06/25/2026 Ride/Walk

Woke up early enough to get out on a ride by around 6:15. It was a perfect morning for riding, temperature-wise. I headed through the neighborhood via Capilla Rd and up to RB Rd, taking it to CdS and heading west. I kept a little faster pace than usual on this ride but didn't push really hard. Down to San Dieguito Rd and down Three Witches, turning right on El Apajo and taking it and Via de Santa Fe to Calzada del Bosque. Over to VdlV from there, turning left and riding all the way down to PCH. The bike lane is in quite rough shape after the little hill all the way to just before the freeway. Got down to the coast and added a little distance by riding to Lomas Santa Fe before turning around and riding back toward Del Mar. I took the route by the seaside park for a change, then rode on PCH over to CMR. To the beginning of the 56 bike path, where I stopped for a short break, eating a banana. Then I took the bike path back to CdS, pushing a little harder at the end of the gradual climb. Then I took CdS to PdS, turning there and riding through the Del Sur neighborhood, eventually using Del Sur Ridge Rd to get to Lone Quail Rd and back to RB Rd. Home the normal way from there via W Bernardo Dr. Toward the end of the ride my right shifter wasn't shifting, but when I got home it worked for me. Will probably change the battery anyway.

Avg speed = 16.7 mph. Total mileage = 40.0 mi

Avg power = 141 W. Weighted avg power = 168 W

Total elevation gain = 2100'

Avg heartrate = 118 BP (Coospo)

Relative Effort = 45

Training Load = 145

Intensity = 76%

While I was riding down by Del Mar I saw the fairgrounds and started thinking about going to the fair. Got home, made some coffee, and thought a little more about it before proposing the idea to Ann. She was game, so we got ready. I had a hamburger for brunch, not a fan of fair food and prices. An drove us down to Torrey Pines HS, where we parked and took a school bus through heavy fair traffic to the fairgrounds. Got there and into the fair a little before noon. We walked over to hear a brass ensemble at the Paddock Stage, they were listenable but not great. Then we walked through the art and photography exhibits, which were much more interesting. From there to see the livestock, which was larger than in recent years. That was also entertaining, but you couldn't get as close to the animals as before. From there we walked back to find something for Ann to eat. I had some of her French fries, and we talked to this chatty old lady at our table who was something of a fair nut. Mildly entertaining. We then walked over to the infield area of the racetrack and watched The Flying Royals, a trapeze and acrobatic troupe. Their trapeze act wasn't as good as I remembered similar acts from previous years at the fair. On the way back to the main part of the fair we saw the bird lady from Ramona doing a bird show with a pirate theme. She was the same person we saw at the Pima County Fair last year, she puts on a good show. Back to the main area, where we walked around a little bit before sitting down to watch some free music at one of the stages. I got a burrito to eat, and we stayed long enough for me to eat the burrito before leaving (the band and singer weren't that good). Before this we had walked around the garden area and heard a really atrocious ukulele and kazoo singing band, they were laughably bad. After I ate we walked over to the craft exhibit hall and saw the crafts, collections, dresses, and student art. That part was also mildly entertaining. Some odd collections: library cards. I was pretty tired by that time, thankfully so was Ann, so we walked back to the tram stop and got a ride to the high school parking lot, this time in negligible traffic. I drove home, had some more food and watched a little TV when I got home, and that was the evening. Although I didn't have my tracker on, I estimated that we walked 4-5 miles at the fair.

06-24-2026 Run/Swim

Slept pretty well, about 8 hours, given that I had a nap in the afternoon. I got up and got ready for a run, including doing some light dynamic stretches beforehand. I need to do more stretching, can feel that my legs are tight from not enough limbering up. Started slowly, ran down by the park and did the 5k route, avoiding the areas where the sidewalks are torn up. I finished a little faster than I started, still need more running to get to an acceptable pace. The elapsed time on the run was a little long because I didn't adjust my Strava to pause when I stopped. And it turns out that my Strava didn't sync with my HR band either. Dang it.

Avg pace = 8:59/mi

Total distance = 3.13 mi

Elapsed moving time = 28:08

https://www.strava.com/activities/19049613728

I had just a little time after I got home to relax a bit. I entered the Training Load coefficients into my modeling spreadsheet and saw that the agreement was indeed pretty good, with a couple of outliers that I can't explain. Still, it's good enough to start reporting in my cycling analysis program and storing in the database. Then I got ready for a swim at the WWC. Folks started showing up right before 8:00, and the pool was full from the start. I initially had lane 3 to myself, shared it with Jeff on my last 250. I swam four of them at tempo, pausing in between to catch my breath. Here are the splits from the four 250s: 4:30, 4:28, 4:28, 4:21. Last one was the fastest, not sure why because my form was pretty bad there.

