The Crema and learning the Wahoo

Amber and I rode The Crema today - we hadn't actually sat down to eat there for some time. As the Wahoo did not perform well on the Santa Barbara Easy 200k brevet last week, I decided to take today to play with it a bit.

The weather started out cold with a strong onshore flow. Heavy clouds came in from the North and it looked like it might rain later.

Today is Superbowl Sunday so Huntington Beach hosted their regular Superbowl full and half marathons. This is a bit of a pain because even though they close PCH for the runners, they're still clogging up the beach path so it can get a bit frustrating. We're only supposed to ride at 5mph when there are pedestrians around but, if we did, the pedestrians would be running faster than us!

Somehow while we were eating the clouds went away and the sun came out. It was gorgeous on the way back.

There's no-one around him so I assume that means he's out front!

It seems if you start the Wahoo at the start of the ride, it navigates quite well. It even managed to figure out where we were when we were forced off course for a while by the congested beach path. If you stay off course too long it eventually gets upset and starts sulking and won't recognize when you're back on course. Always take a paper backup!

I'm in the middle of writing a Xamarin app that connects to rwgps and follows the route giving you cues. I've not done any Xamarin programming for a while and it's quite a challenge. I spent at least 4 hours trying to figure out how to get GPS permissions. Right now I'm trying to remember my high school trig classes because all the conversion from degrees to radians to meters is hurting my head. When you have 4000 line segments and a random point, how do you determine which line segment the point is nearest to? Quite tricky. Plus you have to do it on a low-end processor without melting it.

Santa Barbara Easy 200k

PCHRandos hosted the flat Santa Barbara 200k brevet this weekend so Amber and I signed up to get our SR series started. There were 29 riders which is a good turnout considering all the changes we've gone through in the past few months.

Photos by Stacy and Greg Kline.

We started at Mountain Meadows Park in Moorpark just at dawn in cool weather but with perfect day promised. At least it was dry.

At the start with Stacy

When we got near the coast there was some considerable fog. Being experienced randos, most of us had daylight flashing tail lights which probably helped drivers see us a little sooner. The fog misted up my glasses, and others' too. The biggest problem is it got into Amber and my bike computers and stopped them from working for a while. Amber's didn't recover for the entire ride. Probably need to take the battery out to restart it.

Early morning fog

About 25 miles into the ride my rear tube decided to split along the seam. I had made the number one(ish) rando mistake. I had not taken the time to get all my gear into top shape before the start of the rando season. New tires and tubes, new spares, new chain, and some TLC for the bike.

One of the problems with Gatorskin tires is you don't get flats. That doesn't sound like a problem, but eventually your tubes will die of old age and so will your patch kit. I should make a habit of replacing my tires, tubes and flat kit and checking the spare at the start of the year. Perhaps it should be my New Year's Resolution.

Fixing an unnecessary flat

It turns out an insta-patch on my spare had failed (also with age) so the tire went down again ten minutes later. Fortunately Amber had a spare too so I used that. It held air for several hours but I had to pump it up later.

I can't fault the weather on this ride, nor the route itself. It doesn't get much better than this. The vest and legwarmers came off, the sun came out, and the birds started singing just for us (maybe not). We were feeling so good I tried to ride all the way to the turnaround without eating, but after 55 miles I just had to eat half a pro-bar. Still - 64 miles on 200 calories is pretty good.

Headed along the beach in Santa Barbara

Lunch at Sushi a Go Go on Santa Barbara pier

We returned the way we came out except for some minor deviations like this short bike path.

Santa Barbara bike path

I love this new section of bike path just East of Carpinteria.

At the base of the Santa Rosa climb we stopped to use the restroom and grab a few calories.

I have no idea what I was so animated about. I had just chugged a Monster so it could have been anything.

The climb up Santa Rosa was not as arduous as normal, I wish I knew why. We got to the end at Greg's house about 10:05 after we started - not bad for two flats and a group that wasn't in a hurry.

Hamming it up at the end.

We ate well at the end - pizza, cream cake, and more.

Thank you Greg and Lisa

Possible changes to 600k brevet

I had to ride on my own this Sunday because Amber was working and the Klines begged off for some reason. I've been having second thoughts about the third loop of my 600k brevet because of the climbing and navigation issues I thought some riders might have. The Aliso trail is closed at an awkward point which requires an unpleasant detour so I decided to maybe look at a more coastal route. I rode down to the coast on the SART and then headed south on PCH. It was pretty cold when I started.

A cold and largely deserted SART

I used the Crystal Cove bike path which is a lot of fun except for the pedestrians that are too dumb to get out of the way of an oncoming cyclist.

Yes actually, we do own the entire trail!

I feel the traffic through Laguna Beach was bad, even though it was a Sunday, but I enjoyed taking Cliff instead of PCH through this stretch. RWGPS is recommending Gleneyre street through this town and I think that will help a lot.

I had lunch at Jon's Fish Market which I can strongly recommend if you like fish and chips. They're not really chips, but they're not bad either. PCH gets a bit lumpy as you head through this section but overall there isn't too much climbing on this route.

I rode on south to where the trail goes under I5 and then turned around into a headwind. The lumps got lumpier and I slowed down quite a bit. As I had already ridden the section I wanted to test ride, I decided to catch the train back from San Clemente, only to find out after I had paid for my ticket that there were no trains running because of track maintenance.

So I jumped back on the bike, very aware that the gate at Katella would be locked at 6pm, and headed north retracing my route. I don't know if it was the headwind but the return trip seemed far less pleasant with even more traffic. I thought about heading inland at Crown Valley to return on Santiago Canyon but quickly decided I didn't want to do all that climbing.

