Tales of a Novice Cyclist

We flew back from Salt Lake City early on Monday morning - we had to get up at 4am to catch a 6am flight. I thought I had left my helmet at the security check, so I was running through the airport, trying to find my helmet with only 5 minutes left before the airplane doors closed. Luckily, Mur found my helmet and I ran back just in time for the flight to leave. Nothing like a 15 minute cardio at 5 in the morning to wake you up. This time, our flight was really short, not like the 4 hour flight that we had on our way to SLC. Our flight even landed 30 minutes earlier than the planned arrival time back at LAX. We were both tired and sleepy so I decided to take a sick day - went home and slept until 1pm, then went for a nice quick bike ride with RL (she’s getting fast! :-P), then went for a nice little kitesurf sesh. Good first water session on my new Synergy. The kite has great power and turns quick - very impressive… The auto-zenith character of the arc helps too. This day was almost perfect. 70 degrees, blue skies, sunny, good wind, cycling, kitesurfing, eating, good times, best of all - no work… :-\ It was like a dream.  I guess the only thing missing today was having close friends with me to enjoy.   Mur and I will start digging holes to find treasure.  Or, maybe if I win the lottery, I can have this dream.  Now back to reality…

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

We’re back from Salt Lake City! No cycling, but lots of snow! BBB and his friend was kind enough to host us. Snowboarding at Solitude on Saturday and snowkiting on Sunday. Now back to reality….

Too gorgeous!

Woohoo!!

All in all, it was a great trip. Good friends, good food, good times… Can’t wait to go back to Utah for some great flying in the spring.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

So, I went to the spinning class at 24hr fitness.  Jay wasn’t teaching…. a sub was teaching the class.  I should have known from my previous non-Jay class experience to walk out…  This guy was… I can’t even describe it. He was yelling (which is fine), but jumping around, doing hand stands on the spinning bike, peddling on the bike so hard that his body rocked the bike back and forth, running around the room like he was speed.  I’ve never seen anything like it.   “Freak” by RL’s definition…

Off to Utah for some snowboarding and snowkiting tomorrow! woohoo!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I really gotta do something about this bonking thing. It is really starting to get annoying! I had a great weekend of riding this past weekend, but Monday rolled around and I was completely BONKED again just like the following few days after Palm Springs. Tuesday morning rolled around and I was still bonked.  So, I came home early from work today to rest.

Saturday 2/16/08 

On Saturday, I went on Agoura Cycle’s long ride up to Piuma.  Finally.  All this hype about Piuma being so difficult and killer hill turned out to be not quite what I had thought.  Deanne, Eugene, and I stuck together. We were the slow people, as usual. Well.. maybe not Eugene and Deanne, but I was.  They were nice enough to ride up the hill with me.  Slow, steady climb up to the top of Piuma, cross Scheron to Stunt, then book it down Stunt down to Mulholland. Too fun indeed…  Deanne kept saying “GORGEOUS!”.  I should really remember to bring my camera. Either that or get a smaller camera.  First time riding up Piuma for her too.  After our descent down Stunt, Deanne, Jean-Francois (or Jeff for short), and I decided to maybe do Rock Store, so we rode to Rock Store.  But decided to defer til Sunday since there were so many motorcycles.  So back to the store we went.  I felt good after Saturday’s ride.  Not tired, or bonked at all.  RL climbed Rock Store - FINALLY.  I knew she could do it.  I think she just needs someone to force her up it to make her realize that it’s not as bad as she thinks.

