Now for the cost. As I mentioned in the last article, Ruby was not pleased with my night on the town. She was also quite upset about my going on a ride, and wasn’t shy about showing her displeasure in the most creative ways. At Woodside, I called Vick to check in, and things were distinctly not okay. I didn’t really have space to talk, and she didn’t have time, so I pedaled onward, hoping for the best. At the half way point I called again and Vick was in tears. Apparently Ruby had been acting out in every demonic way possible, at one point intentionally smashing her brothers fingers in our bathroom trashcan.

When I finally arrived home, Ruby was peacefully drawing on the workroom floor, and Vick was standing on the other side of the sliding glass door. Apparently, when Ruby heard I was coming home, everything was fine. We had a very calm and loving talk about how her choices impacted our family, and then headed out to Whole Foods to pickup lunch and dinner.

By the time I arrived at Whole Foods, both kids were sleeping. I loaded Miles up on my back (still sleeping) and got Ru into a conveniently discarded cart, and did the shopping. Miles transfered back into the carseat (still sleeping, a small miracle) and then back onto my back at home (still sleeping, a large miracle).

Ruby was back to herself, though quite tired, and fell asleep by 7:30. Unfortunately, our day was not over then. Miles pretty much refused to sleep until 10:30, and Ruby woke twice with night terrors.

Thankfully by 10:45 all of us were in bed and sleeping. I don’t believe that I’ve ever been so glad to have a day behind me. Today is a new day, and we are all looking forward to some family time.

Still dead set on getting my ride in, I geared up and headed over to SETI to set things straight. I expected to be about five minutes. When I arrived I discovered that an HVAC failure had brought the ambient temperature up to 102, and the mail server, smart fella that he is, decided to call it quits rather than burn up. I’m actually quite glad that it made that call, because ordering new hardware would have taken quite a bit longer. 5 hrs later I was on the road again.

So now its noon, and I’m thinking “Not too late to ride, I’ll just get on my…” whoosh, I get hit with a wall of heat as I leave the building. “… on second thought…” I called Vick to rendezvous for lunch (I still hadn’t eaten breakfast), she and the Logan contingent were downtown, just finishing up the street fair, and were about to head out for bagels. After lunch we headed home to wait out the heat (which I should mention was quite a bit cooler than the last few days, at 86). At 4 I put Ruby down for a nap, and spotting my window, hopped on the bike and headed out. I had intended to ride all the way to the beginning of the Tour de Cure course, then ride the course, then ride home. That would have been ~60 miles, and seemed like a great idea at the time.

The ride was a scorcher, and fast, and I made some poor pacing choices. This lead to my sputtering out at mile 30. Not feeling too bad about my progress, I gave Vick a call and had her bring the kids out for a hike.

An hour or so later they showed up, and we had a nice hour long hike by the reservoir. Pooped, and happy we all loaded into the car and headed home. Miles and Ru are soundly sleeping, no doubt dreaming of their action packed weekend, Vick is on her way in, and I’m just about to make one last check on the server before turning in myself.

Last Sunday I decided that I had better either go out and ride at least part of the course, or beg out and do the 50K. Since my ego couldn’t take the hit, I decided to ride Pulhemus Road. This is a mere 6 miles (out of ~50 for the full course) but its the most aggressive climb of the route. Vick drove me out, and leapfrogged me up the grade (just in case).
I started out hot, smoking everyone I saw (they had probably been riding all day) and quickly lost my steam. By the time I reached the Crystal Springs turnoff (no more than a mile in) I had the distinct feeling that my heart might explode. I forgot my heart rate monitor, but I’m guessing, based on past observations that I was probably at 185. Needless to say I backed off it a little and dropped from 14 mph to ~7mph.
After a 1/2 mile or so I was back to an estimated 175 and decided to slowly ramp back up. I managed to hold ~9mph for the rest of the climb.
Once I reached the top, I was supposed to find a bike trail to descend on. It must have taken me 30 minutes just to locate the trailhead, but when I did, I was rewarded with a sublime descent with a bucolic view of the reservoir and the Santa Cruz mountain range.

What did this experience teach me? I need a new bike. There is just no way that I want to be clawing my way up that hill while sending 5-10% of my energy down into my shocks. Furthermore, striping 5-10 lbs off of my frame is not likely, but getting 5 lbs off of my bike’s frame is. So now I’m looking at road bikes for the first time in over 10 years with an eye to buy.

I think I’ve narrowed my choices down to the Felt F4, or the Lemond Versailles. Financing for this purchase will come from the sale of my motorcycle.
This was a difficult decision to make until I realized that:

1. I haven’t ridden my motorcycle in 3 years (since Ruby was born)
2. I ride my bicycle nearly every day
3. I am fiercely proud of my carbon footprint
4. Its not a BMW

So please join me in bidding farewell to my youth (I’ll see it again someday), and hello to my healthful, carbon free (or is that carbon fiber), morally superior (wink) future.