Do the distance, and don't cry about it!

Well when I awoke on saturday I didn't have any intentions of going that long. But after an easy 10 mile run I started to feel really good and the weather looked decent. So I decided to load up the bike and head to King City and park at the LA Hearne parking lot and ride to Coalinga. It is 70 miles one way so it would be a long day. I could see a lot of clouds but still didn't look too bad. It has about 10000 feet of climbing so I was thinking 9+ hours to the ride if I didn't stop too much. For the first half I always have to remind my self its going to be a long day and not to go out too hard. There is a fire station not quite half way where I stop to get water. The half way point is at the Clear Creek entrance. I really like this route because there's almost no traffic at all. The weather was real nice when I started out but 2 hours in the ride the temps drop to about 60 deg. I didn't see much wildlife at all, just a lot of cows. I usually see a lot deer and pigs but nothing. After I past the halfway point I started to feel really tired and started to think of turning around. I think if it was any colder I would have. But I kept going. Once I got to Coalinga I felt better knowing I was going to eat some real food before heading back. It was real warm, about 75 deg. Oh it felt so good. When I got to town I decided not to go to the sandwich shop because it takes too long and decided to go to the local grocery store to get a ready made sandwich to go. Well I get in the grociery store it doesnt have shit. No sandwiches, no energy bars. I wasted 15 minuted searching for this stuff. And everybody I ask had no clue where to look. So after wasting 15 minutes I decided to grab a coke and some water and get going. After leaving I still needed some food for the ride back so I had to head farther into town and find some. Well another 20 minutes later, fustrated as hell I'm heading back with some crap food and no lunch. I think next time I will just stop for the sandwich. It took me 4 hours 15 minutes to get to Coalinga so about 4 hour ride time. Pretty good! On my way back I see a couple on moutain Tour bikes heading the East pinnacles and decided to chat a little. I eneded up giving him one of my spare tubes in exchange for some cliff bars. Oh yeah! Some real energy food. Not much to report on the way back. Just hill after hill to grind away. It started to sprinkle on the way back, not much though still bearable. I started to ride harder knowing I was on my way back and pushed the pedals hard. It ended up taking 4 hours and 15 minutes to ride back. A total of 8.5 hours and 140 miles which was real great since it usually takes 9 1/2 hours plus to that ride ride. Well then I headed home to eat the house down.

On Sunday I decided to work out the legs and ended up doing 90 miles. It ended up raing on me for two hours. Got pretty bad for a while. Almost had to call in for some rescue but tuffed it out like a good cyclist. I got home early and just kicked backed to rest. Pretty wiped from yesterday.