Sunday 2/17/08

Sunday morning, Deanne and I met Jean-Francois at Agoura for our climb up Rock Store. We got a later start than we originally planned, and ended up leaving the store at quarter to 9am.  I demo’ed Orbea Orca (sweeeet ride…) with compact cranks (50/34) on Sunday.  Man, that thing absorbs bumps like I’m riding on a pillow or something. I couldn’t believe what I was missing!  I descended faster and ascended faster. I think I still want a 27 in the back though.  I was in my easiest gear but was still pushing my knees at some parts of the Rock Store climb.  I will need to start saving up for this baby…

When we finally made it up to the top of the Rock Store climb, Deanne and I decided to go all the way to PCH via Decker and Encinal. Jean-Francois needed to get back home, so we parted ways here.  The sun was starting to peak through and the day was warming up, so I didn’t want to stop the ride so early.  We made a couple of bike friends at the top of Rock Store and continued on with them for part of the way.  JF mentioned that there were camels on Mulholland/Decker, but we never saw them.  But we did manage to see a Rhinosaurus???  I think it was a rhino.  Brown with a horn on the edge of its nose?  That’s a rhino, right?  :-\

We were too slow for our new friends so they went ahead to PCH. Deanne and I screamed down Encinal all the way down to PCH.  TOOO FUNNN… 4 miles of downhill joy. I sang to Chris Brown’s “With You”, U2, Kelly Clarkson, and Fergie at the top of my lungs all the way down.  Deanne kept turning around to check what the heck I was screaming about.   I just was singing….  :)  Then we stopped on Mulholland/PCH to gu up where we met our new friends again.  We started climbing with them, but again, we were too slow so they went ahead. Sigh… need to get faster…need to get faster on climbing…

All in all, it was a great ride. I think we did 100miles over the weekend. Sunday’s ride was 4000+ ft of climbing in a 50 mile ride. My sit bone was definitely very tender, my quads were sore, and my right knee felt a little funny.  But ice and heat remedied those.

Today, I am still bonked so will go to sleep early again to see if I will recover tomorrow.  One annoying thing is that with all that riding, I haven’t lost any weight! WTF….  I don’t think I’ve been eating any more than before.  Doesn’t add up….

Off to bed…

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I’m FINALLY feeling back to myself again. Palm Springs 100 mile route made of mess of me. I did feel pretty good throughout the ride. But I wasn’t myself after the finish.

We started at about 8am. About 9 hours later, D and I rolled across the finish line. Crazy right? 9 freakin’ hours on a bike. D and I both crossed the finish line at about 5:05pm. RL was only a few miles behind us. But the sun went down. DOH! But we all rode 100 miles. By the time we finished, it was almost dark, and the expo booths were all closed! !%^&^*#$@! I WANTED TO SHOP a little bit and try out the Cannondale Synapse! UGH…. And I WAS SOOO TIRED! Here’s a picture during the early part of the ride.

We went right back to the hotel room, drank a glass of Veuve Cliquot, then went to Copley’s for a great dinner. I had tofu steak, RL had salmon, D had beef tenderloin while RL and I polished off a bottle of Mark West Pinot Noir. As soon as we got back to our room, I went right to sleep. ZZZZzzzzz…

One thing that I was surprised with myself was that I didn’t take any gu (WOOHOO! although I had 10 packs with me), but managed to do the ride with orange slices, apple slices, 2 bananas, 4 packs of trail mix, about 8 bottles of water with electrolite tablets. The weather was okay - I didn’t overheat even though I had my leg warmers throughout the whole ride.

So, when I woke up on Sunday, after 10 hours of sleep, I woke up STARVING! I needed to eat everything in sight! I’d become an EATING MACHINE!! And then after I ate, I got sleepy and had to take a nap! Every 2 hours. And I NEVER TAKE NAPS! That was how it went for the next 3 days. Eat then sleep, eat then sleep. Eat every 2 hours then sleep. Sleep for 10 hours a night for 3 days straight. And my quads burned like crazy every time I walked up the stairs. RL’s vegan meal and leg massage on Monday night helped get me back on track though. I woke up feeling good, after my 10 hour nightly hibernation the morning after.

Today, I woke up (again from my 10 hour hibernation) more refreshed and alert. I actually stayed awake throughout the entire day. I did eat $20 worth of groceries for lunch. And kept eating… and eating… I am still an eating machine, but have not become a sleep machine - at least not during the day yet.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!