Soon after I got up this morning I went for a 4.5 mile run.  I have not been running enough lately and felt like I needed to run today because I would not be able to run tomorrow with the club’s 4th of July breakfast and ride.  The legs felt weak, still affected by last Saturday’s Climb to Kaiser.

After returning from the run and taking a quick shower, Ann and I drove up to  Morgan Hill to do the South County Old Goats ride being led by Bob and Kris, which went around the reservoir and went up Croy canyon. It was nice weather but the pace of the group was too slow so Ann and I went ahead.  Ann felt the climb up Croy was much easier than the last time I took her up there, when she was newer to biking.

We waited at the top for the rest of the group. After a long time for the regroup, we headed down.  Once we hit Uvas we turned right and moved out, not seeing the rest of the riders again until the end.  After loading the bikes in the van we went over to Erik’s Deli and ordered soup and a sandwich and it was some time before others came and joined us.  We had an interesting discussion with Ken S., a very long term club member and the artist who has designed many of the jersey’s, including the 30th anniversary jersey.

I still wanted to do the Metcalf Mauler that started at 5 pm so after being home only 1 hour before I took off in my car.  I left rather late so I was afraid I would not get there before they left and since the temperature was hot, they may be going an alternate way.  I was glad I arrived at 4:55, so plenty of time.  At first it looked like it would just be Donny, Carl, Art and myself.  Lisa was not joining today.  Just before we were ready to leave another 4 or 5 people showed up, including Jim W.  I was not sure about how my legs would hold out considering I had run this morning and had already biked 31 miles with Ann.  Once we got going I felt strong and took a few pulls on the way to Metcalf.

We started to climb the hill and Jim and Carl were right with me.  I was going to keep my heart rate below 170, unlike last week’s big challenge.  I wanted to see how my time would compare using a lower heart rate.  After awhile I was climbing alone. Then Carl caught back up and rode with me awhile, then we were joined by Danny (a 15 year old who is on the Discovery Team junior team) who had started late.

I moved the heart rate up close to 170 and then it was just Danny and I, all the way to the top.

My time to the top was 13:35, which was 30 seconds slower than last week’s challenge, but a time I was very happy with since it was my PR time until a couple of months ago.  Also for the first time ever, I was the first one to the next two regroup points.  I usually fall behind on the decent, but felt strong and comfortable today.  I guess I was still energized by the Climb to Kaiser.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides, Training
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