The good news, didn’t have to ride our rain bikes! Roads had dried off reasonably well. The bad news? Coldest day so far. My computer reads a bit high but from Kevin’s we know that it got right down to freezing, but not below. Cold enough that we did have to pay attention to the road, looking for ice, especially since the hillsides were oozing water onto the roads from the prior rains.

Slow? Oh yes it was slow. No thinking we’d be doing the West Old LaHonda loop… hopefully next week, if the weather’s nice. I’m sure the view would have been amazing!!! But Thursday morning, even Kevin wasn’t feeling particularly frisky. Just too darned cold, and unfortunately, my body is thinking hey, winter, hibernate! Eating too much, riding too little, and gaining weight I shouldn’t be gaining. Too bad I can’t trade it with my wife, who desperately needs to gain weight.

There were a few spots where the pavement had that funny sort of appearance where it was right on the edge, just the tiniest veneer of ice, mere molecules thick and not a problem. Fortunately the temps started fairly high during the night and didn’t get to their coldest until 6:30am I think. And who’d be riding at 6:30am?

Right. Who’d be riding when it’s this cold (never mind that we’ve ridden days when it was quite a bit colder). Until we started heading up Kings, the answer was, nobody. But about 1/4 of the way up we saw a guy coming down, and we’re thinking, geez, how early was he out there? Then, 3/4 into the climb, we saw one of our more fearless customers, Peggy, riding down the hill. How early did SHE start riding??? Well she came into the shop this morning (Saturday), and I asked her. She started riding at 2:30. In the morning. That is one tough lady!!!

Sunday. We’ll see how tomorrow goes. Would really like to make it to the coast. Kevin hasn’t ridden Sundays in a few weeks, and I’m really not into riding to the “wrong” side of the hill alone. Too much time to think, and right now I need to focus on the ride, the coffee, the food, the conversation (with other people, not the other voices in my head).

This was the first real “rain” ride since… well, since quite a while I think. I missed several when I was off on a cruise with my wife for a couple weeks, and I missed a couple more after we got back, when I decided I’d rather sit on a trainer than be out in the rain.

That’s not a good way to think. I’ve been told, with all that’s going on with my wife’s cancer, that I need to look out for myself, not just her. I get that, but what does it mean? Well, one of them would be not giving in, getting back to looking at the weather report, seeing something REALLY nasty coming in, and thinking, wow, hope it hits during my ride! It probably means pushing myself as hard as possible and trying to pretend I can slow down the process of getting slower as I get older. Basically it means, I think, not making excuses for myself.

And, at the same time, I also need to be available to Karen (my cancer-stricken wife) on-call, 24/7. That’s the top priority. I think it’s possible to do both; the key is that, when I make room for Karen and the bike loses out, I can’t let it become something where, if it’s convenient, I’ll skip a ride.

How was it this morning. Hard. Kevin was doing better, but even he ran out of gas a couple times on Kings. We were running a bit late; took a while to get the rain bikes fully prepped. Not that it mattered much; there was no chance we’d be doing the full ride, including West Old LaHonda.. just not fast enough now. So we just stuck with Kings (which was hard enough!), Skyline, descend 84. Hopefully, Thursday, we can get in the full ride. And hopefully, sometime Thursday, we get word from the Specialist we’re working with, regarding a plan treatment plan for Karen’s cancer. Didn’t have the best news today (this is where it would have been nice if it had just stayed drizzly & cool); the Oncologist called to let us know the biopsy results weren’t good, that we were dealing with a fast-moving cancer. The greatest bike ride in the world, actually all of them combined, aren’t a match for what I’d give up, for my wife’s health.