Cycling this week - 02/26/2012

After a tour of the Rose Bowl yesterday, I finally got up and got going this morning after reading the paper and having coffee. I rode down the Rio Hondo river trail to where it intersects with the San Gabriel river trail, and then took that  up to the Santa Fe Dam.  I rode up through Duarte and Monrovia. I call this ride the river trail loop.  I stopped at my daughters house and talked with her and her boyfriend for awhile, and said hi to their little dogs, Lucy and Penny.  Then I rode the final 7 miles home.  There are no pictures this week as I really didn't think about it much.  I did the 36.9 miles in 2:12.  For the first 25 miles, I had an average speed of 18.3 miles per hour, then I slowed down and cruised home.  All in all, a good workout.

Irit takes up cycling - 02/25/2012

Second in the series - This just in, it's official, cycling beats yoga.  The undisputed queen of yoga, Irit Gat, has chosen to ride a bicycle over doing yoga for the first time.  She was heard saying that she just couldn't pass up the feeling she gets when the wind is blowing in her face and the endorphins are corsing through her body.  Today she rode 20 miles up to the Rose Bowl and back.  That makes 48 miles in the past 30 days, pretty good for a beginner.  I'll have her doing a metric century by the end of the summer.

Here she is posing in front of the Rose Bowl

Irit takes up cycling - 02/19/2012

The first in a series - Irit Gat takes up the sport of cycling.  This post comes after the third day of riding a bike.  The first day, after getting her fitted to the bike, we did about 4.5 miles around the neighborhood, while she learned how to operate the shifters and brakes.  The second day we rode up to the Huntington Library and back, about 9 miles.  This time we rode out through Arcadia, and Monrovia and then back, 15 miles.  She is making excellent progress.  In the pictures below, you can see the pure joy in her face.  Is this a happy camper or what?

Cycling this week - 02/18/2012

I rode up and over Glendora Mountain Road from the Azusa canyon side.  It was a great day for a ride in the mountains, about 60 degrees and sunny.  From my house it was 60.7 miles, and I covered it in 4:10.  The first 25 miles, I basically sweated out all the wine from the previous week.  After I started up the steep part, I fell into a rhythm and made it up to the top while listening to the new album from the Foo Fighters.  The downhill ride into Glendora has got to be one of the best 10 mile long decents anywhere.  I passed up two motorcycles on the way down.  I stopped by Daves house at the bottom and talked with him for awhile, then rode the final 17 miles home in a nasty headwind.

Here are some pics from the ride: 

This first one is the bridge that spans Azusa Canyon

This is the river that runs along the road in Eastfork.

Here is a road sign that is at the start of the steep part - makes you think twice when you don't have a roof over your head.

Here is picture from the top where Glendora Mountain Road intersects with Glendora Ridge Road, which heads to Mt. Baldy.  I didn't have enough gas in the tank for that one.  That is Mt Baldy in the background, with a little snow on it.

Cycling this week - 02/12/2012

This Saturday, Rich, Nabeel, and I took a tour of Pasadena. From old town, we went through the Rose Bowl and up to La Canada, then back East all the way to Sierra Madre where we had lunch at Bean Town. Then we headed back to the Rose Bowl, where it started to rain. We went around once and headed back to Heidi's place. We hung out in the parking garage to stay out of the rain and were met by the AVC female trio of Heidi, Jen and the amazing Irit, also known as the yoga queen of Lancaster, who had been out shopping in Old Town Pasadena all day. After talking about the days events, I headed home, in the rain.  There's nothing like riding through downtown Pasadena, dodging cars, in the rain. I rode a total of 47 miles in 3:10.

On Sunday I spent a few hours washing the road dirt off of my bike from the rain.  I installed some new tires (Continental Grad Prix 4 Season) and a new chain (Sram PC 1091R), it's almost like new.  This is a picture of Nabeel and I that was taken by Rich at the Rose Bowl just before it started to rain.