06-13-07-The Wednesday Noon Ride.gpx-t0

A very interesting day – it was brutally hot, but the pace to Old La Honda was actually fairly fast, all things considered. Then, when we hit Old La Honda, the pack exploded and I was soon off the back – but ahead of Jeff (a guy I met at an earlier Noon Goon ride). I was going hard, with a heartrate close to time-trial mode – but simply not fast enough to stay with the main pack, who slowly and steadily pulled away from me. I decided to continue to go at a time trial pace to the 1.0 mile mark, then turn around and head over to Hwy 84, where I could meet up with the main racers after they climbed Old La Honda in about 19 to 20 minutes. I met a woman, Beth, and her son, Garrett, who were on the ride – both very strong riders – she got up the climb in about 21 minutes, she said – it was just her third time doing that ride – kind of like me! I rejoined the remnants of the pack, which included Beth and Garrett, at the bottom of Hwy 84 and flew back with them to the start area – I did quite fine for the last part of the ride, and even participated in the sprint at the end – I think I got 3rd or 4th. Then I rode with Beth and Garrett for a few extra credit miles at a fairly relaxed pace before winding back to the start/finish area on Old Page Mill. All in all, a successful day, even though I only did the first 1.0 mile of the Old La Honda climb – next week I’ll see if I can hang in for the first 1.65 miles of the climb, which is half the climb in both time and distance.