Tales of a Novice Cyclist

After some convincing by RL tonight, I’ve decided to start training for the Malibu Tri in September. I know I can do the swim and bike portion right now. The running part is what I don’t like. All that pounding on the knees - I don’t know how my knees will react.  My homework for this week is to find a triathlon group to start training with. I found a women’s group to train with online, but… I think I prefer a co-ed group.  Too many women might mean too much drama.  In the meantime, I’ll keep biking, start swimming, and start running. I DON’T LIKE TO RUN….  Maybe I will see the light and change my mind when I start running again…

I saw a LOT of cyclists this morning.  The Mulholland Challenge, I think.  As for my ride this morning, I think today’s route is my favorite route of all. It used to be Mulholland-Malibu Lake-Rock Store-Decker-Hidden Valley and back.  But today’s ride up Piuma-down Stunt is, by far, my favorite now.  Nice long climb. And the downhill was so so so so nice.  Uphill was not easy. Not hard, but not easy. I was glad that I had the compact cranks and 27s in the back in the last few hundred feet of the climb.  I started to feel it in my left knee a little bit.  But it wasn’t impossible.   So beautiful up there… I SO wished that I had brought my camera with me. But my camera is SO fricken BIG. So I went to BestBuy and bought a smaller camera to carry with me. I need to go pick up a Bento Box thingamajig for the camera so that I can start carrying it with me on my bike. =P

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Friday Night Date Night with Mur last night. Ha! I showed her some basic things about flying a Peter Lynn, we walked on the beach, talked about life, relationships, love, career, and future, we ate crepe, and gave each other lots of hugs. Ha! Nice date, right? Too bad she’s not male. I came across this quote in the bookstore while on my “date” with Mur. I liked it…

Dance as though no one is watching.
Love as though you’ve never been hurt.
Sing as though no one can hear you.
Live as though heaven is on earth.

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Another day at work.  Another frustrating day.  It was warm and windy today…WARM WIND. GRRRRRG!  I hate it when it’s warm and nice outside while I’m stuck in the office.  Especially when there is WARM wind.  It’s the best type of day for kitesurfing: warm wind, cool water… But not enough time for a kitesurfing sesh so I zipped home to ride my bike.

I headed out to Rock Store with Frenchy tonight and decided to skip the Thursday CVC ride last minute. I rode as hard as I could, but of course, he kicked my ass.  :(  I need to ride more so that I can get stronger and finally try to beat a guy up Rock Store. Or, at least stay even with him. VERY FRUSTRATING! I guess I was a sore loser today after a frustrating day at work. GRRRRrrrrr… Just a little friendly competition..eh.

Anyhoos, Mur is finally out of the hospital, but still weak and trying to recover.  I was entertaining the idea of going up to San Francisco to fly the Dumps with James and Lorie from the March Maneuvers Clinic, but no glider yet, so I will stay local. My new glider is supposed to be here next week. I hope it’s pretty…

It’s supposed to be in the 90s this weekend, so I may camp at the beach with Mur and bring all the toys.  Maybe Leo, maybe ventura, maybe santa barbara, or Jalama.  I hope it gets windy enough to kitesurf!

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So, Mur has been hospitalized with a FULL ON infection from the poison oak/poison ivy (she doesn’t know which one…). And her poison oak/ivy condition has become systemic - in the blood stream. So now, she has the rash on random parts of her body instead of a localized area. NOT GOOD. It looks like she’ll be in the hospital for at least 3 days. Idiot doctor gave her antibiotics and steroids at the same time which counteracts each other, and could have killed her. Her open cut from that day that she landed in the tree 2 weeks ago is completely infected and the doctors are concerned that the new antibiotic isn’t working… VERY BAD NEWS! She’s in good spirits though. She said she’ll never complain about anything ever again. Just stay happy no matter what happens - as long as she lives through this and never get poison oak ever again. Sigh…

Note to self: AVOID the BUSHES, especially poison oak, AT ALL COSTS! I don’t want any poison oak/ivy getting on my skin… NEVER.. EVER!

