Category Archives: Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

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

Slow ride doesn’t equal easy, but… found great new food stop in Los Altos!

A++ for this place! Fantastic Capuccino, best chocolate-covered croissant ever.
Not the planned ride today. Originally was going to be Pescadero/Tunitas loop, but even if we hadn’t felt awful after climbing Old LaHonda, the cold overcast enveloping the coast was less than inviting. We weren’t dressed for damp 50s, and while we could have survived just fine, all the cold damp weather we’ve put up with on Skyline on Tuesday & Thursday mornings… we’re kind of done with cold and damp!

Thought about turning around at the “view” spot on West Old LaHonda (where we could see all the fog on the coast) and heading south on Skyline then down 9, but decided instead to do West Alpine then descend Page Mill & Moody in to Los Altos, looping around a bit to get at least 50 miles. Just doing either West Alpine or San Gregorio/Tunitas comes out to 43 miles, and that just doesn’t seem like enough to get the job done.

West Alpine was almost as painful as Old LaHonda, but we survived, followed by the less-than-enjoyable descent of Page Mill & Moody. Our next bikes, with disc brakes, are going to make that a lot more fun.

Instead of heading all the way south to where our old shop used to be, and hitting up the Peet’s Coffee there, we dropped straight into downtown Los Altos, looking for the Peet’s there. Couldn’t find it. Where did it go? Maybe just hidden behind too many umbrellas? Whatever the case, we continued down the street and stumbled upon Satura Patisserie (200 Main Street). Great find!!! Perfectly made Cappuccino, and chocolate-covered croissants to die for. The combo cheese/cranberry/something-else scone was great too.

Refueled, we headed back via Fremont Street (hadn’t done that for a while), Arastradero, Portola Valley and Woodside. Not fast, but feeling a lot better than we had earlier in the ride.

Another long dry spell from posting

Been an interesting last couple of weeks. Finally broke through the really slow times up Kings and just generally feeling badly; I had a string of pretty strong rides, maybe three in a row, that made me feel hopeful for the future! Would have loved for the temperatures to be a bit warmer though; this morning was the third consecutive ride with temps below 39F up on Skyline. Last Sunday’s ride was different than most; it was pretty gray and drizzly-looking up on Skyline so we stayed on this side of the mountain, but did a pretty unusual ride in the high foothills above Los Altos.

And then there was this morning. No legs, no lungs, nothing. It was an accomplishment simply doing the full ride with Kevin, Kevin & Karen (actually, Karen doesn’t do the full Tuesday/Thursday rides; she skips the West Old LaHonda loop so she can get to work on time). I didn’t get that feeling of being stronger as the ride went on, but the rest of the day definitely went better than it would have, had I not ridden. There’s something very pleasant about your body giving you a gentle reminder that you rode, a slight soreness that says yes, you did something.

The photo above is from last Tuesday’s ride, with a Raven carrying a small mouse across the road in front of Kevin. And below is the strava mapping for Sunday’s unusual ride.