Today’s ride: 45.02 miles, on a day that started out cloudy and chilly, almost threatening rain, then turned beautiful and sunny and warm. South through the beach cities at a medium-high pace, with an average speed of 18.5 mph when we reached Manhattan Beach. That average dropped rapidly in inverse proportion to the climbing in Palos Verdes, around several undisclosed routes that evoke heinous suffering and humiliation, and fascist elevated heart rates. A steady crosswind on the way back north made it a real endurance test, trying to keep the pace at an upper-medium level and succeeding. Current leg conditions: sore, with more pain to come.