Day Thirty Eight – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Day Thirty Eight – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Carpenteria to West LA

Daily Brief

As hard as it was to leave our shabby hotel, we felt better on our bikes and even kept up with the cyclists who passed us that thought they were faster. As fast as they were, I think we were stronger, owing to our uphill climbing ability honed on the mountains of Idaho.

The Ride

In the morning, as hard as it was, we left our hotels. The Russ’s, Chris, Chandler and I had been at the best hotel ever. Not exactly the highest quality place, but the right price, it had cigarette stains on the shower curtain and a strange smell in the room. There was a chair in the bathroom and a bright light outside our window that would blaze on any time at night when someone walked by. It made for a memorable experience.

Leaving the shabby hotel behind, we collected at the other hotel where Shaun and his family had been staying. We met up and headed out. After awhile some other bicycle riders passed us. As is our usually style, someone in our group had to try to keep up. Actually, Chris, Russ and I all got behind them and started to draft. There were three of them and initially they moved pretty quick, powering up hills and pushing down the other side. Russ thought that they were trying to lose us, and Chris eventually got too far behind to draft. Once you’re not in the slipstream it can be a pain to catch up, or simply impossible. At the rate these guys were pushing it, it would have been a real challenge. Russ and I stuck with them for awhile, and as fast as they were, they weren’t strong enough to leave us behind when they sprinted up the hills.

As we got into Southern California the scenery changed. Instead of miles of empty coastline and gorgeous views, we hit a steady stream of coastal towns. One town merged into the next, into the next beach, into the next town. Sometimes we were riding in busy coastal downtowns that have sprung up along the route and sometimes there is even more city than that. It made for a little more nervous riding.

Once we hit LA the traffic picked up and there was a sea of cars to our left. As Russ and I were still trailing the fast bicycle riders, we hit the worse road we’ve ever ridden on yet. Going downhill, the roadway was torn up, presumably for construction purposes and it was so rough that it almost shook us off our bikes. Imagine a field made up of softballs all stuck together, and then trying to ride across it at 25 MPH, it would be a similar sensation. As we went down, there were periodic manholes that stuck obtrusively out of the ground, I swerved to miss one that I didn’t notice until the last moment but Russ didn’t. He tried to hop over it but his back tire didn’t clear it and it slammed so hard it popped his tube and messed up his tire. At the bottom of the hill I noticed he was gone and so I went back up the parking lot that mirrored the road and found him there. Soon he was fixing his bike and the rest of the team caught up. We took a short break and continued on our way.

After the break, we found a bicycle path that lead along the beach. We road on a strip of pavement that was situated in a sea of sand, with the ocean to our right, and LA to our left. We then cut back into LA and found where we were going to crash for the night, which was the roof of an apartment building. Not just any apartment building though, the roof of Chris’s sister’s friend’s apartment building. It was actually a really cool set up. They had lawn chairs on the roof and it was just the right temperature at night.

After we found the place we were staying for the night, we did take showers in the apartment and then went to dinner with Brandon (an EB kid) and his family. They paid for the team dinner, which was at a nice little Italian place close to the apartments we were crashing on. Arriving back at the apartment after dinner we talked for awhile with two of the girls who were living there and then retired early at around 10:30 PM.

Even after pushing it today, we weren’t adversely affected. All this cycling has sure made us faster and stronger, not to mention better at riding bikes, although our rears are sure hard.

Daily Stats

Distance: 86.44
Time: 5:03
Avg Speed: 17.1
Max Speed: 39.3

Total distance: 2476.86

P&C Pushups:100+