
Start Line
It all started simply enough. My bike racing season was over and i wasn’t too happy with how it went. I knew that to improve next year i had to do two things: create a more structured training plan and stick to it (this time training with a power meter, so i’m not guessing), and lose a few pounds so that by next spring my race weight will be in the 150-155lb range instead of hovering around 165 like it did this season. To achieve those goals my off season has to include lots of high volume, low intensity exercise. This means using my weekends during the winter to get in long 50+ mile rids at low intensity (along with running when i can, riding outside when it’s light, and riding the trainer when its dark). But before starting that, i wanted to lose a few pounds, thinking that if i lose a few pounds now, losing the rest in December/January/February won’t seem like such a task. I saw a poster for the Tour for Woodside Century and thought it would be a good way to kick off the off-season. I signed up not knowing anyone else who was doing it and figured 100 miles by myself, as easy or hard as i wanted, working with people i met along the way sounded like a good time.
About a week before the ride the Alto Velo Elite 4 Team (the 15 or so guys that i race with) message boards started going off about how we should all do the ride together at a mellow pace to close out the season. With AV E4 team members along with friends and significant others, we ended up having about 15 people at the start.
I hadn’t done a century in a few years, and there was little doubt that this climbing intensive century would be the hardest i’d ever done, so i treated it like a race in my preparation. I took the two days leading up to the event completely off from any exercise. Because i wasn’t worried about a quick start, i obviously didn’t warm up or go on a pre-race ride the day before to ‘open up’ the legs. I also ate a ton of carbs (lots of rice rather than the usual pasta because i’m experimenting with the gluten allergy thing), and drank tons of water. I woke up that morning, ate a little breakfast, got dressed and rode over to Woodside High School (about 6 miles) for the planned 7:30 roll out.
The 15 of us headed out for for the first little section: an out and back on Canada Road with the Polhemus Loop on the end. It’s a nice easy, rolling first few miles that acted as a nice warm up. The group did it in a double paceline taking turns at the front with the occasional ‘that’s it!?!’ after a pair took what was deemed as too short a pull. The pace was nice and slow, lest we forget that we had to ride a full 100 miles that day.

Climbing King's Mountain
Once we did the out and back on Canada as a warm up we rolled over to the base of King’s Mountain for the real fun to begin. People started peeling off layers as they heated up climbing. The group splintered from an orderly double paceline to small groups of 1’s, 2’s, and 3’s all trying to find their own rhythm up the climb, trying to strike a balance between getting up the hill in decent time, and not using up too much energy that is best saved for later in the day. I immediately dropped off the lead group’s pace knowing that i wouldn’t be able to ride with them all the way up the climb and instead dropped back with some of the ‘older’ guys as we worked our way up the climb at a pleasant conversational pace.

Top of King's Mountain
We had a little regroup at the top and everyone took some time to eat something, have a drink, and hang out. Next we started our trip down Skyline, which was mostly downhill to the Four Corners (an intersection with a restaurant and a gas station popular with motorcyclists. The Harley guys pull into the restaurant parking lot, while the sport bikers pull into the gas station in a weird display of self segregation). We stopped at the gas station to top off bottles (they have a water spigot with potable water, and lets face it, cyclists match up with the more Euro-centric sport bikers than the Harley folks), then we started our flying descent down Hwy 84 toward the coast.
A single file paceline of about 20 riders flying down a wide open, not very technical descent at 45mph is just one of the coolest things, especially when they are the guys you race with and you know you can trust them with putting your front wheel inches from their back wheel at those speeds. At one point, Annie (a girl who started racing bikes recently and had an incredible year, starting as a Cat 4, the ‘lowest’ category for women, and ending the year as a Cat 2, who stands about 5′3″ and probably weighs just over 100lbs) jumps out of the group already going 45mph, rides up to the front and picks the pace up even further.

Turning toward Pescadero
Before reaching the coast, we were supposed to turn off at Pescadero Creek Rd, but a few of the people in the group went on a ride together the day before that ended up being close to 110miles, so they opted for the shorter route. About 8 of us took the turn to ride toward Pescadero.

Pescadero Road
Once again, the group split up on the climb up Pescadero through the gorgeous redwoods and through San Mateo County Memorial Park. The group stayed strung out, and i found myself riding solo between the lead group and the slower group for most of this section of the ride.

Lots of agriculture in Pescadero
Once you get closer to downtown Pescadero, the terrain flattens out a bit and the dense redwood forests give way to beautiful open green fields. There’s a ton of agriculture around Pescadero (including the farm we get our CSA box from).

Downtown Pescadero

Pescadero Rest Stop
We pulled into downtown Pescadero and then into a rest stop being staffed by the high school students (whose high school the ride benefits) decked out in Middle Eastern attire that looked like they got their motivation through watching Aladin the night before. The rest stop was complete with slightly obnoxious middle eastern influenced electronica and hip hop blared from a stereo, as well as a table of food from bananas and oranges, to peanut butter sandwiches, and even crackers with goat cheese from a local goat farm (or is it ranch?) and olive tapenade.

