My mom passed away one year ago today.  My sister and I are hosting a small reflection for her this weekend but I wasn't sure what I would do today.  I decided to wear myself out on Monday so I could just be relaxed and contemplative today.  I'm thinking about her but not ready to share feelings in blog form.  All I can say is that she was always there for me and I miss her.

What I can write about is the ridiculous torture ride that I ended up doing yesterday.  I knew that I wanted to do at least a metric century (62 in miles) as I always do on Mondays and also ride a new area, possibly with some decent hills.  Lizz asked me this weekend about going over the hill in Jamul to Chula Vista so I was thinking about that when I scanned mapmyride and bikely.  I didn't find the exact route I wanted so I put together something that looked doable using the awesome gmap pedometer.

Let me say that unless it is a topographic map that you study closely, using a flat representation to plan a trip is risky but riding an area that you're not familiar with adds a level of excitement and tension that you don't get from your daily routine (especially if you forget your carefully written cue sheet).  Also, if you can't find routes using a similar path or in the same direction that you plan, there might be a reason.

Enough preamble.  The ride I worked out went from the Harbor area through National City on 8th, down Paradise Valley Road which turns into Jamacha Blvd., through 94 past Rancho San Diego, and eventually up onto Lyons Valley Road over Jamul to Honey Springs Road, down the hill (finally) to Otay Lakes and into Bonita for the ride home.

The beginning is pretty standard, ho-hum urban trekking.  Things get interesting in Jamul.  The first thing that I learned, was that when you see a store that you suspect is the last services offered for many miles, you might be right.  Especially if it is over 90 out and you haven't loaded up on liquids.  For instance, passing the 7-11 in Jamul is dumb but it makes things interesting.

Eventually, Lyons Valley Road becomes desolate and starts to go up a mountain.  Traffic is not a problem, I went 15 minutes at a time without being passed by a car, which is good because there is no shoulder for most of the climb.  And it is a climb.  Portions of the grade are 7% and it goes up to over 2600 feet, more than once.  Before I hit the halfway point of the route, I had ascended three different passes.  At some points I had to drop down to a total granny gear.  Maybe you wouldn't if you have giant quads and calves and a 14 pound carbon fiber racing machine, but for me on 30 pounds of partially loaded steel touring bike, this was pretty much my max.  Looking back at the data, I see that I hit zone 5 and had gone anaerobic well before the mid-point, not a good idea for finishing the day.

Did I mention that I skipped the 7-11 in Jamul?  At the hottest part of the day, on the steepest and most remote part of the pass, I was left with about an inch of hot gatorade in my last bottle.  Smart.  Just at the point where you realize that you've finally summited, Mecca comes into view:  The Lyons Valley Trading Post:



I doubt that anyone on a bike has ever passed this place going in either direction.  It is air-conditioned and has a beautiful porch with benches.  I sat there and sucked down some cold caffeine and gatorade (yummy HFCS), ate a banana and refilled my bottles.  After the Trading Post, there is one more very difficult climb (where I saw a totally intact road kill deer with antlers) and then miles of drop on Honey Springs Road into the Otay Lakes area.  Now, all of a sudden, I see bikes, going in the opposite direction-- wonder why...   Wusses.  I still had more than 30 miles to go but it was somewhat familiar and I knew that I wasn't climbing any more mountains.

One embarrassing revelation-- as I hit the boonies of Spring Valley, for the first time ever I stripped off my cargo shorts and went bare lycra bike shorts.  Wow.  So much more comfortable.  I may never do it again, but now I understand those road bike guys.  Shaving your legs and wearing your sunglasses outside your helmet straps, I still don't get-- but getting rid of all that heavy flapping canvas was liberating.  On the downside, it exposed skin above my knees that hadn't seen sun since before junior high.  I've got two nice 2 inch strips of sunburn.  On the upside, that's the only real physical pain I have today and I wanted something like that to dwell on.

