Last Saturday, the team rode out of Half Moon Bay for a 50-mile ride. We headed south on Hwy 1 over some rolling hills and we worked on our pacelining. The last climb was something more than “rolling,” but then we turned left at Stage Road and started a nice descent into San Gregorio. We turned left at Hwy 84—a road I know very well because it’s one of my favorite motorcycle roads. Our coach’s in-laws live on this road, so we took an unofficial break and got to use a real bathroom before climbing into the redwoods.
As we approached La Honda, we took a right on Pescadero Road, another of my favorite motorcycle roads. Because I knew the road was incredibly steep, I put my head down and started hammering on the pedals. So much so, I almost missed the turn into the parking lot where our official rest stop was.
It was at this rest stop that we officially changed the name of our team from “Team Short Bus” to “Team Short Break” inspired by the fact that Kristy (our coach) wears as few layers as possible, so she’s always hustling us to get back on our bikes before she, I mean, before “we” get cold.
I personally hate breaks at the bottom or in the middle of climbs, but you take them where you can I guess. But that meant that as soon as we got back on Pescadero Road, it was low gear for what seemed like 15 minutes until the top of the hill. I felt pretty good throughout the climb, which I think is a good sign for the main event in March.
The descent into the city of Pescadero was uneventful, but at bicycle speeds, I was able to see much more than I ever saw on my motorcycle. It really is a beautiful area.
We turned right onto Stage Road by Duarte’s restaurant. I was hoping we’d stop in for some brunch, but we didn’t even slow down. We just kept going into the hilly part and started climbing again. And descending. And climbing. And descending. It was like hill repeats! (Which is probably why we don’t have any more of those.)
We stopped for our last official break at the intersection of Hwy 84 and Stage Road. There’s a little general store there, so some people used the restroom inside. Then we started the climb back to Hwy 1.
Somewhere on Hwy 1, Scott’s chain broke. Fortunately, our SAG car wasn’t far behind. The car also picked up a four-legged passenger. A dog with no collar appeared out of the bushes by the side of the road. It was pretty fat, so we knew it wasn’t a stray, but there were no houses nearby, and we couldn’t let it roam free by the side of a busy highway, so the pooch got a ride with Scott and Deepak (one of our awesome SAG crew members) back to Half Moon Bay. They’d called an animal welfare officer and by the time I was ready to leave, I saw the van roll in, so hopefully, the dog is safe with his/her family now.
Thursday at The Spokesman in Santa Cruz
I was worried about the knee pain I’d experienced a few days before, but was able to manage it by stretching at every rest stop and break. But something was definitely not right, so I went to get my bike properly fit by an expert in Santa Cruz today. Kristy knows him well and made the appointment WHILE we were on our ride! She called his shop during our second rest stop at Stage/Hwy 84.
The experience was part chiropractor, part Hollywood motion capture. First Wade (the guy’s name) had my lie on a massage table where he measured my alignment and range of motion. Then he put little white piece of tape on my joints and video taped my pedaling my bike on a stationary trainer. He adjusted my saddle height and position, then added some shims and new footbeds to my shoes. Every time he made an adjustment, I pedaled the bike while he watched. Sometimes he’d take new video and analyze that. It was cool getting such a precise fitting.
Then he worked on my upper body position. He put my bars on an adjustable stem. I was less able to help him here because he had to rely on my feedback (“How does that feel? How about now?”) but I ended up with a slightly taller, slightly longer stem. He also put fatter wedges above my brake levers so I wouldn’t have to stretch as far to get my fingers around them.
Total for the fitting was about $335, including parts. We’ll see how well it worked on Saturday’s 40-mile buddy ride!