Somebody did contact me at 11:30 last night. I read the email when I headed to bed at midnight. I returned the email with the info but never heard back. Hope it went through, my cell acts funny at times with Yahoo. Looks like I replied but the recipient doesn't get the response at times.
I did see Matt on the way up as he was descending. He was probably surprised to see me seeing I haven't been up there in tooooo long ha ha! He had somebody on his wheel descending the mountain so I am sure that was a good reason not to stop. But we did get in a shout out, Hey Matt! :-P
We knew it would be hot so we just cruised up. That and knowing I hadn't been up there in some time, we took it easy. Always the first return to GMR is about survival and just making it up. If you go up the first time to race somebody, you are crazy ha ha!
Didn't have Gina with me to give me breaks so I figured we might get most of the way up without a little warm up stretch, at the 2 mile point like usual with Gina. But then some good looking woman stopped to ask us directions. Honestly, I didn't care if she was good looking or ugly, I was happy to stop and giver her directions. That gave me a chance to stretch my legs a bit ha ha! We usually start off Boulder Springs so the warm up is like a 10% grade after the first 20 yards so I have no problem getting in a little stretch after the start.
We had taken a couple of extra bottles knowing it would be hot. We cruised up knowing it would be hot. And we planned to save energy since this was my first time up and Mike's second time in a long time. If we felt good at the shack, we would continue to Peacock Saddle. Or actually, at the top of the drop down to PS. I hate stopping at the bottom of a big hill, taking a break then starting up hill after a cool down.
We were running low on water by the time we hit the shack but fortunately saw a truck there handing out water to cyclists. Some kind of club ride. The cyclists headed up to the shack then turned around to head back down so the guys invited us over to fill up. Yeah Baby! Thanks guys whoever you were!
So that made it easy for us to hit PS as far as water. My legs were actually not too bad but I could tell I hadn't been up there in a while. They were getting tired but my breathing was pretty good. We held a conversation pace on the way up. Matter of fact, I think I talked all the way up ha ha! It was cool though, forced me to keep the pace low so I would not kill myself in the heat and first time back on the mountain. But maybe the local rides I did a few months back before the time change helped. I was expecting the little return climbs to be more painful. I seemed to recall them being kind of killer climbs. Not steep, just after a few miles, the legs burn. But doing the short 12-18% climbs at the top of San Antonio must have made them feel easier. Cause I was like riding back and going up fairly easy thinking, like why is this so easy ha ha!
I will say this, I think I will be on the mountain more from now on. Mike and I were talking about the mess on the trail (SART) and how unpleasant it has been. So we both agreed that we ought to spend one day on GMR and maybe one day on SART if Gina does not want to do GMR.
It really was a much nicer experience than that polluted trail! ;-)
Thanks cyclist people! ;-)
Mike thought I was a nut for wearing and under layer.
Nice pose but my little point and shoot failed me. Dark image had to work and work and still barely acceptable.
The profile.
A pic I took of a local lizard. Had to post it, seems he rides for Team Bianchi ha ha! OK for those who don't know what I'm talking about, he has the celeste colors on his back. :-P
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