I love to run. It’s one of my favorite things to do. While I enjoy cycling and am getting progressively better at it, I’d rather run almost any day. I’d like to do the L.A. Marathon, but scheduling is not going to allow it. The jeans are tight, I need to get in shape for the ride and I’d rather weigh less, so to the hills I return.

I ran 31 minutes today-more than half of it up hill. Running from my house means that no matter how I go, it’s going to be uphill. I put on my iPod and moved up the canyon I live in and after seven minutes, I did not care if I ever stopped. It’s one of the best feelings in the world.

Maybe I’ll try and swim tomorrow morning.

Best Song on the Run: Fall in Love With Me by Camiel - Eric Kupper Mix

We met my Dad and step-mom in Carmel for Thanksgiving. We’ve been doing this off and on for a few years. We stay in a hotel togther, eat out and play tourist. This year, we went to the Carmel Mission

In the mission square, there were gorgeous bottle-brushes blooming.

The native grape of California, Vitus californica, puts on a great autumn display.

I am very fortunate to have a number of beautiful hibiscuses around my yard. Hibiscus flower year-round where I live, so it’s a bit of the tropics every day. They are, however, prone to White Fly, aphids and a host of other problems. I am good about watering and fertilizing and I’ve been rewarded, so far.

Above is a Fiji Island Hibiscus I bought from Florida. I was advised to keep the plants in the pots that they had arrived in but found much more success planting them out. I don’t think that I have enough moisture here in California to compensate for the loss via leaf evaporation. Florida is much more humid and can get away with keeping the plants pot bound. I am making a hedge around an orchid tree. I am guessing it will grow in, in about 2 more years.

Hibiscus arnottianus immaculatus is a treasure-it’s endangered with very few plants left in the wild. Found only on Moloka’i, I nursed this from an 8” cutting to a 4 foot by 4 foot bush. Besides it’s lack of red in the flower proper, it has a scent! One of a but handful of hibiscus to have any fragrance, I planted this next to my front door and I am always grateful for its welcoming perfume.

Wow-10 riders! We’re growing quickly! Most of our group were veteran riders, with just a couple new folks. Everyone did very, stopping at all the stop signs and signaling well.

We rode from Santa Monica, around Marina Del Rey to the South Bay Bike Path to Hermosa Beach. Our pit stop was at Java Man, where we ran into Martin, Steve and Devin. We all chatted and rode back. It was a beautiful day, in the 70s with light winds.

Total Mileage: 59 miles

So this week, with two new riders in hand, Amy, Faye, Heather and I rode our Westside loop. Pictured above is Rich, all smiles after completing his first and longest to date training ride. Way to Go!

We had a nice ride. The VA now has a big gate off Montana but a smaller pedestrian gate was open. A police car rolled by and we asked if we could ride through. The officer said it was fine and we pedaled through.

I quizzed Amy about the palm trees we saw and she failed miserably at IDing the plants.

I rode down and rode back via Rose Avenue and Beethoven.

Total Mileage: 52 miles

I first saw these at the Mildred Mathias Botanical Garden at UCLA. I bought a few plants from Bovees in Oregon a few years back and found that they are super easy to grow-fertilize every quarter, rinse daily. These tropical relatives of the rhododendrons found up in Northern California have a great advantage-they are sweetly fragrant!

These grow on the north side of my house and could get more sun. I am waiting for some of my palm trees to get gain some height and then I will mount them near the crowns of the palms, much like folks do with orchids.

For our first ride from Bike Attack , I decided to ride down to the start. It’s between 14 and 15 miles to the start in Santa Monica, and almost of all it down hill. I have a slight grade on Fountain and a NLG (NLG=nasty little grunt) going through Century City.

I noticed that my tire was a bit low on air, but the night before I cleaned my bike and changed the inner-tube. I thought I could make it to the bike shop. I thought…Until I got to Bundy and the tire got really low. I stopped to inflate it as I did not have a spare tube (bad Training Ride Leader) and used a CO² cartridge to fill up the tube. Fill it up indeed, as I blew out the tube.

I called Amy, my fellow TRL and number one cheerleader in life, and she came to retrieve me. We met at Bike Attack, Faye joined us and we ended up with no riders. So, Amy and I had breakfast at the Urth Cafe across the street from Bike Attack. I then rode home.

Total Mileage: 27 miles

Alstroemeria aurantiaca or Peruvian Lily is a very easy flower to grow in Southern California. It needs compost or fertilizer once a year, regular water and has few or no pests. It retires from the limelight during the warmest months and then starts sending up new shoots after Fall arrives.

I grow the same varieties in four big pots. I have plenty of flowers for the house about 6 months out of the year, with lots of blossoms still left to enjoy in the garden.

Downsides: No scent; you have to be sure that you pull the whole stem out and don’t cut the stem or you will rot the tuber; self seeds everywhere.

30 rides. That’s what I need to organize this year from Bike Attack for ALC 7. 30 rides-whcih need to be interesting to my fellow TRLs, accessible to my new riders and challenging enough for my returning cyclists.

The last few years, whether leading rides from Bike Attack or helping with other rides, I often scrambled to get other rider leaders to assist or to figure out rides.

This year, I decided to get organized in a big way. I figured out how many rides I had to lead, where we could go, how many pit stops that we would need, etc. Then, I decided to not push the restart button in January and keep us progressing through the whole year. This will give us a chance to get longer rides in sooner. We can hit 50 mile in March rather than in April.

Also, last year I paid over $300 in parking tickets for cyclists. Bike Attack paid for parking tickets as well. Why? Well, the Bike Attack staff “feeds” the meters while we are out training. Sometimes, a car would get missed or not enough money would be collected and I would be making out another check to The City of Santa Monica. Argh. So-a multi-form approach:

• A laminated sign to post with the dollar amount to contribute to the parking fund
  
• A sign-in sheet with make, model, etc. of each car
  
• Placards rather than tiny stickers for the dashboards
  
• A cup to gather the quarters for the meters
  

This all goes in to a binder, along with waivers, safety speech, handouts…It’s all in one place. Finally.

And this year-no car. I am cycling down to the start. An extra 14-15 miles each way.

They only last one day and smell faintly like Gardenias, but boy, what a sight and smell in my backyard. Now to wait for ripe beans…