one step closer to my century

60.75 miles, 4:05 (total).

i took my normal route and added a trip to sawyer camp trail, which seemed like a good idea until a) i realized i had to do a repeat of ralston trail, which isn't a big deal but kinda lame for a route, and b) oh shit it's sunday.

the cars were stacked on 92, going to half moon bay or whatever it is that people do when stacked on 92 on a weekend, as if they're the only ones who thought of a sunday trip to the beach. i know: i used to do it. didn't take me long to learn not to, though.

i zipped past them and considered shouting "ride a bike!" but i try to represent cyclists a little better than that.

on the other hand, i ran my first stoplight today, and i was all set to run a second when it changed.

a lot of stuff happens in 60 miles and i've forgotten most of it. most fresh in my mind is the sawyer camp trail portion (i rode only 3 miles of it, which is the worst part on a weekend, of course). at one point, a group of 8-12 people, with babies, strollers, and cameras, were all clustered right in the middle of the road. i had about 1 foot of clearance on either side of the cluster. they stared bovinely at me as i approached. as i passed them, slowly, i said with the sort of exasperation that you feel during the last 8 miles of a PR ride, "come on, guys!" yeah, maybe not too descriptive of the problem or suggestive of the solution, but i think they got the idea.

on foothill, i found myself the leader of a paceline. not just one dude drafting me, but 3 or 4. neat! after a while, i inadvertently stumbled upon a trick. i dropped 2 cogs easier (i was in my middle chainring), rested for about 30-40 seconds, then flipped up onto my biggest chainring, kept my cadence steady, and dropped the lot of them. ha!

i probably should have continued on foothill to make my mileage today, but i didnt want to cover new territory. i knew sawyer camp trail would be lame, but at least it wouldn't have a surprise 20% climb.

i saw some dudes turn off alpine onto arastradero, i should look up where that goes. i know it meets up later on with foothill, that might be a nice alternative to an out-and-back.

i thought to myself as i worked on my 60 miler that 60 miles puts me mentally way closer to a full century than a 50 mile ride, because a 50 mile ride is hard, and a century is two of those back to back! but a 60 mile ride is hard, followed by a 40 mile ride, which is way easy, barely more than i do on a weekday training ride. so there you have it.

i saw another tandem today, at exactly the same place i saw the tandem mountain bike during the week. once again it was white guy in front, asian girl in back. different couple tho, and this was a road bike. i saw them later on in sawyer camp, where i almost ran down an old-ish lady who figured looking where she was crossing the road wasn't really necessary.

oh, and though he waved me on, i offered to help a dude who seemed in trouble.

i worried that i wouldn't have enough mojo left to sprint the obstacle course, but i did. i dunno where i store it but i always have something left for that. it helps when there's a fat guy on a mtb going faster than me. it doesn't matter that i've just biked 57 miles and he probably hasn't -- it will not stand!

and it didn't. now i'm tired and even with 3 applications of sunscreen, my honker is burnt. so it goes. shower, shave, taco, fish waffle, and then feasting and booze. the life of a cyclist is always intense!