REI Manhattan Beach offers Free Bike Maintenance Clinic

If you ride a bicycle, then you need this clinic! The Free Bicycle Maintenance Clinic is an informative class that will teach you how to lube a chain, fix a flat tire in record time, and make other minor adjustments to your bicycle. This clinic is a great lead in to the Comprehensive Bike Maintenance Class.
For more info such as date, time etc, click here.

Do not despair

When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. ~H.G. Wells

Inspiration is everywhere

By now, you’ve most likely see it, the Powerade ad campaign that beautifies naked athletes. If you haven’t go there now. Run, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Rebecca Romero, a woman whose previous experience of cycling consisted of working in a bike shop as a teenager,  is one of the three nude Olympic athletes portrayed in this amazing display meant to sell another Coca Cola product, Powerade. To me, its an attest to what the human body can be.

Rebecca Romero - PowerAde Ad

The athlete, who modestly describes herself as ‘generally a lazy person’, beat Wendy Houvenhagel by about 2.5 seconds for the gold at this summer’s Olympics in Bejing. And so is confirmed as one of the few, if not only, Olympic medalist in 2 endurance sports.

It’s more than a month past the summer Olympics, so why am I touting her accomplishments now? Because the image stays with me. She is a fine tuned machine of muscle and dedication. She is no more and no less then anyone of us, getting on her bike day in and day out putting the miles behind her. There is no history of cycling since she could walk, just a love of the sport and maybe a little more ambition to take the gold then you or I have at this moment. Most importantly, she shows us what we can accomplish and I, for one, plan on keeping that in front of me as I continue to pedal towards my goals.

Red Rider, Red Rider

Oooh, I have another cause and a great ride ahead of me! Admittedly, the event is not until April 18th, 2009, but I am pretty excited about it.

I’m putting together a team of dedicated people who have and have not been on a bike for a distance event before.   Our goal is to fundraise and bring awareness to the American Diabetes Association during their Tour de Cure.

A few people have been surprised that this is not my “Cancer Thing” but since my goals are to make a difference in some small way, it works very well for me. Also, I will be wearing the designated Red Rider jersey to show myself as someone with type 2 diabetes.

Come join Team US Cares.

Brentwood Grand Prix, or Things that go bump in the pack.

We came back from Midnight Madness at 5 am, then up and in the car at 7 am to watch my friend Joe race at the Brentwood Grand Prix. I was pretty excited because I had never been to a race before, Dave was less excited – something about sleep I think.

The Brentwood Grand Prix was held on San Vincente blvd. which made a perfect 2.2 mile loop for them. It was a little lower then where I usually do my Thursday night rides (omg, those false flats!) but in a good spot not just for the race but to watch the riders warm up on the hill and back.

Joe had asked us to attend so that we could take pictures. This _seemed_ like an easy request but turned out to be much harder than we thought. His race (cat 3 mens, 33+) was at a much faster clip then the others we saw before and after. There was no coasting round the turn and they were shoulder to shoulder thru much of it. During the entire hour race (one frickin’ hour at top speeds!), we were only able to see him once and missed him in the camera frame.

There were 125 cyclists in this race, that sat at 30+ mph through most of it. During the final lap, speeds increased … Joe was at 38.6 when the cyclist in front of him clipped his wheel while looking for a hole in the group. Joe went endo, 30 riders went down and we celebrated by spending the day at the E.R.. Seems a broken clavicle was the trophy.

For the gear heads in the group, the bike that took a major owie is a Red Trek Madone 5.5. It is recovering nicely from what I hear.

Hill Climbing Technique Tips

Recently, I posted my favorite training tip from Josh Horowitz for working towards better hill climbing. In the same article, 7 Tips for Climbing to the Top, he also gives this excellent tip:
Positioning - Start the climb near the front. If you start near the back, not only will you have to keep the pace of the lead riders, you will have to make the additional effort of accelerating around dropped riders. A strong climber might be able to bridge one or two gaps, but if it is a long climb and a big pack, eventually they will burn their last match and go off the back, even if their power-to-weight ratio is higher than that of the leaders.


I saw this during my recent 2 day event, The Ride to Conquer Cancer. While many cyclists there were much better riders than myself, they just don’t have the experience we take for granted when cycling along the PCH out of Malibu. There were minor hills early on where people were walking in herds. I simply do not have the cycling strength to over come that loss of momentum and had to walk as well until I caught on that this was going to keep happening unless I got ahead of the pack. So I peddaled up as best I could after the hill. Victory! I was back in the saddle for a much better event. We’ll see what happens next month with the Marin Century ride. I imagine that is going to be much more climb.

