28 June 2008

Fremont Peak

Fremont Peak It was cool and cloudy in the morning. At Water and Front, the light turned yellow as I approached due to a car arriving on Front. That would become aggravating, because, on Soquel, the same thing would happen 12 times, due to either a car arriving on a side street, or an oncoming car getting into the left turn lane. Two of them happened fairly long before I arrived, but the rest of them occurred when I was fairly close to arriving at the intersection. Finally, at Soquel and State Park, it was the last of those occurrences. I continued to Freedom, Bonita, San Andreas, Beach, Thurwachter, McGowan, Trafton, Salinas, and Elkhorn to Kirby Park and got signed in. On Salinas, just before the turnoff to Elkhorn, there was a dead orange and white cat, roadkill.

Pretty soon, we headed out. I didn't get a route sheet. So, where the route sheet said to turn left at either Hidden Valley or Strawberry, I was in a group of 4 or so that went straight. It was okay, though. We turned left at Castroville Blvd, and then left at San Miguel Canyon, rejoining the route at Strawberry. We continued on Tarpey, San Juan Rd, and Carpenteria to Aromas for a stop, which would be pretty short, since someone had to be somewhere and wanted to get going, so some of us went too.


Hazy western view from Fremont Peak State Park We headed up to Carr, then took Carr and Anzar and San Juan Hwy into San Juan Bautista, and stopped at the Windmill grocery for an early lunch. After that, some of us headed up to Fremont Peak. I had never done this climb before. Some of the lower and middle parts reminded me of the lower and middle parts of Page Mill. Some of the middle parts reminded me of Soda Springs, and some of the upper parts reminded me of the upper parts of Montebello. At the State Park, the view was mostly obscured by fog or haze from the smoke from the fires. There were lots of bugs buzzing around. At one point in the climb, a bug flew right at my throat and maybe stung me really quickly. I still feel it 6 hours later. Then we descended. At one point, the guy in the lead couldn't take a sharp steep turn and had to go off the left side of the road. Fortunately, there was no traffic and there was a gravel area on that side of the road rather than a dropoff. We stopped at one point to regroup and yakked for about 20 minutes. Later, I felt my rear tire go soft, and my rim hitting the pavement. I must have had a slow leak or something. I changed the tube with bugs flying around. That took another 20 minutes or so. One guy came back to check up on me. He rode from home as well, so we would ride back together. The other 2 were riding back to Kirby Park. We got back to San Juan Bautista at around 2, so I put fake data in my records of arriving there at around 1:20 to account for the time stopped.

We backtracked to Aromas via San Juan Hwy, Anzar and Carr. It was windy and we traded pulls in the headwind. From Aromas, we took Blohm, Aromas Rd, San Juan Rd, Murphy Crossing, Hwy 129, and Carlton. By Carlton, I was running low on energy and was fading, so we took a break at the store on Hwy 152. From then on, I just sucked wheel as we headed back via Casserly, Green Valley, Pioneer, Varni, Corralitos, Freedom, and Soquel. My riding partner cut out just before Dominican Hospital, so I was on my own for the rest of the way. It was sunny then, but by the time I got back to downtown, it was overcast, like it was in the morning.

21 June 2008

Saturday harbor ride

It was a hot sunny day. On my way to the start, four traffic lights turned yellow just as I approached, and I had to stop at each one.

By Freedom, I was at the back of the pack. I moved up a little on the Bonita climbs, then moved back on the descent, so I started San Andreas at the back. On parts of San Andreas, I could smell the smoke from the Trabing fire. At one point there was a 20-25ft gap to a group of 5 that I closed. There was a larger gap ahead of them to the lead pack, but I just sat on after that. Guys from behind swarmed around and closed that gap. After Buena Vista, I had drifted to the back again. On the little climb, I got out of the saddle and the guy next to me said, "Don't bump me." I didn't bump him. I was able to hang on without going over my limit for the rest of San Andreas.

A pretty good sized group of at least a dozen or so went on to Casserly. The pace was high. In fact, it was the fastest I'd ever gone from Hwy 152 to Hazel Dell. This was the first time I'd gone faster on Casserly than the first time I did this ride, on 27 Oct 2007. This time, I was within my limits, unlike that first time, where I was barely hanging on. It was getting very hot, though. I managed to stay with the leaders up Mt Madonna and the initial descent of Hazel Dell. I had to drop off after Green Valley, when it started to climb.

I stopped at Corralitos to refill my bottle, which was at around 15%. Then, up and over Hames, Day Valley, Valencia, and Trout Gulch, and Soquel back to town. My bottle was empty by the time I got home.

New commuter

14 June 2008

Saturday harbor ride

It was foggy and drizzly when I started out on the descent down High. It stayed cool and foggy all morning, and fog clung to higher parts of the hills. There was a smaller pack than usual. I guess some of the big guns were racing at Pescadero.

The San Andreas stretch seemed easier than the first few times I did this ride. I was at the back of the pack most of the way, but didn't have any problems hanging on. I closed or bridged one little gap of around 20ft, though that probably would not have been possible had the big engines been driving the pace in front.

