so that's 80

81.33, actually.

my behindus is sore. i'm not sure if it's just all the mileage, these particular pants, the fact that my saddle/"zertz" junk is now a year old, or all of the above. but the arse started hurting around mile 50 and didn't get better.

the last 10 miles were easy. the 20 before that were really hard.

right from the start i was dooming myself to a difficult finish: i raced some dude up crystal springs/polhemus. i had several meters on him, and shouted (jokingly) at him that he was cheating as he cut through the parking lot to get to ralston trail. i've been turning at the light ever since i've been able to make it up without dismounting. it's an ego thing ;)

which, as it happens, got a lot of exercise this ride. i hit the ralston trail before this dude did, and i made it over horseshit bridge before him, but he passed me coming down. oh well.

lots of big pelotons out today, and i got passed by most of them. actually, i got passed by one on canada and was stuck behind it, but fortunately they turned right at woodside, while i turned left.

not much happened between then and the next informal race. heading up alpine (the first time) a pair of women roadies (i could tell they were roadies because i had to dodge their field blows) passed me. i kept up with them easily, letting them block my wind all the way to arastradero, going about 5mph faster than i would have gone by myself. i could have passed, but i didn't want to show off (at that point :D)

i had to go all the way down foothill past stevens creek blvd. to get my mileage. i didn't want to go too far into the park because it gets hilly and cold. the hills didn't bother me so much as the cold. i turned back 1 mile short of my intended turnaround mileage.

somewhere a couple of stoplights before page mill, i was waiting for my green and a small paceline of women roadies pulled up behind me and started talking about women roadie paceline topics. for some reason, i decided i wasn't going to let them get ahead of me. for how long, i knew not. i looked down at my gear. i was in a really big gear for starting. i don't know how to change gears while stopped, so when it turned green, i got out of my seat and used the old deadlifting muscles. before i knew it was pushing 23mph and the ladies were out of earshot. i kept a really hard pace (for me), with my HR bumping against LT territory (whereas normally on my weekend long ride, i keep it on the easy end of aerobic) from that point to alpine, and up to portola. the paceline never made it past me, nor did they make it close enough to draft me, but they were really close a bunch of times -- enough to keep me rather exercised.

i pulled over on portola right after the stop sign, to have a snack, and i was going to thank them for setting the pace (:D) but they continued up alpine to the "hard core" section. wow!

actually, i ought to try that some time -- it seemed hard core in the car, but i bet it's no worse than KMR.

then, i was putzing around on whiskey hill, taking my time, and a guy with carbon cupholders zips past me right before the hill. i woke up out of my stupor and got on his tail. i had to coast up the hill (!) to avoid hitting or passing him. i drafted him to the incline part before the stop sign, then engaged those deadlift muscles again to blast to the top. then he passed me on canada, but the point is that i passed a guy with carbon cupholders.

someone pointed out that maybe he was on mile 110 of his recovery ride. no, i'm positive he was time trialing and had just finished his warmup. sucker!

canada the second time was a drag, especially with the sore arse. sawyer camp was a drag too, on the "out" leg. on the "back" portion, i reached some zen state where i was taking the curves at 20mph instead of my usual 15mph, and felt like i was going in slo-mo.

someone screeched their brakes behind my right before the obstacle course, at about mile 79. i thought that i wasn't going to make 80, but it was some kids going to fast in mom's car, or whatever. anyhow, they didn't hit me.

my bike's about a year old now. i should check the records to see how long i've had it. so far we've done well for each other.