Early last week Justin and I had a plan to hit up Noble Canyon with some friends, but by mid-week that plan was cancelled and our weekend was open. We wanted to get out to ride Jason's latest So Cal Fat Tire Epic course for his marathon race in early October, but what to do on Saturday? We thought, due to the extreme heat being forecast, that a coastal road ride was in order.
Late in the week Luke emailed to say that he was hitting up the Celo Pacific ride with Slater and James. Since the ride was essentially what I had been planning, but would include some fun roadie attacks off the front on the hills, we decided we'd make the trip down to Carlsbad and join the group! It was listed as a low to moderate intensity ride, but we were assured there would be some attacks, so to go get 'em.
We got down there a little early, got prepped, and as I headed over to use the Deli's facilities saw James and BETH roll in! Was stoked to finally meet her.
Shortly after the group rolled out through town, through the harbor, and onto the base.
After a short regroup on base I knew the pace would be lifted, so tried to position myself in the front half of the group so I could hang on and not be shot off the back. True to form, the pace went way up, and as soon as I saw the first rise coming up, I pushed to get as close to the front as possible. I hadn't done this route in awhile, but I knew there were 2-3 decent short hills, and positioned myself pretty good to stay in the pack. My HR was skyrocketing, so it was all good. I figure these road rides are better if you race road because there are attacks, and then it'll calm down for awhile, and then attacks, then it calms down. Generally through Pendleton we were flying, and the pace slowed and swelled and lifted and slowed on the way up to San Onofre state beach. I sort of was late to the sprint finish game, but had a blast pushing up through the ranks anyway, and turned it around with Slater and we chatted about our sprint numbers (his are way better than mine! - duh!).
Everyone regrouped a little and we cruised it back through San Onofre, getting yelled at by the lifeguard/ranger? the whole back through.
The pace was sure to lift again once back on the base, and sure enough it did. I put in an effort to stay with the group on one of the hills, and totally sprinted like crazy up to the top. Felt great, even with fatigued legs. I missed the split up to Luke and one of the younger kids, and was ahead of the rest of the crew…not a good place to be! I put in efforts, but was getting tired, and eventually the pack went by. I caught on to the tailend just a tad, but hanging by a thread. Eventually Luke and I were spit off the back and put in some solid TT efforts. The lights thwarted us from catching back on, but we had fun anyway.
The three of us (Justin, Luke, and I) cruised it south with Beth and James who were heading home. Justin and I even stopped at Pannikins!! Always a good time.
We did NOT get food :)
After the ride we grabbed some grub (Justin and I had our PB&J sandwiches), and headed back north with Slater and Luke for an afternoon at the beach. I don't go to the beach very often, but was quite surprised when we had to wait in line…for over an hour…and pay $15…to go to the beach. Only in California :)
Since we had an early wake-up call (Luke had mentioned riding at 6:30 am!) for the next day at Vail, we decided to head out just before sunset.
Luke was out for Sunday, but we hooked up with Zippy for a marathon loop around 7:30 am. I'll be honest… I was COLD where we parked. As soon as we got moving, though, temps were rapidly rising!
Early morning light
From the top of Dam climb
West side!
More pics…
Hiking
And then…
All in all, great weekend. Feeling really good on the bike and the efforts were solid. I was totally fatigued at the end of the both days! So tired I didn't even take any photos of food :)