Sick No Rides

Sorry Man, been sick so haven't done any riding.  Felt a little low last week thinking I might be sick. Gina had the flu and I was hoping it wouldn't hit me. Of course everybody else at work was sick. Always seems that I am the last one to get sick when I do. I woke up Saturday with a sore throat, couldn't talk at work on Monday, Tues seemed a little better then Christmas morn, sheesh! Seems I was right back where I was on Monday.

Sucks but hopefully I feel better in the next couple of days so I can at least hit the trail this weekend.

Sunday SART & 30 PR's On Strava

Gina went Christmas shopping today so I had a chance to open up on a segment I had been wanting to increase my ranking. Lincoln to Taft, 25.3 average, 1.3 miles, Mr. Beanz # 208 out of 4940 riders. I'm happy with it. I had Jose along with me to help share the load on the 44 miler so it made it nice to crank it up after a little recoup!

Oh yeah, I finally broke down and got a K Edge mount for the Go Pro, looks nice!

Short vid of the segment for now ;-)






The full video, Jose and I on SART. We did see Julius at the start with a huge group of riders. I thought we'd hop on but 30 seconds later they pulled off the trail ha ha! Saw Tammy and Alan ride by, Greg and Bob, then ran into Lucas at the coast. Jose rode really strong today. I was pooped trying to keep up with him but the good thing was setting 30 PR's on Strava ha ha!

Sunday SART

Well it was a good ride but jut a sad day. Aimee's first ride in a long time and Jose was there too. We were all doing pretty good, I thought but Gina later told me that Aimee was asking if she was alright. Now watching the video,Gina didn't look right on the ride. maybe to much celebrating the night before as the daughter in law graduated with her Masters. So anyway, we made it tot he coast OK then ran into an old riding partner from back in 98 when we were much younger and fit ha ha! Mike hung around with us for a good chat of old times. Then we all headed back together. But 4 miles or so from the finish, Gina just couldn't hold pace so we slowed and let our friends ride off into the sunset . That's the sad part ha ha!

SART 12/1/13 Me No Ride Long Time

Well we haven't been on the bikes for over 3 weeks now. I was shocked that we actually did about the same pace as our usual. Especially taking into account the wind today, oh my! Not many riders out there when the wind kicks up but for me, hey it's a blast. Lots more open trail for me to ride on ha ha! Did run into Ed at the parking area. Then Bad Bob along the trail near the coast, and Lucas at the beach stop. Good to see a few familiar faces again.

In the video, you can hear Bad Bob ask why I was banned from the forums. I love this question because it gives me a chance to talk about real men like AHultin and talk trash about all the Bull sheotter out there ha ha! :-)

OK I reworked the video because Ed is a BABY! ;-)





                                                                           

                                This is how I do it, the ole over the soulder and aim back trick!

                                                                        Bad Bob

                                                Oh my gosh! A smiling Lucas on camera!

                                                                 Beauty of a day eh!

All About GMR.....GMR on GMR

Well I found out one thing today. I suck with the camera on manual mode ha ha! I've been reading all the stuff about F stops, ISO, shutter speed etc and it make sense when you read it but when you actually go out in the field to try it, it's a bit different. I did get the indoor shots OK but I went up GMR to work on outdoor shots with my new camera. Nothing fancy, just a Canon Rebel T3. MY cousin is getting married next weekend and I'd like to take pics with something other than my point and shoot on auto. Still shots of the surroundings seemed OK but put a moving object in the pic and it's blur city. So I guess I have to change the shutter speed to a faster setting. Seems I did get a little better at the end and it's coming so it's all good! I'll be ready for the wedding!

Gina had plans today and my lazy arse didn't feel like riding. Well I did but Meh! I wanted to play with the new camera. I took my tripod and headed up. Ended up running into GMR and her buddy John. I brought my GoPro along too so I figured I'd strap it onto the grill of my truck just to see what comes of it ha ha! GMR just happened to be up there which was a good thing cause now I had a subject for the day. Much better than having to stalk a few riders ha ha!

Video actually came out pretty good and it's all about GMR ha ha!...and John! GMR did have an injury to the thumb. A few stitches but I won't tell you how. Just let your imagination run wild. Maybe she wiped out in a GMR turn at 40 MPH and caught herself with a one arm push up saving herself from serious injury. It's much better than the true story ha ha!

Always good to see her and her buddies! So anyway, I finally started getting the hang of the camera and started figuring out what I was doing wrong. So I said good bye to GMR at the shack and headed down with a plan to stop along the turnouts and set up for a few pics. I get to the first turn out and set up shop only t find, my battery is dying.....FAST! I knew I should have charged the back up battery. Oh well it was a good day even though I didn't ride! ;-P

BTW, GMR is going to be mad at me! They pushed pretty hard on the final section to the shack. I thought I had the Go Pro on but somehow managed to click it on then off really fast. I hate when I do that! :-P

                                            Taken through the windshield so it's a bit grainy

                                                    Another thru the windshield shot

Sat SART & Anudder Bee Sting!

