My daughter and son managed to wake us up about eleventy zillion times on Monday night/Tuesday morning, so I drove the kids to school so my wife could sleep in a little and get coffee on the way to work (she definitely bore the brunt of the late night abuse) so Tuesday’s ride was scratched, but today I was back on it!
In fact, I got out early enough that I made it to the top of King’s very close to when the Chain Reaction guys came through, but I wasn’t able to hang on over 35 and down 84, so I didn’t see them climbing on OLH, but I felt good climbing and turned in a 36 minute-ish time (not sure of the exact time since my Garmin lost the bottom of Kings) and rode the whole thing one gear up on the back. I think after Sierra Road, where I had to MASH my 30/28 to get up the hill, pulling on the bars and yanking the wheel off the ground, a little bit of pain by staying in my 30/24 up Kings didn’t seem bad at all.
Riding up west Old La Honda felt good since it had been awhile since I did it, and even though I never caught up with Chain Reaction after they passed me on 35 I enjoyed it a lot. My mind REALLY wanders on that road. It’s extremely peaceful, and you are climbing, so you’re not going fast and not worrying about cornering speed, so it’s a relaxing zen climb. I was thinking about this weekend’s ride, about taking my kids to Disneyland soon, about my wife, about how nice work is right now. Just generally zoning out. Proof that I NEVER focus on that hill is the fact that I turned in a 3rd best time on it according to Strava. Of course, my Garmin has been fickle a lot lately, so it doesn’t always record that climb. Or ANY climb, for that matter, but it was a minute off of my best time from last year at my peak fitness, and I was TOTALLY lollygagging.
Back down 84 was fun, and I pulled over to let some cars get by me so they could get stuck behind the cars in front of me, then followed the chain down. Then down Woodside to work which SHOULD have been boring if the garbage truck didn’t try and turn left in front of me, resulting in squealing brakes on my part followed by finding a van pulling out of the same street to turn left across me blocking the entire lane resulting in a glaring stare down and a little more evasive maneuvers. Two vehicles, one intersection, no crashes. Hopefully I’m good for awhile in the ‘inattentive drivers’ department.
Got to work with a slightly slower overall commute time than I’d like by about 5 minutes. Not too bad. Now to put that nose to the grindstone!
The Red Lantern Rides Again! 