46 with TC on SART

 Good 46 miles today with TC. Held the first 60% (?) speed down to conversation pace but picked it up when we hit the headwinds. TC was crushing it at that point. Hard effort trying to stay with him as he was looking strong today. 🤣

It was pretty cool in a couple portions of the ride because TC likes stats. He was monitoring his HR while drafting me and not drafting. Behind me asking about my HR. I was at 152 while in front as he was 138 behind me shielded from the wind. Then we switched and I dropped to 138 behind him after I recovered. At that point he said he was 155 which is very close to one another. But he did say that at 152 I was going 1 mph faster than he was at his 155. I'll take his word for it seeing it feels like a struggle trying to stay on his wheel after I move off the front. Sure feels like he's going faster but he says I was so I guess that is a good thing.

I did have a hard time recovering because he took the front right at the hill by Moon park heading south. Steep little bugger than can get one's heart racing. He did slow for a moment but it seems as soon as I was on, he picked it up. Took me a while to recover and getting my HR down. Finally after a bit but it was a good workout holding on. I will say that I think he did a good chunk of the lead on the way back so I was just cranking it up trying to stay with him ha ha ha! Good power today so he looked good!

Funny though that I never used a HR monitor till TC gave me his old one. He said he couldn't get it to work correctly so he bought the bigger better model ha ha ha! Heck, people give me stuff because they know I'll use it somehow. Many times it's something simple and when he gave me the monitor, I noticed the strap was pretty much thrashed. I'm the type that follows the directions and tips. Cleaned it up, bought a $10 strap on ebay, and the sucker works great! Matter of fact, I bought 5 straps for that price. Gave one to TC so he has an extra.

I do rinse mine after every ride or two depending on how much sweat I get. I rinse it in the shower with me after the ride and if I wash it, every 4 or 5 rides, I use a soft soap. Been fine, I'm still on my first strap after over a year of use, nice!

So TC and I having just about the same data on the rides is cool. Means both of the monitors are pretty accurate. Even on GMR, I believe it was there that he was asking about HR. We were so close that he thought that maybe my monitor was picking up his data. I don't think that was the case, more like good close settings and results, a good thing. Heck, thanks again for giving me your POS monitor ha ha ha! Not that it is but thinking it was ha ha ha, I got a cool deal out of it. Actually been very useful as far as getting back into shape with a little structure. Back in the day, maybe being younger with less worries, I'd just ride till I felt like my kidneys were going to jump out of my body. I pretty much really have to worry about that now ha ha ha!

A little something different tonight. Casa Jiminez though we don't go often anymore since our favorite location closed. 🤣 This is the next best one after trying about 5 others. 🫣 Then to the mall where Gina can really concentrate on her Pop Slots. 😄

Gina always so entertaining. Saw a couple cops at the mall, somewhat younger so she asked me I thought they might have heard of the TV show Adam-21? 😆😄😆

Then we heard a Steely Dan song, Do it Again. She was singing along...you go Black Jack, do it again. 😆😄😆 For 50 years she's been sing Go Black Jack.....because she said it was a song about gambling. 😆😄😅

Solo 25 Easy Pace Hard Butt Tour

 Solo 25 on SGRT looking for an easy ride  but boy, sure was a hard ride on my butt. 🤣 Seems as soon as I sat on the saddle,  felt like a brick. But more my Honey than the saddle.  Took about 7 miles before I felt like my glutes loosened up. If I had happened to be gay, this would have been the moment to take me. 😆😄😆 Joke of course,  I'm all MAN. 😁

But that was rough.  Maybe because I spent all day and night sitting and laying on the bed. Maybe I got too cozy. 

So I felt better after the first few. The rest of the ride pretty uneventful.  Although I got a chuckle out of the other cyclists I saw behind me approaching the damn dam. I  started the climb then looked back when I was half way up, all 3 Solo riders took the back route. 😄

Just an easy ride overall. 

A little story to this pic. Lady was riding with her son who was on an electric scooter leaving her far behind then doubling back every so often.  I saw her go by as I was mounting my bike at the start. Hmm, not bad and unlike the beach trail,  we don't see too many hotties out here so heck with it, I'm taking a pic. 

