It was overcast when I finally set out (got all the way down the stairs with my bike before realizing I hadn't pumped up the tires...had to go back up again) but not too cold. I had on my shorts and a sleeveless jersey, but also had on arm warmers and a wind breaker. Easy layers to remove during a ride.
Not too far into the ride, I was swept up by the Sports Basement cycling group. We kept meeting each other at stop lights. When they finally turned off the road I was on, I was relieved to get rid of the awkwardness. But then they came up behind me at another light and I heard one of them say "She took the short cut". But I also know I was going further today than they were. I talked to one of them about where they were going and where I was going. When I said I was going about 55 miles, he commented "Wow, that's far." The light turned green so I don't know how far they were going.
My first stop was the Calero Reservoir for a bathroom break.
It wasn't long before I was on a road I recognized from club rides. It's a fairly quiet road with rolling green hills and green trees, lupines and golden poppies dotting the landscape, cows hanging out in the grass, and a bubbling creek leading the way to the next reservoir.
At Chesboro Dam I pulled over for a snack and a view, eating my entire bag of sweet potatoes.
I said good morning to the cyclists out enjoying the misty morning, but mostly stood over my bike enjoying the quiet. There were a few people fishing and I wondered if the fishing was any good. I clipped back in and went on my way.
I had a general idea of where I was going. Enough so that if I took a wrong turn it would only change my route by a mile or two. I had an index card with directions clipped to my handlebars, and if all else failed I could just tell my Garmin to "return to start". Although it's old enough that it doesn't know roads so it might be a little extreme with directions. I think the "return to start" function works as the crow flies. The actual route would be up to me.
As I got down near Morgan Hill, the houses started getting bigger and more glamorous. I turned right into town and then looked right and saw the biggest house I have ever seen. I was so distracted by it that I almost missed my turn. It was literally a mansion! Who owns these places?
I located Starbucks and went in for some caffeine. I contemplated getting a little sweet snack too, but I still had my breakfast burrito and didn't need to shove 6 cupcakes into my mouth, which is what I was really thinking. I decided a light sugar fix would be fine, so I ordered a caramel macchiato. I was at mile 30.
I decided to also eat my breakfast burrito, which concerned me a bit, knowing I had a little over 25 miles to go to get home. But I would be riding through towns that had food, so it wasn't too big of a deal. If I got really hungry I could just pull over for a burger or something.
I hopped back on my bike and headed into a busy intersection. After sprinting through the turn, I was hit with a simple truth about human physiology. When you sit down for say, a half hour, and eat a burrito and drink a caramel macchiato, your brain says "Hey, we're done with the leg thing now, let's divert blood to the stomach to digest all that goodness". And when your legs suddenly sprint through an intersection after being seated for so long, and all your blood is in your stomach, there's this really weird thing that happens. You suddenly feel like you're about to die. Ugh. That was fun. Apparently we are taking this leisurely for awhile.
My route home would take me over the mostly flat valley, but would avoid the awful route home I took the last time I rode down here. The thing about flat in these parts though, is that it usually takes part in a valley. And the thing about valleys is that they are windy. And the thing about being on a bike on an open road in a windy valley is that you get tossed around like a leaf. Or maybe it's just me. Maybe I don't weigh enough. Probably should've had the 6 cupcakes.
I noticed cyclists on the other side of the road crouched into aero bars or low in their drops. Weird, I was pretty sure I was getting a head wind, which would mean they were getting a tail wind. No need to get low, take advantage of the push! I crouched low for a bit to get out of the wind.
I should mention at this point that it's allergy season here. The only antihistamine that works for me is Zyrtec, but it also makes me drowsy. So I used a steroid nasal spray before the ride, which cleared up my congestion, but it did nothing for my persistently running nose. Apparently runny noses are common with cycling anyway because they put these little snot wipe pad thingy's on cycling gloves so that you can blow your nose on your gloves. At least I think that's what they're for. My new(ish) gloves have a smaller snot wipe area than my older ones. This is an issue. So I generally wipe as much snot onto my fingers and then on to my shorts as I can, and then use the snot wipe pad as a finishing touch. 36 miles into an allergy ridden ride, this just doesn't cut it.
Anyway, I trekked on, nose running like a faucet. I rode by dozens of bus stops, and it occurred to me that I should carry my student ID card with the transit sticker on it. As a student at SJSU, we get free transit. There are spots for bikes on both buses and light rail. What if I needed a ride?
I finally made it out of the wind and into a residential area. I had to pee. Almaden Lake should be coming up according to my current mileage, and I'd be able to make a stop there. It was hard to tell how far away it really was, so I looked for Mt. Umunum, the image of my battle with Hicks Road. For the longest time I couldn't see it. I kept searching. I hummed songs to myself and eyed bushes on the side of the road.
When I finally spotted the tower on top of Mt. Umunum, it looked so far away! 46 miles had passed. I should be nearing Almaden Lake soon. I took a left on Coleman road and knew it was near. Then there it was! I turned into the parking lot and found the restrooms, drank some water and got back on my bike. I knew it was about ten miles from here to get home. I was hungry.
About 2 miles later the rear of my bike got a little soft and squirrelly. I tried to get a glimpse of the rear tire. It looked a little flat. I pulled over. Yep, flat. I pulled up on to the sidewalk to change my first mid-ride flat. The only other flats I've changed were at home due to me ripping out the valve stem with the pump. At home I have a nice floor pump. On my bike I have only a hand pump. I thought again about that transit pass. Bah, you've got this.
It wasn't too bad except that I think the limit of my ability to pump up my tire by hand is about 40 PSI. I was hoping for about 100. I wasn't too far from home so I had to take what I could get. I thought about the CO2 cartridge pumps and wished I had one in addition to the hand pump. That way I could pump it up as much as possible by hand, and then finish it off with the CO2 pump. More stuff to carry. I would say worth it though. Road bikes don't generally appreciate 40 psi.
Just over a mile from home, I pulled up to a stop light on a left turn and noted the guy standing on the sidewalk waiting to cross. Once again I blew my nose into my fingers and wiped it on my shorts (I'm so classy, I know). But then I thought of something. I looked at my fingers. They were black from the grease from changing my tire. And...I just wiped my snotty nose with them. "That's wonderful" I said out loud. I wiped down my nose with my snot wipe on my glove, hoping to remove any black.
The light turned green for the pedestrian to cross and I waited patiently. As he walked in front of me he avoided making eye contact and had a bit of smirk on his face. Hmm. That probably looked a little interesting, what I just did there. I kept myself from laughing out loud. The light turned green.
But! I made it home. 40 psi and all. 56.6 miles total with an average speed of 14.7 mph. My longest ride yet and on track to have a good century ride at the end of May.
I drank a quick protein shake, took a hot bath to soothe my aching quads and crawled in to bed for an hour nap.
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