Lots of retrospecticusing tonight.  The Palomar trip was last weekend, and it was definitely the most amazing cycling experience I’ve had so far.  I met up with Ross and William out on Highland Valley Road, and we headed through Bandy Canyon past the Wild Animal Park, out to Lake Wohlford, through the Rincon Valley, then up toward Palomar.  My n00bishness kicked in here, and I had to stop before we reached the base.  If I’d known we only had around 8 miles to go, I’d have tried a bit harder.  But still, it was around 40 miles and 4000 ft. vertical for me, so I felt pretty good about that.

A week or so later, I can definitely say that this trip really helped.  For one thing, my confidence has gone way up.  Hills are definitely less intimidating now.  I still have a bit of trouble getting right back up to 100% speed after some climbs, but still it’s drastically improved from even a few months ago.  My butt callus is the next thing to work on, because that’s actually the earliest source of discomfort on my rides.