All posts by Mike

Turkey or Hawk?

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

A Hawk hanging out along 280 as we returned; on the way out, we saw a very large flock of Turkeys. Which did I feel like?
The weather cooperated! The rain scheduled for noon today not only held off for our morning ride, but didn’t start until maybe 1:30pm or so. And, due to the cloud cover, it wasn’t as cold as it’s been lately, getting down to maybe 45 or so, which is so much nicer than the 37 degrees we saw a week ago.

There were 5 of us this morning; not quite enough to say we’re getting the band back together, but better than the three total we’ve generally seen recently. Besides myself and Kevin, we had (pilot) Kevin, plus former semi-regular MarkP, plus Brian H (whom I don’t think has ridden with us previously?). Brian & younger Kevin rode off the front at an easy 30 minute pace; I held with them up to Huddart before gradually slipping back to finish a minute behind. A couple minutes later (pilot) Kevin and Mark P arrived, obviously having a pleasant conversational pace. You would think it sensible for me to drop back to their group, but that’s a bit risky since I can handle a steady pace, but if they decided to pick things up a bit, I’d be quickly off the back. Hate that.

As expected, nice clean air, and not too damp, at least not until we got to West Old LaHonda, where the upper section was carpeted with debris from the trees. Enough pine needles that you were never really riding on pavement. Be careful in places like that; you can easily pick up a small twig or stick that can get caught in your rear wheel and lock up your derailleur, rotating it into the frame and possibly destroying it. We’ve seen it happen a few times. If you hear a noise coming from your bike, stop and check it out.

The run down 84 into Woodside could have been more fun; there was a bit of dampness in a few corners that kept me from feeling as secure about my footing as I’d like. Didn’t seem to slow down Kevin (younger Kevin) (or older Kevin for that matter) though.

Overall another nice ride, fitting into that category of a ride that didn’t seem that great at the start but you felt pretty good about towards the end.

Finally, a normal ride!

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

After the smoke, after the drizzle, after the extra-long hours preparing the Black Friday Week specials for the shop, well, it had been quite some time since there had been a “regular” bike ride. But today, finally, felt back to normal.

It took a bit to finish prepping the bikes after Thursday’s shortened Thanksgiving Day ride, the ride where we’d intended to head to the coast, but as it started to rain on West Old LaHonda, we turned tail and basically headed for home. Bikes were a bit of a mess; we hosed them off lightly at the time, and then this morning I cleaned and re-lubed the chains. Amazing how much nicer a bike rides with a clean chain! Nice enough that Kevin flew up Old LaHonda in something under 20 minutes (leaving me 4 minutes behind), and nice enough that I was feeling my usual “better” self once on Haskins. I was a bit concerned that somehow every bit of fitness had just completely gone away, but that wasn’t the case.

Pescadero Bakery wasn’t too crowded, and in fact, very, very few cars on the roads too. Funny how we just take for granted how nice the roads out to the coast are; if we come across a car a minute, it seems normal. That’s really pretty awesome.

Tunitas. Well, yes, Tunitas. It felt like we had gone faster than the 53 minutes Strava says. Truthfully, it felt more like a 49 if you ask me. But it wasn’t. Almost wish I hadn’t known that. I didn’t know it at the time, because my Garmin did something wonky after I installed what I hoped would be a pretty cool app that tells you wind direction and speed. I was also riding without power because my power meter battery died. So from a standpoint of the traditional ride metrics that detail the shape I’m in or how hard I was riding, I was kinda blind.

And yet, still, a very nice ride.