Training day 3 - what a slog!

Usually works good, but today not so much.

Today I upped my mileage with the loaded bike to 30 miles.  Yesterday's 25 miler felt pretty good, but today did not.  There was an element missing:  Gatorade.  Yes, I didn't have it Monday and I slogged at 20 miles.  I had it Tuesday and wasn't bothered at all at 25.  Didn't have it today and I was feeling it.

I did take some fig newtons and some peanut butter crackers.  Usually fig Newtons are good for some energy... but not so much with a fully loaded bike.  No, the carbs are too complex for fast energy.  That's where Gatorade is so powerful.  It hits your bloodstream quickly and thereby your muscles quickly.  So it looks to me like I am going to need a steady supply of Gatorade on the road.  Like - don't leave home without it.  Ever.  Because I literally kept having to stop to rest, and it took me much longer on the ride than it should have.

I know some people think that Gatorade is nothing but sugar, and there IS a lot of sugar in it, but hello!!!  The body runs on sugar.  I don't want to hear any anti-sugar arguments.  You go out on a fully loaded bike and see how well you do on water alone after 30 miles.  Yeah, Right now I am downing sugar.

That being said, I did stop on the Ballona Creek Bridge again (both ways), and the 2nd time I was approached by an Southeast Asian man and his wife who were on a tandem.  He said he had just ordered a Surly LHT and was waiting for it to arrive and that he planned on touring the USA also.  He kept saying how much he wish he could go with me.  He said he also wanted to tour all of Thailand and asked if I ever wanted to go there, but I said I could only go if someone sponsored a ticket for me.  Well, more than that, but that's the general idea.  I introduced him to Warm Showers and also this blog.  He had never heard of Warm Showers.  He said he was doing the tandem with his wife to get used to extra weight, but only real way to get used to the extra weight is if she's not pedaling, because the weight on the bike is dead weight.  I still have too much of it.  Need to get serious in the next 48 hours and start dumping some stuff.

The Ortlieb Rack Pack arrived today... more weight for the bike.  The tent, however, is a different matter.  I ordered it off eBay but like a doofus forgot to tell the seller to send it to the address where I am currently staying, so of course it went to my old address where I don't live and now it is already being sent back.  So I will have to get another one from a store or something.  Time is short but thankfully I don't need the tent for several days, potentially.

Ballona Creek with a friend

My friend Nessie from Hollywood and I decided to do a bike ride, but I wanted to take her on a new route, so I told her I would take her on the bike path that goes through Marina Del Rey and that we would go down to the Ballona Creek Bridge.

I ended up driving into Hollywood to pick her and her bike up and then back to my place where we pumped up her tires and then left about 10:30 A.M.  I'm not sure what time we got down there, but we each took lots of pics with our cameras and also some videos.

People on the bike path through the marina parking lots.

Ballona Creek Bridge.  Stopping grounds for lots of cyclists.

 She noticed how low the planes were flying, and I said that LAX was very close and that we could go down to the part of the bike path that is directly in front of the runways, and she wanted to do that, so off we went.  When we got down there, we look more photos and videos.  Part of the bike path was closed off, and that was the part in front of the runway.  There was another cyclist there, and he was sitting on a bench with his back turned to us as we talked and snapped pics for about 10 minutes.  Finally he got up and left and I asked him, "Were we disturbing you?"  "Yes," he responded matter-of-fact.  Oh well.  He doesn't own that spot.  Lots more private areas for contemplation.

We rode down to where the 105 Imperial Hwy dead ends/connects to the bike path, then turned around and went back.

We decided to take the entire Ballona Creek Bike Trail to it's eastern end since she hadn't gone that way before, and she got unnerved by a lot of the graffitti past Overland, but I didn't think anything of it (still don't).  We then wove through the neighborhoods, go back onto National, over to Regent, to Cattaragus, to Reynier, and then wiggling back through suburbia for 4.5 miles back to West Hollywood.  We rode about 32 miles total.

I motored her bike back into Hollywood.  And we were done.  It was late in the day.  Rewarded myself with a hamburger happy meal from McDs.

More pannier experiences!

On Wednesdays I go grocery shopping for the lady I work for, and usually I do a tiny bit for myself afterwards.  Now when I say tiny, that means it has to fit in the two Bontrager side panniers... and today i was going to push it a little because I needed cat litter.  I knew I couldn't get the 21-lb containers because I had other stuff to get also plus I'd done some pet food shopping on the way to work, and those foods were still in the panniers.  So I got two 14-lb containers and put one on each side.  I know I had at least 40 lbs on the back on the bike.  I could feel it getting started, but once the momentum was up, I was good to go.  When I got home, it was as always a struggle to get the bike up the stairs, but that happened too, so I was good to go.  I still need to ride over to Smart & Final and get some lemon extract.  Maybe tomorrow morning if I am organized.



Might go riding this weekend with a friend, and if so, I'll take her down to the Ballona Creek Bridge.  Maybe we'll stop on the bridge for some pictures and a bit of a picnic.