If you had asked me last night if I was going to be riding this morning, I would have given odds of maybe 75%. If you had asked me about 3am, when I woke up to do that thing guys my age have to get up and do in the middle of the night, odds might have been 25%. I would have given even lower odds of completing the whole ride. But the alarm goes off at 6:50am, as usual, and I get up, as usual, and get ready to ride. The extreme muscle pain that came anytime I did something like sit down or try to get up, well, once you’re up you just keep moving and hope you figure out some way to put on your leg warmers and socks without having to bend over. I’ve had lower back pain like this maybe just 3 other times in my life, and it passes in a couple days, and once I got on the bike, I started feeling better. Just tough getting to that point.

And of course it would have been so so so much nicer had it been warmer! 42 on Skyline isn’t all that cold, but it was pointed out to me by Kevin (pilot; the kid is still with his sister in Disneyland) that I ride a lot stronger when it’s warmer. Today I stayed with Kevin & Karen up to the half-way point on Kings, where I lost contact and arrived at the top a couple minutes later. No great views from West Old LaHonda today; the coast was not clear. I was glad I hadn’t had a chance to clean my bike up after Sunday’s wet-ish ride because this morning, again, the roads were wet. Thankfully not wet on the 84 descent into Woodside though, allowing us to stay close to a car that felt they just had to pass us at crazy speed just before beginning the descent. Somehow it’s fun reminding them they didn’t save any time by passing us.