Recently, the weather in Santa Barbara has been a mixture of sunny blue skies and rainy, windy storms. It’s the rain season here. After March, it may not rain again until this time next year. So the rain is good for the environment.

The wind and rain makes biking not as fun. Instead of large open views and flowy speeds, I get wet clothes and a resistant struggle against the wind. That is how the second half of my long ride on Sunday felt. I was out for about 6 hours, riding up and across the front range of the Santa Ynez. I was in the clouds, so no spectacular views of Santa Barbara and the Pacific. I told myself, “it builds character, right?”

The weather patterns of Santa Barbara can be interesting. Large clouds of fog slowly roll in from the Pacific and then meet the mountains directly behind the city. The clouds then slowly climb up and over the mountain tops. So, if my long mountain adventure is in sync with the cloud patterns, I could start a ride or run under the fog at the bottom of the mountain and then, as I climb upwards, break out of the fog at the top, reaching beautiful blue skies and a blanket of clouds below. If I then keep the adventure going on top, the clouds will eventually reach the mountain top and put me back in a foggy daze. Then, going back down the mountain, I will pop back out of the clouds from the bottom, reaching blue skies once again.

I’m no meteorologist, but I think the city being bordered by the Pacific on one side and mountains on the other causes these interesting weather patterns. I enjoy observing the cloud patterns during long mountain adventure days.

My glute is still giving me trouble when running. I tested it out again on a hard trail effort for the local trail league. It was not very happy. My high heart rate effort ability has diminished a bit as well. Luckily, the big goal of Tahoe 200 will not require high heart rate efforts. I am hoping that another month of high volume biking will build my endurance level and give my glute enough time to recover. Hopefully by April and May I can get some long days on foot as the final training pieces before the race in June.

Music Selections of the week:

My Morning Jacket album At Dawn. Listened to this on Wed morning ride before work. Very interesting tracks. Will require a second listen.

moe. 2/11/2025 Salt Lake City, UT. Thanks to taper: Top Hat Crew. Rowdy jams.

The Devil Makes Three new album Spirits. Listened to this while blasting a trail league route. Love the songwriting style of this group.

Billy Strings 2/22/2025 Atlanta, GA. Thanks to taper: Z-Man. Listened to this during the Sunday long ride. Bluegrass music in the mountains just feels right. And Z-Man always gets the best recording. “In the sweet spot.”

Zach Bryan self-titled album. Also listened to this on the long ride. Incredible songwriting. Love this guy.