Today’s ride commuting in ended up being longer than the 25 give or take a little originally planned – 34 miles!!

Late on in the ride I came across our Beach Cities Cycling Club President and Group (‘Butts on Bikes for Best Buddies’ or B4) Leader.  Jim Hannon has always been a great resource for the club, the Best Buddies ride (since its inception), and the South Bay cycling community in general.  He has patiently listened to my recent (and previous) challenges and helped greatly.

Since we were close to some new bike lanes (complete with separation from the regular traffic, bike lane dedicated traffic lights and bike related artwork) at the Redondo Beach harbor gateway. He insisted that I go a little bit further to check it out.  I must say, I was very impressed. Bike safety has come a long way in recent years (new bike lanes in many communities in the LA basin).

This unexpected extra mileage makes me hopeful for 50 or more over the weekend.  Although the ride generally went pretty well, I tired fairly quickly on hills (even short ones).  Today’s ride would translate to only 1500 ft vertical over 100 miles while the BBC century has over 6000 ft of vertical.  That 50 miler would need to  have at least 3000 ft of vertical to be comparable.  We’ll see what happens in the next few days.