Wet limp noodle 5.20 and Final training ride :( , :)??

Ahh followers.  Reading an out of order blog, lets say we left off at 5.19.12 at the end of the century ride.  My century, not the end of year 1999.  So Saturday was my fun and awesome century ride and I was beat, tired, hungry, and a little bitchy.  I was in a rush since I had plans that night to go to the Padres game with friends and needing to go and quick!  So Saturday night I went to the baseball game and got into a moment with a very important person in my life.  The moment and associated is for the pen and paper as I still respect anonymity towards those in this blog I blog about.  But..... I hurt someone; hurt their feelings, gave them my emotions, all the negative ones since I was so damn hungry for a hotdog and all I could think about was the damn hotdog.  So needless to say, yet again, this ride is screwing with my world.  I was pre-warned by close friends that this journey screws with your emotions and it can be hard at times to navigate.  True true. 

This was the most emotional ride for me.

It was a true noodle ride just 30 miles around flat areas.  I woke up, grabbed my bike, reluctantly, and went out.  David greeted me with the warmest of hugs and reminded me that this is the process. Is there truly a process to this I ask.  Is this emotional roller coaster part of the journey.  He says," just wait for it.  This is nothing".  Wait till your on the ride (oh great).  We peddle out.

We do a small lovely loop around the bay, my first time on this path.  Quite lovely.  I want to do this again after the ride with my Friends and boyfriend as it was an easy gentle path and perfect for getting others out on the road.

Then we go up the coast along sunset cliffs.  For those of you unfamiliar, this is a cliff area of San Diego along the Pacific that is just beautiful, quiet and Zen.  OK, here it is, Zen.  I let all the others pass me and I am alone.  I am watching the ocean, the waves crash around me. Seeing the birds, people, dogs enjoying their day.  I see the riders ahead of me.  I was alone, but I also felt alone.  I was  with friends, but I was beat.  Physically, my body is tired, I am tired, emotionally I am in a blender of emotions, all being jostled as I go through the day.  So I release it all.  Dad, I am in this moment.  Right here right now.  This is my moment, accept it, feel it and let it be.  Succumb to this present nano second in time.  I stop at the end of the road and take the pic below.

I sat there; David, Eric, Carin and Suzi are around.  I am leaning against the railing and see the waves crashing against the rocks.  It hits me.  I am alone and yet not alone at the same time.  I lost it.  Started crying.  I miss Ricardo. I cried for the ride. I cried for my body. I cried for my relationships with my friends, boyfriend, family. I cried for me. I cried for all those who walk the lonely path of living with HIV or who have been lost to it.  And seeing this single path staircase going to the ocean just reminded me of how I am walking a single path to a tumultuous ocean of my emotions.  And it scared me.  This is so much bigger than me.  How can I be a hero.  I can barely take care of myself.  I just got completely lost in emotion and did not know what to do with it.  So I cried.  I let it all out and had the ocean full of its calmness and currents take my tears.

It was then that I feel two hands on my back.  Suzi and Carin.  Just a gentle touch to say I am here.  It was the most welcome touch.  Suzi has some tears in her eyes. Carin strokes my back.  They get it.  They tell me that yes, you can fell so alone and not be alone all at once.  In the process of them comforting me, I loose my balance in my high toed backwards heels (cycling shoes) and start to go over said railing.  I laugh.  David says just throw him over.  It was awesome.  I needed the warmth of a human touch and the slap from a friend to say buck up, lets peddle.  Both were equally welcomed and needed.  So we do. 



I get my emotions back in line and we peddle.  I ride with David and it is nice.  David, the first person to really say hello from ALC and get me excited about the ride. David, whom I almost killed on our Century in February (not literally).  David and I started and are ending this training together.  I welcomed having him with me.  We chat, we bitch, we laugh, we are just bull shitting down the roads of San Diego on one of our last training rides, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.  We get to the end of the route and part ways. 

