The LaHonda Duck Pond, complete with the basics. Ducks, ducklings & kids!

There are only so many ways you can try and combine our local roads and come up with something different after 40+ years, but I was determined to try. You can see what I came up with below; start by climbing 84 from Woodside, not Kings or Old LaHonda, and then head north on Skyline, not South. Descend Tunitas instead of climbing it, then south on 1 to Stage, then the more-typical run into Pescadero, up & over Haskins, and return via 84 & West Old LaHonda. I figured it would be challenging, and I had figured correctly, especially going alone (Kevin’s still having kidney pain issues).

Warm? Yes, at least until San Gregorio, which was actually fogged in! The run south on Stage was interesting in that you had the sun on one side, fog on the other, a not unpleasant combination, just a bit strange.

I did “goof off” a bit on West Old LaHonda, taking more photos than usual, as seen below-

Widescreen (iPhone Panorama) shot of West Old LaHonda

Hard to believe it was 80 degrees yesterday and today this young woman is shivering in the cold & wet.

Riders in the rain

Yesterday seemed warmer than expected; the first day of the big cool-down yet it was still pretty darned warm. And with that, really busy at the shop. I can live with that! But last night… talk about what the wind blew in. Let’s get something out in the open. I don’t like wind. It’s unsettling. Keeps me from sleeping ‘cuz there’s so much stuff (pollen) in the air, makes me anxious, that sort of thing. So I wake up with about 3 hours sleep this morning for an “early” ride with Kevin because he’s got a 2pm on-line gaming gig…

But that “early” ride (supposed to leave at 8am) turned into 9am when it turns out that the breakfast rolls needed half an hour in the oven, and that tossed the original idea, riding to the coast via Pescadero, out the window. Sigh. In the end that was probably best, since Kevin’s still in a lot of pain from his kidney stent.

Up the good old reliable Old LaHonda Road to Skyline at a, for Kevin, leisurely 25 minute pace. He wanted to go faster at the start, but towards the end he was hurting and slowing down. Let me be clear; I have no problem adapting to a slower pace.

Down the other side and the rain hit. Not much, not drenching, but enough that I gave the light windbreaker I’d brought to Kevin to stay warm (Dad’s do things like that) and reminded him that next time, he needed to get a bit smarter on seriously-cloudy days and carry one himself. It was at the base of West Old LaHonda that we came across the young woman and her friend in the photo, shivering in the wet & relative-cold. No leg warmers. If you don’t have leg warmers in your cycling closet, get them!

Thankfully it stopped raining shortly and even warmed up for the rest of the ride. The run to the coast was nicer than expected, with an unexpected tailwind quite a bit of the time. After a short stop for a cookie for Kevin at San Gregorio, it was up Stage Road to the coast, again with a tailwind, and really wishing this was a day we were in good shape and going for time because we’d have been pushed up the hill!

The real missed opportunity came on the downhill run to Tunitas on highway one. If I’d thought about it, I would have pushed over the top and gotten some speed on the way down, because way too late I noticed I was doing 43mph and accelerating… but almost at the bottom. I tucked in to see what I could do and watched my speed… 47… 48…49… 49.2, 49.5, 49.6, 49.7, 49.8… c’mon, you can do it… and that’s all she wrote. Two tenths of a mile per hour short of 50. I could have easily gone 55 or better had I tried sooner!

With all the relatively-favorable winds we expected Tunitas to be nasty for the first few miles before the climb, but surprisingly that still wasn’t the case. One thing I know for sure; this would have been a terrible day for a ride south to Santa Cruz!

Kevin passing the “Bridge of Death” on Tunitas

One of the classic Tunitas switchbacks

The climb up Tunitas wasn’t pretty (actually, it was very pretty; it always is!), but we got to the part where it levels off sooner than expected. Somehow we missed the “false” summit that you misread on the climb, thinking you’re closer to the top than you really are. That’s the kind of surprise I like.

In the end we got home a bit earlier than expected, so Kevin got to play his role in the game (which his team lost, which should be an indication he should spend more time cycling and less time in on-line games). Just 44 miles and about 4500ft of climbing, but the future looks good.