Day Two – The Ride to Conquer Cancer

Day two had me extremely excited that I was going to see Niagara Falls. I woke up, donned my Team US gear and got ready to pedal away.

I don’t know what happened, I felt awesome, but I was working harder than I have in a long time. Fortunately for me, the game is mental and I had a lot of help along the way. I was wearing my US cycling clothes and everyone was asking where I was from, they were all very impressed that I flew up just for the event and going back immediately. So many people asked me why. I was dumbfounded and never came up with an answer other than it must be the same reason as theirs.

After a while, people were calling me “LA” I have no idea how everyone found out but even the traffic volunteers would yell “Go LA” as I got there. It might have been the Toronto police officer I rode with for awhile (I was very impressed that I could keep up).

They were definitely right, day was an easier ride for us. I loved the area we were in and did a lot of rubber necking. But I’ll be honest, two days on a bike in and out of the rain, with less sleep then anyone should have, takes its toll on you.

Out in the middle of beautiful nowhere, I hit a hill around 60 Km, so I was pretty tired at this point. About 3/4s of the way up I saw bikers who were off to the side resting and onlookers, they starting cheering me on to the top and up I went. I could almost see the crest and thought I won’t make it, but three guys started yelling “USA, USA, USA” and it was all I needed.

Leaving the 64 km pit stop the Niagara Ice Dogs bus stopped and offered me a ride. I explained I was OK an had just stopped in the shade to stretch out my back. After they left, I thought I should have asked to go inside for a second so I could at least say I had been on the tour bus, but I knew if I accepted a ride, I could not live with my self after all this work. Just before the final pit stop I hit a pot hole, hard. The back tire blew and I was done. I wasn’t too worried, there had been support and sweep vehicles everywhere. So I walked, as I walked I realized that I was pretty alone and that maybe i was at the end of the stragglers – this got me very concerned. My angels Erica and Renee picked me up, took me to the next stop and we tried to get a bike tech. Seems they were all out. We finally got one and replaced my tire but I had lost so much time they were packing up the stop and I really would be alone. There was talk of taking me about 1 km before the finish line so I could still cycle in. It seemed appealing and cheating at the same time. Instead I got taken to a small group of riders and dropped off for safety but still able to ride a reasonable amount. WIth both days being over 100 km and my cycling too and from the event I was able to still feel pretty good about a 3 km loss and know that I was well on the way to the finish line.

Finally, I rounded the last curve and started heading downhill. I heard the Falls. I looked to my right and could see the mist coming up and started to cry. I realized my glasses were fogging up and I could wipe out pretty bad, so I pulled it together and made it in.

I honestly thought I would hit the finish and be a part of the hugging and the crying and all the hoopla. Instead I got some food, found out where to go next, talked to a few people and got on the train back in sort of a quiet way. Oh, and we learned that trains make me seasick.

Day One Continues – On the Road with The Ride to Conquer Cancer

We took off and it was glorious. A force of yellow and wheels wielding its way through Toronto. I was all giggles and excitement. Not being from the area, I have no idea what to expect, when we would leave city streets, etc.

I had been nervous that there were no route slips printed out (a wonderful booklet did give us a map the night before) and no arrows painted on the street itself. There was no reason to worry. The event was wonderfully organized. Clearly marked signs along the way and volunteers at every intersection. If you think about the sheer distance of the ride and how many intersections that must be, it is boggling.

I had my first understanding of how much this meant to everyone as we rode. There were people all along the route cheering us on. I’ve seen crowds at the start and a few block up but never an entire event route. I think my favorite sign was “Go Brit! Ride your fanny for your granny!”

There were about 5 or six stops a day, about every 20 km (12.5 miles) this both slowed me down and kept me going. For many people this was their first event and a two day one at that, the rest and hydration they provided was excellent. Unfortunately I was in the early pack to get to the first stop. That meant everyone was surprised and just slammed to a stop at the driveway. No one called out, many of us could not clip out in time and down I went in the midst of a domino effect. It must have looked awful, for two days everyone around me was trying to send me off to the medic tent, but honestly, I went right away, they cleaned me up and I was fine. The hardest part was the band-aid pulling at my skin, so I took that off and continued on.

