What a trip...

This morning I decided to leave Palm Springs and head to San Diego, the triathlon capital of the world. My motivation was to ride Palomar Mountain.

I read a post about Palomar Mountain on Chad Holderbaum's blog. Apparently the climb is often compared to Alpe d'Huez, both have 21 or so switchbacks and the mountains are similar in length and elevation. Although Alpe d'Huez is a little steeper. Many locals think this is the hardest Climb in Southern California. I found this link which has the ride details.

I packed up my gear and hugged my aunt and uncle farewell. They were surprised I was leaving so early, they thought I'd be staying until Friday. My original plan was to stay, but if I didn't ride Palomar Mountain today, I wouldn't get a chance to do it and I didn't want to leave California with any regrets.

The car ride to Palomar was faster than I anticipated, under 2 hours. Chad, who is also a MAO athlete, emailed me instructions of how to get there and suggested I park and start from the Harrah's hotel and casino. Which I did. I started the climb at about 3:00 pm.

Chad told me that it may be hard to keep my heart rate in the MAO zones for this climb. I was fortunate that I didn't have to worry about it. Today was my scheduled biking speed work session, which means it's all out effort at a high heart rate. Perfect for mountain climbing.

The moment I left the parking lot, there was a climbing incline. It started gradual and then got steeper and steeper. I think there was just under a km of flatter road and that was it. It was all uphill.

I had a great ride. It was my best hill climbing, EVER. I was going as hard as I could, my legs couldn't push harder and my heart rate couldn't get higher than 145 bpm. Frankly, I was cycling so well, I didn't think this climb was that hard. I never once got off of my seat. I felt strong, but was frustrated that my heart rate wasn't higher.

I will say, this was the coolest ride I've ever done. It was magical. You're constantly climbing and it is switchback after switchback. It's a beautiful road with a nice shoulder and only occasional traffic. As I rode, I realized I'm experiencing a mountain climb for the first time ever. Just like they have in the Tour de France. Actually I felt like I was in the tour.

I was only supposed to ride for an hour total today. At the 45 minute mark, I had a decision to make. Do I keep climbing and go longer than what is scheduled? or do I start my decent? I decided to keep climbing for another 30 plus minutes. After 1:20, averaging 13.8 kph for 16 km of straight climbing, I decided to turn around and descend. If it was earlier in the day and there was more daylight, I would have kept going. I was having fun.

The decent was wicked. First, I went from climbing with my shirt open because of the heat I was generating, to freezing on the decent. Second, for the entire decent, I never once pedalled. On the first hair pin turn I had a bit of a scare. I was going so fast that when I made the turn I drifted into the oncoming traffic lane. Luckily no cars were coming around the corner. After that, I wised up quickly and focused on keeping my turns tight.

On the "Barclay Scale", this was a "I'm going to walk my bike down the hill". The grade was fairly consistent and my speed stayed around 51 kph. At times it would get up over 60 kph. As I'd enter the hair pins I'd do a little breaking and lean into the turns. On some of the turns it felt like I was doing a full circle. The entire time, my hands were locked and loaded on the breaks. I'm sure I lost a good 1/16" off the break pads. Even with the music playing I could hear the squealing of the brake pads on the rims.

It took less than 25 minutes to get back to the hotel parking lot and I probably only had to pedal for a total of 2 minutes near the end of the ride. I felt exhilarated after that ride. I have to check the Garmin, but according to the markers, I climbed close to 5000 ft. Again, if I had daylight, I would have kept going, I was close to the top. I just felt so strong on the bike today. I even surprised myself how fast I was climbing.

I may not be a fast climber, it's not my strength, but I like climbing. It's the only time I get into a running zone mindset on the bike. For those non cyclists or triathletes, I compare this ride to a golfer playing a round at Pebble beach or on one of the Major's courses. I'll definitely be back and I'll definitely bring friends. It's something you want to share and talk about together for years to come. After that ride, I'm hooked doing long climbs. I'm now putting Alpe d'Huez on my bucket list.

Afterwards I went to the famous NYTRO bike shop and bought some new 2XU triathlon shorts for China. Hopefully the pad is large enough that it prevents groin chaffing. I'm going to test them out on my long ride and run this weekend. I would have liked to have spent more time in the shop, but I got there just 5 minutes before they closed. They were good about it and even though the front door was locked, they didn't rush me. Alice is probably happy I had limited cash spending time.

Even though the plan was to get a hotel and stay in San Diego, I decided to head back to Palm Springs and stay with my Aunt and Uncle. I did everything I wanted to do in San Diego, so there was no need to stay there for no reason. By the time I got back to Palm Springs, I was tired. Not from the bike ride, but from the 5 hours of total driving.

Ni-night all.

Speed Bike - 1:44:50 / 36.89 km / 21.1 kph