Windy SART 11/10/12

My Garsh what a windy ride! Our first time back on the trail in 5 weeks. Windy, chilly and (did I say) WINDY? But at least we got to ride. Couple of GMR rides and lots of birthday parties over the last couple of weeks made this ride tough. 41 miles figuring I'd use it as an easy ride to get my new shoes fitted properly but it turned out more of a struggle. One of those rides where the wind seems to be against you in all directions. Rarely do I get a ride like this, one way with wind and a tailwind back. Today, we head south, big headwind. We cross a bridge heading west, headwind, cross east, headwind, then return north, BIGGER headwind. Too much time off the bike and too many parties! Hopefully we can get back on track and make it through the holidays.

We ran into Herb & Alyce for a short chat. Not sure but I think Alyce was still in her pajamas ha ha! OK, so it was a huge tee shirt. I'm so used to seeing Alyce in tank tops, I didn't even recognize them when they rolled by. A fly by from The Legend Greg and a shout "Frijoles" from OCTICO,  chat with Alex2 at the coast and a visit with Tammy & Alan.

Alyce did tell us that a due named Victor from Mission Viejo recognized her form the videos. I';m not sure who it was or maybe the old age is getting to me ha ha!

Gina happy it's about over

                                                  Alex2...too cold, too windy, no smile!

                                                      Sand is in the air, darn wind!

                                                      Jose after the warm up stretch

                                                               Alyce and her lollipop

                                                                Alyce in her pajamas?

                                              Herb waiting for Alyce to finish her lollipop

                                                                    Tammy & Alan

                                     Windy, clear view of Catalina but some very choppy water

                                        Alan punished again. Tammy sat him in his corner ha ha!

GMR Night Ride

Forum member JmX

                                                                     GMR at night

                                                        Everybody lining up for a picture

                                            How many cyclists does it take to set p a tripod?

                                         Hmm, everybody's having but but Hillbasher is crying

                                                           Hillbasher and OCRRick

                                                                         Still at it ha ha!

MTB.....Base of Potato Mtn

Well I'm using the MTB trying to get back into shape. Plus the trail is real close to where we live. Today I figure I'd head up toward Potato Mountain. Not sure how I would feel but hey, I was alright today. During the ride I figured I could make it all the way up but my brain says working into it would be smarter. No need to rush, gains take time. Plus 1600 ft gain in 3 1/2 mile is decent, especially in the dirt.

MTB always freaks me out a bit knowing there could be animals up there. I have no problem wrestling a bear but the element of surprise is what freaks me out. I figure if I have to wrestler a bear or a lion, they may get the best of me but we're both going to the hospital. OK, maybe not ha ha!

Didn't help that on the way up I see a gal standing real still on the trail. As I roll up I ask hoping it's not a lion. Nope, just deer. I stop to take a picture and I'll be darned if I couldn't see them all. That didn't help with the "WILLIES" factor later on in the ride. As you get higher, there ain't nobody around. If there are animal, you can't see them but knowing they see you is a little scary.

So I make the climb and pretty happy with my performance. Not racing, not setting records, just making it felt good. So I start my descent and half way down, AN ANIMAL ENCOUNTER!!!! I'm rounding a blind turn when I see an animal on my left. I'm thinking lion so I get ready to jump off the bike if need but then I realize it's a dog. Then I see the owner sitting under a tree so I shout, "the dog scared me, I thought it was a lion". Thanks goodness it's only a dog but then I realize it's a Pit Bull and it's chasing me!  Thank goodness it was an obedient dog. It ran back to the owner after he shouted the dogs name 3 or 4 times. The the owner shouts SORRY! I guess it's still better than a lion with no owner ha ha!

So I make it back to the truck with all limbs in place. Some dude in the lot whips out a real nice shiny 29'er. Wow, that thing is pretty. Then I look over at  my dirty bike and think to myself, "just a bike and they are meant to be ridden, and mine did the job well today". I don't now, Gina keeps saying I should get a 29'er but why? If I ride it. it's gong to get dirty too. Mine, I just clean the drive train after every 2 rides. You can see the dirt in the picture, looks like way more than 2 rides. So if I get a nice pretty new shiny 29'er, I'll spend more time polishing it than riding it ha ha!

I took pics at this section where you can see how it progresses. Start of the section, mid, then what seems to be the top but isn't. Believe me, still  lots more climbing left.

Kind of tough setting the timer then trying to turn around for the pic ha ha!

                                                Lots of dirt..that's what MTB's are for, dirt!

                                         Meh! Who needs a 29'er? MY  26 incher gets me there!

                                                                         Some stats

                        Scary! Animals are there but you can't see them 3 in the pic, better deer than lion.

