I kicked my training into gear today, finally getting out for my first ride in 2010 (as opposed to commuting, riding around with cheeseburgers, etc) and it was good. I need the work. Every year around this time I’m not in great riding shape anyway, spending most of the winter in the gym or less, but not on the roads. It gets dark too early, it’s cold and wet, and the holidays bring social and family demands that often preclude weekend rides. In the last few years, I got going earlier than before, which used to be March, and then the last two years crept into January and February, each year stalled out by illness and restarted late March. Most of the event rides and log things I like to do start in March or so anyway. But since I’m doing AIDS/Lifecycle this year with my man Lung, I need to get in shape and thanks to 7 months of babytime and less judicious avoidance of the good foods mixed with scant exercise, I packed it on! So, now I’m peeling it off, but not in a Se7en way. Anyway, I couldn’t ride this weekend, but I hit it this morning. I have baby duties at night, but if I leave early, I can squeeze stuff in before work.

January here in Northern California may be April in other, more harsh climates in the US, but it’s still effing cold. It was in in the mid-40s when I left, and because I was optimistic and wanted to pack light, I wore my wool Team Lope jersey and wool arm warmers, but no leg warmers or booties. I was fins without the legwarmers, since I was climbing and had plenty of blood flow to keep them warm, but I could have used the booties. By the time I got to work, I was walking around on numb feet and I could tell the toes were still THERE, but just barely.

The Paradise Loop is one of those great rides here in Marin that can be enjoyed at virtually any skill level. For newbies, parts of Tiburon and all of Camino Alto climbs are grueling but relatively short enough that they can get through them with a few breaks (compared to more serious climbs in the area) and for casual riders, you can chain down to an easy gear and take your time and enjoy the windy roads, the nature and the exhaust of SUVs if you pick the wrong time to go. Experienced riders use it as a training loop because at a fast pace (like 20-21mph on the Tiburon side, rolling hills, and 12-15 on the Camino Alto climb, at least for me when in shape) it’s a nice hour of riding, and with the Strawberry Extension added to it, you can get about 24 miles out of the loop. We used to ride in from the city, do the loop, then head back over the bridge and have breakfast (as opposed to the longer haul of Alpine or something that ends up as an 80 mile route by the time you get back to SF, and it’s time for a hot tub time machine.)

So by mid year, Paradise is a great lunch ride for me. In January, it takes effort! I did pretty well, but I was puffin in the steep parts, not as fast on the rolling hills, and burned through my egg fuel by the time I got to Camino Alto. All predictable for first ride of the year, but still, you REMEMBER what it feels like mid-year, just like with all exercise, so you feel EXTRA slow. But it was fantastically quiet. A few cars, only one tried to kill me, NO riders, and it was in the low 50s by the time I finished and rode into work.

Oh, I had my macbook pro on my back. Thankfully, it wasn’t too mist-and-sweat-logged by the time I got here. HA

OK, cool, one down!

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