200 Ways to Say, “Hell to the No!” – Part 2: The Whale Edition

DAY 2

When I woke up the following day in Santa Barbara, my knee was still really bothering me and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to ride.  It was possible I had pulled something or that my knee was overworked from riding so hard in the wind.  Either way, I was concerned.  Apryl, one of the volunteer massage therapists helping riders with stretches and adjustments, worked on me a bit and I think it helped.  I decided to ride, mostly because I really wanted to complete this trip.  I think it would have devastated me to not finish.  Besides, I knew that AIDS/LifeCycle was around the corner and I really wanted to get in a substantial back-to-back ride in my training before June.  So I rode.

The first 10 miles of the ride was painful so I was riding really slow.  My knee was not a happy camper and I rode harder with my left leg to compensate.  We tried to take off right away so we’d be in the front or middle of the pack, but because I couldn’t go very fast, other riders started passing us one by one and we quickly fell behind toward the end of the pack.  Sam was kind enough to stay at my pace all day long so I didn’t have to ride alone.  We eventually made it to Pit Stop 1 on Old Rincon Highway, which seemed like it took forever because I was struggling.

We were worried about a repeat with the wind.  According to the weather report, we were supposed to face more headwind, this time coming at us from the south.  The weather report was right.  There was wind, but it wasn’t as bad as the day before.  I mean, seriously, nothing could ever be as bad as the day before!!  The sun was also out, so it was a pretty nice day.  It started getting hotter later in the day, so perhaps it was good that the wind was there to help balance out the heat.  One thing’s for sure, it was a beautiful sight to ride down the coast.  Sam and I live further inland, so we don’t venture out to the coast much.  And even if we did, it’s hit or miss what the ocean would be like.  But on this occasion, the sky was clear and the ocean was actually blue.  It was absolutely spectacular!

At one point on PCH just north of Malibu, we saw a bunch of riders stopped on the side of the road ahead of us.  Usually, when riders are on the side of the road, it’s because someone got a flat tire or needed a break.  Neither was the case this time.  When we caught up with the riders, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that they were watching whales in the ocean.  That’s right, WHALES!!  We counted perhaps three or four whales AND there were dolphins too.  They were swimming and playing close to the rocky shore, so we got a pretty good view of them.  It was amazing to see them.  I’ve seen dolphins and whales at animal parks before, but never in the ocean.  This was my first time and it was such a treat.  Seeing them made up for all the crazy wind and my knee pain.

Speaking of my knee, surprisingly, it wasn’t bothering me as much in the middle of the day.  Riding on flat land wasn’t as big of a problem as climbing hills.  Since most of the way so far had been flat, I was actually doing okay.  But I was really dreading the last part of the ride in Malibu where there are four relatively big climbs.  I didn’t know if my knee would hold out during this stretch.  When we rested at the last pit stop of the day at Zuma Beach, I reapplied some Biofreeze, a menthol pain-relieving gel, on my knee and neck/shoulder.  I had been putting it on throughout the day, as well as the day before.  I was going to need it before the upcoming climbs.  As I had suspected, the knee pain kicked in again on the climbs and I had to rest along the way.  Fortunately, I struggled through all the climbing and we eventually made it back to Santa Monica at about 5 pm.  Most of the riders were already back by then and there were only about a dozen riders behind us.  The ride was a little shorter than the previous day, only 90.31 miles.  So we didn’t exactly ride 200 miles altogether, but who’s counting, right?