Inside the ear, same ear as last time. What is that, 4 stings in a couple of months? Doesn't even hurt anymore, just don't like the swelling.

Some pics for now, video later. Julius of Adobo Velo and his buddies, including an Iron Woman. Saw Jesus again, Alex and got in a clip with Herb and Alyce. I swear I remember Julius' name when he's not around but when he's there, I can never get his name right, sheesh! Well he's always good for a visit. This time he had his friends, one from Frisco and another an Iron Woman ready to do a second Iron Man next month. That is some serious commitment and training! Julius rides with Adobo Velo and we did catch a clip of another few AV riders along the way.





                                                                        Herb & Alyce

                                                                   Julius and his friends

                                                                  The Iron Woman

                                                                            Alex

                                       It was like 2 pm but looked like sunset, darn time change!

                                        The signature Beanz wiping glass from Gina's tire move

Saturday SART

Just Gina and I today. We did see Greg out there, been a long time. Rick shouted hi, River Velo Jose, and Terrible Tim on his cross bike. Didn't see others out there, feel like I'm missing somebody though! Anyway, pretty much just Gina and I today so I took this as my chance to create my "I loves me a big booty " video ha ha! Yes, I am a booty man! :-P

                                              Here's my KISS song booty style hahaha!

Sunday Even Tougher Than Saturday ha ha!

Interesting ride today. Met a couple of triathletes doing Austin Texas half Iron Man next Sunday. Gina actually struck up the conversation with the gal. She had a hot bike, matte black with pink trim pin striping. Seemed like a pretty couple couple of riders. There we ran into a dude on a bent named Dave. Spoke a little bit at Edna Park then we left pretty much together. I know bents are fast but I figure we wouldn't be too far behind when we reached the coast. But he was fast,as soon as we hit the trail he was easily pulling away. Still we would only be a couple minutes behind maybe. But man, the wind hit me and I was feeling it. I knew Gina suffered the day before so it was not in me to duck behind her for a couple of minutes. So I just sucked it up trying to hold pace. When we hit that little climb after Moon Park/405 I was feeling toasted hoping I 'd make it up that short steep ramp. Just as I got there I noticed a guy walking his little girl down the ramp. I was thinking "good idea". If the little girl is shaky on a fast descent like that, then it is better to be safe. But just as I approached I hear him shout "Mr. Beanz".

It was Julius! He hangs out and I guess is part of Adobo Velo. I'm not familiar with the club member so I can't say really who is and isn't a member but I've seen him riding up GMR with like 50 riders before doing a time trial in one of my recent videos. But we spoke a bit and he said he'd plan on inviting me on one of their rides. AV have some kick butt riders and I'm not even sure I'd hang with any of them on GMR ha ha! But Julius says there are different levels thank goodness.

Julius is always a nice guy when we run into one another but today was really nice to have stopped to talk with him. I can think of 4 really good reasons.

1) Julius is a nice guy.

2) Dave was flying and if I stopped to talk, I had a good reason why Dave reached the coast 30 minutes before we did ha ha!

3) I was tired and worried that Gina might drop me up that little climb.

4) Well, watch the video and you'll see number 4, a couple of pretty good reasons to stop ha ha!I was impressed!

So anyway we get to the coast and Dave is there. We talk some more and I;m glad we did. I had told him of my method of blogging. I once caught a chick in a bikini on accident, yes I said accident! When I posted the picture in a forum, I got several more responses. Not to mention several PM's asking me to post more background bikini shots from a few members that lived in states without beaches etc. Heck with Gina's permission I did better and added videos as well. Dave said,"Oh, blogger's rule #5". OK wait, what! They have a rule for this and I have never heard of it but yet follow the rule. Basically is says to add in a hot chick every so often to attract views. So yeah, that is what I do! Heck, I even post pics of chicks that I don't really think are all that hot but feel others will. I had no idea there was this rule but ti is unwritten he explains. I wish someone would put in writing. That would stop all those prudish old women in the forums that complained about every little thing I post ha ha! Of course that won't happen, pretty sure they are just sour ole grapes that are jealous and lacking attention. So anyway ha ha!

The ride was interesting! As I told Dave just minutes before he should try some major climbing with his bent. He says he hasn't yet so I told him that it was a different class of riders, very encouraging and just about everyone shouts some kid of motivation while you're climbing.

My point was proven again on this day! I'm not sure what it is but rides just can't get passed without some kind of fight. OK I know you are super competitive and a stud and all but we aren't racing you! My plan is to keep a good pace and keep Gina with me. Or stay together as a group when we ride with others.