Classic Tunitas Creek switchback

My son was off doing paintball with friends, the Primavera Century had already filled up, so I was on my own. I needed miles, badly. Last year I’d done the Santa Cruz loop, all 114 miles of it, by mid-February. This year I’ve been tied up with work (yeah, you own a bike shop and your bike riding time is limited by work just like everyone else), my membership on the board of the National Bicycle Dealer’s Association, the usual family stuff. whatever. So what else is new?

But today I was going to get in some miles, a fair number of them, at an easy pace. That was the plan. So I went to mapmyride and put together the ride you see below. The typical “Coastal Classic” but with an extension at the southern end (the Cloverdale/Gazos Creek loop) and a bit tacked on at the north, accessing Tunitas Creek from Los Lobitos Cut-off. 75 miles, about 7500ft of climbing. Tough, but doable.

I didn’t count on coming across a guy named Twain as I pushed through Mountain Home Road in Woodside, near the start of the ride. A guy who rides Old LaHonda in 18:30 or so, vs my 22 on a good day, and kept me company on the way up, severely taxing my pathetic lungs. Nice guy, but just a bit too fast for me, and left to my own devices, I was thinking more in terms of a “relaxing” 25 minute time, now 22:30 and breathless. But I brought it on myself by initially passing him on Mtn Home; he rested on my wheel for a bit, came around, and it was all I could do to hold his wheel. I had my chance for a “relaxing” ride and blew it.

It’s true, the dollar isn’t a strong-enough currency!

I also didn’t count on 5 or 6 hours in bright sun and warm temperatures, something I haven’t seen in quite a while. That, too, took its toll on me. Nor a flat just a couple miles outside Pescadero, caused by a prior casing “patch” using a dollar bill that somehow provided rough-enough edges to eat a hole in a tube. And yes, I’m beginning to wonder why I don’t carry C02 like everyone else, so I can get back on the road more quickly.

Mastadon and Triceratops doing battle outside Pescadero

But in the end, it was the wind that made this an incredibly-tough ride. Nice tailwind most of the way south from Pescadero to Gazos Creek, but I paid for it dearly on the way back. It didn’t take more than a few miles heading north (from Gazos Creek to San Gregorio) before I was thinking, is this even possible?

Add streetcars and it’s 1890 all over again

But there’s this strange thing the past couple years with me and headwinds. They just don’t bother me like they used to. Don’t get me wrong; one of the reasons I’d never consider a cross-country ride is a fear of long straight roads through endless cornfields, battling a headwind for hours, perhaps days on end. That won’t change! But for 10 or 20 miles, I can handle them, keeping up a moderate speed even.

Tailwind down the coast, now the hard part turning onto Gazos Creek

On a related note, I passed two riders during times of heavy headwinds, and suggested they draft off me. For some reason that was a completely-foreign idea to them; they just didn’t get what I was offering.

But it was very nice when I finally got to Los Lobitos Cutoff and only had to deal with climbing. Any concern I wouldn’t have anything left was erased as I found a bit of power in higher gears, and I could “rest” at will, choosing anyplace I liked to ease off for a few seconds before putting more power to the pedals again. Still, it was nice finally getting to the top of Kings and knowing that all of the tough stuff was behind me, leaving a fast descent on Kings (possibly could have been one of my fastest if not for a really-slow-moving MiniCooper I caught up with about 2/3rds of the way down the hill).

Hours later and I still feel like the ride did me in. As I mentioned, the sun was likely a factor, and that’s something I’ll get more used to as the season goes on. The wind was the biggest issue, and a reminder that it would have been nice to have someone else along with me. But that’s OK, this was an opportunity to blow out the cylinders and get things moving again, if possible. And I think it is possible.
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No matter how our day turned out, it was probably better than this guy’s.

It was a long night, a “Kaiser” night dealing with Kevin’s kidney pain issues, but there’s a chance we’ve got a handle on it, and we’re looking forward to better days ahead. But it wasn’t until 1am that we finally got home, which killed getting out for a ride at a reasonable hour.

