wow. how hot is it? it can’t be that hot. it does however feel THAT HOT.

the whole point of today was that i wanted to tackle at least part of the san gabriel river trail. and so i set out to bang up the top 1/3. for some dumb reason the thing is split up into sections…

here are some things you might want to know.

washington east of la brea is flat. it’s like nebraska. there are several stretches over a mile long where you can really just lay the hammer down and kill yourself.

once you pick up the trail right at the intersection of rosemead and durfee (what the hell is the name of that street?) and san gabriel rd it goes up. slightly up. even when it dips under the overpasses it’s going up. if you’re like me and you mashed out early on the washington flats you’ll be bummed. it’s a good trail though. mostly cuz it doesn’t look like the la river trail. it actually looks like a river for the most part.

i got off the trail right at the santa fe dam. though i heard that the dam part of the trail is cool. i was cooking out there and even though i found a place to get more water i was also starving and riding an extra 10+ miles up hill just to say i did it sounded like something i would do if it wasn’t monday and i didn’t have to wait until 10am to even leave the house cuz of stupid ol’ street cleaning and moving the car etc. like if it wasn’t 1:32 pm with the sun straight overhead for the last 2 hours of riding…have i mentioned i was hot?

then after the trail it starts to go up. but not like “oh hey this is cool i’ll just drop down a gear or two.” more like “i’m gonna get off and walk.” and it’s like that all the way until you get to the 134. but i didn’t get off and walk. my dumb ass sat in the saddle and pedaled it out. brutality in mortal combat looks more pleasant. it made the monster hill bombs that much more fun cuz i didn’t even pretend to try to see how fast i could get going. i just coasted and let it take as long as it needed to. and there are quite a few good hills coming back down colorado blvd.

total distance was only something like 65 miles but it felt like more. i think i’m actually getting into worse shape. oh well.

ooh, things to keep in mind. someday, i’m going to get up early as hell and ride to the top of western and then just pedal my ass off until i get to anything that resembles a hill that’s not in my favor. it’s about 9 miles before it goes back uphill with anything like consistency.

okay so what.

chirp,

hillary