I broke my own rules today and set an alarm on a Sunday (normally the one day I sleep in), knowing that otherwise I would have to ride in the heat again.

This morning’s ride was Portola loop, the “easy way” (climb Alpine, descend Sand Hill). The only two reasons it merits a ride report are that:

1) I started out feeling horribly tired, and I was a bit slow overall (13.0 AVS), but by the end I was feeling good and was able to churn out the last Sand Hill climb at a respectable speed, even standing to climb the final piece of the hill after 280. I’m glad I went for Portola over the shorter Woodside-Atherton loop.

2) On the last uphill on Portola, some guys caught up with me, but only one of them managed to pass me before it turned downhill. I drafted off him and reached a speed of 35.5 mph…whoa. The others were, oddly, way behind.

Of course, they then passed me by on the uphill, but I actually caught up with them again at Santa Cruz and stayed up with them until they decided to blow a red light. I don’t know if they had bad luck on the lights or what (for once I had good luck with all the lights on the descending portion), but I thought it was funny because I was so clearly slower on uphills, yet not much slower overall.

Time for the farmer’s market! Maybe I’ll even be in time to get basil this week.