I sea

“Where are you going?” my roommate enquired as I was filling up my water bottles in the kitchen. “The ocean,” my mouth spewed out as my brain short-circuited. I had planned to do a triplet of climbs (Kings Mountain, OLH, and Alpine), but I guess I was going to the “ocean”.

It was 3:20pm by the time I left the house. I had planned on taking my climbing bike out (after I replaced the crankshaft c-clip spacer/seal) but then realized I didn’t have a way to mount my Wahoo Bolt to the climbing bike as I only had one mount and was too lazy to move the mount. So, I took the Roubaix. Earlier in the day, I had finally succumbed to temptation and weighed the bikes. The Fuji SL (climbing bike) weighed in at 17.8 lbs (bare) while the Roubaix weighed in at 20.0 lbs bare and 20.4 lbs including saddleback and rear light. Looks like I was going to have to carry the cow up the Santa Cruz mountains.

Within 25 minutes of starting the ride, I was suffering from intense abdominal cramps that had me hunched over the bars. Still don’t know the cause but I suspect they were caused by air in my intestinal tract caused by wolfing down a heavy “brunch” of white rice with beef bulgogi (leftovers from yesterday night). I hoped it would resolve itself by a combination of burping and careful controlled farting, but there was no relief other than stopping and standing straight up. After a few minutes on the side of the road with multiple cyclists giving me curious looks, I willed myself back onto my bike and continued on. What’s the chance this kills me? Pretty low, riiiiiight?

I made my way up Alpine to Portola Valley up to Highway 84 and across Tripp to the base of Kings Mountain. At this point, I still had one bottle of water left and would need a refill to get to the ocean (and back). Lo and behold, right after I had emptied the contents of the near-empty bottle, I realized the water faucet had been shut off. RIP. Looks like I wasn’t getting a refill. A little thirst never killed anyone, riiiiiight? Besides, the Bike Hut on Tunitas Creek would have water, riiiiiiight?

Due to the abdominal pain and water conservation strategy, I exerted minimum effort to get up Kings Mountain. Not that I could actually give more effort. My legs didn’t want to cooperate. Ended up spinning up at 34x32 the whole climb. The new 160mm crank arms definitely reduced my power, but I’d take a 8-10% in power any-day over debilitating knee plica paln. 160mm crank arms essentially give (12.5/172.5) less leverage over the original 172.5mm crank arms my bike came with. You can argue that 12.5/172.5 is <8-10%, but I know what I feel. And I feel WEAK.

After stopping at the top of Kings Mountain to wolf down a bar with the help of a mini sip of water, I quickly descended the other side. There were lots of cyclists ascending. By the time I got to the bottom, I was shivering. The temperature had dropped from ~75 degrees to 60 degrees (and windy). And then I realized the Bike Hut was closed… and I had only half a bottle of water left. And I was only 40% done with my ride. As I pondered my situation (which I had no control over), I decided to continue to the ocean since it was only a few miles away.

Next thing I know, I’m by the ocean. I took the requisite photos and debated my options: I could go back the same way I came or I could go up 84 or I could go to Pescadero and up Alpine. Back-and-forths are really boring so I elected to turn my ride into a loop, but the smallest loop possible as I was running out of sunlight. 84 is was.

Unfortunately for me, I had to traverse on Highway 1 a bit to get to 84. Highway 1 is filled with obnoxious drivers and obnoxious cars, so by the time I got to Highway 84, I was deaf in my left ear. And then I got the pleasure of enduring more eardrum-rupturing cars on Highway 84, where the speed limit is 50 mph (for the first part). It was during this part of the ride that I realized the Wahoo Bolt actually had a built-in-map. A built-in-map that was broken (or maybe misconfigured). I could only zoom out to a still-far-too-much-zoomed-in size. Looks like I was going to get closer to intersections to be able not see them. At this point, I was about 35 miles in and had no idea how far Skyline Blvd was. I suspected it was around 10 miles, but that was a random guess.

A few miles later, I reached an intersection - Pescadero Rd. It seemed like I could take Pescadero Rd to Alpine to the top of Page Mill. While I wasn’t familiar with the Pescadero to Alpine bit or the Alpine to Portola Redwoods State Park bit, I had ridden the portion from Portola Redwoods State Park to Page Mill before and knew roughly how far it was, so I elected to get off the ear-splitting Highway 84 onto Pescadero. My gut was still aching and I hadn’t had any water for the last 10 miles as I spun my way up a relatively flat Pescadero Rd. Shortly thereafter, I made my way onto Alpine and the climbing started in earnest. Most of the climb fluctuated between 3-4% and 7-8%. It was such a struggle (especially due to the gut-ache). After a few more miles of continuous climbing, I made it to the intersection between Alpine and the Portola Redwoods State Park entrance road. I took a break and drank a few sips of my precious water (still cold!!!!).

And it turns out my memory is broken. I remembered the climb from the intersection to the top of Alpine (which was about a mile beyond the top of Page Mill) to be short but steep. Turns out it’s long (3-4 miles) and steep (7-8%). What a struggle, with the hot afternoon sun beaming down on me. Turns after turn after turn, the climbs punched me in the gut. Plus, after all those rides with the Power Mimic saddle with no issues, the sit bones and perineum decided to get sore all of a sudden. In retrospect, this was probably caused by increased ‘bouncing’ due to me having lowered my saddle height by 2cm to reduce the risk of knee plica inflammation due to too much leg extension.

And then suddenly, I was at the top. And it was all downhill from there (all the way home). I even managed to fill up water on Page Mill and drank a gutful of water (which didn’t help the abdominal cramps). Page Mill -> Moody -> El Monte and I was home. And immediately plopped down on my toilet and pooped out a gallon of air.

Solid “Type 2 Fun”. Maybe 2.5.