One of the few times I haven’t ridden the Sequoia Century; a number of reasons for that. First, not enough of the hard miles needed to be ready for 100 hilly miles, as my priorities had to change a bit when Karen was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. Second, Kevin couldn’t have handled it. He couldn’t even come on the ride I did today, partly because his knee wouldn’t have enjoyed climbing Redwood Gulch, partly because he had a gnarly seizure-induced headache this morning.

Not riding with Kevin created an opportunity… I could finally get back into the hills for longer, steeper climbs than Kings. Would have liked to ride to the coast but still a bit on the cooler/foggy side, and I really wanted to ride without knee warmers, base layer and especially heavy or even electrically-heated gloves.

Things worked out well. I managed to not talk myself out of Redwood Gulch and appreciated the point to all the suffering getting up it. Once to Highway 9, it was all about time… just keep up the effort until you get to the top. The consistent grade negates the concept of taking it easier for a bit… there’s no natural place to ease off.

It was especially nice seeing higher average power and an upward trend in speed, compared to past rides (according to Strava). Looking forward to more of that.