Long work week and then the final training ride, 5.26.  So here is the scoop.  I don't really recall this ride, yet it was less than a week ago.  Here is what I do recall.  It was perfect.  Exactly the right millage, hills and intensity.  We had a nice steep down hill. New roads. Familiar roads. Torrey (of course).  I started solo and after rest stop one, met up with Tammy and finished with her.  It was just a pleasant ride all around and really just quite and peaceful emotions and body.  Tammy and I did do the inside of Torrey (my first time!!!!) which was fun and steep.  Well worth it though.  Yeah, I'm ready!  This is it.  I am going to ride to save lives.  This moment is happening.   And I feel like I am in such a good place!  I needed that crazy emotional weekend.  I think it got it out of me to focus on getting ready for this journey.  Tammy, thank you for being such a great ride partner.  I enjoy your company and talks.  Super fun to close it all out (the training that is) with you by my side.

Spent the rest of the weekend with friends and Jose.  It was nice.  An excellent weekend to just be, have fun and enjoy the company of those that mean so much to me.

Till next time,
Keep peddling!

5.12.12 Mission Bay to Rancho Santa Fe and 5.13 recovery??

So followers, the last of my training ride blogs before I ride out.  Here is the catch. I don't remember the rides!!  After our Rancho Santa Fe ride on 5.12 (remember, the blog dates are out of order right now :)) I left my self a voice message at work with the details, intending to report back during a lunch break from work.  Well work has a 14 day cap on messages and it is now lost forever as it was automatically deleted.  But that also says something for how much of a whirlwind my last few weeks have been.  So with that said, I will recap the moments I remember and move on to last Sundays in a blog later today.

on 5.12.12 we went for a 80 mile ride starting in Mission Bay.  UP the coast we go (no, cant post the garmin link, garmin is acting up :() up through Rancho Santa Fe.  Romi and I pretty much did this entire ride together.  It was super fun.  Romi has the same pace as me and we kept each other entertained.  The moment of moments was when Romi and I got moderately lost.  We pull over, find our way and turn around.  Well Romi, fell over.  Hilarious!!! She just ate shit trying to peddle in a circle.  She was fine.  But I remember the look on her face as she went down.  She knew she had no where to go, so she released, smiled and fell over.  We laughed hard together.

The ride up and through Rancho Santa Fe, Escondido and down the beach was nice.  Very quiet day, the smells were overwhelmingly beautiful. Fragrant flowers, campfires, toasted marshmallows, pine, spring time smells.  So delightful.  No Zen, Will report on that in my final blog post tomorrow, but overall a great ride.

We do Torrey Pines hill where I had my moment.  I rode into the hill.  Yup.  Just started veering right.  Went straight into the hill.  Again, hilarious!!!  And I am glad a new friend was there to witness it and laugh at me, and with me :)

Here is a pic from that day.  I love it as it has all our bikes and a fantastic red ribbon jersey!



OK.  So Sunday, we go on a recovery ride.  Something to keep the muscles in gear and keep us in the saddle.  "Alright Team San Diego, here is an easy 30 mile ride".  Lets do it.  Since when does an easy ride include hills??!!  Great ride, but difficult.  We start in Mission Bay and go uphill towards Soledad.  Is this me finding Jesus again?  Not sure, but it is a hell of a ride up a big hill.  We get to the top, I may have said a little prayer "lord, save my legs" at the base of the controversial and then down to La Jolla.  Again, this ride details are lost in the abyss of voicemail land as the notes were deleted.  But I do remember the down hill being SWEET!!  Super fast and fun.  A little ride through La Jolla and then up Scripps road hill.  This hill was TOUGH!!! Tough!!!!! NO joke, it was tough.  I wanted to quit.  A shout out to Jen though who was in front of me.  We rode up the hill and slowly just kept peddling.  At one point I say "Jen this is tough".  She said I know, but we can do it.  Just them three Italian guys pass by who were participating in that days triathlon.  They passed us, slowly, they were taking it easy I am sure.  But it hit Jen and I.  One, they were cute and gave her and I motivation to peddle faster (just kidding, a little) but two, we are biking next to true athletes.  Awesome!!  Wait a minute, that means..... were athletes.  Damn Jen, lets take on this hill.  This is easy.  We are doing it.  We are athletes!!!!  We get to the top of that hill, but not before having dirty thoughts about food.  Yes, Jen said it best.  "I am having pornographic thoughts about food right now".  When you exert that much, all you can think of is that juicy steak with melted blue cheese on top.  So juicy and so good (I got that steak Memorial day Monday with Jose!!! A Sizzler pit stop) and it was good!  Off to Encinitas, quick pit stop, turn around, up Torrey (is this ride over??) and back home.  It was a great ride.  Difficult, but well worth it.

