A Tiara Finish

After 6 months of training, 22 training rides and 1,012.04 miles ridden, we have completed our training for AIDS/LifeCycle 10.  We met up with the Chain Gang for our very last training ride.  It’s hard to believe that our training is over.  It’s definitely bitter sweet.

The ride was short – only 22.07 miles.  We started in Griffith Park and rode west along the north border of Griffith Park past Forest Lawn Memorial Park.  We circled around the studios in Burbank and headed back down to Griffith Park.  Then we turned onto Griffith Park Drive and climbed what most people call the “Garbage Hill”.  It was given the name because there used to be a landfill there.  It’s rather shocking to learn that there once was a landfill in this beautiful park.  I didn’t see any garbage, landfill or Jake Gyllenhaal (who’s known to ride this hill), but the scenery was breathtaking.  On top of that, we had great weather, just perfect for riding.  It almost made the climb effortless.  But honestly, it really wasn’t that bad of a climb.  Maybe all that training is finally paying off.  After our descent, we repeated the loop around Burbank and returned to Griffith Park.

The Chain Gang held a pot luck picnic at Griffith Park immediately after the ride.  Training ride leaders Tony and Chris also conducted a packing clinic, which was immensely helpful.  They taught us how to pack effectively for AIDS/LifeCycle and offered up all the tips and tricks they know.  Tony also showed us how to put up a tent, which, for a non-camper like me, was very helpful.  Riders are responsible for setting up their own tent when we get into camp every night on AIDS/LifeCycle, so it’s important to know how to master the art of tenting.

Training for AIDS/LifeCylce has been challenging but it also has been rewarding.  It’s been such an adventure to be able to ride with Sam and all the awesome riders we’ve met along the way.  Special shout out to our riding groups, the Chain Gang and Shifting Gears, without whom we would not be ready for AIDS/LifeCycle.  In particular, all the training ride leaders who have helped us along the way like Beth, Leslie, Doreen, Tony, Uncle Mel, Mel and Chris, who jazzed up my helmet with a princess tiara.  Of course, beaucoup thanks go out to the awesome team at I.Martin: Cameron, Matt, Ryan and the one-and-only Jaime.  Last but not least, hats off to every single person who donated money and cheered me on.  Your support means a lot to me.  Thank you!

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Ericson H. and Jimmy D.

May 28, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

San Gabriel River Bike Trail

We joined the Chain Gang for our second to last training ride and it was a good one.  Up until that point, I had been having all kinds of problems.  First, it was cramping on my left calf, which was caused by sciatica.  Then, it was a sharp, consistent pain in my neck and shoulder area, as a result of extreme muscle tightness, possibly caused by bruxism.  Finally, it was pain in my right knee due to riding in stronger-than-usual wind that resulted in a meniscus injury.  Let’s just say training has been hard on me.  It certainly has been harder on me than on Sam. So when we decided to join the Chain Gang ride, I had no idea that it was going to be one of my best rides ever.

Earlier in the week, Sam and I had dropped off our bikes at I.Martin.  Ryan, at their service department, gave us a basic tune-up to make sure the bikes are ready to go for our ride in June.  I also swapped out my saddle with another.  This would be my fourth saddle including the original saddle that came with my bike.  Matt, I.Martin’s sales supervisor, also gave me a quick fitting to make sure everything looked good with me on the bike.  So I was excited to go and test out the tuned-up bike and new saddle.

The route was simple:  ride the full length of the San Gabriel River Bike Trail from north to south and back.  Right from the start, I could tell things felt pretty good.  I was going at a pretty good pace and my knee was doing well.  It helped that the bike trail was paved and flat.  On top of that, there were no stop signs or traffic lights.  That meant we could ride for a long time without stopping.  That sounds nice, right?  It was nice!  Since we had pretty much been riding on the streets, we hadn’t had the opportunity to just ride and not worry about cars or the surroundings, so this felt like a real treat.

The trail starts just north of Azusa and ends in Seal Beach.  The round-trip loop is just under 80 miles – for us, it was 76.08 miles to be exact.  The trail mostly follows the San Gabriel River and the 605 freeway.  We rode past the Santa Fe Dam pretty early on in the day and there were some mini-dams along the way which was cool.  Oh!  There’s  also a horse trail alongside the bike trail, so we saw people riding horses along the way.  We ended up riding the entire way down to Seal Beach without stopping – all 40 miles.  Along the way, we passed Irwindale, Baldwin Park, El Monte, Pico Rivera, Whittier, Downey, Norwalk, Bellflower, Cerritos, Lakewood, Cyrpess and Long Beach.  The way down took just under three hours.  It was the longest I’ve ever ridden without stopping.

The trail ends at River’s End Café in Seal Beach where we had brunch.  It was a yummy brunch.  I guess I was really hungry.  We hung out for an hour or so and then we got on our bikes for the return trip.  During the last 10 miles down, we faced a little bit of headwind, so I was hoping that we would catch some tailwind on the way up.  Sure enough, we got lucky and picked up some incredible speed on the way back – at times, we were riding at 20 miles per hour.  We haven’t had much tailwind this training season, so it was quite a pleasant surprise.  Just like on the ride down to Seal Beach, we did not stop riding on the return trip.  But this time we got back in a little over 2 hours and 15 minutes.  That was the fastest I have ever ridden and it felt so good!  And I did it without any knee pain.  Granted, we pretty much rode on flat ground the whole way, so the route wasn’t going to give me too much trouble.  The true test will be riding on hills, which we won’t be doing anymore until the actual ride in June.  Still, this ride helped boost my confidence and it was a really good – and perfect – way to end our training.

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Anonymous; Darrel C.; and Michael O.

May 21, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Bikes, Trains and Automobiles

With three more weeks left to AIDS/LifeCycle, Sam and I headed down to Orange County for one of our last training rides.  Team OC, the local riding group, was hosting their annual special ride: the Solana Beach Ride.  The plan was to ride from Irvine down to Solana Beach and then take the Amtrak train back to Irvine.  Sounds like fun!  However, being that we live in Los Angeles, we had to leave the house at 5 am – that’s right, 5 am!!! – in order to get toIrvineby 6 am.  That’s so freaking early!!!

The organizers had prepared two route options for riders to select.  One was a 75-mile ride and the other was a 91-mile ride that included some extra hills and climbing.  We decided to go with the “shorter” 75-mile option since I really wanted to take it easy on my right knee given the problem it’s been having.  Besides, we had already done other longer rides and plenty of hills and climbing, so we were fine with the shorter option.  The organizers also gave riders the option to start anytime between 6:30 am to 7:30 am.  Since all riders must arrive at Solana Beach by 3 pm sharp, slower riders were encouraged to start earlier in order to finish the ride on time.  We opted for the earliest start time at 6:30 am.

Most riders that took off at 6:30 am chose the longer option, so there were only a few of us doing the 75-mile route at that time.  Fortunately, we met a new friend, Mark, who knew the route pretty well since he lives in Orange County.  It was great to ride with someone more familiar with the lay of the land.  It turned out he knew of Sam from his training blog.  Sam’s famous.  Hee hee!

Right off the start, we hit some pretty unwelcomed rolling hills.  And here I thought the shorter route was pretty flat.  Oops!  The rolling hills and climbs didn’t help my knee, which was already starting to hurt earlier on in the day.  I had visited I.Martin earlier in the week and Jaime, the awesome store manager, got me a new and more comfortable seat (i.e. more padding).  But the seat needed to be pushed back a little bit for more comfortable riding, so that didn’t help my knee.  This was on top of the knee problem I’ve been having (which my doctor later said was probably due to an injury to the meniscus).  So I was having a pretty rough ride.

We were the first group of riders to roll into the first couple of pit stops, which was very odd.  We’ve never ever been in the front of the pack, so this was very unusual for us.  We didn’t see the pit crew (with snacks and water for riders) until the third pit stop at San Onofre State Beach.  It was also at the third pit stop that we met the first 91-mile rider.  We had been riding for about 4 hours and we were at about 42 miles.  This 91-mile rider took off that morning at 7:30 am, so he had only been riding for 3 hours and was already at 58 miles.  When I found that out, I felt so slow.  I mean, seriously, he was riding at an average of 20 miles per hour.  WOW!!!  But he was not alone.  A few more 91-mile riders passed us soon after that.  These were some intense elite riders, for sure.

