Sunday SART

Ran into Louie right as soon as we got on the path. He was on his touring bike carry a set of luggage I think ha ha! Hadn't seen him in a while but he told us he bought a house in the Philippines and spent plenty of time over there. I guess that would explain it! Just before we arrived at our turn around point, some dude shouted out to us. I had seen him before and he didn't look like someone I had ever met before. This time he turned around and rode back to introduce himself. Ah OK, we had had a few conversations on You Tube. He watches my videos so he can't be all that bad ha ha! Turns out he was a pretty cool and polite dude. We chatted for a bit, snapped a pic hen he was off. Dude had some rocks for calves! Said he used to race and they way he boogied on down the road, I can see it! Within seconds he vanished from the first stretch of 1/2 mile. That's within 5 or 6 seconds ha ha!

At the coast Bad Bob made a little visit.  I could have sworn I had seen that guy in stretchy type denim pants riding a fixie but he says no way Jose! I thought I had seen Greg too but Bad Bob says NO! I was kidding when I said I might photo chop him in stretchy denim as a joke. That is when the death threats started so I guess I better not ha ha! :-P

Either way, it was hot day. Cool riding but as soon as you stop, the dripping starts. Heck, I think I left a pool of sweat by the truck racking the bikes after the ride. Garmin says it was an average of 93 and a high of 105. Garmin might exaggerate a bit but it was pretty dern hot!




                                                                 Louie. minus 30 lbs!

Louie on his touring bike.

                                                                          Frank

           Bad Bob. I could have sworn this dude was wearing stretchy denim when he arrived. :-P

                                                                   Ah, young love!

                                                                   Duck calls ?

                                                         Closed for the season! :-P

                               Why ruin a perfectly good back with a tat? Still blog worthy! :-P

Saturday SART

44.5 miles @ 15.7 MPH average. Tried to slow it down a bit today just for the sake of a cruise. We did get a few showers, enough to wet the road but not soak it thank goodness. I hate gritty gunky bikes. Gina and I started out together then later picked up Mike about 10 miles later. Then another dude along the way (pic). He sat on our wheel for about 10 miles then said thanks once he turned off at the coast, which was cool.

We did see Alex at Yorba Park. He headed of a bit before us but saw him on the side of the road when it began to rain. The rain picked up little by little but after a couple miles I figured it would stop soon. He was pulled over and shouted "rain" as we rolled by. I'm not sure but I think he turned around cause we never saw him after that. Funny thing is, it stopped about 2 minutes after we saw him ha ha!

On the return leg we passed some dude who looked like he was really struggling. He hopped on no problem. But we were just cruising not pushing too hard. He sat back there for a mile or so and then all of a sudden, he's sitting on Gina's side. Uh OK, 3 of us, you should be like #4 unless there is some kind of problem. Not sure why he would sit on the side. I figured it was kind of like he was saying, look at me, I can hold your pace!". I gave him that look like, "beotch, you weren't going that fast when we passed you ha ha!". I had read something in a cycling forum about crushing souls so I put my head down like I was tired. Sure enough he sprinted around like a bat out of hell. I gave him a head start then stomped on the pedals. Gina kept up fine so I picked it up even more and blew by him like he was standing still. There, ya go, now you look really fast ha ha! :-P

                                                                                Alex

                                                                               Mike

                        Next 2 same picture but a little editing to get a solo shot of Mike ha ha!

                         Dude in blue was on the back for a few miles. A least he said thanks!

Thursday Local with Gina (Not Happy)

Not happy miles for Gina. 10 mile with close to 1,000 ft of gain. I think it was too hot for her, average 91. The short steep section (10-12%) at the top of 24th almost killed her but she survived and has more character because of it he he he! :-P

Hot GMR Wed Eve

Gina said it was too hot to ride so I figured I'd do GMR. Wow she was right. I started about 4:30 and I should have waited another hour or so. I only saw one dude the entire time going up. Once I headed down seems everybody was barely starting. Now I can see why, it was hot ha ha! Average temp of 90 and a max of 98. I'm starting to think Gina a little smarter than I am ha ha!

Some serious helmet hair ha ha! No music this time!

Somebody was asking about parking for GMR. So I posted up these images I have saved as I get asked every now and then about the area. :-P.

Sunday Kick Butt SART

Edit: I only got 4 PR's on the ride and couldn't figure out why since my Strava posted better times posted on this ride on other segments. Turns out I had the segments under hidden segments. I had to unhide them then refresh achievements in the tool section. Turns out I have 20 new PR's on this ride! :-)


The video from Saturday's ride!