Well Followers, one more blog post, then off to finish packing and shopping.  Tonight, my final blog and then I ride.  TTYL

Until next time,
Keep Peddling!

Century

I apologize that I have not posted like I said I would.  Needless to say, this has been so busy as the ride is JUST AROUND THE CORNER!!!!  Yikes!  I am so excited.  I will post over the weekend about my feelings over the past week on what is going on in this pretty little head of mine.  Till then, here is a backwards post.  What is a backwards post.  Well I am posting about my rides from last weekend first as they are fresh in my mind and then I will post tomorrow about the rides from the weekend before, hence a backwards post :)

Saturday 5.19, Century!!  My second, other fellow riders first!  And here is how it went down.  I was sleepy in the morning, didn't get much sleep.  But it was the anxiousness of a ride and a long day ahead of me that kept me up through the night.  So I wake, prep and go for a 630 call time.  Little warm up stretch and then we are off.  Mile 0 of 0.

 So here is how the ride went down.  It was not much.  It was a great route, but to be honest, it was not much.  I don't recall ever having a Zen moment, or moment of quiet.  It was just a ride.  Albeit fun.  I rode the first part with Romi and David and had fun.  They were great to talk with and we enjoyed each others company.  The first 26 miles were rather uneventful.  But again, I love being on my bike.  WAIT!!!! I almost forgot.  I used one of my 9 lives.  I cant believe I forgot this.  We were crossing Grand on a green light.  The red light stopped people have a right hand yielded turn lane.  It was clear so I went, when I looked to my right, I saw a car quickly slowing down, it caught me off guard, but did not scare me.  Well all those behind me were saying that it was much closer than I realized.  Apparently douche bag was not slowing down and literally came super close to Tboning me.  I had no idea.  They told me I truly used one of my 9 lives.  So thankful that I was not hit, and thankful that had he hit me I wouldn't have seen it coming.....  Odd thought, but I would rather not know than to see it coming.

 So we are in Carlsbad and need to get to Oceanside to make our way inland.  This was my first ride in Oside.  It was kinda cool when we got to the pier to realize that I just rode my ass from Mission Bay to Oceanside!!  Wow.  Crazy!!  You can barely make out the pier in the pic below.  I will tell you this followers, I am damn lucky to live in San Diego and near the beach.  It is quite lovely to ride near the ocean and get lost in the waves as they come in and out and just take you away (more on that soon....)

The route inland was nice.  It was a wonderful bike path that was 8 or so miles and running against the 78 I believe.  Very quiet.  So I sorta hit Zen here.  I was by myself.  And there were lots of birds and they were singing.  So I just felt the moment and relaxed in the songs of the birds, the quiet of a narrow winding path, and enjoyed my moment.  And yes, I took pics while riding.... but I felt safe doing so. :)

OK. The rest stops are far between and I am hungry!!  And craving salt.  Luckily there was an optional water/bathroom stop at McDonald's in Vista.  So I ordered fries.  SALT!!!!! GIVE ME SALT!!!!!!  Others joined suit either with fries or burgers.  Keep in mind folks, that you burn about 50 calories a mile.  So a hundred mile ride = 5000 or so calories burned.  Luckily, I ate a whole bunch the day before and drank tons of water.  However, I still needed salt so we dined.  Also, Romi and I had caught up with each other on this leg.  We lost each other for a bit on the bike path.  She was hurting this day taking more time to ride.  It was nice to have her with me.  While going through Oside, I rode past my ex's house, son of a bitch. And it brought back some rather rough and hard memories, son of a bitch.  He was an awesome man, so I thought at the time, but son of a bitch, he hurt me so bad and I was kind of glad to ride by his house.  I have no idea if he still lives there, but he held me back in life (pen and paper, where are you....) and to show up in his area and think, damn straight, I am stronger, better and in the most amazing spot in my life, fuck you, felt good and so petty of me all at once.  I digress, and to be honest, it was a small moment, one which I have already released (I actually released it 5 minutes after i thought it that day). But Oside does not bring back the best of memories, but thanks to Oside and son of a bitch, I must acknowledge them for they did shape through experiences, both good and bad, whom I am today.  But only a little :)  I am the man I am today through my amazing friends, family, and awesome relationships I have in my life.  Oh and a pretty fantastic dame who keeps me rolling, Blanch. (pen and paper, this will all make sense to you once you put this and those words together). And it was nice to have Romi there with me for the quick vent I needed.

