I’m back to a “normal” riding schedule, punctuated with an occasional missed commute to work due to rain, and a slight-shortening of the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride again, due to rain, causing us to drop the West Old LaHonda section in order to get back in time to get a shower before work. But overall, things are “normal” as the holiday season is past (no skipping a ride just because it’s Christmas or something like that, or the shop being open on a Sunday).

In fact, this first week of the new year has been bigger than most, since it included the New Year’s Day ride up Mt Hamilton. I would love for all my weeks to be 180 miles! But perhaps what made today seem most “normal” was doing the Old LaHonda/Pescadero/Tunitas loop with Kevin for the first time since Thanksgiving. I’ve done the ride solo at least once, but Kevin’s skipped a ride or two to spend time with his girlfriend.

My thought was that Kevin might wear down a bit as the ride went on; he’s not ridden nearly as many miles as I have this past month. Instead, I found myself struggling to keep up with him on Haskins, a grade I typically pull even with him, sometimes even doing better. On Stage Kevin was having some issues that he blamed on maybe coming down with a cold, but on Tunitas it turned out that he had previously been faking that as a tactical play, pulling away hard and fast as soon as it got steep, finishing 7 minutes ahead of me. He says someone he passed on the way up asked if they could borrow his legs. Must be nice.

Pretty cool out there; 46 to 54 degrees, so it was coffee in Pescadero standing in for Coke. As you can see in the photo above, the cookie test was a total failure; didn’t come close to covering Kevin’s face. Not much choice in cookies either; just oatmeal and butterscotch. Maybe they cut back inventory in the off-season?

Overall it didn’t feel too much different from how I remember feeling last year this time, which is a good thing.