Tales of a Novice Cyclist

So, I finally broke down and got the Garmin Edge 305 last night. I got it from A-Man, so got a great deal.  Always so hard for me to pass up a great deal…..  Do I really need the 305? Errr….  Will it help me get faster? Not sure about that one.  Will it help me find my way back to start if I get lost?  Not sure about that one either…  I can hardly figure out my Garmin 76S, let alone another GPS/bike computer…  Sigh… we’ll see.  Tonight, I will try to run at the gym and see if I can go more than a mile before I give into the huffing and puffing from the run… =\

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It was still HOT as HELL on Monday, but I wanted to ride… I needed to ride. So I zoomed home from work, let the refrigerator man in, then went for a quick ride out to Malibu Lake and back - a quick 20 miler. And then when I got there, my time was unusually quick (probably the tail wind), so I decided to tack on a little climb up to Rock Store and zip down Decker for some added speed and fun! All along the ride up past Rock Store, I was thinking “it’s HOT as HELL again, what the heck am I doing climbing up this hill alone, it’s HOT as HELL… good thing I’m not going too far. I think I brought barely enough water.. I think I did..I think I can.. I think I can… etc…” Once I reached the top, I finished my 2 bottles of water, put my short sleeves on (just in case it got too cool zipping down Decker), and continued on toward the 23. I crossed Kanan and looked to the left by Malibu Wines and “Huh?” It’s a hot air balloon just off the side of the road. LUCKILY, I HAD my camera with me (a-HA!!!). I was SO HAPPY that I took my camera. =) Here’s what it looked like.

Random sitings… I also heard some crying coming from up the street (I thought I was hearing a ghost or something. Living alone, I get a bit spooked out, you know?) Well, I passed by a white car that was parked on the side of the road, and the lady was crying her eyes out, just whimpering, and crying. I was like, “ooooooki….I’d better keep pedaling fast away! I ain’t a therapist and need to finish my ride before dark!” And onward I went. I was hoping to get a picture of the brown camel, but I was pedaling too fast to beat sunset that I zoomed right past the ranch where I saw the camel. Oh well. Now that I know where the camel lives, I can take a picture next time. All in all, it was a great ride. Came shooting out of Decker at 32 mph. Waa-hoooo!!!

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Tonight, I decided to try out running. Since I did get the shoes with the intention of starting to run this weekend (I gotta get ready for the Malibu Tri, right?), I should do it NOW, right? So, I put on my running shoes and headed over to Westlake. Once around the lake should be okay. Or so I thought… What started out being a 4 mile run turned out to be a 1.5 mile run/walk. Man, I’m SOOOOO SLOOOOOOW. And this running thing is draining! I’m used to going at least 15 around the lake on my bike. Now, with my legs hitting the concrete, I’m a turtle! I don’t know how those marathon runners do it. I ran for 5 minutes and I was tired. So then I started walking. Then running. Then walking. Sigh… It’s going to be a looooong way before I can run 1 mile on the pavement. Weird - I was able to do it on the treadmill, no problem. Pavement must be extra hard on the body. Plus, my left knee started to ache after about 1/2 mile. Man.. I don’t know if I will ever be able to actually run 4 miles… depressing. :-\  Enough venting for tonight.

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It was HOT as HELL this weekend.  Nevertheless, Mur and I went on a 5 hour bike ride on Saturday.  Anticipating the heat, we started at 730am.  I took Mur up to Rock Store, down Mulholland, back up Encinal, and down Decker back to Westlake.  We hid 6 water bottles along the route the previous evening because we knew that it was going to be a scorcher.  Good thing ‘cuz we drank ALL of it.  I managed to drink about 150 oz of water and electrolyte solution. I think that’s a record for me.  I did have to pee a couple of times along the way.  We ate almost all the food that we brought with us.. and we brought A LOT.  But Mur started to bonk on her way down Decker back to Westlake.  I should have forced her to eat some more Gu. =\  Anyways, that was Mur’s longest ride ever - 42 miles.  Good for her! I was proud.   The rest of the day was spent napping even though it was blowing 20 at Leo.  Well,… Mur napped while I ran a few errands, fixed my flying helmet, tried to figure out how to hang some straps off my balcony to hang my paragliding harness. Then a dinner date and movie with Mur, as usual.

Sunday, Mur and I went up to Alternator because a bird told us that it was flyable.  Of course, when we arrived, it was OTB. =\   As we were about to pull out to go back down, Marty’s car battery died, so since we didn’t have jumper cables, Mr. MacGyver took apart some DC cables for radio charger, and made it into a connector, disconnected the van’s working battery, took it over to Marty’s car, jumped it with the wires made from the cables, and actually started the car! He did warn that the car might blow up, but luck was on his side and everything worked the way that he expected. Ha! Pretty impressive, I must admit.  Then we went surfing at Sea Cliff with Mr. MacGyver. It was pretty fun.  3 years of not surfing, and boy, I’m really out of paddle shape.  I did the washing machine under a couple of waves a few times which brought back some memories of the countless number of washing machine cycles I endured during my 1 year stint of trying to learn how to surf.  Mur, very new to surfing, did the washing machine a few times.  Her legs and arms flailing as a huge wall of white water approached her… I laughed so hard at one point that I couldn’t sit up.  I think she and I much prefer the wind sports - i.e windsurfing for Mur and kitesurfing for me.   All in all, a good time.  We will do it again next weekend.

