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

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

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.