Solo SART Ride

42 miles at 16.7 average speed. Tried to start early, set the alarm for 7 am hoping for a 9 am start. But I have the one friend who insists on sending text messages at 5:45 in the morning so you're sleep interrupted. Not like 1 but several over a period of time so you end up sleeping another hour. Yeah, we don't turn off our cell phones because of all the medical emergencies we have in the family. If Mom needs help downstairs or an ambulance, she texts or calls me. If Gina's son has a heart attack and needs to call at 3 am in the morning, we keep the phones on just in case.

But you tell people that and hope they well understand that we don't really care for early morning texts as we are constantly keeping our ears open for life and death emergencies rather than bike tire sale alerts from other riders. It's always a scary thing for us to get a text early morning. That is how Gina's son passed away, early morning phone call at 3 am. So you would think people would understand but I guess not! I've actually done away with a couple of people who would consider themselves good friends. But not good enough to understand our wishes. But I guess not!

So anyway, got a late start after all, thanks! I changed my course so that I would not be in the wind in the afternoon. But the interruptions screwed me so I ended up in the wind about noon anyway. I'll never know that feeling of lighter wind in the early morning. Well I have before joining the group rides scheduled early hours. But even then, I got messages from people so I ended up getting a measly 4 hours sleep those days as well.

But today was warm. I saw 91 on my Garmin heading back so I just rode through. Unusual for me as I usually stop at a park for Gina to give her a rest. Today was different because I started at Yorba Park. So the return would be 20 vs the usual 12 when I have Gina with me. We usually start in Anaheim to avoid the hot sections near Yorba for Gina on the return.

But today, half way was the beach for me. I had planned to stop at ARTIC for a break but once I saw the temps, I thought if I stop, I'd only feel hotter. Garmin Connect says a high of 93. I just kept going so it didn't feel that hot for me.

Though it was a pain in the butt trying to get the average up ha ha! I sweat it is always windy on the way to the coast now. I had a 16.2 near the start heading into Anaheim. Then by the time I got to the coast, it was 15.7. Dang it! The last 4 miles trying to bring the average back up into the wind does not work ha ha!

Then on the return, not as bad but wow, where is the freaking tailwind I was expecting? I could get 19-20 maybe but to raise my average, I'd have to have those 20+. Didn't happen, looks like a lot of my longer segments on the return were about 18 point something averages. I did get one PR on the ride so I can't complain ha ha!

So I had started at the In-n-Out parking lot but cruised down to Yorba Park for a warm up. So at the end of the ride, I had thoughts of riding back to the park to see if I could raise the average to 16.8. But naaaah! Too hot and I was tired so I'll just take a couple pics then head home ha ha!