All posts by Mike

Could have been worse!

The last umpteen rides up Kings, on Tuesday & Thursday mornings, have not gone especially well for me. No power, no short-term zip, nothing much to look forward to. That wears on you after a while. This morning felt different from the beginnin; even heading up over Jefferson to the start of the ride had me feeling a lot better than “normal.”

Nobody at the start but us (younger Kevin was with me), but we did catch up to ex-pilot Kevin towards the end of the Huddart Park section. We would have caught up sooner but were delayed by a trash truck backing up the entire distance of Greer! Since there’s no place to turn around at the far end, it makes sense.

Not warm but not really cold, not dry but not raining. Not fast but not dreadfully slow (my times weren’t very good but I did have some fun moving on ahead for a bit, then waiting for them to catch, and repeat).

Looks like it’s going to be a very long time before they fix 84, and the added traffic on Kings and Skyline seems to be worse now, a few weeks after the closure, than it was initially. We desperately need 84 back in business! If for no other reason than to save brake pads; you hardly use your brakes at all descending 84, while you’re frequently on them, hard, descending Kings, and descending Old LaHonda you never get to let go of them.

Sunday & Tuesday catch-up

/Sunday, yet another day when the coast didn’t look terribly inviting, with lots of low clouds/fog/”marine layer” creeping up to Skyline. We decided to limit our time in the muck by doing a sort-of reverse of last week’s ride, this time heading up to Skyline via Page Mill, then south on Skyline to 9, down to Redwood Gulch, stop at Peet’s in Los Altos for fuel (and to confirm that our former location in that shopping center is STILL empty!), then home via Foothill/Sand Hill/Canada.

It wasn’t that long ago I would avoid Page Mill (or Redwood Gulch, for that matter) because the really steep pitches weren’t fun anymore. But the truth is, it really doesn’t matter what route I take to get to the top of a hill… none of them are an easy cruise. But I still make it, eventually. On Sunday’s ride, I told Kevin to take off at the base of the hill, but be a nice guy and circle back for me after finishing. Not really sure when I expected to see him, but it ended up being about a mile from the top. Not long ago, that would have been demoralizing. Today, it’s just the way it is.

Today’s ride (Tuesday), was just plain bad timing! Slight drizzle as we left, and cold again! Where does that come from? Once again, upper 30s as we climbed Kings. On rain bikes, so had a bit of an excuse for being slow. Ran out of time to do much on top, so just added the Swett/Upper Tunitas loop before heading back down, noticing how nicely it had dried up and wondering why more people weren’t out riding. Probably because most people are sensible and when the forecast says rain, they believe it, and stay home and ride Zwift.