Velo Angels - Ride, Girls. Ride.

It Has Begun!

Yesterday, the pro cycling season finally began.  Yes, there were "races" in Australia, Oman, and Qatar, but let's be clear -- that is not the start of the season.  Cycling begins when the pro peleton heads to Belgium, and yesterday they started with the Omloop Het Niewsbland.

 

Early season racing means tough, short climbs, cobblestones, and horrible, nasty weather.  Riders get cold and battered over hundreds of miles of the nastiest roads sadists can find in Europe -- which, by the way, are worse than usual, because of the cold, snowy winter they've had in Belgium so far this year.  Riders who don't win are just destroyed by the end of these races.

So why do riders put themselves through this, and why do people like me love it so much?  Maybe it's because it's so fun to say words like Omloop.  Maybe it's the excuse to enjoy some amazing Belgian beer when you're done.  Maybe it's the history that's attached to all these races.  I can't speak for anyone else, but for me it's all about the passion associated with these races.

Cycling really is life in the Flanders region of Belgium.  That comes out in the fans, who come out in those same nasty conditions that the riders go through, cheering on their favorites for the few seconds they get to see them.  I'm telling you -- even on TV, you just see the passion of the fans coming through in any of these races, and it's a pretty amazing thing to see.

And that creates this amazing passion among the riders themselves.  Hell, look at George Hincapie -- he's done so much in cycling, yet he would give anything to win Paris Roubaix, the Queen of the Classics.  This guy from New York puts everything into this race, year after year, and while he's always comes up just a bit short, he always comes back for more.  

There's just nothing better, as far as I'm concerned.  And for the next few months I get to see an amazing procession of cobblestones, rain, cross-winds, and destroyed riders giving everything in hopes of getting themselves or a teammate on the podium.  And enjoy my own Belgian beer as I congratulate myself for living in SoCal while these crazy hard men entertain me from afar .....

    

Watching Too Much Olympics Makes Mai a Lazy Blogger - Crushing on Hot Olympians

Did you see Shaun White fly? 

He defies gravity.  I tuned in just as he was riding, and everyone after him looked, well, normal.  The way he rides is not normal.  So amazing. Although, I'm not sure if he's "HOT"...  Well, the way he rides is. 

I just wish he would cut his hair.

And, I love USA snowboarding team gear.  Gore-Tex denim and red, white and blue plaid jacket.  Sweet.  Whoever designed them gets A+ from me. 

 

Oh, and who knew Nordic Combined was so interesting? 
When I say interesting, there's a cute guy in the US team... 
 

I must say this is the first time I paid attention to this sport, thanks to Johnny Spillane (photo above).  (Just kidding about the cute guy comment, btw.  Well, half kidding.) 

And, speaking of cute guys...  Seriously.  Crushing on him hard currently.  

He's half my peeps. 

 

This is a person with 2.5% of body fat.  Unreal.  (Although this shot was taken a while back, so I doubt this is his "Olymipcs" body.)  

And the way he skates is so smart.  Wow.  He's an artist.

Yes, I'm aware that I'm taking a break from writing about cycling. 
But, if you insist...

The aforementioned handsome skier Johnny Spillane rides a bike as cross training. 

See?  (Him on the right with his buddies.)  

So there.  This is my cycling blog. 

 

Who IS this "Dr. Pear"??? Blog 1.0

Wow….well what an amazing introduction!!! Thank you for the invitation to join Velo Angels Blog Mai… No pressure… with the CNN comment. Ha Ha ;-)

Well, I think I should start by introducing myself and tell you all how I came into my love of chiropractic healthcare and affection for cycling.

I attended Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Sports Medicine. I continued my education at Cleveland Chiropractic College of Los Angeles in California, receiving my doctorate. I am also certified by the California Healing Arts College for Massage Therapy and continue to further my knowledge in pursuit of a license in acupuncture from Emperor’s College in Santa Monica.

My interest in the healing arts began at a very young age, when I volunteered in the physical therapy department at the hospital where my mother worked as a nurse. As a high school athlete, I played many sports, including soccer and basketball. Sustaining a knee injury in high school and three subsequent knee injuries followed by 3 different surgeries, my own physical therapy and rehabilitation led me to major in sports medicine.

A close friend of mine in College introduced me to chiropractic at Life Chiropractic College in Atlanta, Georgia. I fell in love with chiropractic immediately. It allowed me to combine lots of my interests and talents for helping people with a nontraditional healthcare approach.

After receiving my Doctorate of Chiropractic in Los Angeles, I immediately began my own practice and currently am the sole proprietor of Chiropractic West in Santa Monica, California. I am fortunate enough to have a job that I love, and help people better their health at the same time.

My love for cycling has evolved over time. Although, it really started with my purple bike complete with the flowered polka dotted banana seat at age 6! It more recently became a passion with the start of the Muddy Buddy event about 5 years ago. My interest in cycling has grown since to involve less mud and more asphalt. After my mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, I decided to get involved with the 2 Day MS charity ride (an annual event for me no matter what my training has been leading up to it). This is where my love of road cycling started. It’s really a love/hate relationship. The athlete inside of me can attest to that. As you well know, training on the bike never comes quickly and involves long grueling rides! Some days can be better than others. Over the last few years I have been able to get involved with many other charity rides including the 7 Day California AIDS LifeCycle - definitely easier to be a chiropractic volunteer than ride for 7 days - I have done BOTH! Most recently, and certainly the most challenging was riding the last 8 stages of the Tour de France in 2009. What a humbling experience.

