Yesterday, I managed to get out for an hour as the sun was setting. It was chilly, but pleasant. Five minutes into the ride I caught up with my neighbor and occasional riding partner Chris. Chris had a frightening crash two months ago. His pedal spindle snapped and he went over the handlebars, landing on his head, or so he thinks because he has no recollection of the crash. He only knows that he woke up lying in the middle of Skyline Drive at Thornhill intersection with people trying to revive him. His helmet shattered, as it was designed to do and his body had nary a scratch, which is how he deduced that his head took the entire impact. He spent three days in ICU and two months in physical therapy. He had frequent headaches and dizziness episodes, which have waned somewhat recently. It was good to see him, especially in light of what had happened.
Chris was on his cyclocross bike, which he took on a dirt path when we reached the Skyline Gate of Redwood Regional Park, so we said our goodbyes. The clouds turned from white to pink to flaming red. I turned on my blinky and my helmet light and descended Thornhill, Colton, and Mountain back home.
Today, I went to back to VeloSF for the first class of 2012. Today's class was the first in a new 12-week training block. Theoretically, blocks start out easy, build to higher intensities and taper somewhat at the end before ramping up again. Maybe I haven't been riding enough or sleeping enough or had lunch too close to the class, but this class absolutely kicked my butt. We did a continuous 70-minute ride broken into climbing and steady-state 8 to 12 minute intervals. I managed to hang for an hour, but had to back off for the final 10 minutes, as I was completely spent. No matter, I'm with Scarlet O'Hara, tomorrow is another (188th) day.
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