Still Training

I have not written much in the past couple weeks because I have not participated in any organized rides. Since this summer has been full of events, I stopped documenting each individual training ride like I did at the beginning of the year.

My focus is still on my current goal — the Knoxville Double Century, and the California Triple Crown. I am still amazed that I am actually close to achieving the triple crown (three double centuries in one calendar year). My initial thoughts were that this could be a reasonable goal for next year. Once I finish this, I will declare all major goals for 2008 accomplished.

The Knoxville Double Century is now less than three weeks away, so I need to continue my usual training schedule to stay in shape. Normally I schedule a big training ride at the two week mark, which would be this weekend. But we are out of town for a wedding so I will not be able to do that. I don't think that is a problem. I will just stick to my usual schedule, and then shut down all training at the one week mark.

Over the past Labor Day weekend, I was able to do two training rides — one on Saturday and one on Monday. The Monday ride covered some new territory. I rode to San Carlos and rode on some of the steep hill roads there (Crestview, Club, Hastings). This was a great ride because those roads were much steeper than I expected, and were a nice challenge. The overall distance was 50 miles, and I pushed my pace on the flat parts to finish it all in only 3 hours 30 minutes on the bike.

Click for an interactive map.

The previous Saturday, I rode up to Skyline Blvd on Highway 9 (the ride that I did so many times last year), then continued on Skyline northward its full length to the intersection with Highway 92. I had planned on dropping down to the coast at that point, but I instead headed away from the coast, resulting in a shorter ride. It looked like it was cold, windy and completely foggy by the ocean, plus I was not feeling as energetic as usual, so I settled for the shorter route. Still, it was a 67 mile total and I finished in under 5 hours bike-time.

Click for an interactive map.

The weekend before was more interesting. We traveled to Austin Texas to visit Kavitha (my cousin). I had done some research before going and found that one of the steepest streets in the area is Jester Blvd. I did a ride from Kavitha's house to Jester. The road was steep, but not more than many of the Bay Area roads that I am used to. My group drove and met me at the top of the hill, and an unexpected rain shower drenched me just before I finished it all.

Click for an interactive map.

I don't think I will write another report until Knoxville. I will mainly be doing post-work training rides after this weekend.