Is this really February?

Though I've been quite lazy when it comes to my "training", I have managed to get out at least once a week so far. I went out this last Saturday the 9th and had a great day. It was beautiful out and the weather was excellent as well so I decided to ride to the coast. My plan was a ride from Sunnyvale, up Old La Honda, make my way to Pescadero and north up Stage road on my way to Tunitas Creek.

The plan was actually for my mother and sister to meet me in Pescadero (though they started much later than I did, so I only ended up arriving about 20 minutes after they did) and then they would follow my path back and enjoy the beautiful day on the coast and see where I've been riding in the past year. My mother was down here because the family dog (Mickey; I'm not sure how my sister spells the name, but that's how I've always spelled it) died on Friday and wasn't doing so well (which is putting it mildly to say the least). In any case, rather that both of them heading back to Antioch on Saturday, I suggested it best to just join me instead and enjoy the weather.

So besides having craps in all major muscles of my legs I was doing quite well considering my lack of riding. Old La Honda time was 33 minutes 41 seconds (a few minutes slower than my best at 30 minutes 58 seconds), but still felt quite good. The ride from La Honda to Pescadero via Pescadero rd seemed much shorter the first time I road it...this time it seemed to take FOREVER!

Spent too much time Pescadero due to things being quite busy and then sitting around eating and chatting with my mother, but that was ok. It was fun nonetheless. The ride up Stage road towards San Gregorio and eventually Tunitas was very pleasant. Sun was shining, the views of the ocean that finally came into view were well worth the effort and pain. See the picture to the right (taken on Stage road a few miles before San Gregorio...remember, THIS IS FEBRUARY!)


So with all that, the day ended very weird. I planned to make it to the top of Tunitas Creek, ride down into Woodside, and then jump in my mother's car and get a ride home (it was getting close to dark and honestly that was a good enough excuse for me).

As it turns out, my rear tire blew only about a mile into Tunitas. It turned out to be a BIG hole! I fixed it quickly, one nice family stopped to see if I was ok (NOTE: my mother and sister had continued driving up Tunitas at my request so they did not know yet of my blowout) before I finally got going again. Hearing this clicking sound, I stopped, looked around, and about that time one of my spokes on the rear tire fell off!!! Needless to say I needed a new spoke and wasn't quite sure if it was good to even be riding on the wheel (though again, likely a good excuse for me to call it a day ;)).

I grabbed the spoke, checked all the other spokes, and kept riding (slowly to be on the safe side just in case). Arriving finally at the so called "bridge of death" (I think this bridge isn't really call that on Tunitas because you don't actually cross it, but still, from that point on it is always uphill and quite nasty for 1.9 miles...fun just the same. It was at this point that my Jedi mind powers finally worked and my mother had turned around to come check on me (it was getting really dark quickly at this point). Hurray! No more riding...though physically I could have made it, I really wanted to call it a day.

Still waiting for my wheel to be fixed at GoRide Bicycles before I can go riding again, but they apparently didn't have the correct spoke in stock and had to order it (ashame they couldn't figure this out when I dropped off the wheel and spoke on Monday and told me it'd be ready on Wednesday; instead they figured it out on Wednesday and ordered it that same day).

So without my road bike, not sure how I'll be going to the Tour of California Prologue this Sunday, but so long as I get my wheel back before next Wednesday so I can ride up Sierra rd to go watch stage 3 of the TOC I'll be happy (I'm taking the day off work, so I better have my bike, or I'll be riding my mt bike up there).

Ok that was too long...