As I was gaining on them, her about 12 yo son doubled back.  Must have analyzed the sit-chee-ation because he looked at me for a second then gave me the stink eye. 👀

I slowed a bit then he headed up the road again leaving her behind once again. Well heck Junior.....😆

I slowly rolled by snapping 3 pics, all on the timer of 2 seconds plus reset time, tells you how slow I was going.  😄 I was about to take 1 more from a lower angle but she must have heard me because she moved over and looked back. 

I wasa little disappointed not getting the shot for my blog but she looked back at me with a big purty smile.  The front view better than the back . Well darn! I can see why the kid gave me the stink eye. 😆😄😆

More trash to report,  and I did.

Then dinner with Gina.  Funny enough,  the day after Thanksgiving,  I ordered a turkey sandwich.  

For TG, Gina made a turkey breast and a small ham. Can't eat like I used to but I got my share.  Probably why the saddle felt so hard today.  But better to work it off than sit around all day again. 

Color  coordinated shirt to watch but sadly the glare hid some of the watch color. 

Medication Refill Ride with Sandra (video included)

 25 miles from Encanto Park Duarte to Pasadena and back to fill Sandra's prescription. Started about 2:20 pm and Sandra didn't think it would be dark by the time we got back, I did. I always take 2 lights. Usually one a good flash style that won't blind drivers. I've always suffered from migraines my entire life since 12 so I have a little feeling of what strobes do to sufferers, so! The second is used as a solid light when it gets dark, Sure does a good job having 2 lights in the dark anyway plus if one fails, I'm still set.

But a good ride with plenty of hills to Pasadena in some nice hoods. Just hoping ICE doesn't catch me there or they just might chase me down ha ha ha! But a ton of traffic on the way back. It was nice to do the ride in the daylight though so I could actually see where I was at. A little familiar but my entire life was east of there so not familiar with Pasadena. Id' get lost if Sandra dropped me ha ha ha!

But a good ride. After Sandra turned off, I continued to Encanto Park where it was really dark. Heck, I pulled up to the facilities and the playground was dark. As soon as I aimed towards the playground, I saw a bunch of kids hanging on the bars like bats in the dark ha ha ha! I'm guessing my lights might have surprised them. 

I'm serious about this, a cop car (?) pulled up to a parked car down the way and soon a gang of them, The families at the playground said they were leaving, La Migra!!!1 The immigration ha ha ha! I proceeded on over to my truck to pack up while the families ran to their cars and split ha ha ha!

Heck, I was not worried at all. Racially profile me all you want, if they deported me, it would be a nice little vacation in Mexico for me. Once they realize I don't even really know Spanish, they'd send me back ha ha ha! I only pretty much know food and bad words ha ha ha!

But a good day and ride overall. I did get there early to test some light bolts and mount connections so I got in a separate ride of about 5 miles that I posted on Strava as well. I usually don't post warm up miles but an hour early, I had to add something.

Then of course, dinner with my Honey. Getting home a little later than usual, Sizzler was once again teh most convenient. So there we were!

                                                                         The video

      Testing my lights at night after the people slipped away

Arriving early,  I rode up the trail snapping a couple of pics. I  always enjoy the view of this rock company for some reason. 😎

Gina saw this pic and asked why her lips always looks so red. Heck, I dunno but she never wears lipstick. Well, I've seen her with lipstick maybe 5 times in our 32 years.

 

Solo 40 on San Gabe Trail

Solo 40 miles on the San Gabe trail.  Did the top section of 2.7 miles a second time, from the Encanto Park bridge to the top of the trail just for some good exercise.  Got to the top of the trail, turned around then headed back down to the Encanto bridge heading up a second time. Felt good and actually had the thought in my head even before reaching the parking lot. Just thought the upper section would help me get accustomed to the long sustained sections as I plan on doing GMR more in the near future. Been trying to coax Sandra into going up with me several more times. She was pretty excited the time we did it with TC but the next day, said she was taking a few pain pills ha ha ha! Good thing we didn't push it any further that day though she wanted to, but I'm smarter than that, I knew.

