That’s Hot!
by Rob Blue on March 13th, 2007
The new team kits have arrived and they look awesome. The pictures really don’t do them justice, they look even better in person. Sunday’s ride was a hill climbing fest from the Las Virgenes trailhead up to the Alberson fireroad overlooking Simi Valley and back. All in all, it is not a lot of miles coming in at around 18 or so, but there is about 4000 feet of climbing and today it was HOT!
The temperatures were easily in the 90’s and earlier in the week it barely broke into the 60’s. That’s not easy to adapt to. I find it takes me a good 2 weeks of riding in the typically super hot western SF/Canejo Valley summer to feel like I’ve got any legs or lungs.
I had the pleasure of riding with a couple of excellent riders Sunday. My old road racing partner, Scott Palmer, called me out of the blue the other day looking to get back into doing some regular training rides. Scott and I hit most of the classic California road races a couple of years ago and had a blast doing them together. He then moved right down the road from me but between our crazy work schedules and life in general we have not been able to ride together as often as we had hoped. Maybe as this year’s cycling season settles in we can get some regular rides in. I sure hope so. It’s hard to find riders that you like spending hours on the road with that have a similar schedule, which for me is riding early in the mornings before work.
Also on the ride was my teammate Brandon Bittorf showing up at the trailhead in his driving billboard.
Brandon sounds like he really enjoying his “day job” running Santa Barbara’s Physical Adventures boot camps for women. I am pretty confident that Brandon will win at the NMBS opener in Phoenix this year. I don’t think he even broke a sweat on our ride.
The switch to Daylight Savings Time was not without a victim on Sunday. My buddy, and frequent blog model, Zach Justman was a no-show at the trailhead. I woke him up when I called him after we waited for a bit for him to arrive. He would have dug the ride and with all of his recent adventures in the mountains lately, I’m sure he would have given us a run for our money on the climbs.
Speaking of the climbs, these guys did me in on the last bunch of hills. At the bottom of Palo Comado Canyon I was ready to take the easy route back through Cheeseboro but Brandon and Scott looked disappointed that the ride was almost over so I suggested that we do three more hills to get back over to Cheeseboro. They agreed way too fast and killed me over those suckers. My legs were cooked by the time we got back to our cars. It was a good thing that I didn’t ride over to the trailhead like I normally do. It would have made for a long, slow and hot grind back home.
March 16th, 2007 at 8:15 am
just wait until August - then the heat will be hellish. So whats up with Sedrik - I though he was going to ride with you guys this weekend?
I would have but we are wrapping up a killer new design called Flight… you guys are going to dig this shirt!
March 16th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Hey Sedrik no need for any C130’s…This guy has wings.Got flight?