Joel Hainley

The bicycle riding needs a new challenge, I’ve done 100 miles a couple of times now, and I’ve been up mt. diablo a few times, now it’s time for a new challenge. I’d like my 100 mile times to start getting faster, and i’ve been working on that, but it’s not enough to keep my head focused on training so I’ve come up with a new challenge.

I’m going to start training for a double century ( 200 miles in a day ), this will get me ready for something I’m trying to do in the fall, plus it will probably help me drop my 100 mile ride times. I found a training plan for this and it projects about 16 weeks to get ready for a double. That will give me something to work towards until the middle of the summer. I’m not sure if I’ll do a double this year, but being in shape for one can’t hurt any.

There is a motorcycle event that starts in Mill Valley and runs out Highway 1 every Sunday morning. It’s a crazy festival of bravado, machinery, and speed, it has been around for years. In fact, Shad’s father-in-law did a documentary on it at some point in the past. They call it “The Sunday Ride”.

The last two sunday mornings we’ve been conducting The Sunday Ride – East Bay Edition, however the East Bay Edition uses bicycles instead of motorcycles. It starts by meeting at the base of Mt. Diablo, at the Athenian School, for a ride up the mountain. Last week we turned around at Rock City. This week, I kept going after the others turned around. The plan was to ride to the junction, ( where the north and south gate roads meet, then head down the north gate road and home.

When I arrived at the junction, I thought I’d ride towards the summit for a while and turn around when I got tired. When I was within 2 miles of the summit I figured it was just as easy to go up as it was to go down.

When I was within 1000 feet of the top, i met “the ramp” or whatever it’s called. It’s STEEP. I’d heard some stories about the _the ramp_ over the last few months, so I was prepared for it, but perhaps I wasn’t as prepared as i thought I was, it’s a steep sumbitch. For example, i made it up a majority of the first leg of the day’s ride in my big chainring, had to drop down to the middle chainring for the last part of the second leg, and when I got to the ramp I wimped out and dropped to the third chainring and just put my head down and started pedaling. I pulled hard at one point going up the ramp, and the front wheel got a little light for a second. STEEP.

I made it to the top without walking and stood around for a few minutes and took in the view, made some phone calls, drank some water. You can see a lot of stuff from the summit on a clear day. It wasn’t crystal clear, but clear enough.

Once my CV system had caught up, I started back down the mountain, 10 miles of grabbing the brake. Not much fun. I hate going down mountains. A quick ride through walnut creek, concord, and then a quick hop home. Good ride.

I keep thinking i’m in good shape then I run into something like _the ramp_, or the back side of Morgan Territory, and it humbles me. However, it’s a great way to start a Sunday.