Skyline, Again, With Music

Since we'll be riding so much for so many days, I convinced myself to get out of bed early again to ride skyline a second morning in a row.  Sure, 50 miles with a decent amount of climb was a good training ride, but touring is punishing yourself day after day at that rate.  To be honest I was a little nervous before getting on the road.  My legs didn't feel 100% and my "sitting area" was a pretty sore.  Starting out I could definitely feel the fatigue in my legs, but after a while things didn't seem that bad.  Knowing what to expect on the route definitely helped, especially where the tough climbs were and how much flat/downhill I had in between.  Also, thinking about how these two rides weren't that bad compared to what we're about to do, put my mind in a spot where toughing it out was the only option.

First, here are some pics of the route:

San Andreas Lake (San Andreas Trail) as fog burns off

The Green Monster in front of Crystal Springs Resevoir (Cañada Road)

Horses in Woodside

This time I brought along a little boom box that my girlfriend got for me.  After experimenting mounting it a few different places here's where it ended up:

It actually worked really well and didn't kill my phone after 5 hours of strava and 2+ hours of music.  You get a lot of looks from the roadies when you're fully loaded, adding music got more than a few laughs.  It really did help keep me motivated though, and made the ride more fun since the scenery wasn't novel this time.

So how did the ride go?  

Thanks Strava.

I finished barely slower than yesterday, despite the obvious handicap of riding the day before.  I'd say a few things helped accomplish this.  First, knowing the route was key.  I knew where to turn and what to expect in terms of terrain.  This saved obvious time not pulling up the map, but also helped me conserve energy when I knew I was approaching a hill.  Second, I felt I did a better job of appropriately gearing.  Whereas yesterday I was pretty lazy on the shifter, this ride I tried to make sure I kept up a constant cadence, irregardless of how slow I was chugging up the hills.  Lastly, I had a tougher mentality than last time, as it's dawned on me what is going to be required of us and how soon we leave (Monday).

Happy to report I don't have much lingering soreness.  I feel like I could do it again tomorrow (though I won't).  I'm really glad I got the back to back ride experience, and am feeling more confident about our finalized route plan which I'll share in the next post.