Share the Road - Training #17

June 3, 2004

Familiar beach beauty...

along the coast of Redondo Beach. I pushed hard this morning in terms of speed. Did the route at a good clip -- a little under 2.5 hours. It's funny, when I get to the end point (south end of Redondo), I often stop to fill up with water or take a bathroom break. It's always about 90 minutes in by that point. That 90 minutes may as well be five it goes by so quickly. I know this route very, very well by this point, but, I suppose, there's something I just like about the Manhattan/Hermosa/Redondo area. Even though, as a biker, there are an annoying number of stop signs and lights. But...'tis part of the cycle. Tomorrow promises to be a new adventure. I turn 35 -- yikes! -- and will be cruising down to the Huntington area. I've mapped out portions of the trip, but, after yesterday's misses, I have to do a little better job of that it seems. June 4, 2005

Turned 35 day. Another click on the great wheel that keeps on churnin' and turnin'. I feel so good since I've begun riding the way I am. I know I probably won't be able to keep this up after the tour -- I don't have the financial means (at the moment). But man, getting up first thing in the morning and just spinning out is a great way to get your buzz on. So today was an adventure -- perfect birthday present to me! I rode the first half in familiar grounds, riding down through the south bay and Rancho Palos Verdes. Instead of turning around in San Pedro, however, I kept on keeping on, rolling down to the shipping docks. If you ever want to see what the monster of industry looks like, go to your local shipping yard. If you want to see some royalty of that ilk, come to San Pedro. DAMN! It's big, black, smelly -- and then there's the industry! Hello! Uh...anywho, back up and give me some birthday room to float some jokes, yo. Cruised through some 'hoodish parts of Long Beach, including passing the intersection of MLK (as Chris Rock says, anytime you're near MLK in any city, "RUUUUUUUUUUUN!"). Biking's even better. Made my way to PCH and kept cruising. There was some amazing riding at that point -- Seal Beach, Huntington and Newport. Wow. Great roads, perfect weather (slightly overcast, light, if any, breeze) and all good. I have the mileage dowstairs (Annamaria met me down there and we drove back as close as we could to my route). I think it was about 70 miles. Nice. Felt great. Met some nice bikers on the road. We talked and spun for a while. All good. Afterwards, Annamaria and I went to Sharkeez in Newport -- very cool little beach grub and pub. We went to Huntington for some waves after that (nice) and finished off with an ice cream cone at DQ. Word to the bird. It's now mellow time. I think I'll lay low, watch a flick, listen to the A's try to pull this win out for my present (come on BOYZ!) and that will be that.