Avg pace = 1:47/100 yds (Video, not counting pauses)

Total distance = 1000 yds

Elapsed moving time = 17:47 (Video)

Avg heartrate = 134 bpm (perhaps)

Relative Effort = 14 (perhaps)

SWOLF = 36

Avg stroke rate = 22 bpm (more strokes to go faster)

Avg pull distance = 2.37 yds

https://www.strava.com/activities/19050593682

Chilled the rest of the morning, having more time than usual before my volunteer shift at the hospital. It was a busy day there, I seemed to be moving for most of the four hours. Had a pretty big lunch there, including leftover pizza I'd brought, so that helped. Still, I was pretty tired by the end of the shift. I am so glad I am retired and have more control over what I do. Got home, talked to Ben before dinner, his heart scan results came back, and they don't look great. I'm guessing he is going to need stents, hoping it's not open-heart surgery. Maybe medicine can be the treatment for now, fingers crossed. After dinner I chatted with Ross about cell phones, cellular plans, and laptops. He needs to have his own phone and plan, in my opinion. Ann and I watched some TV after that, and the rest of the evening was quiet and fairly short before I fell asleep.

   

06-23-2026 Ride

This was a nice morning. I woke up, having done the dishes the night before (happy to have gotten that done), and had a bowl of cereal before unloading the dishwasher. Then I got ready for a coffee run bike ride with Andy. Just before the ride I noticed that my rear brake was really grabbing onto the disc, but I didn't have time to replace the brake pads, so I rode that way. Up through the neighborhood, taking the full length of Matinal Cir and getting onto W Bernardo Dr. Over to RB Rd, then up to Bernardo Oaks Dr. He was ready and waiting when I got to his place, and we started rolling right away. I dialed my pace back on this ride to more closely match his speed. We rode to Rios Rd and got over to Pomerado Rd, taking it up to Stowe Dr. We turned here and took it slowly up this gradual climb, riding up to O'Brien's Boulangerie, where we stopped for a break. It was my turn to pay, and we had coffee and shared a pastry. We talked car buying for a while, then brainstormed about the planned bikepacking trip in November. We agreed on a date and a tentative schedule of routes averaging 50-65 miles/day. We also thought to invite Cam and Nel along. After the break we headed back down to Community Rd, turned right there, and took it over to Poway Rd, turning right to see if Andy's Honda SUV was still in the used car lot at Poway Toyota (it was). Then we took Midland Rd over to Twin Peaks Rd and turned right to get up to Espola Rd, where we turned left. Again, slow on this little climb, turning left at the top onto Titan Way to get to Riparian Rd. We rode to Lake Poway Rd and turned left to ride up to the top, do the little loop (counterclockwise), then come back down to Summer Sage Rd. A left turn there, taking it to Bridlewood Rd to get back to Espola Rd, where we turned left. We rode down the hill and turned left on Summerfield Ln to get over to Rios Rd, which took us back to Andy's house. I stopped there briefly, then continued home the normal way via Bernardo Center Dr. It was heating up by the time I got home.

Avg speed = 13.2 mph. Total mileage = 25.4 mi

Avg power = 111 W. Weighted avg power = 139 W

Total elevation gain = 1640'

Avg heartrate = 113 bpm (Coospo)

Relative Effort = 28

Training Load = 86

Intensity = 63%

https://www.strava.com/activities/19038952252

Got home and had some breakfast, I was hungry from the workouts. During the day I replaced the front and rear brake pads on my Canyon. That went pretty smoothly. I also logged a warranty repair case with Canyon about the damage to my bike frame down by the bottom bracket. We will see if they honor the request. Watched a little World Cup on Peacock (Telemundo), where the audio is in Spanish. In the afternoon and evening I worked on creating a model for the Training Load parameter in Strava, which I am guessing is a weighted average of the amount of time spent in the different power zones that are defined by my FTP. Ultimately, I was successful in creating a model that predicts the TL pretty well, just a couple of outliers that I can't explain. I used Claude to perform the multivariate linear regression analysis, and it did a good job.

Canyon bike details:

Aeroad CF SLX 8 Disc eTap

Serial number:

R08101AC22E0072

06-22-2026 Hike/Swim/Ride

Today was a day of minor firsts. I need to get ready for the upcoming backpacking trip, so I went out early in the morning for a hike around the neighborhood with my camping backpack on, initially loaded with a gallon of water and some of my gear. Hiked for about 3.5 miles and listened to a podcast while I was hiking. I got home and had a little time before I got ready for a swim at the WWC. Headed over there, and I was the only one through the gate when it opened. But people started showing up, and the pool ended up being pretty crowded. I swam for 1500 yds without stopping, averaging 19-20 strokes/length for this workout. Started to feel more tired near the end, so I have work to do to increase my swimming fitness. Here are the splits for the three 500s: 9:34, 9:47, 9:51.