But the day was beautiful, lots of clouds, cool, and purty. Much nicer and easing off the electrolytes seeing that I don't sweat much, not the dripping type so I don't want to retain too many elements. I did mix one bottle at about half way then water to finish off. I usually start with water for the first hour then electrolytes throughout the remainder of the ride but since it wasn't hot...... 

The ride was once again funny. I start at the golf course and warm up the first few miles. So I'm cruising spinning the legs up when I see a couple coming up behind me. Again, I don't usually pay attention to the pace of others, I just do my thing. But I didn't notice they were catching me till I started recording. I shot a scene then as soon as I put my recorder back in my pocket, they passed me. Speaking Spanish, the dude said something about a cold beer. I was wearing my Drunk Bastard jersey and the bottles from afar can actually look real poking out of my jersey ha ha ha!

They went by and the chick looked really fit and cut along her legs. The dude looked pretty fit but not a Lance looking type, but fit. I didn't notice they were that close behind me till I looked at the video footage. So they pass me and the dude stands up on every little incline of the underpasses. I thought that was strange till we hit one underpass along Valley Blvd. They were about 40 yards ahead but I noticed he somewhat struggled to make it up the climb while standing. I quickly closed a good chunk of the gap but I didn't want to pass them at this point. I figured they passed me so I don't want to look the fool passing them then getting hammered like so many idiots out there on bikes ha ha ha!

So I eased up a bit then seven miles down the road, I noticed they backed off the pace some. This is where the stair stepping starts and the little climbs add up. Then I noticed a 100 yard gap started shrinking. Quickly I was near and noticed the guy once again standing and looking to struggle up the little inclines, taking their toll. Next thing I know, I'm about 10 yards back so here we go!

I announced my pass on the left then went around saying," cold beer!!!". They kind of laughed at my comment then said something but I couldn't make it out so I just kept rolling. At this point, I just put focused on the trail ahead and started pushing pretty good. I saw them drop back some then when I got to the top of the trail at the dam, they were really far behind. I had actually caught and passed some dude that was about 100 yards ahead of them. No big victories but it feels great to feel this kind of fitness again, feeling great!

One friend that knows TC is actually his cousin. The other day, he sent a text, in a group saying, Mr. Beanz still has some old fashioned horse power. Maybe after looking at our rides on Strava, hey, I'll take it ha ha ha! Good to be 62 and still have some power to put to the pedals. But when I did get home going through the footage to select my scenes for the videos, I did notice the guy standing up behind me looking like maybe he was trying to catch or pass me but saw the recorder then sat down. I didn't know he was there ha ha ha! But I left it in as one of the scenes. A scene or two later, you'll see them a bit ahead of me before pulling much further ahead. But that is my strategy most of the times on that trail. Warm up and hold steady on the lower section then kick it up once the incline starts, just good exercise and a good gauge of how one feels that day.

As far as the golf course, it was packed when I arrived. Driving in I thought it was a massive bike ride. But pulling in further and closer to the club house, I notice a bunch of little girls with the fathers getting out of the cars. Wow, never saw so many Teslas in one place and driving by looking for a space. Many with fancy golf carts obviously purchased for the little girls, cute pink bags etc. So I figured some kind of tournament. Then when I returned, sitting under the patio, I asked some dude there with a table and a computer, he said it was a set of tournaments for kids, like 9 to 12 years old iirc. Girls with dads as caddies then later, the 12 year old and boys with mothers as caddies.

Wow, talk about a bunch of well to do kids, they have it made. I did notice that 85% of them were Chinese. I think I saw one Mexican ha ha ha! But that is cool that parents can do that for their kids.

Saw this lady on Strava so I put her in the video for sure !

I was hoping that dog wouldn't get loose and charge me at 30 mph!

A little Millie's lunch with my Honey. It rained so hard on Thursday night, Friday morning that I had to fight with Gina talking her into staying home. She has a hard enough time driving in clear conditions, I sure didn't want her to drive to work in the dark on the freeway with pouring rain. Worth blowing a vacation day to stay alive. Turned out to be a good day!

Of course after the ride, Sizzluh! 

The rides always look so impressive on the graphs ha ha ha!