April 10, 2010: 70 mile ride
We started off at the same place today in Carlsbad Poinsettia station. It was a little early for me after coming home late and only have 5 hours of sleep. I knew we were going to ride 70 miles today but I didn’t know how much work we were going to be putting in.
I always seem to forget something as we start and today it was only my gloves. We headed over the the Jack in a Box to get to the restroom before we started.
I knew what are route was going to be. We would head along Poinsettia Blvd and make our way through the coast and then to head north along the coast with a view of the ocean and a lot of people going surfing. It also seems like many people like to run along the coast. I think there was some event because there were some road closures and there were a lot of people running. We spent some time dodging those people but finally got back on track.
Once we go to the 76 freeway we rode along a single lane path where a lot of bikers, walkers and runners go. It is nice but it has a lot of head wind on that path. It was a distance of 6-8 miles until we got to college blvd. Once we hit college blvd, we started off to the side.
Once we turned onto North River Road, I knew we were going to hit some rolling hills. We made our way through and hit our SAG and took a break. I was feeling ok at the time.
After the SAG, we went our merry way and I knew we had to do some climbing. It was W Lilac Road. It was a tough climb. It was long and it was up and down, mostly up. I forgot compared to last time how long it was going to take to get to the top. I did like it somewhat but I didn’t push too hard because I knew we had one more long climb.
Once we got to the bridge that crosses over the 15, we were told that there was going to be some downhill and there was. I liked the small break that we had going down it but also there was more uphill. I didn’t think it was so tough. I felt tired though.
When we got to Old Castle Road we had some more climbing but I didn’t want to push it. There was a nice downhill from here though till we got to our main climb on Champagne Blvd where we took a small break just before climbing it.
One of the mentors stayed with me and pushed me through it. I felt better compared to last time. I don’t know if it was his company along with the weather, but I felt I did a lot better but still tired.
At the top was another SAG and I was tired today. I felt it. I think it was the lack of sleep and also my knee was bothering me.
We pushed on and turned onto Deer Springs road which turned into N Twin Oaks Valley Road which intersected into San Marcos. We made our way through and got to San Marcos Blvd and we had our last SAG there by a Carl’s Jr. I was beat. I don’t know if I was dehydrated or tired or both. I wanted to finish. I didn’t have much to eat at the SAG but I had some drink. I knew I needed something to get me through the last 12 miles.
We started again and it was at Palomar Airport Road and we took a left at El Camino Real. We rode through there till we got to La Costa Ave where the headwinds played a big role. I think the wind gods were a little mad. We got through it though with some effort.
We turned right at the coast and made it back to where we started. I was tired. It was already 2:30 or so when we finished. It was like half the day was gone.
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