Mike's Bike Blog

There's a particular route from my office that has been calling for me to ride for several months. Thus far I've ignored the calling thinking the 18 miles would take too long for a lunch ride seeing as there are several steep climbs and hills along the route. On days I'd suggest it as a possible route Lauri would shoot it down for mainly the same reasons. Well today I knew I had a little extra time for lunch and figured if I waited for my usual ride time that the rains and hail would probably put a damper on the ride. Plus Lauri didn't bring her bike so she had no say in the matter this time.

The route turned out to be perfect for the workout that I had planned. Today's workout was "On a flat road or on a trainer. Use the big chain ring and a gear that allows only about 50-60 rpm. Drive pedal down at CP1 for 15-20 revolutions of cranks. Start a new one every 3-5 minutes." Now the route is not flat at all, but I figured on most of the hills and especially the steep sections I could easily get my power up to my CP1 of 516 watts. For hills on 360 after the bridge I was able to ride mainly in the big ring pushing the prescribed watts and after 20 revolutions I would shift as not to push too much and blow up my legs.  The only drawback to this route is that the section of Westlake after going on Toro Canyon is a bit busy with cars and there is no shoulder. It looks like there could be some alternate routes through this section so the time on Westlake would be shorter, it's worth looking into.

I'll be adding it to my bag of routes.