insurance, hills, & full blown pandemonium

it’s not one of the reasons i would list if you ask me why i got married, but, sort of as a side bonus that i am in no way ever going to complain about, i now have health insurance. but not insurance like i’m used to where i pay every week out of my pay check for years on end only to find that when i go to the doctor i have to pay for everything up front and wait to see if my coverage will actually cover anything. no, the insurance that sara’s company provides her (now us) is amazing. they actually make you go to the doctor! it makes sense. it makes it feel like less of a bullshit fucked up racket that the government and insurance companies have been pulling on us for 60 some odd years.

anyway, the point is that because i am now covered, today i rode with no helmet against traffic with my eyes closed and with no hands. jk. but it did make me realize that the deal i had with sara to not ride as far or as much until after we were married (aka i had insurance) is now over, null and void. so in realization of that fact i decided to take a different route.

splitting off to wilshire and taking san vicente adds some extra hills. good and bad. the hills on wilshire are pretty steep but they aren’t very long. it’s still a pretty good way to kick your ass at 5 in the morning after essentially two weeks of no exercise and waking up no earlier than 8 am. san vicente is one long uphill that isn’t very steep all the way from wilshire to about 26th st. once you pass the intersection of 26th and san vic it’s down down down to the beach man. a nice mellow hill that’s at least as long as the hill you have to ride up before it. 

oh shit! i forgot the pandemonium! coming up the hill on san vicente just past a street called something like gretna green i see something in the road. it’s an animal. no, it’s two animals! dogs? no. there aren’t many street lights or they just aren’t on cuz it’s dark as shit and my light is on”flash mode” so everything is strobed out. i get closer and both of the animals look at me and there is something between them. they are just standing in the middle of the road. i finally get a make on them. they are coyotes! i’m not slowing down and they begin to freak out a bit. whatever it is between them they don’t want to lose. i’m about twenty yards aways when they both go for it at the same time and begin to fight like michael jackson and the other guy in the “beat it” video. they are circling and pulling and howling until something gives. i’m close now and actually kind of nervous but mostly interested to see what they are fighting over. then not so interested. it’s what’s left of a raccoon that most likely got hit by a car and it stinks and i was way closer than i should have been to hungry coyotes and they growled as i sped by and i bet they could have caught me and eaten me alive and given me rabies. anyway, no harm no foul. i was off. they probably went to eat their rotten breakfast on one of the greens of the brentwood country club.

back to the ride. once you hit the beach you’re basically as low as you can get elevation-wise so if you head back east you’re going up. and so, santa monica is essentially uphill for about 5 or 6 miles until you hit wilshire. which sucks but…

wilshire east of santa monica in the morning is like a dream come true. nice and flat for most of the way and the lights are almost always in your favor. i made the initial turn and just pedaled my little feet off and after my brain quit screaming “stop!” and i had my speed up i glanced down to see that on this nice long stretch of flat i was maintaining 28 mph pretty easily. okay, i say flat, but really you’re going downhill. it really is only a few feet of drop over every mile though so it’s not like…okay, it’s downhill. i’m not as fast as i think i am. speaking of which -

dst = 23.3 miles

max = 33.1 mph

time = 1:12:55

avg = 19.2 mph

which isn’t horrible for me. i still want to do better. i want to clock 25 mph avg all day on every kind of terrain. i need coffee. i need food.