Today I set out to do a 50 miler. The first 12 miles were gravel so by the 25 miles mark when I discovered that all of the bouncing around had cast off the water bottle. When I got into Palo Alto, all of the cafes appeared to be gone. I'm sure that there were some over on the El Camino Real but I didn't want to cross over there. So I returned. There was a deli but it didn't look like it was open and it certainly didn't look safe for my bike. I continued down to the bridge again because there used to be a coffee shop by Facebook. Well, I didn't see one. Maybe all of those lay-offs at Facebook put the coffee shop out of business. After getting back over to the Eastbay, I tried to follow a route that I did once a couple of years ago. And promptly got lost and could tell from the Sun that I was heading south and not north. I turned around and then saw a Starbucks, I pulled between a couple of cars, jumped a divider and there was a clear spot for me to make it to that Starbucks. I got a large iced coffee and a scone. $7 if you can believe that.

Then I gained my directions somewhat and started back. Finally found a spot I recognized and carried on home. The cats were mad as hell that I wasn't home in time to feed them. So the first thing I did was feed them.

Now they back to barely talking to me. Daisy is sleeping on my computer but Don't Touch Me still isn't over her mad.

I don't feel all that bad for the first long ride of the year and hopefully that will start my recovery.

On Sunday, June 11, 2023 at 11:36:20 PM UTC+1, Tom Kunich wrote:
> Today I set out to do a 50 miler. The first 12 miles were gravel so by the 25 miles mark when I discovered that all of the bouncing around had cast off the water bottle. When I got into Palo Alto, all of the cafes appeared to be gone. I'm sure that there were some over on the El Camino Real but I didn't want to cross over there. So I returned. There was a deli but it didn't look like it was open and it certainly didn't look safe for my bike. I continued down to the bridge again because there used to be a coffee shop by Facebook. Well, I didn't see one. Maybe all of those lay-offs at Facebook put the coffee shop out of business. After getting back over to the Eastbay, I tried to follow a route that I did once a couple of years ago. And promptly got lost and could tell from the Sun that I was heading south and not north. I turned around and then saw a Starbucks, I pulled between a couple of cars, jumped a divider and there was a clear spot for me to make it to that Starbucks. I got a large iced coffee and a scone. $7 if you can believe that.
>
> Then I gained my directions somewhat and started back. Finally found a spot I recognized and carried on home. The cats were mad as hell that I wasn't home in time to feed them. So the first thing I did was feed them.
>
> Now they back to barely talking to me. Daisy is sleeping on my computer but Don't Touch Me still isn't over her mad.
>
> I don't feel all that bad for the first long ride of the year and hopefully that will start my recovery.
>
60 miles is a pretty serious ride for someone our age. Just as well you've been building up to it. -- AJ

On Tuesday, June 13, 2023 at 7:57:29 AM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
> On Sunday, June 11, 2023 at 11:36:20 PM UTC+1, Tom Kunich wrote:
> > Today I set out to do a 50 miler. The first 12 miles were gravel so by the 25 miles mark when I discovered that all of the bouncing around had cast off the water bottle. When I got into Palo Alto, all of the cafes appeared to be gone. I'm sure that there were some over on the El Camino Real but I didn't want to cross over there. So I returned. There was a deli but it didn't look like it was open and it certainly didn't look safe for my bike. I continued down to the bridge again because there used to be a coffee shop by Facebook. Well, I didn't see one. Maybe all of those lay-offs at Facebook put the coffee shop out of business. After getting back over to the Eastbay, I tried to follow a route that I did once a couple of years ago. And promptly got lost and could tell from the Sun that I was heading south and not north. I turned around and then saw a Starbucks, I pulled between a couple of cars, jumped a divider and there was a clear spot for me to make it to that Starbucks. I got a large iced coffee and a scone. $7 if you can believe that.
> >
> > Then I gained my directions somewhat and started back. Finally found a spot I recognized and carried on home. The cats were mad as hell that I wasn't home in time to feed them. So the first thing I did was feed them.
> >
> > Now they back to barely talking to me. Daisy is sleeping on my computer but Don't Touch Me still isn't over her mad.
> >
> > I don't feel all that bad for the first long ride of the year and hopefully that will start my recovery.
> >
> 60 miles is a pretty serious ride for someone our age. Just as well you've been building up to it. -- AJ

Well, I'm so slow that a crab scooting sideways could beat me. And my speed does not seem to be increasing this year at all though in the past it would sort of increase suddenly. I suppose that's still possible but from the way I feel at the top of every grade, I doubt it.

On Tuesday, June 13, 2023 at 8:34:06 PM UTC+1, Tom Kunich wrote:
> On Tuesday, June 13, 2023 at 7:57:29 AM UTC-7, Andre Jute wrote:
> > On Sunday, June 11, 2023 at 11:36:20 PM UTC+1, Tom Kunich wrote:
> > > Today I set out to do a 50 miler. The first 12 miles were gravel so by the 25 miles mark when I discovered that all of the bouncing around had cast off the water bottle. When I got into Palo Alto, all of the cafes appeared to be gone. I'm sure that there were some over on the El Camino Real but I didn't want to cross over there. So I returned. There was a deli but it didn't look like it was open and it certainly didn't look safe for my bike.. I continued down to the bridge again because there used to be a coffee shop by Facebook. Well, I didn't see one. Maybe all of those lay-offs at Facebook put the coffee shop out of business. After getting back over to the Eastbay, I tried to follow a route that I did once a couple of years ago. And promptly got lost and could tell from the Sun that I was heading south and not north. I turned around and then saw a Starbucks, I pulled between a couple of cars, jumped a divider and there was a clear spot for me to make it to that Starbucks. I got a large iced coffee and a scone. $7 if you can believe that.
> > >
> > > Then I gained my directions somewhat and started back. Finally found a spot I recognized and carried on home. The cats were mad as hell that I wasn't home in time to feed them. So the first thing I did was feed them.
> > >
> > > Now they back to barely talking to me. Daisy is sleeping on my computer but Don't Touch Me still isn't over her mad.
> > >
> > > I don't feel all that bad for the first long ride of the year and hopefully that will start my recovery.
> > >
> > 60 miles is a pretty serious ride for someone our age. Just as well you've been building up to it. -- AJ
> Well, I'm so slow that a crab scooting sideways could beat me. And my speed does not seem to be increasing this year at all though in the past it would sort of increase suddenly. I suppose that's still possible but from the way I feel at the top of every grade, I doubt it.
>
Where I ride there are no flat roads at all, but on most of my loops and figure eights there are an easy and a hard direction to choose from because the ascents aren't all equally steep and long on both sides of the hill. What with reversing my default direction on most of my routes, and using the motor to fill in when I run out permissible heart rate, I manage to keep up the same average as before even now when I don't try for maximum speed on the downhills. But that average is not exactly peloton material, and never was because I don't aspire to a hummingbird cadence. The fastest I ever was, was not the result of youth, or power, but because I had a full-automatic gearbox on my bike which always kept me in the right gear, so that even my casual style of riding delivered optimum results. -- AJ
>