Riding with Power down the California Coast—San Francisco to Santa Barbara!

DAY 1: It’s Saturday and I am thrilled that I will be spending 9 hours riding my bike down the coast of California from San Francisco’s GG Bridge to Monterey. Some might call me crazy but in reality most Saturday’s I spend teaching my 2 hour ecycling class at Endurance PTC in Mill Valley and then running to my shop to wash filthy sand ridden canines all day. It’s an easier day to ride my bike for 9 hours than to yell motivating phrases at my class and chase around wet dogs all day long. I am thrilled!

We started off down RT 1 as a group of about 15 people. Most of them triathletes, but a few roadies as well. All age ranges but most people with some serious riding skills. What I was most surprised by was that just about everyone was riding with power. Not only had most people talked to their respective coaches about their ride but also about what power they should be holding for the given days if they were to make all 130 miles for each of the three days.

Everyone did great the first day! We all met in Davenport for lunch and regrouping. It was at this time that my battery in my PowerTap ran out. BUMMER! At first I was so upset that I forgot to change the battery as I knew it was low. I have become so used to riding with my PowerTap and downloading all the files so that I could analyze my rides. My coach would be disappointed in me too as he would not be able to view my rides on the day he was not there to ride with me.

Nonetheless the day was fabulous. Nice warm weather, beautiful roads and fun people. 130 miles in 9 hours.

Day 2: We rode from Monterey to Morro Bay straight through the middle of Big Sur! You want to talk about the best bike ride you could ever take, this is it! My coach was not there the second day, so I took his place leading the group of now 8 of us through the undulating hills that Big Sur is famous for. You want to keep your eyes on the road but the views pull your eyes out and over the jagged cliffs and into the crazy surf.

This was probably the best day of cycling in my whole life. First of all, I had never pulled a group of super talented riders before. I have almost always ridden with people much stronger than me and as a result spent the entire time just hanging on to their back wheel. The nice thing about pulling the group was that the ride was mine to determine. It was my pace, my strategy, my power. We all thought the ride was about 110 miles, so I planned my riding accordingly. We all rode as a group to the first stop, regrouped and went straight up 5 miles to get into the national park. At first I was really worried that I did not have access to my PowerTap. I had not ridden without it for over 2 years. And I was counting on getting lots of good data from this ride. I was nervous I would not know how to pace myself without my PowerTap! The MOST important aspect of this ride was that I realized that although I did not have my PowerTap to work with, that over the past 2 years the PowerTap has taught me how to ride my bike. How to be able to feel my watts and pace myself just from all the time I have spent with my PowerTap. I road through what ended up being 130 miles, pulling a group of 5 people and finishing the day feeling completely worked but not “done”. I think I paced the ride as I would a race, riding hard but always being able to get off the bike to run. Not completely burying myself. I am excited to get back to using my PowerTap but it was a real eye opener to see how much the PowerTap has taught me! I have learned to feel my power. 130 miles in 8 hours.

DAY 3: We rode from Morro Bay to Santa Barbara through more beautiful farm country. A little bit more of a recovery ride day for me after working so hard the day before. But I did choose to focus more on my nutrition on day 3. I rode next to Monique Petrov who weighs about the same as me, and I kept asking her how many KJs she had expended so that I could make sure I was putting in what I was putting out. That is one of my other favorite features of the PowerTap. For someone who has a real problem consuming any calories during a race, eating has become a major focus for me. The PowerTap really keeps me honest and makes me realize how much I need to replenish my body with if I want it to continue to perform through a race day like the Ironman. The day was great and went by so quickly compared to the big ride through Big Sur! 8 of us finished in Santa Barbara. The group dwindled a little as the days and miles went by, but that does always seem to happen! We showered up and got in the rental car to drive back to San Francisco. 120 miles in 6 hours 15 minutes.

I am back at work today washing dogs and realizing that I rode my bike for close to 24 hours this weekend over the course of about 380 miles. My quads are sore, my butt bones are bruised, my back is tired but I would not trade it for anything. What a great way to spend the long weekend! Thanks to Diane Henry for driving SAG for us all weekend and to Monique, Kelly, Lara, Greg and Peter for the best ride of my life that second day! What a BLAST, let’s do it again next year…maybe all the way to Los Angeles????