Valentine Ride to the Beach

You might have noticed that there was no post last Saturday. As I mentioned in my last post, I was in Canada "cross-training" in "high altitude". Ok, so I was snowboarding and the mountain wasn't really that high. But I'm sure all that snowboarding helped my bike riding a little bit, right? Right? Whatever.


Though I'm not that big of a fan of Valentine's Day, since Monday is the big V-day and since Darin and I were riding to the beach, I thought it was an appropriate title to describe today's ride. As you can see from the picture above, it was a really beautiful day. It must have been in the upper 70s and sunny. And we rode along Santa Monica Beach for a little bit, stopping only to take some pictures and then in Santa Monica to rest and eat a bagel (with tons of cream cheese).

See us pose? Darin is wearing his green outfit that matches his bike. I decided to mix and match so that it seems like I'm wearing another outfit. And just in case you were wondering, I'm pointing at a paddle boarder. Look how clear the sky is. Gotta love living in socal.

Since it has been pointed out to me that I've actually never taken a photo of myself riding my bike, I had Darin take the above photo. Kind of a weird photo, huh? It looks all warped and I can guarantee that the water was not that wavy.

So riding on a bike for 4 hours, my mind has a tendency to wander. Here's a little example of what goes through my mind:
"6 miles? I can handle this."
"Wow, I'll have to get to 80 miles a day. I can do it."
"I wonder what I should eat after my ride. Pho sounds good"
"Oooh, pretty"
"Woah, there are some crazy drivers out here"
"I wonder what I should blog about today"
"I should blog about some of my thoughts, like..."
"15 miles. Not too bad. Wait, I'm only like 1/3 of the way. Oh dear"
"$3,000. I hope I can raise that much."
"Pho might be too warm for today...Oooh, Chinese food. Yumm!!!"
"I'll be so lean by the time I ride in June. Yessss!!!"
"Oooh, pretty"

Darin still had my phone, so he took this picture of me from behind. I've never seen myself like this from behind. Kinda weird. I never noticed that little red dot on my bike pants before. And I look really different from Darin. But overall, not too shabby. :)

And to end today's post, my post ride meal. I went a little crazy when I ordered food. Delicious!!! And plenty of left overs. Yay!!!

(This picture was taken at dinner time, so I was already eating left overs. Yay!!!)