Pretty nice morning; surprising nobody else showed up for the ride! Younger Kevin is still sidelined with his knee issue (plus he got in pretty late last night from a date) and everyone else? Maybe they were scared off by the fog up on Skyline, but if so, they missed out since the roads were dry the whole ride.

Even though alone I still stick to the plan, and since it’s Thursday, that meant riding up through the park. Without anybody for pacing I wondered how it would go, but with things like power meters and heart monitors, you’re hardly flying blind when riding alone. It wasn’t a fast climb, but it wasn’t terribly slow either. A bit over 30 minutes, and once on top I just kept going, easing off enough to let my heart rate drop from 165 to 150 but definitely not resting. For some reason I had this idea that I’d just keep pushing. There was never a feeling that I was chasing imaginary cyclists up ahead; I didn’t see a single other cyclist once I got into the hills.

No shortening the ride for me today; been there, done that, too many times lately. I kept the pressure up on the pedals all the way down west-side 84 to West Old LaHonda, rode up to the point where the construction is taking place (shown in the photo), then headed back the same way, continuing to push the pace back up to Sky Londa.

Somehow, even after stopping to take a few pictures, I managed to finish the ride almost on schedule for a “fast” ride. The 228 watts that showed for average weighted power were the best I’ve seen in recent memory and the 112 “suffer score” on Strava was yet another indication that I’d been working it. It was really nice knowing that, despite everything that’s gone on with the bike shop and the meds I take for my bone marrow issue, I can still pretend to dance on the pedals.

Riding home last night was actually the “main event” in terms of effort; for some reason, everything seemed to click. I was on my bike, Kevin and Becky were in Becky’s car, both of us heading across El Camino. I remembered something from Kevin’s (bicycle) track sessions some years ago- at intersections, try to sprint across faster than the cars. Good way to practice sprinting. So I did, beating Kevin & Becky, but instead of easing off, it felt good so I just kept on going. One of my fastest solo efforts on the flat part of Jefferson, maybe ever. And when the road tilted up (Altamont) I still felt good, I still kept pushing. I never got that feeling that something was about to blow, and nothing ever did. Maybe it home in 11 minutes, 59 seconds. That was an honest time, too; I didn’t stop the garmin until I had a foot on the ground outside my garage.

This morning’s ride up Kings was quite different; Kevin’s knee was still bothering him, so we took it pretty easy, and sacrificed the West Old LaHonda section entirely. Too bad; we had a nice group, with Kevin, Kevin, Karen & even George showed up today!

As for the photo above, that’s from tonight’s ride home, heading across El Camino. I wasn’t sprinting across the intersection, but the car certainly was. Why it was so important to the car to fly through there and put the squeeze on me I don’t know. It wasn’t dangerous, just really annoying, and certainly a flagrant violation of the 3-foot passing law. You can, by the way, pass a cyclist closer than 3 feet, but not at full speed. Here’s what the law says about that-

(d) If the driver of a motor vehicle is unable to comply with subdivision (c), due to traffic or roadway conditions, the driver shall slow to a speed that is reasonable and prudent, and may pass only when doing so would not endanger the safety of the operator of the bicycle, taking into account the size and speed of the motor vehicle and bicycle, traffic conditions, weather, visibility, and surface and width of the highway.

Clearly, a car speeding to pass a cyclist is in violation of the law.