FINALLY! 40 Miles on SART

40 miles today at 16.1 MPH average. Wow, tough ride but I went for it. Hadn't been on the bike in over 5 weeks so I was worried about the 40. But hey, let's do it!

Solo ride so I felt every little headwind, breeze, and gust ha ha! At the start it looked pretty chilly but the sun was out so I figured it would be good. Saw quite a few riders with jackets and tights but I went as is. Not too bad!

But the headwind was a bigger factor for me today. I didn't think I would do real good as far as average having time off but I figured I could complete the 40. I did and to my surprise, I felt pretty good as far as breathing. I had a sore throat last week, a head cold for a day but then it cleared up nicely. Now poor Gina, she's been pretty sick the last week. She had to work today too. :-(

My breathing good, slower speeds but I actually passed a few riders so again, hey that's good! I started to figure more than just me were feeling the breeze, or cold, whatever it was.

On the return, I left a few seconds after a small group. They pulled away pretty fast but then I caught back up at Moon Park so I figure they felt the chill too. But as soon as I hit that little climb, my quads started pulling, or cramping. Oh ouch! They were taking turns back and forth cramping. At one point my leg just went straight out for about 30 seconds.

BUT! I wondered what would happen if I just kept pedaling and trying to ignore the cramps. I was actually surprised that I could. Kept a decent pace and ended up with a 16.1. I'm good with that, if it had been 16.0 I would have been happy after feeling the head wind by Imperial.

I did use the cream my daughter gave me for Christmas, DZNuts, good stuff imo! She also bought me a few t shirts, a nut sack that hangs on the back of the bike ha ha! It's actually a light, 3 modes, flashing too so I guess it would work at night. Pretty cool thing but I think my daughter got a kick out of it. Her hubby David also rides so they know the cool stuff. Anyway, happy with the cream. It actually stayed together better than the Paceline chamois cream I have been using. Hmm!

After 30 miles, my ball sack was still clean ha ha!

Just some Christmas pics. 

The view from my daughter's house in Ridgecrest.

A couple of pics from the front yard of the crescent moon. Happened to get a plane flying by at about 6 seconds shutter speed. :-P

Sunday, Too Beat!

I dunno, turning into a wimp. Stayed in bed on Sunday then took a few pics of Gina and the sunset. Bonelli Park in San Dimas.

No flash

With flash

Learning this photo thing they call HDR. High Dynamic Range

Few more night shots. No flash, manual mode at about 30 seconds shutter speed.

Windy SART Solo Saturday

Pics for now, 46 miles, 16.6 average speed. Had a 16.9 on the return but the last 5 miles were killer dropping my average, sucks ha ha! On the way to Weir Cyn, I was pushing hard doing 11.5 MPH ha ha!

Meh! Photography

I took this pic a couple years ago but decided to try some HDR editing. High Dynamic Range. Pretty cool I think! ;-)

Wowzer, Big Wind Today on SART

31 miles with Gina and Jose on SART today, 15. 5 average speed and better than I expected. I had planned a bit longer ride today for Gina but she told me about the forecast, I had no idea. So I thought OK maybe we can still whip out 36 vs the 32 she's been doing lately.

But once we hit the parking place, it was blowing pretty good and I thought still, maybe. But once on the trail, maybe I better settle for the 31. Pretty big wind on the first part of the ride but then seemed to calm down part way to the coast. There goes our tailwind then hit a big headwind around Warner heading to the coast. But Gina did pretty well considering the headwind.

Once we got to the coast, wow it was hot. I usually don't feel too warm even in the Summer but today I was pretty hot. Must have been the effort to get there. Gina said she was burning up too. So after a visit to the beach we headed back. I thought we would hit another big headwind but strangely enough it was not all that bad. I was holding back some as Gina started to suffer on the little inclines. Well the one by the 405 and the double underpass. Then the heat started to affect her she says.

We got to Edna Park and she asked us to stop for a bit. Said she needed a breather. Hmm, usually we bypass Edna on the return so she must have really been tired. She got off her bike and said I had to hold her up as she slumped in my arms ha ha!

Overall a pretty good ride and we actually did better than  I expected. With the way the wind was at the start, I figured if we averaged 15.0, I'd be happy

I have a video coming at a later time so you can see I'm not joshin' about the big winds. :-P

BTW, I got home from GMR the last couple of times and the front brake had seemed to open up a bit, the lever was opening. I wasn't sure why but then as I was repairing the flat last night, I felt the front fork click just a hair. Ah OK, now that I remember, I felt it catch the front brake a bit on the descents then realized the fork must have needed to be tightened up a bit.

So I took my wrenches and adjusted the stem etc. I checked it for smoothness, tightness, proper movement and all seemed good. But today the wind was blowing so hard that I kept feeling my front wheel blow out from underneath me. It was blowing so hard I started thinking I had over tightened it. A few miles later when we finally got out of the crosswinds, I realized it was OK and that it was just the wind ha ha! Kind of scary though ha ha!


The video I tossed together.





I guess it was a little warm yesterday. No wonder got hot.

After a 2 mile warm up into a big wind, ready to head back to the coast from Lincoln. Expecting a big tailwind the entire time but uh no, uh uh!

Started getting hot around Edna Park heading to the coast.

Sun looked nice on the water.

Heading back, Gina wanted to stop at Edna Park. Said she was so tired, I had to hold her up. 

OK, but I told her that we would both hold her up and called Jose over for a Manwich! 

Almost back

Little Charlie held tough in the wind too! :-P

Like 15 of these e-bike people in a group. They can't possibly be having fun, all went by frowning, not one smile. What's up with that?

OK, Gina survived and still did well. Any ride is a well time ha ha!