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.

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.

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.

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!

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.