Dirty Heads – Lay Me Down

Lea went for a run with her friend, Kelly, at Edgewood Park Saturday morning – a ritual I am not to take part in (it’s girl time). That’s OK by me, but Edgewood is a very cool place that I haven’t posted about yet, so I’ll have to change that soon. Anywho, the girls got to talkin’ bikes and Kelly mapped out a nice little ride down in her neck of the redwoods.  It’s referred to as a lollipop because the first jaunt is out-and-back, but the top is a loop. Only 20 miles, but with 1152ft of climb, it was juuuuust right.  The smooth black top, wide shoulders and eye popping scenery makes Woodside and Portola Valley a biker’s mecca. To which devout cyclists flock every Sunday (and every other day, but particularly on the sabbath).

Here’s our route. You can see by the elevation grade that this was a real burner. That little peak at mile 5 was a quick detour by Kelly’s house. I forgot to mention that she’s a drug pusher and Lea just had to swing by to pick up an Ambien to help her sleep on her red-eye flight back from Hong Kong this Friday (she takes off tomorrow morning :().

Notice Lea is manning the map today (my priveleges were revoked after my minor boo boo last week).

And here my baby girl is closing in on some fellow enthusiasts.

I may just have to take this shot on each ride from now on.

We had just crested Alpine Rd at this point, and took a breather for some fluids.  We had no idea what lay ahead of us…

You can’t truly appreciate the vertical incline from this picture, but this is the best representation I have.  If you looked at the elevation map above, this is the steepest part.

At about mile 10, when we were at 1,100ft of ascent, I was beginning to wonder if Kelly really wasn’t a very good friend, afterall, and that this was some evil trap that we had fallen into. But at mile 10.5 we reached 1152ft of ascent and my suspicions were resolved – Kelly does like us!   True, it’s one grueling climb up Joaquin Rd, but the sweet satisfaction of having reached the top without a push made my day. For the rest of the day, it didn’t matter what I did because I had just done that.

The way back was a breeze.  In one short 1/4 mile stretch, without a single push on my pedals I coasted up to 39mph…COASTING!  I’m talking steep, folks.

Aye-yah! Back to the car before noon and ready to take on the day!  We should all start our Sunday morning’s like this.

 

ps – Lea wants me to mention that even though she’s wearing the same outfit in this post as she is in the one directly below, she did wash these clothes between rides.  It’s just that she gets the best tan in this tank.  Now you know… 🙂

 

Cheers!