My wife is in Monterey visiting her family and she took our puppy dog with her. I just fed the cats and the fish and got my bike ready for the ride. I grabbed my cinch up bag, loaded my keys, wallet, and bike lock in it. I decided to try out Google's new bike routing on Google Maps. It gave me a route that included going down the Iron Horse trail which is understandable and tried to keep me on roads with bike lanes. I ended up taking a slightly different route. The total mileage for one way was 4.6 miles and Google estimated it taking 27 minutes. The return trip was estimated at 32 minutes. There is a really steep hill on the way   I set up the GPS on my phone, loaded some tunes, and I was off. This will be first good ride of the year for me. 

I arrive at In 'N Out in 22 minutes and I'm pretty gassed. I'm clearly out of shape. Whatever, it's time to eat. I only had a small bag of Doritos and a soda for lunch so I was pretty hungry. I ordered 2 cheeseburgers animal style, well done fries and water instead of soda. I sat down and started digging in. It was so good to have an In 'N Out burger. I really missed it during Lent. I sat at the bar stools facing the cash registers. As I was eating, I noticed a group of young people come in; 3 guys and 2 girls. The guys go up to the register and order while the girls go to the bathroom. The guys were clearly flirting with the girl working the cash register. The guys make their order and sit at one of the booths. The girls come out of the bathroom and one of them goes to the line to order while the other is clearly ticked off. She goes to one of the guys and starts yelling at him about how he should have waited for her. She has a point but she starts yelling and cursing at him so that everyone in the place can hear her. He tries handing her some money so that she can order something for herself. She refuses a couple of times and then he throws the money on the floor at her feet which I thought was extremely rude. She picks up the money and throws it right back at him. She refuses to sit with the rest of them. They all get up and move to another table so that they can sit a little closer. She decides to be a big baby and sit at a table much further away. It was rather entertaining dinner theater. 

I couldn't finish eating my food so I asked for a bag to take the second cheeseburger. Normally, I could eat 2 double doubles plus the fries and a soda without even thinking about it. I guess it's a good thing that I am not eating so much. 

I head back to my bike which I had locked up as securely as I could and am relieved that it's still there in one piece. I gather my gear and mount up. I never like exercising on a full stomach. The last time I did that, I nearly puked and in the past, I have actually puked. I took it pretty easy on the way back. I still had my cup of water in my hands so it wasn't easy to ride without spilling it all over myself. I finished it quickly and dumped it in the nearest garbage can. There are cans every so often along the trail. 

After dumping the water cup, I decided that I should push myself in bursts.I'll pedal as fast as I can for about 2 minutes and then take it easy for a bit. I blasted down the trail and hit a top speed of about 35 mph. Before I knew it, I had reached the steep hill on Bollinger that I call Mt. Cornelius. I took my time going up the hill and I was still extremely winded. I shouldn't expect to be in middle of the summer shape at the beginning of spring. After the hill, I rested up for about 30 seconds and then it was time for another burst. This time there is a section of straight but not too steep down hill with only one light. I started my run and managed to time the light perfectly so I didn't lose any of my momentum. The GPS clocked me at maximum speed of 41 mph during that stretch which was the fastest I had every managed to get going on the bike. I knew I was going pretty fast even before checking the GPS because as I blasted past the cars at the light,  I was more than half way to the next light before the first car was able to catch up to me. I looked over at second driver that caught up to me in the nearest lane and he had a look of astonishment. That made me feel pretty good. Riding that fast is a total adrenaline rush. This is why I love riding my bike.