                                                        The profile. 3 1/2 up then down

MTB Monday

Man, I had to get one "A BIKE"! I wanted so bad to ride the tandem this weekend. I had it all polished, frame waxed and ready to go but the darn weather forecast. I had connections in OC that said it was wet in the morning. Figured it would dry up but the only thing that happened was it started raining here too. Gina was not thrilled about getting wet and neither was the tandem so we sat out, bummer! Sunday much the same according to a report form one of my connections. Later another connection said ti turned out nice after the early rain, DARN! Now I really feel like I missed out. ;-(

But Monday came and I HAVE to get on a bike or I'l go crazy. So I picked the MTB since it's close and if it rains, not big long wet journey home and who res if the MTB gets dirty ha ha! Well I did one loop clockwise for starters. I felt like I should do a second loop so I started in the opposite direction but the pizza I ate last night said don't do it! Sitting around all weekend eating is not very good training for the climbs so I went up a little bit then turned around. Then I went up a little bit on the other side again. Just far enough to snap a few pictures for a blog post he he he!  I really wanted two loops but something told me that I shouldn't push to hard too soon, there are many days to follow. Heck 1,300+ feet gain in 8 miles ain't too shabby!

Well nothing exciting but a reminder that I need to start doing more of this type of riding to get into shape. Close to home and a good workout.

SART 9/30/12

A nice warm Sunday ride with Gina. Again a pretty empty trail. We stopped near the Imperial wooden bridge but only saw maybe 5 riders go by. Most times we see 30 within 5 minutes or so. Gina thought it was nice though.

On the way back to the coast we ran into Tammy & Alan. At the coast we met up with Tony for a short visit then we rode back together to his turn off. Before Tony showed up LewisAClark rode up for a good chat. Hadn't spoke with the guy in a while so it was nice to hear from him again. Bad news was that his father had some heart problems. He's OK though. After that we had some pretty good laughs going into some real life details. Pretty good stuff and nice to hear I'm not the only one who thinks there is a little too much madness in this world, on and off the bike ha ha!

Back to Tony. Last week we saw him and his wife riding MTB's on the trail. I didn't recognize him at all. I gave my usual friendly hello thinking he was just another rider out there. After we crossed paths Gina mentioned that the rider was Tony. Naaaaah! I don't think so! She said Yeah, that was him, then I said like no it wasn't then she said like yeah it was, then I said like no it wasn't! Well you get the picture. But turns out it was him. He and his wife did a pretty good ride together. I'm thinking it won't be long before she's out there on a roadie. Oh, and to tell you the truth, she looks a little too young for Tony..... even though they're the same age. ;-)

LewisAClark. Be honest, how many of you didn't notice there was a bike in the background?

                                                      The top view My Space pose

                                            I asked for a smile, this was the best he could do!

                                               Tony with the today's "Shiny Man" award

Uneventful Solo Ride on SART 9/29

Well Gina had bidniss to take care of today so I had a chance to ride alone, so I did. Trail was every empty but nice. I figured there had to be  big organized ride going on somewhere. The Grand Fondo now that I remember. Either way, the trial was empty.

Very uneventful day, I did see Ron & Dixie a couple of times, actually three times. I don't think they saw me at Yorba Park watering up my bottles. I saw Alex2 there. cutting his ride short today. 65 is a short ride for Alex ha ha! I saw Jeff & Angie but other than that, almost a ghost town. After the ride I ran into Mark, Tammy & Alan at the parking area. It was kind of strange riding alone after spending so much time on the bike with Gina. I must bore myself cause I didn't take one pic or get one video clip on this ride ha ha!

I headed out to Green River from the Leaky Fountain, to the coast and back for 61 miles. I have an organized event next weekend so I wanted to do my rid today with limited stop time. 61 miles @ 16.9 average with only 13 minutes of stop time. Not bad but I did forget to pick up an energy bar last night and I didn't feel like stopping at any of the Quick marts around so I just passed on the energy bar. Felt pretty good throughout the ride but the hungry feeling on the last 5 miles told me I should have downed a little sup'm sup'm!

Trying to limit my stops, I only stopped a couple of times for water and to mix some Gatorade via powder. Only once to wee wee but still added up to 13 minutes even though it felt like I didn't stop at all. I guess I'm just a slow tinkler ha ha!

Getting ready for the ride next week I figured I'd clean up my bike and put on the new rear tire for a test ride tomorrow (make sure the tire has no defects). On the last mile I ran over a huge wad of gum. So now I have gum strings all over my bike, what a mess! Brake calipers front and back, both rims, BB area and guide, front tire,  front and rear spokes. To the person who tossed the gum on the trail, I hate you and you have a big mouth ha ha ha!

SART Weekend 9/22 & 23