I've been riding

So Saturday was the first day that I was able to get out for a bike ride since I arrived in California. Ok, that's not quite true, there have been opportunities before now, but I hadn't been able to get up the motivation to unpack the bikes and build them back up. That and riding in a new area always kind of sucks when you're on your own; you never know which roads are good to ride and which have the most rednecks in pickup trucks. But I finally sucked it up and got the bikes together and took off down the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). Along the way I learned a few things.

1) Though there are bike lanes all over the area where I live, and along the PCH to the north, this does not mean that there will be bike paths south along the PCH. In fact the shoulder on the PCH seems to vary greatly at random. From a full lane sized bike path, to a narrow marked shoulder area to a parking lane through rather crowded cities.

2) Ocean breezes don't actually blow perpendicular to the shore. Never having lived on the coast before I never bothered to think about it. It turns out that today the winds from the ocean were actually blowing in a southerly direction, keep that in mind, it becomes important later on.

3) California is hilly, the PCH is hilly, living in the middle of the prairies for about 8 years does not condition one for riding hills a lot.

4) Hills suck.

5) I live on the top of a hill.

6) Sitting in a car for a week to travel across the country does not exercise your legs, no matter how sore/stiff they may seem at the end of a day driving.

7) Long commutes to and from work by car and train also do not consist of training of ones legs for riding a bike.

8) This lack of training combined with the above environmental factors (hills and wind) will cause one to crack (want to cry like a little girl) at about 55 km into a 65 km ride that was stupid enough to start off going south - into the wind.

9) Spending the rest of the day shopping for clothes in stores where you have an infinite selection of blue coloured shirts will leave your legs feeling as though they have been hit with baseball bats, repeatedly.

10) I need to get back into shape.