alex_korr, it seems like you might be hurting a bit today. I've been there, it's a bummer. Hang in there, it gets better. And to help it get better I hope to alleviate some of your concerns.
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It is a one lane highway between the Rock and that exit
I know you meant two lane highway and that's from Yerba Buena Rd all the way to Calleguas Creek road, which is before Las Posas in Oxnard. That's 14km of paved, two lane highway. Really good, smooth paved surface and, since there's population is less dense there's little litter over this section and very broken glass. That's a great stretch of road in fact it's my preferred course for a real-world, outdoor FTP test.
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It is also worth noting that the Olympic distance event will be run on the same day - ie the bike course might be very crowded til the turnaround near Neptune's net
Could be crowded at times, but since both races are limited ~900 for Olympic and only 800 for the Long Course that's not an inordinate group of people. And of course they won't all mount the bike at once. There's different swim distances, with waves of athletes starting at different times. And the only narrow bit where there might be doubling up of Oly & LC riders will be the 1.6 miles of shoulder from Neptune's Net to the actual Olympic turn-around that is just a bit beyond Deer Creek. That shoulder's pretty wide. I also anticipate zero risk on the return since the Olympic riders will likely all be done by the time the long coursers come back from the ag fields of Oxnard.
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The half goes all the way to Los Posas - that's the narrowest part of the PCH.
I can't agree with this, there's miles of wide, smooth shoulder there with only a few, short bits of narrow (like the short segments of K Rail that keeps the rocks from falling into lanes . There are hundreds of roadies and triathletes riding that segment every week....when there's no race, no signage, no police presence. I noticed last week that work is being done on the shoulder of that sand hill that folks climb, the one just past Sycamore Canyon. I think Cal Trans is widening that too since so many folks pull off there and get stuck in the sand.
It's a trail - so nope....
Probably a semantic discussion like the difference between a stream, a brook, a creek, and a river. I think of a trail as narrow, prolly single track. I think of a dirt road as wider than a trail. Sycamore has a hella wide road in the bottom of it, but you're right there are some GREAT trails in Sycamore Canyon for hiking, trail running and some that are legal for mtb and gravel bikes. There's a super cool Strava based event in the summer called the Santa Monica Mountains Challenge. Basically it's 15 road climbs 15 mtb climbs, 15 gravel climbs, and 15 trail run climbs between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I think 9 of them are in Sycamore Canyon. If you live in the area check it out, it's free, and it's a fun way to explore new areas that are just a bit outside our typical routes.
Sincerely, Ian
Ian Murray
http://www.TriathlonTrainingSeries.com I like the pursuit of mastery
Twitter - @TriCoachIan