This is not good; I’m really falling behind in updating the almost-daily diary. That’s not in accordance with the plan.

Funny thing is, I was sure I had written Sunday’s ride up! Absolutely certain. But where is it? Not here, not in the draft file, nowhere. Maybe because, compared to past Sunday rides, it seemed insignificant at just 58 miles (the past three weeks having been 110+ if I recall correctly)?

It was a ride that almost didn’t get off the ground, as Kevin started having some of his flank pain issues, but he managed to get up Old LaHonda, letting me know about the pain every chance he got, and as we descended towards LaHonda, mentioning several times that maybe we should just head back via West Alpine instead of going over Haskins to Pescadero, then north on Stage and return on Tunitas. No, I told him he should hang in there. Old LaHonda was slow (about 22 minutes) but not dreadfully so. Haskins? I don’t think we’ve taken 15 minutes to climb Haskins in 5 years! He began to recover a bit after fueling up in Pescadero though, and by the time we got to Tunitas, he was riding pretty strongly. So strongly in fact that I was a bit worried he was going for a PR, but that idea was killed off when he had one of his seizures just past Los Lobitos Cut-Off.

We rode the steep middle part of Tunitas at a consistent, fairly fast but not-deadly pace, which ended rudely on the upper section where it levels out. Kevin took off, and I didn’t see him again until Skyline. It’s not as if I didn’t give chase; I got one of my better times for the upper part, but Kevin was flying. It took 3 hours to get there, but Kevin was finally happy he got out on the ride. Would he have been as happy if he hadn’t dropped me on the upper section? Absolutely not. Is there the slightest chance I let him get away? None whatsoever.