What about an unreasonable hour? No problem there, that’s our specialty! So we’re out the door and heading to the coast at 1pm, about the same time most are heading back. It might not have been the worst timing either, since it was a pretty gray day with Skyline fogged in, but by the time we got to the coast it had almost cleared up.

We knew it wasn’t going to be a speed run, since Kevin wasn’t feeling the greatest and he’s missed quite a few miles over the last couple of months. I even told Kevin that before we got to a climb. As if that would matter once we got to Old LaHonda, where I told him, if he really did want to go for it, go for it, just make sure you put a jacket on the second you get to the top so you don’t get cold waiting for me. He ended up not having to wait very long, taking just over 20 minutes while I was right at 22. So much for his hopes of a 19 or even sub-19 time. What was he thinking?

One of the real joys of living here is how quickly you can get away to pretty quiet roads. There were so few cars between Skyline and Pescadero you felt like you owned the road. The only time it felt otherwise was on the run north, where we took Highway 1 along the coast, instead of the more-traditional Stage Road option. Kevin’s choice; for some reason he really doesn’t like Stage Road. And for some reason, I really don’t like the noise of all the cars on Highway 1!

Kevin’s putting everything he has into getting up Tunitas today!

It was on Tunitas that Kevin’s lack of miles showed up, which curiously coincided with me feeling a whole lot better on the steep pitches than I have in a very long time. I had that all-too-unusual (for me) feeling of going faster by just shifting to a higher gear. Yet, while I could have ditched Kevin, I didn’t. I’d pick up speed for a bit, then soft pedal and wait for him. That’s OK, there will be plenty of other times when Kevin and I can have at it on Tunitas.

57 miles, 6100ft of climbing. Nothing like the Nifty Fifty in Berkeley today (54 miles with over 10,000ft of climbing!) but it was the right ride for today.

The day started earlier than most Sundays; I actually set the alarm for the regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride time of 6:55am, even though I wasn’t planning on getting out until 8:30 or so. Why? Got to catch the end of the Tour of Flanders! Which would have been more interesting if it didn’t take 20 minutes to finally find a working live feed for the video, causing me to miss the part where Fabian Cancallara ditches Sagan on the last climb and then solos in the final 12k for the win. Fortunately, it’s available on youtube here.

Cheap $1 tire repair

Just east of San Gregorio

I pushed pretty hard on the lower, flatter part of Tunitas, knowing that was a place I could make up quite a bit of time on him, and eventually caught up just as the main climb started… and right as I found my rear tire going flat. Darn, two flats in a few weeks, this is killing my typical 3,000 miles between flats average! It’s also costing me a lot of money; $5 for the bill I had to reinforce the front tire with last week, but thankfully I had a $1 bill this time.

We did climb Tunitas fairly fast after that, and of course I lost contact with him until it started flattening out again. If he ever learns how to push on the flatter parts, I’m in real trouble! But since I was never any good at that when I was his age, I might have a bit of time.

Now if we can just get rid of those danged kidney stones!

What an awesome spring day for a ride! Mid-60s, a few clouds, a bit of a breeze blowing in from the coast and a playground of fantastic roads snaking through our coastal hills. Finally, a chance to push the legs; the last few weeks have seen no rides of greater distance than the 31 miles on Tuesday & Thursday mornings, and like a car that’s been sitting around too long, or not driven at speed, my body felt like it really needed a thorough thrashing to cleanse itself of weeks of built-up muck.

The “normal” ride would be a simple coast loop, out to Pescadero, across Stage Road and then back via Tunitas. Done that, probably 100+ times. We needed to do something more today, something that we’d feel in our legs the rest of the day. Over Old LaHonda, out to San Gregorio (a nasty drag into a headwind), south on Stage to Pescadero, then back via Haskins and, for fun, West Alpine.

