Started off the month with a group ride with Strava group, OCSR. The Scenic ride is a fairly flat tour a bit inland from JD Flannel donuts in San Juan Capistrano to Ortega and Antonio then down to North Beach, San Clemente and around the Dana Point Harbor loops. I extended my ride on my own to start the month off with a fondo. I didn’t plan that, I just noticed as I was riding up to the. house I was a short distance from 100km for the day. I refueled and set off to finish it off. If I’d carefully checked my weekly total, I’d have ridden a couple more kilometers and made my 400km weekly goal as well.
As part of my lengthening I rode south of town and found a bit of gravel,
First rest day of the month, I washed and cleaned up the drivetrain and cleaned up my shoes. A fresh drivetrain is so, so nice.
A clean, waxed chain is a happy chain.
The above is pre-waxed, just cleaned and dried, ready for the wax pot.
A short cafe’ ride today, my typical unplanned shortening of a possible longer ride. Great weather, just felt a bit peckish by the time I got to Oso, so instead of heading north to the back bay, I turned back toward a coffee and treat.
Three hours and a bit of light effort riding. A clean bike is a pleasure to ride. This bike works so well and fits so well and is simply so enjoyable to ride. The Pinarello F7 Ultegra Di2 is my perfect bicycle.
A pretty light week this week. Another cafe’ ride, finding a Japanese coffee roaster I’d ridden past without noticing for a long time. I happened to be waiting for the light one day and noticed the “Coffee Roaster”, sign. I investigated on Friday and discovered this small batch Japanese coffee roaster, Maméya Coffee Roasters.
I slowed down a bit here and there looking around to take in the views I am riding through. I’m not a racer and my “training” is simply going for a ride. While I make some efforts here and there, I do not want to lose focus that my riding is for enjoyment. Cactus flowers. I saw these as I was spinning out to recover from a short little stinger climb and turned around to come back and line up a photo.
I ended the week with, 290km, 2,184m of climbing over 11:53. Not bad for missing about a hundred kilometers of riding and mostly shortened rides.
A couple of rest days then I need to ride. I got out for a very short ride. I’d initially felt like a long ride, but as I got underway, I slowly began to notice I wasn’t into riding. I was enjoying riding, but I wasn’t feeling the long ride vibe. It didn’t help I’d forgotten my little tube of sunscreen, bag of dried apricots and film can of Nuun tablets. So, at the park, I turned back toward home. I could have done the shortened 70-80km route with a coffee shop stop, but didn’t feel like spending the $10-15 it seems a coffee shop stop ends up costing these days. A laziness. A bit guilty feeling after not quite an hour and a half of riding.
I made up for that on Wednesday with a 100km ride. 4:15 out there of which 76% of that time was zone 2. My legs felt hammered at a couple of points, but I recovered and rode on.
Group ride from Oceanside to San Diego was big fun. Nailed some PR’s on hills and even on the flat big ring boys stuff.
Easy ride back to Oceanside on the train. Someday. I’ll work up the gumption to ride to San Juan Capistrano and catch the train to Oceanside there, then ride back to San Clemente from San Diego on the train. It costs more, but train rides.
Finished the week with the La Pata Climb ride, I was the only one to ride the climb, with everyone else opting to do the harbor loop from the scenic ride. Max got us a group shot before the last big descent where Rob and I hammered that thing and I headed for the big climb.
The day began a bit damp with a very heavy marine layer, soaking my glasses.
Ended the week under my mileage target, at 288km and 1,949m of climbing.
Started off the third week of the month with a gran fondo, followed by a bit of climbing, but avoiding the heat for a good bit riding up PCH to Laguna Beach, then up Laguna canyon and back down to Dana Point where I rode the big hill that is Pacific Island to skip the construction for a good deal of very hot and slow climbing. I’ve a couple of group rides planned beginning Thursday, then again on Sunday. By Tuesday I’d rolled through 7,000 km for the year to date. In 2024 I only managed 8,122 the whole year. Last year I didn’t really get going good and steady until August. I’m feeling quite good about all this riding I’ve been doing.
Since I. was feeling. good, I rode a century. My second self-supported century of the year. It was a hot day.
When I got to my lunch stop at a park it was clear I should have packed my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. All I had were what was left of about a dozen dried apricots and Nuun tablets. So, that was lunch.
I used four bottles of Nuun and five of water. While sitting in the shade with my meager lunch, I decided I had enjoyed enough of the onshore headwind on the Peters Canyon trail and the heat. After finishing my rest and snack, I headed for the San Diego Creek trail.
By the time I got to the baby elephant above Dana Point Harbor, I was figuring out how to get the remaining distance in to hit 100 miles. The easy decision was to head south of home and figure the distance when I rode past my street.
Down at the harbor loop the fire boat was out for some celebration with a lot of kids out on Baby Beach.
The WSL competition. was just finished this past weekend down here at Trestles, I’m above Lower Trestles or a bit south of this photo.
I’m over 13,000km for the past twelve months and over 50,000m climbing for this year. I should end up with a pretty good week this week after passing 1,000km for the month. The Pinarello F7 is working great. Comfortable enough for me to ride all day in the heat. That century was almost 8 hours out with the bike, six and a half in the saddle. I am still focused on zone 2 training with an eye to losing weight. I’m hovering around 67kg or 147lbs. I think I’ll need to tweak my diet a bit more and clear off some treats to help that weight loss out.
I finished my biggest distance week so far this year with a group ride. 578 kilometers, 4,966 meters of climbing across 23 hours and six minutes.
There were donuts,
I am feeling pretty good. Not too sore, but Sunday I did take a while to spin my legs loose and get to hammering out watts. I went as hard as I could on the last big climb up Golden Lantern, grabbing a new PR. I went a bit too hard in the middle of it so tapered off more toward the finish than I should have, so there is more to be had there.
I finished off the month with a metric century with the club on the last Saturday, but mostly rode alone, then the last day of the month, I rode another solo metric century on my more usual metric route, but in zones 1 & 2. The. Saturday metric, I put my head down and tried to maintain a good speed. It was a flatter route than my usual by around 300m, so I knew I could go faster. I made a new PR for 100km. It was a nice workout. And ending the month with a good amount of riding. I’m working up a little different hundred mile route I’m hoping to try soon. Should be fun in July.
Totals for the month:
Distance: 1,673.4km
Climbing: 12,527m
Time: 66h 55m
Along The Way 