Lunch Ride - Irvine Newport CDM Route...Africa Temperature

Strava:  http://app.strava.com/rides/1538415#

GC:  http://connect.garmin.com/activity/112653945


They say what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.  After riding in today's heat, however, death seemed like a more appealing option.  Todd, Noah and Jaffe were also brave and came out in today's heat with me, but feel free to replace "brave" with "crazy" or even downright "stupid" (borrowed from Mitchell).  GC shows the max heat being 102, and that seemed just about right on NPC.

It was nice to see Noah bring his R5 out with his new tubulars on (what a conformist...ha ha). He would have gotten kudos from Mitchell not only because of the new hoops, but the bike looked immaculate as well (what?).

I knew after reading how Todd got blown away by Vin and Jaffe yesterday, Todd was going to see if he felt different today and sure enough took off from the very beginning at a pace not suitable for the heat.  We got separated from Noah and Jaffe for a bit but got to regroup just before the climb up NPC.

On NPC, Todd took off again, and I was just not feeling like climbing.  I'm sure the pizza, frozen yogurt, Mexican Food, Filipino food, Vietnamese food, beers, Reese's, steak, butter toffee peanuts, etc., (just to name a few things) that I ate over the weekend had a lot to do with it.  Noah and Jaffe stayed with me for a while, but Noah probably got bored and went ahead to ride with Todd.  I was gasping for air the whole way up like a big, fat fatty.  10 more rides, and I should be half way back to where I was at last week.

On Pelican, I was trying to setup the first rise (as I always do) and Todd was ahead of me seemingly aware of what I was going to do.  I pulled a Vince or Adrian and broke him off in the climb, but it was short-lived and he reeled me back in by the next light.

We both kept the pace up as we finished down NPC and got on PCH, but I was literally dying on PCH just wanting to be done with the ride already.  We regrouped with Jaffe on Poppy, but Noah had turned around on NPC and decided to do more hills (not a fan of BB).  There was some nice "scenery" as we rode by the beach, and Jaffe called out from behind to focus seemingly aware I was distracted.  My response:  I was!  I think he meant on the ride though.

When we got back on PCH, Todd would take off from the lights with seemingly bad intentions, and it took sprinting to just get back on his wheel.  He led for a bit all the way through the trailer park bike trail and the beginning of BB, but I finally relieved him some time after.  I did notice the gate was closed as Shawn mentioned to us before, so we ended up taking a detour up San Joaquin onto Jamboree.  I saw it as the perfect opportunity to improve my position on the "San Joaquin" kicker section where it seems we need to flag the current leader (a female) who shows a 41.7 mph pace.  Hell, we should even flag Noah as his 18.5 mph pace seems suspicious.  Here's a link if you agree:  http://app.strava.com/segments/633713.

On Jamboree, I tried to setup the duplex but as Steve mentioned previously, it's not ideal trying to get that segment from the bottom.  I had a good pace starting from the bottom where I got past Todd, but blew up just past the Ford/Eastbluff light.  Todd passed me shortly after, and although I can't remember what he said, it might as well have been "ha ha, you idiot."  I lost Todd at the lights on Bison where it looked like the one to cross McArthur just waited for him to get through despite no cars crossing for some time.

Thanks for the Africa-like training session today, guys.

Signed,
Fatty McFatterson