Woke up a little earlier than usual, took a COVID test and it was negative. I'm glad it wasn't a severe or even moderate case. Then I got ready for the bike ride. Over to the 4S Target the original, fastest route, arriving there first, although Ray was over at Starbucks. On this ride at the start, there were: Ray, Jamil, Fritz, Jed (late, as usual), Rob, Gideon, Cam, Charlie, and Eric (hadn't ridden with him in a while). I had planned the route, so I led out as we left the parking lot. We took the reverse of the shorter route through the 4S Ranch neighborhood, got back to RB Rd, then took it down the hill and under the freeway to get over to Pomerado Rd. There, we turned left and met up with Andy and Rob, who were waiting by the corner. We rode down toward the freeway, and just before the last gradual downhill Edson joined us. I was sweeping by this time, and shortly after that, Fritz had a flat with a big gouge in his tubeless tire. So it took about 15 minutes to plug it and get it to seal well enough. Another example of why I don't want to go tubeless. We rode across the pedestrian bridge and then through the mall parking lot to Beethoven Dr, taking it up to the little path through Kit Carson Park to get to El Ku Ave. Then it was up to Escondido Blvd and over to Centre City Pkwy. I was still sweeping as we rode through Escondido, then as we got close to the 78 I rode to the front to make sure we stayed on the planned route. Up the hill past Country Club Ln, where I set a PR (2:23, 288 W, 164 bpm). Waited for the others at the top of the hill, then we rode down and turned right onto Ivy Dell Ln to get over to Jesmond Dene Rd. I was leading here to make sure we made the right turn, and I pushed the pace on this little climb, including setting another PR on the last little hill near the end (1:11, 3:36, 170 bpm!). I gapped the others on that last climb, but it was an all-out effort. Then I waited at the turn onto Centre City Pkwy to make sure the others made it, ended up riding back up Jesmond Dene Rd to look for Edson and Andy. We had our break at the Circle K up near Deer Springs Rd, then we turned onto this road and took the downhill to get over to Twin Oaks Valley Pkwy. This stretch of the ride was fast, since it has a slight net negative gradient and everybody was pushing the pace. I was at the back and riding hard to stay in touch with the others. We rode up to Barham Dr and turned left there, with me still sweeping. Over to Mission Ave, turning right and taking it into Escondido, again another fast, slightly downhill stretch. Around this time, Edson split off, since he lives in Escondido. Jamil was out in front, and the others didn't clearly see that he turned where he was supposed to, on Quince St. We followed that route, and I was pretty far behind the leaders by this point. I tried to bring everybody back together, but we couldn't find Jamil. Gideon called him a couple of times and gave me garbled information about his location, so I ended up waiting >5 minutes for him at the corner of 13th Ave and Centre City Pkwy, while it turns out he was ahead of all of us and waiting. Eventually, I found this out and kicked in the jets to try and catch up with him and the others, as I generally retraced our route back toward the mall. They were just finishing up a nature bio break at the entrance to Kit Carson Park when I showed up, all except Jamil, who had gotten tired of waiting and continued on. We rode back through the mall parking lot and over to the bike path to the pedestrian bridge. Once we got to W Bernardo Dr, Andy peeled off and headed home via Pomerado Rd, while the rest of us did the climb up to RB Rd. I led out again and was able to stay in front of the others, along with Fritz. We caught up with Jamil, and I slowed down to say hi while Fritz kept pushing hard. So, I had to dig deeper to catch up with him. At Poblado Rd, Gideon split off to ride home, and we waited for the others at the turn onto RB Rd. After they all made it, I rode from the back to catch up with Rob at the front, who was dealing with a slow leak. I led the group up to Matinal Rd, then rode with a smaller group - me, Rob, Jamil, and Jed - up to Via del Campo, where Rob stopped to pump some air into his tire before turning around. I was ready to be done as well, so I turned around with him, and we both rode back through the neighborhood on Matinal Rd to W Bernardo Dr, then over to Duenda Rd. He turned right there and seemed to have enough air in his tire to get home, while I rode home the normal way from there. Legs and lungs felt fine on this ride, there were a couple of times where I put in a big effort, but overall I took it pretty easy. I can tell that my cardio fitness was impacted by COVID, as my average heartrate was higher than it would normally be on a ride like this.
Avg speed = 15.8 mph. Total mileage = 46.7 mi
Avg power = 127 W. Weighted avg power = 161 W
Total elevation gain = 2260'
Avg heartrate = 127 bpm (Coospo)
It was a lazy afternoon for me. I had some lunch when I got back and watched most of the last half of LSU-South Carolina, then I read for a bit and had a little nap (was pretty tired). In the late afternoon, we drove down to Fenton Pkwy and took the trolley to SDSU for a concert. This went smoothly, which was good. Ray LaMontagne was the headliner, but we had signed up primarily to see the opening act, The Secret Sisters. I had looked on the web before we left home, and it appeared that there was going to be a different opening act. That turned out to be the case. Erin Rae was the first act, and she was okay at best, just not very energetic. Then there was an extended set by Gregory Alan Isakov, who was really more of a co-headliner. I liked his voice and the lyrics to his songs, but the staging was a little to emotive for both my and Ann's liking. LaMontagne's set was spare, and his songs are decent, just not something I was very familiar with. None of the three sets had many high-energy numbers, they were generally more contemplative. Still, it was a mildly entertaining evening. In hindsight, I should have spent more time listening to his music to familiarize myself with his sound. No trouble getting back on the trolley and driving home, got there a little before midnight.
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