Sunday Post Christmas 🎄 Party

 Solo 25 at 16.0 average speed.  Pico to Liberty Park and back.  Settled for 25 because I really didn't feel like riding today.  Tough getting out of bed but then felt great on the bike.  Really thinking the electrolytes were holding me back during the non sweat months.  Last couple of rides,  just water and feeling great 👍 

Did run into a dude at Liberty Park named Jose. Hard to forget that name seeing 8 out of every 10 Hispanic guys I know,  are named Jose. 😄 

But a cool guy who claims to be friends with Omar who runs the Chalan rest stop. But Jose says he used to operate a couple bike shops in recent years but gave it up. So he's starting a little gig at Liberty Park on Saturday and Sundays doing repairs etc. Selling glasses and other swag it seems.  Pretty cool friendly guy. It was a pleasure. 

Then to Sizzler after the ride with Gina. She offered up Lucille's but I had to resist after thinking about it,  back and forth.  Well heck, eating like that is what got me into this mess in the first place. 

Feeling pretty dang good over last couple of months,  don't want to fail now.  Awesome feeling dropping a couple of notches on the belt, going to maintain as I'm too old now to risk my health over tasty goodies. Heck, feeling too awesome on the bike. So Sizzler is just about right,  small steak and about a cup of potatoes or rice,  I alternate,  is perfect.  

But I really need to get on my horse and start using the dumbells. Looking in the mirror today after my shower,  I saw how puny my arms looked.  Haven't worked out in years but I really need to start before the young dudes start trying to steal my lunch money.  

Not going to be able to protect myself with tiny little arms like this. 😄

Been years but I think there may still be hope for these tiny little old man arms. Hoping at 61, I might be able to rebuild at least a little bit of old man muscle. 

Christmas Party, No Ride

 No ride today, Gina has her company Christmas party at the Double Tree so I decided to take the morning off having worked so hard at work all week ha ha ha! Went to breakfast at a different Casa Jimenez in La Puente. The Claremont location we frequented for 25 years closed down due to a lease dispute.

Pretty stupid I think. The last location was vacated for the same reason which was Garey and Rt 66. That building today is still vacant with a lease sign on it after 15 years. So with the greedy stupid building owner of the Claremont building, I hope they remain vacant as well seeing what they have done.  Husband and wife getting greeting during divorce so they want more money for the two of them so they severely raised the rate putting these people out of jobs, really sucks. So I hope the owners suffer ha ha ha!

Found this new location after trying about 4 others, this is the second best so far and luckily, very local. But still, though close, not the same tasty food we've grown to enjoy.  But it will have to do though I just don't have a desire TO GO there. I will just to get a hint of what I used to enjoy.  We'll see, maybe we'll grow to enjoy it more. The food just isn't the same quality, couple of bucks more expensive, and the salsa ain't the same. :-(

But, a good morning need a quick meal fix for now. Really strange here in LA county, the Mexican food actually sucks but maybe the taco trucks have taken all the good supplies ha ha ha! Of course, a taco truck on every corner, actually about 5 or 6 on every corner, darn Mexicans ha ha ha!

Working too hard at work ha ha ha!

Ha! My $2 per week allowance adds up quickly.  So I do get to carry a little chump change in my pockets during the week. 

Awesome Sauce Sunday

 Another 25 from Pico to the Santa Fe Dam Nature Center and back.  No liquid IV today and I felt great.  

I mention this again after feeling sick on a couple of rides realizing I was overdosing on electrolytes.  Too much sodium and other electrolytes.  Not utilizing them seeing it has been rather cool and I'm not much of a sweat dripping type of guy. 75 degrees,  40 miles and not a drop of sweat yesterday.  Another 25 today and still no sweat. 

Type of guy I am so after all the eliminations, breakfast stuff,  granola bars, energy bars, all I can figure is I was getting way too much sodium and other stuff my body wasn't utilizing. 

