joseph met me at the bridge at 8am this morning, and rolled out to marin to do a recovery ride. it was COLD out there today. we even spotted some frost on the wooden bridges on the sausalito bike path. I split off from the bike path and continued on by myself to 4 corners, and eventually the ranger station. I kept the pace smooth and steady, saving myself for the long miles ahead. dropping into stinson beach was cold and fast. my face, hands, and feet were completely numb by time I hit highway 1. I was worried that the cold would continue to seep into my muscles, but I must’ve been wearing enough to just barely hold it together to keep on pedaling. the embrocation was helping keep my bare legs warm, I could also feel the blood pulsing down to my feet. it wasn’t enough to keep them completely warm, but I couldn’t ask for much more. my hands were in a similar situation – my upper body was well protected from the biting cold, and in turn, pushed warm blood to my hands. just enough to keep from going completely numb. ah…winter riding.
bofax didn’t seem as long today, which was nice. the trees protected me from any wind blowing off the coast, and gave me a chance to get warm. there were two cyclists heading the opposite direction, towards bolinas, as I was climbing up. but that was it. it was really quiet out there. I made it up to the top of ridgecrest, tired, but not exhausted. I wasn’t done yet, I wanted to make this ride burn into my legs. after finishing 7 sisters, and descending down mt. tam, I turned off the road, towards muir woods. oh yes, a short detour, but one that would tack on a couple hundred more feet of climbing. I breezed through sausalito to make it back for the final climb of the day. I think I saw fergus (a san francisco messenger, also a road racer) descending highway 1 as I was making my way out…he was in the middle of braking behind some cars, so I didn’t get a chance to wish him a happy thanksgiving. oh well, I’m sure I’ll see him around.
the icing on the cake was e road to the top of conzelman. it’s where I took the picture above. today’s ride probably racked in around 70mi, and roughly 6500ft of climbing. the perfect ride right before thanksgiving lunch/dinner with the family.
big thanks to joseph for hooking me up with some house of commons swag.
happy thanksgiving!
