All posts by Mike

A PR on the steepest part of Tunitas? A very pleasant surprise!

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

Wow. Did not expect this. Our last Pescadero/Tunitas ride before heading to France. Would have been nice to do something longer, but thought maybe we could hit some of it fairly hard. Of course, starting out, you feel like crap. Your plan of hitting things hard rapidly fades, replaced with visions of riding up Old LaHonda at a leisurely, talking pace.

Yet another photo of Kevin on West Old LaHonda, as well as a Pescadero cookie test.

But you hit the base, start up it in too high a gear, cranking too many watts, and you just keep going. The timing points were looking solid, with a promising time at the half-way mark. At the end, strava says 22:36, two seconds faster than two weeks ago, and best time in over two years. Haskins was respectable, which meant the effort up Old LaHonda didn’t kill me. But it was Tunitas that was the big surprise. After a slow run-in to the start of the climb, due to headwinds, and even a “natural break” on the lower, not-quite-so-steep part of the climb, I discovered I had legs again. Kevin was busy climbing away from me, but I didn’t give up, kept pushing hard, stayed in too high a gear and just kept the watts up wherever I could. After a few minutes I began to do the impossible; I was actually catching up to Kevin. And passed him. And stayed ahead even on the flatter part up on top. In the process, I got a new personal record for the steepest part of the climb, meaning the fastest on the 9-minute section since at least 2009. That was a surprise!

I’m paying for it tonight; feel like I need yet another post-ride shower, as I’m continuing to sweat out in the way you do after a really hard effort. I like that. I live for that. I may be ready for France!

Cars behaving badly, fog on Skyline, not enough sleep. What’s not to like?

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride
Starting out over Jefferson this morning, it was apparent, no matter how our ride went, somebody was having a worse day than us.

So what’s going on with the roads these days? It’s like everywhere we go, something is under construction. We didn’t get more than a mile away from home before coming to the scene above, where a car had recently taken out a utility pole. Kind of surprised they let us through, but also glad since any detour would have added quite a bit of time, and we arrive at the start of the Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride with typically 90 seconds to spare.

Next roadwork came on Kings Mtn, just after turning onto it from Albion. One lane with a signal while they repair the other lane. This has been going on for a few weeks; tough to say how much longer.

Pretty picture but kinda done with pretty pictures and prefer no leg warmers and drier roads.

Then comes the main obstacle, Kings Mtn itself. Despite a lack of sleep, despite Kevin claiming he wasn’t feeling fast, Kevin (kid, not the pilot, who’s been AWOL recently) set a pretty gnarly pace up the first half of the climb, with me coming off the back just past the park entrance. I held up pretty well to the half-way point and died thereafter, which is unfortunate. A steadier pace and I would have had the best time this year and possibly in the 28-something region. Still, right now, low-29s are passable. Better than I was doing this time last year.

Skyline. This is July, right? But it’s cool and foggy up top. Again. 45 degrees (better than 41, which you’d see on a “nice” foggy winter day) and pretty rays cast by the sun through the trees. I’m kinda done with pretty rays. Let’s get back to dry roads and no leg warmers.

And still another one-lane signal-controlled construction, on Skyline just prior to Sky L’onda. The one they’ve been working on for a year maybe? At least today, when Kevin hit the signal button, it immediately turned green.

Finally the last impediment, the closed section of West Old LaHonda where the pavement fell away. Oh. Wait. That’s not the last piece of closed or damaged road. They’re going to be spending a lot of time putting in a new pipe on Olive Hill/Albion, so after 8am you have to ride through Woodside to get to Canada. No more “maze” on the return.

Oh. Darn. I forgot about the Jefferson thing, where we could get through earlier but was now fully closed off, requiring that we head up the steep part of California. Definitely not in my legs, but didn’t seem an issue for Kevin. Hate that.

Maybe it’s training for when Kevin and I are in France in a couple of weeks, facing road closures for the ‘Tour.