Hey everybodies, I spent a bit of time and got all my photos together
from the ride. I took about 80 total (probably 10 spurts of 8 or so),
and they are at this location:
http://henry.sandi.net/students/2008/wedwall/chuck/qviewer
This is the first image in the gallery; just a route with some
averages.
[image:
http://henry.sandi.net/students/2008/wedwall/chuck/qviewer/images/photos/photos1024/1.jpg]
It's a JavaScript photoviewer I made back in early 2006, and, as far as
I know, it works in all browsers including IE6! So bring it on and
clickz0r! Grrr, it better work in IE6 .... heheheh
I intend at this point to make this short, but if any of you know me,
you know I can be too verbose, so this will probably end up being a
hell of a long post. You guys don't have to read it if it's longer than
a couple paragraphs!!!
Anyway, about the ride... whoohoo, it was a doozey for me, and I was
thrashed afterwards! Didn't really chafe much, but once I made it home,
I slept probably 33 hours out of the next two days of the weekend.
I started out on a bit of a climb to get out to Pacific Coast Highway
(PCH) from my college, UC Irvine, as we're behind a bit of a hill. I
was doing about 11.5 mph or so up the hill, which isn't bad, but it's
not a great way to kick off your shot at getting a fast average speed
for the day! By the time I'd gotten down the other side of the hill to
PCH, my average was up to 12.2, much better than 11. I left hungry on
purpose, so I could stop at a Subway in Newport Beach and get a
footlong Jalapeño-filled meatball sandwich, which I would then inhale.
After sitting around for a good half hour, I continued south on PCH for
the REAL beginning of the ride.
[image:
http://henry.sandi.net/students/2008/wedwall/chuck/qviewer/images/photos/photos0800/13.jpg]
Through Newport Beach, the hills are manageable, and on the flats, I
found myself cruising between 14.5 and 15.5 without much effort; on the
downs, I'd be consistently in the 15s, touching 16s, and on the slight
ups, usually around 12. My average through Newport Beach was a good
13.5 or so, and caused my average to climb to 12.8 by the time I hit
Laguna Beach's limit.
Once I got to Laguna Beach, which is more hilly, my average didn't
really drop, I think because I was warming up more and getting used to
my uni a tad better; there were many more hills, which I crawled up
around 10-10.5mph and raced down around 17-18 with my shiny new brake
(yippee!). Flats were still within 0.5mph of 15.0, and by the end of
Laguna Beach, headed into Dana Point, my average speed for the whole
ride had climbed to 13.3. That means I must've been averaging in the
high 13s through the hills to get it to climb that far from 12.8mph
with only doubling the total distance travelled.
[image:
http://henry.sandi.net/students/2008/wedwall/chuck/qviewer/images/photos/photos0640/35.jpg]
Dana Point is the beginning of the end of the hills for this ride, as
it's a huge downhill to a stretch of very slight rollers that pull you
along the coast for the next 45 miles (to Torrey Pines Grade). Down the
Dana Point hill on PCH, I was spinning 16-17.5mph, keeping it
relatively under control in order to prevent UPDs. At the bottom of the
hill is a stoplight, but, luckily for me, it had just turned green, so
I sailed through at 17 miles an hour, passing all the cars that had
just begun to accelerate. It feels GOOD when that happens, doesn't
it??!!
After Dana Point are San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente, San Onofre
campground, and Camp Pendleton (Marines base) until Oceanside, which is
right about the halfway point of the ride and will be my first stopping
point for some fuel. Through all these towns/places, it's relatively
flat, with the exception of a decently sizable hill in San Clemente.
