A long time ago I used to bicycle a lot! For quite a while I would commute 12 miles to school, then 10 or so to work at the swim school, and then another 7 or so miles home. It was a great workout and great fun! I know this will sound bad, but I always get a feeling of superiority to people driving cars whenever I am on my bike. You are not using gas, it takes more effort, you look cool!
I used to ride as far as 100 miles at a stretch. One of my greatest adventures was a ride from Sun Valley (the not so fancy part of L.A. where I grew up, not the shi shi ski resort in Idahoe), to Filmore, which was 100 miles round trip. Filmore is between Ojai and Magic Mountain. I did it on a school day. I went alone. Nobody even knew I did it.
When I got to the midway point, I stopped at a Carl’s junior, had a sandwich of some sort, and then rolled home. It took all day, and was a fantastic adventure.
I had two great friends, John Cook and Larry Demula, who were fantastic cyclers. I trained for years to be able to keep up with them but never could. In fact Larry and I did a half Iron Man in Baja California about a year after the first Iron Man in Hawaii. Larry was such a better cycler than me, that he actually rode in circles around me, looping over and over just to rub in how slow I was, whenever we were going up steep hills.
By the way, my finish time was right around 12 hours. The race had ended, they had handed out the awards, had a party, with rumors of a black kid who was still on the course (me, but I am not black :), and everyone had left by the time I rolled across the finish. My friends went and found someone from the race who was still at the Rosorito Beach hotel so they could record my finish.
The last 15 years I really have not been riding. I realized I stopped after I bought a bike with some funky handlebars on it that made me lean over too far and was uncomfortable, with my flexibility. It hurt too much to ride, so I gave up. I bought a new Cannondale mountain bike which was mid priced around $600 at REI. I am super happy with it. It is better than my $1500 bike from 20 years ago. The technology improvements are amazing. I got some crank brothers pedals, Shimano mountain bike shoes. I also got a gel seat because my butt hurt so bad riding. All of my biking buddies and patients think I am a girlie man for that one!
I have been having tons of fun on it, and had a few improvements made by my buddy Richie at Adams Ave. Cycles.
I have dreams of riding it to work and back, but for the moment can only go around 3 miles round trip before my knee hurts. I better not overtrain, and ease into it over the next year.
Your friend Larry sounds like a sadist. 😛
Good for you, keep it up. Gel seat. Bah!
Ya know I actually never really finished the race cause I was worried about you. My knees started hurting for riding for so long trying to stay back with you. So I rode to the finish, rode back and got our support van to convince you to give up and try again next year. You never gave up and finished in a new worlds record of slowest and most stubborn racer yet. I was so proud of you as you wobbled across the finish line. The little black boy who could!!!
I now race mountain bikes and compete in bike trials events.
your brother Larrygo
Dr. Klein is African American?
Nope. Not exactly African American recently, but kinda, maybe?
My ancestors are Jewish Europeans. I was once told by someone from the town of Fez in Morraco, that I looked like I cam from Fez.
He then took out his wallet and showed me pictures of family members. They did look amazingly like me.
Jews have wandered around a lot, so who knows where my ancestors lived a thousand years ago, and who knows who married who.
If all this evolution stuff is right, then we all come from Africa originally. I love that thought!