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

Sunday & Tuesday catch-up

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

/Sunday, yet another day when the coast didn’t look terribly inviting, with lots of low clouds/fog/”marine layer” creeping up to Skyline. We decided to limit our time in the muck by doing a sort-of reverse of last week’s ride, this time heading up to Skyline via Page Mill, then south on Skyline to 9, down to Redwood Gulch, stop at Peet’s in Los Altos for fuel (and to confirm that our former location in that shopping center is STILL empty!), then home via Foothill/Sand Hill/Canada.

It wasn’t that long ago I would avoid Page Mill (or Redwood Gulch, for that matter) because the really steep pitches weren’t fun anymore. But the truth is, it really doesn’t matter what route I take to get to the top of a hill… none of them are an easy cruise. But I still make it, eventually. On Sunday’s ride, I told Kevin to take off at the base of the hill, but be a nice guy and circle back for me after finishing. Not really sure when I expected to see him, but it ended up being about a mile from the top. Not long ago, that would have been demoralizing. Today, it’s just the way it is.

Today’s ride (Tuesday), was just plain bad timing! Slight drizzle as we left, and cold again! Where does that come from? Once again, upper 30s as we climbed Kings. On rain bikes, so had a bit of an excuse for being slow. Ran out of time to do much on top, so just added the Swett/Upper Tunitas loop before heading back down, noticing how nicely it had dried up and wondering why more people weren’t out riding. Probably because most people are sensible and when the forecast says rain, they believe it, and stay home and ride Zwift.

Breathing in context. Mine, not the Doctor’s

Personal stuff, Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride


Nice to finally warm up a bit, with more on the way! Light, not heavy, base layer, no need to bring a wind breaker, could have even used lighter weight leg warmers. Still electric glove time though; anything below 68F is an issue there.

Myself, Kevin and Tom C, whom we hadn’t seen for a while, at the start. That’s two times in two weeks it wasn’t just us! Tom claims to have not been riding until recently, but I’ve never really seen him out of shape. I did get to spend a bit of time on Kings with him though, as Kevin was definitely pretending to BE in shape, posting a 26-something time. That, to me, is flying!

The context thing. My pulmonologist doesn’t think my breathing issues are that big a deal, because my total delivery of oxygen to my body is 140% of normal (VO2 Max they call it), but that’s because I work my butt off, breathing very hard and fast. My lung efficiency is appallingly low, and it’s pretty obvious that, if I let myself get out of shape, I’d be in a bad way.

Riding with Tom C gave me a chance to see how I fare against others close to my own age. Riding with “kids” (anyone below 50), you could easily argue there’s a reason I’m out of breath and they’re not. But Tom isn’t a “kid”; when I asked his age, he told me 63 & 2/3rds years old. So not too far from my 67.

And, riding with him up Kings, trying to keep up, his breathing was dead quiet. Couldn’t even be recorded. While mine…

So I’m going to send the pulmonologist a copy of the youtube posted here and see if I can get some traction, some interest, in why I sound like a steam engine while everyone else can be yakking away, no issues breathing.