All posts by Mike

You can hope, but you don’t dare expect

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

Another very surprising ride this morning. At the start just myself and Kevin (kid) but saw quite a few more cyclist on the roads than normal. Probably people trying to get in a ride before the day heated up too much. The surprise was that I was able to put one foot down, then the next, and keep repeating, over and over and over (I mean, how else are you going to get up a hill?) but at a pretty steady and strong effort. The timing points were all looking pretty good. Would have liked to have gotten to the first hard-left after Huddart at 10 minutes, but was only 15 seconds or so behind that pace. Memories of the old days say you have to get under 10 by that point if you want a decent time. But the concept of decent time has changed over the years, so what was necessary for a 26-something isn’t quite needed for a 28-something.

I kept going and going and never really felt like I was going to fall apart. At least not until spittin’ distance of the top, when you start worrying whether you can hold it together long enough to stay under 29 minutes. At some point I even dropped Kevin (kid), who wasn’t on top of his game today. Probably about the same time I picked up Kevin (pilot), who’d left 5 minutes ahead of us.

In the end, 28:50, fastest time since June 2017 (and that particular ride was a bit unusual, being faster than anything the prior year). Makes me wonder how my son could ride with me last year, thinking how much slower I was then. Since WOLH is still under construction, we did Native Sons road this time, another fun little dead-end road off Skyline. Pretty steep climbing back out, but as on Kings, I felt surprisingly good, dropping both Kevins at one point before becoming social and waiting for them. This, too, shall pass.

There’s no question some of the extra speed is the result of shedding some weight when I broke my pelvis. That’s pretty much stayed off, which is a definite surprise. At 6 or 7 or 8 pounds heavier, the science says I’d definitely be about 30 seconds slower, maybe more. I much prefer faster.

Took back three years on Old LaHonda time today!

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

Another great view from West Alpine today!
I’m not sure how much longer I can pull this off, this turning-back-the-clock thing and posting times on climbs faster than I’ve done in a few years. Today, it was 22:15 on Old LaHonda, which I haven’t done since April of 2016. Too bad it couldn’t have been early March of 2016, since I could then say I hadn’t ridden that fast since I was in my 50s. 🙂

Monster sunflower at Sky Londa General Store
Maybe the secret is waking up way too early? Definitely would have preferred more sleep, but sleep doesn’t seem to greatly affect my climbing times. The only other change in routine was that I drank half a can of Pepsi before heading out the door. Kevin and I did attack Old LaHonda a bit differently than normal; we started up in the “big ring” and I kept it there until about a third of the way up. Kevin stayed in the big ring the entire way, and posted a mid-19 time! Here I thought it was just a fun, stupid thing to do, but who knows, maybe something to it?

We didn’t do a long ride today, just up Old LaHonda, down to LaHonda and back via West Alpine. West Alpine was pretty slow on the bottom and not too much faster on the climb; neither one of us felt especially spirited at that point. Still, at 46 something, it wasn’t like we were totally goofing off. Yet, I was able to talk pretty much the entire way. It doesn’t feel like my breathing is better, but perhaps it is? Strava doesn’t lie.

We did get pretty hungry on Skyline so stopped at Sky Londa to grab a bite and a couple of drinks. And there I found the most outrageously-huge sunflower! Yikes. I’ve made it a point of growing sunflowers at home the past few years, but nothing like the two monsters outside the general store.

So looking at the Strava details, I can do 265 watts for 22 minutes. Meaning, over the past 4 years, I’ve lost about 15 watts. Could be worse. Could be that worse is coming just around the corner! My riding has not suffered as much as I thought it might, given my mild bone marrow cancer. I am very fortunate that the meds I’m taking don’t totally sap my strength like they do some others. Hopefully it will stay that way!