Two oh Seven

207 and counting.

Ride 207 was 40  minutes on the trainer with a hard 20+ minutes in there.  This was the hardest I've ridden the trainer at home in the last 207 days.  Focused on spinning a relatively big gear.  It worked well and I felt pretty good and very sweaty.

Ride 206 was a half-hour recovery on the trainer at home from ride 205. 

Ride 205 was a (sadly) rare outdoor outing, during which I decided to climb Manzanita Road three times from both directions.  Manzanita is about 0.15 of a mile and it climbs at ~17% above the top of North Pinehurst to the highest point on Skyline Drive in Oakland hills.  This hill may be the highest point in Oakland.  I peered across other hills on the ridge and it was close.  Diablo Drive at the Skyline-Grizzly intersection may be a smidge higher -- I couldn't tell.  Manzanita's north side is longer and steeper.  I could tell after a couple of attempts on each side.  After the second ascent of the north side, I felt as if I was in a good news-bad news joke: I was half-way done, but this sucker was really taking it out of me.  I managed to complete the workout, glad that the last climb was on the easier southern side.  That said, my 30-tooth chainring proved very handy, as I managed to remain seated and tried spinning for all six intervals.  So, legs didn't hurt as much as when I used to climb this road in higher gears, though I that cardiovascular quality of the workout did not lessen.

It had rained and the wind blew strongly the previous night.  There were TONS of crap -- gravel, leaves, twigs, needles, eucalyptus bark and acorns, and just plain mud on the road -- so I had to take my Manzanita descents carefully, picking my way around the debris.  The wonderful thing was that I had San Francisco frame builder Dan Nelson raise the brake bridge 7 millimeters and now crap did not get stuck under my brake bridge.  For the first time, the bike did not impede my climbing on crap-strewn roads.  I wore a big smile when I realized what I was missing.

Ride 204 was a 40-minute high zone 1 -- low zone 2 spin at the gym.

Ride 203 was a 50-minute ride at the gym, which included one 10-minute interval and then I had to go, so I missed the others, but that was OK because I'd done them during Ride 202.  

And ride 202 had three lengthy intervals with much time in zone 4 at low cadences.  I tolerated this pretty well.  Not sure if I was having a good day or whether my legs prefer lower cadences.

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