Mmm. Soup.

So, two rides, one post. Anyhow.

So I got in about 100+ miles last weekend, which is not bad. My legs were telling me about it for days. The main ride I wanted to do was on Sunday, but an impromputu ride was called for Saturday, and I hadn't ridden for weeks, so I figured I'd do that as well.
However, the night before that Nick asked me if I wanted to take him riding, so of course I did that preferentially. So Saturday morning, bright and early and cold, I headed out with him, intending to try taking him up Mt. Eden for the first time. Unfortunately, one of us (guess who) wasn't wearing anything covering their ears (note: cold) and he actually gave himself a headache from the cold going downhill. :( So we turned around before we even got to Stevens Canyon. Next time, I guess.

It was still early enough to go on Saturday's ride to Los Gatos, so I did so upon returning home, leaving my poor son sitting upon the couch.



That ride was good fun, and I felt just fine for having not been on the road for a couple of weeks. The one problem was that five minutes before I had to leave my bike leaned up against something in the garage that freakishly snapped off the center of the mount for my Garmin Edge, so that it wouldn't lock into place.
I figured it would last for one ride.
Wrong.
Fifteen minutes in I heard an odd noise and looked down to see that my computer was gone!
Fortunately, some nice person riding a bit behind me saw where it had gotten to, off in a pile of leaves by the side of the road, or I would never have found it again. 'Twould have been a costly ride.
Stuffed it in my pocket for the rest of the ride, needless to say.
Saw some nice new (for me) roads going back through Saratoga, but no pics at all from that ride, alas.

So I made sure to get a replacement mount that day and put it on, using a cable tie tool to make it nice and tight. Perhaps a bit too tight, see...



Next day, the ride to Pescadero for lunch at Duarte's. And what do I find at the start? I can't get the computer to snap into the new mount. Hadn't tried that part, it seems. I didn't want to force it and break another one, so I improvised and put Mr. Edge into my handlebar map holder. Frustrating, though. Especially as people kept giving me helpful suggestions on it, and I was trying to ignore the whole matter, as there wasn't anything I could do right there.

Clearly I wasn't meant to use a computer last weekend.
So, a pretty good ride, all in all. I was going strong for most of the way to Pescadero. I was sure I was going to make a new personal best up Old La Honda, but ended up tying my previous one, at 31:30. At least that's a minute faster than the last time. I am convinced that eventually I will lose enough weight to get some respectable times.

I did all right going up Haskins, also, and then oddly I lost the group after the descent on the other side. Didn't catch them until I pulled into Pescadero. However, at least I had many animals to view on my way in. There were horses, sheep, cows, llamas...

So, the main event. I was totally famished at this point, so I don't know that the food was really delicious, but I can say that I successfully obtained the famous artichoke soup and green chile soup combo, with some nice fresh baked bread to dip in it. Yum. And, as I was the only one to not have any beer, I felt quite justified in having a bit of apricot pie to go with it. After all, why ride if you can't replenish some of those calories with tasty treats?

After lunch I'm sure I was lagging, for some reason I was just not keeping up enormously well on the little hills on Stage, and probably part of that was anticipating Tunitas Creek to come.
On the down side, when I got to the end of the rough part on that the other riders had probably been waiting there almost ten minutes. On the bright side, the last time I was going so slow that my Edge kept autopausing because it thought that I was stopped. At least this time I was going about double that speed, and with a heartrate about 20 bpm less, as well.

So I suspect that I could actually have physically gone up a bit faster than I did. As it was, once again once I got past the steep part I was able to go pretty quickly, because it feels almost like it's flat by comparison with what precedes it. The odd thing about the rough part of Tunitas is that I think I actually went faster there than on the earlier part of the climb. Anticipating it was worse than actually doing it, at least this time.

On our descent down Kings Mountain, Kathy, in our group, took a spill. Fortunately no injuries. I was about fifteen feet behind her and it was extremely alarming to see her bike suddenly slide over on a turn and hit the ground. She basically looked like she bounced off the road and then leaped off her bike and went running down the hill. This is probably responsible for the lack of injury. I've never seen anything quite like that.

By the time we got back, it was dark, so I got a certain amount of chastisement, but it was a fun day.

And there, I've blogged just in time for the next ride.

Pics here.