All posts by Mike

Kevin’s first ride on his “real” bike in two months wasn’t very fast

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

95 degrees climbing West Alpine, while the view of the coast shows something a whole lot nicer.
I knew it had been a very long time since Kevin had ridden his “real” bike (his Trek Emonda instead of his e-bike) when I inflated his tires and they were down to 30psi.

Kevin actually started out pretty strongly, powering over Jefferson, Canada and Mountain Home on our way to Old LaHonda. No sign of knee issues, and close to strong-like-bull. Given that he hadn’t really ridden hard in two months, I didn’t think he could keep it up, and I was right. Old LaHonda quickly showed his limits, as he geared down and slowly ground his way up the hill. As he later noted, he didn’t recall a time in recent history that he’d only passed one person going up, while many passed him. Over 30 minutes to the top, a time Kevin likely hasn’t seen in 13 or 14 years???

Kevin was game for the full ride though, down to LaHonda, up West Alpine and back Skyline. I tried to talk him into stopping in LaHonda for a coke, but no, he just wanted to keep going. In retrospect, I think he needed a coke. We made it up West Alpine, but certainly not in style. It was really REALLY strange for me to have to hold up for him. Climbing West Alpine my heart rate should be in the 155-160 range, and I was seeing… 125? At least the reduced effort made the heat a lot easier to deal with (got up to 96 on West Alpine).

165 watts average weighted power is lowest in like… forever? 12.5mph average speed is lowest in like… forever? This too shall pass and I’ll have faint memories of a few rides where I was faster than Kevin.

They’re finally working on Downtown West Old LaHonda?

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

Tuesday’s ride? Kevin (pilot) showed up, had some fun up the hill, varying the pace a bit, only to blow up before the top. Still ended up just under 30 minutes, so, not so awfully bad. And nice clear day too!

Unlike Thursday morning, waking up to really icky skies, too-warm temps, and just not really feeling it. Karen met up with me and we rode through the park, with me wondering if we were running ahead or behind JeffZ, who’s making a habit of joining up with us on the way up Kings. I was thinking he’d probably already passed by, and I was right; we didn’t see him until arriving at the top. But we did see work near the “Downtown Improvement Project” building on West Old LaHonda. Oh, and no insect stings this week either!