10 milers

I'm feeling beat up.  I'm doing 70 miles per week right now, and I'm feeling it.  I shouldn't be, but I am.  Every night after work when I get home, I just drop, it seems.  However, I know it's just an adjustment period, and it will get better.  I am also well on the way to meeting my goal of being at 850 miles on the bike by the end of May, and I think I might get closer to 900.

It makes me think that a trip across the USA, which I still really want to do, will be even more taxing, and how will I get up day after day for another 60-80 miles.  The interesting thing is that once you get back on the bike, you're in the groove within a few miles.

My biggest intersection on my daily route.  If the crosswalk button doesn't get pushed, the light is very short.

I haven't bought anything new for the bike for a while.  I need to get it into the shop for maintenance.  Needs new brakes.

A trunk load

So I've got this goal to do at least 2000 miles on the bike this year, but at the beginning of May was only up to 600, so at that pace it was going to be 1800 for the year.  However, Since May 1 I have put 90+ miles on the bike and am trying to do a minimum of 10 miles per day with some longer rides on the weekend.  I hope to be at 1100-1200 by the end of June.  I'm experiencing a bit of chafing at the moment and need to bring out the Desitin.  I think the chafing is due largely to having too much salt in my diet the last few days.  Well, with little funds for groceries, I'm scrapping at the moment... which means the boxes of over-salted Stove Top Stuffing to make some meals.  Tonight it's broccoli and rice.

My zeal to purchase a trunk rack over the weekend led me to a purchasing mistake, as I didn't examine it carefully enough and it turns out it was broken.... I mean, it still straps to the trunk fine, but the straps for holding the bike are pretty much gone.   It still holds a bike, and I actually strapped it to my car and put the bike on it for a trip around the block, but I'm going to need to invest in some industrial velcro, I think.  So now I'll be looking for another trunk rack, and I need to get it by July.

I've been really having a desire to do a century ride, but I would only do it if there were other hybrids doing it because in no way can I keep up with a road bike and I'm not even going to pretend.  A hybrid is like a Ford truck (perfectly good and reliable and built for endurance) and  road bike is like a Porsche - it's all about speed.  I know I could go the distance on the hybrid, but it isn't like the New York Marathon where people of all abilities do it... and stay with it until the last runner is in.  No, they expect you to get your ride done and get out. Even the Amtrak century ride is one where you'd better be quick to hit the stops and get to San Diego in time to catch the train back.  I don't think the hybrid could make it unless I had minimum sustained speeds of 15-16 mph, and I've only done that for short distances (what else is there in city traffic besides short distances between stop signs and traffic lights?).  But... then I also think I'd really like to have the cycling shorts with the chamois crotch to prevent chafing and also a bona fide cycling jersey.  I want to feel like I belong....or at least look like I belong.

I do have a cycling jersey, but it's a little snug.  Here' a tip for buying cycling clothing - buy 2-3 sizes larger than you normally wear because they're made 2-3 sizes smaller than what you think you wear.  If you're a plus-sized woman like me, don't think a 2X will fit you in cycling clothing because it won't, which is sort of depressing.  Go with a 4X or a 5X.  After all, who really cares what the X is???  Just get some gear and look the part.  Well, I can't get the gear right now, but maybe I can get some shorts at some point during the summer.

I also want to get some different shoes for cycling - ones with velcro straps.  Why?  My shoe laces have come untied more than once and gotten wound on the the pedals.  I don't know if I'm ready to get genuine cycling shoes that clip into the pedals (I'd have to change out the pedals), but velcro shoes would be a nice start.

600 miles

Today I passed the 600 mile mark for the year.... which I had wanted to do yesterday but somehow I just didn't.  However, I have a new resolve to stick to a minimum of 10+ miles per day or 250 miles this month.  I'd like to be over 1100 miles by July 1.  Can I do it?  I think so.  I'd like to be at 2000 miles at the end of the year.

Well, because I had this new determination for making sure I was doing 10 per day, I thought I'd just trudge through my old route.  However, while out doing errands in a car for my boss, I passed the Bentley dealership by Olympic/Robertson and saw a purple Bentley, which made me think it was a photo opportunity for a friend who likes all things purple.  So after work, instead of doing my regular route home, I trekked towards Beverly Hills to get this shot:

Then, because I've joined a Yahoo group for a cycling group that meets up in Beverly Hills, I thought I'd just ride my bike west on Charleville to the intersection where the Starbucks is that they meet at.  It's on Charleville and Beverly Drive. 

