Nothing is playing out quite as expected these days. Kevin’s knee is still bothering him so I talked him into riding his e-bike on the regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride again. This time the full distance, no skipping the West Old LaHonda section. And I was thinking, maybe trying to chase down an ebike might help me get up Kings faster! OK, I was actually dreading it, but still…

But even with 350 extra watts as his disposal, Kevin wasn’t making tracks up Kings this morning. In fact, by the time I got to the park entrance, I had to pull up lame and circle back to find him. Looking at Strava, it was exactly a minute before I came up to speed again. And from there on, I was still having to hold myself back for the slower guy on the e-bike. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, right? But maybe if your knee is giving you issues, sometimes it’s not that you can’t deliver “power” but maybe any rotation at all is an issue.

I’m really looking forward to Kevin being healthy again and challenging me on the climbs. Despite all the crazy stuff going on in my life, the health issues, the stress, it just seems like my body wants to climb again. Fast. I mean, not fast compared to really fast people, but fast enough not to be thinking I’m slow anymore.

As for the range of Kevin’s e-bike, after Sunday’s determination that it can’t quite make it to the coast and back, well, it’s not quite ready, with a gimpy knee anyway, for the full 31.4 miles of the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride either. But close! Kevin lost power almost exactly 1 mile from home, and very much exactly, precisely, at the very top of Jefferson, just as it heads downhill to home. Could not have timed a loss of power any better than that!