Today I visited the East Bay. Greg, member of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Cycling Club (a.k.a. someone who rode Foxy’s Fall Century with last October) is a Training Ride Leader in the East Bay, home of the hills. He suggested I come over for one of their Cat 1 rides. Other than the 8:15 meeting time in Orinda (which is an hour away) it seemed like a great idea.
There were two “named” climbs this time – Rheem Boulevard and Happy Valley Road. Rheem was very steep – I reached that point where I had to “cross-train” (a.k.a. walk) a little bit. If a climb gets too steep it becomes a matter of protecting my knees, not actually cardio fitness. Happy Valley was longer, but less steep so I handled it better. I didn’t have to get off the bike, at least. And oh yeah, Camino Diablo had a bit of a climb on it, but the walk they roll in the East Bay they didn’t think it was worth mentioning.
The weather was much warmer this weekend. I actually ended up first taking the sleeves off of my jacket, and then disposing of the jacket entirely. The ride was pretty good, although we’re still tweaking the fit of my bike and I think the seat needs to come up (which we did). Also, the last adjustments to the bike went too far and it was shifting funny, but that’s also been addressed for tomorrow. This will be my first weekend of back-to-back “serious” rides. I’m hoping that goes well.