Velo Angels - Ride, Girls. Ride.

team a2b Inaugural Ride

A cycling group that I started with my friends, team a2b, had our kick-off event yesterday, and it was a huge success. 

Over 30 people came to ride with us on a bit chilly, Mother's day morning. 

5 of us, the "officers", for lack of a better term, got up extra early to set up everything.  

The food is loaded in to Cynergy, tents are up, drinks are cold...  

With a few words from our officers and it's time to roll. 

Olivia and I lead a Beginner's ride, which was about 32 miles to Manhattan Beach and back. 

Katie, Jenn and Ben lead an Intermediate Ride to the bottom of Palos Verdes and back totaling about 45 miles.

Everyone came back safely, and I believe everyone had a pretty good time...  After party was a blast.  A couple of dozens of bagels consumed.  :) 

Now that the first one is done...  many many more to go. 

I hope that team a2b will be a place where girls can come to learn how to ride a bike and continue to grow to fulfill their dreams whether it is to maintain their health or to be a racer.  

Thank you, friends/riders, for riding with us and making this event a success.  And, big hats off to my associates.  I'm honored to be working with you all on this.  Let's keep this going! 

Guest Blogger - Cortney

Hello Angels.

Hope you are enjoying this nice weather and riding a lot. 
I haven't been riding much on the road, but I am taking a certification course for track riding at LA Velodrome.  More on that sometime when I'm done watching Battlestar Galactica. 

Even though I'm a lazy blogger, my friend definitely is not.  Let me introduce Cortney.  Cortney is a friend of a friend...  I have not met her yet.  But like me, she's a cycling enthusiast and that practically makes her my sister.  :)  She just had her first crit race last weekend.  She's written a piece for me to post.  So here she is!  Thank you, Cortney, for your post and congrats on your first race!  

Bunny Hopping

Wow, I’m exhausted!

 

I should probably start by introducing myself: my name is Cortney, I’m your guest writer for the day, and I’m a relatively newbie cyclist from Washington, DC. I bought my first bike last year, and today I did my first race ever! The race was a crit (and you can learn more about crits here if – like me last week – you have no idea what they are: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criterium).

 

 

I’ve been riding in DC all year training for a century in June, which is my real cycling goal for the year. This crit was a temporary distraction that the Velo Bellas (http://www.velobella.org/blog/) in town told me about last week. Called the “Bunny Hop” because it used to take place on Easter, the race was a 1km loop in Suitland, MD. The weater.com people tell me that it’s currently 83 degrees-F with 60% humidity. Yeah, that feels about right. (Just imagine what July and August feel like here!)

 

The women’s Cat 4 race (those are the beginners like me) started at 9:30am. With a little help from my Velo Bella ladies, I was ready to go.

 

Ready, set…

 

 

The course was pretty flat with the pain coming from cross-winds rather than hills. Listening to some good coaching advice, I tried my best to stay at the front part of the group, without getting too far to the front. My goal was the have the group help me with the hard work.

 

Well, so goes the best laid plans….

 

 

At first I was feeling OK – not great, but not terrible either. I was working hard just to keep up. But, too soon after the start, I began to fall back from the main group. This might have been a Cat 4 race, but these ladies were a helluva lot more powerful than me! “Oh crap” is the G-rated version of the thought that started going through my head. I kept fighting, and after a few laps remembered to drink a little water. At some point, the leaders passed me. As a newbie, my ego could handle being lapped once. After another 10 laps or so, getting lapped a second and third time didn’t feel very good.

 

After a few laps I started to get nauseous. That was probably a bad sign. Thank goodness I had an awesome cheering section screaming my name – a combination of Bellas and family (my husband Jamie and his sister Nicolette). They all kept me going! Thanks guys!

 

 

After a few laps I stopped feeling nauseous, because instead I started to get light-headed. I definitely didn’t have enough sugar running through my blood, but it was too late to do anything about it by then. The laps kept coming and coming, my legs kept struggling and struggling, and my awesome family and friends just keep cheering for me.

 

 

I ultimately ended up forfeiting before the end because I was too light-headed to finish safely. Jamie has been telling me all day how awesome I did out there, and that’s why I’m so lucky to have him in my cheering section.

 

In the time since beginning this blog post, I’ve already had several meals and a 1.5 hour nap to make up for the calories and energy spent on the course. My hips and legs are exhausted, and the one question everyone keeps asking me today is, “Would I race again?” Not this week, but one day… maybe...

team a2b - rolling!!

What a beautiful day to ride!  Did you go out to ride today? 

I did after a night of drinking half a bottle of wine and a glass of beer.  Why?  Why did I have to drink that much?  I don't know... but it tasted so good...  I'm just silly like that.  I wasn't feeling all that great at 7:30 am, but I'm glad I went to ride.  Riding always makes me happy.  Never fails. 

Speaking of happiness...  I have an exciting announcement to make. 

For the past 6 months or so, I have been working with my friends to start our own Sunday riding group. 

Say hello to team a2b.   Our first ride will roll out at 8:30 am on Sunday, May 9, 2010.  We will meet at Cynergy Cycles, 2300 Santa Monica Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90404. 

