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

It’s been a while!

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

I was doing a really good job keeping up with things in France, but once back, things kind of slid. So just a little recent catching up here. Sunday… not a good day for me! The plan was the usual Pescadero/Tunitas loop, but I felt so bad going up Old LaHonda it was quickly clear “the plan” was in need of alteration. For reasons unknown I was sweating so much on that first climb that Kevin said the back of my jersey was white. Of course he didn’t see it until quite a few minutes after he finished the climb. So we bypassed Pescadero and headed straight out to San Gregorio, allowing me to draft off Kevin pretty much the entire way, and even drafting it was still tough to hang on. But I made it, stopped at San Gregorio for a coke and poor imitation of a large cookie, and then climbed Tunitas at a leisurely pace.

Tuesday. I was not looking forward to what might await me; I assumed it wouldn’t be anything good. When I got up, it didn’t feel like it was going to be anything good. Starting up Kings, it felt like maybe I’d turn around at the park even! But somehow I climbed OK, keeping ahead of Kevin & Colin, without feeling like that was something I could do. I was really surprised, to say the least. Maybe whatever got to me on Sunday is out of my system, although I never felt ill, just not very strong.

The ribs? They’re doing fine, mostly. I discovered while test-riding a bike today that an upright position (as found on commute bikes with flat bars) is not good for me. Lots and lots of pain! Weird thing, how these ribs do and don’t work. Guess I’m just made for a road bike.

This morning went so much better than expected

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

I wasn’t sure how this morning was going to go, first day back on my “real” bike, not an ebike, on the regular Tuesday/Thursday-morning ride. Last week I did do the regular Tuesday/Thursday ride, but on Kevin’s ebike, because with my two broken ribs (which may not be broken after all?) it was way too painful and simply impossible to be riding my regular bike. The ebike allowed me to limit the depth of my breathing, which limited the depths of my pain. I was figuring Sunday would be my first “real” ride, but then Friday I got hit, hard, with a short bout of some variant of the flu (not a good thing when it feels like your ribs are trying to kill you if you cough!). I was alive Sunday, but it felt like riding was just not a wise idea. Strange thoughts coming from me!

But yesterday morning I felt way way WAY better, well enough that I was able to keep an appointment to have blood drawn to see if I’ve developed the appropriate antibodies and spike-protein response to the Covid vaccine. It’s part of a study to see how my peeps (those with various types of blood cancers) have reacted to the vaccine; apparently some types of cancers, or the treatments for them, render the vaccines ineffective. It’s a first for me, actually volunteering to to have blood drawn! I had concern that the weight I’d lost, from dehydration, would make it difficult, but I drank a lot beforehand and had no issues. I’ll post the results when they become available.

But this morning, as soon as I actually got on the bike and started heading up over Jefferson, I felt pretty ok. Almost normal. Not what I expected. I had no problem holding Kevin’s wheel heading up over Jefferson, and while my ribs let me know they were there, they didn’t tell really crimp my style. We had both Kevins today; the ex-pilot had just returned from a month or two in Switzerland and wasn’t scared off by my warning that we’d be riding slow. It would have been nice if he’d texted me how warm it was up on Skyline (where he lives) though; we didn’t have to dress nearly as warmly as we did!

Kevin (younger) decided he wanted to charge up the hill, which came as a bit of a surprise to me. He hadn’t been on his bike for a week, but I guess when you’re younger, you can do that. I rode with him as far as the park entrance before easing back a bit, surprised at how quickly we’d covered that distance. Maybe that 6 pounds I lost from getting sick had a small silver lining? I drifted back to ex-pilot and we rode at a reasonably-decent pace the rest of the way up the hill.

It was a super-pleasant morning to ride; hopefully Thursday will be similar and we can dispense with base layers, leg warmers and long-fingered gloves!