Once in a while a day comes along where you wonder, should I have just stayed in bed and not ridden? Those days are thankfully rare, but today might have been one. It was dry as we left the house, as expected; the weather forecast said no rain until late tonight. Wrong. By the time we got to the start it was beginning to get damp, and emotions dampened further when two of our regulars announced that they had to turn back a bit early because HP had called them in for one-on-one meetings, meaning they expected to be fired (both work for the Palm division that HP purchased, wrecked, and is now in the process of open-sourcing the platform).

No drama on the ride up the hill, but up on Skyline it got cold. Nastily cold, as in 37 degrees and rain. We’re spoiled in California; it rarely rains below the mid-40s. That colder stuff just bites right through whatever you’re wearing and generally feels miserable (although not as bad as the 42 degrees and dry at the end of Sunday’s long ride!). Most of our group headed back down 84 when we got to Sky Londa, leaving just myself, Kevin (pilot), Kevin (son) and John. We kept the pace reasonable and stayed warm, but the descent into Woodside wasn’t much fun, with very slippery pavement and more cars than normal. I hung back and let them pass, while the two Kevin’s charged ahead (with John just ahead of me). Pilot Kevin was flying down the hill, making it to the bottom without incident, while the other Kevin crashed & burned just a couple corners from the bottom.

Nothing broken, bike’s mostly ok (rear derailleur a bit banged up, broken helmet), so we were able to continue heading home a few minutes later. Kevin’s going to be a bit stiff tomorrow, but should be OK for Thursday’s ride.

To paraphrase the Simon & Garfunkle song, Gee but it’s great to be back on the bike, ‘cuz on the bike is where I want to be, I’ve been on the road so long, it’s the same old story and I’m sure you wouldn’t disagree.

I both feared and looked forward to yesterday morning’s ride, having been off the bike for a full week (!!!) and gained 2.5 pounds (half a pound a day is pretty much the norm for me for the first week or so; thank goodness it levels out after that; clearly the damage is done quickly!). Thankfully, heading up away from my house everything just felt right. I was home. I was on a bike, the only thing I can comfortably do for any real length of time. No squirming, no sore shoulders, no stress. That last one was strange. I really thought I’d be dreading my added weight and lack of fitness, but no, everything was good.

Maybe it was because we were literally in a fog. Visibility for the first half hour was dismal, so bad that you couldn’t even see the large group at the start of the ride until we were almost upon them. But once in a while the fog clears when you wish it hadn’t, and today that was at the exact point on Kings where Kevin (my son, not the pilot) decided to ditch dad and join the fast guys up front. And yet I was perfectly happy with my 28-something time.

I’ll next be off the bike for a week towards the end of March, when I head to DC for the annual Bike Summit, the big event where 300-500 bicycle advocates meet with every congressional office in DC to try and make this a better place for cycling. Normally I’d just miss one ride, on Thursday (the event is on Wednesday & Thursday, normally allowing me to fly out on Tuesday after the ride and return Thursday night or Friday), but this year I’m a board member for the NBDA (National Bicycle Dealer Association) which has meetings on Monday & Tuesday. Not fun being away from the shop for 4 or 5 days again, and even less fun being off the bike for a week! –Mike–

A bit cool this morning, but a pretty big group (over 10, and my limit for roll call is about 7). Got off to a ragged start as Kevin (my son, not the pilot) got a flat tire less than a minute into the ride. We patched him up and got moving, but it took a while for him to come back up to speed, such that I actually caught back up to him on Kings, a rare thing these days!

At least one person had a much worse day than I did today.

It was descending 84, just before the bottom that we found someone who had a really bad day. Guess it puts into perspective the many things that didn’t quite go as planned for me today, including a lengthy issue with Comcast, trying to install a new phone system in our Redwood City location and not quite getting things right. Oh, and on the way home, picking up some flowers for my wife, only to have them totally spill out onto the seat.