I pegged my pace between 15.7 and 16.2mph on the first portion of the
bike path going through San Juan Capistrano, which lasted a couple
miles; once it opened back up to the road, I slowed back down to
14.5-15ish; by then, spinning just kind of felt second nature, and,
though my groin muscles were a bit sore, it was easy to ignore them...
so I just spun away on the flat ground until Oceanside, having gone in
the emergency lane of the freeway, Interstate 5, to get past the
Marines base. (It was dark by then, and they don't let cyclists on the
base after a 3:30 or 4 PM.) My average for the 25-ish mile stretch from
Dana Point to Oceanside was a cool 14.4mph, which I am pretty stoked
with! My previous longest time going 14.4mph was a fund-raiser back in
November, and that was only for an hour (14.4 miles) instead of for 25
miles 🙂.
[image:
http://henry.sandi.net/students/2008/wedwall/chuck/qviewer/images/photos/photos1280/37.jpg]
(I could only take pictures of my shadow!)
[image:
http://henry.sandi.net/students/2008/wedwall/chuck/qviewer/images/photos/photos0640/49.jpg]
But I could get one of myself every NOW and then, but only really like
this, grimacing in concentration trying to balance, look up, and hold
the camera right. I have bad balance compared to all you guys!
At Del Taco in Oceanside, where I put some half-fat, half-food calories
in me and filled up my bottles, I had 6 tacos and a bean/cheese
burrito, and bought 4 more tacos to stuff in my jersey pockets in case
I got hungry later. Took my sweet time, too. Probably rested a whole 40
to 50 minutes there!
Going through Oceanside and southward to Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana
Beach, and Del Mar, the last of the flattish riding, my pace started to
fade a little bit, from the healthy 14.5-15.5 flat spin to a more
realistic 13.6-14.3mph. With stoplight deceleration and the occasional
small hill climb, this worked down to a 13.3 average for this section
of the ride, which was about 23 miles. Not blistering, but good enough
to cover some healthy ground, methinks.
By the time I got to The Hill (the hill of all hills, at least as far
as the Irvine-to-San Diego-ride is concerned), which is Torrey Pines
Road (known as Torrey Pines Grade), I was feeling pretty down, and had
gotten hungry again. I stopped at the bottom of the hill and stretched
my legs and tried to take a picture of it (which really didn't work,
see below, LOL (and that's as photoshopped-up as it gets!)), and
climbed on my uni... I thought I'd fly up it, but it hurt a LOT more
than I thought it would. I barely held 8 miles an hour up it, when I
thought I'd be cranking a healthy 10. It's about a mile and a half long
and 500ish feet of gain. (6-7ish percent grade, I think). By the top I
felt a bit lightheaded and dizzy, and I knew this was the beginning of
the end for my fast riding. Even at the top, I struggled to keep 12
miles an hour once it flattened out.
[image:
http://henry.sandi.net/students/2008/wedwall/chuck/qviewer/images/photos/photos0640/74.jpg]
After Torrey Pines Grade, you go through UCSD's campus to get to a road
called Gilman Drive, which is a long-ish, shallow descent. Problem is,
I always get lost at UCSD, so I figured I'd make it be a rest time to
get my legs and head back, and I just slowly rode around the campus
looking at all the buildings. I need a few extra miles to make it into
a 100-mile ride anyway, because it's really only 95 to my house. I
probably spent a half hour at UCSD riding around and eating my four
tacos I'd stashed in my jersey, and I eventually found my way onto
Gilman Dr. down to its intersection with Interstate 5, crossed under
the freeway and hopped on....
[image:
http://henry.sandi.net/students/2008/wedwall/chuck/qviewer/images/photos/photos0800/79.jpg]
(This is me and my uni at UCSD just after I ate the 4 extra tacos.
Yum(ck), fast food tacos kept warm by body heat and moist by
sweat!!1!oneone! (hey, it's actually not that bad!))
... the bike path through Rose Canyon that leads to Santa Fe Rd., which
takes you to Morena Blvd, which takes you to Friars Rd, which takes you
to the stadium, where you get on a road that takes you up a NASTY,
HORRIBLE, RUDE, disgusting, slap-in-the-face climb called Twain Ave.,
which takes you to Waring Rd, which takes you to Navajo Rd., which
takes you to Jackson Dr., which takes you to my street, which takes ME
to my BED! I was officially in San Diego, but BOY, I was going SLOW.
