12/22 Rides

[jobob]

Rode my first metric century in ages!

I went over Palomares Road, headed up to Pleasanton then to Sunol, and over Calaveras Road and through Fremont & up Mission Blvd., ending at Mission Coffee where LeeBob graciously picked me up.

I'm still climbing awfully slow, and there was quite a bit of climbing - nothing particularly steep, but lots of long grades - so I eeked out 62.5 miles and 3750 ft of climbing at a rip-roarin' 11.5 mph. Can you say booyah?

It was pretty chilly but between my 2 layers of wool on top, the thin wool tights over my witches britches knickers, double layer of wool socks, earmuffs & gloves, I was doing fine, especially with all the climbing. I usually had to take my gloves off while climbing. I wore my yellow windstopper vest only for the last 15 miles or so, for the descent down Calaveras and the rest of the way to Mission Coffee.

The Calaveras bald eagle was perched at the tippety-top of his/her electrical tower, there was no missing it. Lovely sight.

I got tired on the rollers on Calaveras between the false summit & the Wall, but between the rest on the long descent into Milpitas and the even longer break I had changing my rear flat tire (happily well after the descent), I felt pretty good over the last 15 miles or so.