I'm not sure why, maybe the male macho  ego but just about every guy we encounter seems like they need to race Gina. If I alone ride it's no big deal, you kick somebody's arse and it's OK. If they kick my arse, then fine, I will shake your hand and say you're better that day, maybe everyday.

But ride with girls, watch out! 3 time today it seemed that riders wanted to race but we weren't racing. Well the last guy, I figured, let's just kick his ass for fun! He wants it, here take it ha ha!

At one point we're cruising near Kramer. I look back often to see how things are going with Gina in a monitoring way.  So I know who is around most of the time. I look back and there is nobody around. a minutes later there are two dudes rolling by us. Hmm, where did they come from? No biggie but we just keep our pace. They look pretty nifty in their race outfits so I figure they will be gone in no time. But a few minutes later they slow down. OK no biggie again but as we gain on them (holding pace) the look back at us and pick it up with some urgency. OK whatever! Then they slow again later. We are just about ready to pass when one guy blocks the second lane and we can't go around. Then we approach an underpass and I see riders coming in the opposite direction so we have to slow down. So it's clear and we pick the pace back up. Just about as we are getting ready to pace, one of the guys looks back and nearly goes off the trail then swings back left right in front of me. Forget it man, I'll just let these guys pull away so we slow for a bit. You know, I have read so many times in forums comments from racers how they really know how to ride and their skill level is blah blah blah vs the recreational riders such as ourselves. Well these guys sucked and in my experience, I have met safe and sucky from all types of cycling disciplines. Pretty sure these guys they were hot sheot though! 

As we round that horse shoe turn, one dude stares down Gina. Almost as if he's saying "you can't beat me, I'm a tough guy". It was like the stare Lance gave Jan when he dropped him on a TDF mountain stage. OhhhhhKay! So we pedal on and intentionally slow so that they can be on their way. They are just freakin' annoying me now. THEN! Couple minutes later they near the stadium and start digging in their jersey pockets. Good, so we roll by to continue on our way. What comes next? Then hop on our wheels and suck wheel. Yeah they suck for a while then near Edna Park they sprint around and the fools keep looking back at us. Wow! Good thing we had plans to stop at Edna park. Probably the only way we'd get rid of these "racers".

So we continue on after break and two other guys hop on the rail and do the exact same thing. Wow, it is hard to believe that you can't just go out and ride your bike without some ass hats sucking your wheel then sprinting around while looking back as if it's a stage of the TDF. 

So later near the coast we approach another guy. He too is looking back at us and trying not to get caught. again, I don't understand this. A ride or group of riders catches you from far behind, but when they catch up, all of a sudden you are in a blink of an eye faster? So we roll by this dude and as Gina reaches his side in the pas she picks up the pace forcing her to remain in oncoming traffic. So I have to pick it up a bit so she can complete her pass. OK good he's at the end of the line, we can move back to the right for safety.

Of course a couple minutes late he passes me. OK, what are the chances of staying ahead of a rider that passes you from waaaaaay back? He passes and as you can see in my video, I know we're going to pass him again in a bit.  Sure enough we roll back up on him and then he increases his pace once again. now I know we can't pass safely so I just back off a bit. He roll off in his glory BUT...he's fading again and we're catching up AGAIN! OK chance are that when we pull up he will lift his pace again.

Yup! We roll up and he picks it up. So I figure I'm staying on his side this time since we are now close to the coast and the end of the trail. I plan to let him fade then when he fades, we'll smoke him in a blaze of glory of our own ha ha! So I can see that he can no longer lift the pace so I start spinning faster and lift the pace myself. I look back and he can't even hang on the back but he's trying like a mad man. Gina's looking good so I continue the pace and as he's 20-30 yards back, I shift into smoking gear and quickly increase the gap. I'm pretty much tickled at this point knowing Gina could smoke his butt as well, on a bad day.

Of course some say it's all imaginary but when we reached the coast, Jose asked, "what was up with that guy?". I dunno, he wanted to play games or maybe he was upset that he got passed by a girl. He wanted to play the game so we played ha ha!  Jose said "yeah, he should be embarrassed cause of the way he was acting and even Gina smoked his ass."

Dave the Bent rider Dude hauling arse into the wind

                       I can't figure out why Jose always looks grumpy with all the views at the coast

OK, I had to take these stills from the video. I will say they 

don't do the swaying motion justice, guess you had to be there!

                     I had to take like 20 shots to get a Gina smile. She's like Chandler in "Friends" if
                     you have ever seen that episode where he can't get a good smile for the camera!

                             When we both still had energy to smile. Last 5 miles today was rough!

                                                                 Jose's still grumpy

                                                              Finally we are back!

                                                                 Julius and his daughter

Oh My Garsh It's Been Too Long Ride

Too many grand kid parties, too many umm, something! Anyway it was our first ride in a long time and it felt like it. Much better than I expected though. Gina cramped 3 times and had to slow down but overall still averaged 16.2 for the entire 42 miles. Not bad for too much time off.

