The first post I did on this was on October 31st, and I was at 7205.9 miles, which was 690.1 miles behind the pace needed to hit 10,000 miles for the year. So, how much ground have I gained? How was the motivation? How was the consistency?
As of this morning (still riding today), I'm sitting at 8227.6 miles ridden, which is still 652.1 miles behind where I need to be. I've gained a little over a thousand miles in that time, and my motivation has varied, to be sure. I've still had mostly 10-plus hour weeks, but that is way down from the 20-hour weeks I was doing before. I'm not entirely sure why; the weather was good for the most part up to now. I think I was just getting a bit bored. Since I still have to get a good chunk of mileage, I have to concentrate on flatter routes to avoid putting out too much energy and extending my recovery time.
How are my chances of still getting to 10,000 miles in 2024? With 41 days left in the year, I need 1772.4 miles to hit that number. Or, 43 miles per day, which is just over 300 miles per week. It would still be easy to hit my goal by looking at it like that. But what I said above stands. I've been getting fairly burned out lately. And I've been very busy with work, which has not left me with much downtime. I'm usually off the bike a lot this time of the year, hiking, walking the dogs, working out in the gym, and doing anything other than riding in the cold, wind and rain for nearly 50 miles every day. But motivation is a weird thing. I hit that 43 today and again in the next few days in the rain, ate well, recovered nicely, and then got in another long one, and I'll start bringing that number down.
Straight up, I kind of wrote this off. I wanted to go for a short ride today and play around with some intervals that my buddy Craig gave me, which would put me further behind the mileage game. However, I'm kind of motivated to get 50+ miles in before we get hit with the atmospheric river that is threatening later this afternoon. Then we'll see!
In my last post, I said that I wanted to share stories or thoughts that I've had during my rides and to keep that promise, I'm going to talk about my ride from this past Sunday.
I woke up on Sunday morning pretty unmotivated to ride and looking forward to hiking to the beach with Kalara and the pups. Then I came home and watched the last MotoGP race of the year, finishing it off with the Seahawks game. All in all, it was a pretty sweet Sunday.
But then, around 0800, I thought that I should at least head out for a quick spin. The weather looked good, so I made a good breakfast (waffles and eggs) and decided to hit it. I was thinking 40 or 50 miles, so I put some mix in two bottles, grabbed two gels, and set off.
I was actually feeling pretty good at the start and was getting into it a bit, so when I got to my first turning point to keep this at 50 miles, I decided to keep going. I really wanted to ride my favorite stretch of road (Sir Francis Drake) instead of one of my least favorites (Nicassio Valley). This would turn this into a 65-mile-ish ride now, but I knew I could stop at a couple of spots to grab more food if needed.
I felt pretty good heading down Sir Francis Drake and decided I wanted to do a little more climbing. I thought that heading up the Limantour climb would hit the spot. Plus, I could now stop in at the Olema store and grab some more ride food on the way back from the shortish climb.
At the top of the climb, I was right around two hours in. I had one of my two gels and saw that I had about half my second bottle left. The problem was that I still felt pretty good and wanted to do more. Screw it, I thought, I'm going to do the Lighthouse. It had been over a year since I last did it, and I had never done it solo before. It seemed like a pleasant day out, and I could grab some food in Inverness while I was on the way. This would now turn this into a minimum of a 100-mile ride, so I called Kalara and let her know that plans had changed.
I descended off Limentour down to Sir Francis Drake and turned left toward Inverness and finally the Lighthouse. The problem is, I missed the store in town. They had repaved and I swear there used to be two pedestrian crossing zones where the store was and unless I was already out of it, I did not see those and just kept on, thinking I'd see the store soonish. Next thing I knew, I was climbing, at which point I realized that I missed my chance to grab more food. I did a quick assessment. I had a few sips of water (with carb mix) and one gel. I was feeling really good and making good pace at this point. Yeah, it had been a bit since I was last out here, but I seem to have remembered that it would not take me too long to get to the Lighthouse, and there was at least water there. I would save my last gel for when I got there and then stop at the store in Inverness on the way back. Smart.
Then it started getting shitty. The mist was getting pretty thick, and the wind was picking up. Not really a full-on headwind, but enough to sap the energy a bit more than I expected. A few more miles in, and the mist was really thick now. It was getting soaked, and of course, I had zero rain kit on. It was so thick that I had to take my glasses off whichreally sucked on the short descents off all the rollers on this road. I could hardly see as mist turned into rain, belting into my eyeballs.
