old la honda. once. fast.

that was mindy's email description of what she and chad planned for wednesday's ride '5ish.' simple enough. i met the toms at tc's place at 2 pm to 'ride easy and flat' until we get over to old la honda to 'see what the sprinters are doing.' weird weather, changing seasons: hot sun, cold wind, patchy clouds. couldn't decide how to suit up. ended up skipping the base layer but keeping the wind vest, worked well for a couple hours until the clouds bunched up. skinny bald guys gotta carry their insulation...

the winds were funky, mostly from the north and northwest, but sometimes from due west, and gusty, the kind of crosswinds that move you sideways and headwinds that make you stand up to go downhill. tc wanted to get waay north to for the payback when we turned, so we went all the way out canada and skyline to crystal springs road before turning. even the uphills were easy on the way back. quiet, too, after that howling in our ears for the 20+ miles out there.

i felt like crap. again, plenty of cardio capacity but no legs and icky stomach. i could still go, but it hurt and i don't like that. bicycling is fun, right? it is, even when it feels like crap. beats workin'.

so we met mindy on time at the base of old la honda, chad was still workin' for the man. she was itchy to go; she'd caught the bug: she and chad had been setting prs on that road lately – both faster than my 24:52 from a couple weeks back – and hadn't been telling. but now she really wanted to push herself, see what she could do. tc felt the same. i didn't feel like pushing it, wasn't even sure i wanted to go up at all. we had over 40 miles on the clock, it's a good day already...

mindy took off like a rocket across the bridge timepoint. tc and tb followed, and i said fuck it, just follow them up. about a quarter-mile in, on the way up to the first big 180-left turn, i glimpsed mindy's yellow jacket scampering up the slope through the woods to the left like a rabbit. i looked down and saw myself daddling along in my triple chain ring, heart rate below 65% and thought, it's fun chasing rabbits...

ok, let's go, i thought. kicked into the middle chain ring and stood up. in the next half-mile, went by tb in a steep turn, then past tc in the steep esses below home road, then mindy's jacket came back into view. i'd gone to almost 85% to catch her, which is harder than i like to ride. no vomit-drool on the chin for me. so i sat a ways behind her for a minute and looked around.

the clouds had moved in, darker, made me glad i'd switched to amber sunglass lenses. winds swirling and blustery, dry but hinting of rain, pushed drifts of redwood trash across the road in places. and noisy. kind of creepy weather for the deeper parts of the forest. half-expected an ent to pick me up by the seatpost to examine this unusual, hasty creature.

so i find that once i push myself to threshold and recover a little, it's easier to hold that level of effort. so i tried it. hmm...not so bad. i went by mindy, then kept the monitor between 82% and 85% for the last mile-and-a-half. with about a half-mile to go, i started thinking, damn, i could have a good time on this climb, too bad i didn't bother to start my clock at the bridge. oh well. came up on another rider near the top and didn't want to go by on that narrow road with the blind curves, so i followed her. gave me a chance to have an idea, i'll bet mindy's got herself timed, i'll just time the gap. that's what i did, it read 1:08 when mindy crossed the stop line and announced 25:13. makes my time no more than 24:05, another personal best. i see mindy's point. once you start setting personal bests, ya just wants to do it again!
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so after mt. hamilton last weekend and this showing today, i'd say the capybaras are in fine shape for the 508. if we don't finish, it won't be from lack of physical conditioning. that's good. one less thing.

two-and-a-half weeks...