no data = fun

maybe it was my early bedtime. maybe it was pleasant dreams (though they did end with my parents' dog, harley, nibbling forcefully on my toes (!)). maybe it was the slightly undercooked but still delicious spaetzle in my tummy. maybe it was the old potrero. maybe it was my bowels' tremendous desire to expunge themselves of the horrific little sichuan lunch that had been foisted upon/inpon them. whatever the reason, i woke up 45 minutes early today, well rested, energetic, and eager to not go into work early.

when inflating my tires, i noticed that i had not removed and returned the speed sensor when i took back my cyclocomp on sunday. that made me feel really, really bad. i will take it back today (it's Turkish Tuesday, and the Turkish place is close to SCREI) but I really hope there are no ramifications for the nice girl who neglected to check the box contents (which was a good idea at the time, i had not forgotten my still-sweaty heart rate monitor chest strap).

i hit the road naked, no instruments, no chest strap. i kept feeling like there was something wrong with my jersey, but there was not. i kept looking down to check my speed, cadence, heart rate. it's a reflex. i couldn't stop it.

i think i did great on all metrics. but the metric that i had forgotten about while "training" was fun. i had a whole lot of that today. instead of taking my normal tuesday route, i diverted up crystal springs, which i'd wanted to do for a while. it was not nearly as hard as i'd feared, though i had a bit of a black-humor laugh when i spied the 280 overpass and mistook it for the end of my hill-climb. i've taken that road down, but never up. going up gave me the opportunity to appreciate the immensity of the 280 overpass, and to really appreciate the amazing sounds that it makes, echoing throughout the gentle canyon, as cars and big-rigs speed their way across it. when i got to the top, i considered exploring sawyer camp, but did not. the ride toward bunker hill was impressively scenic on both sides -- another thing i did not notice when zooming by in the opposite direction, eyes on my speedometer.

for the first time ever, bunker hill's arse end was deemed to be the lesser of two evils, the alternative being an unpleasant climb up a busy 92 to canada to ralston trail. i must have taken it easy on crystal springs, bunker hill never seemed so easy. so easy, in fact, that i turned right on Something Drive instead of descending, noodled around in the highlands for a while, keeping it flat, until i started an inevitable descent. as i approached a steep drop i experienced the delight of the roller coaster -- i could not see over the hill. where did it go? i had no idea, but i whee'd over it and down possibly the most entertaining descent i've yet taken, and found myself in top gear at a stop sign on polhemus, right uphill of de anza, at the junction of the moderate and hard part of that road.

i did some donuts to change gears to one that i could use for crossing the busy street, and started my trip home. but ascension drive was calling me, and i took it, and it did not wipe me out, so i hooks a left on 21 and lewis, some brothers shootin' dice so i said "let's do this".

at the top of rainbow drive i had the choice of 2 cul-de-sacs or another beefy ascent. i stopped to drink some water, and noticed that i had missed behind me an adolescent deer snacking on someone's hedges. i remembered my toe-nibbling dream and kept my distance, lest the nibbling had been prescience. we shared some words and i waved goodbye. back down rainbow, but i really wasn't done yet. i went further up ascension, this time pushing "big gears" (well, okay, not big big, but i wasn't in granny+granny, at least). i muscled it up the hill, my legs remembering what it's like to muscle things, and quickly ran out of steam. that's what i get for focusing on aerobics for the last month, eh?

anyhow, i dumped it down to easy gear, finished the hill, and, faced with even more steeper hills in all directions but the one i had come from, i turned around and headed toward the obstacle course. unfortunately, the safest way for me to negotiate the course is to stay almost on the yellow line. yeah, sorry dudes behind me, but what will be a minor annoyance for you will ruin my whole year. the course is only about a half mile long.

tuesday is supposed to be my "easy" recovery ride. i suppose this could have been a lot harder, but "easy" and "hills" aren't usually associated at my level of fitness. whatever. biking is supposed to be fun, and just in case you missed the title and tone of this post, i had that aplenty.