Mile 62, Chipotle in Escondido!  Enough said.  Give me my food!!!!

So now a stretch from Escondido, through Rancho Santa Fe (good lord, smelled so fragrant and beautiful) and back to the ocean.  There were quite a few bikers on this stretch, including a jerk of a biker who was a newbie. Yes, I was just there in October, but I would realize I was slow, nervous and not experienced so I tried to be out of the way of the experienced riders (by no means am I pro right now). But some dude was just taking up all of the narrow roads of RSF.  He was bothering the car drivers, other bikers and me.  I only throw this in here to remind me that I cant ever get cocky of riding and to know that others are behind me and to be considerate of those better than me and also those less experienced causing a hazard to themselves and others.

Also, I waited for Romi.  I was about three or so minutes ahead of her, but I was also solo as I was in the back of my little pack.  I realized then how glad I was to have David and Logan with me on my first century and what it meant to have them push me and cross the finish line with me.  So Romi, I will wait, check Facebook :) and lets peddle together.  No one should ride solo, especially on a century!  Quick pit stop at mile 80 and off for the home stretch!

Lets tackle Torrey hill at mile 80 then smooth sailing to Mission Bay.  Well, we got to Mission Bay at mile 96, but we did not want to do Fiesta so we rode to SeaWorld and back to tag on the extra 4 miles.  Then BAM! 100 miles!  Where is the fanfare........  Well it wasn't like my first century, where there were cheering strangers and a balloon finish line, but Romi and I did it together, with our ALC family and that was just as well.

Blanch, thanks again for another 100 miles.  You are the best!  Thanks Romi for being great ride company, and also life sorter outer. Thanks Torrey for making me realize that even at mile 80, I don't need my granny gear for you :)

Followers, I must sleep. Early day tomorrow.  This weekend is not over.  I have my noodle ride to tell you about and my melt down moment :(

Keep peddling!

Fundraiser Pics!

Two pics I forgot to include from the fundraiser!  The first, some of the wonderful gifts I was able to give out that night!!  The one after, me and all the cash, about $500 dollars I raised that night with some random guy behind me!!

In loving memory, Ricardo

Followers. Here it is again. Weeks go by without a post.  A quick update to last week sans the weekend ride.  Those will come later today or Sunday.  Last week was once again a long week at work.  Not having an Assistant Supervisor is starting to wear on me.  I am tasked to much and am being held underwater by my job.  However, I leave work and don't bring it home with me and for as much as I let others including my team down for not being able to keep up, I do the best I can and unlike Holiday install, am remembering my priorities in life and keeping my life aligned to be the best life it can be.  Work is great, and I do like my job, but in the end, the job provides me the money to do the things I love and be with those I love.  So job, thanks, but we need to rectify this soon as I go home too sleepy and lack energy.  Soon though, I will have a week disconnect as I take the ride of a lifetime :)

