Motivation? Don’t look for motivation. Just do it! If you’ve decided to be a rain-or-shine kind of cyclist, then you find yourself actually looking forward to “epic” winter rides. Make sure you’ve got a separate rain/utility bike, with wider tires (it’s not about speed, it’s about not slipping on paint stripes or getting flats) and possibly a bit more relaxed riding position (because if you’re heavily bundled up you might not feel comfortable in your normal riding position).
It’s quite the challenge for my group, because our Tuesday/Thursday-morning training ride includes 3300ft of climbing and, of course, 3300ft of descending. What you learn is that it’s very important to keep up a consistent pace because if you relax the cold and wet will get to you very quickly. Dress in a way that you’ll remain warm even if soaking, because there’s no truly waterproof cycling stuff out there. The high-tech stuff (including GoreTex) won’t keep up with a cyclist at high output… you end up as soaked on the inside as things are on the outside.
You could, of course, just set up a trainer in front of a TV and watch your favorite races, but there’s a small number of us who would rather ride through a hurricane than sit on a trainer. Mental defect of some sort. Or just a refusal to believe that anything can stop you and your bicycle. Do keep in mind that I’m in Northern California so the worst winter will throw at me are a few 40 degree days with driving rain, or upper-20s but dry, or once in a while, snow at the higher parts of our ride. We also rarely see ice, because it’s typically dry when it’s that cold. –Mike–
On our way to the Sequoia Century. Looked like, and was, a very nice day!
I went to bed last night not knowing what I’d be waking up to; the weather report said it was going to rain during the night, let up for a while, and then showers throughout the day. Not the weather report you want to hear for the day of the Sequoia Century, one of my favorite rides, and an essential part of getting Kevin in shape for France. I had a “Plan B” in place, getting my rain bike ready and opting for the 100k instead of 100 miles if I woke up to rain. Even that wouldn’t be much fun; two hours of rain is about as much as I can take and still consider it “fun”; anything past that is pretty miserable.
Coyotes along SkylineBut when the alarm went off at 6:30am (yuck!), I looked out the window and saw dry roads and broken skies. I got Kevin up about 15 minutes later, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and by 7:20am we were out the door and riding towards the start, at the Palo Alto VA hospital, a half hour away. Back in the day we would have driven, but why? For the Sequoia Century, it makes more sense to start from home and end at home, since it comes within 3 or 4 miles on the return. When we got to the start things were pretty quiet for a sold-out ride; I suspect quite a few people assumed the worst and didn’t even set their alarm clocks. They missed a great day to ride!
Kevin at the Boulder Creek rest stopOh sure, it wasn’t great by historical standards, but in my revisionist weather world, any day that it’s not actually raining is a good, even great day to ride. We’ve suffered through so much these past five months, so much rain to be specific, and sure it’s great to not have to worry about a water shortage, but from a purely selfish standpoint, droughts are great for the bicycle business and it’s not such a bad thing to get people into water conservation because California’s future is going to have even more people, and thus more demand on resources, than we have today.
Saw quite a few of our customers on the ride, including Sam (and fan of Amy in our Los Altos store), and everyone was having a good time… with the exception of the guy we came across on the Bear Creek Road descent who’d had a run-in with a car and had likely broken his hip or pelvis, an injury that takes quite a while to heal. Bear Creek (which runs between Boulder Creek and Skyline) is infamous for careless and callous drivers, and today was unfortunately no exception. But the high points included seeing three coyotes (a pair up on Skyline and another walking across the road on the Alpine descent) and watching Kevin kick into high gear twice, first on the upper stretches of Highway 9 climbing up from Boulder Creek, and then again on the upper parts of Tunitas Creek. This was notable because he was pretty spent before finding his legs again, and it’s now becoming clear to him that his performance climbing is a function not just of his legs but his mind as well. And, of course, thanks go to the Western Wheelers Bicycle Club for an exceptionally well-run event!
Chain Reaction's traditional "Secret Soda Stop" at the top of Tunitas Creek, manned by Sal (his 5th or 6th year at this!) and Patrick, who provided mechanical services.It wasn’t our fastest century; 14.5mph average speed, compared to 15.7 on last-Sunday’s Santa Cruz loop, but at 102 miles & 9264ft of climbing, it was quite a bit tougher (and yes, I’ll admit that our 15.7mph average the prior week was aided a bit by some strong tail winds on the coast). But we did make it back within 30 seconds of our planned time of 3:45pm, allowing us to take showers and get dressed before Kevin’s 4pm graduation open house. –Mike–
