attackin' the beaches with bike attack

(view from the top of rancho palos verdes, via magic_man)

i rode the "santa monica: climb to the top of palos verdes!" 50 mile trek on saturday morning with the bike attack training crew. breakfast was a "banilla" power smoothie from trader joe's (delicious!) and a peanut butter luna bar. david bain (the ride leader) went over some basic rules of the road, and i got to meet drew (cute cat stickers on her sweet specialized allez - soma everwear tires woot!), deborah, tony (the tiger, this will be his 5th ALC), reuben (ruby!), dave (this will be his 2nd ALC), and nguyen (also his 1st ALC!). david has been involved with ALC for 10 years! truly inspiring. my friend flavio was also on the ride - he always ends the ride with a crazy sprint and this one was no exception. he's also got a goal of riding 150 miles PER WEEK. i've definitely got some work to do on my mileage.

there were at least 20 people that gathered at bike attack that morn, but it soon split into two groups: the sprinters and the sane people. i chose to follow the sprinters and got quite a workout - for the first 20 miles we had an average speed of 17 mph! starting off in santa monica, we headed down main street toward venice, then onto the beach bike path toward el segundo and manhattan beach. the first pit stop was after a steep half-mile hill climb in palos verdes, at malaga cove plaza, a little shopping area where nguyen bought a delicious-looking breakfast burrito loaded with avocado, tomatoes, cheese, and egg. i polished off cran-razberry clif blox i brought along and hoped they would give me enough energy to complete the 2nd half of the ride.

the next 4 miles (and half hour) of the ride involveed a torturous climb up hawthorne boulevard. looking at this twisting winding monster from the bottom, i wondered if maybe i should have stuck with the sane people. fortunately, the guys in my pack maintained a steady and reasonable pace. i kept my eyes glued to flavio's back wheel and concentrated on my pedal strokes. finally we saw valero gas station on the left and swung into the parking lot to get our lungs back.

i was down to "red"-flavored gatorade and water at that point, so when reuben offered up some of his lightly salted kettle chips, i scarfed them right up. with most of the climbing done, was cruised down silver sput and palos verdes boulevard. i almost prefer climbing endlessly to bombing down a huge downhill - too many imagined bike crash situations running through my head. after my dislocated shoulder in january, i've gotten a little speed-shy. there were no technicals or mechanicals on this ride though, amazingly enough, and after we started coming back up to hermosa and manhattan beach, we were in the home stretch.

flavio pulled away right before we hit the beach bike path, and that was the last i saw of him for the day. every red light on main street (or rather, the start/stopping) worked my calves to the max and with all my energy bars burned off from the huge climbs, i started lusting after chocolate sundaes and inch-thick steaks drowning in A1. and finally, we were back at bike attack. our pack had gotten spread out over the last few miles of the ride, so i said ciao to tony & dave (driving back to long beach), and headed back home.

got a hint of a calf cramp on the ride home, and my right knee was acting up a little bit, so i definitely need to bring more food (bananas!) next time, and also get a clipless pedals/ shoes setup. i'm still riding in cages & vans, which isn't all that bad. it actually makes stopping at stop signs and red lights a little easier, but yeah, a clipless setup will transfer my pedal strokes a lot more efficiently. holding my breath till payday...