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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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