Tour De Mucus

So I was sick all last week, that really sucked! I don't know what the heck it was, felt congested, coughing then spent 3 days in bed shivering and sweating like a dog ha ha! Aching aging old body but felt a bit better on Thursday. Now I feel a bit congested but loose inside. So I was hoping to ride today to blow everything out. Meh! Coughed a bit and breathing was tough at times but I did OK. Didn't get the hacking of the mucus like I wanted but I think it did me some good. Much better than laying in bed with the chills.

So today Gina and I did 44+ miles with Jose. 16.1 MPH average. We stopped at the Honda Center as usual for a tinkle break. Hey, it's a long bumpy drive to the trail head ha ha! There we ran into Alex for a few minutes. I caught a pic of him when he was unaware. I took a second one as he laughed. Much better pic with a smile than the serious look while texting. So yeah, I'm going to post the good one!

Then the other Jose (Jose R.) rode up with his buds Yen and Jack. We had a brief chat then we all somewhat headed out. Jack wen the other way so we kind of somewhat tried to stick with Jose and Yen. Though I had planned an easy recovery get over it type of ride. Gina was hanging pretty good but as we left the HC, a small group of riders rolled by. I wasn't sure if Gina could hang if they picked up the pace. They seemed to back off a bit so I thought we would be cool. But once they slowed down, Jose R. and Yen went around and lifted the pace. I backed off wanting a recovery ride then watched them drift away. Then Gina says she could have held that pace if I wanted. Well darn, now you tell me ha ha! But it was a good decision. Gina hadn't been on the bike much and I was sick so we did our own. Really paid off in the later miles as I usually figure. After 40 miles, Gina started to fade on the return, the last 4 or so, so it was a wise decision to hold it down at the beginning.

Did see the Legend roll by with a buddy. But no Bad Bob. Hmm, maybe he had already got in his double century for the day! :-P

So I pulled to Yorba Park, then back to the soccer field area then let Jose take the front. I felt good but my breather was starting to get scratchy so I figured I'd let Jose do some of the work. We arrived at the coast shortly after Ron and Dixie. We saw then roll by when we stopped at Edna so I figured we were too far behind. Stopped for a chat at the coast then Don and Tony rolled up.

Almost didn't recognize Tony in his race kit. We're used to seeing him in a more casual get up so this one threw me off for a few seconds. Don rolled up and though had planned to roll out earlier, decided to wait a few minutes for us to hit the road.

We all headed out together but soon Ron and Dixie were leaving us behind. I noticed Gina was starting to labor to keep the pace so I backed off and waved Tony around. He loves to go fast and is pretty strong. I think that race kit made him a little faster too ha ha! We got back to the parking area a few minutes after Ron and Dixie. That's when Ron said, "we couldn't keep up with your friend Tony!". That's when I decided I better invest in a kit like Tony was wearing today ha ha! :-P

Don kept up with us on the return and even pulled ahead for a while after Gina faded on the short hill after the 405/605 freeway. I can never get that dern number rights, well one of those freeways. He was doing very well but after Gina recovered, the 4 of us we managed to regroup (Me, Gina, Jose and Don).

Gina actually did very well whipping out the 16.1 average speed today. It was a bit windy with a stiff headwind so I was happy with her ride. She did fade about the last 4 but hey, she still passed a dude who tried to keep ahead of us once he noticed us rolling up on him. Took us a while to pass him but we did then he tried to keep up and Gina was able to pull away so hey, it was a good day!

Gina insisted I take a pic of this tree at Yorba Park. She said it looks like some kind of animal head around the knot area. She said it looked natural and was not a carving. Now that I have the pic at home and see all the other carving in the tree, I'm thinking someone carved it. Looks like a donkey head or something.