California training camp, days 1-4

Nick and Ryan are cat 3's from Milwaukee. Ryan has an aunt in Palo Alto, so he invited us to stay and train for a week. We were suppose to catch the Tour of California, but it headed a bit too far south by the time we arrived. Instead, we just rode our bikes. We landed on Wednesday, which is day 1. I won't disappoint on pictures, so I'll post them all separately.

Day 1:

We took a quick spin to recover from a 5hr flight. It was basically 45min gradual climb to reach Old La Honda Rd, climb for 20-30min, then mostly downhill back home. I think someone told me that to be competitive in the cat 1/2 fields around here, you should aim to be under 18 or 20 min. I felt like crap the whole way to the climb, but managed to climb it in 19m40s. I'm guessing 18min is the cat 1/2 standard. Here is a screenshot of Nick's Garmin ride file. The green is elevation, the rest is his own training data (HR, speed). Ryan felt like crap and had to stop 2/3 of the way up and roll home.

Time: 1hr 48min

Kilojoules: 973

Day 2:

Today we did a little more climbing. We went up Kings Highway, which was about a 5min longer climb. Ryan stopped at the top of Kings Hwy because he again felt terrible. Nick and I then descended down La Honda, rode north on Route 1 along the coast into a brutal headwind, climbed the backside of Tunitas Creek, and back home. Tunitas was suppose to be some 6mi hard climb, but the last 3 miles were a super easy 3-4%. That was a relief.

Time: 4hrs 49min

Kilojoules: 2909

Day 3:

Ryan finally started to feel better, so we all got to do an 80mi ride. This time, Nick and I learned not to go north on Route 1, so we decided to take a flat road (Canada - Can-yah-da) north to 92/San Mateo Rd, south on 1, east on Alpine Rd. I don't have the Garmin profile image, but it was a pretty cool climb. All the climbs here seem like the same gradient.

We came back during rush hour, but the downhills were pretty fast. We could often keep up with 40-50mph traffic.

Time: 4hrs 53min

Kilojoules: 2908

Day 4:

Rest day. Ryan really wanted a rest day, Nick wanted to take it easy mid-week, and my knee was hurting. So, we went to San Francisco to some famous museum, watched a movie in the planetarium, and spent $40 each on some of the best sushi, ever. I think I gained 5lbs today...

Day 5 was an epic 7 hour ride. Look for the post on it tomorrow or Wednesday!