indyansel 1, Santa Cruz foothills 1

[quasigeostrophy]

Went out on a 17 mile bike ride with a coworker from our Mountain View office last night after work. Went up into the foothills south of Cupertino. The first big hill was supposedly around an 8% grade for about a mile. With no decent hill practice to speak of, I actually made it! Stopped once near the top for a breather, but never walked the bike up. Then it was downhill for a couple of miles before the killer hill... 12-13% for a little under a mile. I didn't get very far up that one. Maybe because I'm such a Clydesdale or something, but I have trouble standing in the saddle to pedal uphill, and I walked it up much of that hill. Once that was over, more downhill and several miles on the flats to get back to our starting point. Felt pretty good about making the first hill... if only the bike I borrowed had a third chainring for some lower gears... Oh well...