A fine brisk morning for the last Saturday ride before Daylight Wasting Time begins. I'm getting my second eyeball un-cataracted next Friday. Hopefully I can work in the Wednesday ride in a couple days, and then be out for a week or so.
Felt good, didn't go very fast. Just me and JB - we talked about football and politics and Halloween.
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Charlie and JB agreed to a late start so I could do some work stuff. 2PM and the weather was nice... just a bit chilly. And the winter bike has been returned to service so that was fun too. Charlie talked about his recent cycling shoe purchase... he wears a size 50! so not a lot of stores had a lot of selection for him. Another criteria was he wanted replaceable heel pads and he did get a pretty nice but not flashy pair of Fizik shoes with two BOA buttons.
I felt good enough to try to keep up with Charlie, but those last two miles found your humble blogger in the red zone. Then JB caught me and passed me by the Ranger House. Just a HINT of that calf cramp from Saturday was hanging around.
SGR had been closed for a couple days for road work, but they were done now and Charlie could make the loop back to home.
JB texted while I was getting ready and said he wasn't coming. So I thought about it and decided I would drive to The Church and then try to do a Juniper. Worked out perfect.
There was a trail running event called The Diablo Stomp going on, so it was kind of crowed on The Mountain.
Only a couple miles in and I started to get this weird cramp below my right calf - it made me need to move my foot around; it hurt in the neutral position, so I tried pointing my toes down... that was worse so I tried pointing my toes up... that was even worser, so I just big my lip and rode and hoped that the cramp wouldn't explode on me. I even stopped below The Bump to give myself a little massage. Then I remembered that last night I had exactly this same cramp and it woke me up and hurt and never went away, but I stopped it from going nuclear.
At Junction there was a guy who restored old bikes and he was talking to everybody - he knew a little about Kleins. There was a rider there who had a custom Bianchi steel bike that was pretty cool.
So then, I figured I could keep my cramp at bay long enough to do Juniper... and just barely did.
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| Cal Jersey AutoBlog |
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| The cramp massaging pull-out. |
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| I was going to tell this guy his bike was too small for him... but I couldn't catch him. |
The blood bank called a few weeks ago and talked me into making a deposit yesterday. It's been a long time since I donated... ever since they closed the Blood Centers of the Pacific location in Shadelands. So I was a little concerned about the performance hit of being a pint low. They said "wait 24 hours before vigorous exersize". I figured that was for other people, and I'd be good after only 19 hours. I was winded and weak from the time I rolled out the door. Charlie and JB celebrated my handicap by riding away easily. I even had to stop at the Upper Ranch for a breather. Did I talk you into donating yourself? Sign up HERE.
For no particular reason, I wore my Seattle to Portland jersey... wow, 2009 seems like not that long ago and forever at the same time. Anyway, at The Washout I passed a rider who said she had that same jersey from that same ride, so we talked for a while. She had done like five STPs in a row, but never the one-day version.
Then at the Ranger House, I got passed by my neighbor Mark. I told him I gave blood and that's why I was so slow and hideous... he pretended to sympathize on his way around. He's not a showy kind of guy - but he had on some really spiffy blue shoes that would get anyone's attention.
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| Fire House to Gate = 11 minutes. |
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| Plotting their attack already. |
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| Trusty STEED is getting a little gray around the temples. |
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| These lane markers are not only painted on... they're kind of thick... like raised. You can feel the bumps when you ride over them. |
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| STP rider. |
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| Mark! |
