I was really hoping the weather forecast would be off by a few hours, pushing back the rain until after Thursday-morning’s ride. And it almost worked out, but not quite. At 5am I woke up, looked out the window and it was still dry! But when the alarm went off at 6:50am, nope, the ground was wet and we’d be back out on the rain bikes again. Rain bikes mean different position on the bike (much as I’ve tried, I haven’t yet been able to get things quite right, particularly the handlebars), no power meter, and you don’t get that feeling of the bike continuing to move up the hill after you’ve eased off on the pedals a bit. And since you’re riding slower you can’t cover quite as much ground either, missing out on the West Old LaHonda section. Hate that too. And then there’s the fact that it’s my first “real” ride as a 65 year old.

But on the bright side, it was just a bit warmer than other rides lately, no lower than 38-something up on Skyline. Amazing what a difference 4 or 5 degrees can make.

Definitely looking forward to winter’s end though.

Those rays on this morning’s ride? That’s a trans-dimensional time compression artifact created by Inca scientists secreted away in a Peruvian cave for the past 30 years. It’s claimed to effectively drop you back up to two age brackets on Strava. Like all trans-dimensional time compressors, it doesn’t work until the surrounding atmosphere is chilled to precisely 33.1 degrees Fahrenheit, the exact conditions Kevin and I encountered this morning.

It will be a few days before I find out if it worked; the initial feeling is one of cold, stiff joints that don’t go away until the weather warms up. But we did get to enjoy another nice day on West Old LaHonda.