The Lonely Road

Due to the ALC Expo/Kick Off Party up in the city Saturday there weren’t many organized rides.  I felt the time had come for me to go out on my own.  I was a bit worried because Tom was out of town so I didn’t really have any backup.  I could always call my homegirl Leeann for help, but since she has 3 kids and a husband (so, like, 4 kids) I’d only do that if things really got bad.  For the most part I was on my own.

Using Ride With GPS I modified a training ride from a couple of weeks ago with a suggestion from the Cycling Goddess to add a few more miles.  The day was pretty grey.  Cloud cover was present the whole day – although it was looking at times like it might burn off.  It was cool, but not cold.  I had on knee warmers (like I probably almost always will) but I didn’t need full finger gloves, for example.
I started out from home and headed out Grant Road all the way to Foothill Expressway.  That was a good thing to do, because now I have an easy way to get out there.  Once they’re done tearing up the road I suspect I’ll be doing that quite a bit.  Foothill eventually became Stevens Canyon Rd and went through the lovely park as before.  And then I got to the stop sign where Mt. Eden Road is.  But unlike last time I turned right and continued on Stevens Canyon.
Even if the skies hadn’t been grey it was going to be pretty dark back in there.  Lots and lots of trees and lovely cover.  I came to the stop sign where Redwood Gulch is, and having researched that particular road (well aware that one of the TRLs wants to take us up it in 3 weeks), I shuddered.  And then I kept going until Stevens Canyon came to an end.  It was a very gentle climb, just enough to get the heart rate up a little.  Then I turned around and headed back down.  The road was rather bumpy which I felt more on the way down, vertical compliance or not.  But when I got back to the Mt. Eden stop sign I noticed something – I was VERY dirty. Parts of the bike were caked in mud.  Oh no, not my baby!
Well, nothing to do about it except keep going.  The ride up Mt. Eden seemed even easier this time than last.  Although I missed having company to distract me it was just a pretty simple and easy climb.  I stopped at the top, scarfed some food, and bombed down.  Since I had gotten a late start I wanted to try and keep things quick so I did not dilly dally.  I bombed down the descent and came back to Sunnyvale-Saratoga.
The thing I like about going back to Mtn. View after being up in the hills is that it’s all very gradually downhill.  So I can crank along and see myself doing 18 to 20 mph in the bike lane and feel like a cycling god.  I know I’m not but it is more fun to go fast than to go slow.  Especially when you know there is no more climbing to be done.  I made a brief stop at Leeann and Mike’s house to say hi and show off my bike.  I hadn’t expected it to be quite so dirty though.
After I got back from the Expo up in the city I did the only thing I could do.  I washed my bike.  No way I could let it stay that dirty!  

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