San Diego Training Week: Day 2

I woke up this morning coughing and hacking and thought great, another lost day. I looked outside and there was sun, although it would be short lived as the forecast was calling for showers starting shortly. Even though I wasn`t feeling great and the weather was touch and go I felt like I had to get something in today but I hadn`t brought any clothing for rain. After all, as the song goes, `It never rains in southern California`. So I took off to one of my favourite store here in San Diego, Road Runner Sports, where they have a clearance centre that prices are drastically reduced. I found a cycling jacket for 50% off and stumbled across a pair of CW-X tights at a fabulous price and thought these would be great if I wanted to stay warm on either a ride or run. So with gear in hand I headed back to the house and packed my bike and running shoes into the truck and headed for the coast. On my drive from LA to San Diego I`d scoped out a possible route that had a starting point not too far from the house so I drove to it. I parked in a lot at the Torrey Pines State Reserve which is in the Carmel Valley right on the coast. I started getting ready while watching huge waves crashing the beach and thought that Chris and Justin would love to be here right now. As I mentioned, the reserve is in the Carmel Valley which is right between cliffs to the north and south and this is typical of this area as the terrain varies from high cliff to beach to cliff all up and down the coast. My planned route was to head north for about 25 km and then turn around and head back but first I wanted to attack the huge climb south from the beach and then turn around and head north. Chris if you want to train on climbing this is one of the places. It was a 400 foot climb over 2.5 km and you can see the elevation graph on my Garmin Connect page. Even though I wasn`t feeling 100% it felt good to be riding and I didn`t mind the grind. At the top I turned around and prepared to ride north along the famous US 101 highway. I headed down the climb I`d just come up but had to maintain my speed because I could have easily hit speeds unhealthy to my body as well as I`d realized that the there was a pretty healthy crosswind coming in off the ocean. Once I got back down into the valley I started pedaling but kept it easy. I was still lacking energy so this was going to be more of a tour than a training ride. My mini tour de California. Of course being in  a valley you come to the inevitable climb out. I hit the climb up into Del Mar which wasn`t nearly as tough or long as the first climb but was still enough to get me working. I rode through Del Mar, descended back down to sea level and then back up a climb to the North Bluff Reserve. This was just on the outskirt of Solana Beach where I was in July for the Solana Beach Sprint Triathlon. I continued through Solana Beach, past Fletcher Cove where the race swim was and down into the San Elijo Lagoon and rode past Las Olas Mexican Restaurant where Tammy, Cassie and I had lunch after my July race.  I climbed out of the flats of the lagoon and into Cardiff by the Sea and on into Cardiff. Up till then the roads had been great. Biking is huge in this area and everywhere you`d look you`d see riders, Almost every road has nice wide bike lanes but as I was leaving Cardiff and heading into Encinatas the lane disappeared and the road got pretty rough. No worries though as I was only planning on riding another 3-4 km and then turning around and just then .... smack .... I hit a raised crack in the road. A few seconds later I felt it, the unmistakable feeling of my tire flattening out and mushy handling. I`d flatted. Ok, no big deal.  I stopped and pulled my bike over and off the road and began the process of changing my tube and the whole time I was thinking ``Do Not pinch the new tube against the wheel rim and put a hole in it``. I`d done that in the past and I only had 1 spare with me today so I was in no hurry and was going to take plenty of care. Well all went well and it seemed like I`d installed it without pinching but the real test would be after I filled it. So I took my CO2 cartridge and screwed the inflator head on to it and ``pppfffttt`` some gas escaped. I put the cartridge to the stem and ............... nothing. Again ............... nothing. CRAP. The cartridge had emptied. Now people, I know it seems like a lot of crap has happened to me on this trip and I know you guys must be thinking no one`s this unlucky but I swear, I`m not making this stuff up, its all happened. Anyway, there I was standing around holding my deflated wheel in my hand and I was going over the options in my head. One, I could start walking back to the truck about 20 km down the highway. No I don`t think so. Two, I could start walking and looking for a bike shop. That was very plausible as I new that Nytro Bikes was somewhere in the area. Or three, I could wait for another rider to come by and ask for help. Well no sooner than having gone through the possibilities when I saw a rider approaching from the north so I ran to the road and flagged him down. I`m pretty sure that seeing me with my wheel in my hand he knew what was up. I asked if he had a spare CO2 cartridge and luckily he was carrying 3 so he gave me one and this time I screwed the inflator head on very quickly so the gas wouldn`t escape. I pushed the head onto the stem and yay, the tube inflated. I offered to follow him to the nearest bike shop and buy him a couple of cartridges but he said no problem and continued on his ride.  I turned and headed back towards the truck while looking for a bike shop to replenish a tube and cartridge and about 5 km along I came across Nytro and popped in. They had everything I needed but when I went to pay, all I had was my debit card and they didn`t take it. Come on! We`re living in the 21st century! So I left empty handed but I knew B&L Bikes was in Solana Beach about 10 km from there. When I got there they were very helpful but didn`t take my debit card either but there was an ATM machine in the bar next door so I went and got cash to pay. I picked up a couple of CO2 cartridges and a new inflator head and a new tube. Unfortunately the longest stem length they had was a 60 mm and I need an 80 mm but they threw in a valve extender so I threw that into my tool kit as well to have in case I have to ever borrow a tube from someone. If that were ever the case I would think the chances of another rider carrying an 80 mm stem tube would be low. I was only a few km from the truck now so I finished up the ride thinking I`d try to follow it up with a short run but just as I was descending from Del Mar into Carmel Valley it began to sprinkle. So far it has not been a great training week.