100 miles of commuting

that was my week! got to work and knock out 100. sometimes i felt amazing, sometimes i felt like crap..... good times.

last night on the way home i apparently destroyed my last ever conti four season 700x25 tire. this one died almost exactly the same way as the last, a quarter inch cut in the casing apparently out of nowhere. nothing was stuck in the rubber, just a big ole straight through gash. POS...... too similiar to take a chance on them again.... back to conti 4000's or kenda c2c's.

today and LAST weekend

today i got to have one of my shockingly rare hollywood moments! i had lunch with/bought by Tom DeLonge of Blink182/Angels and Airwaves fame. nice guy!!!! we may be working on a film that the band is producing in conjunction with their next record. looks pretty cool! the second part to that was that Elizabeth Banks was sitting right behind us! ive been doing this shit for 18 years and was also basically born into it as well and some of this stuff still blows me away....

last saturday we did another ride up to Santa Barbara. me and three other guys. all in i was good for about 110 miles and 5000 feet of climbing. weather was awesome. got a bit of everything, from rain to overcast to crazy wind to downright nice weather! good times.

today and this weekend

well for today i didnt do anything too terribly difficult. ended up just doing my valley loop, 30 miles and 1330 feet of climbing. nothing to shake a stick at, but no huge climbing.

looks like on saturday its going to be another run up to santa barbara. always good for a semi difficult 100 miles! and on the upside it looks like the weather is going to be great! part of me was hoping for heat so as to get acclimated for the summer a bit more but oh well... guess ill take partly cloudy in the 70's as well!!!!! im thinking about taking my whole "tour" kit with me on this to get an idea of what its going to be like. see if i can improve it any.... will take the camelbak for sure.

where to ride tomorrow?????

something tells me its one of the "T's".... not sure yet though....

also not sure if ill be headed for the scv again this weekend or do the santa barbara run... depends on the weather i suppose.

thinking that my last big ride before the trip will be big t to upper big t down ac to aliso canyon to soledad to little t home.... some guys i know did it a couple weekends ago and it sounds like a good confidence booster for the long jaunt....

awwwww man

did 634 miles in may getting ready for the mammoth trip and im beat. did our old SCV loop with some of my oldest riding buddies the other day to help push me up there. 42 miles and 3000 feet of climbing. it totally kicked my ass. something tells me i have to rethink my training as i seem to be getting more tired! im going faster but im just wrecked as well.... i suppose the highpoint of all this is that i was way more comfortable and strong at the end then most of the others, more or less at least!!!!!!!

we shall see how june works out!

is wondering....

what it would be like to ride to solvang.... looks like itd be about 130 miles. big question is how to get home without spending the night.... hmmmmmmm

finally some more SCV rides!

on memorial day i was able to ride out to acton and back(starting in valencia) with some old cycling friends. id never done any of that before and personally cant wait to get back out there!!! tons of rollers, low traffic, all sorts of crazy wind, but an amazing ride! felt really good as well so that may be influencing my opinion right now!!!! ended up with 58 miles and 3050 feet of climbing! seemed like the perfect mammoth trip training ride!!!! tomorrow im headed out there again to ride up and down san francisquito canyon. we used to do that mother every weekend(as well as spunky and bouquet canyons...), barely remember what its like so tomorrow will be like doing it for the first time!!!!!

more to come soon!

first fail of the long weekend!!!!

on the way up sunland blvd to meet bart for our ride up big t a rut in the road decided to leave a half inch gash in the sidewall of my rear tire! crap!!!!! was able to boot it and get home for a whopping 25 miles(was supposed to be about 65...). the gash totaled the tire. when its inflated to about 60 psi you can actually see the boot through the gash.... oh well another 50 bucks down the drain!!!! the pisser is that these were fairly new tires!!!! might have 600 miles on them.... better than coming down AC at 40 mph i suppose....

i shall attempt to save my weekend riding on monday as tomorrow is the dreaded childs bday party at the santa monica pier....

long weekend

wish i has better plans than i do! for saturdy it looks like a nice early ride up big t with my friend bart. gonna go about it the same way i did earlier this week by riding from home to get the whole 66 mile loop in(gotta get ready for mammoth!). hopefully i can keep from losing six pounds like last time! although id love to lose more weight by the time the trip rolls around something tells me that a 6% drop over one five hour ride may not be the best for my body!!!!! time will tell.

for sunday we all get to go to one of sam's classmates birthday partys...... normally i dont really mind these little excursions but this one should be nothing short of terrifying! the reason..... its gonna be at the santa monica pier, on a long weekend, where it will be warm, and they didnt reserve a space of any kind. itll basically be a wandering group of kids mixed in with a ton of other humanity...... cross your fingers for me as this is gonna hurt.... the only bright side will be the possibility of eating breakfast at the west hollywood eat well.... that place rocks!!!!

on monday im hoping to go out to the SCV to ride with my old riding partner joe d. its been YEARS since ive either ridden there or with him so it should be kinda cool! gonna have to talk him into a very early start so i can get home early to be family guy! im sure all of these hours getting ready for the mammoth ride are getting to whit even if she doesnt say anything.

