A suitably-nice final pre-Christmas ride image, I think?It’s Sunday, my first Sunday back since the 2-week-long no-cycling trip to Morocco. Would have been nice to do the “regular” Sunday ride to Pescadero and back Tunitas, but the last Sunday before Christmas the shop is open, so had to get back early. Which meant not only a shorter ride, but earlier too. We’ve had a habit lately of leaving around 11am; today, we had to be back by that time. Ouch!
The Alto Velo “A” ride on SkylineThe main issue with leaving early is allowing Kevin to get enough rest after coming home late from his Bethlehem AD gig, where he and his sister are in charge of taking care of the era-authentic pigs. Never mind that you wonder who, in Bethlehem, would be eating pork? Whatever, he and sister Becky are in charge of the pigs, which keeps them up pretty late. So I set my alarm for 7:05am, get the oven pre-warming and wake him up 20 minutes later. It still took a bit longer to get out the door than planned though; it was 8:10 before we were out on the road. Still, almost three hours earlier than the norm.
Funny thing we noticed- a lot more people out on the road than later in the day. Except on Old LaHonda. Nobody on Old LaHonda this morning, maybe because it was cold? Nobody to try and catch, but thankfully, it also meant nobody to pass me.
The original plan was to head out to the coast and back via Tunitas, but I couldn’t pencil the timing out well enough in my mind to be certain we’d make it back by 11, so we headed up West Alpine instead. Nobody on West Alpine either, but met up with the Alto Velo “A” ride on Skyline. They escorted us as far as Sky Londa, where we headed back down into Woodside, while they headed out towards Pescadero.
Not a long ride at just 42 miles, but a good way to start a busy day.
Heading down 84 into Woodside on a foggy almost-winter day. Check out the Christmas Tree on the right.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel this morning. I had a pretty good idea I’d be feeling better than Tuesday-morning’s first ride back from Morocco though. And heading up the hill from my house, that feeling seemed vindicated. Sometimes that first 30 seconds heading up, well, your legs just feel heavy and you’re thinking yeah, it’s going to get better, it has to get better. Today was one of those morning where it felt good right from the start. A rare thing, that. Something that can’t be explained but you’re happy for.
No Kevin this morning; the kid (26) was having a colonoscopy. Ouch. At 26? Thankfully the results came back tonight and turns out just an “irritated rectum.” Um, OK. But Karen showed up for the very-foggy ride. Nobody else out there. Tuesday it was a slow 36 minutes up Kings the normal route; today it was 3 minutes faster on the tougher through-the-park version. For a cold foggy day in December, that didn’t seem too bad. Was even able to engage in short conversations.
Today’s view on West Old LaHonda
We climbed up past the fog maybe half-way up, and it was still waiting for me, actually worse, on my return home. I did manage to get a nice shot of the Christmas Tree someone set up on the 84 descent though, just before dropping back into the fog. Also made an unscheduled stop on West Old LaHonda for a huge owl that flew across the road in front of me and perched in a nearby tree; unfortunately, the only picture I got has him turned the wrong direction.
The nicest thing about the ride was that I was able to feel something in my legs for the first time in a while. Pain. Normally I’m so nastily breathing-limited in my capabilities, my legs rarely feel that bad. Today, seemed like a better balance. Life is good again.
