At lunch yesterday, naotoj suggested I try climbing up Montabello Road. I expected it would be longer than the Mt Eden climb but I did not expect how much steeper it was. It also seemed to be all up. There were almost no flats or downs along the way.

The great thing about the climb was the view. Parts of it were in trees but a good portion was fairly open and there was a great view of the valley. I stopped 4 or 5 times on the way up both to rest and take in the view. Took me about 1 hour (pedaling time) but I made it to the gate at the top of the road.

The descent was fun but I was a little cautious with the steepness and some of the tight turns. I rode mostly on the hoods and my hands got pretty cramped from holding on to the brakes. I'll have to see if there's a better way to do that.

Odo: 6225mile

Pain on my left knee became worse and I had to slow down. It was not that bad compare to the pain of last time. But it was still annoying enough. I will have to skip bike riding little while.

Morning:
0:48'18
13.6 avg mph

Evening
0:23'40
12.98 avg mph

Evening ride home was short. I left late and didn't have my light with me. Then somewhere on Calabazas between El Camino and Pomeroy I got a flat. It was already pretty dim and it would have definately been dark by the time I fixed the flat then got home. So called for the SAG wagon to come and get me.

Went on a version of The Loop with the Western Wheelers 'B' gang today. We met in Peers Park in Palo Alto. After weaving through Stanford we took Page Mill to Arastradero to Alpine to Portola. There was a little detour off Portola then another little detour around Woodside. We then wove our way back through P.A.

It was a fun ride although overall it was a little slow. To get my heart rate up I ended up blasting up most of the hills we encountered. None of them were very long. I must say that my perspective on climbing hills has changed a whole lot from 6 months ago. On this ride the ups were more fun than the downs!