I haven’t felt great since when? Mid-December? Spent the holidays under the weather, missing a whole lot of rides, including the annual New Year’s Day ride up Mt Hamilton. This past Sunday, when it wasn’t too cold but rained ALL day? An awesome day for a rain ride? I didn’t even get on a trainer. But this morning, I woke up and felt like I could at least remember again what it felt like to feel good. I think that’s really the test for how bad off you are… when you’ve felt bad, for so long, that you can’t even remember what feeling good feels like. That’s now in the past!

We weren’t expecting it to be wet this morning though. In fact, I actually brought Trek’s new electric-assist road bike home to see what it would be like on our regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride. Being wet I decided it made more sense not to trash a brand new $7000 bike that needs to be in sellable shape, so Kevin and I had to switch gears and take our rain bikes (note that it wasn’t supposed to be wet this morning!). That change also put us about 5 minutes behind schedule, something that almost never ever happens, so Kevin (pilot) and Karen rode on, thinking we were no-shows. At 4 minutes late, they did the right thing. On a really good day, Kevin might have caught up to them, but he was hanging with me for the first part of the climb, and we only saw Karen as she was heading back down Kings.

I wasn’t climbing quickly; basically a month of very little riding does that to me. But I was climbing, I was on a bike, and actually having a good time. Up on top we came across a couple that Kevin had previously passed on the way up (he finished a few minutes ahead of me) and, of course, Kevin goes into target acquisition mode. Took a while as they were going at a decent clip, and Kevin couldn’t push too hard without dropping me. I kept thinking “The force is strong with this one!”

Because we had started late and were riding slow, we had to skip the West Old LaHonda section and head straight back down again. Looking forward to getting out there on Thursday, assuming decent weather. And really happy that I didn’t have that feeling of wow, this isn’t worth it, I’ll never be in shape again.

So it feels really good to feel almost normal again, and to remember how you’re supposed to feel. Not sick.

Sometimes you do what you have to do, even knowing ahead of time it might not make sense. This morning, I just had to get back in the swing of things and do my regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride. Which, coming off being sick for, what, 10 days???… well, I knew I wasn’t going to be fast. Just hoping to get the job done. And while I’d gotten in a small ride on New Year’s Day, younger Kevin hadn’t ridden in two weeks, so I was figuring, what are the odds, am I going to get up and find him saying “No Dad, I need more sleep”?

Well, the morning came and Kevin was actually looking forward to the ride. Me, not so much, because it was cold… I mean really cold, as in coldest since last season. But no turning back, as the other Kevin (pilot) had already texted asking if I was going to ride, and of course, I said yes.

So what’s it like when you go from a house that’s maybe 62 degrees to maybe 32 outside? Well that hacking cough you had, the one that’s sensitive to sudden changes in temperature… let’s just say the first few minutes weren’t much fun. And then, adding insult to injury, my Garmin decided to lock up, so I didn’t even have the pleasure of seeing exactly how cold it was. I just knew it was really cold, and I was really slow. More on that shortly.

The two Kevins were in pretty decent shape (hate that the younger Kevin can take time off the bike and it doesn’t seem to matter), while I was lagging off the back. Badly. Probably 40 minutes up Kings. No power to speak of, and that became a problem, because when it’s really cold, what keeps it from being a problem is your ability to keep your steam up, riding at a steady and reasonably-strong pace. And my pace was steadily slowing as I approached the top. I told the two Kevins to ride on ahead, do the full ride, and I’d head down 84, leaving off the West Old LaHonda loop. But y’know, as they started to move off, I remembered… the only thing harder than not staying on the wheel in front of you, is watching it ride away. So I hung on for the ride, all the way to 84.

Descending 84 just wasn’t fun. The cold was getting to me; I couldn’t wait to get to the bottom and maybe work up some steam and get home. And when I did get home, it took a long time to warm up in the shower. But, I did, and 20 minutes after I got home, Kevin arrived. No problem for him; he and pilot Kevin were riding consistently and enjoying the ride. Thankfully, as I get more rides in, the cold will be less of an issue. Looking forward to that!