Stopping to help two women fix a flat on Old LaHonda

I thought about holding Kevin back, telling him we should take it easy up Old LaHonda, but the way he tore up the first couple hundred meters, I realized he was on a mission. But about 1/3rd of the way up I saw him pulled over and yes, my first thought was darn, he had a seizure. Nope. He was being civilized and seeing if two women at the side of the road needed help.

Being me, of course I don’t remember their names, but Kevin tells me the one with the flat was Susan. Very nice people (aren’t most cyclists?) younger than me (isn’t everybody?) but still looking for women on bikes Kevin’s age (Susan and her friend had a bit more “life experience” than the 18-21 year old he’d like).

I pulled a lot of little pieces of glass out of her tire; please, make sure you inspect your tires after a ride and if you see any little cuts at all, let the air out and squeeze the tire so you can make sure there’s no embedded glass. Chances are there’s more, and if it stays in your tire, it will eventually push through and cause a flat.

From there Kevin rocketed on ahead, determined, even though he no longer had a Strava time to shoot for, pushing himself as hard as he could. Go figure. Me? I’d think this was an opportunity to take it easy.

$5 flat fix. Had a $20 but hoped $5 would be enough.

The ride out to the coast was not easy though, pushing against a fair headwind most of the way, and then, a couple miles out from San Gregorio, right when I was getting into a groove and pushing into the wind pretty well, my front tire went flat (looks like the cardboard from a tube box, which I’d used to reinforce a tiny spot where a piece of glass had gone through, actually wore a small hole in the tube). Yes, I admit it, I used one of Kevin’s CO2 cartridges instead of my hand pump! Saved a lot of time. The repair to the tire did cost me $5 though.

Looking towards the south-most climb on Stage Rd

Stage Road, with a slight tailwind, was fun. It was clearly an opportunity to try and post some new best times, which we did, on both the first and second climbs. The fairly-gentle grades work well for me; my breathing won’t keep up on anything over 5%. Glad I had my chance on Stage Road, because that was the only time I could hold my own against Kevin; the subsequent climbs up Haskins and West Alpine were rude formalities, as he established a new personal record on West Alpine 5 minutes better than anything he’d done before (which just happened to be 5 minutes faster than I climbed it today).

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. Life goes by at just the right speed on a bike. You don’t notice the smell of breakfast when you drive past a house in a car. You don’t see the snakes in the road that need to be picked up before a car runs over them. You don’t

Kevin admiring girls admiring the view

notice the red-tailed Hawks circling overhead a bit up the road, which might just happen to correspond with another rider on the climb. And you smugly think that those people who drive up to Skyline, to admire the view from the scenic overlook… do they really appreciate it? They’re just looking at it, while those of us on bikes… we’re part of it. But that didn’t stop Kevin from admiring the view of the two young women admiring the view in the photo.

67 miles, just over 6700ft of climbing, and yes my legs hurt when I walk down stairs. It feels “good” to hurt like that. I’m going to get more of that “good” feeling.

Well darn, it would really be nice for things to resemble “normal” again. After losing rides from being in DC a week and a half ago, then doing the zombie thing (riding just a couple hours sleep, an interesting experiment that I would prefer to not repeat) on this week’s Tuesday & Thursday-morning rides… let’s just say I was ready for something normal. And normal in this case, was going to be a ride of at least 57 miles, figuring that I might as well match the number of miles to my age on my birthday. I should have known better. Kevin’s still having pretty severe kidney stone issues, so I was fortunate to get 30 miles out of him, basically a reverse of the normal Tuesday/Thursday ride.

It was looking like it wasn’t even going to be close to 30 miles; we’d headed up Old LaHonda, down the back side, back up to Skyline and then down the other side of 84 into Woodside, except that, somehow, I convinced Kevin that we should detour back up to Skyline via Skywood Way after following a too-slow car for a mile down the hill. Skywood Way used to be a through-road to Skyline until maybe 30 years ago when they blocked off the Skyline side. No biggie if you’re on a bike, just 20 feet or so that you have to walk your bike. You can see the details in the Strava report below, and, shortly, in a youtube that I’m uploading.