So Hungry

Much to the amazement of others I went riding last night. Nothing too fancy but at least I got out there. I might add that it started to rain in the middle of the ride and I did not turn around. Enough patting myself on the back, the real reason for this post is to ask a simple question: Why does exercise make me so hungry? Fifteen minutes into the ride all I could think about was what I was going to eat when I was done. I had everything from In and Out burgers to tuna melts dancing in my head. When I got back to the car I would have eaten out of a dumpster if one was in my periphery. Alas my love of ribs won out. Once again I went straight from riding to Mr. Cecil’s. I don’t know if barbeque is considered comfort food but I certainly feel comfortable eating it.

Why do I bother looking at the menu when I go there? I always get the same thing: root beer, beef ribs, hush puppies, and baked beans. I refuse to deviate. As I said earlier, it comforts me. Last night though my crafty waitress tricked me. She made the mistake of bringing me baby back ribs instead of beef. I really wanted to send them back but my hunger wasn’t willing to wait. So happy I was too greedy to send them back. They were so damn good!!! Kudos Mr. Cecil, kudos.

Recap of the ride:
Calories burned riding = 400
Calories ingested at Mr. Cecil’s = 2500 - I might be selling Mr. Cecil short.

Sweet ride!!

Never has there been someone more over equipped and under qualified. Here is a pic of my new sweet ride!!!

I am back!

It has been awhile since I posted. I was like a super nova. I burned bright but then all of a sudden I was gone. Well I am back and ready to write. I finally had something happen today that I felt was worthy of a post.

I was driving into work today and I experienced something that might as well been on the show "My name is Earl". I was on Inglewood Blvd and I needed to get over one lane in order to get on the 405. Now traffic was basically at a stand still so in order for me to get over I had to put on my blinker and hope that some one would be kind enough to let me in. I have encountered two types of drivers in these situations. The first is the nice driver who is all too happy to let me in. The second is the driver who refuses to make eye contact and feels there is no way in hell they are going to give up an inch of headway. Today I met up with the second type of driver. I pulled up right next to this girl and made it clear I wanted to get in front of her. She was so adamant about not letting me in that she floored it so there would be no space for me. Well in her act of road rage she actually slammed right into the car in front of her. I sat there for a second in disbelief, and then I pulled in front of the car she crashed into.

The best part about this is the women who wouldn't let me in had a license plate frame that said "GOD IS AWESOME". Well I have to say GOD certainly is.

Karma is a bitch!!!!!

Ride 4 - Mr. Cecil's - 11-3-2005

Blah blah blah. I really have nothing to say about the ride I did tonight. After riding last night and being woken up at 3 A.M. by a stupid pager, I could barely pedal. I did have the energy to go to Mr. Cecils straight form the trail head though. Nothing makes you feel more alive than a half rack of beef ribs, beans, and hush puppies. So damn good.

Ride 3 - Crap Day - Great Ride - 11-2-2005

Today was one of those days that just sucked. I didn't have breakfast. I got in trouble at work for not answering a page in the middle of the night. I got in trouble at work for doing crappy work. I was stuck in meetings all day. I realized that I had $700 less than I had thought in checking. There was terrible traffic because of a Bush bashing protest by my apartment. I could go on but I am sure you get the idea.

This crap day does have a silver lining though. I got to go out for a ride tonight. I had planned to go with a friend but at the last minute he bailed. Everyone was saying don't go. Why bother with the traffic, etc. I knew I had to go. The anger I felt all day had to be released somewhere. I decided to take the turner and do a huge loop on some of the local trails. I parked my car on Capri and I road the 6 mile fire road to the top of Sullivan Canyon. The fire road is kinda boring and there are some really steep sections, but it does have its pluses. For one, mid way up the hill there is a good piece of single track off to one side. It goes through some dense woods. I am mentioning the woods because they are rare in LA. After the single track and a bunch more miles of climbing, I ended up at the top of Sullivan Canyon. I sang the praises of the canyon on Sunday. Let me just say that as good as it is during the day it is ten times better at night. The combination of the dark and my full suspension bike made for a great decent. I only had one minor screw up on my way down. I went left at one point when I should have gone right and ended up eating it. Nothing major, just some scrapes. It did freak me out though because if it was any worse, the kids from Stand By Me would have had to go look for my body. Once I got out of the canyon I met up with about 25 riders getting ready to start their ride. It turns out that Supergo runs a weekly Wednesday night ride from their shop. I may have to check it out next week for variety. After a brief chat with the group, I road down Westridge, out to Sunset and back up to Capri. Midway to my car, a deer got right in front of me on the street. I tried to get my camera out to grab a shot of him but by the time my fat hand turned the camera on, it was gone.

