The weekend weather was outstanding for early March in NorCal. My wife and I decided to practice race pace TT efforts of 5K and 10K. We put on the Easton 58 mm carbon tubes on the TT bikes. The TT course was perfect and we did a warmup and surveyed the course. We did our first 5K. After a recovery, we did another 5K. As we approach the turn around, my wife was about 20 seconds ahead, she stops. I slow and immediately roll through some broken glass that was not there before.
My wife has a rear flat. My tires appear okay but I check for glass. She is done but I have another 5 miles back to the car so I get another effort.
We go back home and saddle up the road bikes to finish the workout. The weather was perfect but I get to change out a tubie.
Sunday the weather was even better and we decided to ride to the coast. If I had to pick a reason to train hard and race it would be that I get to do this ride and enjoy the fabulous route, headwinds and long steep climbs through the redwoods and ride at a reasonable level of effort and still make good time on the climbs.
Here is a map of the route. We start about 10 miles from our house with enough distance from the first climb to get a good warmup.
We have to climb over Skyline and then go to the coast against a headwind. Here is the profile.
The first climb is Old La Honda which is a very light traffic road through the redwoods. We generally kill this climb but today, it was a high z3 pace. Once at the top, we descend another twisty road with ocean views in the distance and we start to pick up some wind. There were no cars on this segment.
We pick up Highway 84 and continue to descend but now we have significant car and motorcycle traffic. 84 has a gradual descent to the coast with headwinds so it is nice to trade pulls.
We get to the coast and I took a couple of pics. You can get an idea of how rugged and hilly the terrain is along Highway 1.
We head back via Stage Road which runs parallel to Highway 1 but is yet another climb to the top of a crest in Highway 1. We descend Highway 1 and are treated to more spectacular ocean views and a lot of wind. We turn right onto Tunitas Creek Road. This is one of the climbs used in the Tour of California.
We leave the traffic behind and start back along a scenic road through farmland and have the road to ourselves. We enter the redwoods and I am always in awe of how rugged and huge the trees are. There is very little light that enters so it is darker and much cooler but perfect for climbing. It starts out easy and soon we are into the 10 to 12% grade. It just keeps coming but the trees and views are amazing.
We get to the top and we saw one other cyclist and a couple of cars and a few motor cycles. We descend Kings Mountain road which is a twisty mountain road with some interesting switchbacks.
Total stats for the day was 46 miles, 3:30, 4205 feet of climbing and 1719 kJ. I ate one bag of gel drops, two liquid Gus and two pieces of flat bread and drank a muscle milk when I got back to the car. Great day of cycling and if anyone is ever in the area and wants a great NorCal ride, this one is the best, IMHO.