Once again I need to thank Coach Ramon and Team in Training. All the times he took me out on the PCH and made me tackle those hills in baby steps really paid off. My mentor, Jayne Ramos certainly did her share too. As we hit the hills, people were walking in herds. I lost momentum and I am not a strong enough rider to recover from that so there were times when I had to walk but would get back on the bike as soon as I could. We had one hard turn to a hill that stopped everyone. Coming around a blind curve like that and into a stopped pack is pretty unnerving, I can tell you. I saw one gentleman who made the curve, past the stopped pack but couldn’t recover – he toppled over and could not get out of his clips.

The screw in my handbars were stripped. Every time I hit a bump they would tip down and I would pull them back up. Surprisingly, this did not awake the tumor in my hand. For a change it was quiet and behaved nicely all weekend. Because of the handlebars I walked ALL of a really scary downhill. I still have trouble with my fear of down hill but thankfully not as much as before. This time it was more of a safety about being able to grab the brakes evenly with the bars moving as I rode.

We had been hearing about the BIG HILL since prior to the event. Everyone was pretty worked up about it. It really wasn’t bad, just long. I have to admit I did walk a small part of it. I got to the top and felt a bit dehydrated so I sat on a wall with a few other folk, drank up and had some beef jerky for the salt. I’m not sure, but I actually think I napped sitting up for a while.

After that, there was about 10 km if I recall, to the camp ground. Yay! The route that day was fairly easy compared to our terrain, there was no Encinal Cyn in sight and it certainly wasn’t Solvang. Of course 100+ km of anything isn’t that easy but it was the harder of the two days so I felt pretty secure.

Day One – The Ride to Conquer Cancer

Bleary eyed, I arrived at the exhibition centre, dropped off my gear, and got some breakfast. I learned right away that vegetarian means you get breads and grains. I can’t have that so I shrugged it off and ate what would keep me strong for the next two days, bacon and bananas – breakfast of the champions. I know that coffee dehydrates but I was worried about those migraines I get when I don’t have coffee so I had a cup and two extra cups of water to be safe.

They gave us all event cycling jerseys to wear on day one. To see over 2,500 people all in a sea of yellow was overwhelming for me. All those people working towards the same goal. I could not stop crying. The speeches got to me, as they were meant to, but when They brought out 6 people escorting the riderless bike, it hit home hard.

There were 3 ladies holding a hand lettered sign that said “Go Treehuggers”, I thanked them for looking out for us Californians and asked them to snap my very first photo where I was brave enough to let you all see me in full spandex. Oy. They weren’t cheering on the Californians, they had a team named Tree Huggers, go figure.

On the way to The Ride to Conquer Cancer

I signed up for this ride because I am firmly of the belief that cancer does not stop at the US/Canada border. The cause is near and dear to my heart, but this event more so because it does not focus on one exclusive form of cancer – it doesn’t single out the trendy cause or the plight of the moment. The Princess Margaret Hospital is an all cancer facility, with departments or whole floors that specialize in one type or another. Something like this may have helped my father-in-law, who in his 70s passed of a pediatric cancer because no one knew how to handle it. I don’t know, but I’d like to think so.

The extra benefit of the event is the one that has me very excited to be on the plane today. I will finally get to see parts of a country I love and am thinking of expanding my business to.Cycling from Toronto to Niagara will certainly allow me to see a beautiful place and maybe let me know a little more about Ontario.

I’ve hit some snags in the transportation from the city to the event and back again. I think things have been ironed out but we’ll see. It turned out to be a good diversion yesterday, allowing me to go into “Manager Mode” and not stress too much about the event. I had thought that I would be going to the event with Richard and tossing my gear into his truck. Not only am I not doing that but I should have wondered how I was going to get back because he is leaving Niagara earlier than I am and I knew that! No worries, but because I am cycling to the event from the hotel I’m limited on what I can carry as I ride. I’ll have my sleeping bag inside a back pack with whatever clothes may fit. I had to leave my blanket and ground mat at home – we’ll see how I fair the second day. I’m not too worried, it just may give me a few good stories to tell and a badge of honour to go with it.

A not too minor concern is the food/drink powder I’ve packed. As a diabetic who is so far staying off the insulin, I can not afford to reply on the SAG stops for my meals and as anyone knows, your food is your fuel. I’m hoping that all those little bags of powder, nuts and cliff bars will fit in the pack. I’ve done a ride without and walked 17 miles because I bonked. I will make it fit. Lawrd knows, I am NOT tossing the sleeping bag too!  Oh, and to top it off, it’s “that time” – I’m thinking of stuffing the pads into my bra for storage. Who knows, I might make a few friends