A Cycling First
Tuesday marked my first time ascending Woodside’s Old La Honda Road. A quick use of google and I found a nice summary of what Old La Honda is like.
I didn’t plan on tackling a major hill for the first time when I set out that morning. I was feeling pretty good by the time I was in Woodside soI figured I could at least take a look at OLH. It starts up pleasantly enough with plenty of shade and optimism.
So I figure why not, I could just turn around if I’m not man enough. Well as it turns out I wasn’t man enough and by the time I fully realized I had bit off more than I could chew it wasn’t really feasible to turn around. Decending a narrow one lane road with tons of blind turns for more than a mile isn’t my idea of fun. I stopped 4 times while ascending the 3.3 mile road and I would have stopped a 5th except I had a surge of energy when I heard traffic on skyline that pushed me to the finish.
I pulled over 25 miles on this tuesdays ride which is an acheivement for me. I can’t really afford to take a 2 hour chunk of my day to ride but it was such a rewarding experience I’m going to have a hard time not going for it again.
I still don’t own a cyclometer so I don’t know exactly how long it took me to climb the road. Picture timestamps indicated 40 minutes so I’m going to consider that my benchmark. My goal now is mid 20s but I’m a long way from that. Maybe by the fall if I can get a bit more stamina and lose a little weight.