@Aeroiseverything a cyclist way of saying Mele Kalikimaka!
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Started the day with some km from virtual ride last night:
Rough day outside in the cold, wet weather. Took a pic while I stopped for the rain:
Reminded how much I hate changing a tire in the cold 
And that took me to 25+% of the Festive 500:
Had planned to do more, but stopped at a bike shop to buy a plastic fender. And warm up. And of course the changing of the flats.
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Well the forecast for Tuesday was way wrong. Even last night they were forecasting rain, murk and wind. So I thought I’d make today a rest day but I woke to parting skies. So to make up for lost time I went at a high tempo to Stirling.
When I looked back it was nearly a warm blue sky so I kept on to Kinross. I lost my mojo for a bit when Mr Magoo decided to pull out of a side road onto the main Road in Menstrie. He was going slow enough I managed to bunny hop into a gap between parked cars. He kept on coming until he skiffed the cars. He was going so slow though I don’t think he done any damage. That road is 60mph either side of the village, so drivers are often going more than that, the poor bloke will end up killing someone if he continues to pull out like that. I think I was more miffed that the promised tailwind never materialised.
As I got closer to Kinross the skies had fully parted and by Scottish standards for December it was actually quite hot.
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Went out for a nice, long Z2 ride yesterday, 142 km in 4.75. It had rained all night and was still drizzling when I got on the road, temperature kept fluctuating between 0 and 1 C. 98% was on bike paths following the river, rode 71 km out and turned around. Was perfectly comfortable - long sleeve Perfetto, thin wool base layer, thin Craft sleeveless base under that. Q36.5 Wolf bibs with Pearl Izumi leg warmers, neoprene shoe covers, Endura Thermolite socks, Gore cap, and thin wool gloves (in combination with bar mitts). Fenders did their job as usual. First ride with the top tube bag from Decathlon with the magnetic latch, awesome, worked perfectly, better than the Pro Explorer I was using before.
I stopped to take some pictures of two bulls who were eating from a haystand. As soon as I stopped, they took interest in me, one walked over to the fence. Started mooing, but not in a polite way. Breathing became deep, lowered it’s head, stood square to me… that’s when I had the sudden realization that, 1) that bull doesn’t give a crap about the electric fence between us, and 2) I have a decent sprint, but I bet the bull’s is better. Then it clicked… my outfit. Bright orange jersey and helmet. I got the heck out of dodge.
(with sound)
I’m not 100% sure, but my suspicion is the bull didn’t like my outfit. Good for cars, bad for livestock.
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Unbelievably mild in Scotland today so I took advantage and took a couple of passes over the Campsies which are usually covered in ice and snow at this time of year. Today it was +11deg C at 7am 
The weather got better and better as I neared the Campsies but the tops of them looked dreich in places. I half thought about staying low in the 
, but I decided since I’d come this far I’d go up. The looks were confirmed it was dreich in places but not as bad as I feared thankfully.
I probably should have planned it before the ride instead of on the ride and I might have carried more than one bottle 
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Learned a few things about building videos with this one. Now to commit to shorter clips. Have the sound on for some interesting commentary
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Last big ride of the year and it was tough!
We are now on the Big Island, and it is beautiful!
I did a few smaller rides the last days, but today was a big one.
I went from the hotels in Waikoloa Beach to Kailua Kona (40k). Nice and smooth.
From there on, a climb starts called the „Kaloko Drive“.
Hardly known, but also THE toughest climb I have done to date!
I could write a whole lot about it, but this describes it best (Pjamm Cycling):
I didn’t do any noteworthy wattage or anything, but the climb being so erratic made me really suffer. Several bumps where in the 20%s and really took the life out of me. This picture is an optical illusion, but it really looked like that when on the climb:
I am on a 2% grade and the car is on a 10% grade, right?
Wrong! I am on a 10% grade here and the car is one a 18% grade!
Every single hairpin filled me with fear, as these were the ones where the slope really kicked up.
Once at the end of Kaloko Drive, you turn onto Huehue Street. That’s where the last wall hits you, and it’s finally over. The climb has no view, so here is just a picture of me looking beaten up.
That’s a good impression of the gradient:
The climb was actually super nice to descend, as the street is wide, the asphalt is fresh and the “hairpins” are very wide. So I could blast down, awesome!
Back down again, I headed back to the hotel.
I was planning on doing a little lava trail back to the hotel but Komoot got me good:
The road went through a private property. The alternative route was 15k longer, so I pulled out and called an Uber
.Still great fun!
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A local Kona IM age grouper moved and is now living in Kona, and she did Kaloko Drive in 53:01 somewhere in Strava top 10 for women. Beast!
I love the Big Island. Happy to see you are having fun!
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The climb is really 4 parts.
The first is the Hina Lani, which is around 6.5%, just the last bit before the highway is pretty steep.
Then there is the Ane Keohokalole Hwy, which is short an relatively flat.
The biggest part of the climb is the Kaloko Dr, which then ultimately turns onto the Huehue Street for a last short pitch.
I guess the 50min time starts from “2”. The KOM on the full climb is around 1:10 and I was a cool 30 minutes slower.
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that one is hidden in segment search, had to find your ride to see it!
I hope you are feeling better today!
Snow anyone? There was a lot of it today. I had to pick my route thoughtfully otherwise it would not have been rideable. This is good practice for low cadence balancing, while keeping things in Z2 and no sweating.
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Looks fantastic 
We just have rain here in the South of the UK 
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Yeah - I’d take snow over rain any day! It’ll be blue skies on Sunday … although about zero degrees F
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10+ feet in the Sierras over the last week!
Down here at sea level just came in from my last ride of 2021:
Garmin ftp estimate update at the end of the ride. Just a couple watts off other estimates, highest ever FTP at the end of year which 
should set me up for an awesome 2022 
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I saw that in the news! Some record snowfall and apparently it still isn’t enough due to the effects of the drought.
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December snowfall at Donner Summit was 3rd highest of any month!
EPIC skiing, boarding and sliding!