This was a weird ride. I redid the ride I did on July 4, but with the peaks added in that I'd skipped. This hits all the most iconic climbs in the Angeles Forest (though some of them were descents in this route).
I'm moving away from Pasadena (temporarily? permanently? we will see) and wanted to hit this ride before I left. I was up all the previous night packing and was going to take a nap before leaving, but then decided a short nap could leave me even more sleepy, so just went for it without sleep.
I knew I wasn't going into this in a great state, so gave myself the option of just quitting at any time without judging myself for it.
When I'm tired I mostly seem to have controls of "on" or "off". No intentional cadence, power, speed etc. On is climb the mountain at 4-8 mph, whatever works; off is stop. Going up Baldy in the morning before dawn was pretty cool. There was almost no traffic, and relatively good visibility of stars. As I got higher up, though, it started to get colder, and of course I was only wearing my lightest summer kit (or, jersey, at least - all my endurance rides get the same bib). Going up was ok. Going down I got really chilled. I think some parts were in the low 50s, maybe pockets of high 40s, so not super cold, but I think my metabolism just wasn't on completely because of how tired I was, so I was producing less body heat than normal. The sun was up and finally hitting the road when I crossed GRR, and I felt kind of mentally fuzzy, so decided to take a break to just sit and try to reset, and try to warm up. Feeling foggy and then also tense from the cold is not the best for being able to control a bike while descending. It mostly worked, but all of the ground that was in the sun was covered with tons of ants, and the parts in the shade made me colder.
The descent down the backside of GMR, down the 39, ascent up the front side of GMR, and down the backside again were uneventful. Less crazy crowded than I've seen it previous months, but it was also relatively early morning, so maybe people just hadn't showed up yet.
The climb up the 39 was, again, absurdly hot. My Garmin read temps over 100 for almost the entire climb up to Crystal Lake. When I overheat I get stuck in that same stunted on/off mode, so I did a slow but consistent climb up to Crystal lake.
From there, I continued up the closed section of the 39 and encountered several hikers there! I'd never encountered anyone else on the closed section before. They were all too hot as well. Usually when I get up to this elevation, it's cooled enough that it becomes comfortable, but today it was still very hot and sunny all the way up to Angeles Crest.
As I got towards Red Box, I was looking at the time. I'd done every climb slowly, which is kind of what I expected in starting the ride. How late would I get home? How much of the mountain descents would be in the dark? I ended up deciding to go for it anyway and not worry about the time. It was dark by the time I was getting near the Big Tujunga loop.
On Angeles Forest Hwy and up Big Tujunga, the moon was up. It was bright. I kept seeing the light coming over my shoulder and thinking there was a car wanting to pass, so I'd look over my shoulder and see no one there. Is there a car? No, that's the moon. Is there a car? No, that's the moon. Is there a car? No, that's the moon. Oh shoot, there's a car wanting to pass now but I thought it was the moon.
Going up Big Tujunga, there was no traffic. After a little while, I turned off my headlight and rode by the moonlight. There were so many animals - several rabbits, a couple bobcats, bats, and others that I couldn't identify. I was a little concerned about running into coyotes - I'd been chased by them on rides before and was moving at a crawl up the climb. I definitely couldn't outrun them going up, given how tired I already was. I guess I could go back downhill, but then would I even be able to finish my planned route? Fortunately there were no coyotes.
I got back up to Angeles Crest and turned my light back on. It had cooled off again, but fortunately not as much as earlier in the morning. The descent from there and little intermediate climbs were pretty easy, and slower than normal. Usually I can do the descent from Red Box without touching my brakes, but with the light reduced to what shone from my headlight - drowning out any broader visibility that the moon would have provided - I slowed down.
I finished the ride off, with multiple hours in the mountains in the dark. There are a lot of animals there! But I don't know what they all are.
Some general notes:
I was testing new bar tape and gel pads. I think they are not for me (at least, not the gel pads. Not super excited about the tape either, but there was nothing wrong with it.) They make the bar almost too thick for my hand to wrap around it, and this creates a weird and uncomfortable pattern of pressure. I think I'm going to keep this on the bars for a little longer for some additional testing, but I'm pretty sure it's just flat out uncomfortable and I should go back to Supacaz.
My knees were hurting on and off throughout this ride, which has never happened before. Even with the exact same setup (minus the new tape/pads). I think there's like a 60% chance that it's due to the tape - yes I know that sounds weird, but I've found that when my hands are uncomfortable I end up redistributing weight differently to take pressure off my hands.
This ride was RIDICULOUSLY slow. Probably got my slowest time on many segments. And I was tired. But whatever.
Strava record: https://www.strava.com/activities/3989692814
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