Thursday of last week, I went and watched a docuseries of ALC, the ride.  Great documentary of the ride, a 6 part series.  I was with 1 year veterans and also newbies.  I will say this.  I was in a pissy place that day due to a meeting at work (not to be mentioned here but for pen and paper) and may not have been in the right frame of mind to watch the movie.  I actually found myself getting frustrated with fellow viewers as I thought, just watch the video, don't want to hear your account of the ride and just let me be in peace.  Yeah, I was in a pissy place :(  But after a few episodes in I found one person I was drawn to. Cher.  She lost her father 12 years prior to the ride (this was ALC 4 I believe) and though she never forgot that she lost her dad to AIDS, she never embraced his death and that it was from AIDS until she did the ride.  I can say I did the same.  Ricardo was not a bestie, we weren't even super close.  He was my mentor, and he knew that.  I was dedicated to him, his classes and he saw my future as a dancer.  He started to take me under his wing and offered to start placing me in pieces he produced with his company.  I am not sure what he saw in me, but he was willing to take the chance on me and support and mold me :)  He was a wonderful man. Yes, I guess he was a friend.  So he passed.  I had a hard time with it then.  I had never known someone who had passed from HIV.  So it was hard.  Since his passing, I have met, befriended, lost acquaintances, had close friends be impacted by HIV.  It is a reality and I live my realities in the moment.  So though I have not forgot that HIV is out there and still claiming lives, it is not at the forefront of my mind.  So Cher was in the same place.  Doing the ride, she celebrated her dad, his partner and I dare say his HIV/AIDS.  Not celebrated that he had AIDS, but acknowledged its existence.  She was remembering all that her dad was, which included his disease he was enduring until his death.  That hit me hard.  It reminded me that I started to ride to do something bigger than I, but also for Ricardo.  I am celebrating Ricardo with this ride!  Celebrating his life, his dancing, and remembering that he had a disease.  And I cant remain silent (Suzi, thanks for the mid movie speech, it helped click for me again). Also, Cher was recognizing that her husband was not getting it.  And whats weird is that through all the support I am getting from all my friends, family and loved ones, very few are getting it in the way that I am.  And this is not disrespectful to them.  I have the BEST group of people in my life.  But this ride has a personal journey, which I, a few fellow riders and a handful of non riders are understanding what it truly means.  So in a weird way, part of this ride feels lonely.  I am sure on the ride it will feel like a family, but right now, it does feel a hair lonely.  Does this make sense?  I guess that we do things in life for our own reasons, and though the global message of what this ride is and means, I think that being knee deep in its training, preparations, tears, highs and lows, one truly cannot have the full embraced experience until you do it.  Man, I cant wait to see how many tears I will shed on the actual journey.....

Alright, I am on a tangent. This is word vomit to get out in one fell swoop.  In closing.  Followers, thank you for reading.  Thank you for supporting.  I have had personal talks with each of you about this ride and I appreciate your support and interest.  If these next couple of weeks I get funky, just slap me :)  No really.  I think I am coming to terms with a lot in my life, including becoming more of a man than I ever was.  This ride is a solo ride, but I have all of you in my corner cheering me on, and please, when you cheer me on, give a shout out to Ricardo Peralta.  Give a shout out to those you are close to living with HIV or any disease.  Remember, silence=death.  HIV exists.  This is a ride about education and prevention and support for those living with this disease.  That is the primary reason for this ride.  Please don't forget that. I have a couple times during the training....

And Ricardo, I will never forget.

Elves and Gods and Witches, Oh My!

Followers!  How was this week??  Fairly good.  Still beat.  Tired from work and a never ending schedule.  Lots of late nights at work.  Working out with Manny. Date nights. Friend nights. My life is full.

Work is not so bad, but it is wearing on me.  And through that it does affect my ride.  How?  Well, I am tired a lot and stressed at work so that stress translates to my body tensing and being pooped.  However, work pays me to do what I love.  And it supports the fun things I get to do in life.  (Last week I went on a date night to see Totem.  Seeing that show reminds me of why I love my job at SW). And SW gives me the money to keep Blanch in good working order.  So, here are a few notes about work.  Though it is stressful, they gave me tickets to raffle off for my fundraiser party this coming Friday!  And I got to be in the construction area while they were running cars on Manta, that was really really cool!!  Oh yeah, and I work on the water and take boat rides to a performance venue.  How fun is it to enjoy beautiful San Diego weather on the water with rouge Sea Lions pooping in and out and around.  However, right now as I proof my blog before publishing, I feel like there is an earthquake as thousands of Los Tigres Del Norte fans pound thier feet on the staidum floor (my office is under a stadium in our concrete bunker we refer to as the "cave").  Still cool though, free concert music while I work (though I am not a fan of Mariachis). :)

The tickets SW gave me to raffle off.