btw, im going to start taking more pictures and posting them up here as well, seems like the thing to do since its so damned simple!!!!!!!!

good times

gawd

today was a toughie..... went up big t in the heat...... gawd....all in all it wasnt even all that bad, but damn.... ended up with around 68 miles and 3800 feet of climbing, i feel like i did twice that!!! that and i have some world class chafing going on! today was for sure a toughen up ride! showed me where all of my soft places are and that they need to get tougher, no sweat right??????

on a lighter note, i was six pounds lighter when i got back then when id left...... good times...

going to see star trek today

man i hope its good!

couldnt sleep last night, got maybe four hours.... somehting hit me like a ton of bricks at about 1130 and proceeded to screw my whole day today. had my ride planned in my head, now nuffin. sitting here watching into the west with a pounding headache. suuuuucks.

in a bit itll be time to get ready to head to the bridge for my geek out. hooray.

No more work means more riding and house projects

its quickly looking like ill have little to no work until sometime in september(fucking actors.....). till tthen i guess its gonna be all about cheap and/or free stuff! the mammoth trip is still a go, slowly looking like ill have company for it. thatll help offset a bit of the motel costs as well! even cheaper! other than the rooms im guessing that this little adventure will cost around 25 or 30 bucks a day in food and water! a bargain!!!!!

also been looking into museums and whatnot that could provide a few hours of entertainment for next to nothing! whit found this place...., plus theres always the getty!!!

as for the house i will now be able to finish the patio cover (removing nails, sanding, and painting) as well as sanding and painting all the shitty wood siding on the front of the house. paints cheap as is sand paper! been wanting to do all of this for aloooong time! now ive got it!

enough for now. tomorrow is little t over to santa clarita and back. never done it before but it should be around 50 miles and 4000'ish feet of climbing.....

good times

Mammoth Plans Moving Forward

Lots of help from lots of cool people on this one! rich howe(former bike a thoner who still does the ride each year), dave bloom(cal trans), vic and gene from SCBF for keeping one eye on the route whilst driving up, geoff mcquilkin and greg reis(@ the mono lake committee), and of course all my friends and family!

its all coming together.

heres a pic of the first gear choices...

so far it is....

one pair of trunks
one t shirt
flip flops
spare tire (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk...)
charger for the garmin
charger for iphone(not shown)
bottle of sunblock
bottle of chamois butter
tooth brush and paste
eyeglass wipes
eye drops
small first aid kit
small repair kit

all jammed in my acorn bag

still not sure about...

wind vest
arm and knee warmers
deoderant (seriously...)
cycling cap
small book
extra jersey and/or undershirt

i also plan on wearing a camelbak for soooooo many reasons!

still debating a bento bag. might be nice to have my food right in front of me, but at the same time they kind of bug me.

almost certain of my clothes choice as well. probably my summer weight rapha jersey and my assos shorts. still trying to decide if ill want a sleeveless as well.... would probably get scorched though....

ill try and rig everything up in the next week or so and post a pic.

well.... reality is slowly rearing its ugly head. our whitney permit was not successful and im slowly admitting to myself that i simply wont be ready for the eastern sierra double. in retrospect i dont know what i was thinking. since roy was born ive been able to exercise but nothing like whats necessary for events like those. oh well, next year...... now its time to focus on the mammoth run, thats still doable. painful, but doable!!!!!

tomorow i get to play back bastards of utopia for pacho(film maker). we'll see what he thinks about my hacky little mix! cross your fingers! i think he'll like it though.

I am.....

apparently working late! wes craven is one cool guy!

that is all....

This Weekend

Another run up to Santa Barbara by bike and then a nice ride home via Amtrak, good times. Not 100% sure how many people will be joining yet but one thing I'm fairly sure about is that its gonna be HOT!!!!!


If anything it'll be an adventure!!!! This'll be the fourth time I'll have done this. Gotta get my shit together for all of the other stuff I've got coming up.

Wish me luck!

Number one post

I highly doubt anyone will ever read this but here goes....

This is intended to track both my motivated times as well as my unmotivated times.

For this summer i have three major goals.

1. Successfully make it to the top of Mount Whitney

I failed miserably due to blisters the size of quarters on both heels in 2007, no bueno as i was going great otherwise. Should know my permit dates here pretty quick!

2. Successfully complete Planet Ultra's Eastern Sierra Double Century

Another 2007 FAIL. Wasn't even kind of ready. At least i realized this at a safe bail out spot on the road and was able to pedal my ass back to Bishop.... Still pissed about that one.

3. Ride from home sweet home here in Van Nuys to Mammoth lakes in four days to meet the family for our summer vacation.

This is somehting I've wanted to do since i was about ten. I was on vacation up in Mammoth and saw the Mono Lake bike a thoners come through. For several years the Mono Lake Committee put on a ride from the reflecting pools at the DWP offices in downtown LA to Mono to raise awareness for the plight of the lake. By the time i was old enough to do it they'd stopped doing it so nows my chance!!!!! It'll be a motel to motel type adventure as i have no desire to drag everything with me and so i can go a bit quicker. Should be interesting! A couple of friends have expressed interest in doing some of the ride with me, always good to have some company!