I wasn’t sure how my ride was going to go today. When I went to bed last night I felt like I was “hit by a truck” – everything hurt after an easy ride on normal cranks then washing 2 cars. When I woke up this morning, I felt exhausted, really not motivated for a long ride on the PCs. Once I started riding, I felt pretty good so I stuck with my original plan and rode to Pappa’s Store in Lake Hughes.
Today I had my longest ride on the PCs by 5.4 miles; interesting… longest ride time by only 23 sec; 72 ft more climbing (1749 feet); and normalized power for the entire ride (178W) was 11 Watts higher than my previous longest ride last Saturday! I’m pedaling out of the saddle more often and for longer periods, especially up the steeper parts of climbs.
Today was a really nice weather day for a bike ride. FOX@9:30: 52deg; ESE3. I did my usual 20-mile interval on Ave L between 70W and 90W. Despite stopping to pedal to say hi to a cycling friend going the other way and for traffic at 72W, I was able to average 219 Watts with a max power of 609W. When I turned north onto 110W, there was another cyclist about 1/4 mile up 110W. When I had to wait for traffic at Ave I, the other cyclist caught me. His name was Dustin and he was riding a brand new Cannondale. He was riding to the Poppy Park. I had to tell him and show off the PCs. At the bottom of Munz Ranch Rd (MRR), a group of about 10 local Philipino club riders were taking a break. I stop to say hi. Dustin kept riding. My friend Dan was there and he pointed out the PCs to everyone else. So I told everyone about the PCs. To show them how I can pedal the PCs, I proceeded up MRR while they watched me pedal, stop pedaling (both cranks drop to the bottom of the pedal stroke) then start pedaling again.
My time up MRR was slow. About 1.5 miles up MRR, there was one big dust devil that crossed the rode ahead of me. Soon after that, the wind picked up out of the SW so I had a moderate headwind for the rest of the climb. I did 6 short and 2 longer out of the saddle intervals up MRR. The 7th interval was at the steepest part of the climb before the steady climb to the top. This was my longest interval (40 revolutions) and took a lot out of me. Speed dropped from 10mph to under 5mph. It took a while longer to recover. I was able to do another interval to the top. The time up the 4.1-mile climb was 26:43; average power was 193W with a max power of 536W.
When I got to Pappa’s Store in Lake Hughes, I noticed 2 cyclists sitting at a table across the street. I stopped to say hi. The 2 cyclists (Mike and John) were from Castaic. We shared some injury “war stories”. At one time, John didn’t think he would walk again either. He had a really nasty-looking scar on his left calf. They were both very interested in my PCs. They’ve never seen anything like it before. I don’t think I remember this right but John owns a bike company called anMTBer in Fillmore. I need to look that up. John, Mike and I rode together from Pappa’s Store to San Francisquito Cyn Rd, where they turned right to head home. I had a nice, uneventful ride home. I still had strong legs and good pedaling form the last several miles of the ride. FOX@12:15: 70deg; W11.