I drove up to the Bay Area from San Diego last week and took the opportunity to get a ride in on the way and while here, visiting family.
First stop was Santa Barbara - I had 44 miles road/gravel ride planned but scrapped my plans once I got to the top of Gibralter. It was freezing cold, wet, and windy and my misery level and common sense was enough to high-tail it back down the mountain. Attempted two 16 minute intervals and ended up with a new eFTP according to intervals.icu and training peaks. This is my second increase in two weeks so that was great.
Putzed around the Cañada Road one afternoon for little Z2.
On Saturday I was able to get in on a Rapha CC ride into the North Bay. Nice group of mostly intermediate cyclist made for mostly mellow day in the gorgeous Redwoods. I definitely miss the riding up here the most. Got in 75 miles and almost 5 hours in and it was lovely.
Sunday morning, I linked up with the old Pen Velo club ride and did some very hard (for me) efforts that I have not done in a long time. I love my structured training but there is that certain type of fitness that you get from doing a hard club ride that I miss. I cut the ride short and headed up Old La Honda where I decided to try and knock out another 16-minute threshold interval out of curiosity. Could I do after an hour and thirty minutes of riding? Turns out I could, and I did. Good to know. Finished off the ride going up Skyline and down Kings Mtn for a fast descent.
Yes it was. SLO is great, Cal Poly is my alma mater. I stayed the night there with a friend but wasnât able to squeeze in a ride, unfortunately. Several good breweries there too - my buddy is a fan of Antigua.
My daughter is an alumni too, got her masters three years ago. She wants to take me to Liquid Gravity, and weâve been to a lot of the breweries already. Her boyfriend started âSLOeats on the App Store with his buddy so hoping they cook up some good dinner plans! We usually stay a few blocks away from Higuera/HighSt/NauticalBean but just booked an AirBnB walking distance to downtown Arroyo Grande.
My first time riding with this group, although Iâve been eying it for a while. Todayâs ride was chill relative to what they normally do, from what Iâve been told. No complaints, though, as this is recovery week for me.
The loop is about 3 miles long and goes clockwise, which includes a neutral recovery zone long the straight northeast leg of the course. The course is completely flat so we set the pace by speed. The Bâs ranged from 20-24 mph while the Aâs started at 25 mph. The Bâs had a great pace line going and it only got sporty when the Aâs blew through at the end of the ride right where the road narrows and there were runners and other cyclists. We held our line and all was good.
So nice to get outside in a group ride. Sunrise was awesome but I didnât get any pics - too busy chatting with a co-worker that I didnât expect to see there.
All-in-all riding in DC near where I work is not faster than riding at home, for the same ride duration. Spent a lot less time in traffic, but more time faffing around with loading my bike into the car, unloading it at work, then stowing everything again at the end of the ride once back at work, plus time to/from the locker room. However, well worth it for an awesome group ride. Given how flat it is should work well for intervals up to 8 minutes long. Also, Hains Point is a park with gates that they shut and lock from dusk to dawn, so starting earlier than sunrise isnât much of an option. Still, great way to start the day.
Not a workout strictly speaking, more a ride on some nice roads around here with a goal to spend as much time as possible in zone 2 and low 3.
Managed it quite well I think.
First couple of hours were fine, after about 2:30 fatuige was starting to be a thing. Coffee stop after about 3 did very little to mitigate that. Last hour, hour and a half I was properly on the struggle bus.
I had a surprise asthma attack 2 weeks ago (I did not know I had asthma!) and lots of new medicine, inhalers etc might be having more of an impact then I hope, this was a bit harder then I expected.
I wish it was all down hill! Or at least some climbing so I could get a more extended down hill. Unfortunately there is very little of that here and also very little of actual flat. Itâs pretty much continously undulating which is entertaining and makes for interesting situations when goal is to hold stable power.
Getting past up hill then slowly catching on flat or flying past down hill. Rinse and repeat until they get tired of it
After my âAâ race last week this is a recovery week. I like recovery weeks as it justifiable to make the commute the endurance work out and not rush home to do a HIIT session.
This evening I looped in the wrong direction on nice country lanes some of which a new (maxi) mini wouldnât fit down they were so narrow. I didnât dare stop to take a picture until I was at the end of the narrowest, and ironically most picturesque, lanes and they widened; such was the overgrown high hedges and lack of visibility on route.
I got to the station expecting the 7:15 pm train to be empty, it was packed but some good old boy (just back from a London to Brighton recce) had got in there first so cycle space wasnât full of luggage or people
It was supposed to be Pettit for me tonight but it was also the midweek paceline so I expected I might exceed it. I exceeded it by a bit more than I thought with a 1h25m paceline ride of an IF of 0.80 (the last 21mins straight in to a strong headwind at an IF of 0.84). They switched to the summer route last week when I was tapering and deliberately missed it so I could stick to my Endurance wo but not tonight The route is roughly Yaxley (doubling back at a road closure to the main road), Folksworth, Polebrook, Chicken Farm Hill (well a hill around here Chicken Run Climb | Strava Ride Segment in Peterborough, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom 1.5miles at just 1.7% ave, probably 3%max), Great Gidding, Winwick, Clopton Road, Alconbury Weston and then the Old A1 north to the Stilton Over Bridge. Maybe I should reassign it from Pettit to a tempo or SS ride
Also a good bonus we met one of our mates halfway and he was just back from Unbound 200 so we had a good chat with him on the OB before he went off south to grab some more top 10s
Thought I would come close to the KOM of my âadopted sonâ but shucks Iâm 33 seconds off his best.
Ended up tied for 4th in the middle of a (much younger) 8-man peloton from 18 months ago. But hey its about competing with myself, right?
Think I can beat my own power and time on the 2.8 mile slightly uphill segment, and take 2nd place outright, but seriously doubting my ability to contend for the KOM as I would need to hold something close to 350W for ~6 minutes!
TR Dans was in my calendar for Tuesday but I swapped it for Thursday workout for a quick ride at lunchtime. Lol I never noticed there was a âlap to continueâ before the workout even started. So I was out of town before the 30mins even started. Near the end of the last interval I had wanted to swing round right and take a more direct route back to town but the âLoose Chippingsâ signs convinced me to take the slightly more indirect route back, and being over Morbourne Hill it was quite slow to stay in zone. Lol, plus the fact that I stopped at the top to let a small combine harvester go down the narrow bumpy road. For those in the know it ended up being the reverse of the ToC TT route at a recovery pace and a wee bit extra to my place, so it ended up being over an hour.
90 minutes stuffing all my daughterâs stuff into a 5x8 U-Haul. Goodby Reno, hello home with the parental units for a couple months, and then Phoenix.
Despite all the hauling, I didnât notice the elevation.
Back in the day I moved around the Bay Area and everything fit in my car! @Pbase she graduated early Dec 2021 but finally had a post pandemic drinking age social life so we told her it was ok to enjoy âcollege lifeâ if she didnât ask for money. This kid had everything boxed up unlike daughter #1.
The route is roughly Yaxley (doubling back at a road closure to the main road), Folksworth, Polebrook, Chicken Farm Hill (well a hill around here 
Looped to one of the local towns on bridleways.
unlike daughter