Diablo Summit 32 miles

This morning was the coldest morning in a long time. I had my vest and arm warmers on and it felt good.

I knew Rick wasn’t coming but I thought Nicole was. When I saw the rock on the post I knew JB had already started up (must have been pretty early). I rode up a way to keep warm and then came back down to see if Nicole had shown up. At 8:15 she hadn’t so I started up solo.

I decided I wanted to do a fairly easy ride, probably to the Summit but I hadn’t committed. A group of about 8 guys had just started and I caught up to one of them pretty quickly. He admired my bike so I liked him right away, but then he started making excuses about how slow he was so I moved on. As I passed each one of them I said something pleasant and I was still going very easy.

Wildlife Encounter: A deer with antlers in the ditch near the double dips, one tarantula, and one coyote way down by the Gate.

I was just enjoying the early morning air and the views and going easy. Then at Chainbuster I saw JB coming down and we said “hi” to each other but he didn’t turn around. Junction time: 42m30s. I waited around for a while, half expecting Nicole to show up but she never did. I chatted with some of the other people who were coming in from both sides – it seemed like all the riders today were less serious folks… maybe all the fast ones are saving it for the Diablo Challenge tomorrow. The group of eight though were talking excitedly with each other about their own little competitions with each other and with a few others they encountered on the way up - that sounded so familiar from my own early days on the Mountain. Then suddenly, Peter showed up and we decided to Summit together and he agreed we would take it easy.

It was a little windier up high but the sun was warmer too. I pulled my arm warmers down around my wrists and fancied myself a spring classics rider again. I told Peter he was going faster than he agreed to, so he slowed down and we truly did do an easy pace the rest of the way. At the Wall I thought I’d even stay seated as long as possible, and surprised myself when I made it the whole way without getting out of the saddle! I keep emphasizing how easy this ride was because my Summit time was 79 minutes. That makes only a 7 minute difference between a great ride (72 minutes last week) and an easy ride; that MUST be a sign of good conditioning.

I’m still hoping to get my unsupported fall century organized.

My goal over the winter is to hang on to most of that fitness while backing off on the intensity.