Category Archives: Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

Ride reports for everything *but* the Tuesday-Thursday morning ride

From Tuesday’s heat to today’s cool & wet on Skyline- things change fast!

Before getting to the most-rides-
Sunday’s plan was for the full coast run, Pescadero & Tunitas. But once up top and viewing the fogged-in coast, that plan was scrapped without too much thought. In the days before my hand’s sensitivity to cooler weather, it would have been no big deal. But Sunday’s ick would have required that I’d brought my electrically-heated gloves along, and I just wasn’t interested in yet another ride with winter gloves.

So we headed south on Skyline to Page Mill, then descended into Los Altos via Moody. We did take a slightly-different route past the golf course; instead of turning left, we headed right. In the end, you still climb about the same amount. No big hills, just 51 miles. Meh.

Tuesday, our first fling with real heat in the SF Bay Area. Yay, got to dispense with base layers and leg warmers! Sharp contrast to this-morning’s ride, where it was cold & drizzly up on top.

My power was nowhere to be found today, but Kevin at least was feeling a bit better, with his knee telling him it’s there, but no sharp shooting pain like before. But while there’s no power, endurance isn’t an issue, so maybe I’ll be OK in France.

It’s been two months since I’ve had post-ride pain when walking down stairs. About time!!!

300ft ft of new pavement!

One of the few times I haven’t ridden the Sequoia Century; a number of reasons for that. First, not enough of the hard miles needed to be ready for 100 hilly miles, as my priorities had to change a bit when Karen was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. Second, Kevin couldn’t have handled it. He couldn’t even come on the ride I did today, partly because his knee wouldn’t have enjoyed climbing Redwood Gulch, partly because he had a gnarly seizure-induced headache this morning.

Not riding with Kevin created an opportunity… I could finally get back into the hills for longer, steeper climbs than Kings. Would have liked to ride to the coast but still a bit on the cooler/foggy side, and I really wanted to ride without knee warmers, base layer and especially heavy or even electrically-heated gloves.

Things worked out well. I managed to not talk myself out of Redwood Gulch and appreciated the point to all the suffering getting up it. Once to Highway 9, it was all about time… just keep up the effort until you get to the top. The consistent grade negates the concept of taking it easier for a bit… there’s no natural place to ease off.

It was especially nice seeing higher average power and an upward trend in speed, compared to past rides (according to Strava). Looking forward to more of that.