All posts by Mike

“Don’t get me up. I’ve been awake since 2. I’m not riding.”

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

Kind of odd, waking up to a text message. A bit weirder still when it’s from your son, letting you know he’s not going to be riding, please don’t wake him up. Could have used that as an excuse myself not to ride, but in the past zillion-point-three years, that’s happened maybe once or twice, and I don’t want to ever look back and be able to say today was the day my Tuesday-Thursday morning ride became optional. That I’d allow things to get in the way. I’ve often said, don’t plan meetings, doctor’s appointments, funerals or anything else on Tuesday & Thursday mornings, because that ride is my life’s anchor, that thing you build around, not move around.

I did wonder, actually assume, I’d be alone out there, as there have been so few times lately anyone but Kevin (younger Kevin, not ex-pilot) showed up. Sometimes Karen, but she’s got to be getting pretty bored of the slow pace lately. But today, it was Kevin (ex-pilot) showing up. I would have been OK on my own, pretty sure I would have done the full ride including the West Old LaHonda loop, but nice to have someone else to talk with and help keep the pace.

Kings was actually a bit easier than I thought it might be, just under 34 minutes. Kevin remarked that we have to broaden the qualifications for our ride; can’t tell people anymore they have to be able to ride up Kings in 30 minutes or less, if we can’t do so ourselves! Will I be able to get back to a 30 minute time again? Tough to say. Sure won’t be easy.

Easy? Kings and Skyline were fine, but have to admit that West Old LaHonda was pretty tough. Still, pretty tough is a lot better than not at all.

Started out feeling, well, you know… but good ride in the end. But am I Russian, Ukrainian or Polish?

Personal stuff, Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

The plan was what used to be “the usual” but hasn’t been all that “usual” lately. And it didn’t turn out as “the usual” today either. Instead of heading over Old LaHonda to Pescadero, we cut it short, heading directly out to the coast via San Gregorio. Kevin was actually feeling pretty darned good up Old LaHonda, but the hill was getting the best of me today, putting me in a pretty dark place. I was wondering, heading up, why I could feel so much better lately on Kings than Old LaHonda. Don’t have a good answer to that.

The nice thing about heading out to the coast via San Gregorio vs Pescadero is the ability to draft someone into the usual headwind, and I took full advantage of that today. I lead the first mile or so, then followed Kevin’s wheel the next 8. Can’t do that climbing Haskins or Stage!

The new routine at San Gregorio is coffee and a “Miami-style” pastry. Not as many calories as the half-sandwich plus pastry plus coke if we go through Pescadero, but 10 fewer miles probably makes up for the difference in calories. Then we had a slight change in the “new usual” routing, heading out to Highway 1 instead of Stage Road, on our way to Tunitas Creek. There’s no difference in climbing; either way you end up at the top of Highway 1 prior to the descent towards Kings, but just felt nice to not immediately have to climb Stage after eating.

Tunitas was, well, Tunitas. We weren’t fast, but not quite as slow as I thought I might be either. Found a pair of sunglasses in the middle of the road on the way up and actually found the guy they belonged to at the top!

Oh, that Russian/Ukrainian/Polish thing. My last name is Russian (Jacoubowsky) based on what I know of family history and the name ending with a “y” instead of an “i” (the latter being typically Polish). But I’ve taken a bit more interest in the family history with what’s going on in Ukraine, and my 23 & Me ancestry info… says the family genes trace back to Poland, not Russia. Well, sorta. Did some digging around and learned a couple of things. What you quickly discover is that country names are just lines on a map, and those lines are in different places at different times. 23 & Me gives you the past 200 years, and for half of that, from around 1800 to 1917 or so, there was no “Poland.” It was part of Russia. And in fact, some of the area was actually Ukriane at one time. So, I’m not just American Mutt; the slavic part of me is “Mutt” as well.