Larissa = old, bike ride= long

Commuting with my favorite girl

Commutes

Afternoon Ride

Skinks board meeting

Over the moon grateful for Menso de Jong making one of my bucket list rides a 40th birthday reality! And for naming the ride 😂
Dolphins, whales, hearing the elephant seals at night, barn owls, epic pulls by Menso, 140 miles solo and unreasonable views the whole time. I'm the luckiest one.

A more detailed account: went out too hard because I was excited to smash out 85 miles before meeting up with Menso and David in Santa Cruz. That was a pretty big mistake that cost me greatly later 😂. Brendan put aero bars on my bike for fun, but that just made going fast funner! SC to Monterey felt great, and it was incredibly pretty riding through the bonus 17 mile drive. Hwy1 through Big Sur opened on Wednesday so we got to ride almost all of big sur in the daytime. The challenge was to not go too hard on the climbs and dodging tourists making questionable driving decisions. Brendan met is in Lucia so we could grab warm clothes and food from the van, and I made the critical mistake of not thinking through balancing sugar and salt. An hour later I start getting a rotten stomach and suffered all night with cramping and nausea. The push from Lucia to SLO was a blur of stomach issues and starting to get comfortable with all the other uncomfortable sensations starting to set in. Blake meet us just outside of town and helped pull us to donuts at 11pm (also not salty🤦) and a latte 🥰. 
After a second brief stop at Blake's house to top off fuel/water, steal all Blake's jackets (we overestimated the overnight temps) and lay on the pavement for a minute, it was time for the push to SB. 
Despite eating some sweet potato chips at Blake's house, I continued to have an upset stomach which made eating and drinking challenging. After a long slog through the Space Force Base, we stopped at the only open business in Lompoc, Carl's jr, for water. Curly fries helped the salt situation a little but but that point my stomach had been upset so long that digestion wasn't working great. The push to SB was a crawl but the sun came up and both menso and I were in a decent mental state at the end (Menso having not ridden his bike since September). 
My body did not want to leave Menso's house, standing and turning over the pedals was pretty painful and my sit bones were raw. But after pancakes and banana bread with copious amounts of butter I forced myself off the ground and rolled on for the final century solo.
Initially it seemed like the last 100 miles was going to take an eternity, but after the nice bike path along 1south to ventura things started to feel ok again. A breakfast sandwich and coffee in Oxnard really helped as well as a fresh jersey and stripping off all the warm overnight clothes when Brendan rolled up with the van. 
Then somehow I was riding though pt Mugu feeling good! The last 50 miles actually felt kinda awesome. Maybe 7 miles to the end I was passed by Diaa | VENTUM and Audrey Nour who graciously let a filthy, salty rando with clip on aero bars draft them for a bit and that was insanely motivating (it felt like we were flying). 
And somehow it's over and despite the suffering I wish I was still out there, turning pedals, testing how far I can go 💁
😂

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Larissa Connors

Larissa = old, bike ride= long

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Larissa = old, bike ride= long

Commuting with my favorite girl

Commutes

Afternoon Ride

Skinks board meeting

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