Manta!

The boat ride from Viva to the office.

My week was great!  I had a few good workouts with Manny.  We moved on from barbells and weighted machines to free weights and dumbbells.  Big difference!  But I am feeling great!!  And I enjoy our hour or so together three/four days a week.  He is a great friend and I enjoy the time we spend together.

I also had a nice week with Jose.  We had movie night to catch me up with Captain America and Thor so we could go to a midnight showing of Avengers the next night.  Avengers was soooo good!  Go see it.  You will love it.  We also had a couple of nice date nights.  Followers, I am dating a pretty fantastic man.  I am pretty lucky to have him in my life and I enjoy the moments together that we have.  Including all the hot moments.  No really. I was his tester to try out his habanero salsa.  My tongue was on fire, but the salsa was delicious! And word to the wise, wash your hands from the oil before peeing! :)

Saturday Morning.  Time for Elves and Witches and Gods, Oh My!!  Early morning and it took a lot to get out the door.  David surprised me with an egg McMuffin, just what I needed to start my day.  We prep, get ready and ride out.  We are all fairly close to the start of the pack.  We start in UTC and wind up in Rancho Santa Fe.  Narrow windy roads that you can get some good speed on.  I am leading a small pack of people.  It is nice and beautiful.  Logan is right behind me.  I look back twice and see him both times.  The next time I look though, he is gone.  Hmmm, he must have slowed down.  I get to a long stretch and look behind me.  No one is behind me.  Maybe I missed a turn.  Well, keep going because your route map is matching the street names.  I get to Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (love CBTL!!) and get a coffee.  Where is everyone.  Well, here they come.  Minus Logan.  Turns out that Logan hit the side of the road and went over his handle bars.  He was fine, but I never even heard him scream.  He was cut up and a passerby brought him and his bike in (very nice of the stranger).  Logan is out for the rest of the ride today.  I am glad to say he is OK as of today (Sunday). So now we take off again.  We start uphill and a few others take off.  It is just David and I so we pull over and wait for Tammy.  The three of us keep similar pace and it was great to ride with them.  We rode through Elfin Forest (MY FAVORITE!!) and laughed the entire time.  I had a blast.  We talked and BS'd and just enjoyed each others company and time together.  We get to Wendy's for a lunch break.  I set my food outside and stupidly walked inside for a fork, low and behold a crow stole my chicken nuggets!!  Oh well, they were only 1.50 so I just got some more.  Ironically enough, a bird shit on me later on; is this a bad bird day??  Off we go for the three witches.  The three witches are three small hills with the same elevation as Torrey but with some flat places for recovery.  We plowed through them easy peasy, Tammy, David and I, laughing the entire time.  I had such a great time riding with them.

Quick pee and water stop and we are off again on SR 56 bike path.  That is such a nice little bike path.  I rather enjoy it.  It goes through some nice tree and old farm land of San Diego.  It was tranquil, again, just Tammy, David and I laughing the entire way.  So much fun!!

Then the infamous Torrey.  I took it on the best I could and I must say I was pretty damn proud of myself.  I took it on with hardly any issues. Never used my granny gear so that was nice.  I just rode, and peddled, and said good god quite a few times (I can only assume that this is the god portion of the ride title).  It was a quick ride up and now for the final stretch back to UTC.  The ride was 68 miles and 4250 elevation gain.  It was one of the more fun rides I have done to date.  Definitely in my top three.  Good fun times with some great people.  Suzi rocks for planning out a great route with just the right amount of everything.  Thanks Suzi!!  And I really am liking Suzi.  She is such a good motivator and you know she fully understands why we ride.  Her heart is in this for those that we help and I am lucky to have met such a kind person with a big heart :) 

David, Tammy and I (the guy who took this picture cracked me up as he eluded to the rather interesting position Tammy was in. Cool guy off the side of the road :))

I got home and showered and changed (I was filthy!!). I went over to Jose's for Carnitas!  They were great.  Lots of good friends and good food.  We all kicked back a few beers and ate some good food and enjoyed the night.

