Henry Coe Reminded Me to Slow Down

The numbers

• Distance: 4.08 miles
• Moving time: 100 minutes
• Elevation gain: 290 ft
• Avg pace: 2.4 mph

What this was

Not a ride. Not intervals. Not a structured workout with a power target.

A hike. Henry Coe State Park, out to Poverty Flat, in the heat of a May afternoon.

I want to be honest about what my training looks like right now. It isn't all saddle time and FTP tests. Some weeks it's this. A trail, a pair of shoes, and 100 minutes of moving through something quiet.

Henry Coe is one of the most underrated parks in the Bay Area. It's big, it's dry, it's unforgiving in the summer, and it is genuinely beautiful. The trail to Poverty Flat drops into a creek canyon and feels nothing like the suburban flatlands most people associate with this region.

Why this matters for riding

I've done enough training cycles to know that leg turnover and FTP aren't the whole story. Time on your feet builds a kind of durability that cycling misses. Your hips open up. Your ankles work differently. Your mind gets a break from watts and zones.

When you're preparing for 135 miles around the Bay, the physical demand is obvious. But the mental endurance is just as real. Spending time in places like this, moving slowly and deliberately, builds something you can't get from Zwift.

Where I am in the build

My FTP is sitting at 216W right now, which is 2.27 W/kg at my current weight. That's a long way from my peak of 295W in July 2022. I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

But I'm moving. I'm logging it. And on a Thursday afternoon, I walked to Poverty Flat and back and felt good about it.

TheBayRide.com is August 29th. The full loop is 135 miles around the Bay. There's also a 35-mile option from San Francisco to Oakland. We're four months out.

This is what the build looks like. Some days it's watts. Some days it's trails.

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