There was a decent sized group of about 15 doing Hazel Dell. I stayed with the group up Mt Madonna and most of Hazel Dell before falling off the back. I could even see the group about 500ft ahead of me at the summit as I was still climbing. It would be a new personal best from Green Valley to Browns Valley by 30 seconds. On the descent, one guy blew by and was around 5 seconds ahead of me hitting the turn onto Browns Valley. After that, he was gone. On the last 3rd of Browns Valley, another pair went by, the second guy telling me to get on, so I jumped to get on his wheel. A big group was stopped at Corralitos, but we continued over Hames. I stopped at Hames and Freedom behind a white SUV. There were 4 riders ahead on Freedom, but one turned at Day Valley. So I chased up the initial rise, and got closer. Then came the descent, and I eased up and fell back. Then it flattened, going by Aptos High, and I pushed some more. Then, right turn onto Soquel. Then, I caught up and could rest a bit, with Hwy 1 to the left and businesses to the right.

One guy turned off towards Capitola. The next at Harbor High. The last just after Morrissey. From there, the traffic lights favored me. Ocean and Water turned green just as I arrived. Water and Pacific was green before I arrived. And I was only stopped momentarily at Mission and Hwy 1. I usually have to stop for a while at those 3 lights.

7 June 2008

Solo ride

China Grade Since I was riding solo, I started later, near midday. I headed up Hwy 9 to Felton, then over to Zayante, and took Quail Hollow and Glen Arbor to Ben Lomond. Then, I went up Hwy 9 again. The James Dean mural on the Brookdale Lodge had been scraped off or painted over or was being restored or something. I continued on to Boulder Creek, then turned left at Hwy 236.

I continued to China Grade, which I hadn't climbed in almost exactly 2 years. The last time I climbed it was 10 June 2006, and it took 24 minutes. This time, I wasn't pushing too hard, but still did it in 21:29. There were bugs buzzing around, but they didn't get into my face. I kept expecting to be at the top for the last quarter mile, but it was longer than I thought. And then I was suddenly at the top, and it was shorter than I thought.

I descended to the park headquarters and took a break with a bar and got a coke from the store. There were lots of vacationers. After the break, I took it easy, heading up Hwy 236. There was a woman on a bike coasting down towards the headquarters in a ranger uniform with a guitar or something like that in a soft case on her back.

It was 2:07 when I turned right at the bottom of Jamison Creek. I had been taking it easy up to now, so I ramped up the intensity. At around 1.5, or a little before the 1.42 sign, a woman wearing pink or lavender was descending very cautiously on her bike. I guess she was going around 10mph, which was still faster than I was going. On the 1.33 sign, there was still the piece of skunk tail. There was also a little U.S. flag stuck on it. The flag did not look very new. I continued crawling up, thinking that a time around 28 minutes now would be mildly disappointing, but would have been really good a year ago, or even 6 months ago. At around 1/4 of a mile or so to the top, I saw a rider ahead of me. It's really rare for me to see another rider on Jamison when I'm riding solo. This would be the 2nd time ever, I think. The first time was some time around a year ago when some guy went by me between the 1.66 and 1.60 signs. This time, I caught up around 1/5 of a mile to the top. He said something about it being too steep for him. I wheezed out a chuckle. When I got to the top, it was 2:32, so I figured my time would be 25 and 1/2 minutes, like the last 2 times. It turned out to be 24:44, so I finally cracked 25 minutes.

I continued left on Empire Grade, recovering for the next 10 minutes or so. It was nice and warm. I almost finished the water in my bottle by the time I got home.

5 June 2008

Swanton Time Trial

I left work early to head home to get changed and head out for the time trial. It was pretty warm, but quite windy. There was a headwind on the way out, so I was slow getting out to the start, but I still got there a little before people started lining up, so I started in the first quarter, rather than at the end like last month.

It started out with a strong headwind, that was gusty at places. When the road twisted, the hills provided some shelter from the wind. When the road twisted away from the coast, a couple of times, there was a brief tailwind, but the headwind returned with a vengeance when the road twisted back. After descending into the valley, I caught sight of the guy who started a minute ahead of me. I made up a bunch of ground on him on the shallow rise. After a few more curves in the road, I went by him. After a few moments, I heard him shifting, and realized that he had latched onto my wheel. Whatever. This is a very low-key event. I just maintained my effort level, as this was an ITT. There still was a little headwind. At the bottom of the hill, I shifted into my little ring, and the guy behind me surged ahead. He soon faded and dropped way back. I saw the riders who started before me descending. Finally, I made it to the turnaround and called out my number. On the descent, I saw that the guy who started a minute behind me had overtaken the guy who started a minute before me. There were also rocks on the road in places, and I ran over one of them, around golf-ball sized, sending it skittering off. I made sure to avoid any more of them. After the descent, there were the latter riders on the outbound leg in the first third or so of the valley. The tailwind had me going pretty quickly at times, and the uneven road surface made the handling a little sketchy. Leaving the valley, the tailwind was stronger, making the climbs faster than my expectation. On the first of the last two little climbs sandwiching the hairpin right, there was a little twinge in my left calf, portending a cramp. It was so close to the end, so I kept pushing. There were more twinges in my calf over those final two minutes, but it didn't cramp. My time was 35:14, which would probably be around the top of the bottom third in the results. I was slightly disappointed that I didn't break 35 minutes. The guy who started a minute behind me probably pulled in 30-40 seconds on me, but didn't catch me. There were plenty of fast riders this time, but, for the first time, due to luck of starting order, I was never passed.

After recovering for a while, I headed back. There was a really strong tailwind, so I was flying. I had a new personal best from Bonny Doon Rd to Western of 19:27.