This has been a long week; Tuesday morning I flew to DC to (apparently successfully) lobby for the TIGER funding, which provides federal grants for bicycle infrastructure, flew back very late Wednesday night, got home 1:30am Thursday morning so I missed both the regular Tuesday and Thursday rides. I did commute to work Friday, just to remember what it was like to pedal a bike, but it was with a bit of fear & trepidation that I approached Sunday’s ride. And then there was the weather.

The plan was to get out relatively early so Kevin could get back and spend some time with his girlfriend. 9am we’d be out on the road, heading for Pescadero. Well, about 8:50am it started to rain. What??? We waited for a while, hoping the wind would come up and dry the roads, but no wind (that would come later). At 10:48 it was time to head out, but we’d have to abbreviate the ride a bit to get Kevin back in time. Kevin’s idea was to do a variant of “the loop” but I needed more than that, something a bit more challenging, so I suggested something I knew he couldn’t turn down. West Alpine. He loves West Alpine. Don’t know why.

I was feeling OK heading up Old LaHonda until… until, just a little bit up the hill, it felt like my front tire was going flat. Then I thought no, it’s ok. Then it let me know it wasn’t ok, it was flat. Stopped to pull a piece of glass out and change the tube, and actually felt OK the rest of the way up the hill. Not fast, but legs were doing better than the lungs. Looking at my time, if I subtracted out the 12 minutes we were stopped, it might have ended up being just under 24. For me, lately, that’s not so bad. Better yet, my 20 minute average power was finally back over 260, a good 20 watts better than I’ve seen for a bit.

West Old LaHonda was even prettier than normal, with the clouds just beginning to clear, and the lake in LaHonda? First turtle sighting in months! Things are gradually getting back to normal.

West Alpine? I was guessing something over 50 minutes, so no problem with 47:50. Sure, I’ve climbed quite a bit faster than that this past year, but today, that was ok. Looking back, has it really been over 3 and a half months since I last climbed West Alpine? Strava says so! Last time was New Year’s Eve in fact.

I think I’m done with flying for a while, so I can get solidly back into the riding routine and look forward to the warmer days ahead. Oh right, it wasn’t warm today. The warmest it got was 52; up on Skyline it dropped to 39. It is Spring, right?

Today’s ride wasn’t so much different because Kevin wasn’t there; he’s missed a few lately. It was different because I got to show people something they’d not seen before, even though they’d ridden the area quite a bit. It was at the top of Old LaHonda that I came across a group that was heading out to the coast and back via Tunitas, but instead of getting there via the bakery, I mean Pescadero, they were going straight out to the coast on 84.

I gave brief consideration to shortening my ride and going with them, but I need the miles, especially since I miss out riding this Tuesday due to business in DC. Instead I escorted their group of four (I think?) on a slight detour to the LaHonda duck pond. It’s not exactly in its prime this time of year; the turtles don’t come out until it warms up a bit and it’s the wrong season for the big Blue Herons often seen at the pond.

Afterwards I showed them the way out (reconnecting them to 84) and rode on up over Haskins and into Pescadero. Not fast, not slow, just riding at a decent pace and feeling a bit better than expected.

The Pescadero Bakery has cut way back on cookies; just one type this time (butterscotch chip) but at least big enough to pass the cookie face test.

Not much wind on Stage Road, but was surprisingly cool for being so close to the coast. It’s pretty rare to see anything below 50, but today, yes. Not a big deal if you dress appropriately and keep a fairly even effort going.

Tunitas? I thought about pushing it hard for a bit, but was down by a full minute coming into the forest, and decided instead to look for something different on the way up, and found it. A bright red mushroom growing out of the side of the hill. Had to stop and take a picture, and since I was already wrecking my time, stopped again to take video of the creek.

So the usual ride, but with a bit of time spent to stop and smell the roses, as well as introduce people to something new.