BRCM Lunch - Shady 133 PCH NPC Bonita Cyn Jamboree Bison

GPS stats:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/86869044

A couple earlier rides today that we missed out on with Gary doing coffee crew and Hiroshi, James, and Jaffe doing a 30 mile loop (Hiroshi's stats:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/86831725 - good pace!).  Vince, Todd, Jeremy and I decided to give the same 30 mile loop a try during lunch.

Originally, the plan was to take it easy, but from experience we all know that has "sucker" written all over it.  There was even talk of hurting from yesterday, a morning run and an earlier leg workout where it was easy to believe this might just be that ride, but you'd be better off buying beach front property in AZ in case the big one hits.

We did ask Jeremy to come with us, but as Vince pointed out at some point during the ride, that's like throwing out bait or lure.  Jeremy did good going through Anteater and up through Shady where he didn't drop off too much, but once we got near the 133, the pace picked up pretty good where that was the last we saw of him (until the locker room that is).  We all felt bad, and Todd especially, but the funny thing with Todd was as he went back to see if Jeremy wanted to continue with us, he then sprints away from him and past us afterwards.

The 133 was a beast with the wind, and it was all we could do just to keep the pace up.  Before the top, Vince had jumped to the front with some authority, and I know it was all I could do just to get back on.  The pace going down it and through the PCH rollers was just as relentless.

When we finally got to NPC, I thought these guys are just going to light me up even more here so I checked up thinking it wasn't worth it.  They did just ahead of me together but I ended up not falling off as bad as I expected.  Thanks to the light at Ridge Park, I was able to catch up and ride with them again.

Going down NPC was ridiculous. Vince charged down and led for a while and then Todd took over at some point, and it was all I could do on the compact just to stay with them.  With a 44.8 max, that means I was in the 120-125 RPM range.  Picture Wicked Witch of the West from Wizard of Oz.

Bonita Canyon was pretty windy as well, so that took some good rotations to keep us going.  On Ford, everyone got up front for a bit, but Vince finished the pull as we got on Jamboree.  I thought I'd give the hill a charge after and took off past Vince.  Then Todd started getting on it as well with his low cadence high gear rhythm.  I felt a second wind, so I gave chase (at a higher cadence of course) and we never dropped under 20.4 on that hill.  In fact, by the time we got near the top, we were in the 25-26s.  Nice tail wind!

We still kept the pace up through out Bison and on my Garmin eeked out a 20.3 avg with a 20.8 moving.   Pretty intense considering the winds and the vert (1.758 ft)...and all the sandbagging as well.

Thanks for the intense training before the weekend, guys.  Tomorrow's rest day will be thoroughly enjoyed.  Enjoy stage 7 of the TDC!