Last week, we did a cycling vacation in Newport Beach and San Diego, CA. We packed up our road bikes and drove down to Newport Beach. The drive down I 5 was uneventful and we did not hit any traffic until we were in west LA. We used to live in Brentwood so we are painfully aware of the I 405 traffic. My wife had to have a frozen yogurt at the Big Chill which is off the 405 in the worst part of the traffic. It is worth the effort since we think it is the best frozen yogurt.
We arrived and stayed at the Marriott Newport Coast Villas which are two bedroom condos. We had and ocean view and a balcony for outdoor dining. Here are a couple of pics from our balcony.
If you are a golfer, we were across the street from Pelican Hill and the course goes past our villas.
Our cycling started on Sunday with an invitation from Cleave, of 50+ bike forums fame, to join his club ride. We hooked up with Cleave’s group along PCH and the route was back past our villa location, climb Newport Coast Drive followed by a series of climbs that Cleave characterized as “we were going to climb a couple of hills”. When we left with Cleave, we were soon cruising south on PCH at 23 to 24 mph. I thought, “I cannot wait for the hills”. We caught up with the remainder of his group who had gone ahead while Cleave and a couple of others had waited for us. The guys who were setting tempo decided they did not want to climb and took another route. I think we had about 8 riders and we proceeded down PCH. Our first climb was Newport Coast Drive which was a 1.5 mile 6% climb. Cleave gave us a couple of choices at the top to add on depending on what we wanted. Cleave, my wife and I did a 1 mile 10% grade - nice. We followed that up with about 5 more climbs through some interesting neighborhoods with ocean views. We ended up with 50 miles and about 4000 feet of climbing. The weather was perfect, a great group of riders and Cleave was a fabulous host.
That evening, we had dinner at Sabatino’s in Newport Beach. They are famous for their Italian sausage and huge bowl of chicken vegetable soup that is a complete meal. Since it was our 38th wedding anniversary on September 25th, this was our celebration dinner.
Monday, we decided to keep it a little flatter and ride from San Clemente to Oceanside through Camp Pendleton. Once again, perfect weather with temperatures in the 70s and winds off the ocean 10 to 12 mph. We rode down PCH and entered San Onofre State Park / Beach. This time of year there on very few campers and no traffic. We were sailing along the road next to the ocean trading pulls. After you leave San Onofre, there is an abandoned freeway with a perfectly smooth bike path next to the ocean with I 5 on the east. This is one of the greatest TT runs in the country and maybe the world. We were soon traveling at 25 mph plus – no cars, people just a couple of other cyclists.
We arrived at Camp Pendleton and checked in with the marines. The marine sentries are fabulous guys. They are very polite, in perfect physical condition and I am always proud of the marines and our military and feel very patriotic. To the bad guys of the world, you do not want to get on the wrong side of these guys!
We wanted to average 20 mph through the camp which is doable. The route is predominantly slightly down wind with some climbing but also turns into the wind for short stretches. We took turns pulling and in general were traveling 22 to 23 mph but for climbs and a couple of traffic lights. In the end, we averaged 19.9 mph for about 10 miles riding at a high endurance pace climbing the hills at threshold.
We got to Oceanside and stopped for coffee at Jitters. This is a Jamaican coffee shop with Reggai music playing and baristas with dreadlocks. I think I am going to get a dreadlock wig and wear it at my next race to scare the competition. We road back and the wind had picked up and rotated. Yes, the wind changes off the ocean from WSW in the morning to WNW as the day proceeds. So the slight tail / crosswind we had going out was now a headwind going back. We averaged about 18 mph on the way back to the car.
Tuesday was a day off from cycling but we had dinner with some friends in Beverly Hills. We got to BH a little eary and worked out at Sports Club LA Beverly Hills. We used to belong there. As we were walking around, we came across a movie shoot. I have always said that my second wife has not been born yet but I may change my mind after seeing this actress. Maybe it is the red dress.
Wednesday, we drove to Carlsbad which is north of San Diego and rode from Carlsbad to La Jolla and back. We left Carlsbad and rode along the ocean on PCH to Del Mar. We used to live in San Diego for 16 years and we have done this ride 10s of times. We are never bored with it. We stopped at the Del Mar Starbucks for coffee and got ready for our ascent on Torrey Pines hill. When we lived in SD, we thought that Torrey Pines hill was tough. I remember struggling up that hill in 1980. When we got to the start of TP hill, we started a lap at the TP State Beach sign and stopped it at the traffic light at the top. Here my stats:
Time: 7 min 49 seconds
Normalized Power: 268 watts with a max of 579 watts
Average Speed: 12.5 mph Cadence average 78 rpm
Distance 1.6, Grade 4.9%
Average HR 158 Max 167
In my early 30s, I climbed TP at 8 to 9 mph.