Me, cresting the top of what Lance Armstrong describes in "Comeback 2.0" as, "...Col de Romme - which was the steepest, nastiest climb of the Tour" I was excited! Can ya tell?    Photo Credit: Andrew Jarvis

I hope over the course of this blog, I will be able to add some helpful health and exercise tips related to cycling. Maybe then Mai won’t strip my title… of being her Sanjay Gupta!!!! Like I said, no pressure.

 

Road Cycling Virgin? Not Any More. - Ko's First Ride

Ko is one of my non-cycling BFFs.  She's my snowboarding lover, who's appeared in this blog before.  You might remember her...  She looks like this. This is her having fun at Yokohama's Oktoberfest.  I hope she doesn't mind posting this picture...  :)

 

Ko and I go way back.  We met on May 25th, 1996 in Tokyo.  We were both on our way to Texas, where we went to school together.  We've had so much fun in the past 14 years.  Crazy college parties, day trips, hikes, walks, concerts, movies, LOTS of snowboarding trips, countless, I mean, COUNTLESS dinners and drinks.  Well, she's my best friend.  

And, because she's my best friend, I wanted her to experience what I've been into so much lately...  cycling! 

C'mon.  I've known her for 14 years.  I know her pretty well by now.  I knew she'd love the sport.  She's competitive.  She's strong.  She loves technical stuff.  She loves the challenge.  So I kept asking her to come ride on one of our Sunday rides.  But, she's like, "Soon!"  "Not yet."  "Maybe in a few months." 

GRRRRRR!

For some reason though, she finally said, "Yes." 

We stopped by my LBS, Cynergy Cycles, on our way home to get her a demo bike.  

She got the Amira Expert!  Sweet. 

Despite the forecast of rain, it was a beautiful day today. 
At 9 am, here's us getting ready for the ride.

Our route today was from Cynergy down by the beach to Manhattan Beach Pier and back.  31 miles.  

The obligatory picture at the bridge. 

It was SO beautiful, and I was SO Asian'd out I had to take lots of pictures today. 

Another one at the entrance to the Dockweiler Beach. Note the clouds starting to form...

 
 

Some of you may be able to guess where this is. 

 

Ko was a trooper!  Finished 31 miles with a big smile on her face.  She said she had a great time riding.  So happy and proud of her! 

Maybe not tomorrow, but I think she'll start cycling when she's ready. 
I was just happy she gave it a shot.  

This is her saying good-bye to the bike.  For now. 

And finally, thank you, Ben, for hanging with her and teaching her how to shift and brake etc.  You are a good man.

So, for those who don't ride now.  Are you ready to get out there? 
Go to your LBS and take out a demo!  I think you'll have a great time.  And, if you happen to live in West LA, Santa Monica area, come join us on our Sunday ride! 

Cheating on My Lover

I'm so sorry.  It was just a day.  It didn't mean anything.  It is just a seasonal, occasional, on-again-off-again fling. 

I cheat on my bike with my snowboard. 

Before cycling, there was snowboarding. I started riding about 7 years ago.

Honestly, I love the sport as much as I love cycling.  It's just a little hard to snowboard with the same intensity and frequency as cycling if you can only do it 4 months out of a year.  But I still go when I can.  During the peak of the season, my weekend consists of snowboarding on Saturdays and cycling on Sundays.  And, this makes me a very happy person (with big thighs and no boyfriend.)  

I went to Mt. Baldy for the first time with my snowboarding lover (soon to be a cyclist, too!) Ko. 

I'm not sure how beneficial for a cyclist to cross train by snowboarding...  Seems like I use a lot of quads and core while snowboarding.  Oh, I don't know!  It can't be bad to work my thighs out, use core muscles and work on my balance and focus, right?  I can tell you this though.  I get into the "zone" a lot while snowboarding.  While I glide down the hill, it gets super quiet and everything moves very slowly.  It's almost like I get a crystal clear tunnel vision of where I'm going and blurry peripheral vision of what's out side of my focus.  Time slows down and it's very zen.  Things make sense and the movement is effortless.  Enlightenment!  This is as close as I get to a religion.  

In the zone or not, I love snowboarding.  It's a good way to get out of the city and enjoy being a bit closer to the blue sky like this. 

Kristin Armstrong!

Kristin Armstrong is a badass pro cyclist.  She won the Women's Time Trial at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and is the winner of World Time Trial Championship (2006 & 2009) among other things...  She's mean and fast on the bike.  (Super nice off the bike.)  And, I always thought she was so cool.  She announced her retirement after the world championship last year.  She retired as a champion.  That's hard to do.  But, that's how she rolls.  She's just cool like that.  Yes, I know.  I said she was cool like twice already.  I'm a fan. Leave me alone.

