The weight loss has come to a near standstill so last night while I was having some pretzels and wine, I did a little soul searching. I came to the conclusion that the reason the weight loss has come to a standstill is that I'm eating pretzels and wine in bed. DANGIT!!! Why must those tasty nuggets and the fruit of the vine be so delicious! So this morning, I decided to hop back on the bike and hit the SART with a vengeance (SART is Santa Ana River Trail for my newer readers). The photo above is the 17th street bridge on a cold August morning.
The ride on the SART this morning started out pretty normal. I saw my share of homeless guys walking off the rot gut hangover they had from last night. I saw the normal smattering of very large Latina women walking along, clearly on their first and last day of a fitness routine, and I saw the usual 'serious road bike' crowd that patrols the SART. Indeed, everything was as it should be on the SART when all of a sudden, on my left, I heard a man start talking. Out of nowhere, an old guy on a recumbent bike had appeared. It was akin to Kenny Rodgers 'The Gambler' but instead of a chance meeting on a train, it was a dude and his bike. The combo looked like a giant sausage with a head sticking out of it, moving at high speed. The old man, who I will refer to as AriSARTole wasn't even cracking a sweat. AriSARTole was either a very fit old dude, or he was just sitting there, completely encased, with Bridget the Midget pedaling and gargling his marbles all at the same time (fingers crossed that it was the later).
As AriSARTole rode up on his fully encased recumbent bike, he spoke. AriSARTole's words of wisdom were as follows: "So I'm riding down the hill in Malibu, fully loaded like you" (AriSARTole was referring to my bike, Serena, with my fully loaded Topeak MTX explorer dual pannier bag on the back). AriSARTole continued "I'm just riding along and this guy on a roadie comes up like he wants to challenge me. Can you believe that? I've got a full pack on my bike and this roadie wants to race." I asked AriSARTole what happened and he replied "Well, I couldn't help it so I went for it...the roadie lost. I felt bad for that guy because he just doesn't understand, it's not about the speed, it's about the ride" And like that, AriSARTole smiled at me, I heard a click as he changed gears, and then he sped off like a flash. Normally I don't like recumbent bike guy and I don't like old timers, but AriSARTole was cool, and the wisdom he passed on this morning was just what I needed to hear, it ain't how fast you do it, its that you keep doing it. Ride on AriSARTole, ride on.
As a side note, after AriSARTole gave me his words of wisdom, I realized that a guy that much older than me should not ride that much faster than me, regardless of technology. I started feeling a little pissed off and then I saw some plump Emo teenage kid on his bike ahead on the trail so I sped up and passed really close to him on the left just in case there was any doubt who the man is...made me feel better.
Totally unrelated to AriSARTole, but I got to the gym and saw this baby. Whoever rides this rig is OS...Original SART.
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