The first week of July I surpass my mileage accumulation from 2024 in just over six months riding. I am more than satisfied with that. Yes, the various projects around the house are taking a hit, but chopping roots and stumps out of the ground is not anywhere near as fun as riding a bicycle and that pick-axe action hurts my back for a week after.
First ride of the month and I’m a bit fatigued. I cut my intended ride short from the usual 100km route to a flatter and lighter workload. I did manage to stay mostly in zones one and two with most of my time in zone one.
First week of July is in the books. Nearly a handful of group rides. Two pretty tough rides with the group and one rider back with together with us after a long time away. 377km for the week. Good fun too.
I’m a bit fatigued, but having fun.
The second week of the month I had another group ride with OCW folks as they and we explored the proposed routes for the upcoming club century in September. I took it easy for the most part, but managed a couple of PR’s on climbs. I guess chasing Paul has helped me a bit. It was a touch over 73km for me. My first ride of the week had been the day prior at bit over 78km. I followed that by a long hot day of exploring but managed to keep my head and do 141.5km, but 78% of the long day of 5:55 riding time in heartrate zone 2. Probably my best day of nailing that. I have surpassed my 2024 distance now and managed to get about 2,000km ahead of my pace to hit 12,000km for the year. I am toying with revising that goal upward.
Finished the week off with another group ride. I spent the day sliding out the back to do intervals back through the group. These of course got harder and harder as I let ever larger gaps form before getting going. Good workout though. I managed 382km for the week. That big ride I did of 141km, hammered me from the heat. I ran myself quite low on electrolytes. It took two days to recover. The first day I had zero energy and was dizzy sitting down. I’ve ordered different electrolyte magic powder that should be here in a couple of days to try.
Another week down. I managed to hit my weekly goal on Saturday so, given the weekend I took Sunday off the bike.
416km for the week. I started the week off with a group of three ride from San Juan Capistrano to Solana Beach and train back, exploring more details of the. OCW AMTRAK Century for September. I spent a lot of time following since I didn’t know exactly where we were going.
That day ended up being a bit more than 100km for me thanks to ride to/from SJC.
I took Tuesday off, then my usual 100km route on Wednesday. I had noticed on Monday a spot on my rear tire where I could see the cord. By Wednesday this was looking more ominous with several more spots appearing around the tire. I noticed one spot that looked almost like a blister and when rubbed with my thumb lifted to reveal the cord. Time to change tires.
I’d tried to break the bead by hand on the front on Sunday, with no success. If I’d been thinking I’d have come up with t he solution I figured out during my Wednesday ride.
Yes, the big composite wood clamp worked the trick. Of course my Park Tool showed up the next day.
I went with a full set front and rear of Pirelli P Zero Race tires with Tubulito TPU tubes. The front wheel fully done up weighing in at 1,215 grams. After a couple of good long rides on the usual stuff I ride they. feel good. Different from the GP 5000 and latex tube setup. Supple, and secure feeling.
The first short ride on Thursday confirmed I liked the setup.
I’m able to run 75 psi in front 77 at the rear. Friday was a very short ride, as we had thunder, lightening and heavy downpour overnight that woke me about 4:30AM. Really hard rain for almost two hours really soaked our garden and left the air very humid. I lazed around until late then just couldn’t get my heart into it so instead of suffering in the heat and even greater humidity inland, I headed back home to save it for another day. Saturday was that day. I felt great having had a nice cool nights sleep, I set off not all that early. Since it was weekend and tourist season I elected to ride up Golden Lantern to Monarch Bay then Crown Valley Parkway to Aliso as an experiment and escape the crowds.
I took no photos that day, just rode and enjoyed rolling along pretty solidly in zone 2 for much of the ride. I connected to what is normally the front half of my usual 100km route and had a good time back to the house. This was my third ride with the new electrolyte mix, LMNT. It works great for me. Initially, I felt like it was sweeter and I could definitely taste the greater salt content, but now I don’t notice so much. What I did notice is less sore muscles and zero post ride cramping. Also less craving for salty treats post ride as well. I’m not a huge fan of packets of powder, but I prefer it to the loose bulk powder. I used three packets plus the bottle I started with on a 4:07 ride. One bottle of water in there to finish. I will be ordering more in a larger quantity. I like the watermelon flavor quite a bit. The packets come 30 to a box and using one per hour, that is about 1.5 boxes a month. This fitness deal is a bit expensive. Anyway a good week of riding. Tomorrow begins another week and I’m hoping to knock out a century on my own again. I also need to drive down to the Marine Base Camp Pendleton and work out getting a base pass for cycling through there.
Dan and I met up in SJC and rode to Solana Beach for some more OCW Amtrak Century exploration and such. I got to ride the bivalve route for the first time ever for me through Marine Base Camp Pendleton. I had traveled this route several times, years ago aboard my old 2004 BMW 1150 GS Adventure as a volunteer Moto for a triathlon out of Oceanside. The 100 mile cycling circuit going all the way to above Trestles in San Clemente and back. The route through the base is much preferred to riding the shoulder of Interstate 5, or as Californian’s refer to any freeway by prefacing the highway number with the word, “The”, or “The 5”. Mostly uneventful zone 1 ride until a couple of fast riders, a woman and man passed me, then I caught up to them at a stop light. We chatted brefiely, but I didn’t catch much thanks to my hearing and the lag the airbuds induce with noise canceling and conversation recognizing. The woman was wearing the 2024 regional champions jersey. Her strength and riding giving more than. ample evidence of her earning the right to wear it. Quite fun being allowed to ride along in such company. Fast and sure riding demonstrating loads of bike handling skill and confidence riding. I took the opportunity to jump on because I felt these chances don’t come along every ride so as long as I can I will. Much appreciated little time travel session. back across more than 40 years to my youth, riding in fast company. For “Top Gun” fans, the photo below was taken as I rode past the Top Gun house in Oceanside. didn’t quite get the shot I was after, having to juggle riding around the potholes and monitor the morning traffic and tourists. I’ll be by this spot a lot more I think this summer with all the course work for the century coming up, so I’ll get plenty of practice for that perfect shot.
I was suffering a bit from a poor nights sleep and some stomach reaction to some food or other. I’ve notched over 9,000 kilometers for the year now. A day later I’m still dealing with discomfort. I’m taking a day.
Ended the last full week of the month with less than my 400km goal, but still on a good roll. Group ride was a larger group than usual. It included a couple I’d met out riding and told of the club rides. Stuart made me work like mad. Pushed me to my maximum on hills. I’d decided to ride hills as power intervals. And Stuart held me to that decision by riding away off the front, providing a target for my chase instinct. That completely rubberized my legs. I was just spent entirely until the tailwind at the very end on Alicia. This next week I should be able to get past 1,000 miles for the month for a second month running. I’m very happy with that.
Parlor Doughnuts closed the location we had begun starting the group ride from. We will have to relocate back to the original starting donut shop at J.D. Flannel in SJC.
I finished the month a day early by miscounting kit. I’ll blame the darkness of a closet for my mistaking the last pair of bib shorts, for two. This mistake of course forces a rest day for laundry. I air dry my kit to help it last as long as possible and to not use the dryer and save money and all that energy. I am happy for the rest since I’ll kick off the month of August with a small group ride from the train station Irvine to Oceanside, then either ride home from the return train from North Beach or San Juan Capistrano.
Totals for the month:
Distance: 1,628km
Climbing: 11,167m
Time: 66.5 hours
Along The Way 