Category Archives: Exercising

Hooray! I biked to the top of Sycamore without stopping!

And then my sister showed me the next killer hills I must conquer . . .

I biked the Briones / San Pablo Dam Reservoir loop yesterday. Man, that was taxing. Of the three “bears” on the route, two are killers: those two hills go on and on and on and up and up and up. The total climb on the route was nearly 1626 feet, and it took me almost two and a quarter hours to go less than nineteen miles. But I didn’t stop until I reached the top of each hill!

Strange thing: as I was biking up Mama Bear and then Papa Bear, I felt drained, slogging for minute after minute after minute up the seemingly never-ending slopes. But when the ride was over, I felt fine. Maybe I was reinvigorated by the rapid, kinda scary steep downhill after Papa Bear—extra exhilarating because the wind was gusting unpredictably, destabilizing the bike.

Yesterday I biked more than thirty miles. And I only stopped once going up the dreaded Sycamore hill. Huzzah!

And a flat rear tire. Gallons of sweat. That hill again. No oomph.
Fun!

For the past month I’ve been biking once or twice a week with my sister, who lives in Gilroy and is an instructor for the Almaden Cycle Touring Club. I bought a hybrid bike, a Giant FCR 1, and have been making my way up and down hills, huffing and puffing and having fun. On Wednesday we rode twenty-one miles, including a steep grade on Sycamore Drive in Morgan Hill. That was the second time I’d ridden up that hill: last time I had to stop four times, and this time I had to stop twice, so I’m making progress!