Leaving Pescadero
At this point, a few more people decided to head home instead of completing the 25 mile loop around Pescadero. I was tempted to go with them, but got talked out of it by a few other people in the group. So we headed our back to Pescadero Rd, then following Cloverdale to Gazos Creek. The five of us remaining tried to stay together at first, but it was one person’s first century, so Matt, Barry, and i lifted the pace a little bit and took off on our own.

Roads south of Pescadero
Gazos creek dumped us out onto Highway 1 where we were blessed with incredible views and a tailwind going north. We jacked the pace up to around 25mph and pacelined sharing the work, though Matt was easily the strongest of the three of us.

Pigeon Point Light House
After a few miles we came upon Pigeon Point. I tried to get a few pictures, but rolling along at 25mph on Hwy 1, with cars buzzing by at 55mph, and a narrow shoulder, this was the best i could do. I still just can’t get over how cool it is to ride along Hwy 1. The views are just spectacular and riding along the ocean gives you a euphoric buzz. Maybe people from around here get used to it, but every time i ride on Hwy 1 i am overcome with the feeling of ‘this is so freaking cool!’. Maybe it has something to do with the ocean of my upbringing (the Gulf of Mexico, usually at Galveston) being a muddy brown color because of sediment kicked up by the Mississippi River.
The weather was perfect. No fog, clear skies, and a nice cool breeze coming off the ocean. We were supposed to cut back into Pescadero on the way back to stop at that same rest stop, but we realized that we had enough food and water to skip the little detour and just stay on Hwy 1. I’m not sure how long we were on Hwy 1, but it was easily the longest i’ve ridden on that section of road. It was just awesome.
On the last 1/2 mile or so on Hwy 1 before turning on Tunitas Creek Rd (the final major climb of the day), i could feel myself starting to hit a wall. We were around mile 85 or so and for the first time of the day i was starting to feel tired. There’s really nothing worse than than pulling up to Tunitas (a 10 mile climb, though to be fair, only the middle 3-4 miles are really tough) with an empty tank. You end up sitting in your smallest gear, weaving from side to side, mashing out a slow cadence at an embarrassingly slow speed while you drool all over yourself wondering when the pain is going to end. The worst part is that there’s no other way home. From east to west the topography goes like this:

MS Paint Masterpiece
Bay – flat – home – hills (up) – Skyline Rd – hills (down) – coast
So when you are climbing but still on the ‘home’ side of Skyline and you feel crappy, you can just turn around and go home. But when you are on the ‘coast’ side of Skyline, the only way to get home is to climb back over the hills and descend back down toward the bay. So you either have to grind your way through the climb or call someone to come and pick you up (but there’s no cell phone reception). I’ve been there before and it is totally and completely miserable. Stuck in the pain cave with no way out.
I had a feeling that this was where my day was headed. As we pulled up to the final rest stop at the base of Tunitas, i noticed there was a guy pulling shots of espresso. As Matt and i pulled up, Matt got really excited. On first thought i was kind of repulsed by the idea of drinking espresso in the middle of a ride. I succumbed to the peer pressure and ordered a single, then allowed myself to get talked into a double. We parked the bikes, topped off bottles for the final push, talked to the people staffing the rest stop, just prolonging the inevitable pain of tackling Tunitas after 85 not-so-easy miles. Add to that that Matt was on the 108 mile death ride the day before, and it becomes obvious that we weren’t going to set any records today.

Espresso shots at the base of Tunitas: no better way to start a climb
We finally got started and it was like i had found my second wind. I don’t know if it was the espresso or what, but suddenly i felt good. Maybe pro cycling teams should experiment with having an espresso machine in the team car. The stuff is magic. I’ll have to remember that next time i’m out on a ride bonked to crap and riding by a Peet’s or Starbucks.
Matt and i climbed Tunitas at a pretty moderate pace for me. Easy enough that we could talk the whole time about anything other than the task at hand. Even after doing 108 miles the day before i’m sure Matt could have easily dropped me, but i’m glad he didn’t. It’s much easier to with someone than alone.
With about 1/2 mile left in the ‘hard’ part of the climb i hit another wall and my legs just didn’t want to go any more (note to self: perhaps a flask of espresso). Luckily, i just had to grind out a little bit more before the climb flattened out and we could get on top of a gear and really spin out the last 3 miles, where i felt much better again.
Following Tunitas we descended King’s Mountain and then dropped back into Woodside. Rachel came to meet us at the High School for a feast catered by a local high end grocery store, Draeger’s. Grilled chicken, salad, cookies, and cream soda never tasted so good.

Fin!
All in all a great time.
My power meter finally came in on Tuesday. It would have been cool to have it for the century, just to see the numbers, but it’s not like it would have made me go any faster or anything. I’m hoping to get one ride on it before we leave for Austin for the weekend. Then, next week, i can really start geeking out.
Speaking of Austin this weekend, we’re leaving Thursday and won’t be back until Monday night. Live music, great food, friends, and family? How could it not be totally awesome?