Time to play some catch up! It’s been… I don’t even want to look and see how long since my last post. And the idea that today, getting an almost-33 time up Kings (would have been 32-something if ex-pilot hadn’t slowed up at the end), is something to talk about… that’s sad. But at least it was a beautiful day, much warmer than anything in a very long time. Lately my times up Kings have been in the 34-36 minute range, a far cry from back in the day when my goal was, no matter how sick or bad I was feeling, it would be under 30. I still know “how” to climb, just can’t do it very fast.
I thought maybe there’d be some sense of age being an excuse, but the truth is, at 66, there are a lot of other people out there, my age, who are quite a bit faster. I used to assume I’d have an advantage on longer rides, but not so sure about that either. Sunday Kevin’s knee was bothering him so our ride to the coast was truncated pretty badly; a whopping 39 miles, just up Old LaHonda, down the other side, then back up to Skyline and north to 92, then return via Canada. The Sunday prior (yes, it’s been a while!) we did the usual Pescadero/Tunitas loop, and it felt, well, not-so-bad.
If you had asked me 25 years ago, when I was 41, if I thought I’d still be doing this ride at 66, what would I have said? My first thought is that I’d be saying no, I’d be cutting the mileage back a bit, or maybe alternating days on the flats/foothill. But probably not. More likely I would have said I’d keep doing this same ride for as long as I could. And if I compare today to “back then” I’d be thinking about 26 minute times up the hill vs.. well, I still think I can do a 30 later this year… and these days we get back to the start at about 9:29 vs 9:19 back then. What’s 9 minutes really?
Well I know this won’t make you feel any better, but I’m in my late 40s, I bike about 80% of the miles and climbing that you do (and I have for about 10 years), and my best time ever up Kings is a little over 34 minutes. Sure, age is slowing you down and will continue to do so, but your current performance is still something I envy, no less what you were doing in the past!
Chris: I think about that sometimes; that there are a lot of people who would be really happy to get the 32-35 minute times up Kings I’m seeing now. The difference, I think, is in the approach to climbing. I grew up thinking a mountain was something to attack, to master, to use as a tool to measure life itself against. How do you tweak your approach so you can suffer just a bit more, coming ever-closer to expending everything you have in the tank, every last drop, so by the time you get to the top, there’s nothing left. And that became normal for me. As well as a fanatical fascination with the scale, because added weight equals slower times up the hill.
But it’s not normal. There are a whole lot of people who find they simply enjoy riding over mountains and could care less about how long it takes. The only way in which “time” really matters is the social aspect, keeping up with others, or riding comfortably at a slower pace. I (sometimes) pass such people on my way up, and they’re generally smiling, talking with others, while I’m gasping for air. The more-sane approach is obvious; the obvious conclusion is that I’m not sane. I get that.
Keep having fun on the bike. Guys like me who are obsessed with numbers (heart rate, watts, weight, climbing rate)… well, you live by something, you die by it. The person who just rides over skyline without making the climbing time a big thing, isn’t going to have tons of data showing how things decline as you get older. Instead, there’s just the joy of riding a bike. So don’t worry about your Kings time. Just keep having fun. –Mike–
Well I understand where you’re coming from! On days when I do feel good, I obsess over times. I dream of getting a 33min on Kings, and I still remember just how completely spent I felt when I got under 50min on Moody/Page Mill (spent, but also unbelievably excited).
I do try to just enjoy the ride instead of worry about time… but it’s nice to do both!