Gina didn't get a chance to ride today so Mike and I had set out to do a faster pace. 36 miles at 17.6. I've always liked the bridge to bridge segment on Strava even before there was a Strava ha ha! Back in 2005 I set a best of 22.6 MPH average riding solo. So today was my chance to try to get closer to it on Strava. I had Mike to help me fight the wind to the coast. So we rotated pretty evenly fighting the wind. Aimee is a monster but she hasn't done much riding so we didn't expect her to fight the wind for us. Once at the coast I figured we could just cruise back and if we ended up with a 17.1 average I would be happy. But once we got rolling I felt good so I just kept it up and asked Aimee if she felt OK. She did so I pressed on aiming of the bridge to bridge PR. 10 years ago I did a 22.6, 2 years ago I did a 21.8 so I had a some targets of which to aim.

Well turns out when I got home, I had set a PR on this section. An official 22.6 on the Garmin and Strava. Yeah buddy! That is what I was aiming for! 10 years ago I was 20 pounds lighter but hey, to match it now officially is great! I did the entire pull on the return, the first 10 miles just because I was on a roll. I told Aimee I would slow down after the wooden bridge. I think she was happy but once we crossed, Mike took the front. Ouch! He picked up the pace and my legs were tired but hey, I can't give up now. So we ended up with a few more PR's. more than I expected ha ha! Thanks to Mike, I got some help on the way to the coast making it good for the return!

We did see Charlie along the trail with his wife on their tandem. Plus a River Velo fly by, Jose and Gem! :-)

  I don't know how Aimee does it. Hasn't done much riding but yet she kicks butt on the bike and stays there like shes not even trying. Oh and Aimee gave me a big fish! A Salmon straightform Alaska. Can't wait to grill that sucker!

                                                                End of the ride sweat!

                                                            Back up photographer Alan.

SART Saturday...Summer's Coming!

44.4 Miles with Gina and friends. 16.6 average, average temp of 91. Pics for now, video @ later time.

BTW, Alan told me that I look great after my weight loss! :-P

                                The Haircut Crew really does wear helmets from time to time.

                    It was hot but cold. If you look real close, you can see Mark's nipples are hard.

Thursday Bonelli Park

This time we rode with Mark. 23 miles. His first time in the area and I think he liked it even though he didn't get to see the full loop (Fairplex Dr.and the Horse area on via Verde).  He got there a bit late so we stuck mostly to the dam and 3 times up the 57 climb. Gina did well again and set about 6 PR on Strava ha ha! Just a midweek relaxing get in some mileage ride! :-)

Search & Destroy!

Search and destroy, exactly ha ha ha! We were on a ride last week when some dudes hopped on the back. No biggie but when I dropped back leaving Gina at the front, some dude who had sucked wheel for 10 miles sprinted around her knowing we were only about 1/2 mile from the coastal end of the trail. OK, first I say if you suck wheel for 10 miles, you don't sprint around at the end while continually looking back like as if to say, "ha ha you can't catch me!". I can be a little competitive but when you do something like that then have a little smirk on your face at the rest stop, you're a marked man ha ha! So today was the search and destroy ride ha ha!

Mike, Jose, and myself made a plan to carry Gina at a pace that was somewhat easier than usual to conserve energy rotating at the front. We missed the guys at the point where they usually start so we just continued to the coast. We weren't sure if the guys would even ride today but sure enough, they showed up, YEAH BABY!

So we waited for them to mount their bikes to head back. We hopped on our bikes and headed back right after they headed out. Wasn't more than a couple of minutes that we caught and passed them. As planned, they hopped on the back as we rolled by. So the plan was for the 3 of us to rotate at the front and keep the pace high. We figured we could bait the guy into taking a pull to get him a little tired but no dice! That's cool cause as soon as we hit the little climb by the 405 they fell off. Gina kicked some butt up that little climb (midweek climbing rides paying off!). Sure enough we dropped the 2 guys but Mike was stuck behind them. Mike is a strong rider so I knew he would catch up but I was worried he would pull the other 2 back up as well. But Mike is a smart rider too ha ha! He sprinted around them on the climb and put a big gap between him and the guys. No way were these guys going to close the gap on Mike. Jose was at the front at this point so I told him to back off a hair. But just then I hear Mike shout, JUST THE 4 OF US NOW!". Yeah baby! I told Jose to go ahead and pick the pace back up since Mike was back with us.

We continued pushing hard and Gina was hanging tough on the return section. She set 4 PR's on Strava. One of which was the 5 mile TT section with a pace of 22.1 MPH! Bob and Greg had caught us from behind so we kept the pace high. Gina seemed to be fine but near the end of the ride she dropped off the pace. I didn't realize she had dropped back so slowed down a bit to wait for her. I looked back over the long section of trail and nowhere were the 2 guys that had been with us early on. Gina got tired later in the ride but hey, she "destroyed" the dude that had dissed her last week ha ha!

                                                     Gina's "your ass is mine' face ha ha!

                                                     The evil "men rule" smile!

Brian and Greg. Greg built a bike back when he was a kid working at a shop for Brian. I guess Brian                       barely found out it was Greg who built his 7/11 Eddie Merckx team bike!