Avg pace = 1:57/100 yds (Video)

Total distance = 1500 yds

Elapsed moving time = 29:12 (Video)

Avg heartrate = 149 bpm (Zepp, possible but not likely)

Relative Effort = 40 (not likely)

SWOLF = 37

Avg stroke rate = 19 bpm

Avg pull distance = 2.49 yds

https://www.strava.com/activities/19023742904

Got home and had some cereal for breakfast. I also started my first day of a week's worth of skin cream treatment applications to my face. Not looking forward to how my face will feel in about a week's time, but the time window seems to be the best fit for getting it done. In the morning I got my new phone, a 2025 Moto G Power, and I started setting it up. This is going to take a while to get it configured like my old phone. Patience! I also worked on including temperature data into my cycling analysis program, since the data are made available by my Wahoo. Got most of the way done, although I still need to incorporate this functionality into the batch processing program I wrote. Later for that. I ate a light lunch and, in the early afternoon, I got ready for a bike ride. Had to connect my phone to my Wahoo and do some setting up for basic functionality. Seemed like it captured the ride data as intended. I rode down, on a warm and breezy day, by the park and over the pedestrian bridge to BVP, heading to Beethoven Dr and turning right. I took this steep climb up to Sierra Linda Dr, rode pretty slowly in my lowest gear. Then I turned left and took the descent to San Pasqual Ed and accidentally turned right. I rode for a bit before turning around and heading back to BVP, where I took a left and then a right on Mary Ln. Here was a other climb, longer but not as steep, and I rode up to the top, turning left on Summit Dr. The descents weren't quite as fun on this day because of gusty winds. Down to the 78 (aka San Pasqual Valley Rd), where I crossed and stayed on Summit Dr until it turned into Skyline Dr. Then I turned left on Idaho Ave and rode down to Citrus Ave, turning left there and the right to get back on Idaho Ave, taking me to BVP. I turned left there, rode up to Eldorado Dr, and took a right to see where it would take me. It got me to Juniper St, where I turned right and then left onto Green Ave. This street turns into Naranja St, and that got me to Vermont Ave. A right turn took me to Escondido Blvd, where I turned left and rode down to Elku Ave, taking me to Kit Carson Park. I turned right on Beethoven Dr, which turns into Del Lago Blvd, getting me to the freeway. I took the normal freeway route home from here, going slowly up the last two climbs.

Avg speed = 13.9 mph. Total mileage = 17.5 mi

Avg power = 119 W. Weighted avg power = 162 W

Total elevation gain = 1420'

Avg heartrate = 121 bpm (Coospo)

Relative Effort = 30

Training Load = 70

Intensity = 74%

https://www.strava.com/activities/19027701683

As mentioned, my new phone synced with my Wahoo and captured the ride in Strava and Dropbox. I was tired from the ride and had a little nap in the afternoon. There was a small fire down by the park in the afternoon, it must have flared up after I rode by there, but the response was rapid and effective. The evening was quiet. I talked to Mom in the late afternoon, she was a little out of sorts at the start but warmed up throughout the call. Had dinner after that, then I called Ross. He was in a mood when I first talked to him, upset that my call had interrupted her dinner and caused her to stop eating. But he calmed down through the course of the call, and we talked at length about Mom's frequently bringing up the subject of moving into a care facility. I'd talked to Mom for a while in the earlier call, I still don't think she is serious enough about this option that we need to act on it now. Ross was calmer at the end of the call than at the beginning, so I call that a win as well. 

06-21-2026 Walk

Happy Summer Day! I slept until 8:00, catching up from the lack of sleep on the redeye flight the night before (<>). Got up and had some coffee and a piece of toast, keeping it light because we were going out for brunch later. I chilled around the house in the morning, had to work on getting the printer to connect to the PC. The wireless connection might not be working any more, and I ended up hooking the printer to the computer using an Ethernet cable. That seemed to do the trick. We left the house a little before 11:30 and drove to The French Oven in Scripps Ranch. It was pretty crowded, for Father's Day I guess, but Ann got us a table while I waited in line to place our order. Food was good, the almond croissant in particular. I had coffee, which jazzed me up a bit. From there we drove down to the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla, parking in a neighborhood and walking to the museum. There was a wedding taking place, so with our senior discounts it was only $15 for both of us to enter. The museum was featuring an exhibition of art from the Dean collection (Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys) titled Giants. It was pretty interesting. We walked through most of the exhibit before sitting down to watch a video interview of the two of them where they explained their philosophy of art collecting. It definitely changed my perception of them as well as the collection, made the visit much more worthwhile. After walking through the museum we walked back to the car, and then I drove us to a speakeasy in North Park called Part Time Lover. This place had a nice vibe, was maybe a little too dark for my taste, but the drinks were good and the music was all LPs spun by a guy who was pulling records out of a very esoteric collection in the back. I think it was a success. No need to go back, but the experience was a fun, interesting one. We drove home from there, ate a light supper, and called it an evening.

