All posts by Mike

3 Monkeys off my back in 48 hours. There’s hope!

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

Aside from the personal stuff, it looks like West Old LaHonda might finally be getting some love!
This morning, it was my first time under 30 minutes up Kings since October 4th last year, and best time since July 26th. And Sunday, I finally got under 23 up Old LaHonda. Oh, wait, I just looked things up on Strava and I was actually 4 seconds faster a week prior. Well, still, it had been since September that I’d been getting times like that.

The 3rd monkey was being able to contest a sprint again. The sprint into Sky Londa, after the descent from the Kings direction… finally felt good enough to nail it. That’s been a really long time too!

So it’s possible I might finally being seeing a stabilization of my level of fitness, and perhaps be able to claw something back. The last few years really haven’t been much fun, in terms of watching my times get gradually slower. I’m ready for more fun!

The picture today? That’s some men and equipment working on West Old LaHonda road. Finally! Obviously, it’s likely that the road will be closed completely at some point, while the surface is being repaired. But the good news is that the county isn’t giving up on the road.

Solo Reverse Pescadero (Haskins the hard way!)

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

Nice to see things warm up a bit; my first ride without leg warmers in quite a while! Just me; Kevin (my son) and his sister are off having fun in Disneyland. Fortunately I was able to pace myself on my own, getting up Old LaHonda in 22:58, just a bit faster than last week.

I was hoping for an off-shore breeze to send my flying out to the coast, but no, not in the cards. Headwind all the way to San Gregorio, and a bit of a crosswind on Stage heading in to Pescadero. Quick stop for a coke and chocolate croissant and back via Haskins from the tough direction. Instead of taking Old LaHonda for the last part of the climb to Skyline, I stayed on 84 the whole way, checking out the mudslides. Yep. Still there. Definitely safer using Old LaHonda, despite what the county thinks we should be doing.

Today was probably the busiest day on 84 in quite a while, giving the one-lane sections their first real test, and yes, it backed up quite a bit! I still got through pretty quickly, but figure you might be delayed maybe 8 minutes total if things are really backed up.