Century and Half Well Just a Century

[MTBMaven]

My goal for today was to ride a century and a half, starting in Pasadena and riding to San Diego. I took off at 5:00AM from Pasadena heading east on California then Huntington to the San Gabriel River Trail.

I made it to Seal Beach about 7:30AM and Laguna by 9:00AM. I got behind on me calories and water and was starting to feel sluggish by Laguna. I stopped for a Peanut Butter and Banana shake at the little Ruby's shake place. All of a sudden somewhere around Laguna I got a sharp pain in my right knee on the inside of the kneecap. First time with pain on the right knee, strange. I pushed on and it only acted up from time to time, mainly when climbing.

I slowed my pace down through the hills of Laguna to conserve energy for the planned ride to SD. By San Onofre I knew I wasn't going to ride to SD. Catching the 5:00PM train and arriving home at 9:00PM after starting at 5:00AM just didn't sound like a fun off Friday.

Knowing I was throwing in the towel on the 150 mile ride I kicked it up a notch to see if I could complete 100 miles in under 6 hours. I cranked through San Onofre State Beach and down into Pendleton. The guards thought I was nuts. About half way through Pendleton I reached the 100 mile mark in 5 hours 56 minutes, just a hair under 6 hours and 30 minutes faster than I have ever ridden 100 miles.

Honestly I don't attribute my new personal record to any great athletic performance but rather to ~30 mile on the river bed with no traffic lights. Being able to just keep moving really helps with times.

I purchased my ticket for the 2:13 train and headed to the Longboard Cafe in Oceanside. After a great Monterey Club I returned to the train station. After stretching a bit I proceeded to fall asleep in the sun lying on the warm cement of the loading area.

All in all a great day. Still waiting to get in a longer ride though.

[RidetheRAAM4]

good job on the new PR, that always makes for a great day. You can be the slowest guy out there, but if you beat your last PR you always feel like you were kicking some major butt