Clog

[klog, klawg]

–verb (used with object)

1. to hinder or obstruct with thick or sticky matter; choke up: to clog a drain.

2. to crowd excessively, esp. so that movement is impeded; overfill: Cars BIKES clogged the highway ROADWAY.

3. to encumber; hamper; hinder.
–verb (used without object)

4. to become clogged, encumbered, or choked up.

5. to stick; stick together.

6. to do a clog dance.

 

ClogLA
September 28, 2009
September 25, 2009
September 22, 2009
September 17, 2009

foreign butts

yes i rode to the beach again. it was my first really truly carefree “ride for the sake of riding” ride in a while. everything else has been for work or to meet people or whatever. this was simply to ride.

i’ve been reading about “training” cuz in my head i think i want to try to race. i want to be fast. i want to try really really hard and then lose. i want to fail after dedicating massive amounts of time and thought and actual physical energy and see how it feels.

so one thing they always talk about is these things called “recovery rides”. it’s a ride where you literally just go out and don’t try to go fast or even begin to push yourself at all, you just ride slowly. i figger if i’m gonna be a racer i should learn how to take it easy. it sounds dumb but i really have no idea how to go slow. i’m not saying i’m like fasty mcfasterson but i have a tendency in all things to go as fast as i can. eat fast. drink fast. walk fast. fast or stopped, that’s me.

so off i go on my leisurely pleisurely ride. i have yet to invest in a proper air pump so i stop at the local 76 station to juice up the ol’ tyres (that’s british for tires) and then it’s off to venice blvd where the traffic moves fast and all the lights are green. i have to consciously think about not putting in effort.

my compromise to myself for reducing speed and effort was that i would hit the bologna trail and then go to the beach because it’s a nice long 17-ish one way miles of uninterrupted pedaling.

about two miles after getting on the trail i see a guy ahead of me and i’m gaining on him fast. this annoys me to no end. my whole vision of the day is seeing people rip past me like they are the in the millenium falcon when it’s entering hyperspace and here i am passing some big oaf while i’m doing like 10 miles an hour.

so i blaze my saddle and say “good morning” as i pass and then tubbo (okay he wasn’t fat but i want to make fun of him.) decides he’s gonna try to keep up with me which i notice because from the position of the sun i can see his shadow overlapping mine and it annoys me even more. i’m sorry, i don’t know why it bothers me to hear ol’ boy wheezing behind me. i see his shadow drop off after about 10 minutes and then i can breath again.

i pass several more people while never traveling faster than 12 mph (except on the down-hills) and then run up into the ass ends of two old men. they are traveling along right at about 11 mph and jabbering on incessantly in what i believe to be italian. they look back and see me and wave and i decide to go around them but then there is a lady pushing a double wide baby stroller (with only one baby) on the bike path and she’s right next to the sign that says “bikes only” and i decide to not be annoyed any more and just ride behind the old me for as long as they decided to ride.

they decided to ride just exactly as far as i was going to ride which is to say that they went all the way to the pier in whatever little redondo-esque-type area that is where the bike path ends that i’ve never understood how or why it exists but it does and it’s a good spot for turing around.

i couldn’t resist on the way home when the wind was at my back of doing a little bit of 20+ but only for a few minutes and then it was right back to relaxing. i have to maintain my discipline. i’m training you know.

chirp,

hillary

September 16, 2009
September 15, 2009

it's better with the lights on

so i’m slowly ramping up my brain for what is appearing to be the sure thing of me riding to calabassas for work every day for a millennia.

last time i had to be out there sooper dooper early so i hit the road pre-predawn and shot straight through. it was nice and quiet and i made good time but it was so dark that i not only didn’t get to see anything but i missed out on the best part of the stupid steep hills cuz i didn’t want to hit a pothole or stick and eat it before a nice long day of back breaking.

so this time i still left early but by the time i made it over the pass the lights were on and it was “cruise or lose” time. i like to leave way earlier than i need to and then not take my time. there’s a couple really good steep hills and one or two that aren’t so steep but they go for days on end. at 630 or so its just impossible not to take advantage of the fact that the road is 3 lanes wide and there are no cars. i swerve like it’s 1am friday night.

i was gonna take malibu canyon but i poosed. i thought i’d be out in the day time but when the sun set i was just barely leaving and i didn’t want to be the guy that caused someone to go over the edge. plus it looks as though there will be many more opportunities in the future.

anyway, ventura is downhill-ish for most of the way coming back. it runs into some sketchiness around studio city with this weird wave in the pavement that makes you choose parked car’s side view mirrors or the middle of the lane. i choose riverside with it’s nice long bike lane.

after i got around to los feliz blvd i decided it was easier to just buck up and go over the hill instead of taking the long way and going through silverlake. it really came down to the road conditions. i’d rather ride up a super steep, long hill with smooth pavement than ride over a few little rollers of asphalt that looks like a meth addict’s teeth.

all told my ride was 4 hours 38 minutes of fun and happiness. thank you work.

chirp,

hillary

September 12, 2009

it's 530am and hollywood smells like pot

i’m not judging. i’m just making an observation like the guy in “dazed and confused”. unlike said character, i doubt this will result in a fight. but i rode through hollywood between 5-6am the last three days in a row and right there at cahuenga and franklin it smells like pot.

but not just like “oh, someone is smoking pot.” like “i’m riding through resin over here!”

don’t know if there is a pot factory in the area or if the pot-ster bunny lives right there by the 101 or what but holy smokes…

i met a nice fellow riding down chandler in the valley on thursday when i decided that if i was gonna do it right i’d have to take a different route every night. chandler is wide and flat and the stop lights are really far apart so you can kill yourself in between. troy (that’s the fellow’s name) was in front of me and kept up a pretty good pace and even though i wanted to pass him and i think i could have i didn’t try.

i waited until we got squeezed out by a stop light and then asked him about his full carbon fuji. we rode together for about 3 miles and then i skipped town over to riverside and swooped myself around to silverlake.

speaking of silverlake, riding past the lake at night is dreamy. it’s nice and quiet and since it’s a big watering hole people are always out running and stuff  (it makes it seem like a nice sweet home alabama community but i’ve heard some truly sucky stories about after dark nonsense) but they were smart and made a running trail right next to the water so there are never any silly joggers to dodge in the street. the road is sooper old and made of concrete and it’s all beat up but it’s alright by me cuz it makes it so you have to swerve around like a mad man to not get your ass and balls handed to your throat.

once you clear the lake there is a dog park right at the edge of a sooper dooper steep hill that curves around almost 90 degrees and then mellows out and i’ve been lucky enough to never have any cars behind me so i feel free to take the fastest line (which is not the bike lane) and just zip like lightning until it straightens out and then in the mellow decline that follows i just pedal as hard as i can and most every time i’ve done it so far i can easily keep up with traffic all the way to sunset where i inevitably hit a stop light…whomp whomp.

ps  dear city of los angeles DOT (department of transportation), bevery blvd sucks. the far right lane (both eastbound and west) is a mess. it’s so bad the cars don’t even drive on it. which is nice cuz it’s like having a white trash double-wide bike lane but i end up with chipped teeth and shaken baby syndrome by the time i hit the golf course near rossmore.

chirp,

hillary

September 9, 2009
September 6, 2009
September 5, 2009

 

 

 

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