Fifty Plus (50+) - The Tour de Poway

On October 2, I will complete the 50 mile portion of the Tour de Poway (http://www.bikelink.com/tourdepoway/) to meet the ride age in miles challenge (I'll have to add five miles later in the day, I suppose).

My birthday will be October 19th.

I would love to have any and all cyber friends from the BF riding along with me, virtually, of course. I approach this ride with excitement, some skepticism, and mostly, great aniticipation.

The ride is described as: "50 Mile- start 8:00 am. Begins same as the 62 mile course into Ramona down Highland Valley Road, meets up with 62 mile course in Rancho Bernardo. Over 2,000 ft of climbing and two aid stations. Wrist bands will be required for cyclists to ride the grade."

Hmm...do those wrist bands make it any easier??? :rolleyes:

On October 2, I will complete the 50 mile portion of the Tour de Poway (http://www.bikelink.com/tourdepoway/) to meet the ride age in miles challenge (I'll have to add five miles later in the day, I suppose).

My birthday will be October 19th.

I would love to have any and all cyber friends from the BF riding along with me, virtually, of course. I approach this ride with excitement, some skepticism, and mostly, great aniticipation.

The ride is described as: "50 Mile- start 8:00 am. Begins same as the 62 mile course into Ramona down Highland Valley Road, meets up with 62 mile course in Rancho Bernardo. Over 2,000 ft of climbing and two aid stations. Wrist bands will be required for cyclists to ride the grade."

Hmm...do those wrist bands make it any easier??? :rolleyes:

That just happens to be my birthday also (10/19). We had planned to do a long ride (gotta ride my age at least), so we'll be there in spirit :)

Have fun, and good riding!

Steve

Gary,

I'm with you! Plan to ride the Rails to Trails Withlocoochee Trail that day and will make sure I cover enough mileage. Will be thinking about you!

Good luck and have a great time!

Good luck Gary!!
I believe you will make it and be surprised at how realistic it really is. I don't know whether I will ride 50 plus miles that day, but I will be out there riding and with you in spirit.

Well, hang my britches from a tall flag pole; I'm embarrassed, yet thankful at the same time.

I took the time tonight to go view the route, and it became clear instantly that I'm not ready to do this ride. The distance isn't the issue -- it's the hills. The first five miles is all uphill, an 8% grade, they claim it's 2,000 feet but I have no way of knowing if that's a little or a lot. All I know is -- i'm not in shape for that. It's not even a question of just a little doubt -- it was crystal clear.

So I'm thankful that I hadn't sent in the registration fee and lost $30. But I'm embarrassed that I announced to the world I'd be doing this ride. I won't be doing this ride, at least, not this year.

That said, i'm going to do 55 miles in one day on or before my birthday, but it looks like I'll be doing it solo, on a flat route of my own choosing. I think I have the endurance for that (longest so far was 40 miles), but if you're going to add hill climbing, I'm not ready.

I have to remember this is supposed to be fun and fitness follows fun, so I'm not going to beat myself up too much for choosing not to take on this ride this year. If push comes to shove, I can always ride this little three block loop around my apartment 51 times or so. :) It's flat, and if something happens, I'll never be more than 3 blocks from home!

Sorry for the false announcement, everyone. :(

Well..sorry you won't be ready for the ride. But a wise decision. Don't bite off more than you can chew and in the process get discouraged. I remember when I first started riding hills I could barely make it up some pretty small hills in my granny gear and my heart rate shot up to over 170. Just stick with it and soon you'll be attacking hills. The bike I have now doesn't even have the third granny gear, I don't have to gear down to the smallest cog and my heart rate barely gets over 140 on the very same hills.

Gary, don't they have a couple of shorter options, as well? I may visit Poway the day before, for San Diego Folk Heritage's annual train song festival at Old Poway Park. Keep practicing on hills, and you'll grow to love them as much as I do. (I grew up in the Santa Monica "mountains" of west Los Angeles, at the upper end of Bundy Canyon. My father always warned me that it was a free ride down to my various friends' homes, but I better save enough energy to make it back up the hill at the end of the day.)

The wrist band is for the coroner.

And you now know why mileage is the worst way to compare rides.