So, was supposed to be working on my presentation today... but my roommate asked if I wanted to go for a ride, and it was a beautiful day. My roommate just got a road bike a couple of weeks ago, but has been spinning for almost a year and is good shape, so she has taken to road riding really quickly.

Well, I had an idea of a good route to do, but she suggested that we do Old La Honda Rd. This is considered one of the premiere climbs in the Bay Area, and most road riders know their times to the top. It is 3.37miles long with an average grade of 7.3%... all up climbing 1290 ft. Very quiet road through the redwoods, lots of bikes, not a lot of cars, really narrow, and lots of switchbacks. I had attempted this climb once before (last year), but took it WAY to fast at the beginning and hit that hurl wall about a third of the way up... I ended up walking over half of it, so really wasn't too excitied about doing it again.

So, we get to the bottom of the climb, take a breather to get something to drink and I eat some sport beans and then start off. We get into our grannie gears (I love my tripple!) and I tell Amie that we need to keep the speed below 6 MPH. We ended up keeping it around 5 MPH for the entire climb.

But we made it!!! and with out stopping at all! I was even able to talk most of the way up. I really can't believe how much stronger I am this year, I think a lot of that is from spin class and BodyPump (a group weight lifting class)

After we got to the top, we of course had to go down at some point.. so rode a bit along Skyline, the road at the top on the Santa Cruz Mountains and took 84 down. That is a kind of crazy decent because there is a lot of traffic, and no shoulder so you have be willing to take the lane pretty frequently. It was a fun decent, but I found that my middle back was really tightening up during it. Do you think that is a core issue?

So, the final distance was 19.3 miles, but with lots of climbing. I have to say, I had a really good time doing Old La Honda today... I guess it is better when it doesn't beat you! I think that I will be doing it again soon

Guess I am really going to be working tomorrow