L.A. River to Long Beach Shoreline

In case someone accidentally or randomly finds this “Thoughts About Life And Running” blog and wonders why I’m not writing about running, well, it’s because I have stopped running six weeks ago due to unrecoverable injuries to my ankles. I have turned to cycling to try to get my endorphin fix so most of the entries nowadays would be about my cycling misadventures.

Last Tuesday morning I almost fell with my bike on the street after not finding any space between a parked bus and cars coming from behind. I had to turn into a gas station and practically jumped off the bike because I was losing my balance. Well, I survived that near miss and proceeded to the Los Angeles River bike path. What a difference a few days made. On a recent weekend ride at the same location, there were a few cyclists and people running or walking. On Tuesday, there was hardly anyone and I was alone for most of the ride except for someone on a recumbent bike passing me.

On this day, I finally found the connection from the Los Angeles River path to the Long Beach shoreline bike path. You have weave around Shoreline Village and ride behind the delivery alley of The Yard House restaurant and cross over the parking lot to get on it. That extended the ride another three miles out to the corner of Ocean Boulevard and Bayshore Avenue. While on the Shoreline path, I witnessed a children’s lifeguard competition going on where they had to run 4 miles, then swim 2 miles. Very admirable! Otherwise the only remarkable thing that happened on this ride was that I had a few near swallows of flying bugs and insects. Oh, and also did my longest ride so far which was 25 miles. Perhaps when I can finally summon the courage to ride on the street, I could go much farther. What surprised me was that I didn’t bump into anyone I knew who were cycling, running, or walking. Maybe since it was a weekday, they had done it much earlier. If you had gotten this far, thanks for reading J.

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What a Bunch of Horse S..t

No photo on this post because I wish to spare you the grossness. Another bike ride blog since running is not a part of my life any more.

While some of my friends were in San Francisco to run the full or half marathon, I was out on the Los Angeles river bike bath dodging horse dung. Let me explain. The bike path runs alongside a horse path and sometimes the horse riders venture on the bike path. I didn’t see any horses on Sunday morning but they left their offerings on the ground for cyclists to roll over. Not just on one lane, mind you, but on both lanes making them virtually undodgeable. Once I passed that portion of the path it was pretty much unobstructed.

I started the ride from home and entered the bike path from Del Amo boulevard, then headed south towards downtown Long Beach. I went slightly past the point where I turned around last week and I saw people waiting to board the boat to Catalina Island at Catalina landing. I then proceeded towards and around the lighthouse, past Pierpoint landing, until I ended near P.F Chang’s at the Pike. The area which is usually teeming with people was bereft of crowds because it was very early in the morning. Since I was afraid I wasn’t going to find my way back knowing how geographically challenged I am, I turned around at that point.

On the way back, a cyclist not looking forward almost collided head on with me. I had to yell “heads up!” to alert him about his drifting into my lane. Other than the horse dung and near collision, it was a rather unremarkable ride. I didn’t feel the same pep in my pedaling on Sunday as I did on Friday. Maybe I was still exhausted from the unplanned time trial.

I just realized a couple of days ago why there is such a big difference in the equipment and the way the bike feels and handles. My previous bikes were touring bikes while this one is a racing bike. Duh! 

            Oh, BTW, I did manage to avoid the pile of shit, and I don't mean the rider who almost collided with me ; )
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