those portable speed displays that the County puts up in certain areas to warn drivers about their speed. I was curious to see if it would register my speed as I rode by. Turned out it would!

Clearly I wasn't able to generate much speed holding my camera in one hand and riding with the other, but it was an entertaining experiment.

After that I rode through the neighborhood and over towards the two hills that mark the most difficult part of the loop. I cleaned the first fairly easily, which I have done several times in the past. This time, however, I also cleaned the second hill, which is something I have never done. The rains had made it much less loose than usual, which helped, but it still felt good to cross that one off my list.

From there my path took me back into Lusardi Canyon toward home.

I decided to explore a couple of faint double track trails as they led out of the canyon, which proved to be a minor mistake. They eventually petered out into overgrown brush, and I had to plow/bushwhack my way back to the road home as I reached the top.

Still, it was an enjoyable and satisfying ride. Cleaning the trail up to Black Mountain Community Park and both of the rough hills in the middle felt good, and it was nice to take advantage of the beautiful day.

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Santa Luz Loop from Home

Road RR: Modified Trek San Diego Monthly Ride Route

For my first longish road ride I elected to try a modified version of the Trek San Diego Monthly Road Ride.

The route passes fairly close to my house, so I elected to ride it from home instead of starting in Carmel Valley. I downloaded the mapmyride.com GPS route to my Edge 305 and headed out. It was my first time riding the 56 bike path, and I enjoyed it. There were a ton of people out, but there was plenty of room to pass and enjoy the mostly downhill from Black Mountain toward the coast.

After a few missed turns and route finding issues (even with the GPS), I made it through Carmel Valley and to the coast. The ride through Del Mar was a little sketchy with all of the traffic, but I joined up with a couple of other cyclists during that section and found safety in numbers. This route didn't have many opportunities to see the ocean during the ride itself, and I didn't stop or detour to go down to the water. Maybe next time.

After riding along the coast I passed the Del Mar Fairgrounds and headed back into Rancho Santa Fe. Before long I was in familiar territory and made my way up San Dieguito Road to Camino del Norte and was home.

I felt great at the end, and wasn't really even tired. I wasn't going for speed per se, but I didn't take any breaks and maintained a pretty consistent pace for the entire ride. I'd like to explore some route options that I can spin off of this ride to make it a little longer but still enjoyable.

Because I didn't start the GPS route guidance from home, and had some GPS problems right before the end of the ride, the stats are a little off. But here they are anyway:

Total Distance: 29.70 miles
Total Time: 2:03:09
Ascent: 536 feet
Average Speed: 14.9 mph
Top Speed: 33.0 mph
Bike: Specialized Roubaix Comp

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Modified Trek San Diego Route Part 2

LPQ Night Ride

My first MTB ride of the new year ended up being an LPQ night ride. Original plans on DT scheduled the ride to start at 7PM, but that was a little late for both Mark and me, so we made plans on the side to start a little earlier and get in some time before meeting up with the rest of the group at 7.

I arrived at the trailhead woefully under prepared because I got out of work late, but after 15 minutes of lubing my rusted chain and pumping up my nearly flat tires, I eventually was good to go. (As an aside, I used my new Thule T2 rack for the first time, and loved how convenient it was getting the bike on and off.)

Mark and I put in an hour of fun riding and then met up with the rest of the group. It was great to see Evan, Joaquin, Mike, Jacek, and Dennis again after not doing a DT ride for a while. Mark and I rode with them for another hour and then headed back to the cars. Before splitting up I did have a mishap where my bar end caught a low hanging branch, spilling me into some trailside bushes. No harm done though.

I didn't take any pictures because it was a night ride, but that's something I'll remedy in the future. All in all it was just a easy ride over some fun trails with great company, which always makes for a fun time.

Total Distance: 10.40 miles
Total Time: 1:52:54
Ascent: 703 feet
Average Speed: 5.5 mph
Top Speed: 22.7 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP

Road RR: 4S Ranch to RSF

I did my second road ride today. After finally getting my new Crank Brothers Quattro SL pedals from Bonktown and an 8mm allen wrench from my dad to install them, the new bike was ready to go.

I did a slightly longer loop than the one I had done the week before and was surprised at how much better I felt. I'm still adjusting to the shifting and braking that is unique to the road bike, but I'm feeling much more in control and stable than I did on my first ride.

While riding through Rancho Santa Fe, I spotted an American Express Gold Card sitting face up in the bike lane. I stopped and picked it up, and it looked like I hadn't been there long. I cut it up when I got home, and couldn't help but laugh about finding a Gold card laying in the road in one of the county's most prestigious neighborhoods.

This route made for a decent local loop, with enough distance and climbing to feel like I got an actual ride in, but quick enough to bang out in just over an hour.

Stats and map here: Garmin Connect - Activity Details for 4S Ranch to RSF Road Ride

2010 Goal List

Part of the way I talked myself into resurrecting the blog for 2010 was deciding to put my poor blogging performance in 2009 behind me. I have 15-20 draft posts sitting in my inbox for 2009 that would take me forever to finalize and update, and the prospect of doing that was so overwhelming that I almost deleted the whole website.