So I shouldn’t be complaining about anything anymore. I don’t have poison oak, and am in good health. No more complaining about job and life. I’ll just strive to be happy. Keep to the plan…. better life. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts…

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So, I was crunching my month-end numbers at work today, daydreaming about riding my bike/kitesurfing/flying, and remembered a girl telling me that she was “living a dream” in response to my simply asking her, “How are you?”  I’m setting a goal for myself for next year to be “living a dream” like her by this time next year.  The restlessness is keeping me unable to concentrate, I want to go back to traveling off the beaten path to remote parts of the world again more than ever, and I’m feeling cramped in my job, house, and situation.  I don’t think a 2 week vacation is going to cure this one… :-\  Sigh…. Not complaining, just need a refreshing outlook on life again, I guess.  Plan in the works…

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I joined RL and Robb on their evening ride to the lake and back tonight.  All of us on our Orbeas.  =) Robb’s bike is rocketship red and superfast! damn.  eh, o well.  It was fun drafting off him tonight.  There was a pretty good headwind and looking at the sky, I knew that it was windy at the coast.  Double Damn…  But I didn’t want to repeat what I did yesterday - 30 min of trying to barely stay upwind so I blew off the kitesurfing and biked instead.  Well, I’m looking at the ikitesurf graph and it’s 12-20 at Leo and it’s 7pm. Triple Damn.  Windier than yesterday.  Eh,.. o well, maybe I will get it later this week.  At least I got to ride my bike tonight.  I should have ridden harder… :-\

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Another perfect 75 degree SoCal day today. And another busy day at work. I was daydreaming about being outside for the 8.5 hours I was kept inside the office. Grrrr….  Finally, I got my freedom at 4:20pm. I zipped home, checked the wind which said 17 mph at Leo Carrillo (ACK!), scrambled to grab my kite, bar, lines, board, wetsuit, trash bag for wet stuff and rushed out to my p-mobile to plow through the canyons to get to Malibu for a sesh as quickly as possible.   (I would have gone for a quick bike ride up to Rock Store and down Decker if it wasn’t blowing - being cooped up all day… ugh).  By the time I arrived at Malibu though, um… it WAS NOT 17.  Not even…  It was more like 12? WTF….!  But I waited for a few minutes, watching the guys go back and forth, not quite being able to stay upwind.  After about 30 minutes, I couldn’t stand it anymore! I just rigged my 10m (I knew I couldn’t stay upwind with this wind), pulled on my wetsuit and out I went.  As expected, I didn’t have quite enough power to stay upwind.  I needed just maybe 2-3mph more? I was able to cut upwind going out, but lost ground coming back in.  Yes, yes, I need a floatier board. Hm! :(  Mother Nature, please o PLEASE, just a little more wind!  Anyways, I decided to throw in the towel after 30 minutes.  It was nice to get wet though.

Why is it that by the time I get to the beach, it’s always backing off? I guess that’s the price that I have to pay for having a 9-5 M-F job….  I think I want to quit my job so that I can bike, fly, and kitesurf everyday. :-\

I will come up with a plan…soon… very soon…

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110 miles of riding this weekend. That probably brings me up to 150+ miles this week. I started off my ride today with the intension of doing a “recovery ride”. Heh, the daydreaming kept me cycling for 4+ hours. Hidden Valley, Potrero, Rock Store, Mulholland. Good thing I brought extra energy with me just in case - 3 gu’s, 1 hammer gel, 1 sport bean pack, 1 shot block pack, 1 PB&honey sandy, 1 orange, and some extra electrolyte tablets. Plus, I took some pills called Musclenergy by CytoSport that’s supposed to prevent cramping. Well, it worked, I guess. I kept going and going and going, daydreaming and pedaling away. I met a nice French fellow who kept me company for part of my ride. He invited me for lunch - not sure if he was just being nice or wanted something else. :-\ In any case, I wanted to get back to go kitesurfing, so declined, bid farewell, and rode home as quickly as possible.

