I’m not normally a morning person. The big Seattle to Portland ride starts way before anyone should be awake, so I need to get used to riding early. Today I decided to try it. I made a few key mistakes like not eating before I started, but it was still a pretty good ride.<\/p>\n
The winds tend to blow toward the ocean in the morning and from the ocean in the afternoon. I’ve done plenty of rides where I end up riding east into a headwind right around the time the winds change direction letting me ride back west into yet another headwind. That wasn’t the case this morning. This morning I only had a headwind going east, and I may have even had a slight tailwind coming back home. That tailwind probably saved me, because I was wasted (see my earlier comment about not eating before starting).<\/p>\n
I wasn’t just riding against the wind, I was riding against traffic. That’s the way to do it. As soon as I turned onto Paseo Delicias there were cars just sitting there, waiting to come west. I was on the opposite side of the road heading east, happy that I wasn’t heading west. I had considered just riding to the top of Del Dios Highway and then turning around and heading back the same way, but the longer I rode past stopped traffic, the more convinced I became that I needed to ride all the way over Rancho Bernardo and back down Carmel Vallery Road instead. The traffic was constant all the way to the lake (about 5 miles). I didn’t want to ride home in that.<\/p>\n
So I followed the same route from Saturday. I crossed through Rancho Bernardo right as people were heading to work. The traffic wasn’t bad, but I hit most the lights red. I also had a guy in a car cut me off and slam on his brakes. He completely blocked the bike lane directly below a “No Parking – Bike Lane” sign. I slammed on my brakes but couldn’t stop as fast as he did, so I had to either hit him or cut into traffic. The car next to me saw the whole thing unfold and stopped in the lane to make sure I had room to get around the idiot. I yelled “Hey!” as I went by and he honked at me. I looked back to see him open his door wide and almost lose it to the traffic that had resumed moving slowly past him. I’m very glad other drivers had been paying attention or I would have been forced to ram the back of that car in the bike lane. And I wouldn’t have had a way home if that broke my bike. I thought a bit about that prospect as I finished the climb up Black Mountain.<\/p>\n
The ride down Carmel Valley Road was great. I did hit one or two annoying red lights that made me come to a complete stop when I had been going really fast, but I was feeling good and pushed it most the way home. I’ll have to try another morning ride sometime, but I’ll be sure to eat before I head off into the headwind.<\/p>\n