SART With Gina and Tony!

44 miles at 17.6 average on the single bikes today. Thought we would be alone today but this morning I get a text from Tony asking if we had plans to ride. I was worried about Gina as last week she suffered on the bike. So I told Tony we would be doing a slow pace. Not only for Gina but because I have been doing a lot of OT at work. 10 hour days and 8 on Saturday. Starting at 5 am weekdays and 4 am on Saturdays so I was worried about feeling toasted on the bike. I actually felt pretty good though! Tony did a few pulls so I was worried about Gina keeping up not being on the bike much lately. But man she impressed me today. No complaining, just flat out turning the pedals.

Saw Jose R., Bong, and a few of the River Velo guys riding by!

Yeah, lots of work lately but hey, lots of money and the company paid for my $125 safety shoes! Pretty nice! No steel toe but a composite that makes them lighter and more comfortable. They give me a voucher then I just go out to the shoe place and pick out a pair. Man they are comfortable. Funny but I am so excited with them ha ha!

Oh yeah! Bee sting to the head. That will explain the pic with white cream on my head logging in my Strava miles ha ha!

Bee sting to the head!

My new shoes!

6 Days Work, 58 Hours & One Ride Ain't Right!

Well first off the good news! Found a new job, old one was getting slow and the boss is a moron losing business ha ha! So I took a chance and applied online to a new company. Man I am glad I did! Went from a company of 100 to 800 employees. Still in the defense business. Pretty strict background check too. They told me when I scheduled the interview that I needed my birth certificate to enter the building. Whoah ha ha! I guess all that ITAR/EAR goofy stuff!

Turned out to be a great move! Great benefits~! I only pay $6 a moth for my Kaiser benefits! 2 & 1/2 weeks vacation for the first year! Company pays annually for my safety shoes even though it is not a heavy job working with rubber seals. My other job was inspecting aluminum machining big parts so it was heavy and dirty not to mention dangerous. This job I have to watch out I don't get hurt lifting those big one foot 1 pound parts ha ha!

But we do lots of OT which I never really liked but that only means more bike stuff! Once I get used to the hours I'm sure I will find a way to get in a few midweek miles. I'm sure I could have done it this week but being new I didn't want to worry about getting tired or wondering what the job would be like.

The hours: 5 am to 3:30. Getting up at 3:30 am to go to work will take some getting used to as I'm usually a night owl. Saturday was really different starting at 4 am ha ha! I had to get up at 2:45, that was different but not all that bad. Sure I'll be OK once I adjust.

Great! I used to do everything from numbering blue prints of 600+ dimensions to crating AS9102 forms, filling them out, measuring the parts, finalizing the reports and whatever else I was directed to do in several departments. Here I am in one place doing one thing. Inspecting the parts which have like 5 dimensions ha ha! Easy money! So the OT is not physically exhausting which is great!

The icing on the cake? MO MONEY MO MONEY MO MONEY! Just when you think it isn't possible to make more money something nice comes along and pokes you in the ribs ha ha! With the OT and the pay increase I will be making about $15,000 this year more than the other job! :-O Like I said, more bike stuff!

So today's ride I was worried how I would feel figuring the long hours and not riding last week. But didn't seem to make much of a difference. It did for Gina who suffered a bit on today's ride but hey, we still did a decent average of 16.8 over the 44 miles! So happy that the hours didn't hurt my riding and once I find my schedule I'll be good!

We did run into Ron and Gem at the beginning of our ride heading to Yorba Park. Joaquin joined us about half way through our ride and pulled us for a bit which was nice. Also a short visit with Tony and his single speed friend (not sure if I ever heard his name)

Just a few pics of the peeps!

Me & Jose SART

Just Jose and I today. 44 miles @ 17.5 average. Pretty stiff headwind today but no rain! We started out holding the pace down some not wanting to burn ourselves out. Joaquin always does a 20 mile ride so we figured as many times before he would meet us at Edna Park. If Jose and I conserved a bit we would be good to go once we hit the park and picked up Joaquin. He knew we were coming but once we got to the park, he had left. Ended up seeing him heading back about 2 or 3 miles from the coast heading the opposite direction. Meh! That ruined all the fun cause we were ready to roll ha ha but I guess he didn't want to ride with us or something.

At the start of the ride we ran into Jose R. His buddy joined us for a short bit but Jose did our first leg to Yorba Park with us starting from the Honda Center. Had a brief chat at Yorba then he headed off as it was the end of his ride. That is when Jose and I headed toward the coast. It was pretty darn breezy the entire 21 miles to the coast. But we held back as I mentioned hoping to run into Joaquin so we would have some gas left to lift the pace. :-P

No Joaquin but we did run into Alex at the coast. Poor guy having some knee problems but still kicking butt on his bike. I think he said he was doing seventy something today. He rode back with us and pushed the pace some. Overall a nice ride, a bit chilly and dark but pushing on the way back warmed things up nicely ha ha!

No female today so I had no choice but to take pics of the dudes ha ha! Oh well,good for those Kodak memory thingies! :-P

SART Tandem

Not a bad ride. 44 miles at 16.6 average according to Strava. I like the 16.7 on Garmin more ha ha! But boy, riding the tandem cause Gina struggled last week after a month off the bike. She had family medical issues so riding was probably the last thing on her mind during that period. So today I chose the tandem so that she wouldn't fall behind and boy I felt it. I could tell her conditioning was not there. That can be a bad thing but then it can be a good thing cause I got a darn good workout ha ha! She did well on the flats but any little rise in the road brought out that drag feeling.

We did pull the first 26 miles or so. Jose offered to help after 24 but I refused knowing that sometimes it's easier to just stay at the front rather than trying to hold a wheel and close gaps on the tandem. But after a couple more miles I said go for it Jose! Man what a relief! The wind sure was strong today so when Jose got in the front it was a big difference. He pulled for about 3 miles and at the end of the 3 miles I could tell he was beat. That was good cause that meant a lot of the struggle I felt could have just been the wind ha ha!

But that break really helped so then we pulled the final 12 on the return. What a relief it was to have a tailwind!

Some posing! The first 2 pictures weren't good enough. Gina wanted pictures with the ocean in the background ha ha!