Wednesday, August 17, 2011

To the coast and back

I live about 15 miles away from the Pacific ocean, so getting over to the beach is never a problem.  I suppose that it's become so commonplace for me, that I don't get over to the beaches unless I'm got company with me, and THEY want to go to the beach. 

This trip I broke the norm.  My original intention was to go North on the 101 (coastline) for about 10 miles and back.  About 50 miles total, which I'm comfortable with.  I decided to go 'sightseeing' a bit, so I only got in 35 miles.  Still not bad.  I ended up going from the South end of Del Mar to Torrey Pines beach, so I did get a bit of the coastline.


 Most of the trip was on the 56 bike trail. From where I live, this is the quickest way to head West.  Although I don't like how they designed the trail, as it has to cut across cross traffic that sometimes doesn't stop when they are supposed to. 


Most of the trip was straightforward, with a few inclines here and there.  But just before getting to there is a street named Del Mar Heights Road.  It's the only way to get to the coast from the 56 bike trail without having to 10 miles out of your way.  In a short 1/4 mile length, it takes care of all of the elevation change.  As shown on the chart above, it peaks to 28% grade.  Although I'm positive that's a false reading, with probably about 15% peak.  Still a lot to grinding in a short period. 

But it's worth it to get views like this one!

Creepy abandoned house along the 56 trail



















 One of the small annoyances I have about the 56 bike trail is that is just abruptly ends just before the I5.  It should have just ended at the last major cross street. 

 Those that don't know this have to turn back around and backtrack for a while to find the closest exit point. 

Something interesting that I learned this trip -

Part of the trail has a parallel dirt running trail along it.  Someone made it their Eagle Scout project to put mile markers along that section so that paramedics can better find someone if needed.  You can read all about here - http://www.delmartimes.net/2010/12/20/carmel-valley-resident%E2%80%99s-eagle-scout-project-helps-make-cvrep-trail-safer/

This post was probably the handiest one.....







Saturday, August 13, 2011

Stats about my new bike

I had forgotten to post this one for about a month.  Soon after I finished building up my new bike, I wanted to run the same course I did one month previous on my old steel bike.  The course was a fairly challenging one for me, going from Poway to Ramona and back.  Plenty of mountain hills to conquer.  I mainly wanted to see if the lighter weight would have any affect in the overall time and effort I put in.


The software that came with my Garmin (called 'training center') is a pretty decent piece of software.  It's what I use to create the charts that I've posted previously.  It also can send the GPS information it collected during a ride to Google Earth, which give me a pretty accurate map of the ride. 

First, the map.  I started to ascend on Scripts Poway Parkway to the 67. It has a smoother grade than Poway road.  Then into Ramona to the stage building.  I came back down on Poway road instead to save some time.  Poway road is much more scenic than SPParkway.  Although I was descending down so fast that I wasn't able to enjoy the scenery as I should have been.


Comparing the pace -

The purple line is the 'older' time.  Supposing that my fitness level stayed pretty much the same both trips, my pace was better on the new bike.  I did notice there wasn't as much road vibration, thanks to the carbon fork.  I might have been able to do even better, but I still wasn't too used to the bike and didn't know all of it's nuances. 


So just simply based off of this one set of data, I can tell that this new bike outperforms my old one.  Good investment.