Craig's blog

Well this should be evidence that I'm a slow learner, or probably more accurately, that I have a very short memory. You may remember that a little over a week ago I got persuaded by Catherine to ride up Page Mill Road against my better judgment. Today I was invited to go on a nice ride to the coast. The coast is cooler, right? Sounded like a nice way to get away from the heat, so I politely accepted.

We started by riding up Old La Honda to Skyline. We went 10% faster than I had by myself on Sunday (and on that day I just coasted back home afterward). This time we rode down Hwy 84 to San Gregorio (which was a beautiful ride). We stopped and had a snack and then headed up Stage Rd and then down Hwy 1 to Tunitas Creek. For those of you who haven't been up Tunitas Creek Rd, it is a spectacularly beautiful road that climbs through a redwood forest along a creek with almost no cars. There's only one problem. It is a relentless climb from sea level to 2,000 feet. At one point I looked down at my heart rate monitor (which I could barely make out through the sweat in my eyes) and thought it would be interesting to compare to Catherine. My heart was beating at 158 bpm. Catherine doesn't wear a monitor (you'll see why in a second), so I asked her to take her pulse. She calmly reached up and felt her pulse while continuing to ride up the hill. Her pulse was 126. That's my pulse when I'm going down hill. :(

Well, as you've probably figured out, I didn't die on the way up and we eventually made it to the top (with Catherine casually making small talk and me grunting the occasional yeah or me too). We took Skyline to 84 and then headed down 84 back to the valley.

In truth, it was a great ride. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I only wish I were in 1/2 as good shape as Catherine.