When I found out Kristin Armstrong was having a 3-day cycling camp for women in Palm Springs, I immediately emailed Olivia to see if she was interested to go with me.  I really really really wanted to ride with a world champion! 

After Oli and I signed up, Kristin emailed us (Yes!  She emails people herself.  She doesn't have an assistant do it for her!)  and said she had some bad news.  She didn't have enough people signed up to make the camp.  So, instead she offered to have a one-day clinic on Friday before Palm Springs Century (for free!) 

Just past 9 am, Kristin showed up.  On her Cervelo bike in her white Cervelo kit.  She sticks her hand out casually and says, "Hey, I'm Kristin." 

I know who you are.  You are a world champion!!  (I only said this in my head, of course.) 

She introduced herself to everyone, who was just starting to gather around her. 
It was 7 of us and Kristin, Joe and Mike (Kristin's people.) 

First, she asked us about what we wanted to learn from her, since she didn't know where we stood in terms of skills and experience.  And then we rode about 6 miles to a parking lot where we had our clinic. 

We practiced bike handling skills like picking up water bottles placed on the ground, cornering and riding a tight figure 8.  But, she put a lot of focus on the mental stuff.  She showed us how to "bump" with other riders to mentally prepare ourselves for pack riding.  She said not to panic if you bump into someone.  If someone pushes you around, push back to claim your own space in the pack.  (Do this safely by pushing on the riders hip not up on the shoulder.) Very important, yet nobody taught me this before.  She took each of us individually to literally "bump" with her.  And, of course, I almost took her down because my handlebar and hers locked together.  I'm the girl who almost crashed Kristin Armstrong.  Very glad she was so good on the bike she didn't fall.  And, this doesn't even faze her.  She's SO cool.  Have I said this enough?  She's cool.  She's like, "Let's do it again." 

Not only was she cool, she was real, down to earth and so open.  While we were riding to the parking lot, we chatted about cycling and life in general...  my goals and dreams.  She talked about her new endeavor as a coach.  She said she had checked out this blog already because I had written her from my blog email address...  Seriously.  How cool can she be?  

After the "clinic" she took all of us to a Palm Springs local hangout to have a "date shake."  We all had the famous date shake and took pictures with her.  (Kristin and Olivia below.) 

After the date shake, we rode back to the meeting place, and it was time for good-byes.  Sad.  :(  I had such a great time with her. 

As I'm writing this, I seriously feel inadequate.  I can't write about Kristin and say how wonderful she was and what she said and what she taught us without feeling like I'm just a bad messenger of her gospel.  Paraphrasing doesn't do justice.  You just have to be there to experience how passionate she is about cycling and how much she cares about you as a cyclist.  And I know, as a blogger, I'm failing at telling you a story about my experience with Kristin because pretty much all I said in the previous paragraphs was "She's cool", but I can say this.  When you see Kristin is having another clinic somewhere sometime in the future.  You just go.  There's no other way.  And, I'll leave it at that. 

Guest Blogger Series 2 - Dr. Debra Pear

CNN's Anderson Cooper has Sanjay Gupta, the medical correspondent. 
I wanted to have my own Sanjay for my blog...  someone who's knowledgeable about cycling, training, stretching, bones, muscles, exercise physiology and health care in general.  Sure, I can talk about cycling apparel design, but I have no business telling anybody how to stretch before and after a bike ride!  I'm just not legit. 

I think it is essential that we, as a cyclist, should all learn to take care of our bodies.  We should be healthy and injury-free to be able to ride.  And, since I'm not an expert, I've asked my chiropractic doctor to be my Sanjay and write for us. 

Dr. Debra Pear is my chiropractic doctor.  She is an avid cyclist.  I met her through my LBS, when my bike fitter told me that my spine was all messed up and I should go see her.  Since she diagnosed my scoliosis, she referred me to a podiatrist, who's made me my orthodics, and I've gotten a new bike (saddle) fit.  And, I am happy to say I am pain free now!  

I'm so happy to welcome my new guest blogger, Dr. Pear. 
Blog away, Doc! 

Test the Best

If you are in the market for a new bike, the best way to know what you want is to demo a bike, I think. 

My LBS is having a Specialized demo this Saturday. 

Check it out. 

http://cynergycycles.com/index.php/2010/01/demo-day/

And, yes, I'm still writing about my Century and clinic with Kristin Armstrong! 

I've been a total social butterfly lately... 

L.A. sees big jump in bike thefts, prompting some vigilante justice

L.A. sees big jump in bike thefts, prompting some vigilante justice

Posted using ShareThis

Don't mess with my bike. 

I'll hurt you.

02-15-10 Recovery Ride

After the Palm Springs Century (which I haven't written about) I figured I wouldn't want to even look at my bike for a while. 

I was wrong. 

I don't know how or why I wanted to go for a ride 2 days after such a hard ride, but I did. 

Easy 25 miles. 

Here's the route.

Kristin Armstrong said to always spin at a higher cadence.  So I did. 

I shaved 9 minutes off Mandeville.  9 minutes over 5 miles.  It's kind of crazy, right?