It was the best of times, it was the… no, yesterday morning was pretty much the best of times. For some reason I had two great Tuesday/Thursday-morning rides in a row, days where I felt like I could climb away from people if I wanted to. That’s a really odd thing for me. Yesterday, as was the case on Tuesday, I did several sustained higher-power efforts on Kings, well over 300 watts. Back in the day that wouldn’t have seemed like much, but today, it’s as welcome as the fog that came in to cool things down.

Kevin and Kevin rode with me, on a day where, a couple weeks earlier, we might have considered leg warmers. Not yesterday. Not because it didn’t get a bit cool a few places (as low as maybe 51 I think?) but because we just weren’t going to wear them. A protest of sorts. It had been too cold until recently, too hot the past week, so yesterday we were going to believe, whether true or not, that it was just right. And it was pretty darned close to that.

My time up Kings was nothing fancy, because I’d drop back and let Kevin & Kevin catch back up after each hard pull. Nevertheless my time through the park was my best in 7 or 8 months. Maybe I’m getting used to my post-fractured-pelvis body that weighs a bit less. One thing’s for certain though- I’m on track for pretty much the same results as this time last year, which means no deterioration from age 62 to 63.

I wasn’t sure how Tuesday morning was going to go, since I didn’t sleep really well the previous night. Too hot. Too much on my mind. Too concerned about needing to get to sleep, which keeps you from getting to sleep. Hate that! In fact, when the alarm went off, I didn’t even hear it, due to fan noise. But at 7am, 10 minutes late, I looked over and… uh-oh, better get going. Funny thing is, getting up late we still started out the garage two minutes early. Weird thing, that.

76 when we left, so not too bad… yet. Just myself, Kevin (kid) and George, although we did see quite a few more cyclists than usual, probably people switching from afternoon rides to morning, to avoid the heat. The heat didn’t seem to bother me much though, as I finally got under 30 minutes today, and over 1000 VAM (meters climbed per hour). Did it solo too; George was zonked from a hard “morning” ride, and Kevin is still having some knee issues.

Lots of wildlife out there; before hitting Kings we saw a deer trying desperately to get through a chain-link fence (that doesn’t work, by the way), rabbits, lizards, and, as you can see in the photos, a King Snake on West Old LaHonda. This guy definitely would have been run over by a cyclist had we not moved him out of the way. A bit further up a baby rattlesnake, unfortunately previously squished (dead). Looking forward to Thursday’s ride, which might not be quite so hot but still allow us to ride without leg warmers.