My wife and I always race up hills. It is in the genes. She was a few feet behind me on the climb. Near the top, she pulls up next to me accelerating. That is when I needed the 579 watts to beat her by a 1/2 bike length. She climbed the hill in her big ring. I asked why and she said she wanted to keep her power up.
We continued on and descended Scripps Hill into La Jolla. My wife is the frozen yogurt (only the very low calorie kind) queen. We stopped at Froggies for yogurt. I was skeptical about eating yogurt on a bike ride. This is vacation and why not. She brought me a large which seemed like too much but.... We left the yogurt place and about 15 minutes later, we were at the base of Scripps Hill. This is the steeper counter part to TP. I told my wife my stomach felt full of yogurt. She says, that sounds pukeable! We take off up the hill and I set another lap. Scripps Hill has an 11% grade section for a few hundred feet. We hit this section and I feel the yogurt in my stomach and decide, she can have this hill and let her go. Here are my stats for Scripps Hill with timing starting at the traffic light at the bottom and finishing at the traffic light at UCSD campus.
Time: 8 min 06 seconds
Normalized Power: 242 watts
Average Speed: 9.5 mph Cadence average 73 rpm
Distance 1.3, Grade 5%
Average HR 144
The power is a little misleading in that there is a longer stretch of 2% grade after the 11% leading to the finishing point. I was over 300 watts on the 11% climbing. In the early 80s, we used to avoid this hill as just too tough.
As usual, we were into the wind from Torrey Pines golf course back to Carlsbad and we traded pulls on the way back. The hill score for the day was a tie with each one winning one climb although I could protest the frozen yogurt.
Thursday, was another day riding through Camp Pendleton to Oceanside and Jitters for coffee. We decided to take Friday as a rest day and my wife had some work to do to get ready for a presentation she had to do at a conference in San Diego.
Saturday was checkout and a travel day to SD. We decided we needed some VO2 max interval work. We rode to where we met Cleave and back to Newport Coast Drive as a warmup. We had determined that from a traffic light leaving our Villa to the next light was one mile at a 6% grade. We would use that as the interval. I go first and I am going up the hill at 12 mph passing other cyclists. As usual about 2/3 of the way, the gasping starts. This was really hard though. I continue to hold power but cannot get enough air. I make it to the light and just about collapse - 4 minutes and 40 seconds at VO2 max. Boy that was hard and we have two more to go. My wife arrives and looks at me and says, "that was hard. I do not know if I can do anymore". She is normally a rock. Let’s coast down and see how we feel. There is no quitting at this stuff. This is just idle BS. We get to the bottom and up we go. This one is a little better. The final one was the worst but we did it. We now are truly locals doing intervals on Newport Coast Drive. We packed up our stuff and drove to San Diego.
We stay at the Hilton in downtown SD which is next to the convention center. It opened 8 months ago. Here is a pic of the SD harbor from our room on the 15th floor.
Sunday was another bike ride originating in Mission Bay. Our plan was to climb the major climbs from MB to Encinitas. We left MB and the first climb was Mount Soledad. My wife and I made a pact that there was no racing up hills today since we killed our legs with VO2 max intervals yesterday - we will see it that holds. The problem with climbing MS from our starting point is that we were not warmed up. However, the view from the top is absolutely beautiful.
It was really windy and you can see from the flag blowing the wind speed. There were whitecaps on the ocean.
We descended into La Jolla and avoided the frozen yogurt. We climbed up Scripps Hill and rode past Torrey Pines Golf Course and down TP hill.
We turn around in Encinitas and head back to LJ up Torrey and decide to go to La Jolla Cove and ride along the ocean to the Wind and Sea beach. Here is a pic of LJ cove. When we live in SD, I used to talk about doing the LJ rough water 1 mile swim each year. It never happened. I can swim but never had the focus to train enough in the water.
It was a great cycling vacation filled with interesting people, terrain and the chance to meet Cleave and see some old friends.