All in all I have to say that the ride really turned my day around. While I was riding I didn't think about the garbage that happened just a few hours earlier. All I thought about was the ride. Now I am home, calmed down and really just looking forward to getting out there again tomorrow.

Oh yeah in case anyone is interested the whole ride took me about an hour and forty-five minutes. One hour to get up the fire road. Twenty-five minutes to decend the canyon and another twenty on the road back to the car.

Ride 2 - Burnt Car - 10-30-05

I wanted to make sure I had enough energy for today's ride so I stopped at Mcdonald's on the way. Two egg mcmuffins later I was at the trail head. There is something about egg, cheese, and canadian bacon that just makes me want to ride faster.
The ride:
Cruised up the Westrdige Fire road to the Nike base just like the other night. From there, instead of going back the way I came I did a loop on the burnt car single track. Burnt car is a funny trail. There is literally a burnt car laying at the bottom of the single track. Seeing a junker in the woods is nothing new but what I can't figure out in this case is how it got there. It isn't like a person could have driven it down the single track. It could be the chicken or the egg conundrum. Which came first the single track or the burnt car.
After Burnt car I went down Sullivan Canyon. For anyone who has ever ridden in the Santa Monica mountains or plans to I have to say, you need to do the Sullivan Canyon single track as soon as possible. The Canyon use to be one of the best local trails around, then after much use and a ton of rain it basically became a glorified fire road. Well Mother Nature has struck again and after last winter's rain, the trail is now an awesome single track again. There is plenty of stuff to keep you interested as you go down the trail. Lots of rolling up and down, logs, twisty tight turns, etc.
Once done with the canyon it was a quick ride up the road to the car. It was about 11 miles of riding total and I was done in just under 2 hours.

All in all a good day of riding. Weather was great and the conditions were nice.

Ride 1 - Han "Solo" - 10-26-05

Tonight was my first ride since I decided to ride more and bitch less. It was also my first night ride alone. I wasn't sure what to expect. It was nice to be out there solo. It gave me a bit of fear that helped me move along. Sadly I now know that fear really doesn't make me go that fast. I am so the fat kid in the horror movie who gets killed first because he fell down while everyone else ran away or it could be because I was eating a sandwich while everyone ran away. Anyway here were tonight's stats:

I took the Westridge fireroad to the Nike base. There I turned around and started to ride the singletrack back but honestly I ran out of steam. I ended up cutting off the trail and getting back on the fireroad. It kinda sucked but I have to start somewhere. The loop was about 8 miles and it took me an hour and three minutes. Not bad considering I stopped to take some photos. Trail conditions weren't bad except in a few areas. I expected more errorsion from the rains a couple of weeks ago. I took some pics of where the trail had the worst errosion. In this one area I completely pussed and walked due to the fear of breaking a leg with no one but coyotes to help me. Some how I don't think they would help that much.

I am planning to ride again Saturday. Hopefully this time I can get some people to come with me. I would like to at least go faster than someone.

Will post again soon.

I am no Lance!!

I was going to make this first post all jokey about how I am fat and out of shape but I have decided to actually use this blog as a place to track my rides. I have been shamed into riding my bike by one of my friends. It seems as of late I have become more of a bike builder than a bike rider. I will admit I like working on my bike and I like the mechanics of how it all works together but I do like to ride also. So here it is, a place for me to track my rides. I figure I can give the vital stats of each ride. Time, bike ridden, location, amount of pain I am in, etc. So enjoy and please feel free to comment even if it is pure mockery.

Barry

Se sordo, McFly?

First!!!

Hi, I'm Randy. I am an asshole from the future who's traveled back in time just to post this video: