Last ride of last year, followed by first ride of the next. Refused to wimp out!

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

Tuesday, Dec 31st. Last ride of the year. Did not seem like a good idea to make it anything less than the full distance, all the features of the normal Tues/Thurs ride, partly, perhaps mostly, as an act of defiance to age.

Ex-pilot Kevin came along for the ride. Two 68… no wait, I’m 68, Kevin turned 69 in October! So two guys nearing 70 heading at an easy pace up Kings, noticing what a nice clear day it was, enjoying the usual very light traffic and noticing a nearly complete absence of a breeze. Well that changed on West Old LaHonda, where we caught quite a headwind heading up into the little valley, before making the big U-Turn.

We finished the ride over 25 minutes slower than way way way back in the day. But we did it, we rode the exact same ride we did several decades ago.

New Year’s Day is always supposed to be a climb up Mount Hamilton. If too cold or too wet I’d find a way around it, but the weather cooperated, actually warmer than forecast. Karl, from the way way wayback days, joined the adventure, catching the 9:08 Caltrain from Redwood City to San Jose. Those new faster trains are pretty cool, but I don’t like the layout of the bike car as much as what we had before, and it’s true, even the longest trains have just one bathroom, which seems really inadequate. On the other hand, did the old cars have any bathrooms at all?

It was the usual ugly ride out of downtown San Jose, with the endless stoplights for miles. The only thing worse is the return, when you wonder, at each red light, if this is the one that’s going to cause you to have to get the next train home.

The climb… same as it ever was, everything seems so familiar, which makes sense given how many times I’ve ridden it. I held on until close to the end, maybe two miles from the top, when Karl pulled away and there was nothing I could do. That’s OK; it wasn’t going to be a competition anyway.

You can see from the video how nice it was up on top. Monterey Bay, SF Bay, snow-capped mountains in the Sierra Nevada all within view. And not as cold as it was supposed to be (it was probably mid-50s).

So I’m not giving up in 2025. No plans to cut back on anything, and 2024 really wasn’t that bad on the bike. Got in that really good ride up the cliff road opposite Alpe d’Huez without falling apart, and a couple other tough rides in July while in France. Time will tell.

Martin’s Beach… Interesting place! First ride to the coast in a while.

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

It had been a while since I’d been to the coast, and it didn’t seem likely that I’d be doing so yesterday (Sunday). I was expecting another ride through the foothills, stopping at Peet’s in Los Altos for food and coffee. But ex-pilot had other ideas; he and Dave (ex-pilot’s to the right, Dave to the left in the video above) had other ideas. How about heading up Old LaHonda, out to San Gregorio, and back Tunitas?

Why not. I needed a tougher effort. Not so sure I needed to watch people I’m riding with quickly getting out of sight as they ride away from me up the hills though. But hey, San Gregorio, stop for coffee right? Nope. This was an express (well, express implies fast; better to call this a non-stop) and we rode right past. No biggie; it’s just Tunitas coming up. Just over a 40 mile ride. I can handle one more hill.

Only it wasn’t just one more hill. Ex-pilot decided we ought to check out the waves (forecast at 15 feet), and when the fogged-in coast robbed us of any views heading down the hill into Tunitas, ex-pilot thought hey, let’s check the waves out close-up at Martin’s Beach.

Martin’s Beach? It sounded familiar, but had to have ex-pilot connect the dots for me. This is the beach owned by one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, who decided to go up against the California Coastal Commission and try to prevent access to “his” beach. It’s been in and out of the courts since 2009 I think? So you have to get around a locked gate (that isn’t supposed to be a locked gate) and ride down this nicely-paved narrow road into the Land that Time Forgot. Old beach cottages, a few nicer looking places, basically a small community of largely-empty buildings, including a former hotel. Right. On. The. Beach. I mean, within 30 feet of water. When you think total Tsunami wash-out, think this place.

Unfortunately too foggy to get much of a view; the waves seemed to be breaking just out of sight. But absolutely this place is worth a visit. It reminds me a bit of the odd stuff you see riding up the back side (from 84) of Bear Gulch Road. A place where old Hippies go to die, and maybe there’s someone playing dueling banjos on a porch.

In for an inch, in for a mile. We would be doing the “long” Tunitas route, via Los Lobitos Creek. Thankfully Dave had an extra Clif Bar, which was enough to fuel me up Tunitas. Must have been the slow-burn version of Clif Bar though, as it was a pretty slow slog up the hill for me, much tougher than I expected. But I made it, recovering a bit on the flatter section, a recovery necessitated by pride.

Overall a very nice ride, getting me back early enough to get most of the pre-Christmas family stuff out of the way. Tomorrow (Tuesday) is Christmas Eve, which means opening an hour earlier (10am), seriously cutting into Tuesday-morning ride time. Plus it’s supposed to rain. So… tonight I set up the bike on the trainer and try to get a decent Zwift effort in.