Category Archives: Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

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

Knew there was a reason to be riding earlier

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

Kevin had a commitment at noon, which meant that, if we were going to ride, it couldn’t be the usual Sunday 10:45am take-off! Or at least that wouldn’t give much of a ride. Even with an earlier start, it couldn’t be too long either. My suggestion was to head out to the coast and back Tunitas, without stopping for food at San Gregorio. No coffee? But one of Kevin’s favorite rides is about the same length, without even an option for a coffee stop, so you don’t feel bad about passing one up. Old LaHonda/LaHonda/West Alpine.

Last Thursday I had a pretty good day on Kings, but today was a pretty sad day on West Alpine. Not that I was fast on Old LaHonda, but surprisingly, nobody passed us. Also interesting to get out earlier and actually see lots of others climbing at the same time. But West Alpine got to me; nothing in the legs or lungs. But at least we did get to see the Flanders flag flying from the usual place on the way up West Alpine, fitting as this was race day for the Tour of Flanders.

I eventually got to the top, with Kevin raring to go, not being confident I had the required ride time dialed in. But there were a couple women stopped at the other side of the road, looking over a bike, and I know a thing or two about bikes. Kevin was in no mood to wait for anything though; he didn’t want to miss the date with his girlfriend, so he rode on. Good thing I stopped for the bike issue. A rear tire was lifting off the rim due to an improper installation (tube not fully contained inside the tire). Apparently this had been an issue before as well. Yikes. Pretty dangerous descending with a tire that’s trying to blow itself off the rim! It took maybe 10 minutes to get everything going and then I rode solo the rest of the way home. I knew there’d be no chance of catching Kevin, but I was surprised that I got home just 10 minutes after he did, implying I wasn’t riding all that slow.

Started out feeling, well, you know… but good ride in the end. But am I Russian, Ukrainian or Polish?

Personal stuff, Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

The plan was what used to be “the usual” but hasn’t been all that “usual” lately. And it didn’t turn out as “the usual” today either. Instead of heading over Old LaHonda to Pescadero, we cut it short, heading directly out to the coast via San Gregorio. Kevin was actually feeling pretty darned good up Old LaHonda, but the hill was getting the best of me today, putting me in a pretty dark place. I was wondering, heading up, why I could feel so much better lately on Kings than Old LaHonda. Don’t have a good answer to that.

The nice thing about heading out to the coast via San Gregorio vs Pescadero is the ability to draft someone into the usual headwind, and I took full advantage of that today. I lead the first mile or so, then followed Kevin’s wheel the next 8. Can’t do that climbing Haskins or Stage!

The new routine at San Gregorio is coffee and a “Miami-style” pastry. Not as many calories as the half-sandwich plus pastry plus coke if we go through Pescadero, but 10 fewer miles probably makes up for the difference in calories. Then we had a slight change in the “new usual” routing, heading out to Highway 1 instead of Stage Road, on our way to Tunitas Creek. There’s no difference in climbing; either way you end up at the top of Highway 1 prior to the descent towards Kings, but just felt nice to not immediately have to climb Stage after eating.

Tunitas was, well, Tunitas. We weren’t fast, but not quite as slow as I thought I might be either. Found a pair of sunglasses in the middle of the road on the way up and actually found the guy they belonged to at the top!

Oh, that Russian/Ukrainian/Polish thing. My last name is Russian (Jacoubowsky) based on what I know of family history and the name ending with a “y” instead of an “i” (the latter being typically Polish). But I’ve taken a bit more interest in the family history with what’s going on in Ukraine, and my 23 & Me ancestry info… says the family genes trace back to Poland, not Russia. Well, sorta. Did some digging around and learned a couple of things. What you quickly discover is that country names are just lines on a map, and those lines are in different places at different times. 23 & Me gives you the past 200 years, and for half of that, from around 1800 to 1917 or so, there was no “Poland.” It was part of Russia. And in fact, some of the area was actually Ukriane at one time. So, I’m not just American Mutt; the slavic part of me is “Mutt” as well.