When I got to C Street, the wind was still light. But I could see the fuel line setting up in the horizon, so I patiently waited, reading my USHPA magazine. Read a nice article on flying in Switzerland - sounded fun. Maybe that will be my summer trip… Or, it could be the Rat Race, or Burning Man, or just a few weekend trips scattered throughout the summer. I need to save at least 2 weeks for Valle at the end of the year… Grrr….. Not enough vacation days! I may have to quit my job and find something that will give me more freedom to travel. Asia, Europe, South America, Australia… sigh…

Anyways, the wind filled in about an hour later as expected, I rigged my Synergy, and rode out. Light wind, but enough to still kite. I hadn’t kitesurfed in so long, I had forgotten how much fun it is. The wind wasn’t screaming so I didn’t have to hang on for dear life like the howling days. Today was mellow, cruising back and forth. The peacefulness and the beauty of the sport is truly amazing (kinda like paragliding, I guess). Granted, there are some a-holes in the sport who do ruin the experience for some people, but eh. Every sport has a thorn.  Here’s what it could look like when it’s calm and peaceful at one of my favorite places for kitesurfing.  This ain’t C-Street for sure…

At least, I got 2 sports in today. The only thing missing was paragliding and girlfriend. My goal this summer weekends will be to fit in cycling early in the morning, then paragliding with light winds, then kitesurfing with heavier afternoon winds, all in one day. Good plan, right?

I Heart Kitesurfing! But then again, I also Heart Cycling…. and Paragliding too when the conditions are good and I can get up high… 

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Today was my first long ride in about 3 weeks with the BBKings. Paragliding kept me busy for the last few weekends, and boy o boy… I’ve gotten OUT OF SHAPE! 3 weeks away from riding with the BBKings and my endurance and stamina definitely took a toll. I felt myself starting to bonk at about mile 50. Grrr…. NOT GOOD…

Triple D (Deanster, Dino, Dean) and I took off from Calabassas this morning to Old Topanga toward Mulholland, to Hidden Valley and back. As usual, I was the only girl. :-\ I guess it’s nice? But it would be nice to have another woman to ride with. Anyhoos, I still don’t know any of the turns to Old Topanga as I just followed D’s ass in front of me, trying to draft as much as possible. Somehow I split off from the group and rode on my own for about 10 miles toward Hidden Valley, daydreaming away… I did almost get hit by a Maserati in Hidden Valley - another typical old guy on a cell phone. If the lane to my left wasn’t empty, I would have been toast. :-\

I rode about 5 hours today. Bum is sore (maybe the new shorts… or maybe the 3 weekends away from doing long rides,… :-\), legs were burning up the hills (not cramping though), and I’m completely famished.

O, and you wanted pictures, here are some pictures! Pictures of what I daydreamed about today… Some of my favorite things, places, and people…

New Bike: Orbea Diva - speed machine, speed rocket, my current love.

Shanghai - fond memories…

Pig on a boat at Floating Market on Mekong Delta… that was a fun day…

Hangzhou - another time, another place…

Big Sur - Mur

Big Sur - parawaiting

Training Hill in Santa Barbara

Snow, SLC

View from the air

Kitesurfing in Baja

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Bintan

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So, I think I’m in love… after all this time? In love with my bike, that is…. I took her to Malibu Lake up Rock Store, down the awesome descent on Decker at 30+ mph. 16-20 mph on flat, 5-8 mph up Rock Store. She was SO STEADY going through the curves on Decker….it was unbelievable! She was having fun. My old bike would be rattling down Decker and I would be on my max brakes from the steepness. But today was a different story. I felt comfortable cornering the curves at faster speeds. I was so amazed. I popped out at the bottom of 23 at 31 mph. Yipppeeeeee~~~! Top speed today was 36.3 mph.  Smokin’ fast! Speed demon she is! She just wants to be ridden! Kinda like a Porsche…

I met the Thursday night ride group out at Hidden Valley and rode back with them for the evening picnic. My only complaint on today’s ride was the gnats… AGAIN. Yes, they kept flying into my face, or was it that I kept hitting them with my face… In any case, I lost count after 25 gnat hits… :-\ And I probably ate a couple… again.

I can’t wait to ride her again. I’ll ride her hard again after work tomorrow or Saturday. I can’t wait! Le-le-le-le-le-looooooove the new ride… that’s for sure…

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