I hadn't been on the bike in 2 months with all the construction and home improvements I've been doing on my Mom's house. But I got out and was real worried that I'd totally feel sucky on the bike. I actually felt pretty darn good. I held a consistent pace and didn't try any hard efforts for most of the ride. I did the 31 miles at a 16.3 average. With the headwinds I was expecting more along the lines of 15 something. But hey, man my heart felt great! My legs felt good and my butt didn't hurt till I was about 25 miles in. Not bad at all!
I rode alone but saw a couple others out there, Ron and a few other regulars. Oh yeah, Herb and Alyce as well.
I was in a bit of a hurry to get home as we had planned to drive up to Ridgecrest to pick up my Mom who spent a week with my daughter in her new house. Wow, talk about a big house! Beautiful wide open set up, 2,900 square feet on 3 acres. Oh my, it was like a mansion, not much bigger than my Mom's house but the way it was designed is really nice. Mom's is 2400 sf but the second story makes it look smaller from the outside. My daughter's is one level and long and wide, pretty cool!
But we went to pick up Ma and spent the night so we were in a hurry to leave town and a short ride was perfect this day. Also Jose was out of town visiting family so it gave me a chance to ride alone and do my thing after 2 months off.
I felt other than not having any Umph in the legs on the little inclines but that was expected. Then on the little steep underpass at Garden Grove/ Memory Lane, I stood up to crank it up the little incline but my left quad screamed, "SIT DOWN!!!" with a little pre cramp feeling. Must listen to legs ha ha! So I sat back down and just enjoyed the rest of the ride.
Solo, just me and my spiders! :-P
I did forget to mention that as I was just holding my pace, some dude challenged me to a fun little game of I can match you. I was cruising at 17 on the last section to the coast, after the wooden bridge. I came up on a guy who looked like he was working pretty hard. I was doing 17, caught him and tried to pass but he lifted the pace. Dang it, another one of those, going to hug your side and keep you on the center line as other pass in the opposite direction. I'm not having it so I let him pull away. I was doing 17, he must have been doing 16 when I caught him. Not sure what he was doing now but I rolled back up on him after he faded, as expected, still doing my 17.
Again he did not let me pass, couple times maybe so I just sat back about 10 yards and let him kill himself again. I wasn't out to race anyone after 2 months off but I knew I had more left and if he wanted to play games!!! So it seems he was pushing really hard trying to stay ahead of me. OK!
I got about 100 yards out and gave it a good push to see if he could keep up. I got it up to 22 and as soon as I passed, he tried to hop on but couldn't. I just kept pushing to the end. Give him a little lesson letting him know not everybody out there is going all our to pass him. Some of us are just out there doing our thing till you start the game.
So I went under PCH, up and around the little hill then to the restroom rest stop area. I looked back after I dismounted so I could see him roll by. He rolled by and was laughing and chuckling as in realizing he just got smoked ha ha! I was actually entertained by his laugh cause most guys get all pissed and some will ignore you as if they don't want to recognize that they got smoked in their own game. This dude was laughing, I got to respect that, it was all fun and games.
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