Because of our trip to San Diego last week, I needed to get in a good long training ride today, especially considering the Devil Mountain Double is coming up in 2 weeks. There was no scheduled ride that had both the miles and the feet of climbing that I wanted so I ended up combing parts of one ride with another. At 5:30 am, I started biking in the dark (and a bit cold) to meet up with the Tierra Bella worker’s ride. They were doing the 200K route. Initially I was just going to do that ride but it was too short on miles (only 122) and the climbs were not tough enough for what I wanted. But I rode with them up Uvas, then down Bailey and back to Morgan Hill. The timing worked out great because I arrived in Morgan Hill just on time for a Nightriders ride that started at 8:00 from there. We planned to do a triple crown ride and four other riders joined me for that.

We biked up the bike path, then climbed Metcalf. After going down the backside and then San Felipe, we made our way over to Quimby for our second major climb. It was now getting much warmer and I could feel the heat as we were nearing the top of Quimby. Quimby is a very steep hill and with only a double crankshaft, I was really torquing my leg muscles. Doug and I got to the top quick enough to have time to go down the East side and climb back up to the summit. Two of the guys had done a mega mountain bike ride the day before and it was too much for one of them, who headed back after reaching the summit. The four of us then descended down the East side and then up Mt. Hamilton Road to the summit. It was getting very hot now.

Only two days earlier I had climbed Mt. Hamilton with John, but today it seemed much more difficult. I was glad to reach the summit where we had a break for awhile. Since the summit is over 4,000 feet, the temperature there was pleasant, but still warm.

As we descended back down, we could feel the heat and as we climbed back up the East side of Quimby it was getting into the 90′s. We were lucky to have a tail wind on the way back, but I couldn’t seem to keep hydrated enough. Drinking hot water is not something I am anxious to do. By the time we got back to Morgan Hill I was very tired. Chuck gave us something to eat at his house and then I jumped back on the bike to return home. I ended up with 138 miles total and over 10,000 feet of climbing. In many ways I felt worse than after the recent Solvang Double Century. I guess it was the heat, which hit the mid 90′s during the later part of the ride.

Categories: Cycling Group Rides, Training
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