Matthew’s ALC8 Blog

I took a nice ride into Santa Monica to Helen’s Cycles, which was the beginning of the training ride.  From there we headed down along the coast up into the Playa Del Rey and Westchester.  The original route would’ve taken me right past work on Westchester Parkway, but that segment was cancelled due to Westchester Parkway being closed (I heard it was for some kind of race).

After traveling back up into Santa Monica and up San Vicente, there was an optional loop up Bundy Dr (which gets up near but not as high as Mount Saint Mary’s College).  I opted to do the loop, although I initially missed a weird Bundy turn (you have to turn to stay on Bundy), and ended up going initially up the wrong street until I reliazed that I wasn’t on Bundy, and then turning around to come back (and notified one other rider who made the same mistake).  After cutting up Sunset to Bundy, I then went all the way and back down Bundy, which was a nice pleasant climb, and then a fun decent back down, returning back to Helen’s Cycles.  Finally I bicycled back home into West Hollywood to give my legs a needed break, especially after yesterday’s climbing).

Marina-Bunch Recovery Ride (click to view details)

This started with a nice ride out to Bike Attack in Santa Monica, followed by heading down to Venice Blvd and into Culver City.  Then we turned up towards Beverly Hills, and climbed up to Mulholland.  Unfortunately, the group I was with made a wrong turn (partially because some of the street designers seemed to have named a bunch of the streets the same, and then didn’t sign them all very well).  After we realized the mistake, we decided to keep going over to Sunset, and then try to re-join the path.  Of course we then missed another turn (for a similar reason), and ended up at the bottom of a street called Rosscomore.  The original route would’ve ended up on a street called Stradella which has some major rolling climbs, and ended up back at Rosscomore higher up.  Since getting to the original route from the bottom of Rosscomore would’ve been much longer, we decided to head up Rosscomore.

That was not at all fun.

Rosscomore gets extremely steep on the way up, where I dropped below 4 miles per hour, and eventually ended up walking up the last quarter mile, the first and only time training that I have done so.  After reaching the top, we continued over on Mulholland to Beverly Glen, where we stopped near the top for lunch.  After lunch, a bunch of us decided to head straight down Beverly Glen to have some fun instead of heading back along Mulholland to Sepulveda.  We then worked our way back to Santa Monica mostly along Olympic.  After returning to Bike Attack I arranged to meet with my parents in the Abbot Kinney area for lunch, but since I had some time to kill, I took a fairly casual ride along the bike path in Venice and enjoyed the sights, then heading up Washington Blvd to Abbot Kinney, and heading over to the meeting area.

On the way over, I passed them by car while talking to them on the phone.  I then turned around and caught up to them turning left, and rode with them while they were looking for parking (traffic was quite heavy, so it was easy to keep up).  After not finding parking, we headed over to a restaurant on Washington Blvd, and after enjoying a nice 2nd lunch (I ate over at the top of Mulholland), and a quick stop at a furniture store, I headed back home via Washington Blvd/Washington Pl, then joining my normal commute in Culver City, making for a nice day and ride.  The trip home was also fun because I encountered a car in downtown Culver City, then I then managed to keep the same average speed all the way up La Cienega to at least Olympic.  Gotta love the traffic (when you’re not stuck in it 😉 ).

Climbs of the Rich and Famous (click to view full detail)

In addition to the training rides I have been doing, I also regularly commute to work by bicycle (3-4 days a week, sometimes less depending on weather and other training patterns.)  This involves a 11-11.5 mile trip down La Cienega to Venice Blvd, then over to Culver Blvd, and then either using the Culver Blvd bike path or the Ballona Creek bike path.  At night I don’t use the Ballona Creek bike path except for the section shown on the route using the Culver Blvd bike path.  During the day it depends on the mood I’m in, although in the morning I mostly use the Ballona Creek bike path.  I then work my way over to Lincoln Blvd before heading up to Otis College in Westchester.

I originally stated the bike commuting when I lived in Westchester, and it was only 3 miles.  I did it for the exercise, and to not be driving all the time.  As I continued to do it, I increased my bicycling including doing an occasional Bike Tour at a Marathon (I’ve done Los Angeles twice, Pasadena the once it has happened, and Long Beach once), as well as the LA River Ride once.

After moving to West Hollywood, I initially didn’t bicycle the longer route, but then decided to get back into it, partially as training for AIDS/Lifecycle.  By bicycling to work, it is faster than taking the bus (almost always, as it takes me pretty consistently about 1 hour to bicycle vs 1-1.5+ by bus), and it is even occasionally faster than driving (especially if there are street closures).  It also provides training doing something I need to do anyways – get to work.