Instead, I decided to make a clean break and start fresh in 2010. And in my second post of 2010, I'm already going back. At least a little bit. See, before I can articulate my 2010 goal list, I have to at least briefly summarize how I did on my 2009 Goal List, which I wrote and posted before bailing out on the rest of 2009.

So here is the 2009 quick summary: I had eleven goals for 2009, and made five of them. I did ride the Tour de Noble, I rode in Idyllwild, I rode Cowles and Pyles Peak, I joined (but didn't participate in) a MTB Patrol, I did an out of state ride, and I controlled my spending (somewhat). If I give myself a half point for the Patrol and half a point for controlling spending, that makes 5 goals achieved.

I did not: Ride the Spring to Sycamore Canyon ride, Ride SART, do the Archipelago backwards, do an organized MTB event or race, and ride Otay Mountain.

So I have something to shoot for in 2010.

Now, enough of the past, I'm all about looking forward in 2010, so here's my 2010 goal list:

1. Keep the blog updated. Its fun for me to look back and read old ride reports from 2008, so one major goal this year is to stay on top of the blogging.

2. Ride new dirt. I'm blessed to live in San Diego, where we have great year around riding weather and a fair number of trails to choose from. But truthfully, I've gotten a little bored with the local San Diego MTB scene. At the end of 2009 I spent several weekends in the Laguna Mountains riding some new trails, and enjoyed that. In 2010, I want to find and ride some new stuff. I don't care whether its local trails I've never ridden or stuff a little farther away, but I'm craving some diversity. I'm not putting a specific number on the amount of "new dirt" rides I want to do, but I'm planning to make it a priority.

3. Finish off parts of the 2009 goal list. I'd like to ride SART, do an organized MTB ride and do my Archipelago ride backwards. I don't care as much about Spring to Sycamore, or Otay Mountain, though if they happen, great.

4. Do more night rides. I almost always enjoy the rare times I do night rides, and want to do them more in 2010.

5. Do a roadie century. I'm new to the road bike, but this seems like a worthwhile goal for 2010. I'll have to build to it, and I don't care whether the 100 miles are part of a sponsored event or around my neighborhood by myself, I just want to do a full century ride at some point this year.

6. Do an organized road ride event. Much like the MTB version, I'd like to do a roadie event this year. Maybe the Gran Fondo Colagno, maybe the Bike the Bay ride, maybe something else. The distance isn't important, just riding in the event is the goal.

7. Do not buy a bike. I have a great mountain bike. I have a great road bike. I purchased bikes in 2007, 2008 (multiple), and 2009. Enough. No new bikes.

8. Find a way to incorporate ministry and riding. I enjoy riding bikes. I am passionate about my faith. Yet for the most part these days, the two rarely intersect. Skyline Cycling was a huge part of my early mountainbiking life, but the fact that I don't attend there anymore and the club folded means that I'm not presently involved in any biking ministry. I want to change that, or at a minimum, be much more purposeful about involving my spiritual life in my riding life.

9. Ride more consistently. In 2008 and 2009, I had periods of time where I would go weeks between rides. While I want to ensure that I maintain proper priorities in 2010, its also important to me to avoid those kind of multi-week layoffs that really hurt my endurance and fitness. Whether its mixing in more road rides, doing more night rides, or getting up early and riding when I know I have a busy day coming, I want to be more consistent and not allow my fitness to slip this year.

10. Get better at working on my bikes. I've been riding on a bald rear tire for three months because I don't know how to change my tubeless tires. I broke a chain on a recent ride and needed Billy to repair it so that I could keep riding. I have been plagued by minor ghost shifting issues since Moab in May. My rear hydraulic brake has been performing poorly, but I don't know how to fix it or bleed the lines. That all has to change in 2010. Especially now that I have a road bike as well, I need to learn how to repair and maintain my stuff.

So there you go. Its nice to have some goals to shoot for this year, and I'm optimistic about achieving all of them if I stay committed and purposeful. We'll see how it goes.

The Blog is Back for 2010

After blogging virtually every ride in 2008, I pretty much abandoned the blog in 2009. There were some sporadic updates, but they were admittedly frail. I know longtime readers were crushed. (Please note the sarcasm.) 2009 was actually a great year as far as riding goes, with trips to Phoenix and Utah/Colorado, and plenty of new dirt and fun rides. But I didn't make blogging a priority.

In any event, I'm resurrecting the blog for 2010, and it will have many of the same old features as years past (a goal list, regular ride reports, quarterly summaries of miles and high points, and a year in review thread at the end of the year, etc.)

I'll also be adding some new wrinkles. First, the ride reports will link to the new Garmin Connect site instead of Motionbased. Second, I purchased a road bike on Christmas Day 2009, so I'll be posting up road ride reports and my thoughts on road biking in general every once and a while. Other changes to both form and content are on the way as well.

So stay tuned for the 2010 Goal List Post and thanks for checking back in after last year's hiatus. I'm looking forward to a great year.