Still, though, I was feeling good at this point. I was trying to keep my pace steady as I only had that one gel in my pocket. I started thinking about how this was way hillier than I remembered. And longer as well. Interesting. A couple of times, I thought I was almost there, but then I'd crest a roller and, when the fog allowed, would see the roadway up ahead. As I got closer to the Lighthouse, the fog was really thick, maybe 10 meters of visibility. Fortunately, there was almost no traffic, so I didn't worry about that too much. Finally, I got to the Lighthouse and went to look over the edge, but as I thought, I could not see anything due to the thick fog. I've ridden to this point four times now and have never seen the Lighthouse, by the way. I stopped for a second to take this picture, filled up my bottles, and headed back.
Luckily, I had a bit of tailwind heading back and made good time. I was still feeling good but realized that I had consumed a very small amount of carbohydrates so far during this ride. Maybe that was what was making me think stupid things at this point. I was flying along and getting closer to Inverness and all the food I could stuff in my mouth when I had the bright idea of doing Mt. Vision instead. It seemed rational in my mind. If I stayed straight, I still had 20 minutes or so to get to town, but the climb is really only 20 minutes as well if you go fast. At the pace I was going I thought it'd only take me 30 minutes or so. And then it was mostly downhill and I'd hit the Due West store in Olema at the base of Limentour.
So, I hit Mt. Vision. The climb is beautiful and a bit steep at the start. The road is narrow, and you feel like you are in another country.
The weather was clearing by this time, and it was mostly dry. I had already decided on doing Vision Quest (Mt. Vision ends, and you have to either turn around and descend the way you came up or take a dirt trail down to a double track to get to the top of Limentour). I was hoping that the singletrack descent would not be muddy or too wet as I was on my road bike with 32s.
I was taking it slow as I didn't want to bonk in the middle of nowhere, but I finally got to the top of Mt. Vision, where the fairly steep singletrack begins.
I won't lie; at this point, I was a bit dizzy from a lack of food, but the legs still felt ok. I don't remember how far I was into the ride, but I think around 70 miles and four hours at this point. I started down the singletrack descent and was surprised by the trail's condition. It was much more rutted out and rocky than the last time I'd been on it which was about a year prior. Thankfully, though, the brush had been recently trimmed, so poison oak was not a concern, and I could see my way down.
I got down that without incident and hit the double track section, which was mainly gravel. I was flying on that section when I almost ate it hard on a really deep and loose gravel section, but I kept it up and finally made it to the top of the Limentour climb. This happens to be one of my favorite descents. Super easy and flowy corners and a steady 5-6% grade make it a super fast and fun descent.
At the bottom, I had just a few minutes' ride to the Olema store. I was pretty smoked at this point but only had the coast and a few climbs to go, and even though I knew it would take a bit longer than normal to get home, I could just take my time, chill and enjoy the views. Anyway, all I had to do when I got home was watch some motorcycle racing and football so no rush.
When I arrived at the store, though, I saw my friends Tony, Brennan, Skyler, Alyssa and a few others. The first thing I thought to myself was that I did NOT want to ride with them. Skyler asked me which way I was heading home (there were only two options from here), and I told him I was going the route that they were not. Then he f'd me by saying that they were splitting up and there would be a group heading home on both routes. Damn.
Since I had already committed to riding the coast home, I was going to be riding with Tony, Brennan, and Alyssa. Great, a super fast dude, the reigning National Champion and his super fast girlfriend. A fine way to finish off the ride. Tony assured me it would be easy for me since they were all on somewhat knobby gravel tires. Right. They graciously waited for me to grab some food. I pounded down a bag of potato chips; the salt and fat felt so good. Then I grabbed a loaf of banana bread, a giant chocolate chip cookie and two Clif Bars. I started to eat the loaf when Tony said that since I knew how to eat on the go, they were off.
Thank god they had fat tires 'cause I could hardly keep up as it was. I was absolutely smoked and now my knees were starting to hurt a bit. But I knew this was my best ticket home and stuck in as close as I could get to the human semi (mean that in a good way, Brennan, you are a very lean and fit-looking semi-truck) as I could get. I got sucked down most of the coast and got my legs torn off on any of the little kickers, but we were making good time. I kept the pace down on the first climb out of Stinson Beach and hung with this small group until the kicker went up Slide Ranch and then popped off the bike. I told them to keep going as I was only one climb away from home now. My knee was killing me, but I knew I wasn't doing any real damage, so I kept on and crept up the final climb out of Muir Woods and descended home in time to watch Jorge Martin become the World Champion and, even better, to see the Hawks beat the 49ers!
Like this ride, this post has gotten a little out of hand, so thank you if you made it this far. Here is the morale of the story: regardless of how long the ride is, have more food than you think you need and pack a little more gear. You never know what that short little ride could turn into.
Until next time.
Oh, and by the way, it's now 0700 as I finish this up, and it's raining and super windy outside. My motivation is back to zero.
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