First Ride of 2011

I was bummed out that we didn’t get to ride much in December.  The rain and the holidays got in the way – okay, it was mostly the rain.  I especially wanted to get out there and test out the bike post-fitting.  So it was a relief and total refresher to catch some dry weather and head out for a post-New Year ride.  That is, until we got rained on.

We headed out bright and early to Santa Monica the day after New Year’s.  It was another freaking cold morning.  We had originally considered doing a ride on New Year’s Day for half a nano second, but we knew there was no way we could get up that early after New Year’s Eve.  Hee hee!  We joined up with Shifting Gears, another awesome training ride group that I used to do a lot of training rides with.  They tend to do most of their rides on the Westside and a lot of them start from Helen’s Cycles.  The folks at Helen’s are super supportive.  They even had someone open up the store just for us so we could use their restroom and storefront to get ready.

The original plan was to ride up the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu and back.  I was excited about riding this route.  I remember really liking the PCH rides, although certain sections of the PCH can be pretty dangerous so one has to be extra careful riding on PCH.  But given all the right conditions, a ride up and down PCH can be pretty sweet.  Unfortunately, PCH will have to wait.  Soon after we met up with the group, we were told that rain was expected soon.  In fact, rain was already reported at Oxnard and the storm was moving south toward Malibu.  The training ride leaders quickly came up with Plan B – a local ride to Brentwood and a climb (yes, I said ‘climb’) up Bundy Drive.  It was a going to be a much shorter route than originally planned, but at least we could get some riding in before the rain hit.

We took off from Helen’s and headed toward the beach.  We then headed north and steered back east via San Vicente Boulevard.  Finally we reached Bundy and headed north.  Bundy is a good training ground for beginner riders.  It starts off flat, but gradually becomes a 2- to 3-mile climb to the end.  It sounds bad, but the climb is actually fairly nice and steady.  When we almost reached the end of Bundy, Doreen, one of the veteran training ride leaders who has done every AIDS/LifeCycle ride, noticed that Sam was riding on the wrong gear.  Unbeknownst to us, Sam’s chain was stuck on the high gears and he couldn’t shift to the lower gears.  What that means is that he wasn’t able to switch to the lower (easy) gears that make it a heck of a lot easier to climb.  But Sam’s a tough one.  He soldiered on and made it to the top without breaking a sweat.  Good thing that the bike was still rideable and he was able to continue.  (The bike has since been fixed by the folks at I.Martin.)

Coming back down the hill was fun.  You do have to watch your speed though.  Some riders like to fly down real fast, but that always freaks me out.  I tend to have my hands on my brake a lot so that I can better control my downhill speed.  Once we got to the bottom of Bundy, we took the same route back to Helen’s.  We were able to avoid the rain until the last four miles.  It didn’t rain very hard at first, but it was enough to be a nuisance.  I don’t recall ever riding in the rain before, so this might have been my first time.  Chris, one of the training ride leaders, told us a rainy-day tip: when riding in the rain, avoid metal (e.g. manhole covers) and paint (e.g. lane lines) as they tend to get very slippery.  Noted!!

In total we rode about 17.8 miles.  Even though I had wanted to do a longer ride, I really did not want to get caught in the rain.  Plus, I was super hungry and needed to eat.  Oink, oink!

I paid close attention to my body during the ride in order to assess the new fit of the bike.  The new shorter handlebar felt a lot better.  My elbows didn’t hurt at all, which was a good thing.  The new seat also felt better, although it could have been that I was wearing a better pair of shorts with more padding (enough said).  On future rides, I may need to pay more attention to the seat height.  On one hand, I think it could be a little higher so that my knees don’t have to bend as much.  My knees did bother me a bit, which is a rare issue for me when biking.  On the other hand, if the seat is too high I’ll risk overstretching my calves, in particular my left calf.  I’ll need to keep an eye on this as well.  Finally, my shoulders and neck were way too stiff.  Since I haven’t ridden much of late, I’m going to give this the benefit of the doubt and ride a few more times before making a judgment.  Perhaps when I ride more I’ll get more used to the bike and my body will loosen up.  Let’s hope.

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Alice H.; Anonymous; Dean H.; Eric R.; Eric W.; Hoa S. & Cesar C.; Jonipher K.; Judy Y.; Julie W.; Kenneth W. & Sophie D.; Sanjay C.; Siana-Lea G. & Edgar A.; Teh-Shan L. & Tommy L.; and Yvonne & Peter L.