So the long Presidents’ Day weekend came and went. Before that, we had a great spin class on Wednesday. We worked on “spinning” again by riding with only one foot clipped in. I’d like to say that I’d improved since last week, but no, I continue to suck at that.
Then on Friday night, I had a case of food poisoning or something and decided to skip the Saturday Buddy Ride. And to be completely honest, the weather forecast also played a part. It was raining for the first ride in a long time.
To make up for that, I went for a 40-mile solo ride to Anderson County Lake. This was the same ride I discovered my knee problem, but since I didn’t have any pain for the last few rides, I thought I’d licked that problem. Well, it came back again! I was super-frustrated, but didn’t know what else to do. I knew I could ride for 80 miles with no pain, so why was this ride causing me grief? I made sure to stop once an hour to rest and stretch. I now had a cadence counter, so I knew I was keeping my cadence in the right range. And I was well hydrated and fueled. Fortunately, it wasn’t as bad as the first time, but when I went out to dinner and a movie with Laura, I had a little limp.
The next day, Harold (a TnT mentor) had scheduled a ride up Old La Honda Road. He missed the official OLH ride, so I’m sure he was just itching to bag that climb. I was up for the challenge and my knee felt better in the morning, so I packed up the bike and went.
About eight miles into the ride, I started to feel my knee talking to me. I kept it to myself and it only got a little worse when we hit the base of OLH Road. This time, I remembered to use my lap timer and timed my climb. I did it in 33 minutes… not too shabby! Mentor Mark was first up by about a minute, followed by Harold and then me. Daniella was next at about 37 minutes and Greg arrived at around 41 minutes. I’m not sure how well I did compared to the first time around. I think I was fresher the first time and did it faster, but it didn’t matter. I did it. Then we rode to Alice’s, took a break, rode down Hwy 84 toward the ocean and did it from the other side! That part isn’t as hard, only climbing about 600′. But it was so beautiful! It was worth the extra grief.
Then we went back to Alice’s and descended Hwy 84 toward the bay. We picked up Alameda de las Pulgas and took it all the way back to the starting point at Lincoln Park in Los Altos.
So, after all that, I did 40 miles on back-to-back days. And the best part was my butt hurt more than my knee! I’m still not sure what’s causing the pain, but it seems like it only affects me on the long, flat Coyote Creek Trail. Maybe it has something to do with the extended, medium-effort pedaling? On all of our group rides, we encounter a variety of terrain, so we’re varying our intensity every now and then. That’s the only thing I can think of.
This Saturday is our last long ride before the century…80 miles from Cupertino to Belmont and back… and the forecast calls for highs in the low 40s with a chance of SNOW as low as 1000′! This should be interesting. It’s still four days away, so the weather could change, but damn… I’m not looking forward to riding when there could be black ice on the road.