Via Byway, My Way.

Stats:

Number of flat tires: 0

Mileage Log….

Day 36: 65 miles

Day 37: 102 miles

Day 38: Rest Day

Day 39 (today): Rest Day

Tuesday, Day 37, was a bike day not to remember. I’ve done centuries before, and I’ve come out of them pretty good. But Tuesday’s ride had numerous factors that just contributed to a crappy ride.

Left at 7am. Leisurely ride along Highway 1 to Ventura and Oxnard. Stopped at Marine City Park in Ventura for yogurt and cereal. And spent about an hour at the Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center. Next thing I know it is 12pm, and I still have 75 miles to go. So I decide to haul ass. Unfortunately, between Oxnard and Malibu, I had horrible headwinds. Probably the worst I’ve had this whole trip, equaling my Day of Discouragement when I encountered the same on route to Point Reyes National Seashore.

Then, once in Malibu, and all the way down to just before Santa Monica, Suicide Bicycling was On. It had to be like 15 miles of riding along little or no shoulder and traffic barreling by me over the posted speed limit. The worst part was that cars were parked in my no shoulder area (it’s the beach, so that’s what you do), and therefore I had to swing out into the highway lane of traffic. Of course, drivers were not pleased. My prior 36 days of riding, I only had one instance of a near-miss Bicycle versus Car incident. On this 90 minute, 15 mile ride, I had 3. Freakin’ crazy ass close calls, the worst one being when I was zipping down the hill trying to stay in my shoulder. There are parked cars on the right. And the speeding traffic to my left. I check my mirror for just a split second, and when I look up towards the road in front of me, all of a sudden a car door opens and I see some lady’s foot stepping out. I yell “SHIT!!!”, but it would have been too late to do anything. I would have smashed right into the door, crashed through the rolled up window and gone flying straight ahead. Luckily I had maybe half a foot distance of space from where the car door reached out into my path. That was the scariest close call.

Then, a few miles later, some stupid minivan is parked facing the ocean, not paralleling it like all the other parked cars, and at the time I make my pass it decides to reverse out into my lane. Of course they didn’t see me, they can’t see Jack with all their blindspots. I slammed on what little brakes I had left and swerved around it. My last straw was some maintenance pick-up driving in reverse on the shoulder trying to return to a point he must have passed. Did he see me? Hell no. So goes another Brake/Swerve combination, out into the highway but fortunately I had no cars behind me.

Just craziness. Bicycle suicide. I wish I could upload the 2 pics I took of my riding shoulder. My nonexistant riding shoulder. It’s just frightful trying to ride with my fully loaded bike, trying to balance myself on a tiny white line when semis, city buses and damned yellow school buses are inches away passing you at 50 miles an hour. This left such a bad taste for getting to LA. Once I was close to Santa Monica, an official Los Angeles bike path began that is totally seperated from all the traffic. It was safe, easy riding all the way down to Redondo Beach, where my plan was to catch the Metro Rail (LA’s version of MAX) from the Redondo Beach station all the way to Norwalk, where I would then ride the last miles to my Auntie’s home.

Silly me, I figured it wouldn’t be that hard to find the Redondo Beach Metro Rail Green Line station. Boy, was I wrong. Soliciting directions from 5 different people, I had to ride another 5 miles along busy boulevards to this station that I thought would be close to the Redondo Beach bike path. Not. Totally frustrating. Then, when I finally boarded at 7pm, I had the great pleasure of riding with a guy who wanted to hook me up with a Trek bike for only $500 (normally over $2000), as it was obviously a hot item (i.e. stolen goods) and I was hoping that he wouldn’t ride with me all the way to the end of the line. He didn’t.

Once I arrived at the end of the line, it took me almost another hour to try and find my Aunt’s place. I was misdirected by the people I asked on how to get to Rosecrans Avenue, and I did an extra 30 minutes of unnecessary riding. It was 8:30pm and very very dark by the time I arrived to the front door step.

Just an awful Tuesday of riding. And to cap everything off, I have a new temporary setback.

I’m sick. It started Sunday night with a cough, and now it’s developed into a persistent cough with headache, slight fever, hurts-when-I swallow, plugged up, and just overall feeling of misery. The worst part about this is that yesterday I was fed all the best foods that my body has lacked over the past month of riding. Good soup. Sweet and sour meatballs. Roasted chicken. Noodles. Filippino desserts. All for naught. Because I can’t freaking TASTE nor SMELL anything!!

So it is a day of rest for me. No Knott’s Berry Farm or checking out other amusement park rides. It’s about getting back to health so I can complete my last 120 miles.

So that’s my story for now. It is sooo hot down here, apparently the last week has just been brutal. I should know. The Sunday afternoon and Monday rides were the hottest I’ve ever ridden my entire life. And I wouldn’t want to do it again. I was inland, away from the coast. No wind. Just hot sun baking and burning me. I felt like I was under a heat lamp. And going up those hills….so difficult, so SLOW. Dizzy. Weak. Tired leg muscles. Running out of the water. The water I did have was like boiling. Are my tires going to pop because it is so hot? Or maybe just melt into the pavement? Where are the freaking clouds? I need clouds to cover up that Sun! Why is there no breeze? When will this freaking climb END??? Am I sweating? I need to be sweating, cause if I’m no longer sweating, then I may have a heat stroke. Or heat exhaustion…what is the difference again? Why can’t I get this song out of my head….”The Long And Winding Road…da dah, da dah,” by the Beatles? Where is the shade?? Why isn’t there any shade?? Why did I take this stupid Alternate Scenic Route? I’m so HOT! I hate how hot it is. Should I stop and put on more sunblock? No, can’t stop, must keep going, inch by inch. But it is too hard. Must stop and walk my bike….

So that’s how I felt riding through the hot summer sun. Now at least I am on the coast with some breezes. I just wish I could taste the food I’m eating. I had 8 Famous Amos cookies with milk last night. And couldn’t taste even ONE. But I kept eating and eating, hoping that I would have a breakthrough. Nope. Strange how my body has reacted. I’m always so hungry, my body is used to burning so many calories. And now I’m inactive. Hopefully only for a few days though.

This is the part of my blog where I start rambling on other tangents and far off subjects, but I’ll spare you nonsense and just stop here. For now anyways.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 27th, 2006 at 9:55 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.