Rethinking the Route: Beating the Summer Heat

 I had every intention of walking on Saturday, taking pictures, and hopefully having enough stuff for a walk report. The walk took place; it was only 1.9 miles, but I was on foot for an hour. It was an hour because I was waiting for a photo opportunity. My first "vantage point" (in part because there's a nice bench in the shade) is 0.47 miles into the path I was taking. I see a blur of yellow in the trees ahead of me, and my first thought is, a Hooded Oriole. Sure enough, there's a female mostly obscured by branches and inside dense shadows. Male Hooded Orioles arrive in SoCal late February to early March; they establish a territory and feeding grounds. Females arrive shortly after and frequently establish nests into the fronds of fan palm trees. We have plenty of those. Too many. High rise condos for rats, I tell ya. Nesting and mating is from April to May. From June to August, they often raise a second clutch. So, they're around for about seven months, but I only see a few each year. Photos have been rare, and I only got a couple of horrible images off on Saturday before she vanished. 

Now, there's a catch, and quite honestly, I really went on Google's image search to tell me what's up. It isn't always correct. Bullock's Orioles are also common in Southern California during the spring and summer, following a very similar migration timeline to the Hooded Oriole. You can easily tell the males apart by looking at their faces and wings, while the trickier females can be distinguished by their belly color and throat markings. 

Here are two shots of a male Bullock's Oriole. The first is from July 20th, 2016 (10 years ago today), and the second is from May 28th, 2016.

 

And this is a female Bullock's Oriole from June 18th, 2016 

 The photos I'm not showing you from Saturday, Google insists is a Hooded Oriole. I was convinced. So, a long way to go just to say I'm not posting a crappy photo. 

This image of a female Allen's hummingbird is from Saturday. It could be an immature male but I'm going with female. The shrub is a Caesalpinia gilliesii. I thought that branch was interesting.

 I'm 1.07 miles in on the walk at this point. I started walking at 7:50, it was 71º F at 7:50 AM and relative humidity was 67%. Now, part of the issue I was starting to have had to do with my attire. I was wearing a long sleeved polyester shirt--highly non-absorbent and lacking breathability, making it feel like a greenhouse in hot or humid conditions. I also walk fast. I know, it's only pushing 73º at this point but I found it quite uncomfortable. I remember around 2011-2012 I would try to wait for the temperature to drop below 90º before going for a walk (much longer walks too) and there were days that it simply was not possible to wait. I had certain responsibilities at home that didn't allow for me to wait until perhaps 8-9 PM to go for a walk and early AM was simply not practical. I remember going out and it was close to 95º. It wasn't comfortable but I could handle it. Last year I started making it a goal to get out in the AM before it hit 80º but now I'm finding 80º and hustling a walk difficult. 

A few days ago, I decided I need to augment my exercise protocol to accommodate summer heat, household responsibilities, etc., and I began reinstituting an old standby, inside, no dress code, no need to shower and with the aid of air conditioning, it could be done just about any time of day. Here's the set-up.

 
The Spirit XRB25 recumbent bike has 20 levels of electronically controlled magnetic resistance paired with a heavy-duty 20 lb steel flywheel for smooth, quiet pedaling. It still sells for around $1,449. This was my mother's bike. I also wrote about it here. I just read that again the other day. That's been mostly the point of this blog to begin with. It's a diary. Reflecting back on 13 years ago and putting in both 11-13 miles on the bike but also walking over five miles was a sobering moment. 

I typically set the resistance between 6 and 7 and ride flat out. "P" is for pulse and it almost never works. Elapsed time, distance and calories burned. You can add personal data and set up custom programs.

The Bridgestone RB-1, I bought that at Beverly Hills Bike Shop in 1992. The owner, Steve (my understanding is he still owns it, moved from Robertson Blvd. to W. Pico Blvd.), called me one day, knowing I was looking for something reasonably affordable with a tall frame. He had the bike shipped from a shop in New York. The owner there couldn't find a customer for a 25" frame. A 25" (63.5 cm) bike frame is considered very tall. It is typically designed for riders who are 6'4" or taller and have an inseam of 36 inches or more. That would be me. That white trainer the bike is propped up on was also purchased from BH Bike Shop. I always liked Steve, he was knowledgeable and extremely helpful. Apparently the RB-1 is now a "cult classic" among some cycling enthusiasts, selling for upwards of $1,400.

I used to take the RB-1 out after work when living adjacent to Beverly Hills, near Robertson Blvd., south of Pico, and ride into Beverly Hills proper, up and down between Santa Monica Blvd. and Sunset Blvd. (hey, I'm having fun picturing this) over to N. Linden Drive. I took N. Linden up to Sunset and then I raced cars on Sunset Blvd., usually to N. Doheny Drive. This was during rush hour. N. Doheny had a nice steep downhill to start me heading back home. Okay, yeah, it was nuts, but I was wearing a helmet ;-). I was also hyper-focused. Parked cars. Scary. For the most part, I would almost always catch up to traffic at each stoplight and then sail past cars up to the next traffic light. It was impeccably timed. 

Here's a map, probably a little difficult to figure out. I had to piece together three screenshots. The word, “Start," is in the bottom right corner, that would, of course, also be the finish. I don't recall the mileage; it wasn't that long, it was just intense.

 

The two bikes are very different experiences riding stationary. I'm sure I'll have more to say about it. I still need to do some housekeeping on the bikes and the arrangement. 

Back to Saturday's walk... 

Sour grapes.

I just wanna ride 
Get on my bike and ride