Now followers, a confession. No more drinking for me till this ride is over.  I was BEAT yesterday and could not maintain my alcohol.  I think the exhaustion, calorie depletion and overall tiredness of my body got me really drunk really quick.  And you know what, I made a complete and total ass of myself last night.  I am truly sorry for my actions and behavior last night and am upset with myself for some of the things I said.  I needed a beer and wanted to relax and have a fun time.  And I did.  The party was great.  I just let my mouth go and unfortunately, had one too many drinks for that release.  So to you, follower, I am sorry and want to apologize for my dumbass.  You are one of the best things in my life and I was a fool.

Today, being hungover, I take a day off from riding.  I take a moment at home with myself to reflect on my life and what is important to me.  This ride, my family, my friends and my relationships are most important and will not be sacrificed or neglected to each other or work.  It is a balancing act and I am the tight rope walker at the top making sure I keep balanced.  Tao, Zen, keep me at peace and present.  We have our bumps and today is a bump.  But I now have a clean house, organized home life, personal items prioritized for tomorrow to tackle and a nice humble kick in the ass.

Followers, this is hard.  This ride, the time commitment, the toll this is taking on my body.  And for what.  Why am I doing this to myself and pushing so hard, sometimes at the sake of relationships, friends, work, etc.  I am not sure.  I am the happiest I have ever been.  I miss my friends whom I cant see due to me working out and training.  I miss my family whom phone calls are short with so I can ride off.  I look forward to when I have time again.  But you know what.  I wouldn't change this for anything.  I am saving lives, and if it displaces me for a little bit to be part of the greater good of what this ride is.  So be it.  I would not change this for the world.  I will change some of my time commitments, priorities and focus on relationships (all of them).  But followers, thank you for being there for me and being part of this adventure!


Till next time,
Keep Peddling!!

Everyday Counts

Sunday, April 29th.  I was to go out on a ride, Up the Coast.  It was a ride Tammy was leading with Sean and was going to be fun.  However, I slept in and it was much needed.  My body just said no.  So I slept in and appreciated every moment of it.  A little breakfast and some time with Jose and I am off to my home.  However, I still needed to ride, right??  YES!!  The ride is in a month.  I need saddle time.  A few weeks prior, I had rode from Santee and Sportsplex to my house on a ALC training ride.  Jose plays his softball games there so I thought, why not ride there and see him play then ride back.  I am glad I did.  It was a great ride!!  I went up Mission Gorge Road which is a big hill.  BIG hill!  And my legs were on fire!!  My legs have been cramping and acting up all the time recently.  So going up the hill, I was beat up.  But what goes up must go down right??  Yup, 7% grade for roughly a mile.  And it was sweet!  I clocked 45 MPH!  Woo hoo!  A short ride further in and I am at Sportsplex to cheer on Hitmen!  The games were fun and it was nice to spend time outside and enjoy a softball game and get to know some of the Hitmen better :)

Games over. Time to head home.  I am not taking Mission Gorge Road hill again and will instead take the flat route through Mission Trails Regional Park.  I get to the base of the hill and the road through the park.  And what do I do??  I take the hill :)  Hey, I need to train and there are hills on ALC.  And I wanted to push myself.  So I did.  Up then down, though the down on the other side is not as intense.  Still a fun downhill though!  I get to Kensignton and see I am only at 25 miles.  I need more so I opt to do an additional 5 miles and go through Kensignton.  I am glad I did.  It was nice.  Also, I found a cute house with this sign out front.  Everyday counts.  What an awesome quote to come across.  It is so true.  Every day in life, this ride, training counts.  And everyday counts for those who are benefiting from the funds raised from this ride.  That one little moment in Kensignton reminded me again of why I ride.  For me, my body, my birthday gift to myself.  But to ride for Ricardo who celebrated everyday. So followers, everyday counts.  What are you doing today to make that quote a reality for you??

The house with the sign

 Till next time!

Peddle on!