Fond memories of the 26-minute monkey on my back, that became 27, 28, 29 and now 30.

Waiting on 84 at the one-lane section of the descent. It could be July before this roadway is back to normal.
I was wondering how I would feel today; yesterday afternoon I was feeling a bit less energetic than normal, and last night had that feeling that maybe a cold was coming on. Slight scratchy throat that, added to the lack of energy, gave me pause.

I needn’t have worried; got up and felt fine this morning. Not so fine that I could get rid of the 30 minute monkey on Kings though. It wasn’t that long ago I suggested people shouldn’t try this ride if they couldn’t make it up Kings in less than 30 minutes, and now I’m not qualified for my own ride! It was closer than I’ve been for a long time though; I hit the wide-open clearing at about 20 seconds off a 30 minute pace, and finished at 30:27, best time since October. Last year I barely got into the 28.xx range, but I’m hopeful to do as well, or even slightly better, this year. Not that I’ve got any good reason to suspect that to be the case, just a feeling.

We saw George show up for the first time in a while, along with Kevin, Kevin & Karen. I kept up with them until the halfway point or so, and then simply tried ot limit my losses. What I need to do is figure out how to set up my Garmin to pace my ride up the hill, showing me over/under (how many seconds ahead or behind) on the way.

Kevin (Pilot) helping Karen with her flat tire
We had just a little bit of excitement descending Skyline towards Sky Londa when I heard that unmistakable sound a tire makes when quickly losing air. Funny thing about that is that it takes you awhile to figure out if it’s you or someone else. Definitely a scary moment or two as I’m trying to quickly bring down my speed without losing balance, which can be tricky when a tire’s flat. Turns out it was Karen, riding just to the side of me.

The flat was unfortunate; I was thinking today maybe we’d get back on schedule, arriving back at the start by 9:22 or so. Of course, that is also dependent upon the amount of delay descending 84, which today was very minor, maybe just 3 minutes or so.

West Old LaHonda? Yes, it’s still there. Even the thundering load of 4 cyclists didn’t collapse the remaining pavement.






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