All posts by Mike

My first thought was, uh-oh, Interstellar Bypass?

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

What to do for a different Sunday ride. Sometimes that can be tough; it’s not like the “reference ride” (Old LaHonda/Pescadero/Tunitas) ever gets old, but what else is out there? What else can you do that’s similarly challenging and doesn’t eat up the entire day? Especially when you’re kind of responsible for others on the ride having a good time. Today was one of those days, with Kevin, Kevin and Colin. And doing the usual just kind of seemed lame/dull/unchallenging.

What’s challenging? Toss Redwood Gulch into the right. Add a bunch of looping around in the Foothills discovering some new (to me, which is tough) roads care of Kevin (Pilot).

I thought I was doing fine until we got to the start of Redwood Gulch. The first third of that climb killed me. I mean really sucked the life out of me. I’m looking at my power readings and wondering, if my power levels are so low, why is this so hard? It really doesn’t matter how steep it is, 230 watts is just 230 watts. Eventually I found my rhythm and picked up speed and even managed to pass up Colin on the climb. Kevin (younger) was just out of reach and Kevin (pilot) was on another level, at least on the steepest stuff.

Thankfully I recovered completely on the continuing climb to Skyline via Highway 9, and felt pretty good the rest of the way home. Got a bit cold and dark up on Skyline but thankfully cleared as we headed north.

A much nicer ride than I expected. Just surviving Redwood Gulch at all may be reason to be happy.

Failure to launch? I am the weakest link, good-bye!

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

It had to happen, after a long string of rides where I had been feeling pretty darned good and basically playing around, riding on up ahead at times, drifting back, repeat. But not this morning. This morning it was all I could do to keep Kevin & Kevin and Colin in sight on the climb up Kings. It’s not like they all finished a day earlier than I did, but they all did finish together, and I’m holding up the tail end.

Riding along Skyline wasn’t so bad; I had a bit of power on the short hills, and was hopeful West Old LaHonda would be OK. Well… it was pretty much just that, OK. I could hang, but when it came time to fumble around with the camera for the obligatory photo (above), there was nothing extra, and you need a bit of extra at that point to keep up while trying to get the phone out of the pocket, get it into picture mode, take the photo (or two or three) and then get it back into the pocket. While wearing thick winter gloves. Yeah, good luck with that.

And the best was yet to come- descending Old LaHonda because 84 is closed for tree work. I do not understand why some actually enjoy descending OLH. You can’t get any speed due to the corners and a car that could be coming up, you’re on the brakes the entire way down. What’s the point, other than burning through brake pads? But two weeks more of this until all the Eucalyptus tress are gone from the base of 84.