Just as a mention as to the La Cienega aspect of my commute, as most people think I’m crazy for using that street:  I personally like taking the major streets for commuting, as the light cycles are usually better for travel time.  In the case of the North/South portion of my commute, there are really any bike routes/lanes without going quite a ways out of my way, so that combined with my preference for the larger streets keeps my options limited.  I tried Robertson for a bit, but actually prefer the larger La Cienega as it is three lanes instead of two, and if there are parked cars, there is enough room for me to stay outside of the main lanes of traffic (unlike Robertson).  Most of the cars on the road are pretty good, and extremely few have made me feel significantly nervous of being hit.  Even the ones that honk/yell still keep an approrpriate distance (and since I know I’m in the right, I don’t let them get to me).  It’s especially fun when someone does so and then I end up going faster than them overall…

These are the maps for the Ballona Creek route:

Commute To Work via Ballona Creek (click to see full detail)

Commute From Work via Ballona Creek (click to see full detail)

These are the maps for the Culver Blvd bike path route:

Commute To Work via Culver Blvd Bike Path (click to see full detail)

Commute From Work via Culver Blvd Bike Path (click to see full detail)

Today was the Inaugural Pasadena Marathon Redux, and here’s the reason for the Redux:  The original Inaugural Pasadena Marathon was supposed to be on November 16, 2008.  If you don’t remember, that also happens to be when the wildfires were happening in the Los Angeles area, so unfortunately they had to cancel the Marathon at the last minute for air quality reasons.  Therefore this was the Redux of the Marathon.

This marathon has not had much luck.  While the event itself was well run, especially for a first time marathon, the problem is that mother nature decided it was time to make it rain, mostly on the marathon.  For at least two weeks before and after the marathon, there was no rain.  Then the morning of the marathon, it rain, hard, mostly on the marathon…

I arrived in Pasadena before 6am for the ride out, and when I arrive the ground is wet, but it’s not actually raining, so not a big deal.  Of course the drizzle starts about 10 minutes before we take off.  Then just a few miles into the ride, it starts pouring, very heavily to the point that I had trouble seeing, and I was soaked.  It did taper off for a good portion of the ride, but I did have at least one other soaking, and was wet (especially my socks, which really sucked) for basically the entire marathon/bike tour, but I completed it regardless, although never again without different socks.

Fortunately it wasn’t raining at the end point when I reached it, so I was able to enjoy the end festival (and get the free stuff) before heading back to the car, where the rain stayed off long enough for me to get into the car and leave.  Most of my bike got a nice wash from the ride, and the parts that did were cleaned as a left in the rain, so I had a nice clean bike once I was home…

Despite the hassles, I enjoyed the Inaugural Pasadena Marathon Bike Tour, and hope to do it again, without the rain, so that I can enjoy the scenery instead of paying so much attention to being soaked…  It was also fun because I passed very close to the houses of a few people that I know from work.

Inaugural Pasadena Marathon Redux (click to view detail)

After doing my nice little trek into Palos Verdes for a second Saturday in a row, I apparently decided it was a good idea to do a 70 mile ride on a back-to-back weekend.

For this ride we met up in Malibu at the Cross Creek Shopping Center.  From there we rode north along PCH, along the rollers to the HOW’s supermarket (actually to the Starbucks there), after which we continued onto the Oxnard area, specifically the Port Hueneme area.  This was a beautiful ride along the coastline, mirroring much of the final day of riding for the actual event.  It was also strange since I had bicycled to an area that my dad had to drive to regularly for a while for work, and that was a long commute by car…

Most of the ride was a reasonably flat, and made for a very nice first 70 mile ride.  The worst part was the rollers that we had started with, that were now the end of the ride.  I was extremely happy when I realized I had reached the peak of the last hill right by Pepperdine, and did the final stretch into the Cross Creek shopping center.

After the ride I met with my parents for dinner out in Malibu, where enjoying some good seafood before heading home.

Malibu to Oxnard (click for full detail including mile markers)

My 2 favorite things about the Pod Peds rides – they usually go out of West Hollywood, and all are welcome. 🙂

This was one of those rides where the ride to the starting point is very short, which means that I can sleep in as much as possible.

After we met up in West Hollywood Park on San Vicente, we headed down to the Ballona Creek bike path (the same one I use to get to work, but along a different route), and then went out to the beach and down into Palos Verdes.  After going to Malaga Cove, just had a trip back to West Hollywood Park, and then hit a pizza place that I hadn’t eaten at yet with some others, enjoyed some good food, and went home.

This was a good training ride, with a good group of people.

West Hollywood to Malaga Cove (click to view full detail including mile markers)

I took a drive out to Santa Monica and found some free parking over on 5th Street near Bike Attack.  I then went to the starting point for my first ride down to Palos Verdes, and what a ride it was.

We followed the coastline down, using streets most of the time instead of the beach bike path, and headed up into Malaga Cove in Palos Verdes, which has some fairly substantial climbing just to reach that point.  After taking a break there, we continued down on Palos Verdes Dr W, and went to Hawthorne Blvd, where I then tacking the longest steep climb I have ever done.  Hawthorne Blvd is basically about 4-5 miles of continuous climb up to the top of Palos Verdes.  I made it up to the top, albeit slowly, and was very happy when I finally reached the top (especially since it seemed like it was never coming.)  Our next rest stop is a Valero gas station at the top of the hill, that has very nice restrooms, especially for a gas station.

After reaching the summit, we had a fun ride back down the hill and finally back up the coastline to Santa Monica.  This was a fun ride, and I’m really learning what climbing on a bicycle is about…

Santa Monica to Palos Verdes (click to view detail including mile markers)