So with the arrival of Billy, my operation and work related activities to close out the second half of last year my biking has been almost non-existant.  While I normally like to get around 2000 miles a year in, last year I got in ~700 - which is sad and not healthy.  So it's time to start getting serious for this year, got my bike tuned up and a new chain and brake pads. I'm finishing up my work for Professional VB.NET 3.0 any day now and am starting to ride to and from work (a mere 8 miles each way).  Of course as part of getting serious again there is that little concept of goals and I have mine.  For starters although I took off last year for the birth of my son, I'll be back at the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure ride. 

Consider this an open invite to join me on either this ride or the Encinitas ride I describe below it.

The San Diego Tour de Cure is May 12th this year, leaving from Cuyamaca College in East San Diego County.  This ride is 10, 20, 30, 42 or 64 miles depending on the route you select.  The longer 42 and 64 mile, routes involves some significant climbing up into the hills of East San Diego County.  I'll be doing the metric century (64 miles ~100Kilometers) version of the ride again.  It is a fund raising ride for the American Diabetes Association and my fund raising site is here: Click here to visit my Tour de Cure page. 

for more information about the San Diego event you can go here: http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=4403

Back when I was first diagnosed with diabetes this ride was the both the reason I bought a road bike (in addition to my mountain bike) and the reason I upgraded that bike to have a triple front chain ring.  As described on their site the ride is challenging.  Given that I've regressed almost to the point where I was when I bought my bike I have my work cut out for me getting ready for this years ride.

In addition to that ride, this will be the inagural year for another ride here in San Diego County.  The Encinitas Sports and Fitness Festival is launching a San Diego Century ride.  The even has three ride lengths: 35, 72 and 105 miles that go through a portion of North San Diego County.  This ride is scheduled for May 19th of this year and is a fund raiser for the Challenged Athletes Association.

More information on the event is here:  http://www.encinitasrace.com/sdc/ 

The cost for the century ride is $50 on Active.com but  I haven't decided if I want to take on the century ride for this event.  I've done century rides in the past, and even difficult rides as this one looks to be.  However the route that has been posted concerns me.   Specifically it looks like you put in about 60 miles on a hilly course and then need to climb up into Ramona from just south of Poway.  Thus the major climb occurs three/fifths of the way into the ride which is a challenge.  Worse however is that this will probably hit between 11AM and 1PM for me (depending on start time and speed) and that means at the height of the day climbing during the heat of the day.  I have to see if I am really willing to take this on so I'm going to hold off registering for this ride.

Bill finishing the Tour de Poway century ride....

As for Fall - well I'll be looking for another century ride - Poway at a minimum hopefully, but more importantly I'll be looking to climb Palomar Mountain again.  I want to once again make it up without needing to stop during the 12 mile climb.

Feel free to join me for a ride.