Not nearly as articulate as I wanted to be today.  Just wanted to get something out and be distracted for a few so I did and I'll leave it.  Here's the route:

lyonsvalley

Saturday, I coasted for about 3 miles with my friend Lizz to go to the City Heights Farmers Market.  We left around 930 in the morning, and she was obviously distracted by the idea that it was really hot out.  Yesterday, I woke up and the radio was blabbing about  the "July Fry" and sensationalizing how "hot and humid" it was going to be.

I go for long rides on Mondays.  After hearing the alarm on the radio, I almost considered cutting down my route.  But seriously, this is San Diego,  we have few temperature extremes, at least inside the 15.  I went on my regular 60 mile loop up across Rancho Penasquitos and back and I hit the Torrey Pines/UCSD area around 11 a.m..  The whole area was completely covered in fog.  No sweltering sun, no 90 percent humidity-- in 99 percent of the country, this would be considered an optimal, picture perfect July day.  Even riding through the Miramar wasteland on Kearny Villa Road during the hottest part of the day, it just wasn't that bad.  It was by far the least suffering that I've done on that loop, even though it was one of the warmer days we've had this year.  Coastal San Diego just doesn't have much weather.  We have earthquakes, droughts, and fires, but if you are reasonably coastal, there really isn't much weather to talk or complain about.

Unless you are Leonard-- he thinks it's hot:



After a scare a couple months ago, I am just glad that the old guy is still around.

Here is my route. There's nothing too different about it, so I added some viewing options.  Click on them at the top of the gmap, they are kinda cool.

2009-07-20T16_0

Buckwheat Groats

I picked up some buckwheat groats from the bulk bins at Jimbo's.  Despite the "wheat" they are actually a fruit and are gluten-free.  I prepared them like the grits except I toasted them for a few with the sauteed aromatics before adding about 4 1/2 cups of water.  These also have roasted New Mexico chilies and grilled zucchini.  They are way more tender than I thought they'd be.  A good hearty breakfast.



Henry's on 3rd and J in Chula Vista is a great place to shop the bulk bins for cool grains and stuff.  It is full of vegan goodness and blows the North Park store away.  Ride your bike down there and enjoy the wildlife along the cool bike path.  Unless you drive everywhere you go, but then you probably hate this blog, in which case, thanks for reading it anyway and continue not posting comments.  Also, don't breed too much.

henrys

"The More You Drive, the Less Intelligent You Are"

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Riding a bike in real world traffic can be frustrating.  It is easy for me to get a bad attitude about the people I interact with out there.  Like the oblivious douche in the Tundra who smacks you in the back with his ridiculously oversized mirror.  Or the princess driving her Lexus the half mile between Starbucks and her treadmill while talking on her cell phone who pinches you into the curb  while making a right turn and doesn't notice.

But then there are the good experiences with people.  Sunday, while doing a quick lap to pick up the New York Times, I got a flat-- normally an annoyance.  But while sitting at the bus stop in front of Henry's to fix it, I had a great conversation with an old lady about life.  I forgot about the injustice of pavement and it was the highlight of my day.

Saturday, I met up with the "I Love to Bike Mid-City Bike Blast" at the City Heights Farmers Market.  A bunch of adults and little kids cruised around the City Heights area and checked out some cool urban gardens in public spaces and back yards.  People in cars ignored us.  People out on the streets interacted as we cruised by.  A good time with cool people.  Some pics are here and here.

The common denominator is people getting around without cars.  They just seem nicer and more in touch with their world.  Even the spandex snob on the $8,000 Cervelo will give you a nod of respect as he blows by you.  It's probably like Miller said in Repo Man, "[t]he more you drive, the less intelligent you are."

I really enjoy getting out on the dedicated paths where I don't have to deal with the Studebakers and their less intelligent owners.  Today, I made up a 42 mile round trip to mail a package to my sis using the paths in the South Bay and up to Coronado and back.  Totally pleasant:

coronadoandback

56 Bike Path Again-- Better Route

This was about a 62 mile ride.  Basically the same except a much more direct route down through Mission Valley.  Most of this ride is relatively Studebaker free but it gets annoying toward the end.  I am really sick of going through the Broadway/Gaslamp region.  I guess it is time to suck it up and start climbing out of the valley even after a long day.