I hadn't ridden my bike into Beverly Hills proper before.  When I say "proper," I mean more of the "downtown" area.  I'd always just skirted the edges of the city (maybe I should ride down Rodeo Drive for some photo opps). Charleville into Beverly Hills is a gradual slope uphill, so going back east to Doheney was an easy gentle downhill.

By the time I got home, I had logged 11 miles for the day, and I was content with that.

A slightly new route

On Saturday I mapped out a new route... well, some old and some new.  I'd ridden Martel/Hauser down to 6th Street, but since Hauser went all the way to Venice where I could catch the bike path, I decided to go all the way down.  I'd never ridden Venice on the east side of La Cienega, so it was a great new little bit.  From about mile 3.5 to 5.5 was all new to me.

I took some pics of the Park La Brea complex (might now just be called Park Brea).

And here's a nice little shot of Schumacher, one of the streets I sometimes travel (though not on this trip).

All in all it was a great ride, although Hauser is not terribly bike friendly and the street is awfully narrow down towards Venice Blvd.

Great high school bike club video

The Orange County Bicycle Coalition posted this video:

High School bike club

Hope more people are inspired to start bicycling clubs to school, work, recreation.  Let's get the whole country on bicycles!

Bigger is better

So I bought a bike jersey.... a 3X because that's the largest I could find - and these things run really small, btw.  A 3X cycling jersey has nothing to do with a 3X in real world clothing sizes because in a regular 3X I'm sort of swimming.  I did manage to get the 3X on, but it was like I was poured into it and practically needed to cut myself out of it.  It was more of what I would call an XL in regular clothing.  Gah!  Hello, haven't they heard of Spandex????

Yes, I know I need to lose weight but that's not the point here.  The point is that these things need to be made properly for larger riders who deserve a cycling jersey just as much as their thin/fit cycling counterparts.  The same goes for cycling shorts, bibshorts, and any other apparel that needs specific sizing.  Ideally the clothing should be made for anyone who wants to get on a bike a ride - because anyone who rides is a legitimate cyclist who deserves legitimate cycling gear.  If I ever did the San Diego Century, I'd love to have the jersey, but I'm quite certain it wouldn't come in my size.

Earth Day 2012

Meet up at West Hollywood Park by the Library.

Today the West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition had a ride from the West Hollywood library to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.   Round trip it wasn't a huge ride - maybe 6 miles at the most, but it was a group ride and we had about 10 riders total, including 2 young girls, maybe aged 9 and 11.  The girls thought the whole ride experience with the group was a complete blast and the youngest rode at the front of the pack and chatted up a storm, making up words and general silliness.  It was terrific.

The ride was to celebrate Earth Day, and if you rode your bike or used alternate transportation, you could get into LACMA for free.  We arrived there at about 12:30, and the Los Angeles Bicycle Coalition, which I decided to join for $25, had free bike valet parking.  That is the first time I have parked my bike and left it, although I stripped it of most stuff before I left it because I just wasn't sure how safe it would be.  As it turned out, it was perfectly safe, but I worried like a mother leaving her child with a babysitter for the first time.

Looking north towards the 6th Street entrance into the LACMA grounds

One table had some bits of LADOT (Los Angeles Dept. of Transportation) swag, so I got a few dinky things, including a flashing red light, a pair of bike socks and some reflective stripping to wrap around the ankles.  I'll give these to my friend when she arrives as gear for the 2nd bike - well, not the socks.  Those I'm definitely keeping.

I did not end up going inside LACMA because I don't do well on my feet or with lots of walking around, and having been on my feet a lot the past few days making tons of cookies, I decided to just enjoy the sunshine and people watch.   There were lots of Earth Day activities, and I saw some of the  cutest toddlers.  

crafts activities

Some of us went to the food trucks on Wilshire Blvd, and I got a quesadilla for $5 which was good, although truthfully it was more of social eating than just hunger.  I wasn't actually hungry.

An outdoor public piano on Wilshire Blvd.  I was so tempted to play it, but these girls were having fun!

 We all met up again at 2:30 by the bike valet, and some decided to stay longer, but I decided to go because I had more cookies to work on and also I'd been up since 7:00, been downtown to deliver 2 orders of cookies, and done this bike ride on about 2 hours of sleep.  So I went home.  I rode down 6th to Sweetzer, then took it to 4th, 4th to Orlando, and Orlando up to home.

One thing I did notice is that on the ride towards LACMA, when we were on Willoughby, which I have travelled many, many times on the bike, I noticed that I wasn't feeling the inclines.  Maybe it was our slow pace or maybe it's just that my legs are so much stronger than a year ago.