After the third pit stop, we rode into Camp Pendleton, which is the major base for the U.S. Marine Corps on the West Coast.  I found out that they don’t always allow outside commuters in, but we were allowed entry on this particular day.  This stretch was about 7 miles long and it ended up being the windiest part of the day.  It was nothing like the wind we faced going toSanta Barbara, but it was still windy nonetheless.  I was looking forward to riding through Camp Pendleton, but I hated this stretch because of the wind.  Also, it was a little boring since there were no recruits out and about doing training exercises.

The last 6 miles was really boring too.  And I was really tired by then, so I was riding even slower, especially on an injured knee.  We eventually got in at 2 pm and I was so happy to be done.  Total miles ridden were 75.31.  We realized that at our pace, there was no way we could have done the 91-mile option and be finished by 3 pm.  I’m glad we chose the shorter option.  The finish point was at Pizza Port, which is apparently a very popular pizza joint in town.  The organizers had pre-ordered our pizzas ahead of time, so our pizzas were ready for us when we arrived.  It was a good thing too, since I was really hungry.  After pizza, we walked across the street to the Solana Beach station and took an Amtrak train back to Irvine.  The train ride was about an hour long and was pretty fun.  It was a double-decker and we sat on the top level.  The organizers had rented a truck to transport all our bikes back toIrvine, so they were already waiting for us when we got back to theIrvinestation.  But we were not done yet.  We still had to sit in traffic on Interstate 5 for another hour before getting back home to Los Angeles.  It was a really long day!

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Anonymous; Cathy D.; Clara C.; Edward L.; Kalika Y.; Rebecca Y.; and William T.

May 14, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Arroyo Seco Bike Path

After a hellish ride to Santa Barbara the previous week, we wanted to do a light ride on Mother’s Day Sunday.  We decided to venture out on our own since all the official training rides were pretty long or hilly.  We wanted to do a ride under 50 miles.  Partly, it was because I wanted to take it easy with my right knee given that I have had a lot of problems with it lately.  Sam suggested that we ride directly from the house, which we’ve never done before.  The plan was to ride north toward Pasadena and then head east as far as we wanted to go, perhaps Monrovia or Duarte.  It felt strange to ride freely without a route sheet.

So we started our ride on the Arroyo Seco Bike Path, which runs parallel the 110 freeway from Montecito Heights to just north of Herman.  I’ve seen this bike path before from the freeway, but I had never ridden on it.  It’s only about 3-4 miles, so it’s not that long.  But it was really cool to finally be on it.  After we got off the bike path, and almost running over some chickens on the side of the road, we rode to South Pasadena and headed north toward the Rose Bowl.  Up until then, the morning had been a bit cold and overcast, but it started to rain right before we reached the Rose Bowl.  We decided to turn around somewhere in Pasadena when we hit 10 miles and took the same route back, making it a 20-mile ride.  Our first ride from the house and it was ruined by the rain.  Argh!

But rain was not the only thing that ruined the day.  When we reached South Pasadena, we had a nasty encounter with a driver.  I was coming to a stop sign and signaled with my hand to turn left.  The impatient driver behind me decided to honk at me.  Usually, I would let it go, but I was in a bad mood and I just lost it.  I mean, I really lost it.  I turned around screamed at her and shouted that by law, bikers are moving vehicles and we can be on the road too.  I might have said other things including the “B” word.  She responded by saying that she’s late.  Oh now I get it.  You’re running late, so it’s somehow my fault because I’m riding on a bike in front of your fancy car (actually, it wasn’t that fancy).  Seriously, lady?  You’re late and you decided to take it out on me?  Are you freaking kidding me?  I wish I had this on video.

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Anonymous (2); Bryant Y.; Deborah Y. & Tony Y.; Ingin K.; Jenny H. & Jeff V.; Julie T.; Mark. Y., Bich Ngoc  D., Daisy & Mr. Fox; and Terry C.

May 8, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

200 Ways to Say, “Hell to the No!” – Part 2: The Whale Edition

DAY 2

When I woke up the following day in Santa Barbara, my knee was still really bothering me and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to ride.  It was possible I had pulled something or that my knee was overworked from riding so hard in the wind.  Either way, I was concerned.  Apryl, one of the volunteer massage therapists helping riders with stretches and adjustments, worked on me a bit and I think it helped.  I decided to ride, mostly because I really wanted to complete this trip.  I think it would have devastated me to not finish.  Besides, I knew that AIDS/LifeCycle was around the corner and I really wanted to get in a substantial back-to-back ride in my training before June.  So I rode.

The first 10 miles of the ride was painful so I was riding really slow.  My knee was not a happy camper and I rode harder with my left leg to compensate.  We tried to take off right away so we’d be in the front or middle of the pack, but because I couldn’t go very fast, other riders started passing us one by one and we quickly fell behind toward the end of the pack.  Sam was kind enough to stay at my pace all day long so I didn’t have to ride alone.  We eventually made it to Pit Stop 1 on Old Rincon Highway, which seemed like it took forever because I was struggling.

We were worried about a repeat with the wind.  According to the weather report, we were supposed to face more headwind, this time coming at us from the south.  The weather report was right.  There was wind, but it wasn’t as bad as the day before.  I mean, seriously, nothing could ever be as bad as the day before!!  The sun was also out, so it was a pretty nice day.  It started getting hotter later in the day, so perhaps it was good that the wind was there to help balance out the heat.  One thing’s for sure, it was a beautiful sight to ride down the coast.  Sam and I live further inland, so we don’t venture out to the coast much.  And even if we did, it’s hit or miss what the ocean would be like.  But on this occasion, the sky was clear and the ocean was actually blue.  It was absolutely spectacular!

At one point on PCH just north of Malibu, we saw a bunch of riders stopped on the side of the road ahead of us.  Usually, when riders are on the side of the road, it’s because someone got a flat tire or needed a break.  Neither was the case this time.  When we caught up with the riders, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that they were watching whales in the ocean.  That’s right, WHALES!!  We counted perhaps three or four whales AND there were dolphins too.  They were swimming and playing close to the rocky shore, so we got a pretty good view of them.  It was amazing to see them.  I’ve seen dolphins and whales at animal parks before, but never in the ocean.  This was my first time and it was such a treat.  Seeing them made up for all the crazy wind and my knee pain.

Speaking of my knee, surprisingly, it wasn’t bothering me as much in the middle of the day.  Riding on flat land wasn’t as big of a problem as climbing hills.  Since most of the way so far had been flat, I was actually doing okay.  But I was really dreading the last part of the ride in Malibu where there are four relatively big climbs.  I didn’t know if my knee would hold out during this stretch.  When we rested at the last pit stop of the day at Zuma Beach, I reapplied some Biofreeze, a menthol pain-relieving gel, on my knee and neck/shoulder.  I had been putting it on throughout the day, as well as the day before.  I was going to need it before the upcoming climbs.  As I had suspected, the knee pain kicked in again on the climbs and I had to rest along the way.  Fortunately, I struggled through all the climbing and we eventually made it back to Santa Monica at about 5 pm.  Most of the riders were already back by then and there were only about a dozen riders behind us.  The ride was a little shorter than the previous day, only 90.31 miles.  So we didn’t exactly ride 200 miles altogether, but who’s counting, right?

May 1, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

200 Ways to Say, “Hell to the No!” – Part 1: The Windy Edition

DAY 1

During this training season, the ride that I was looking forward to the most was the Santa Barbara Double Century.  It is, as the name says, a 200-mile ride from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara and back.  The ride is organized by our riding group Shifting Gears.  Props go to our awesome leaders Beth and Leslie, who celebrated their anniversary on the ride.  (Happy anniversary Beth and Leslie!)  This is probably one of the most popular rides of the year.   I did this ride for the first time in 2003 when I was training for AIDS/LifeCycle 2.  I had so much fun that I wanted to do it again the following year, even though I was no longer training for AIDS/LifeCycle 3 in 2004.  Sadly, since I was not training as much that year, I wasn’t quite physically ready and could not complete the ride.  I ended up getting a (car) ride back to Los Angeles by crew members.  Needless to say, it was very embarrassing for me.  This has been hanging over me since then and it’s probably one of the reasons why I stopped riding.  So this year I was determined to complete this ride.

