I rode my bike from my house in WeHo to Mia's parent's in Santa Barbara for our annual SB BBQ Weekend..... 90 Miles!!
Granted, this day, I was only suppose to bike 80... but given it the route kept me on bike paths, I accrued a few more miles.
As I started off from my house, I was super excited. Heck, wouldn't you? Biking to SB is kinda Bad Ass! I had previously dropped my weekend bag off at Mia's so I wouldn't have to worry about carrying anything additional and thankfully, Amaya agreed to drive me and my bike back to LA at the end of the weekend, so I didn't have to worry about doing the ride twice.
So.. needless to say, I was in a good space. I was on mission and it was awesome... the first 30 miles were very routine, PCH up to Malibu, pass Pepperdine, which is a tough little hill, but I continue on my way pass Zuma into Ventura. Along this route I was clocked by going 35 mph and 39mph! I could not believe I was going that fast! Super crazy and awesome. As I enter Ventura, PCH turns into the 1 Freeway, so all bikers have to exit and take the bike path... so I did, but then at one point, it seemed like it ended, so I got back on the 1. Within minutes I am pulled over by a cop. "Please exit the freeway" in a LOUD PA voice from behind. It scared the crap out of me. He explains that the road I was on ends about 500 yards from where we were standing... and that I should not be on the freeway... and explained the rest of the bike safe road that I had gotten off of. He then attempted to give me directions, but when I told him I biked from WeHo and was heading to SB... he was at a loss for words. It was really quite funny. So, instead, I plugged the address into Google Maps and had my phone tell me where to go. Now that was super easy.
Cruising along, I gotta tell you, was amazing. I never drive this part of Cali to get to SB, I usually take the 101 or 1 but not these bike-safe, hidden roads. It was awesome! I came across this amazing Pepper and Pumpkin Field and for being so early in the season, these pumpkins were huge!!
Now, given this was a looooong ride, I actually was listening to music. I normally don't bike with tunes because I can't listen to it on the race, but this day it was perfect. Brandy Clark, Kacey Musgraves, Kelly Clarkson and PINK are now my Go-To-Tunes for rides. Talk about a little pep in my pedaling step!
The ride was seriously so amazing. I was biking ON the water the entire time. Either on a specific bike path, through parking lots or on the PCH. I loved every minute of it.
The entire journey took me 6 hours 23 minutes. and that was including getting pulled over by the cops, stopping to take pictures, picking up a sandwich at a deli and refilling my water bottles... so honestly, it was probably closer to 6 hours in reality... how awesome is that!?!?
When I finally arrived at the beach to meet up with Mia and Ellen, I was actually only about 1hr behind them on getting to the beach. They were in complete shock that I just completed that ride and to be fair, so was I! I was tired, don't get me wrong... there were times along the way and most definitely the last 10 miles I was so over it, but the good thing was my legs weren't tired when i got off the bike. I mean they were, of course, but I wasn't sore or anything... it is a good sign!
Thinking ahead for recovery, I did the best thing I could think of for my legs and quickly jumped in the ocean. One, I was so hot and two, it was like taking a recovery ice bath! :-)
Later that night, when the others arrived they all still could not believe that I had biked up. We made a few jokes that I probably beat them because of the traffic. It was funny.
The next day, I woke up bright and early... natural internal clock and ran 8 miles! YES 8 miles... and my knees were pretty decent. I kept a solid pace. I was trilled!
All in all... it was a pretty solid training weekend and I was able to hang out with my bestest buds!
AMEN! :-)
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