View from just below the top.

Sunday was a spectacular day for a ride. Rain Saturday afternoon made for really clear skies. Could see all the breaks between Santa Barbara and Ventura, and even from 4,000+ feet it was obvious the waves were thumping. On tap was a race pace 50 miler, and better yet, my most favoritest riding partner, my dad, was down south to join me!

Same view, but this time with my dad.

Training the last couple of weeks has been high intensity intervals on the mountain bike up Romero Canyon during the week, Thursday morning group ride, Saturday big long 5+ hour ride, Sunday 4+ hour recovery ride. But due to some other commitments on Saturday, I did the intervals Tuesday and Wednesday, and though I was supposed to do an hour spin on Thursday to save something for the 50 miler, I did the group ride Thursday, and a couple hour spin Saturday in prep for Sunday's 50 miler. Maybe not the best move as I could tell as soon as we hit the first climb on Sunday that my climbing legs were T-I-R-E-D.  By the 1.5 hour mark I was at IF .9 and thinking, Holy crap, we have 35 miles to go!? And, admittedly, I may have even shed a tear or two as we climbed and climbed and climbed . . and climbed. The crazy strong gusts of wind didn't help morale much either. They literally stopped me in my tracks a time or two and felt like they were fresh off a glacier. But, eventually, we topped out for the first time, and the new-to-us downhill was sweet!

I started to feel more human as we took the rolling single track back to the bottom of the climb. I even cleared all the technical stuff in a section I hadn't managed to before. Headed back up Romero I felt strong and managed to feel that way almost to the top. But by the time we turned around for the descent, I was cooked. Ended up with 46.5 miles and 9,000 feet of climbing.

Now my mountain bike is up north in the talented hands of K of Urgent Bicycle getting rebuilt in time for this Saturday's race in Monterey.