All the details are being finalized as we speak, but for now you can follow us on Facebook for any updates.

Our inaugural ride will introduce you to lots of fellow So Cal riders as well as some of the Cynergy staff who will be supporting us.  After our ride, there will be refreshments waiting for us at the store, so come back and hang out with us!  Oh, and did I mention a big special sale??  If you ride with us on May 9, you will get a special pricing on everything in the store!!  *GASP*  

Check out our FB page and become a fan so you won't miss all the exciting news!  And, email me with any questions.  I hope I get to meet some of the Velo Angels readers at this event.  Aaaaaah!  I'm excited!! 

Dear Coach Ron

Thank you, Ben, for such a sweet post!  (I'm so badass!!  And, yes, I do have a questionable taste in men.)  After reading your post, I feel guilty that I've been having such a lazy week...  totally not badass.  Not much workout, not much riding and not much energy.  The only thing I've been doing ok this week is to convert oxygen into CO2.  Blah!

As a matter of fact, at one point on Wednesday, I felt so unmotivated and exhausted that I was begging all my Facebook friends to somehow motivate me to go out and do something!  While reading the encouraging posts/emails back from friends, I wondered how accomplished cyclists motivated themselves...  I mean, they have been successful for a reason, right?  I knew just the person to ask these questions!  I wrote Coach Ron Peterson an email. 

Dear Coach Ron,
How do you find motivation when you feel so empty?
(Be careful what you say in reply.  It maybe quoted in my next blog post.)

And here's his reply. 

"First question is why are you burned out?  Fatigue?  Too much work?  Too much riding?  No goal you're really looking forward to?
 
Once you know the answer to the above question it's much easier to figure out how to deal with it.  If it's fatigue due to either work or riding (or most likely both), just take a day off.  Saturday for instance.  Sleep in, go shopping (stay away from bike stores), be a vegetable all day, whatever recharges your batteries.  Don't feel guilty!  It may even take an entire weekend...
 
One or two days off the bike to relax and recharge could save you weeks of mediocre rides you're really not enjoying.
 
When putting together training plans I include a rest week, with about half the usual mileage every 4th week.  That allows you to push yourself a bit more the 2 weeks before, and really enjoy the week off. 
 
If it's a goal problem still take a day off.  Relax and enjoy!  The next day talk to friends, check out the local event book, and pick something that sounds really fun, as well as challenging. 
 
Make sense?
 

(sorry, wrote that as if it were going into a blog...)"

So, that's his Gospel.  Coach Ron was right about being tired, being over-worked and having no goal.  Damn.  No wonder I feel unmotivated.  I got to get my life in order! 

Now I have my calendar out and am really thinking about more structured training schedule.  I've avoided it for so long.  I'm not good at sticking to the workout schedule.  I'm not bad...  I just get so disappointed in myself when I miss a workout that it's easier if I don't have a plan.  I know.  That's not the answer...  Anyway.  Maybe my life just needs an overhaul.  More structure.  Scary, but worth looking into. 

Thank you, Ron, for an impromptu consult. 

Ron is an excellent cycling coach, as well as a wonderful bike fitter. 

Coach Ron's website, Peterson Training,  HERE

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Hello Angels! 

What is up with this weather, huh? 
I love the rain.  And, I love that cold white fluffy stuff in the mountains, too.  But, when I'm riding, I like to stay dry.  Living in So Cal, I don't own a lot of rainy-day cycling gear!  Yikes.  That being said, I met someone who just moved from the SF area, and he laughed at me after hearing me bitch about the weather.  So, I'd better shut up and ride... 

Most of you should know my friend Ben, who writes about pro cycling.  Well, our guest blogger Ben has a fantastic blog of his own called "RUN.  BIKE.  BEER."  As a birthday present to him, I wanted to let you all know about his blog and the charity he's involved with. 
His blog is to keep his family, friends and supporters informed about his pain and suffering of running while he trains to run a marathon and do a triathlon to raise fund and awareness for a charity called Big City Mountaineers.  He does what he hates most (running) for the love of this amazing charity. 

Check out his blog and get involved! 
Happy birthday, Ben! 


For One Night Only — Beer Beer Beer!.

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! 

Beginner's Check List

Our cycling community welcomed another new member last weekend! 

Ben's high school friend Brad just bought his first road bike.  I think he's excited, happy and maybe a little worried.  As Ben walked through what gear to get other than the bike, I think we made his brain to explode with too much information...  Cycling could be a bit scary and intimidating at first.  I know.  I've been there. 

After he picked up his bike, Brad, Ben, Oli and I went to celebrate.  There, Brad asked us, "Do you guys have a check list so you don't forget what you need or what you need to bring on your ride?" 

Great question. 
So here we are. 

What to buy to get started.

Bike

Bottles and Bottle Cages

Lamps - white for front and red for rear (if you plan on riding at night)

Floor Pump

Saddle Bag (A little pouch that goes under the saddle to hold inner tube etc.) 

Extra Tubes

Flat Repair Kit (Patch, CO2 Cartridge etc.)

