The theme of today's ride was intensity: leg-burning time-trialesque efforts uphill. This was the first group ride since I've been here. The group is led by a former coach of one of my friends out here and they do a crazy climbing ride on Wednesdays (but I didn't know anyone on the ride). The fog was thick this morning and with a very early start to the ride, it made it tricky to figure out how to dress.
After having issues meeting up with the group since I didn't know where to park and the light that I got stuck at (for 10 minutes) made me miss the start, it was possible to drive ahead and then ride fast to meet up with them (~6 others) at the bottom of the Old La Honda climb. It's a 5k, 1200 ft climb. Little did I know that it was the appetizer. A very fast and fun descent followed the climb and then came the searing West Alpine, 5 mile climb that was quite steep and seemed to be never-ending. Afterwards was a steep, twisty (read: slower) descent and the ride was over. 3700 feet of climbing, 2 1/2 hours.
I returned to home base to take a shower and read prior to getting an hour massage. I was so tired, even though I was sitting straight up and reading interesting material, I fell into a deep sleep for a few minutes. The massage was another chance to rest (though it was intense enough, per my instructions to the massage therapist, so a nap wasn't going to happen).
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