Monthly Archives: September 2013

Not the usual Tuesday ride

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride
Getting your priorities straight is very important! Because if you can't control your peanut butter, how can you expect to control your life? (If you're not a Calvin & Hobbes fan, you won't get that. But if you're not a Calvin & Hobbes fan, you're missing out on a lot more than that!)
Getting your priorities straight is very important! Because if you can’t control your peanut butter, how can you expect to control your life? (If you’re not a Calvin & Hobbes fan, you won’t get that. But if you’re not a Calvin & Hobbes fan, you’re living a meaningless existence without hope, without joy, without an understanding of life. Just as you would if you didn’t ride a bike!)

There was some doubt as to how far we’d get this morning, since Kevin had three seizures between waking up and leaving for the ride. A new record, I think. And after the ride, he probably had another 7 or 8, maybe more, through the rest of the day. But, thankfully, the ride itself was seizure-free.

Big group, as you can see in the photo. Fast group, with me ending up towards the way back. Something like 27:20 for me up Kings, so my days of consistent 26-something times look to be over. Good while it lasted. Looks like Kevin hung in there with almost-exactly 26 minutes, riding with the fast guys. Can’t keep secrets when you’re on Strava. Very talkative bunch this morning, George and the other Kevin talking about the Nationals (they race in the Masters class) and all sorts of other conversations up at the front that I couldn’t hear since I was towards the back.

Not always at the back though; I’m getting better at taking my turns at the front again, on the gradual descent on 84 east, and sometimes along Skyline. I’m still not descending as quickly as I used to, which allowed George and Keith to drop me before we got to the Sky Londa sprint. Hate that, but I hate crashing even more.

Where’s Sunday’s ride report?

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

This is not good; I’m really falling behind in updating the almost-daily diary. That’s not in accordance with the plan.

Funny thing is, I was sure I had written Sunday’s ride up! Absolutely certain. But where is it? Not here, not in the draft file, nowhere. Maybe because, compared to past Sunday rides, it seemed insignificant at just 58 miles (the past three weeks having been 110+ if I recall correctly)?

It was a ride that almost didn’t get off the ground, as Kevin started having some of his flank pain issues, but he managed to get up Old LaHonda, letting me know about the pain every chance he got, and as we descended towards LaHonda, mentioning several times that maybe we should just head back via West Alpine instead of going over Haskins to Pescadero, then north on Stage and return on Tunitas. No, I told him he should hang in there. Old LaHonda was slow (about 22 minutes) but not dreadfully so. Haskins? I don’t think we’ve taken 15 minutes to climb Haskins in 5 years! He began to recover a bit after fueling up in Pescadero though, and by the time we got to Tunitas, he was riding pretty strongly. So strongly in fact that I was a bit worried he was going for a PR, but that idea was killed off when he had one of his seizures just past Los Lobitos Cut-Off.

We rode the steep middle part of Tunitas at a consistent, fairly fast but not-deadly pace, which ended rudely on the upper section where it levels out. Kevin took off, and I didn’t see him again until Skyline. It’s not as if I didn’t give chase; I got one of my better times for the upper part, but Kevin was flying. It took 3 hours to get there, but Kevin was finally happy he got out on the ride. Would he have been as happy if he hadn’t dropped me on the upper section? Absolutely not. Is there the slightest chance I let him get away? None whatsoever.