All posts by Mike

Tough ride, why heavier at the end than we started?

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

Yes, been awhile. Again. Last Tuesday’s ride was another strong one for me, having to circle around and wait again at the wide-open space 2/3rds up Kings. Thursday, another story, as I got to watch Kevin and Kevin ride away from me. Tomorrow, who knows. Not real hopeful, since it’s gotten pretty cold again, and clearly, I don’t do cold well. But yesterday?

Yesterday it was time to do the reference ride again, Pescadero/Tunitas. We took it easy up Old LaHonda, Kevin not showing the cards in his hand. Haskins was another thing entirely; I held on all the way to Sam McDonald Park, and then Kevin left me in the dust. Just rode off and didn’t look back. I wasn’t feeling it, and when I saw a couple guys behind, just tried to make it to the top ahead of them. Which I did, just barely. Kevin was upset he missed his PR by just 6 seconds; it’s amazing how hard he can go without many miles. Maybe it has something to do with being in your 20s instead of 60s?

Almost forgot about our first rattlesnake sighting of the year. Unfortunately, it was a dead baby rattler, on West Old LaHonda. We did stop to make sure it was actually dead and, even though it was, I still moved it off the road. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a rattler, so maybe a sign of seeing more again.

Pescadero. Finally, giant cookies again! And finally, we remembered, too late, why it makes sense to split one giant cookie between us, or just bring half of it home. We were pretty bogged down the rest of the ride home, particularly on Stage. Yeah, one half of a cookie, or one half of the macaroon I ate, would have been enough.

Funny thing on Tunitas; I started to feel strong again. Able to dump the bike into a higher gear and push myself up the hill, having to wait here and there for Kevin. But while I felt decent, it was nothing like Kevin’s heroic effort up Haskins just a couple hours earlier.

Pretty sure that, had I been “off” on all the climbs, I wouldn’t have bought the plane tickets for France. But there’s still something left to play with in the Alps and Pyrenees. This will be the first year we’re doing both. Will be interesting!

This would have been a bad ride to not make it onto Strava

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

 

One of those rare days I got ahead of Kevin & Kevin and had to wait on the way up Kings

It sure was a different version of me this morning than it was Sunday! The ride didn’t start out on a good note, as my Garmin apparently self-discharged overnight, causing it to die just past the driveway. I should have started Strava on the phone right then, but waited until getting to the official start of the ride. And then, instead of using the Strava phone app, I tried using the iWatch app, since it’s easier to get to. But as I got into the ride, I found myself wondering if it was really working. Would have been a shame if it didn’t, because it turned out to be a pretty good day for me on the hill.

Don’t know why, but my legs were there. I was able to push the pace a bit, get up to the park entrance and circle around to wait for K & K. I was worried a bit that I’d blow up and get dropped (it’s happened before), but… not today. At the wide-open clearing I’d gotten a pretty big gap again, literally having to make a large slow circle until younger Kevin caught up. We rode “casual” for a bit until the other Kevin (ex-pilot) caught up, then I’d go off the front again, wait again, etc. It felt like, maybe, I could have gotten under 30 minutes if I wasn’t playing around, although it could be that a sustained effort would have found my lungs going out on me.

Oh, the Strava thing. For some reason the ride didn’t upload until this evening, leaving me to wonder if I had this pretty decent ride, but according to Strava, it didn’t exist. That would have been bad.