Muse back!
October 06, 2007 / Saturday
Hill? What Hill?
Earlier today, Aaron dragged me away from my laptop and made me go for a bicycle ride. I didn't want to go because I was geeking out over what I hope will be the mother of all human-error-reducing stats calculation Excel workbooks (to tide me over until I build the mother of all dynamic stats reporting applications, which will take a while), but he insisted, cited the fact that I'd been a lardball all week (it's true; I haven't ridden in 9 days and have been dining on trayfuls of bread pudding), then insisted some more until I relented. Boy, am I glad he made me go!
At the beginning of the ride, however, I was not so glad. My left knee ached before we even left my driveway, most likely from disuse. Up until the halfway point, Aaron kept offering to turn around, but in typical (stupid) fashion I refused. I refuse to quit, dammit! Not unless I can't pedal anymore. We continued on down Foothill, up Sand Hill, and around on Portola and Alpine. Despite the knee discomfort, I had a much easier time with the hills than the last (also first and only) time I rode this loop. I did the entire ride with several gears to spare, and had a good amount of fun mashing up a bunch of the rolling hills. Hill? What hill? :-D
I must admit, I cheated a bit by drafting behind Aaron. I'd never done it for a significant stretch before today, and now, having done it, I must say, what a difference! At times I even gained on him by simply tucking and coasting, even though he was pedaling. Drafting, very knee friendly...
After about 20 miles, I either finally warmed up or got into a groove. I discovered that riding harder actually made my knees hurt less. How strange! This made for a strong ride home; Foothill and Fremont passed quickly, and I rolled onto my driveway feeling really damned good about finally finishing the route that I'd unsuccessfully attempted several times earlier this year.
I put my bike away and walked up the stairs to my door. No pain. No pain! WoohoO! Once inside, I popped some ibuprofen, stretched, and sat down to bloggedy blog and ice my knees.
I'm not sure what makes me happier: the fact that I finally finished the route, or that this marks the longest distance I've ever covered in a single ride. 34.9 miles, and less pain than after the 31.1 miles at TdP a couple months back.
Yesh.
October 6, 2007 06:41 PM | Road
Comments
Drafting good! This morning I braved the cold and rode to Point Reyes Station, averaged about sixteen and a half MPH, for the last mile or two coming back I got passed by a couple of speed demons and tucked in behind 'em, got pulled along at a solid 25MPH.
Need to find people who ride earlier in the morning so I can do more group riding.
Posted by: Dan Lyke at October 7, 2007 11:14 AM
LOL, I still need to get over, "Waah, it's cold out, I'm gonna stay home and watch TV instead."
Posted by: Viv at October 7, 2007 12:50 PM
Yeah, part of my 16MPH for the outbound leg was that any faster and I'd freeze. I shaved my head a few months ago, and even with a hat under my helmet 20MPH early in the morning feels like I just scarfed two jumbo slurpees in half a minute.
Posted by: Dan Lyke at October 8, 2007 07:31 AM
He didn't actually use the term lardball did he?
Posted by: Shadow at October 8, 2007 01:05 PM
Um, maybe? I don't remember, I was too busy geeking out!
Posted by: Viv at October 8, 2007 06:25 PM