Last great ride of 2006
Next week, I will be away on away on holiday with no access to my bicycle, so I wanted to get on last good ride in before year was up. My favorite routes always include a lot climbing and Skyline Highway. I decided to the reverse of the ride I done back on the 4th of July.Early this morning I had meet up with a couple friends from TNT (Mary and Sanjay) to do a quick run at Rancho. It was a 4 mile run, mostly flat but good enough to get the heart going in a few places.
After the run, I started my ride from Foothill Crossing, and headed south on Foothill towards Steven's Creek reservoir, I as I continued along Steve's Creek Canyon road, there was more and more climbing to be done. However this was nothing compared to steep climb up Redwood Gulch Road, it felt so steep I could just reach out in front me and touch the road, as if it were a wall in front of me. Within minutes on the my heart rate had reach 195 and I was in my easiest gear, there were two options, stop and recover or continue and perissh :-) I choose life. It didn't take long for my heart to go back into an acceptable range so I could continue. I had to stop a couple more times but finally made it to the stop. In that 1.4 mile stretch there is 710feet of climbing, I think this hill needs to be my fitness marker set :)
From there it was on to Highway 9, which is relentless but not too painful. By the time I had reached the top of Highway 9 I only gone 11 miles, but climbed 2500feet, and now for the payoff. Skyline has a net downhill from Highway 9 for the next 15 miles till Highway 84. Usually I would take 84 down to Woodside but I felt overly ambitous, so thought I continue all the way to 92.
It was only another 10 miles but hadn't really anticipated the further 1000 feet of climbing needed. That was a long 10 miles as I was getting tried at the point, but then it was a fast decent on 92, followed by a nice sprint along Canada Road. It was just then I realized I was quickly losing the daylight, so all the more reason to keep up the pace.
For the first time in 40 miles I hit a traffic light at Pagemill that caused be to stop and unclip from the pedals. the sun was gone and I was relying on street lights. The light turned green and midway through the intersection I realized my chain had come off, I was spinning but not moving. The light very quickly turned Red and I scrambled to get out of the way, of the cars which could see I was in difficulty. That was the last bit of excitement on the ride from there is was just straight back a long foothill.
Ride Details (Click here to view on Google Earth):
62 Miles5 hrs 25mins (approx)
5090 Feet of Climbing
6226 Calories
posted by Nick @ 10:00 PM
Comments: 0
