We got to the Anaheim Amtrak station a bit late due to road signs not properly named.
Unfortunately, a lot of the ride wasn't as enjoyable as I had hoped. I wanted to cruise down to San Diego but not at an average speed of 16.7 mph. Mike wasn't able to do the ride and I was constantly slowing down to wait for him which became frustrating after awhile. I'm in a better mood now but am bummed it took 6:19 to go 105.7 miles. There's no reason it should have taken ME that long. Next time I'll do it with people I'm able to ride with at a faster pace. I can do 80 averaging 20.2 mph. I should certainly be able to do 105 averaging 19 mph.
Mike quit after 80 miles and I continued on the remaining 25. He was hurting after mile 60 but since we couldn't locate the Oceanside train, we latched on with another group and rode to Solana Beach. The last 25 was fun. The Torrey Pines climb at mile 87 was work. If I hadn't already gone 80+ miles it wouldn't have been that big of a deal. Even at the previous slower pace my legs burned ascending. The climb wasn't more than 2 miles at a 5-6% grade. It's the previous miles that made it feel harder. At the top I stopped and talked with a guy and he invited me to join the group ride he was with. They left from the Santa Ana Amtrak and were riding to downtown SD to catch the Amtrak...convenient because that's where I was headed. I figured going with a group that knew where they were going was a sound decision. When we met up with the rest of the group he gave me pineapple and watermelon and a couple of the other people offered too. They had their own SAG stop and boy was it well stocked! I've seen organized rides that pale in comparison. They were all nice and looked at me funny at first because I was sitting around outside their group munching on their food but once we all got riding again those some of them asked where I was riding too, riding from etc. and were totally cool with me tagging along. Really good people. Too bad their group is based far enough away from me that it's not convenient to really ride with them on a regular basis.
Part of the Mike's and my ride portion took us through Camp Pendleton...the Marine Corps base. It was nice being back there. Even if it was just for a pass through. It kind of made me miss my military days. Since Mike was behind me and I had to keep slowing for him here as well, it offered me a chance to reflect on my days as an active duty Marine...gosh...8-12 years ago. I served from '96 - '00. There are just some things that come with being in the service that are never anything you would find in the civilian world. You can find it, but it's just not the same and often words can't accurately describe them. So yeah, I miss it.
Mike did take the train down to SD from Solana Beach so I met up with him and we waited an hour and a half to board the train that would take us to the car in 2 hours. I won't lie, I thought about the what-ifs a few times should there be another train wreck like there was Friday afternoon in Chatsworth.
Only a few more random things to say...I should have worn sunscreen. Just because 1/2 the day is overcast doesn't mean the last half will be. The sunburn will feel terrific in a day or two. The total calorie burn for today's ride came out to be 4961. My average heart rate for the day was 131 bpm. Well below the 155 I wanted it for a long distance ride. Meeting up with the group when I was on my own meant I actually rode at a high heart rate and pace. There were multiple times our sustained pace was 27 mph.
It's 9:21 pm and I think I'm finally ready to hit the sack. Ciao!
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