8(0) mile

On Saturday, I rode 80 miles (well, 77.76) with my dad--the last big training ride before Solvang, which is only 20 miles and change more than that. We rode thru Brentwood to the ocean, all the way past Santa Monica, Venice, Playa del Rey, Redondo, El Segundo, Manhattan and Hermosa Beaches, and Torrance to hilly Rancho Palos Verdes, and traced pretty much the exact same route back.

One of the things that was most difficult for me from the ride was hunger. We left at 6:00 am without eating anything; the ride, which lasted about 5 hours, naturally consumed all of my energy. My muscles were in shape enough to keep going, but by the end, I just felt generally hungry and exhausted throughout my whole body. On the Solvang ride, there are designated rest areas with food/water I believe and around mile 60 or so I'll plan to stop to refuel. For the trip up to SF, the only time crunch I'll be under is the sun, so I'll have more of a flexible schedule to eat a big lunch in the middle of the day (followed by a short siesta to digest) and/or stop at various points to enjoy the scenery and eat snacks. I anticipate apples, bread, granola or Cliff bars will do the trick.

Riding schedule for the rest of the week:
Today: rest day
Tues: 45 miles w/loaded Ibex
Wed: 30 miles w/loaded Ibex
Thu: easy 20 miles
Fri: rest
Sat: Solvang 100+ miles (see route and elevation maps below)
Sun: embark to SF!

I should have all my gear by tomorrow (I'm basically only waiting for the tent to arrive), which means on Wed., after a trip to Target, I'll start packing everything up and decide what's essential, useful and superfluous in order to make some cuts to keep the weight down.






One more thing: I found out today that I was not accepted to Berkeley Law (which is, was, my top choice). That means I'll only have UC Hastings to check out in SF, besides Stanford, but today's news doesn't make that option so plausible either. On the bright side, I will have more time to hang out in SF.