Back to the new normal?

Same mileage, just normal. After weeks, months of shorter rides than normal, fewer trips over the hill than normal, this past week was finally looking a bit like… normal. Just slower than normal.

A weeks ago, Thursday, Kevin and I rode the regular Tuesday/Thursday morning route, nothing cut off due to either weather or running out of time because I’m making it up Kings in 37 minutes instead of 30. We get back to the start of the ride, Olive Hill & Canada, at 9:32 instead of 9:18-9:22. This is apparently what being 68 looks like. And have to admit, getting up the hill, it doesn’t feel great. As the miles go by, it does get better; over 50 or so and Kevin starts to tire but I’m still going. Not fast, but going.

Tuesday (a couple days ago), again, the full ride. Again, pretty slow up Kings, but OK past that. It’s getting a little bit warmer; I can get by with a light baselayer, just two layers, not three. No more temps in the 30s, no more concern about ice on the roads, but still the possibility of rain for the next two months. As if that’s something to complain about; how quickly we forget (if we ever knew) that it’s normal, in most of the world, to have quite a bit of rain in the summer. Here, it might rain between November and mid-May, and that’s it. Not even sure why I’m bringing up rain in the first place as I think I’ve only had one real rain ride this season, using an indoor trainer instead. First year I’ve ever done that and pretty sure it’s tied into the issues with my wife’s health, creating a stronger-than-usual rationalization for caution.

But I’m hoping to at least keep the miles back up where they should be, and absolutely positively need to do at least one 100+ miler this year, something that didn’t happen last year.

When your last Pescadero/Tunitas ride was almost 7 months ago…

When you’re doing a round trip from Redwood City to the coast, and not far past the middle of your ride your computer tells you you’ve got 2 good miles left in your legs… that’s what happens when you haven’t done a Pescadero run since August. Not pretty!

Would have been nice to ride as many miles as my age on my birthday, but 68 miles just wasn’t in the cards; it’s been ages since I’ve had a long, hard ride. Heck, I didn’t even do my traditional Mt Hamilton New Years Day ride this year. Life has gotten in the way, big time. Most of the change goes back to my wife’s Stage IV cancer diagnosis; from that point on, priorities changed in an absolute way. I’m only just now becoming comfortable with thinking about things in less than absolute terms; until now, I think I’ve used her cancer as an easy-out card for keeping myself in shape.

August 20th since Kevin and I had done a Pescadero/Tunitas ride. That’s just crazy. And even longer than that since we’ve had a really good cookie face test photo.

It wasn’t an elegant ride; Old LaHonda was pretty tough, but it did come with a turkey crossing not far past the halfway point; that was pretty cool. Stopped to film them before continuing on.

Should add that the weather was really nice, a bit cooler than the prior two days, but I was able to use regular gloves for most of the ride, and didn’t even bring the electric-heated ones. Still needed a lightweight base layer, but there were times when we wished we’d left the leg warmers behind. Did cool down a bit at the coast, as we headed north on Stage Road, as well as descending Kings.

Pescadero bakery did not disappoint! Kevin and I always order the club chicken sandwich, which used to be consistently extraordinary but over the past few years has been a bit less reliable, sometimes with pretty chewy chicken. No issue with that today, and the cookie… they’re back to their monstrous size again.

Saw David K on a classic older bike that’s actually worth riding because it’s so radically different in how things work; most older bikes are just old and less functional than newer stuff, but this bike’s gear system was amazing to look at.

Stage Road heading north went better for Kevin than me. Something about being half my age seems to work in favor of doing well on a tougher ride without having recently done a lot of miles. Hate that. But we were both happy to have finished Tunitas in under an hour (56:25), my “fastest” time since last August.

I really was surprised it’s been 7 months since last doing a ride that Kevin and I used to to twice a month with regularity, sometimes more.