Well, I didn’t make it up either Page Mill or Congress Springs road on Saturday. But it’s not a bad thing. Friend called me up on Friday wanting to do a group ride down the coast to Woodside, and I decided to do that instead–so, 4.5 hours of beautiful riding, not too challenging, wonderful time.
Sunday I decided to tackle Page Mill Road, so started going up it. Unfortunately I ran out of daylight on the way up, but I did pretty well overall. I’m not sure I could have gone all the way up the steep parts–towards the end I was having to stop to rest every 100-200 yards–but I’m satisfied with how well I did. If I *had* to, I think I could do the entire thing.
One of the things my ascent of Page Mill Road taught me (or perhaps reminded me of) is that endurance cycling is not about physical ability, it’s about persistence and respecting your body. The persistence part is just keeping going. Respecting your body means stopping when your body needs a rest, or you feel like you could use some extra time. It isn’t about flogging yourself to do more, better, faster–there’s a lot of patience involved, both with meeting your goal and keeping within your physical limitations.
I am not a fast cyclist and I am not a strong cyclist, but I can make it up one of the steepest hills in the area with patience and a willingness to stop and rest. I can do this Ride.
I have also discovered, to my great excitement, that it is physically possible to ride in an off-the-shoulder top with boning. Now the sky’s the limit on costuming…
Next weekend I still plan to tackle Congress Springs Road–go down from Palo Alto to Los Gatos for a cup of hot chocolate, then bicycle up Congress Springs/Great Basin Road to the top of Skyline, come back down the 84 (Page Mill descent is a bit too hairy/scary for me to want to try it), and make my way back to Palo Alto. I’m debating it, though–I may have a friend riding with me, and I’m not sure I want to put him through that route, which is a lot tougher than anything on the actual Ride.
Meanwhile, I have gotten my rug hung (with the help of quite a bit of Velcro)–now all that’s left to do in the living room/dining room is to hang my cross-stitch piece (Teresa Wentzler’s The Castle) and reupholster the chairs. Then I need to get my thangka framed and hung in the hallway, and I’ll be DONE! Then I can get on with my life and enjoy my nice new place. 🙂