The ride started at Helen’s Cycles in Santa Monica at 7:30 am.  We rode up Pacific Coast Highway toward Malibu.  It was early and a little cold, but mostly it was windy.  Sam and I had checked the weather report the night before and it said that we would face headwind coming from the north so we were expecting some wind.  By the time we reached Malibu, the wind turned brutal.   At our first mini climb of the day just past Malibu Canyon Road, the wind really picked up.  It started coming at us from the right and blowing at what must have been 20-30 miles per hour.  I was already going really slow climbing, but the crosswind made the climb nearly impossible.  I had to find the strength to pedal twice as hard to compensate for both the climb and the wind.  Controlling my bike was very difficult.  Several times, the wind blew so hard that it pushed me to the left and into the road.  I was swerving onto and off of PCH.  Thank goodness it was still pretty early so fewer cars were on the road.  Still, it was very dangerous and I was genuinely scared.

Further up Malibu, we faced a new challenge.  The wind started picking up and tossing sand and dirt around in the air.  We were occasionally hit with sandblasts, which were not only dangerous but painful.  It was so bad at one particular spot that one of the volunteers had to be stationed on the side of PCH, yelling at riders to be careful.  I couldn’t hear that he was screaming “SANDBLAST” at me until I was actually hit with the sandblast.  Ouch!  I actually got this on tape so be sure to check out my video post.

Unbeknownst to us, the worst was yet to come.  At about 40 miles, we got off PCH and went inland on Las Posas Road.  I was actually relieved when I saw that we were changing roads thinking that we might get a little break from the wind.  Damn, was I wrong!  As soon as I got on Las Posas, I knew we were in trouble.  The wind was blowing twice as hard.  I swear, it felt like it was coming at us at 50 miles per hour.  It was mostly crosswind coming from the right.  If you had a chance to see the terrain you would understand why.  This stretch of road felt like it was in the middle of nowhere.  Vast, open, farm land was all around us, kinna like a small country road or that stretch of nowhere on Interstate 5 in Central California.  I could see sand blowing in circles in the air in front of me.  I pedaled as hard as I could, which was not fast by any means.  For the next three long miles I had to ride with my face turned to the left.  For one thing, it was hard to keep my head facing forward due to the strong wind.  It was also painful to breathe through my nose because the wind carried sand.  My nose was running like crazy and I was sniffing all along the way.  My eyes were tearing up but I couldn’t tell if it was because sand was constantly blowing into my eyes or that I was crying.  It probably was both.

At the next pit stop, I learned that some of the riders were blown off their bikes from the wind and some had to get off their bikes and walk.  I felt bad for the riders that fell and was rather shocked that I didn’t get blown off myself.  From the pit stop, we rode west to Port Hueneme where we faced the only tailwind of the day.  Those seven miles felt comparatively easy.  It was a welcome break from the wind.  From there, we continued onto Channel Islands and eventually to Ventura, where we stopped for lunch at Marina Park by the coast.  After lunch, we rode up the boringest part of the route, eight miles up Old Rincon Highway.  It’s a long stretch of awful, unpaved bumpy road.  It was about 70-75 miles into the day’s ride, so we hit that “Are we there yet?” wall.  It was on this stretch of road that I had to stop riding in 2004.  This time, there was no stopping me.  I was going to ride on.

It was already by far the worst ride I had ever done, but now I had a new problem.  At some point in the second half of the day, my right knee started to really hurt.  This was on top of my continued neck/shoulder problem.  I was just having a miserable time.  I wanted to give up so bad, but I told myself that was not an option.  When we reached Carpinteria, we decided to skip our last pit stop.  I just wanted to get to Santa Barbara ASAP so I could rest.  Finally, at around 6 pm we made it to our hotel in Santa Barbara, the Days Inn, where we were staying for the night.  We only rode about 93.8 miles.  It was not quite 100 miles, but it was long enough given the day we had.

April 30, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Isn’t Bruxism a Vegetable??

Every year, the AIDS/LifeCycle office plans a special training event called “Day on the Ride”.  It is designed to simulate what a typical day on the actual AIDS/LifeCycle ride is like.  Staff and volunteers provide all the necessities the riders need, including breakfast and lunch, fully-supported pit stops with mechanics, water, electrolyte drinks, fruit, snacks and porta-potties, a motorcycle crew to help direct traffic, sweep vehicles to pick up riders who might be hurt or unable to finish, and a team of sports message therapists to give riders adjustments and massages.

This year’s Day on the Ride took place in the South Bay.  We met up with about 200 other riders at 6 am at the Helen’s Cycles in Manhattan Beach, many of whom wore bunny ears to celebrate Easter.  The organizers started the day off on a somber note with a moment of silence dedicated to a training ride leader from Orange County who recently passed away.  After a few more words and the safety speech, we were off.  The route took us south into Rancho Palos Verdes.

Based on similar training rides I did while training for AIDS/LifeCycle in 2003, I knew we were heading toward Malaga Cove.  I remember really liking those rides, even though there’s one small climb right before reaching Malaga Cove.  But I had forgotten about the Palos Verdes Estates hills past Malaga Cove and as soon as we started heading up those hills, I remembered how awful they were.  But lucky for us, it ended up being a beautiful day and we were treated to a smog-free, picturesque view of the ocean and Santa Monica Bay.  That was worth doing the climb.

From Rancho Palos Verdes, we continued south down the coast toward San Pedro.  I thought we were done with the climbing for the day, but unfortunately this stretch of road was long and at an incline, which meant more steady climbing.  My neck/shoulder area started acting up again and it was causing a lot of pain by the time we reached our lunch pit stop.  Thankfully, there was a team of sports massage therapists on site offering riders adjustments and massages.  One of the therapists, Apryl, worked on me and gave me a really good adjustment.  She told me that I was extremely tight all over the place and that I needed to get massages more regularly to loosen up my muscles.  (Thanks Apryl!)

After our lunch stop, we headed north from San Pedro and slowly made our way back to Manhattan Beach, 64.49 miles total.  I ended up getting another massage when we got back.  Tony, one of the lead sports massage therapists, worked on me.  He assessed my neck/shoulder problem areas and speculated that I have bruxism, which is grinding of teeth and clenching of the jaw.  He was spot on about the teeth grinding because my dentist had to prescribe me a mouth guard to wear at night.  He also told me that people with bruxism get a lot of headaches, which I do get a lot.  As for the jaw clenching, he said that causes the tightness at the base of the skull where the jaw ends, which then puts a lot of pressure on the muscles from the neck down to the shoulder.  He recommended that I see a functional orthodontist to get this checked out.  Of all things, he strongly recommended that I learn to relax.  Easier said than done.  I don’t think I’ve ever been able to relax in my life.  That would require a major game change.

April 23, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Burn, Baby, Burn

We’re  finally back on the east side and joined the Chain Gang on a training ride.  It was a Saturday ride and we met up with about 30 riders at Griffith Park.  It was early in the morning and the temperature was already in the 70’s.  I think this was our first training ride where the day didn’t start off cold.

After the safety-speech and a longer-than-usual introduction to the route, we took off at 8:45 am.  We rode out of the Griffith Park area and circled the Burbank studios before making our work north toward Sunland.  We tried to stay in the front of the pack, but there was a group of super-fast riders that shot off like a canon.  I’ve never been able to ride with sprinting speed.  I just don’t have the strength to do that.  My average speed has been around 12-15 miles per hour.

Our first pit stop was at Sunland Produce, where we rested before our first climb of the day: La Tuna Canyon Road.  It’s a 4.5 steady climb, the scenery is picturesque and there is a nice downhill to look forward to afterwards.   Under normal circumstances, it’s actually a pretty nice climb.  But on this occasion, the hot blazing sun made the climb extremely strenuous.  It was so hot that it made the climb absolutely unbearable.  I was going about 5 miles per hour, panting and sweating profusely.  It was not fun.

The downhill descent into the town of Montrose was a nice reward.  We rested at Black Cow Café, where we refilled our water bottles and ate a yummy banana nut scone.  Right out of the pit stop, we immediately faced a short, but rather steep, climb up Verdugo Boulevard, which I’m sure burnt off all the calories from the scone.  From there, we rode through some scenic areas through Descanso Gardens and the Arroyo Seco Park by the Rose Bowl.  We finally made our way to Pasadena where we stopped for lunch at a Fresh & Easy.  Sam and I shared a veggie wrap, which wasn’t very good.  Blaaah.

By then, we had ridden about 40 miles and I was beat.  The sun had been brutal and I was burning up.  We were cautious not to get heat stroke or dehydrated.  We had plenty of liquids and Sam even bought a sunscreen stick so we could reapply and avoid getting sunburned.  Smart move.  Reluctantly, we took off from our lunch stop and kept riding east toward Sierra Madre.  We rode passed Eaton Canyon Park and struggled up New York Drive, which isn’t a “climb” per se, but it was an unforeseen and unwelcome incline for about 3 miles.  The sun continued to beat down on us.  The ride stopped being fun many miles ago.  I just wanted to go home.

