Real Hills

Since I brought my bike down to the Bay Area with me, it's only natural that I'd want to get out and ride. One of my coworkers has tried to haul me out daily for forays into the hills. On Monday, Claus and I did what he called a "recovery" ride up Arlington Ave. into Kensington. The grade isn't too bad, and the road surface is good, so it wasn't a killer ride. But in no way did my body consider it "recovery".

On Tuesday, Claus corralled another coworker, Tim--a Cat 3 rider, to come with us for another jaunt into the hills. This time, the route was up Tunnel Road. The climb itself isn't so bad, maybe 5 or 6% for a few miles (I haven't downloaded my HR monitor data yet), but there are a few short, sharp shocks, as the Brits would call them, leading up to the climb. Claus and Tim raced away from me, as they're used to doing these sorts of climbs. And of course Tim is doing this on a single-speed, 42-17. Punk.

Once you get up there, though, you can have a bit of fun on the descent. I'm still not used to leaning into turns, afraid that I'll lose traction and bail, so I braked a bit heading into the first couple of turns on Claremont, but after it straightened out a bit, I tucked and ran, reaching 60 kph.