Second Day – Much Better

Day 2 was a much better day. It was 55 miles from Santa Cruz to Carmel-by-the-Sea.

Very few of the villains of day one appeared. A big chunk of the ride was through a commercial agriculture area. Vast expanses of various crops, including strawberries, avocados, lettuce and other vegetables I couldn’t recognize. The best thing about this stretch is that it was totally flat, a biker’s dream.

That said, seeing the agricultural workers in the fields bent over picking strawberries put my complaints about my aches and pains from the ride in perspective.

I’ve equipped my bike with a Bluetooth speaker that connects to my IPhone. Allows me to listen to music, as well as podcasts and audiobooks. In practice, I mostly listen to music, for motivation. One thing I learned on this ride is if you want to boost your speed, listen to Hollywood Nights by Bob Segel. When that song came on my Spotify playlist, my legs started pumping uncontrollably. Probably hit 30 mph.

Sadly, things changed for the last 2 miles. The hills returned and got even steeper than SF. I use an IPhone app that gives me turn by turn directions and, if you go off course, it emits an annoying discordant sound that causes anxiety in the rider. I was stopped at an intersection with ambiguous directions. To my left, was a very, very steep hill. Straight ahead was flat road. I said a little prayer, “Please God, don’t let it be left. Let me go straight.” I went straight, after about 50 feet, the sound came and I slumped on the bike. God does not hear the prayers of bikers, even bikers riding to provide housing for the poor. Sigh.

That was only the beginning. Twice, I had to get off the bike and walk it about 30 yards to the top of the hill. I’ve only had to do that once before on my first of five Fuller rides. It was a tough ending to a really great day. And the thing about hills is that there’s no better feeling when you clear it.

Church accommodations were nice. We had to fee ourselves and got some great local pizza.

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