It seemed like it took us forever to get to our next and final pit stop back near Montrose.  We really, really needed the rest, if anything, to cool off.  My phone said it was 89 degrees, but Chris, our training ride leader, said it was over 100 degrees at some point during our ride.  OMG!  We still had another 10 miles to go and the only thing we were looking forward to was about 3.5 miles of downhill descent along the way.  Still, the final ride back was difficult to say the least.  I was physically exhausted from the burning sun and I was also having a lot of pain in my shoulder and neck area most of the day.  On top of that, I started getting an awful headache from the heat during the last 5 miles.  It felt like my head was going to explode.  We had reached the Griffith Park area by the time we had about 2 miles to go but I had pretty much given up by then from the exhaustion and the pain.  I could barely keep my head up and struggled to pedal.  Those last 2 miles felt like they dragged on forever.  We finally rolled in at 5 pm, a little over 8 hours after we left, and we only rode 62.72 miles.  That was by far the worst training ride we’ve done so far in terms of the challenges we faced.

Looking back, I now realize how lucky it was that all of the prior training rides had been on cold and overcast days.  The difference between a cold day and a hot day is way too drastic.  It really takes a lot more out of you to ride on a hot day.  If this ride is any indication of how the remaining training rides are going to be in the next couple of months, then we are in for a lot more hot, hilly, exhausting rides.

April 16, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Climb Every Mountain

After riding 100 miles the week before, conventional wisdom says to take it easy the week after. That was not the case here. Instead, we opted to do one of the toughest climbs in Los Angeles: the dreaded Latigo Canyon Road.

There were very few training rides scheduled this particular weekend. On Sunday, the city was hosting the family-friendly CicLAvia where 7.5 miles of streets were closed off to cars. Many bikers took to the street. It sounded like a fun event, but we wanted to do a longer ride and chose to do the only training ride scheduled on Saturday. It was with Team Cynergy, a training ride group we hadn’t ridden with before, so that was an added perk.

We met up at Cynergy Cycles in Santa Monica and rode up Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) to Cross Creek Road in Malibu. We followed pretty much the same route as other PCH rides we’ve done with Shifting Gears. After a short break, where I ate an absolutely delicious mini-chocolate muffin from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, we continued west on PCH for another four miles and finally began our climb at the base of Latigo Canyon.

This route is not for beginners. It is a steady, strenuous 10-mile climb from PCH to the top of Latigo Canyon. In other words, it’s literally a pain in the ass. It is not a forgiving route. There are few flat areas to take breaks and catch your breath. Veteran riders say that this is by far a harder climb than anything we’ll encounter during AIDS/LifeCycle in June, which will most certainly have plenty of climb along the way. Basically, Latigo Canyon is good training. So if we can do this, we can face any climb on AIDS/LifeCycle.

It took us two hours to complete the 10-mile climb. The only saving grace was that it ended up being a beautiful day for riding. It was not too cold and not too hot. Any hotter and it would have been an unbearable, sweaty 10-mile climb. Additionally, it was a nice, clear day with breath-taking views of the Malibu bay and the mountain side where it was actually green, as opposed to the usual, ugly dried-out desert-brown typically seen all over Los Angeles. The sky was so clear that we were able to look out and actually see the ocean. Climbing aside, I’m glad we didn’t miss out on this ride and the views.

The reward for any climb is usually the descent. On this occasion, going downhill was no reward. We came down Kanan Dume Road, which is parallel to Latigo Canyon, and faced unusually strong and cold head wind for the whole 5.5 miles down. The wind was so strong that, at certain points, it rocked my bike. When you’re flying downhill at 30-35 miles per hour, being blown by the wind is actually very dangerous. Thankfully, we made it safely back down to PCH and rode back to Cross Creek Road for a short break.

By then, we had ridden about 41 miles and I was having pain at the base of my neck and to the left of my right shoulder blade. We had another 15 miles or so to Santa Monica and I was dreading it as much as the climb up Latigo Canyon. Despite the neck/shoulder pain, the final leg back went as smoothly as possible. We rode at a pretty fast pace and got back at around 2:45 pm, altogether 55.12 miles.

We visited my favorite bike store, I.Martin, on the way home to talk with Jaime, I.Martin’s awesome store manager. He’s going to take a look at my riding position again to see if I need any further adjustments. I also told him we need to take a look at the saddle again. Sorry to be blunt, but my ass has not been happy on these last few rides. Ouch and Oucher!

April 9, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

100 Miles is a Pain in the Ass

I can’t believe it’s already April. It has been three weeks since our last ride on March 13. Between the Los Angeles 5K Run, the rain (which only came down on two consecutive Sundays, our normal biking days) and both of us getting sick (really sick!!), Sam and I did not have a chance to ride our bikes for three weeks. Naturally, I was concerned about getting back on our bikes for the first ride in almost a month. And on top of that, we were attempting to do our first century ride this training season. That’s 100 miles!!!

It was my first century since AIDS/LifeCycle 2003. But since I haven’t done any serious riding since then, it felt like I was doing a century for the first time. The longest ride we’d done this training season was just under 50 miles. Now, we’re doubling the mileage on just one ride. So yes, I was concerned. And yes, I was scared – scared that I couldn’t pull it off.

We got up bright and early and left the house by 5:45 am. We drove north to Santa Clarita, which is near Valencia and Magic Mountain, about 40 miles north of Los Angeles. The only bright side to being on the road that early is that there is no traffic, on Interstate 5 no less. We met up with Positive Pedalers, the riding group that hosted and organized the ride, at the Peet’s Coffee parking lot. It was the 9th anniversary of this ride, which was named after its creator, Paul Hulse, who has since passed away. Joining Positive Pedalers were other amazing training ride leaders and groups like the Chain Gang, Shifting Gears, Team Ventura and Team OC. About 200 riders participated.

The morning started off cold. It was 6:30 am after all. I made a decision to leave the jacket behind and kept on just a windvest. I took a chance thinking that it was going to get hot, since it had been in the 80’s-90’s. But it remained cold and overcast all day. While it was probably better weather for riding than to be in 90 degree heat, I was freezing my ass off in just a windvest.

After a heartfelt welcome by a member of Positive Pedalers, followed by the oh-so-important usual safety speech, we took off a little after 7 am. The ride headed west, mostly along Highway 126. The plan was to ride to the beach in Ventura and then back, roughly 50 miles each way. There were going to be five pit stops, including lunch along the way at the half-way point. So we would ride about 15-20 miles on each leg and then get a break at the pit stops. The century almost sounded easily doable.

The first 15 miles were quite uneventful. It was still pretty early, so the morning was relatively quiet. Did I mention that it was cold? Training ride leader Chris had told me that it’s best to take it easy at the beginning so your body can conserve energy. It was sound advice and we did just that. We rode a comfortable pace, nice and steady. When we got close to the first pit stop in Piru, Sam suggested that we keep going and skip the break. Normally, there are two main reasons for me to stop: replenish on water and to use the restroom. So far, I still had plenty of water in my water bottles and I was not in a rush to use the restroom. So I agreed to just keep going. When we rode past the pit stop I saw a long line of people waiting for the restrooms, so maybe it was a good thing to skip that pit stop.

The second leg was about 20 miles. It took us from the first pit stop in Piru to the second pit stop in Santa Paula, through the town of Fillmore. Along the way, we rode through beautiful, picturesque farm land and tons of orange groves, many were right off the side of the road. I was tempted to reach out and grab an orange or two. They were everywhere, even on the ground, and I felt so bad for the wasted fruit. One thing for sure, the oranges smelled so fragrant. It was so delightful riding through this area. By the time we reached the second pit stop, I was ready for a break (i.e. I needed to go to the restroom SO bad). The break was at Ragatz Bicycles and volunteers had set up a station with water, snacks, bananas and oranges. Even though I’m sure the oranges didn’t come from the groves we rode past, they still tasted mighty yummy!

