Mt. Diablo. Twice.

After a week of recovering from the Solvang Double Century with just my usual bike commute and a couple of half-hearted intervals, Lance Oldstrong suggested we join BikeForums.net all around cool dude Taxi777 (Pete) on his ride to the Diablo summit from South Gate. Then he had an even better idea: Gather Steve up, head up Northgate to the summit, drop down the Southgate, meet Pete and Ron, and summit again. I've never even considered doing that before, but I claim to be preparing for the Devil Mountain Double, so there was no way to say no.

I arrived at the meeting place and put my bike together. Except for the front wheel, which I'd left in the garage. As I loitered with Steve, Lance Oldstrong was kind enough to go to his closer-than-my home and get his Williams System 19 front wheel to loan me. So, we got off about 15 minutes late.

We had a delightful ride up in the cool morning air. We were all feeling reasonably frisky, even knowing we were going to do it twice. I was surprised to see ice coating the trees — and blowing into us — as we neared the summit. Climbing at relatively slow speed and putting out a lot of heat made the morning seem not cold at all.

The ride down was a lot colder. Really a lot colder. Even in full gloves and jacket I froze. I'm not a fast descender anyway, but being cold and stiff makes being smooth a lot harder.  Steve and Dan left me in the dust until I caught them, stopped by the road. Oldstrong managed to get quite the tire cut and flat, requiring a boot.

We met Pete and Ron coming up a few moments later and started climb number two. I was feeling really good, but still couldn't keep up with Pete, on his single speed no less.

We managed to summit again, still feeling better than I have after just one trip up. I was ready to head home, but Oldstrong, being Oldstrong, figured if two was good, three was better, and announced he'd do it yet again. I think I made it to the hot tub when I got a text from him announcing his third summit of the day. Somehow I managed to get no photos of Ron, but he really was there. He has a good ride report on his blog.

On a side note, I somehow slightly strained my calf on the Solvang ride. As I have already announced that this is the year of health voodoo, I decided to try TENS (Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) with a unit I happened to have. It may have helped. I sure felt better on Sunday. My clinical trial of one test with no control group seems to indicate potential success. 

 

Thanks to Steve for the photos of the ice tree, Pete, and myself riding with Dan.