Sorry to be late on this one; it was a great day to ride yesterday! Much warmer than forecast for an unusual, early-Sunday-morning ride to the coast, with “the loop” tossed on at the end.

Why early? Because Kevin had to be back by 10:30am so he could… Play an online video game???!!! Whatever, gave me a chance later to figure out some computer stuff at the shop.

Four is us (myself, Kevin, Todd & Jeff Z) set out from the usual starting place (Olive Hill & Canada) at the usual time (7:45am) for a quick ride up 84, out to San Gregorio and back Tunitas. Kevin headed for home at that point while the rest of us added “the loop” because 41 miles just isn’t respectable enough when thousands, ok maybe hundreds, er how about a handful of people will be checking out your ride on Strava.

It was clear from the start that I was the weakest link, first getting blown off on 84 up to Skyline, then again on Stage, and finally on Tunitas. Did I care? Well, yeah, would have been nice to put up a fight somewhere! But I’ll blame it on the tail end of the plague, that nasty chest cold thing everybody got yet you never saw in the news (while the flu “epidemic” seemed more myth than real).

The hardest part was holding onto wheels on “the loop.” Todd and Jeff Z can (and do) set an extraordinary tempo, so fast that its tough for an accomplished wheel sucker (me) to hang on. I have a huge amount of respect for these guys, who made it obvious that my future depends on bumping up my ride schedule from 3 days per week to 4. This became especially obvious the other evening when I found myself paying too much attention to a late-night add suggesting that their testosterone supplement would get rid of stubborn belly fat. My weight is stable; I can even drop it a bit, but there’s too much above the belt despite the belt itself feeling like it could use a tighter notch. Potentially evidence of muscle loss. Hate that! –Mike–