The third leg took us all the way to the beach in Ventura. I didn’t care for this section at all. I was a little bored and perhaps it was because the surrounding area was less visually stimulating than the previous leg with the orange groves. Plus, I was starting to get tired. I felt like I was slowing down and struggled to keep up with Sam. I was ready for a break when we reached Marina Park, our lunch pit stop. As we were riding into the park, the first person I saw was Ginger Brewley. Ginger is a drag diva superstar who is one of AIDS/LifeCycle’s strongest supporters. Ginger has volunteered her time and energy on many AIDS/LifeCycle rides to cheer on riders. When I did AIDS/LifeCycle in 2003, I remember Ginger was always at the top of the toughest hills and at the most opportune spot when I most needed a spirit-boaster. Ginger is awesome. I did not know that Ginger was going to be at this century ride, so I was so happy to see a friendly face cheering us into our lunch stop. (Thanks Ginger!)

Because it was still so damn cold, Sam and I decided to eat quickly and get on our way. Subway lunch was provided. We ate, filled up our water bottles with Gatorade and got on the road. Even though we had wanted to take a quick break, I guess we must have been there for a while, because by the time I got back on my saddle, my butt was in screaming pain. In the morning, I had applied the magical “butt butter” or “butt balm” that many riders use to lather the buttock area. It’s supposed to reduce chaffing and make it a more comfortable ride. Well, on this occasion, it did not do the trick. I ran into a porta potty and reapplied more butt balm. It still wasn’t good enough, ‘cause my butt was still killing me. But what other option did I have but to grin and bear it. Ouch!

The next 10 miles riding out of Ventura was quite a pain (no pun intended). We were on Telephone Road (which made me think of Lady Gaga) and we must have hit every other red light. Bikers are legally obligated to follow the rules of the road, so we had to stop at every single red light. It was so annoying. Once we finally got off onto a less busy road there was a lot less stopping. Eventually, we made it to our fourth pit stop, which was back at Ragatz Bicycles. When we arrived, there were very few riders there. I was worried that we were at the end of the pack. I just hate to be one of the last riders. But Sam said there were still a lot of people at the lunch stop when we left and no one passed us on the way, so we couldn’t be too far behind. More riders showed up while we were there resting and refilling our water bottles, which made me feel better.

We didn’t rest long before we took off. This next leg from Santa Paula back to Piru was the worst part of the day. By then we had ridden about 70 miles and I was absolutely exhausted. It had already been the longest ride we had done so far and we still had another 30 miles to ride. Not only was my butt sore, the rest of my body was having problems. My elbows were tight and stiff, and the bottom of my neck in the upper back area was in excruciating pain from being stuck in the same position. There was very little I could do to fix the situation. I mean, it’s not like I could take my eyes off the road and look down to stretch my neck. My legs were beat and I found myself struggling to pedal. I even had to stop to take a break, something that I had never done before at a non-pit stop. I so wanted to give up and thought about all the ways to get out of the remaining ride. I thought about the people back in Los Angeles that I could call to come pick me up or maybe even calling for a cab. I also thought about asking Sam to go on and then come back to pick me up with the car. I swear I am not kidding. But I struggled on, bitching and cursing inside my head. Needless to say, I was incredibly excited to reach the next pit stop, our fifth and last stop of the day.

We stayed at this last pit stop for a good amount of time. It was in the quaint little town of Piru and it was also the same pit stop that we skipped at the beginning. The volunteers had set up the snack and water table under a gazebo by a little non-functioning train depot. There wasn’t much in the town, only a handful of little stores. It felt a little wild wild west. I got plenty of snacks at this break and filled up on Gatorade. We chatted with veteran training ride leader Doreen for a while, who, sadly, broke her foot the night before while setting up for this ride, so she wasn’t able to ride with us. I also caught up with Jim, the organizer of the century ride. When I did AIDS/LifeCycle in 2003, Jim was the leader of the Chain Gang, with whom I did most of my training rides. Jim trained me and I owe him a lot. He was the one who nicknamed a few of us first-time riders the “ducklings”. I miss Jim, so it was good seeing him.

Soon, it was time to go. Getting back on the bike was, once again, a pain in the butt. We got out on the main road (Highway 126) and headed east back to Santa Clarita. For some strange reason, I got a second wind and picked up some energy. I pedaled hard and got on a really good pace. I have no idea what came over me. Aside from the soreness all over my body, I felt relatively okay. I even rode ahead of Sam, who I’m usually trying to keep up with. Before I knew it, we were back in the Valencia area. We saw Magic Mountain, so we knew we were close. It was 5 pm when we rode into Peet’s parking lot. After 102.49 miles, we were done. Saying that I was happy to be done is quite an understatement.

I realized that, for me, doing a century is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical challenge. Looking back, I’m not quite sure that I was mentally prepared. I psyched myself out from the beginning, thinking that we were not ready to do a century. Then, when the ride got really hard I wanted to quit. I need to work on this and get myself more mentally ready for June.

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Aileen L.; Amy W.; Angela C. ; Anonymous (3) ; Carmina O. ; Christina Y. ; Daisy D.R. ; Emily Y. ; Jan K. & Ben W. ; Joanna L. & Phil Y. ; Lona C. ; Marshall W. ; Mimi S. ; Rachanee S.; and Ryan K.

I also want to thank Steve, AIDS/LifeCycle rider and volunteer, for letting riders use the wonderful photos he took.

April 2, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Pop Goes the Tire

After riding on the east side with Doreen the week before, we’re back with Shifting Gears doing another west side ride.  Now that we’re in mid-March, the early morning chill factor isn’t as bad anymore.  The March mornings have been in the 50’s as opposed to the mid 40’s earlier in the year.  Still, I rode with a jacket.  I’d rather be prepared than regret the decision to leave the jacket behind.

We learned from the east side ride that we need to pump up the tires before heading out.  Sam’s tires were a little low so we especially needed to pump them up.  Immediately, we ran into a problem.  The nozzle on the rear tire was bent, so it was not easy to pump air in.  We asked training ride leaders Chris and Mel to help, and they were able to get enough air into the tire for Sam to ride.  (Thanks Chris and Mel!)

The ride was a repeat of our Playa del Rey ride in January, except this time, we added a climb up Bundy Drive at the end.  So the ride started off fine, except we were at the end of the pack since we were delayed by the tire nozzle issue.  We joined our friend David and rode toward the coast, then down to Venice and eventually to Playa del Rey.  We caught up with the rest of the riders at our first pit stop on the bike path bridge that connects Marina del Rey and Playa del Rey.  We got off our bikes, rested, recorded a quick video and then it happened.  POP!!!  There was a loud pop and I knew immediately it was Sam’s back tire.  Sam said, “I didn’t do it!” followed by “MEL!!!!!”  Sure enough, the tire had popped.  It’s oddly fortunate that the tire knew to “die” right at the pit stop and not while he was riding.  Thankfully, I had a couple of old spare tubes on Sam’s bike (which was my old bike from AIDS/LifeCycle 2 in 2003) and they were still in good condition.  Mel was kind enough to help and as a result, gave us a crash course on how to change a tire.  (Thanks again Mel!)  After Mel finished, we gave Mel a couple of old wet-naps that had also been on the bike since 2003.  Mel opened one up and the wet-nap was completely dried-up.  I was SO embarrassed.  Fortunately, the second wet-nap was fine and he was able to clean his hands.  Note to self: buy new wet-naps!!

Most of the other riders had taken off by then, so when we took off, we were at the end of the pack once again.  We rode south toward LAX and then circled back north toward Venice.  We made our second pit stop at a coffee shop on Main Street in Venice.  Since the first pit stop didn’t have restrooms, I had been dying to go.  Was that over-sharing?  Oops!  We didn’t stay long.  Once we used the restroom and filled up on water, we took off.  We were following a couple of riders north toward Brentwood.  Right before Bundy Drive, the other two riders turned off to return to Helen’s Cycles.  David turned off as well.  So Sam and I ventured up Bundy by ourselves.

We had already ridden about 32 miles by then, and for some reason I was very tired.  Maybe it was because of the daylight saving time change (spring forward) and we lost an extra hour sleep. And it didn’t help that my left calf was bothering me just a little on the ride.  It was feeling like it wanted to cramp, but it was relatively minor compared to how I was feeling earlier in the year.  So I took my time riding up Bundy.  It was going to be a 2.5 miles climb.  Sam was having his own problem.  His chain kept wanting to change gears by itself when he was riding in a higher gear.  I was concerned that he might not be able to complete the climb because of the chain, but he was able to do it without having to stop.  He even rode ahead and I was just trying my best to keep up.  Fortunately, I had taken my jacket off at the second pit stop, because it was so hot by then and the climb wasn’t making things any better.  Eventually we made it to the top and it felt good to rest.