06-20-2026 Ride

Flight into San Diego arrived a little bit ahead of schedule. I was able to get just a little sleep on the plane, not much. Watched a couple of episodes of Ozark to pass the time. I was a little too impatient to get off the plane and ended up leaving my tablet in the seat pocket. Damn it! I didn't realize until I got home, and by that time it was likely too late to expect getting it back. I did file a loss report and crossed my fingers. To cool off I took a ride to meet up with the Bisikleta riders on their route. James had his live track on, so I figured I would meet them on Highland Valley Rd. Headed down by the park and over Pomerado Rd to Highland Valley Rd, then took the flats to near the base of the first climb. As I got there the first riders passed me going the other way, so I waited until the last riders were past me and turned around to catch up with them. Chatted a little bit with Paula, who slowed down to wait for me. We rode back up to Pomerado Rd, turned left and headed up to where I thought we were supposed to turn. But Paula had us turning sooner, so I took a U-turn and rode back to Bernardo Trails Dr and turned right, meeting up with the others. This road is pretty steep at times, and Fritz and I were in the lead as we climbed up to a point where we turned right on Aceituno St. Then it was a series of descents and climbs on streets to Avenida Marbella. We turned left on Camino Ramillette, which got us to Paseo del Verano. A descent to the Bernardo Winery complex, some of the riders went past the turn, so I rode to them and directed them back to the turn to stop at Manzanita Coffee Roasters for a break. This break took longer than usual, I shared some of my experience from the Haleakala climb with a couple of the riders. The original route had us riding up past Poway High School, but the consensus was to shorten the ride since we were planning on meeting afterwards for lunch. So we turned left on Paseo del Verano and took it back to Pomerado Rd, turning left there and riding down to RB Rd. A right turn there got us on the usual way back to the starting point from there, and that's what we did. I waited at a couple of spots to make sure everybody was okay, so Paula and I were the last ones to arrive at the parking lot. We had lunch at Harland Brewing Co near our starting point. I had a root beer and a couple of crackers that Paula brought, but I didn't want to eat or drink that much. Decent conversation, I chatted with her, Ray, and James, who were sitting down at my end of the table. Gideon showed up later, and we talked for a bit as well. From there I rode home via the RB Rd and W Bernardo Dr route.

Avg speed = 14.9 mph. Total mileage = 20.9 mi

Avg power = 127 W. Weighted avg power = 157 W

Total elevation gain = 1330'

Avg heartrate = 123 bpm (Coospo)

Relative Effort = 32

Training Load = 85

Intensity = 71%

https://www.strava.com/activities/19001576536

Got home and ate a little something more. I also spent some time doing a remote lock-out of my tablet, in the expectation that I would never see it again and didn't want others access to my information. The rest of the afternoon and evening were quiet. I read a fair amount and watched just a little TV.

06-19-2026 Walks

This was an overall quiet day. We had talked about going north and exploring beaches and towns but ended up hanging around the Airbnb for much of the day. Was okay for me, but I would have liked a little more tourist stuff together on our last day. Had a couple of breakfasts but no coffee. After lunch we walked north on Kihei Rd to get shave ice at another place from last time. It was good, not quite as good as the previous time. I walked with the others back to the complex and continued south to the ABC store to buy some stamps. It was pretty warm but not hot. Did feel good to be in the shade when I returned. I read a lot on this day, Jonathan Gould's Burning Down the House. It is quite thorough and well-written so far. In the late afternoon Ann and I walked down to the beach for the last time this trip. There were a bunch of open water swimmers there along with the regular beachgoers. Back to the Airbnb, where the two of us made story fry and microwaved potatoes for dinner, trying to clean some of the food out of the refrigerator. Packing after dinner and more reading until we were all ready to head to the airport at around 8:15. This is a dark island at night, not so many streetlights on roads or highways. Got gas on the way and made it to the rental car center with no issues. Car checked in and to the gate with no problem other than my boarding pass didn't have TSA Pre-check. Not a big deal at this airport and this time, although I don't know why. We had no problems getting our stuff on the plane, and it left after a little delay, not too bad.