In the end I got to Katella an hour before the gate closed, and go back to my car in 9:37 which is pretty decent for a solo, fairly hilly 200k.

In previous editions of this route I have taken the riders inland at the San Juan creek trail and then over to the SART at McArthur. I might try that again this year. The proposed route is here. Amber and I will ride just the loop part next weekend to see how it feels.

Unneeded 200k

Amber persuaded me to ride the Four Rivers 200k again yesterday even though I have already exceeded my 10,000 mile target for the year. I guess it's good training for the Cracker Swamp 1200k next year.

It was a chilly 47F when we started at Costco, but clear and with a powerful tailwind as we headed to the coast. How many times have we ridden into a head wind, looking forward to turning around, only to find the promised tailwind never materializes? At least when you start with a tailwind, nature can never take that away from you.

Possibly because of the coolness, the bike path and beach path were less crowded that usual.

SART

Beach path

We ate at The Crema but they had no veggie baguettes. Apparently they only have one person who can make them and they weren't working that day. Amber had a veggie quiche which gave her serious stomach problems later :-(

Even the San Gabrielle trail was very quiet and when the sun came out, it was lovely.

San Gabriel trail

We ate lightly at El Monte and Amber got some Tums from the Shell. She really wanted Ex-Lax but they didn't have any. She only ate half of her pastry and we gave the rest to a pigeon who must have thought it was Christmas all over again. It probably ate until it passed out in a food coma and was easy prey for the next cat that came along. Oh well.

The trails had shown signs of recent flooding but the top of the Rio Hondo, which is prone to extreme flooding was impassable. We should have stayed on Lincoln and rejoined the trail at the dam, but we're too stubborn for that.

Top of the Rio Hondo trail

 We got to Chronic Tacos in good time despite Amber's continuing stomach issues and had cheese quesadillas and coke - the usual.

As we headed back on the SART I realized our late start meant we would have to hustle to get to Katella before the gates were locked at 6pm. Amber was in no condition to pull so I pulled at 18mph with Amber hanging on  my wheel as best she could. We got to Katella at 5:56! We rode the rest of the way at a more manageable 14mph and still recorded a 9:35 time.

We got so lucky with the wind with only 15 miles of headwind into Long Beach (as usual). The rest of the ride was either still or with a tailwind.

Close call

Eight of us set out on Greg and Stacy's Four Rivers 200k brevet on Saturday. Kerin, David Danovsky, Garrett Eves, and Hoang Nguyen took off in a fast group while Greg, Stacy, and I waited for Debra who was running late.

The weather was perfect, with almost no wind and temps in the 50s.

Waiting for Debra

Riding along Huntington Beach bike path it was overcast and calm - perfect.

Stacy is getting very good at selfies

We rode a very gentle 14-15 mph inland to the Shell station at El Monte.

Happy to be halfway

Headed back on the Los Angeles River Trail we didn't have too much headwind and Stacy captured this rather nice weather effect.

Like a scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail

Long Beach Marina - the sun came out

The fast crowd at Chronic Tacos

The slow crowd an hour later

As we were making our way through Marina Pacifica on 2nd, a speeding car span out of control and missed wiping us all out by about 100'. Take a look at the picture below. We all stopped as soon as the accident occurred. Look how close the car came to some of us. It's amazing she missed two cars, five cyclists, and didn't crash through the guardrail into the water below.

Missed me!

The egg salad sandwich I had at the Shell might not have been as fresh as some. I started having stomach cramps about three hours later and had to spend some time in the rest room at the beach. Fortunately we don't have any photographs of that.

Fast group at the end

Greg waiting for someone to do something

10,000 Miles for the Year

I finally passed the 10,000 mile mark for the year, which I've done for several years now. I used to think that was a lot until Shai told me he rode 15,000 miles a year. Damn!

I'm starting to plan for next year. I have two events planned - a week of hiking in England with Amber and the 2020 Crackerswamp 1200k also with Amber. I plan on riding my 200k Four Rivers brevet a lot (assuming RUSA gets its permanent insurance settled) and a flattish Super Randonneur series.

• 1/25/2020 Santa Barbara Easy 200k
• 2/28/2020 Five Rivers 300k pre-ride
• 3/21/2020 Borrego Springs 400k
• 3/28/2020 Triple Loop 600k pre-ride

• 5/20/2020 - 6/2/2020 Hiking in England

• 11/5/2020 - 11/8/2020 Crackerswamp

Stacy's K-hound ride

Stacy and Greg Kline are both going for their K-hound award (10,000km of official RUSA rides) this year. Greg already has his, Stacy got hers on Sunday on my Four Rivers 200k brevet. You pretty much have to ride a 200k brevet every week for a year.

It was a beautiful day - 52F at the start with a high of 65F and almost no wind. The trails were quiet and the sunrise was colorful.

We met at Costco and ride down the SART to the beach. The pass under PCH was flooded so we had to walk our bikes around. A little tricky with cleats.

We were both starving when we got to The Crema

and as we sat outside eating we saw the Batmobile drive by

The recent rains had left some puddles but the mountains were heavy with snow.

We ate light at the 7-11 in El Monte so we were ready for a cheese quesadilla at Chronic Tacos. The usual headwind into Long Beach failed to make an appearance which was good because locomotive Greg was busy scraping barnacles off his (boat's) bottom.

The sun was close to setting as we left Belmont. Not quite as spectacular.

This is what you look like when you have finally finished your K-Hound!