“Oh man.”
“Why am I doing this?”
Not even out of sight of the parked cars did these thoughts cross my mind. Winter had brought the rain to Hawaii, so there had been little as far as bike riding going on for me since the beginning of November. Immediately, my feet and left hip began to hurt. It was New Year’s Eve and I got out of work after half-a-day, so I met Ckucke, Scat, Jeff, Sara, Danny, and Dr. Paul for a spin up Tantalus. Root got stuck at work with the last minute rush, so he didn’t make the start time. The first section up to the stop sign went leisurely. I had gone a little ahead to take pictures of everyone passing, but after putting the camera away, I ended off the back – where I would stay for the remainder of the climb. The lack of recent saddle time and a chili-dog plate lunch eaten only an hour before ride time dragged me down.
I had put 4.5 bar in the tires of the Bridgestone to reduce the rolling resistance, but it still felt slow. Ckucke, Scat, and Paul were pimping slicks: If I were less of a lazy-ass and had the utility of cash, I would have switched out the dirt tires for pavement ones. The switchbacks were the normal grind, and the euco climb painful. I felt it in my legs only, letting me know that this is where the weak link was. When my legs are in shape, I feel the strain in my lower back along this section. Even when the grade slackened at the top of euco, I didn’t feel much of a respite from the effort. Paul and I had nearly dropped beyond sight range of the rest of the group at this point. The turns went by mind-numbingly – past the 3300 Flintstones rock, the little downhill, the bamboo grove, and the ginger patch. Cresting the climb at the one-lane bridge the burn let off momentarily. The remaining climb seemed to go easier after the brief recovery, partially due to the fresh pavement.
It took me 48-minutes to the top. Not much different from the last time I rode this with Ckucke, but easily double what I used to do this in back in the heyday. My calves were twinging at the edge of cramping, so I stretched them while we rested before the downhill. There were riders out in force on Wednesday, all but us on 700c. The top was damp, so I held the speed down on the descent. I wasn’t sure where the threshold of grip on the Hutchinsons was on wet pavement, so I played it safe through the turns. There were even several places where water was flowing across the roadway, one in particular at the entrance to a turn! Along the descent, I came through a turn into the shadowed side of the mountain, and just as I thought, “gee, it’s cool here,” I found myself cutting through a sun-backlit wall of convective fog bracketed in by the damp asphalt and bamboo grove on either side.
Past the Ha’u, the road became dry, but there were muddy traces where the water had been running across the road earlier. Down through the concrete turn and through the houses, there was a lot of debris on the pavement. The road had already changed from fresh pavement to potholed, peel-off minefield slalom before the last straight, but here was a recent water or sewer line repair that put a meter-wide yumpy line down the center of the downhill lane. Chris met us after work at the cars to give us his best New Year wishes prior to heading home.
Now a day later as I write this on the first of the year, I can feel the ride in my shoulders, neck, and legs.
Why do I do this?
Because I like it!
D = 16.70 km (10.38-miles), Vavr = 15.2 km/h (9.4 mph), Vmax = 62.7 km/h (39.0 mph), T = 1-hour, 5-minutes (climb took Paul and me 48-minutes, so down and back to the cars was 17-minutes)
Pictures here
0 Responses to “Last Ride of the Year”