Well, this ride had its frustrations, all of them traceable to my lack of preparation or patience. I was supposed to meet Paula over on Harmony Grove Rd for a ride, so I got up early and got ready to be able to leave the house around 5:40. This was all good, and I was on schedule at the start. It wasn't fully light out, so I took the pedestrian bridge over Lake Hodges and then headed up Via Rancho Pkwy to Felicita Rd, which I took to Hamilton Ln, turning left there. This is where my first miscue happened. I was listening to music and lost track of where I was supposed to turn, so I ended up staying on Hamilton Ln instead of turning onto Bernardo Ave, as was planned. I recognized my error after a bit but continued on this road after looking at my Wahoo map and seeing what looked like a throughway to a major street. I rode up to the end of the road and got onto a private path, but it was blocked on the other side by a chain link fence, so I had to turn around and ride back, not really knowing where I was but looking for a way out of the neighborhood. I ended up turning left on Continental Ln, which climbed a bit and got me to Calle Catalina, where I turned left and found myself at the top of Gamble Ln, without the really steep sections to navigate. So this is actually a pretty nice way to get over to Citracado Pkwy (via Scenic Trail Way), perhaps the fastest route. I took Citracado Pkwy down to Harmony Grove Village Pkwy, turned left and to to Harmony Grove Rd, where I took another left and started riding to meet Paula heading the other way. It was starting to get foggy as I continued, then we met up and rode together on Harmony Grove Rd down to the turn onto Elfin Forest Rd. I only knew the route superficially, hadn't downloaded it, so I rode at her pace up the first climb here, we were both looking for the left turn onto Fortuna del Este. There is a nice, winding descent here through a rural neighborhood, the road turns into Canyon de Oro, before it starts to climb. There is a short, very steep (I registered 20% gradient briefly) pitch up to the intersection with Seaquest Trail, which we had previously ridden coming from the other direction. We joined back up and then descended Canyon de Oro to Rancho Summit Dr and then down to Fortuna Ranch Rd, where we turned right and, after a short ascent, enjoyed a nice descent to Lone Jack Rd. The road kept descending, more gradually, until it flattened out and got us over to RSF Rd. We turned right there and rode up the little climb before descending to Calle Acervo and turning right. Around here my right shifter stopped working, even though I had replaced the battery fairly recently (it must have been a battery that had sat in the saddle bag for a while. We stopped, and I checked to find out that I didn't have any spare batteries in my saddle bag. Mistake #2. So we modified our planned route to get us over to La Costa Ave via Camino de los Coches, where we turned left and then right into the parking lot for a Pavilions supermarket. I went in, and they had a battery display was surprisingly didn't have any CR2032 batteries. I was amazed! So we had to ride to the shopping center on the other side of La Costa Ave, where there was a CVS that had the batteries at an exorbitant price. I bought one and put it in my back pocket, hoping I wouldn't have to replace it, since my shifter had started working again. With this minor delay, we decided to modify the route, taking La Costa Ave to Circulo Sequoia and turning left (we had turned right on previous rides) and riding up a gradual climb until we got to Avenida Amapola, where we turned left and then left again on Camino Junipero to get back over to RSF Rd. Up the last bit of that climb and then down to San Elijo Rd, turning right and then right again on Dove Tail Dr. Here is where my shifter battery finally died, so we stopped and I replace it fairly quickly to get back my shifting functionality. We turned left on Amberhill Ter and then right on Shadetree Dr, riding through a neighborhood until we turned right again on Weatherwood Ct. This got us to Fallsview Rd, which we used to get back onto San Elijo Rd. We climbed into the village and turned on Elfin Forest Rd to get over to Calistoga Way. Up to its end, using the throughway to get over to Genoa Way and up to Baylor Dr. We were both able to get through the gate by following cars, then we turned right on Questhaven Rd and left on Blue Water Ln. We rode up to the entrance to a bike path that led us up to Leeward Ave, where we turned left, right on Hollowbrook Ct, and left on Eclipse Dr to get back up to San Elijo Rd. Just a little more climbing until the turn onto Double Peak Dr. I rode to Atherton St and waited for Paula to show up by her house. In our ride together, we rode through some fairly heavy fog and light mist, and it was still overcast up at her house. I didn't stay long, just turned around and rode back to San Elijo Rd and down the hill into the village. I wasn't watching closely enough as I got into the village, so I missed the turn onto Elfin Forest Rd and ended up turning left on Baker St, riding through the Albertson's parking lot to get to Elfin Forest Rd. I was tiring out here, so I dialed my pace back, did the little climb out of the village and then enjoyed the descent to the turn onto Harmony Grove Rd. After I made the turn, I noticed that my bike felt a little wobbly. I kept riding for a while until I stopped to check my tires, finding that I had a slow leak on my front tire, again. I was super frustrated. I thought about trying to ride with the slow leak, occasionally pumping it up, but the air started coming out faster, so I pulled over to the side of the road and took the front wheel off to replace the tube. The tire was quite uncooperative, I was mad and impatient, and I ended up damaging the tube I had put in. This took my frustration and anger (at myself, really) to the next level. I wasn't sure if I was using my Cycplus pump correctly, especially after putting on the second tube and, stupidly, puncturing it as well with the tire levers. I got my CO2 cartridge out and tried to use it to put air in the tire, to no avail. It was, after all, punctured. So I was stuck on the road with three inner tubes with holes in them. That was the end of this ride.
Avg speed = 13.1 mph. Total mileage = 34.3 mi
Avg power = 123 W. Weighted avg power = 158 W
Total elevation gain = 3170'
Avg heartrate = 112 bpm (Coospo)
Relative Effort = 42
Training Load = 157
Intensity = 72%
I called Ann. No answer. I ended up trying to call her for about 20 minutes, with no success. This got me even more frustrated. I finally gave up and called an Uber, and the driver showed up in a little over 10 minutes and helped me put the bike into the back, after putting the back seats down. The driver, Mark, turned out to be an interesting guy, who was from Palm Springs, knew the guy (Tim Esser) who had started it all up. Turns out this guy was a former tennis semi-pro player who had jumped on the pickleball bandwagon, so he spent the rest of the ride telling me about the social aspects of the game and trying to get me to give it a try. It turned out to be an interesting ride back home. I got there, put my bike away, and went upstairs to find that Ann was still asleep! After 10:30! I was blown away and kinda pissed off that she hadn't answered her phone. She got up not too long after that, was apologetic, but I was still upset. The rest of the day and evening was quiet. I read quite a bit and stayed mostly upstairs. I did try to repair the three inner tubes, but the punctures in two of them (the two new ones) were too close to the stem for the patch to hold. I threw them away, along with the Enve tires that turned out to be just too unreliable to ride on. I swapped in an older set of Gatorskins, and I'm hoping I have better luck with them, and I put in the multiply patched tube on the front tire. Fingers crossed that my recent spate of flats is over.
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