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I went to the bike shop on Tuesday and bought a bunch of bike clothes.  I think I was stressed - about what? I don’t know.  When I’m stressed, I spend money on gear.  I should have stayed away from the bike shop, but no… I gave in and bought a pair of Zoot Ultra Cycle Shorts and matching top. There was MINIMAL padding on the shorts, so I was skeptical whether the shorts would work for me, but I bought them anyways.

I went up to Rock Store then down Decker and the shorts worked fine! yeyeyey!  Maybe I don’t need such thick padding on my bike shorts? So, I get to keep it and deal with the money issue later. Ha! Tis is life, I guess. I’d better enjoy my gear and toys while I’m young and can enjoy them, right?

On my way up to Decker, I finally saw the brown 2-humped camel that JF was telling me. I was so excited!  Of course, I LEFT MY CAMERA AT HOME! DOH!! I even looked at my camera before the ride, thinking whether I’d take pictures, and decided that I wouldn’t see anything fun.  Always not the case, right?  Errrggggg…

So, lesson learned: Always carry my camera on my bike rides… =\

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I’m so sore all over… all over except my legs, that is.  I went to the gym (one of the nicest gyms I’d ever been to) and ran on the treadmill for about 5 miles.  .   I guess having not run for years will do it to the body. I felt okay while running on the treadmill so kept going, thinking “Malibu tri is about 4-5miles of running”.  Then got on the bike for about 45 min. Then did about 300 crunches along with some stretches afterwards. Of course, I felt really good after the workout.  Next morning, back, shoulders, abs, hips were all sore.  Legs were fine though! I guess cycling has conditioned my legs to take it.  Glad that I didn’t add on the swim after the bike and run.  I probably would be a mess today.  And today is day 2 after the gym workout!  Today or tomorrow will be a bike workout.  I guess I’ll have to get into the water for a swim workout at some point…

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This weekend, Mur, Eagle, and I flew all the way to Utah for some epic flying.  Needless to say by the title of this post, we were SKUNKED.  All the hauling of our wings and gear, and didn’t even fly a second.  Eagle’s nest was a nice pad, with a great launch and landing just in the backyard - LITERALLY.  It was a nice, relaxing weekend, but I wish we had flown.  Oh well.. we may trek over to Marshall this weekend.  Maybe I’ll get up to 8 grand again.  I’m also thinking about entering the Rat Race.  Maybe…. maybe not…

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Since I haven’t really ridden hard for about 2 weeks, I decided to leave work early to do a quick ride out to Malibu Lake and back.  Man, I am OUT OF SHAPE! Seriously. Usually, I can do this loop with only 1 bottle of water.  Today, I almost finished both bottles.  My legs were burning - which is good… and bad, I guess.  Good that they weren’t cramping, but bad that they were burning since they usually don’t burn on this loop. I was able to do this loop without a burn no problem before.  Sigh… I guess I’ll ride again tomorrow to try to get back into shape. Need to start running and swimming too…

O, and I was o-so-greeted by a swarm of gnats just before sunset.  Lovely… DRATS!  I think I ate a mouthful today. GROSS…! I gotta remember to keep my mouth closed on the downhills. Ha!

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Mondays are horrible, isn’t it? I just had another dream weekend. It seems as though every time I go back to work on a Monday, my weekend just seems like a dream.

I spent the weekend at Marshall and Santa Barbara, getting more acquainted with my GPS and flying tasks. I had my best flight ever, getting up higher than I’d ever flown above launch and longer than I ever had in the past. Except for the landing into the bushes, it was too much fun. I couldn’t completely figure out the GPS thing completely, but flying the tasks was more fun than I thought it would be. I met few other paragliders at the clinic as well as Deanster and Josh who gave us tips throughout the entire weekend. I even managed to get a quick 1 hour ride in at 6am on Sunday morning. =) And also managed to sell my car for whopping $700. ha! That’ll either go toward a Flytec 5030 or a pair of Hanwag boots for flying…

Scoping out the launch

Taking off

Enjoying the view

Thermaling with Frank

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Wow, I haven’t written in a few days. Lots of things in the past few days. All except cycling. Ha! I haven’t ridden in over a week because I was giving my ankle a rest. So, out of the 3 things from my last post (new ankle, car, and mountain flight), I managed to get 2 of them. Ha! Lucky me…

Last weekend was another dream weekend - extended with a couple of days off from work. Mur and I went up to Lake Isabella to tow, but it was HOWLING wind, so couldn’t fly. Of course, I DIDN’T bring my kitesurfing gear since I couldn’t fit it into my p-wagon. Grrrrr…. BUT now, I can! I finally broke down and got a Toyota Highlander. It will fit ALL my gear plus enough room to sleep 2 people. Yayeyeyey~ We came back to Santa Barbara from Lake Isabella for a mountain flight on my new wing. (It rocks btw!) Of course, since the wing is white, I already have dirt on it. doh… maybe I can wipe off the dirt? maybe? and keep it as white as possible as long as possible? Mur and I both had great flights off of Alternator. Then I took her to the beach to show her how to fly a kite in the afternoon. TOO light to keep the kite in the air, but she insisted on trying to fly it. She ran like a horse to get enough wind speed to try to keep it in the air. Ha! I wish I had my camera to take a picture of her running down the beach with the gigantic kite attached to her. Too funny…. What else… We took walks on the beach at sunset, drank wine, hot tub, nice food. Another dream weekend… Now, back to reality of work this week. DOH!

My ankle is finally feeling a little better so this weekend will be a cycling weekend. Maybe a couple of mountain flights, but we’ll see how the conditions pan out. Off to Utah next weekend for some “sick mountain flights” supposedly. Woohoo!

Blown out at Lake Isabella

Edna Valley Pinot Noir…

BFF’s

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