Playa del Rey

After riding in some pretty cold and wet weather, we finally caught a break.  We joined Shifting Gears on a nice and pretty ride down to Playa del Rey.  We met up with the group at Helen’s Cycles in Santa Monica.  There were about 40 riders altogether, many of whom were also training for the AIDS/LifeCycle ride while others were members of Shifting Gears who were out for a leisure ride with the group.  We were even joined by our friend Bennel (yeah!).

Beth, one of the Shifting Gears training ride leaders, kicked us off with the safety speech and told us about the ride for the day.  The plan was to head south to Playa del Rey and circle back up to Brentwood with an optional climb up Bundy Drive.  Seeing that Sam and I already climbed Bundy the week before, we weren’t jumping up and down to do some climbing, so we opted to see how the first part of the training ride went first.

We took off toward the beach then headed south to Venice and Marina del Rey.  Once we reached the end of Marina del Rey, we entered the Ballona Creek bike path and made our way across to Playa del Rey.  I recall doing a lot of training rides on the Ballona Creek bike path when I first trained for AIDS/LifeCycle 2.  Ballona Creek runs from Culver City to Playa del Rey and it has a really nice bike bath that runs alongside it.  We were only on a short section of the bike path on this ride, but we did ride past the UCLA Marine Aquatic Center where the UCLA crew team practices.  Of course, I couldn’t help but shout out “GO BRUINS!”

Our first pit stop was on the bridge of the bike path that connects Marina del Rey and Playa del Rey, over the Ballona Creek.  It was a nice spot to take a break.  At that point, we had gone about 10 miles and we had ridden at a pretty fast pace (roughly about 15 to 18 miles per hour).  I thought we were heading back up north to Brentwood at this point, but it turned out we still had some ways to go south.  From there, we headed down toward the outskirts of Los Angeles International Airport and circled around the airport to head back north.  We eventually made our way back to Venice, where we rested at Peet’s Coffee & Tea on Main Street.  Pit stops are important as they give riders an opportunity to take a break and stretch.  Most pit stops are planned ahead of time, so they are usually places where riders can refill their water bottles, get a little snack and use the restrooms.  Café and coffee shops are great for these reasons.

Sam and I decided at the pit stop that we were not going to do the Bundy option.  We had already done 20 miles – at a pretty fast pace – and we felt we had done a great training ride already.  After our break, we headed back up to Helen’s and called it a day.  Altogether, we rode 31.74 miles.

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: An L.; Bernice & Ricardo H.; Betty S. & Bennel T.; Deanna K.; Doreena W. & Jenny P.; Karin W. & Jeff M.; Patricia & Derrick B.; Rebecca S. & Hoyt S.; Stacey & Joe E.; and Stewart & Pat K.