Ride over to John's house to meet up with him and Dave, taking the normal route. I left around 6:17, and I didn't really need my headlight, although I kept it on for awhile and used by taillight to give me greater visibility. I made pretty good time over there, keeping it above 11 mph on the climb up to his house but running my heartrate up pretty high (175 bpm). We headed up to the top of Pomerado Rd, then down onto Miramar Rd and over to UTC. The bike lane on this road is really awful, actually in both directions. It was much better as we got into the UTC area, where we stayed on the road until climbing up to the left turn onto N Torrey Pines Rd. Throughout this section, we traded leads among the three of us. We headed into La Jolla via Torrey Pines Rd, all three riding together on this little climb. Then we turned left on Girard Ave and then right on Pearl St, then took a left onto La Jolla Blvd. This is a really nice road to ride, relatively flat and quite smooth, with traffic circles instead of lights. We merged onto Mission Blvd, rode through Pacific Beach and took a left on Grand Ave, cutting over onto Balboa Ave. There's a climb here of a little more than a mile, and I was able to keep it above 10 mph with a struggle. Past Genesee, I stopped and waited for John and Dave, then we headed out riding together, with me and John trading leads. We turned onto Kearny Villa Rd and took it back to Pomerado Rd, with the gradual climb back to the top. Again, I kept it above 10 mph at the end with an effort, and John wasn't too far behind. He's in good cycling shape. We rode back to his house, where I had a soda and a short rest before retracing my route to get home. I was okay on this part, tired but my legs were working and not feeling any tightness. It was starting to warm up but the weather cooperated with us for the most part on this ride.
Avg speed = 17.6 mph. Total mileage = 58.7 mi
Avg heartrate = 148 bpm
Total elevation gain = 1920'
