Trip to Ramona

I've cycled to Ramona before, and it's quite the challenge for me with all of the hills involved.  Some of the climbs are 9-10% grades.  Easy enough for a vehicle, but tough for a cyclist.  Especially a fat guy on an old steel bike.  But coming back down is fun but nerve-racking.  Zooming down a 9% grade with a small shoulder on the side of the road (no bike lane) with vehicles trying to pass you.

Now that I've done this route more than once, I was better prepared to tackle the hills.  It's a dumb idea to shift your front derailleur while climbing.  For me, when I shift down to the smallest chainring under pressure usually it shifts the chain too far over and comes off the cranks to the bottom bracket shell.  Which means I have to stop quickly and move the chain back on.  Which means I lose any momentum I had.  I just shifted to the granny gear much earlier and just spun my legs at the base until the grade became appropriate.  I only had to stop once at the side of the road.  That was because my heart was beating too fast and I know what it's like to push the limit of my heart rate.  This is a good improvement from the first time I ran this route, where I believe I had to stop 3-4 times.

Everything was going good until my Garmin warned me of the low battery it had.  Odd, because I recharged it just one week ago, and usually it lasts at least two weeks between charges.  What I should have done is gracefully shut it down then.  But I let it run out completely.  Which made it lose all of the current ride's data.  I was not happy about that, as I wanted to compare this ride to previous times. 

Here is a previous time that I ran this route.  I went East on Scripts Poway Parkway instead of Poway road because it's not as steep.  A bit out of the way, but it helped.