Jersey (and Baselayer, if you are into that.) 

Bike Shorts  (THIS IS WHERE YOU WANT TO SPEND YOUR $$$!  High quality shorts will literally save your ass.) 

Shoes/Socks

Arm/Leg warmers

Gloves

Helmet

Sunglasses

Bike Computer (Very helpful later on) 

Chain Lube/Maintenance Stuff

What to bring to your typical group ride.

Bike/Helmet/Shoes/Jersey/Shorts/Sunglasses/Arm and or Leg Warmers/glove

Cell Phone

Money

Credit/Debit Card

Proof of Health Insurance

Riding Food (Energy Bar etc.)

Sports Drink in the Bottles (I like Heed, Nuun and flat Coke!) 

Flat Repair Kit and Simple Bike Repair Tools in the Saddle Bag 

Baby Wipes (to wipe your hands clean after having to fix a flat or something.) 

Any Meds etc. You Need (I have a little thing of Aleve and spare contact lenses.  I always lose my contacts going down hill.) 

Lip Balm/Sunscreen (You don't want to be wrinkly just because you are active, you know?) 

What's not on me while riding...  I have in my car.  I have all my cycling gear in a HUGE gear bag and bring the whole thing in my car at all times.  In there, I have spare gloves, clean socks, comfy shoes to change into after the ride, a brush to fix my horrible helmet hair, more food, more electrolytes tablets, recovery drink (to help your body recover faster and better)...  basically I'm a one-person SAG vehicle. 

Ah, I feel like I'm forgetting something.  You know that feeling when you leave the house in the morning...  You know you forgot something but don't know what. 

Please leave a comment if you see something missing. 

I also appreciate your comment here since, I dunno, you bring something really cool to the ride that I've never thought of!  So, please share!

BTW, this one is for you, Brad.  Congrats!  And, welcome!  

Marina Del Rey - PV Loop Ride

I needed a longer ride.  Nothing crazy, but something that's not 25 miles.  A ride that doesn't make me feel like I have to go to the gym afterword.  Besides I'll be doing a 75 miler in 2 weeks.  I need more time in the saddle! 

My friend Jenn and I decided to do a 50 mile route starting from Marina Del Rey, PV Loop and back.  

Here's the route. 

And, a picture. 

It was a perfect ride.  Look how happy she looks.  I think she's excited because this is right before we turned on PV East to do the switchbacks.  "I heart hills."  She says. 

I'm properly beat.  No, I don't want to go to the gym now. 

This is exactly what I needed. 

In Search of the Perfect Saddle 2 : The Saga Continues

See?  It's good to have a blog. 

I bitched about my saddle here before, and my friend Tamar suggested a new saddle.  (Thank you, Tamar!)

Selle Italia SLR Lady Gel Flow

Actually, Tamar is the second person to suggest this saddle, just a few weeks back, another friend of mine Starla suggested this one, too.  I figured, if 2 of my warrior rider friends are suggesting this saddle, it can't be bad.  So, I went looking for it online.  I found it.  CHEAP! 

http://www.probikekit.com/advsearch.php?AQUERY=selle+italia+slr+gel+flow+lady

If you are interested in trying this saddle, this is a pretty VERY good price. 

And, I was able to use this coupon code I found online and got extra 10% off! 
The very secret coupon code is "xmas". The code is supposed to be expired already, but it somehow worked!  So, use it quick before they realize! 

See?  It's good to read my blog.  You just saved about 10 dollars. 

Guest Blogger Series - Ben Gipson

Hello, Fellow Angels. 

Since I started writing this blog, I have been looking at the "blog stats/page view counter" like a maniac to see how many page views I have had so far.  (Super self-conscious now.)  And, I'm happy to say, lots of people are reading this blog already!  Over a hundred a day!  Thank you so much for your support.  I truly believe that this blog should be a place where not only am I sharing my love of cycling, but everyone can chip in to spread the love.  So, I have an announcement to make...

I'm very happy to tell you that some of my friends have agreed to be my guest bloggers.  Here's the first one. 

I'm excited to welcome my very, very good friend, Ben Gipson. 

I hear Ben is some sort of a lawyer...  I dunno.  I mean, I had only seen him in his Belgian beer cycling jersey for the longest time.  But he seems to know his stuff...  legal or cycling.  Actually, he knows a lot about everything.  His wife calls him Google Ben.  Freaky, really, how much stuff he can store in his brain.  Not only that, he works super long hours, but he's always on top of pro cycling stuff.  I don't know how he does it.  I wake up at 8 am, and my email inbox is already blinking from Ben's emails giving me updates on the previous day's race result.  Man.  He's good. 

Well, since he knows so much about professional cycling, he has volunteered to (I have forced him to volunteer to) write about it as a blog series.  I will let him introduce himself properly when he starts sometime in the near future.  (Because the intro above is just not fair.) 

I'm not sure how often he can grace us with his entry since he's a busy, busy man.  But be patient...  your patience will be rewarded.  

That being said. 

I can't wait for Ben's first post!!! 

Stay tuned.  And, as always, ride safe.