Category Archives: Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

Endless ramblings regarding the every Tuesday & Thursday-morning bike ride, leaving Olive Hill & Canada Road at 7:45am, rain or shine

I have no idea why today’s ride was so hard

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

Sunday’s ride was OK, even better than OK for part of it, despite being a bit sore from having to pump up all those tires at the Foster City Bike Ride in the morning. But it seemed like the soreness from all that pumping kept building and building; yesterday both Kevin and I felt pretty stiff and sore around our lower back. Some of it was still there this morning. So maybe that was it. Or maybe it was just one of those famous “High Gravity” days.

I gave Kevin the option of doing a different-than-normal ride, skipping Old LaHonda and riding up Alpine and “walking” Joaquim instead. Strangely, he said no. Not quite sure why. Said something about being able to do Old LaHonda on autopilot, so the struggle wouldn’t be so bad. But trust me, the struggle up through the park, it was bad. Slow. Bad. But we made it.

Old LaHonda, maybe it would finally be that 28 minute super-slow time we’ve said would be the case on those days we didn’t feel fast. At 26:25, is wasn’t fast. It wasn’t 28, but it wasn’t fast. Maybe Thursday will be fast. Or maybe not. After a series of surprisingly-fast rides, having a few falling-off-the-chart rides doesn’t bother me. It’s almost a relief.

A few things missing plus a technical glitch… yes, I’m still alive!

Ride reports (not Tu/Th), Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

Catching up, lots of that to do. Last Sunday’s big ride didn’t post for some reason; ended up as a draft. Just took care of that. Not sure I should keep riding anymore, because it’s going to be tough top the times I got up OLH and especially West Alpine! Just one second, ONE SECOND off my best Strava time ever for that climb. Back in 2010. Been up that climb 96 times since March 23, 2008 (the beginning of my Strava entries). Best time ever, during that past 11 years was November 28, 2010. 41 minutes, 39 seconds. Last Sunday was… 41 minutes, 40 seconds. Where did those two seconds go??? How could I have shaved off a bit more time on those scary slightly-downhill corners in that last mile? But when I look at the numbers, I was only one second off my best time for that stretch. Looks like I lost it on the “second” climb, from that section where the road ends in a “T” and to the right you go down into Portola State Park, and to the left, up to Skyline. The second from there to the top of the grade, I lost 7 seconds off my best time. The reality is that each of the four sections (bottom flat, first climb, second climb & descent to Skyline) were within seconds of my fastest ride. Sunday, I truly left nothing in the tank. I can’t look back at that ride and think this or that is where I lost it.

Tuesday’s ride got shortened even more than expected, because they shut off the road well below the Huddart entrance. No fair! Yesterday we rode up through the park and, while they had sign about halfway up that the road was closed, we had no issues riding all the way up to the park entrance, which was un-manned (because, obviously, they were manning the closure further down Kings).

So, Burt & Jenny, thanks for writing to see if I was still alive. I am. I don’t think it likely I’m going to keep up the fast times I’ve been having lately though. One of the advantages I had on Sunday was that I was riding solo; Kevin had a date. If I’m riding with Kevin, there will be sections on roads like West Alpine, or even Tunitas, where for some reason, I still have an advantage on him. I’ll drop him for a while, then wait for him to catch up. I had wondered if I lose much time doing that. Now, I know.