I'm thinking I started off a bit to fast for Gina. She rarely cramps but after time off maybe I should have warmed up much longer than we did. When we arrived at the trail head, Jose was talking to some dude on a wheel chair type bike. Hand bike, sorry but I don't know the technical terms for such bikes. He told Jose the story of his accident that paralyzed his lower body. Motorcycle accident years back on the 210 fwy. He asked Jose if he could ride with us claiming to hold 20 MPH at times. No problem! He introduced himself as Alejandro. Seemed like a cool guy so we headed off toward Imperial. We usually slow roll at 14 for a while but because this guys was with us, I didn't want to go too slow and ruin his ride so we were quickly up to 17.  Too soon for Gina but that's one of the mistakes one can make at the front of the group. So as we neared Imperial I moved to the left letting Gina roll by hoping to get a clip of the group with Alejandro on his hand bike. She rolled by but quickly cramped in her right calf. She moved right then Aimee pulled up somewhat confused but I told her go so that I could get the shot and Gina was still close and our stop was real close. So I go the somewhat jumbled shot (as seen in video ha ha). But as he pulled off Alejandro continued on and gave us a shout. His norm is 25 miles and we were doing 42 so I'm not sure why but he split with us at that point. Either way , he was rolling pretty good on a bike using only his arms.

So we continue on the ride and Gina is doing very well. We stopped for a break later in ride so I mixed my my G-ade powder and told her to drink it for some electrolytes. I'm not thirsty! I had to go through the entire lecture again. One thing about Gina, she will argue about intake. I'm not thirsty, I'm not hungry! So I end up on her case about the issue. Finally when she sees that look in my eye, I think she gets the hint that she better go along with the program. I'm not sure what it is , maybe she is waiting for science to change their theory on required intake and physical exercise. 17 years of riding and they still haven't gone the direction of the egg and chocolate and I'm thinking it won't. Anyway, I'm getting pissy now so let me change the subject ha ha!

So we hop back on the road and as we leave the park and cross the bridge, a couple of fit looking guys  are behind us. They hang back for a while but a couple miles down the road they decide to blaze by us. I'm the type of guy that figures, hey if you pass us, then you must be a stronger rider. But don't let me see you fade down the way ha ha! Sure enough it happens, they fade. Still I really don't pay much attention at this point but we do roll by the pair and sure enough they hop on the back and suck wheel. No big deal!

OK, now the big deal! hey suck wheel for a while then they sprint around once again in a blaze of glory ha ha! Now the game is on ha ha! Gina is doing OK now, not great but if she can hang with us and we keep running down these two guys, she's doing pretty good! I know if she can beat these guys on a bad day, she'd smoke them on a good day. So they get ahead once again and I just keep a good pace figuring we'll pass them again. So we close a gap of about 100 yards to 20 and the guys are looking back in panic ha ha! Oh we got them but just then Gina shouts "Cramp!"....DAMN!

So we are about a mile from the coast and the guys pull away. So I tell Aimee, go get em! She's a little shy at time so she says no that's OK. But knowing how competitive she can be I said C'mon, go show 'em what you can do, can't let the young guys get off that easy. So she took off and I could see her rapidly close a gap of about 50 yards like nothing! I see her blow by the first guy then the second guy hopped her wheel. Gina is drifting back and Jose stays back with us but I tell him the same thing. He says he will stay with us but I tell him, hey they want to play games, go show them what it's all about. So he takes off and by this time there is a huge gap. At this point I can't see anything but Jose catches them both and leaves them behind and Aimee had already dropped the stronger rider that hopped her wheel.

I see so many riders playing little games like this that I figure OK, let's play ha ha! Gina couldn't this day but for those that know Jose, they know he does not dress the part of a cyclist and rides an older down tube shifter steel bike and Aimee, well she'd just a GIRL! So its kind of funny to see them drop riders on fancy bikes with fancy kits like hot potatoes! BTW, these are guys that choose to PLAY THE GAME. There are some riders that just do their own thing but when they choose to play, you better not show weakness or we'll getcha ha ha! 

We did see Alex on another 100 miler. Surprise guest appearance by Brian. Haven't seen him out there for a while but he's always good for some laughs! Rick, used to ride with us once in a while but haven't seen him much. Seems he's been busy riding more in the canyon than on the trail. That's always good, people should spend more time on the climbs and hills, really adds to the riding experience! Not to mention a different attitude from the riders. 

On the return, Gina getting a little toasted, 5 more miles!

On the way to the coast

                                       Haven't seen Rick in a long time, still riding in the canyons

                                            Rick and Brian, sounds like a radio show hunh?

                                                         Alex on ANOTHER  100 miler!

                                          Gina right before she started looking toasted ha ha!