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

The world isn’t flat; we didn’t fall off the edge at 5 miles

6.83 miles from home, 1.83 miles beyond the 5 mile barrier. This won’t be a regular thing for a while.
The morning started off with my alarm clock working. Yay! An alarm clock I’ve owned for over 35 years, that somehow I managed to screw up the settings a week ago. I didn’t have to text Kevin (pilot) saying we’d be late; instead, Kevin (pilot) texted me, saying he’d be leaving early, because he was going to be riding slow.

Kevin (kid) and I hit the base of the hill fairly hard, hard enough that I’m thinking this is not going to last. Well, not for me anyway. Just before the park we spotted Kevin (pilot) up ahead; I came off the kid’s wheel and rode the rest of the way with the old guy. Kevin (kid) disappeared quickly while I kept Kevin (old guy/pilot) company while doing some intervals up Kings. It might have been nice to try to keep up with Kevin (kid) a bit longer, and go for a decent time up the hill, but I’ve never felt good leaving somebody back there all alone. I know too well what that feels like.

Yes, if you looked up at Skyline you saw it was wet. But let me tell you, there’s a HUGE difference between 35 degree wet and 42.

We did push our limits just a bit and ride West Old LaHonda, which extends 2 miles past San Mateo County’s 5-miles-from-home limit. Rides to the coast are a thing of the past though. Sunday rides will need to become a bit creative to be challenging; Page Mill is too far beyond the 5 mile limit to rationalize. No Tunitas, no West Alpine. No wonder we’re selling so many trainers.

Does a regular cycling routine seem silly to talk about while fighting Covid-19, or would it be losing the battle if I didn’t?

The ride didn’t get off to a good start with the second alarm clock failure in a week; woke up at 7:11 instead of 6:50. Not enough time! Bug got going as quickly as we could and sent a text message to Kevin (pilot) letting him know that, if he showed up, we’d be a bit late. Good thing, that… he did show up, rode back a bit and met us on our way to the start.

It’s April, right? And it should be warming up. Instead, we’re looking forward to climbing just to stay warm. And a bit colder hands than normal because we (my son and I) forgot to put our wet gloves (after Sunday’s ride) over a heater vent to dry. 35 degrees up on top. I guess the connection to the virus is that it, the virus, hates hot weather. So, bring it on.