Today,  no liquid IV and I felt great again as I did yesterday.  Yesterday I had one bottle over the 40 miles and felt great as well. Maybe a 2 minute threat of feeling nausea after the ride but still felt great. I think I might go half packet doses if anything till the heat here in Cali kicks back up to triple digits again. 

Lesson learned and hopefully others learn from my experience and cheesy little blog. 😄

So today a great ride though I didn't see many riders. And only like one chick on the dam. 

Gave me a chance to test my clamp, swivel arm, swivel ball mounts with my cell cam holding fixture.  All aluminum stuff from ebay.  Really happy with it being able to hit all angles. 

Just some innocent dude falling prey to my camera as I was setting it up clamped to a fence. 😁

                                                       Video from Saturday's 40 mile ride

Favorite t shirt

This is my 3rd, wore out 2 already. Always comments and kudos from people that see me wearing it. At the mall, work, wherever, always have fun with it. Just got my 3rd so wore it to work getting lots of smiles and comments again ha ha ha!

Solo Old Fart 40

Solo 40 at 16.0 average speed. Pico Rivera golf course to Seal Beach and back. Seemed windy both ways but felt pretty good. Strange thing, feeling really sick on a previous ride, then a good ride then the next week, felt nauseated after a ride and a shower. Couldn't figure it out but then did a search on electrolytes reading some of the stories about people overdosing on the stuff. Thinking maybe it happened to me, I backed off this ride. One bottle during mid ride. Felt so much better and no bad feelings after or during the ride. Very strange though, didn't know this could happen so hopefully I got it all figured out. Don't drink too many electrolyte bottles on a ride that is a bit cooler where one will not sweat too much. I am not a heavy sweater so I'm guessing I was using too many bottles. Even after the ride, I rode up to the course clubhouse and drank an extra bottle of water to dilute whatever might still be in my stomach. Lesson learned.

Did try some Clif Shot Bloks to see how they would work. Also contain electrolytes so another reason I backed off on my drink of Liquid IV. Seems to have worked, felt much better and even strong today.

                                                              My Shot Blok stash it's case. Found these cases at Best Buy for $14. Heck, bought all three that they had figuring I could use them for something.

Funny thing. Reading reviews on amazon and ebay, people complained that they had received 2 of the magnetic mounts and one didn't work. Of course you dope if you don't place them correctly. First time trying it, I felt a resistance, a push if you will while trying to connect the mounts together. Yes, if you put a positive to a positive, it's going to resist. So duh, turn it around so it works properly. I make sure the labels are all tot he front so I don't have to figure it out on a ride. Just make sure all the labels are forward, no problem.

As well, one go pro type mount, some dude complaining that the threads were on the wrong side. Duh,, the part is symmetrical but only one side has threads so place that side on the far side of the screw insertion point. Soo many whack people out there.

Gina, Chuck, and I tried out a new Casa Jimenez location. Actually second time at this one seeing it was closest to the one we liked so much. Others were really way off and actually sucked. This one was decent so we tried it a second time. Second time, it was again OK but not like the one we liked. Sadly it closed down due to leasing issues.

I had a 3 item plate seeing I am over the all you can eat status now. I guess with age, I can't pack it away like I used to and shouldn't controlling my sugar well now. 2 enchiladas and a chile relleno. Few chips but not like before. Gina had a breakfast type plate of enchiladas. Actually pretty good being fried enchiladas.  Place is decent but doesn't make me say, I wanna go!

Pre ride night time festivities. Eating cucumber and watching Mr. Ballen crime, murder, paranormal etc stories. Pretty cool channel on YT and Pandora.

Cyclists confuse me. Always whining about drivers wanting to run them over but they place their bikes in the middle of the golf course drive way to work on them while people exit the lot. OK, I almost think it would be safer and they might not get run over if they moved to the left or right of their vehicle seeing the spaces were open, DUH!