Cool Breeze Double Metric

It's coming!

On August 20th I will be attempting my first double metric century. It will actually be a bit more because we're riding to the start of the Cool Breeze Double Metric from the Marriott about 4 miles away. Total mileage should come in at about 128 miles. Whew! I say we're, and I mean the dozen or so members of OC Velo that have made this great event a club favorite.

I mapped out the course on BikeRouteToaster, my favorite way of mapping for upcoming rides. BikeRouteToaster has limited advertising and shows full screen maps. Its directions are spot on as are the climbing and time to finish estimations. You can't search for rides other people have planned out but you can keep a nice portfolio of your past and future rides.

For 2010 I did the century ride for the second time. While challenging, it wasn't really tough so I was challenged by a fellow club member to do the double metric. Come to find out nearly all the members riding the event (about 10) will be doing the double metric. Now that's peer pressure.

I've been riding quite a bit, building up a good endurance level and I'm finishing off the last few weeks with some high intensity intervals. There's no magic to successfully completing a long ride like this. Stay hydrated, eat properly and maintain an even pace for a seven hour ride. No jack rabbit starts, no racing for the City Line sign. The week before the event I'll taper a bit then I should be ready.

SHOULD BE. Training for a long event with the time constraints of work and life can be a real challenge. I'm very fortunate that my wife supports me 100%. After working hard all week I don't get a bunch of honey dos; I get quizzed as to my planned rides for the weekend. A guy can't ask for more than that.

Below are the elevation profile with about 6700' of climbing and a map of the area for the Cool Breeze Double Metric. It looks really tough but in reality most of these climbs aren't too difficult. The average grade for the bigger climbs is in the 4% range. Of course, like any other climb, there are sections that will reach into the 8%-10% range but these should be relatively short. It will be interesting to compare this projection to my actual climb data after the ride. I'll report back after the event.

The elevation chart for the Cool Breeze Double Metric.

The Cool Breeze Double Metric starts in Ventura, enter Ojai Valley then works its way over to Santa Barbara, eventually returning to Ventura via Hwy 101.