I put my jacket back on before getting back on the bike, because I knew it was going to be cold riding downhill.  And it certainly was.  It wasn’t long before we made it back to Helen’s Cycles.  When we were a couple of blocks away from Helen’s, we realized that we had ridden around 39 miles.  Sam was determined to hit 40 miles, so we rode around the block to add that extra mile.  We ended up with 40.16 miles. Hee hee!

When we got back, Helen’s was having a parking lot sale.  They had clothes on sale and were holding various bike workshops.  Shifting Gears was also there.  Chris had made a bunch of yummy treats and sold them for donations to Shifting Gears.  She made muffins, cookies and two types of brownies.  Of course, I had to get them all.  I was so hungry I practically inhaled everything.  Sam had taken his bike inside the bike store for them to check out his chain; while I was waiting, I almost ate Sam’s cookie too.  Almost!  I was about to bite into it when I saw him coming around the corner.  Once I was able to pry myself away from the rest of the baked goods, we started looking at the clothes and ended up getting a pair of Shifting Gears jerseys.  I can’t believe we had not gotten them sooner, since we’d been riding so much with the group.  Yeah Shifting Gears!  We also bought some new tubes from Helen’s, who was selling them for $6 a pair at the parking lot sale.  It was such a good deal that we bought four pairs.  We also ran into our friends Cindy and Sheri.  Dr. Ira was there, too.  He had ridden with another group earlier, and afterward stopped by the parking lot sale.  I told him about my left calf and he told me to make an appointment to see him and also bring my bike so he could check to see if he needs to make any adjustments on my bike.  Before we left, I couldn’t help but get two more brownies from Chris.  I’m telling you, they were SO good!!!

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Cindy C. & Kat K.

March 13, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Copper the Llama

We joined veteran rider and training ride leader Doreen on an east side Chain Gang ride. Doreen has the distinction of being the only person who’s ridden all the AIDS/LifeCycle rides and all the California AIDS Rides (the predecessor of AIDS/LifeCycle.) So far, we’ve mostly been riding with Shifting Gears on the west side and it’s nice to ride with our east side friends again.

We met up with the other riders at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center. The Aquatics Center had a swim meet going on at the same time, so there were lots of people and the parking lot was filled with cars. It was a little hard to find our group. When we got to our meeting spot, I immediately saw Loren, whom I’ve known since my first AIDS/LifeCycle ride in 2003. At that time, Loren was the Board Chair of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, but now, he’s the Board Chair of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. It was so good to run into him.

Before we even took off, the morning was already warming up. It was very unlike all our training rides so far where we had bone-chilling cold in the morning. I made a last minute decision to leave my windjacket behind, which ended up being a wise choice. I did keep my arm and knee warmers on, just in case.

We rode south out of the Rose Bowl and headed to South Pasadena. We were pretty close to our house and rode passed our neighborhood Trader Joe’s on Mission Street, which was fun. The ride took us through East Pasadena and into Arcadia, where we had our first pit stop. Up until then, we were riding in the back of the pack with Doreen. We had to pull over to pump up Sam’s tire, so we fell behind a bit. But we caught up with everyone at the pit stop.

I thought the ride only went as far east as Arcadia, but I was wrong. We kept going east and rode passed Monrovia and into Duarte. Near the second pit stop, we saw something that completely caught us off guard…a llama!! There was a woman walking her pet lama, named Copper (but I kept calling him Cooper.) I’ve never seen a llama up close and always thought they weren’t the prettiest of animals. But this lama was tall and looked quite majestic. It was beautiful. The owner was very nice and let us take a picture with Copper. Cool!!

After the llama break, it was time to head back. The route back was mostly the same, except we also rode through Temple City and San Gabriel. The entire ride was mostly flat. I didn’t realize there were no hills until we got back. Still, even though the terrain was flat, I was totally winded and exhausted. I was so happy to be done when we got back to the Rose Bowl. Total miles was 37.10.

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Kenneth Y. & Elaine S.

March 5, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Almost a Half Century

After an aborted first attempt to ride Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) and the next try where we got drenched with rain, we finally had a great ride along the coast. Third time’s the charm!

It was Oscars Sunday and we met up with Shifting Gears at Helen’s Cycles in Santa Monica. It had rained on Friday, so naturally we were concerned whether it would rain on us again on PCH. It was also colder than usual, probably brought on by the post-rain breeze (if there’s such a thing). Still, we were hopeful that we would have a good ride sans rain. The plan was to ride at least to Cross Creek Road in Malibu. If we felt up to it, we would continue on to Zuma Beach for a total of about 50 miles round trip, making it our longest ride to date.

The ride took off east toward the beach through the local streets of Santa Monica. After 4 miles in, we were on PCH and immediately, we saw the beautiful ocean. Sam and I live inland and we don’t venture out to the beach often, so it’s a treat to see the ocean, especially on a nice day. We spent the next 10 miles riding east along PCH to Malibu. During this stretch of the ride, I found myself having a difficult time catching up with Sam. I wasn’t terribly tired, so I was very surprised that I was struggling just to pedal. I even ate a full plate of spaghetti the night before to carbo-load and even loaded up on potassium and electrolytes with coconut water and bananas. I should have had plenty of energy in me. Other riders were passing me. I was happy to finally arrive at our pit stop at Cross Creek. I sure needed the rest.

We decided to do the optional extension and continue on to Zuma Beach. After all, it’s only 10 more miles and how hard could it be, right? It turns out that it was not as easy as we thought. The route from Cross Cress to Zuma Beach was nothing but a bunch of rolling hills. We went up and down, up and down. It was exhausting. Strangely, my energy picked up after the first pit stop and I felt pretty good during this stretch, despite the rolling hills. Before we knew it, we arrived at our second pit stop. I think the stunning ocean view helped lessen the annoyance of the rolling hills.

We didn’t stay at the second pit stop for long. We used the restroom at Starbucks and ate a couple of chocolate croissants (yum yum!) and took off. It was getting late and we still had another 25 miles to go on our return trip. We wanted to get home to feed the dog. The ride back was even more spectacular, since we were riding closer to the ocean. What a beautiful day!! We rode passed Cross Creek (our first pit stop) and decided not to stop again. Neither one of us felt like we needed a rest, so we kept on going. Once we reached Will Rogers State Beach, we got off the bikes to cross the underground tunnel to get to the other side of PCH. But we found that the tunnel was flooded from the rain, so we had to find another way to cross PCH. We ended up riding further down on PCH until we reached a pedestrian overpass to cross over. We created our own detour from there to return to Helen’s. We almost did a half century, logging 48.58 miles. A half century is 50 miles. Even though we were a couple of miles short of a half century, I was still pleased because it was our longest ride yet.

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Mary & Shannon H.

February 27, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Chevy Chase Kicked our Butts

Up until now, Sam and I have mostly ridden with an official training ride group with the exception of the weekend before when we went out riding with just Cindy. We had a really awesome ride with Cindy and we thought we would try going solo again, especially since we had missed the official training rides on the Presidents’ Day long weekend. So we ventured out on Monday by ourselves.

Sam relied on me to pick a route and I opted to explore another old route that I had done with the Chain Gang years before. It’s a ride from Griffith Park through Glendale to Pasadena via Chevy Chase Drive, which is a climb. The planned route was a long ride, roughly 38 miles. I vaguely recalled that Chevy Chase was a pretty intense ride, but Cindy assured me in an e-mail that “it’s not that bad…much shorter than La Tuna.” Okay, that sounded doable. Chevy Chase it would be.

We started at the Los Angeles Zoo, which is actually a great place to start a ride since parking is free. And, as it had been on every other ride, it was an extremely cold morning. I can’t wait till the weather warms up and it doesn’t feel like an ice box outside. So off we went, we headed south to exit out of Griffith Park (where the Los Angeles Zoo is) and then east toward Glendale. We quickly came to the base of Chevy Chase at about four and a half miles into the ride. The start of Chevy Chase was in the busier part of Glendale, so it was relatively flat for the first three miles. I was feeling great, even once we started getting into the quieter and more mountain-y part where the houses are nice and expensive. Soon the road got steeper and there were fewer houses; still I thought it was a manageable climb. And then we passed the intersection of Chevy Chase and Linda Vista Road and that’s when the real climb started. The last mile and a half was on a ridiculously steep windy two-lane mountain road with a hillside to the right and a mountain cliff to the left. It was then that I remembered Chevy Chase. I must have blocked out the horrible memories but as I was climbing the last mile to the top, I then recalled this crazy road. All I could think about was Sam and how he was gonna kill me when we get to the top. Argh!

