From the start I was not into this ride. No fire in the legs 🦵🏾 It literally took 105 miles before I felt truly ready to ride and warmed up! Mango 🥭 juice in one bladder and water in the other until about 100 miles. Power in the legs was inconsistent to spotty up to that point. On the return legs I stopped at a liquor store run by an elderly Vietnamese couple to buy more water before heading inland where there is none. The mango juice was an about half gone so I swigged a cup or 2 down then dumped a 1/4 sandwich sized Ziplock of sugar crystals into that bladder then filled it up with cold bottled water. Then topped off the other bladder. By the time I got on the Santa Ana River Trail I felt as fresh as if I’d just rolled out the door! A sketchy e-bike dude in camo with a ski mask on passed me going in the opposite direction while he scoped my trike out. 30 yds behind me he did a uturn. A fee homeless encampments have popped up along the trail after several years of being cleared out. I smelled crack head and saw he was a trying to close in on me. Fortunately I downed all that mango juice and the Dragon was fully loaded and ready to do battle. Instead of seeing if he had a gun or not I decided to burn out his e-assist 🪫 battery. Had Dragon 🐉 tap it up to 20 mph and he held fairly steady out back about 76 yds. Eventually I noticed him closing in a bit and I asked Dragon to go to Warp Speed. 26 mph… this created a bigger gap but over about 5 miles I could still see himself front light. So I told Dragon 🐲to go to Warp 2 30mph… and bye bye 👋 never to be seen again. The ride out as I mentioned was so so. I caught a few Roadies and pelotons but didn’t feel like holding onto them for the draft and I knew that I was in for a 150+ mile day and they were probably just doing an hour or so. The miles went by in flow… Suddenly I was at the coast 50 miles from home. Then Laguna Beach… Then Dana Point… Then San Clemente: 75 miles or so from home. I’ve been under carbing for my power output on rides and under hydrating. On the way back home I took much larger gulps of water then big gulps of sweetened juice and power rose like morning wood over and over again! I will definitely explore this kind of fueling further. BTW for those that thinknk they would sugar crash on such a mix, that’s only because your blood serum is loaded with high amounts of fatty acids. The human diet is supposed to roughly mimic the diet of the most similar to us primates which means roughly an 80% simple carb content plus 10% simple fatty acids plus 10% amino acids or simple proteins all from raw foods. A diet high in cooked foods overworks the digestive system leaving a lot less vitality for the over adaptation process after workouts like the ride above but actually all rigorous efforts. I’m working on a book or 3 on this topic… Stay tuned. Reme to pray to the Dragon Spirits for morning wood or whatever the female version is called and if it doesn’t happen… Go Fruit 🥭 Yourself 👁️😊😊💪🏾