The canyons out by the 15 are pretty hot in the summer.  Go figure.  Today, a guy on a TT bike passed me on a climb (no news there) and he was shirtless in short short tri- short/Speedo things.  At the time I was baking in my Dickies shorts and all I could think was, dignity/fashion choices aside,  he was probably more comfortable than I was.  Not in my future, regardless.  Nor fixie kid jean shorts.

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Route 56 Bike Path

This was a pretty long ride of 65 miles.  Don't use the whole route-- I messed up coming down to the 8 and ended up way too far east and had to poke along Friars where I made some mistakes.  Convoy to Linda Vista is better.  I could have sucked it up and just climbed out of the valley on Texas but I was borderline bonked and headed for Old Town and down Kettner.

The 56 bike path is a little bumpy but pretty nice.  It starts at Carmel Valley Road and El Camino Real and goes east.  I bailed at Black Mountain Road but it keeps going.

Climbing up the mesa at Torrey Pines I got "one little, two little, three little Indians" stuck in my head.  Very annoying, but not as politically incorrect as you think.  I was actually dreaming of Padma Lakshmi.  Still potentially incorrect, but different.

route56

Growing up in the beaches of LA, we believed the saying "there's no life east of Pacific Coast Highway" at least until we discovered punk rock and Hollywood.  In San Diego, a large portion of the population draws a Maginot Line at the 94, keeping to the north.  Even folks in my hipster ghetto of South Park, which abuts the line, tend to stay on their own side.

Even on bike, when considering the realm of possible bike errands, we tend to look north, even though Mission Valley and the mesas are filled with dangerous on-ramps and gnarly hills.  We tend to forget that the South Bay exists (if you are brown or grew up down there-- not you.)

Since I've begun my journeys on bike, I've been fairly guilty of this myself, with the exception of weekly laps down to Imperial Beach and up Coronado to the ferry on the newly completed South Bay to Silver Strand bike path but that is going to change due to my pleasant ride this weekend.

My swap meet specials are pretty scratched up, so Saturday morning I was going to check out Performance's summer sale for some cheap sunglasses.  Their shop on Midway in Pt. Loma immediately came to mind, but on a bike, this puts you through some of the sketchiest bike commute zones in the area.

A quick google revealed told me that Performance has a store on Bonita Road in, you guessed it-- Bonita.  I took a quick look on Ride the City's San Diego test site which showed a way to get there using the bike path along the Sweetwater River.  Looking to lengthen the ride and combine errands, I also found the Chula Vista Henry's on 3rd and J.

With the route firmly locked in my mind (I forgot to bring the printout) I set out through Logan and down Harbor to Pepper Park in National City, where you can pick up bike-only paths heading east and south.  I've done the south route plenty of times on the way to Imperial Beach but never headed east.   Very cool, pretty well-surfaced and no fucking traffic, plus it goes through a nature preserve.  You're finally dumped out at the Westfield Plaza Bonita-- so if you ever need a mall (yeah, I don't either), this is a lot less stressful ride than the aforementioned slog into Mission Valley on bike and actually very fucking easy and mellow.

Without directions in hand, I unnecessarily climbed one mesa but found Performance pretty easily.  From there it was a cruise through mostly residential neighborhoods to the Chula Vista Henry's which is huge compared to North Park, totally clean, and filled with old ladies who totally look like they know their mangoes-- a welcome alternative to the pseudo-high school reunion of all your crunchier friends that you get when shopping uptown.  To get back, go west on any of the letter (L, K, J,) streets and follow the Bayshore Bikeway signs back to Harbor and 32nd.  Only a 25 mile round-trip and totally low stress, low hill and low traffic.

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bonita