Steve (Kanga) and I got in a nice 141 mile ride today (well Steve's ride was over 150 as he rode from Eagle Rock to my place in Pasadena). I had to take care of some stuff for grad school at CSULB today so I figured I would turn it into a nice little ride. We met up at my place in Pasadena at 5:30 AM. We headed east on California to Huntington to Foothill to the San Gabriel River Trail. We got to the dam just as it was becoming light. Shortly south of the dam I heard a clicking sound from Steve's bike. Turned out he got a sizable screw in his rear tire resulting in a flat. Luckily someone nicely left a used Gu packet right were we stopped so he used that to boot the tire. As always the coldest spot in LA is right behind the Whittier Narrows Dam. Absolutely freezing. We arrived at CSULB around 8:30 AM. After an espresso and most of my sunflower butter, banana, honey, and dried blueberry sandwich we took care of my school issues and were back on the road. The surf along the coast was pretty cool to look at. Traffic was light on the roads and the bike path. Our pace was relaxed but we kept it constant. Well except for all the bathroom breaks, which were every few miles between the two of us. We finally warmed up a bit along the cost and I pealed off my vest and lowered my arm warmers. I was surprised I needed to keep them on for so long. Because of the big surf we decided to take a detour to The Wedge to see if anything was going on. Turns out it's a ways down there. And then to find out the ocean was flat as a lake. Oh well, extra miles are always nice. We got down to Laguna pretty quickly after New Port. The goal was to reach the Orange Inn Cafe in Laguna before heading home. We met up with my good buddy Krisztian (Bergsteiger) and his super cute son Max. I enjoyed a banana, pinapple, and coconut shake, chocolate milk, and a side of breakfast potatoes. Mmm good. The Orange Inn Cafe rocks! It's on PCH and Cielo (SP?) just south of the main beach. We returned the same route. Things were going pretty smoothly until my left knee started hurting. I ended up needing to baby the knee rest of the ride home (which was about 60ish miles at that point). Luckily two Advil helped and I was able to pull for a while and do my part. We decided to take a short cut home via Rio Hondo Trail to Rosemead. This saves close to 15 miles of the return route. Unfortunately Steve had another flat at Rosemead and Valley. Great day. This route has lots of nice long sections with no interruptions allowing one to spin for hours. Steve took lots of photos and will hopefully post them here. Thanks for reading my epic post.
you starting to have knee issues too? My right knee was killing me after the 200K brevet. IT band syndrome.
My pain is on the lower inside portion of the knee. I am wondering if those Spec footbeds might help. I found that if I kept pressure on the outside of my foot the pain would go away. As soon as my stroke got sloppy and I put pressure on the ball of my foot my knee would start to come inward and the pain would return. Something to research.
Here are some photos from Friday. First light behind Santa Fe Springs Dam: Steve's tire got screwed badly: The tire had been in there for 5 years and was practically glued to the tire: The bike path goes under a few railroad tracks. This one is rather active yet I have only been able to go under it with a train crossing overhead once before. I have seen trains in the distance but always just miss them. We timed it perfectly yesterday and passed underneath with a train cross both direction! I was quite happy. It's is a very cool experience to be a few feet under a train barreling down the tracks. Cruising along the beach in Bolsa Chica watching the big waves Photo shoot at the Wedge Getting the liquid fuels prepared for the ride back after eating some good solid food. Heading back up the river trail home Twas a good day!
nice ride report....THANKS!!! i have ridin' the riverbed quite a bit after rain and i usually have to deal with mud and quite a bit of bird guano on those rides....you guys look like you have a pretty clean and smooth ride (besides kanga's flats)... also, if weight on the outside of your soles is what you want/need....get the specialized footbeds or shoes....i have the pro mtb shoes and they do exactly this.