Sam was behind me during the climb and we separated for a little while. He must have pulled over to rest at some point, because I got a text from him saying that he was going to be a little while. I pulled over to a safe spot and texted back, “You Okay?”. He responded, “Yep.” Ouch! I could only imagine how exhausted and mad he must’ve been. Soon, we both reached the top and Sam was ready to call it a day. That climb really kicked our butts. We thought about heading back down the same way, but there was no way I was going to allow us to ride downhill with a mountain cliff to our right. That would have been unsafe. So we took out our fancy smart phone and looked up where we were on a map (thank goodness for GPS!!!). We decided to stay on course and continue east into Pasadena as planned. From there we would head back west to Griffith Park instead of continuing east to add more mileage.

Riding to Pasadena was rather nice. We were riding near the Rose Bowl and picked up some downhill speed on the way. Once we reached the southern end of Pasadena, we rode west to Glendale through Eagle Rock. It was a roughly six-mile ride from Pasadena to the western end of Glendale. Fortunately, it was on a flat stretch so we got through fairly quickly. Soon, we were back in Griffith Park and made our way back to the zoo. To my surprise, we still rode a respectable total of 24.67 miles even though we cut our ride short. It was when we got back to our car that I realized that this was the first ride I had done where I rode from beginning to end without resting at a pit stop. It’s a bit unusual to ride that long without a break to use the restroom and refill on water and snacks. I don’t plan on making a habit of this since I really needed to go to the restroom. Sorry for over-sharing. Oops!

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Aisha H. & Bessie W.; Dave K.; Kerri S.-J.; Leslie C.; and Steven S.

February 21, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Tour de Palm Springs Alternative

Many of our riding friends, including members of Shifting Gears, were out in the desert doing the Tour de Palm Springs. We were not quite ready to do a century ride (100 miles), so we stayed in town. And since most of the training ride leaders were gone, there were no official training rides in town. So instead, Cindy, Sam and I went out on our own.

Cindy opted for an old route from the Chain Gang, another training group that Cindy and I used to do a lot of training rides with. This was an east side route that included a 4.5 mile climb up La Tuna Canyon. I can’t believe I agreed to do a climb…on our own no less.

We met up at the Los Angeles Zoo. It was a breezy morning, but the wind soon subsided making it a rather nice morning. We headed toward Glendale and then turned northwest past Burbank and into Sun Valley. I am not familiar with Sun Valley, but apparently it’s just north of the Burbank airport. We made our first pit stop at a produce market where we used the restroom and replenished on water. I also needed a potassium boost and bought the ONE sad-looking banana in the entire store.

I don’t seldom ride without a big group, so I was pleased with how we had been doing so far. It’s just that I’ve always felt better riding in a big group. Let’s be honest, I don’t trust L.A.drivers (I’m one of them, so I know). Most L.A. drivers don’t really pay attention to one or two bikers on the street, so bikers usually have to avoid cars and not the other way around. But when you’re riding in a big group, the drivers tend to avoid you. Safety in numbers, as they say.

Up until this point, the weather had been cooperating, we’d been going at a pretty good pace and riding on mostly flat service. But I knew what was coming up next…La Tuna Canyon. I’ll be honest; I was dreading the climb. La Tuna Canyon is like the Sepulveda Pass. It’s a long, steady climb – about 4.5 miles. Once you get up into the mountain-y part, there are really no places to pull over, so pedal pedal you must. To my surprise, the climb wasn’t too bad and before we knew it, we were at the top. Sam did really well, he shot past us and was the first to the top. Go Sam!!

We took a little break up top to enjoy the “view” of the 210 freeway. Okay, it really wasn’t that exciting of a view. When we were ready, we took off and headed downhill. I’ve always been pretty scared of going downhill. It’s a combination of the downhill speed and worrying that I might hit something and fly over the handlebars. But on this particular day, I was actually enjoying the downhill descent. I don’t know what came over me, but I felt “okay” and I had fun. Wheeeh!!

We rode through La Cescenta and I thought about my friends Stacey and Joe. I haven’t seen their new place and wondered if I rode past their home. (Hi Stacey and Joe!) We ended up at a cute little town in Montrose, where we rested. Cindy and I got a ginormous scone from a café. It was yummy!!

After our break, we started making our way back and headed south, then west through a quiet neighborhood just north of Glendale. We did hit a lot of stop signs in the residential area, but at least there were a lot of pretty nice houses in this area to see. It wasn’t long before we made our way back to the Griffith Park area, where we found out there was an official bike race going on at the same time – the Los Angeles Chinatown Firecracker Bike Ride. Some of the volunteers from that ride thought we were part of the ride and were flagging us along. I don’t know how long the Firecracker ride was, but we rode 26.33 miles. “Firecracker” ride? Seriously?!?

This ride is dedicated to this awesome sponsor: Gwen N.

February 12, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Downtown Los Angeles Tour

In December, Shifting Gears had planned a special sight-seeing ride touring downtown Los Angeles.  I had never ridden through downtown on a bike before, so naturally, I was very excited.  Sadly, the ride was rained out during the December downpour.  Fortunately, the Shifting Gears folks brought the ride back and scheduled it for Super Bowl Sunday.

We met up with other riders at the Los Angeles Music Center, home of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre.  It was supposed to be a short ride, approximately 12 miles, so the meet time was an hour later than usual (9 am).  Shifting Gears leader, Beth, treated everyone to some muffins.  I was a little hungry, so it was just the thing I needed.  Then Chris, another training ride leader, showed up with home-made muffins filled with…wait for it…Nutella!!!  YUM!!  Thanks Beth and Chris!

I was a little surprised that there were only about 20 riders.  Since it was such a unique ride, I had thought that a lot more riders would show up.  Perhaps the Super Bowl stole the crowd.  Nonetheless, we had about 20 riders eager to tour downtown.  What I didn’t know was that one of the leaders, Shawnet, works for the Los Angeles Opera, and she offered to start things off with a quick “walking” tour around the Los Angeles Music Center facility.  She even took us inside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and showed us around.  Cool!

After Shawnet’s tour, we were off on our bikes.  We rode past the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Stanley Mosk courthouse, City Hall, the brand new police station, Union Station and Olvera Street.  We also rode through Little Tokyo and Chinatown.  Once we hit the Theatre District on Broadway, Devin, another ride leader, took the lead and gave us a tour of this section.  That was really cool, especially since I didn’t even know the Theatre District existed.  As it turns out, we have a lot of historical theatres downtown that used to be the hot spots in town.  Devin showed us pictures of the insides of many of these theatres and they look absolutely majestic.  If the opportunity presents itself in the future, I definitely would love to go inside and check out these magnificent theatres.

Afterwards, we headed east and rode through the Fashion District and then the Flower District.  Having lived in Los Angeles for almost 20 years, I can’t believe I’ve never been to the Flower District.  I’ve only heard about it, so it was cool to finally see it in person.  Apparently, you can get some really good deals on fresh flowers, but you have to get up really, REALLY early in the morning to get the best selections.  After the Flower District, we continued east and rode over the historic 6^th Street Viaduct that runs over the Los Angeles River and railroad tracks.  It is a beautifully designed bridge with two steel arch segments and offers a stunning view of Los Angeles, including the downtown skyline.

Boyle Heights rests on the other side of the 6^th Street Viaduct.  There, we took a quick break and turned around.  That is where Sam and I parted ways with Shifting Gears.  The group continued on to a lunch pit stop at Urth Caffe and then cruised on by Pershing Square before returning to the Los Angeles Music Center.  Sam and I had plans in the afternoon, so we had to call it a day.  While it was not a long “training” ride by any means (we rode about 10 miles), it was definitely a unique, fun ride that gave us an opportunity to tour downtown and see Los Angeles in a new, exciting way.  Thanks Shifting Gears!

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Christen M.; Clara C.; Peter H. & Michael O.; and Teri O.

February 6, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Rain on Pacific Coast Highway

Dear Rain God: Are you serious?  It has not rained in weeks and you decide to finally send rain down on us during the few hours we were out riding?  Seriously?!?

We joined up with Shifting Gears at Helen’s Cycles to head out for a ride up Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) to Malibu.  We had originally planned to do this ride the day after New Year’s, but the forecast called for rain, so the Shifting Gears training ride leaders decided to do a more local route that day and postponed the PCH route.  So here we were again, the rescheduled PCH ride and another chance of rain!

