I was really tired on most of today's ride. The first part I felt fine. Other than the Lupine Hills climb at the start, everything from that point on until we got to Oak Riparian Park was smooth sailing. The portion of the ride after we stopped at the park was the most difficult. I felt like I was riding with 3 flat tires. (I wasn't.) Sometimes it just feels like that. Maybe I felt this way because I rode yesterday with Eliza and my legs are just tired and need to recover? Most likely...as I'm still getting used to riding lots of hills. We've only been here in California now for 2 full months and I feel like I've climbed more in the past 2 months than I have in the past 2 years in North Carolina!
I brought lunch for us to eat at the park. We had peanut butter and honey sandwiches, yogurt and some Cheezits. Eliza played happily by herself for about 45 minutes while I sat in the shade watching her. Too bad that there was a family with 3 kids around Eliza's age who left just as we were getting there. Kind of a bummer about that, but Eliza doesn't seem to mind playing by herself most of the time. The play structure here is great. I didn't get any pictures but I'll have to snap some another time, I guess. This park is really fun!
After the playground, we just explored around a bit all around the Shadowridge and Ocean Hills neighborhood. Eliza fell asleep during part of the ride, only to be awoken by 2 really annoying dogs who kept barking at her from a car window while we waited at a red light at the intersection of Shadowridge and Cannon. Not just any dog bark, but that kind of dog bark where you just want to yell "SHUT UP!!" And that says a lot about the barking, because I'm a big dog lover and I think 99.99% of all dogs are cute and must be petted and "awwww"ed at. But these dogs? No way was I going to say "awwww" to them! I very rarely feel this way...so I was glad when the light turned green after almost a full minute of sitting there listening to the shrill noise coming from those 2 Scottish Terriers. I wonder why the owner didn't just roll up their window? Eh, maybe because she knew that then her dogs bark would only be irritating her! Eliza woke up with all of this noise and stayed awake for the rest of our ride.
No pictures of this ride because I honestly was too tired to do anything other than keep turning the cranks over and just finish this ride! Maybe I'll take a rest tomorrow and let these legs of mine recover? Yeah, that sounds good.
Here's our Strava summary:
Oh, but I did take a few pictures after our ride when we went swimming. We got our new swimsuits in the mail today! I ordered us matching Dolfin Uglies swimsuits from SwimOutlet.com. I have wanted to get Eliza and I matching suits since she was old enough to fit into a competitive 1-piece style suit! Here's a cute picture that shows our matching suits and another picture of Eliza showing off her splashy kicks on the steps.
