It’s been pouring here in the santa cruz mountains… we got 10 inches in the last 5 days. Lots of rock and mud slides on our road. The county road crew has been busy. The other day Laura was on her way to town and a mile from home found the road flooded a foot deep. She had to turn around.
You can imagine that I haven’t gotten a lot of cycling done. I got a lot of time on the spin bike. Well, as much as I can stand, which is about an hour a day. I hate riding indoors. By friday I was desperate for a real ride outside, and the rain didn’t look too bad. By the time I got into town to start my ride (I wasn’t up for riding through the crap that’s on our roads, and I’m not keen on riding roads this steep when they’re soaking wet) it was raining. I went ahead anyhow and put in an hour and a half. After an hour my feet and hands were numb, because it was 36 degrees and even with fenders on my bike and a rain jacket on me, I was soaked. When I got to work I spread my bike clothes around my cubicle to dry. No one said anything but my co-workers already think I’m a freak. It was an absolutely miserable ride and I felt so much better afterwards. My gear still wasn’t dry when I got home from work, so I arranged it on top of the heater vents. George helped by sitting on my booties to hold them down on the register.
Today was supposed to be the “dry” day of this endless series of storms. Of course it was raining when I got up. It stopped after breakfast so I went into town and did a nice long ride (4:45, 73 miles). On the way back I noticed a dark cloud in the valley I was about to ride up. I hoped it would have moved to the east by the time I got there, but instead it started raining immediately. I was no longer feeling like a weenie for having the fenders on my bike and bringing a rain jacket. It poured for about 15 minutes… not Arizona thunderstorm kind of rain, but hard for California. There was a lot of water running in the road and my shoe covers and gloves got soaked. But a few more miles down the road it was dry, and I started drying out. Then another 10 miles up the valley it started raining again, but it stopped before I got back into town.
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There’s a big storm about to hit Northern California… we’re forecast to get 10-20 inches of rain here in the mountains. That’s more than most of California gets in a year. I did a long ride yesterday, then came home and cleaned the gutters to get ready for the storm. The ride completely sucked… for some reason I was terribly slow. I spent three hours noodling along with my heart rate around 110. I’ve been getting fitter over the years and able to go faster at a lower heart rate, but not that low. My HR hits 110 when I stand up. It was rather pathetic. Since I went out and back on Foothill, otherwise known at the Fred Expressway, I got passed by a lot of freds. Just rubbing in my suckitude. I took today off to rest.
Now I get to look forward to a week on the trainer, assuming we don’t lose power. Perhaps I should hook the trainer up to the generator. But if I am as weak as I was yesterday, I’d barely be able to light a night light.
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San Bruno is the traditional start of the NoCal road season, on Jan 1. I had a completely miserable time at this race in the 80s- wet, cold, couldn’t see or feel my fingers on the descent. I vowed to never come back. The race is too short to be interesting, or for me to be any good. It’s after the Christmas eating season but long before any races that mean anything. It’s totally meaningless, and if you’re good for this race, chances are you’ll suck later on in the season.
But I’ve gone back recently. I did it in 2008, skipped 2009 due to being sick, and did it again in 2010. And I have to say, I had a really good time.
I slept in the day of the race- it’s only an hours drive and starts at 10am. I weighed myself for the first time in two weeks and discovered that I was at the heaviest I’d been at in a year. Oops, I guess I ate too many of those Christmas cookies I made. The weather looked like rain, so I brought the rain bike. It did rain a bit on the drive up, but it was dry at the start. Most of the racers were warming up on trainers, many starting an hour before the race start. I hate trainers and don’t warm up on them well, so I rode up the mountain. I got a bit past halfway before it was time to turn around.
I got a decent start and went hard up the first steep pitch, then let the lead group go. I was doing ok for a while but when the climb leveled off a bit a few more guys who looked like they were in my group went by. Then the lead 55+ guys went by (they started 30 seconds behind us). After the turn to radio road the grade got steeper and I started catching guys who were fading. Approaching the finish the guys I’d passed were far enough behind that I didn’t need to worry about them, and there was one guy up ahead. I sprinted for the line (as much as I can sprint, which isn’t much) and managed to get him right at the line.
I did it in 19:46, which isn’t that spectacular- the best 45s are in the 16s. But it’s 45 seconds faster than I did it in 2008, and I finished in the top half. Most important, I had a really good time.
As for the weather- it sprinkled for about 15 seconds while I was warming up, and that was it. I could have ridden the race bike instead of the rain bike.
ericm Uncategorized