The morning was just as cold, if not colder, as a few of our previous training rides.  It felt especially cold on the first part of the ride.  We faced a bit of head-wind and the cold breeze was relentless.  The fact that we were by the ocean didn’t help matters, I’m sure.  But other than the chill factor, all was well for the first seven miles.  That is, until the rain came down.  Gee, thanks, Rain God!

Riding on PCH is already pretty scary sans rain.  Heading northbound, bikers have a very narrow “path” (if you call it that).  Between the speeding cars on the left and the mountain cliff on the right, there is little room to escape in case of an emergency (by “escape”, I mean “get out of the way”).  There’s just not a lot of wiggle room, especially if there is debris on the road.  So when the rain started coming down, it made for a pretty dangerous situation.  At first, it was just sprinkling and I thought, “okay, we can do this.”  And being that we were on PCH, it was not like there were many places to pull over.  You only have one way to go…forward.  But soon the rain started coming down harder and there was nothing to do but stay extra alert and ride very, very carefully.  Thanks, again, Rain God!

The rain stayed on us for another seven miles or so.  We were drenched; water was dripping down my helmet, sunglasses and clothes.  At one point, we caught a little break when the rain stopped.  It was then that I felt the cold breeze again.  When it was raining all I could think about was the rain itself.  I didn’t realize how wet I was until the rain stopped and felt the heaviness of my wet clothes.  Wet clothes would be annoying enough, but add wind to the equation and you’ve got one uncomfortable cold ride ahead.  I even wished for the rain to come back, so that I didn’t have to feel that cold-wet-clothes-on-me feeling, if that makes any sense at all.  I guess my wish came true, since the rain did come back.  Thanks, Rain God!  No.  Seriously!

If there is a bright side to riding PCH, it is that you can go pretty far without stopping.  There are very few traffic lights and that morning the lights were often green.  So we actually made it to our pit stop in Malibu relatively quickly.  The rain had slowed to a small drizzle by then.  Getting off my bike, I could feel the heaviness of my bike shorts.  The “padding” in my shorts had soaked up a lot of the rain water, so it felt like I was wearing a wet diaper.  Yuck!  And we also found out that we had mud all over us.  Riding in the rain and over muddy water, you are bound to get mud splattered all over your legs and backside.

We didn’t stay at the pit stop for long.  We didn’t even need to re-fill our water bottles since we didn’t catch much of a break to drink during the ride up PCH.  Plus, who’s thinking about drinking water in the rain anyway?  We decided not to continue further and skipped the optional longer route, which would have added another 20 miles.  So after a little break, we hopped on our bikes and headed back toward Santa Monica.

Riding southbound along the oceanside of PCH presents another obstacle.  Here, bikers ride alongside substantially more parked cars than northbound PCH, and therefore have way more drivers getting in and out of cars to avoid, many of whom are surfers wielding surfboards.  I’ve heard of stories of bikers getting into serious accidents on these sections of PCH.  Fortunately, that has never happened to me.

We were able to avoid rain most of the way back.  Once we reached the Temescal Canyon area, we got off the main road and rode down the bike path along the beach.  We weren’t on the bike path for long.  When we arrived at Will Rogers State Beach just north of Santa Monica, we had to get off our bikes to cross PCH by going through an underground tunnel.  That is the only safe way to get to the other side of PCH.  After that, we faced a short, but steep, climb and it was smooth sailing from there back to Helen’s Cycles.  We got back by 11:30 am and rode 28.47 miles.

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Emily C. & Bill R.

I also want to wish a Happy Birthday to Shifting Gears Training Ride Leader Beth!

January 30, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

Sepulveda Pass

It’s funny how the weather is so unpredictable in Los Angeles. It’s chilly one minute and it’s hot the next. We started our Shifting Gears ride in 48 degrees weather, but soon the sun was out blazing strong. I was planning on wearing my brand my windvest today, but decided to change back to my long-sleeve jacket at the last minute (just in case). Bad mistake. It ended up being a really hot ride – especially because we did a lot of climbing.

Sam and I met up with about 40 riders at Helen’s Cycles to do our first training ride of the season on the Sepulveda Pass. The ride took us west toward the beach, then north and then back east toward Brentwood to Westwood. We rode past my cousin Hayden’s apartment. (Hi, Hayden!) It was freaking early so I’m sure he was still sleeping. (Sleep sounds good.) Once we got out of Westwood, we continued west on Santa Monica Boulevard, turned north at Century City and headed into Bel Air. Riding through Bel Air was pretty and someone even mentioned the Housewives of Beverly Hills houses. I don’t watch the show, so I wouldn’t know the houses even if I rode past them. When we finally left Bel Air, we rode past UCLA (Go Bruins!!) and headed west to Sepulveda Boulevard. From there, it was one long climb north.

The section we rode is called “The Sepulveda Pass” and runs parallel the 405 freeway. It’s about a 5 mile climb from Westwood to the top where it crosses under Mulholland Drive, then down into Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley. The climb started off with a modest incline. We rode about 3 miles at a 5 to 6 mile-per-hour pace. The climb got steeper in the last couple of miles and we slowed down to a 3 to 4 mile-per-hour pace, but at long last we completed our climb. At the top, we had to ride through a tunnel, underneath Mulholland, to get to the San Fernando Valley side. Tunnels are always scary for bikers since cars might not see them in the dark. We made it through the tunnel okay and then it was a downhill decent to our first pit stop in Sherman Oaks.

Once we had rested, we turned around and climbed Sepulveda again to return to Westwood. Fortunately, the climb on the San Fernando Valley back up toward Mulholland was only about 2 miles, so it wasn’t as bad. I even picked up some steam and rode up at a faster pace than earlier. The downhill decent past the tunnel was fun, but it was also a little scary. I had my hands on my brakes most of the way down just to keep my speed under control. I hit a few red lights along the way down, which was annoying, but otherwise it was a cool ride down. From Westwood, we headed into Brentwood and stopped at our second pit stop. We realized that there were only about three more miles to go from that pit stop, so we decided to just skip the break and continue on our way back. Sam and I just wanted to be done with the ride. I think the Sepulveda climb really kicked our butts and we were absolutely worn out. Needless to say, we were both thrilled when we got back to Helen’s. The ride totaled 35.72 miles.

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Chi-Wai A. & Douglas L.; Jury C.; Scott C.; and Steven T.

January 23, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | 1 Comment

Urban Ride

Shifting Gears led riders on a unique training ride around Los Angeles, dubbed the “Urban Ride.” The route was created by Chris, one of the training ride leaders, and it was designed to take riders through some of the busy streets of Los Angeles so we can learn to ride and commute in traffic. I.Martin’s store manager, Jaime, and sales supervisor, Matt, joined us for the ride. Chris and Matt kicked things off by talking about key things to look out for when riding and commuting in Los Angeles. They shared riding tips and important lessons they have learned. For example, in order to stay clear of car drivers’ doors opening in your path, ride more toward the car lane than the parked cars and anticipate doors opening by watching through the cars’ rear windows as you approach from behind. It was a very helpful talk.

The training ride began at I.Martin and we started off by heading west toward Beverly Hills and then down toward Century City. At Olympic Boulevard, we turned and headed east. Normally, Olympic is a pretty busy street, especially during commuting hours, but it was still pretty early on Sunday so traffic wasn’t too bad. We passed the Miracle Mile section and turned north on Highland Avenue. We soon turned east again onto 4th Street, which has painted arrows and bicycle icons called “Sharrows,” indicating that bikes and cars are supposed to share the road. We were on 4th Street for about two and a half miles, but it felt like forever. There were stop signs at every block and since bikes have to follow the rules of the road, we had to stop at ever stop sign. That got annoying after the third stop sign. Argh!

We eventually made our way south to Koreatown. The pit stop was Chris and Mel’s house. They were kind enough to let us use their restroom and refill on water. Chris even shared some baked goods that she made. Yum yum! After a short break, we made our way back to I.Martin. Thank goodness we didn’t take 4th Street back. Instead, we headed north on Vermont Avenue (a very busy road) and headed west on Melrose Avenue, Beverly Boulevard and eventually Willoughby Avenue before making it back to I.Martin. Willoughby also has plenty of stop signs, but it didn’t feel as bad as 4th Street. We rode a total of 22.38 miles.

This ride is dedicated to this awesome sponsor: Alex F.

January 16, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment

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.

January 9, 2011 | Categories: ALC, Photo, Training Ride, Video | Leave a comment