If I haven’t figure out Kings by now…

Personal stuff, Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

Just me this morning; it wasn’t Kevin’s knee today, but I got a text from him saying he didn’t get to sleep until 3am, don’t try to wake him up. Well ok, it’s not like I need help finding the way, right?

So many years, so fast back in the day, and sometimes, and today was one of those times, I still thing Kings holds some secret that I haven’t yet found, something that will get me up the hill a bit faster. It’s a feeling that I don’t think I’ve ever brought up before. I’m on the wrong side of the curve these days; at 68, there aren’t going to be many surprise days (any at all?) where I look at my effort and think wow, I’ve still got it! Yet that feeling, almost like a repeating dream, that there’s still something left to figure out.

I’m sometimes reminded of things I miss, things that part of me thinks I could still do. Like chase after that couple in the photo, way up ahead of me. There was a time I would play a game where I’d let someone get up ahead a bit, and race back up to them. The game was figuring out just how much ground I could make up.

Still hoping, after my wife’s situation stabilizes a bit (so far, she’s doing pretty good!), to get my lungs checked out again, maybe by a new pulmonologist who finds something the other two didn’t. But the lungs limit mainly my climbing speed, but they don’t stop me from climbing, or doing longer distances. And then there’s the hematocrit, which gets tested again soon. Will it ever get back into the mid-40s again? What would that feel like?

If I’m out there alone on a Tuesday or Thursday morning, this is the sort of stuff that goes through my mind. Maybe it can all be summed up with this question, a similar version of which is likely asked by many when they believe their prime is behind them. Am I a has-been or a never-was? Can I make a difference?

That ambulance in PV Sunday might have been for Kevin

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

No big hills lately; Kevin’s knee is a continuing issue that doesn’t seem to be resolving quickly. So that last full Pescadero/Tunitas ride might have to last for a while. Hate that. I’m slug-slow climbing these days, but it remains tough getting motivated for rides that have no real climbs. Sunday we didn’t even do Mt Eden/Pierce, which was the original plan. Instead, we wandered around “the maze” (the roads along the tracks in Cupertino), thinking we might find a secret passage… nope. Just dead-ends.

Heading back through Portola Valley Kevin had his second seizure of the ride, of course in an area where he was visible to many passing cars. Which meant a lot of explaining, letting people know this is routine, he’ll be fine in a couple minutes and back on his bike. Unfortunately someone likely called 911 because about 10 minutes later, an ambulance passed by, sirens and lights, and we’re thinking it’s probably looking for Kevin. What were we supposed to do? It could have been for someone else, after all. And if we’d tried to flag them down, well, first, how? Second, should an ambulance ever be expected to stop for something, while en-route to their call? Especially if they have lights & siren going?

The highpoint was probably the snake Kevin spotten on Old Page Mill Road. Not a big guy, but strangely, he kept moving in on my foot. Normally snakes move away from people, not towards.

Overall a pretty OK ride despite no hills and quite a headwind coming back.