Sixty
Today was our long bike ride to help IronAnnie in her Ironman training. The full ride was 60 miles; my longest previous ride was about 30 miles and I was worried about being on my marathon taper, so I was only going to do half of it. Well that plan went out the window (peer pressure) and I did the whole thing. I don't think it cost me too much, but we'll see.
We followed the San Gabriel River Trail, which I have never been on before. There are a lot of switchbacks and I had no idea which direction we were heading. We started at point "A" on the map- I assumed we were riding along the foothills and as we approached the turn-around point after about 2 hours I thought we were at point "B" in South Pasadena. Turns out we were at point "C".
Long Beach.
If you asked me to DRIVE to Long Beach, I'd tell you to forget it. That's like another part of the state as far as I'm concerned. Yet there we were. (FYI: Never ask me for directions.)
You can see photos of the trail here. I especially like the notes where it lists hazards of "gang activity, particularily in the middle trail segment. Broken glass from the drunks." Lovely.
posted by Wedgie @ 8:50 PM
6 Comments:
Reminds me of an 80's tune where the chorus is "nobody walks in LA." I was wondering where people ride bikes in LA :)
Nice map. I ride on the San Gabriel river trail frequently. The northern portions are not bad but get really dicey as you go south. A couple months ago I came across ... well ... a dead guy. Yeah. A police officer was there watching over the body til the coroner arrived. There wasn't a bike nearby. I don't know if that makes it better or worse.
I'm just glad to see that I'm not the only one using MapMyRun for biking purposes.
I'm using gmap-pedometer.com. MapMyRun has more features, but it has an unnatural way of recentering the screen which makes me seasick.
It's just like Ironman Jon said... "If you can do 30, you can do 60." Heh, that's what he told me and well, he was right but in hindsight, I could have used the ramp-up :-)
you can add another 12 miles to this route by starting from Encanto park, still on a bike trail, no cars. Even better, you can also connect with the Rio Hondo Trail and Long Beach Trail. All great trails and well paved, very few parts are bad. If the 60 or 72 miles on SG trail is not enough, continue from point A and go up H39. Adding some climbing to your 72 mile trip will build IM fitness like nothing else. That is my goal for next season, do SG and add some miles by going up H39. Have to love LA, increadible riding.
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