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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!