Talk about a 13mph average going on downhills all the way down Gilman
and through the canyon, and a 8-9mph average on the slight uphills
toward my house, not to mention the 4-5mph I had behind me climbing
Twain. OH, and BTW I stopped and bought two chicken sandwiches at Carls
Jr. which gave me another 25 minutes of rest time. HEHE. w00t for rest!
I take my time when I eat! (But then you get cold and regret spending
so long, because you go back out into the night and your sweat freezes
you until you warm up again, lol. You get what you pay for!). Anyway,
the last bit of my ride, I was really hurting for speed. I felt okay on
my Coker and didn't UPD, but I had almost no power to go fast at all.
I finally made it home at about 12:45 AM, and fell asleep on my bed as
soon as I touched the sheets. I did manage to wake up an hour later and
take a shower though (phew, good thing... LOL)
I think I've got a pretty good 60-65 mile Coker ride in me, but my
endurance hits the wall around 70, and I cease to be able to spin
lightly and easily while keeping balance. But heeeecck, it was a fun
ride. I wish I'd gotten to go with someone! (hint hint, ShannonG and/or
onelesscar!)
I put my ride into the Ride The Lobster // Mediterranean Uni Tour Long
Distance Effort Calculator (available at
http://www.unitours.org/Unitours/tours/MUT/Rating.aspx ), and, at 160km
with 700 meters of climbing and 500 meters of descending, it reads a
difficulty level of 375. I did do about 62 miles of the ride at night,
though, which is right about 100km, so if you add in the night riding
to the subjective section, it climbs to 609. Honestly, I don't know why
riding at night adds a whole point per kilometer; in my view, it's no
more difficult than riding at day, and it's quite peaceful. I put a
screenshot of the diff thing in here. Donno why, can't hurt I guess.
[image:
http://henry.sandi.net/students/2008/wedwall/chuck/qviewer/difficulty.gif]
Ummm, if any of you guys read all this, let me know what I can do to
get you your ten minutes back, because it was probably a waste of your
time. I see things based on how fast I go and whether it's up or down,
so, unless you're masochistic, it's gotta be pretty boring to read
about...:o
Oh, and this was the second ride of the two-day qualifier ride for Ride
The Lobster, and I'll probably use the majority of this post in the
writeup I submit. The "first" ride, which I did Friday night before I
left on this big one, was pretty short; it was a 17-mile round trip to
get some brake handle parts and batteries and junk from a bike shop and
to get some Fish Burritos at Rubio's (good restaurant!). Once I got
back, I went out again with friendly group of slower cyclists and hung
on for dear life on my Coker everywhere but the hills, where I could
get my retribution for being on a unicycle... hehehe. The Friday night
ride ended up being a healthy 32 Coker miles, with about 300m of
climbing. Since it was all at night, it barely pushes the difficulty
rating above 125 (to 130), so, that, combined with this century, means
I'm all good for RTL if I can get my passport! W00t, I can't wait!!
I think I did this just to prove to myself that I could do a big ride
without a geared hub. I'm super excited to get it, but all the big,
strong, fast Coker dudes did all their long rides and touring the old
way, with 1-1 drive. I know I could never bring myself to ride 100
miles with a geared hub and force myself to stay in first gear, so I
just had to do it the old way once before I "gear up" for RTL.
Edit: replaced some photos with smaller versions.
--
chuckaeronut
Cycling: It doesn't get easier; you just get faster.
Unicycling: It doesn't get easier; you just do tougher stuff.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
chuckaeronut's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/14677
View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/67830
Posted Via Usenet.com Premium Usenet Newsgroup Services
----------------------------------------------------------
** SPEED ** RETENTION ** COMPLETION ** ANONYMITY **
----------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usenet.com