Girl On The Loose

My "live-in lover" rode her bike to work for the first time today! That old Raleigh we picked up turned out to be a pretty sweet ride. I must say I'm somewhat conflicted though. While I'm thrilled that she may have a new transportation option for her commute, being a daily bicycle commuter myself, I know the pitfalls. Ultimately, it's not as scary for cyclists out there as the media seems to want to portray it, but nonetheless, she's my girlfriend + I'm a worrier = me nervous.

Here's a shot of "The Land Yacht" parked on the streets of West Hollywood where she works.



I'm usually not a big fan of chain / cord locks, but she works about 10 yards away from this spot and can see the bike through a giant window of the schmancy hair salon where she works the whole time. No need to break out the Kryptonite here.

Major Douche

No, I'm not talking about an unfortunately named military officer. I'm talking about this guy:
His name is Rob Anderson, and he is...a major douche. He has spearheaded efforts to kill implementation of a massive pro-bike plan San Francisco, claiming that more bike lanes and bicycle related infrastructure = more traffic jams, more idling and more pollution. The sad part is that instead of him being recognized as a major douche and roundly ignored, his efforts have been successful so far, and San Francisco has been forced to put their plans on hold indefinitely.

You can read more about this story here.

One thing to note about Mr. Anderson. He is exactly the kind of person who I would expect to engage in this sort of crap. Check it out:

"That year Mr. Anderson, who mostly lives off a small government stipend he receives for caring for his 92-year-old mother, also started a blog, digging into local politics with gusto. One of his first targets: the city's most ambitious bike plan to date."

What?? He mooches off the taxpayers and has WAY too much time on his hands? SHOCKER!!!

He also likes to drop craptastic little nuggets like this:

"The behavior of the bike people on city streets is always annoying," he says. "This 'Get out of my way, I'm not burning fossil fuels.' "

...and this...

"Regardless of the obvious dangers, some people will ride bikes in San Francisco for the same reason Islamic fanatics will engage in suicide bombings -- because they are politically motivated to do so,"

Well, he has a point after all. I mean, I don't ride my bike because it's healthy, cheap, good for the environments, fun, and the best thing to happen to me since The Dodgers won the pennant. I do it because I love jihad. Oh yes. Sweet, sweet jihad.

I also noticed, MUCH to my chagrin, that Mr. Anderson's blog had the exact same Blogger template as mine!!!!! I immediately changed it, on the off chance that someone might mistake me for what appears to be, you guessed it...a MAJOR DOUCHE!!!

I Forgot All About You Mr. Knee

The century is over. I survived. I had a great time despite some hand / butt / foot pain towards the end. Here's a picture of me with an inexplicable cocky douchebag smirk on my face at the start of the race.

The smirk is appropriate, as I feel it represents my arrogance and general stupidity in not taking the time to get a proper bike fit before this ride, which would have likely prevented a rather painful injury that I didn't foresee. The caption here should read, "Bike fit??? Puh-lease!! Does it look like I need to waste my time with that? I mean, look at these super-rad sunglasses, this hot Italian road bike and this form fitting spandex clown suit. Can't you tell that I clearly know what I'm doing here? OK, let's ride people!! Out of my way!!!"

So while three body part friends that I was most concerned about did in fact rebel somewhat on Saturday, it turns out the one I needed to be worried about was my damned knee all along. It looks like due to the long distance, and more importantly, my laziness in getting a proper bike fit, I have injured my knee. I'm not sure of the severity, I just know it hurts. Well, I suppose it could be worse, but I consider the fact that I can't ride my bike now without pretty excruciating pain in my right knee, to be pretty bad.

I'm rocking the R.I.C.E. + ibuprofen regiment, but there's one element to recorvery that I'm trying to figure out just how in the hell I'm going to be able to execute. Not riding my bike. Being that it's become my sole means of transportation, not to mention one of the few really enjoyable things that I do on a regular basis, I just don't see how I'm going to pull this one off. And yet, I don't really see how I can't either. The pain is bad. And obviosuly I don't want it to stay this way.

So now I'm in mad self-diagnosis mode now. I think it's patellar tendinitis, but I'm far from positive. So it's not the end of the world, but it still sucks big time. Hopefully my knee will cooperate and heal quickly.

An Offer They Can't Refuse

In this last day before the Cool Breeze Century, I'm physically feeling the best I ever have. I had a couple of good rides this week and they were just what I needed both physically and mentally to get ready for tomorrow. For the first time I was able to get up to the Observatory without feeling like I was really straining. And I was passing riders that I was never able to before, and on climbs too! So at the risk of sounding vain, I've never been in this good of shape, and it feels great.

I'm a little nervous about tomorrow. Mostly because I've just never been in the saddle for 100 miles in one day before. I think I'm going to be fine in terms of endurance, but if anything will be my proverbial Achilles Heel, it will be pain. My three friends mr. hands, mr. back and mr. neck like to let me know that they are NOT happy whenever I go on longer rides. I'll try to have a civil discussion with these gentlemen ahead of time to explain that it will all be over after the finish line, and if they just cooperate with me, they will be rewarded with many hours of rest and possibly even a Thai Massage from the ladies over at Pho Siam. That's got to be an offer they can't refuse, right? Riiiight.

Dawn Of A New Century

There's been a lot of stuff a' brewin' lately. My time in the saddle has continued to remain at ridiculous levels. With my first "century" coming up (100 mile bicycle ride), I've been trying to log ever longer rides on the weekends, in addition to the daily commutes. I'll even sneak in a couple of Griffith Observatory runs on weekdays on the way to work too. Today my muscles are twitchin' a' plenty. I've taken the Red Line a couple of days this week to help give them a rest.

The picture above is of a fellow cyclist named Mauricio, who besides being the original owner of "The Toothpaste Special," is also somewhat of a badass in the saddle. We did Bicykillers last Thursday and rode from Hollywood to the beach and back on Saturday. It was a great ride for me. That's the first time I've ventured that far west (as far west as I can go on my bike). It was kind of weird seeing sand on my tires for the first time. One un-fun part of the ride was realizing what horrible shape Venice Blvd. is in. I've driven on it countless times but of course, riding on it is something else entirely. Lots of fun potholes, cracks and rough asphalt that had my hands singing with pain. We took Washington back up through Culver City on the way back, which was much kinder to us.

So with just two weeks until the Cool Breeze, I'm going to try and log as many miles as I can, especially since Tam and I will be up in Sonoma this weekend. Great bike riding country up there. Too bad the bike stable isn't portable...yet.