Day Four, Paso Robles to Santa Maria

Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Hitting my stride

Today was simply a great day. I had a realization as I got out on the road this morning. I knew I was a couple training rides short of being ready for this event. Well, now I've had them, and I am ready to do the ride.

As I mentioned, yesterday we spent almost as much time hanging out in the rest stops as we did riding. So Charlie suggested we make a conscious effort to step up the pace today, and we set a goal to spend only 2-3 hours in the rest stops. There are four rest stops plus a water stop and lunch, not to mention the local ad hoc stops that we just HAVE to make. We made our resolution in the hopes of getting into camp around 5 rather than around 7, which is what happened the last time we had an route of this length. Long story short, we met our goal, as much by riding faster as by trying to get out of the rest stops sooner.

In the morning, Charlie and I rode with Julie and Chris, and in the afternoon we primarily rode with Charlie's friends Liz and Stevo. All three of them are medical professionals, so when we hang out, I try to keep up with the lingo, and have some understanding of what non-techie friends go through when I start geeking out in the presence of my techie friends.

The morning opened with a couple of large hills called the Evil Twins. In commemoration of this, Charlie and several of his ride leader friends sported Cartman "Oh man, you guys suck!" jerseys. Pictures are forthcoming.

It was nice to knock those hills out early on in the day. It was smooth sailing once I got my cadence. I have a double crank, so I have to remember not to try to stick with people riding a triple- their low gear is much lower than mine, so they're able to just spin and spin to slowly make it up the hill. For me to go that slowly actually feels like more effort, since my feet are moving too slow to get a real flow going.

The Evil Twins are a bit of a misnomer, since there are actually about five summits. I had forgotten that, and actually thought that when I went over the third one that I had finished. But there was no one at the top cheering and singing which is typically the custom. Alas, it was not until I got to the last one that the cheering ensued.

One of the most glorious moments of the day, and indeed of the entire ride, is the descent from the evil twins, which is several miles down to highway 1. In that span, my average speed for the day went up from 12.5 to 14.3 mph.

Overall, my average speed for the day was 14.9 mph. Our road time was 9:50, with 6:37 in motion. Tonight I am staying at Shawn's friend Eric's house in Pismo, so I get to sleep indoors tonight. Speaking of which, I've gotta go. Unfortunately, there are some issues with the map yesterday and today. I believe I will be able to get those online when I have some tiome, but sleep will be winning tonight. Cheers!