day 2ish

i say "ish" because it is the second day in SD, but not necessarily the second day of the ride. today was an exciting day because we finally got to meet some of the people that we've been emailing for months. nate and i picked up bobby (works for a non-profit in atlanta aimed at increasing green space by planting trees) and stephanie (4th year from nymc, headed to colorado for IM, actually met her on an interview at michigan) from the airport and a few others came later - carissa from tufts, jamie from osu, seth from michigan, kem who BIKED HERE FROM PHOENIX (by himself, with his stuff - still shocked about that), and van from loma linda who is staying on for IM.

day was relatively relaxing with a few activities planned. started out with a starbucks coffee first thing in the morning (big surprise, i know, thanks nate) then went for a ride on the pacific coast. ended up going down a big hill mostly around 40mph with the potential of another 10+ mph the next time we hit it. basically rode up and down the coast from la jolla up to the encinitas/carlsburg (sp?) areas. reminded me of ny/nj riding because you constantly see cyclists of all levels. all in all, did about 40 miles at a variable pace since we were all riding together for the first time. oh and that hill that i spoke about earlier, yeah that was a brutal climb that had me at a heart rate of upper 180's just to keep a 12-13mph pace. ended up doing dinner at this happy hr mexican joint with 3.00 big draft beers ("mmm...beer"). heard sd is notorious for mexican, specifically fish tacos (not rubbing it in brother) so should probably check out some of the mom and pops mexican places.