Southern California - How have you progressed.....

....since your first ride?

Here's me....

I quit riding a Bike when I left School in '72, fast fwd to >>>>July 4th 2003, a couple of Friends from Jaguar/landrover HQ in Irvine and I had a nutty idea of riding from Balboa, up the coast Bike path/Boardwalk to HB Pier and back, I borrowed a Bike and that 12 mile ride almost killed me, I couldn't walk, or sit down, for 3 Days..:o Plus, I got horribly burned, it was 95 degrees!!

Anyways, I stuck with it, I bought my own, really cheap and heavy Diamondback Bike, then a Felt Roadbike, then a Cannondale...and then finally the Six13 I'm riding now...

As far as riding progress, my highest mileage, which was last year, was 3500 miles, I've managed to go from a crippling 12 mile ride with 3 Days recovery to being able to do a Century and feel fine the same evening....which I'm really happy with because I'm almost 50 (51 actually, but that's almost 50, right)??

I'm just an average rider now, I just love to ride with nice People, or by myself mainly because I have no Friends :o have fun and stay fit in the process...you just gotta luv it huh?? :D

So how have you progressed since your first time back on the Bike??

More miles, less hair, more posing.

The biggest thing I noticed was that I go longer than five crank revolutions without coasting now, and I'm typically in a much smaller gear than before.

i took about a six month vacation from riding after being in probably the best riding shape of my life last year. when i got back on the bike a couple of months ago, i was rockin the 203 BPM with just a little bit of effort. now i'm putting out 10X the effort on much harder climbs and managing to remain in the 180 range. i feel great except for the 15lb. spare tire i'm lugging around.

Always been into ridng as a child. WHen I hit my early twenties, I started hitting the iron. Did so for 10 years while playing ball. One day a chick told me to go ride my bike in the river. I had no idea what it meant. She explained so I ran out and bought a Huffy at Target for $150. Did a 65 miler from Imperial to Balboa and back. Had a good sleep that night. Rode the bike for 2 months then uprgraded to a hybrid and continued with the 65 milers.

One day a bunch of skinny coworkers, so proud to be vegetarians, told me I was a big strong guy but that they were sure I had no endurance. They planned a 30 mile ride. I was determined to prove them wrong so I set the pace till one of them puked. A year later I invested in a roadie at the suggestion of a cycling friend.

Since 1995, I've done over 4,000 miles per year. 2005 was my best with 73,000 miles and 23 centuries. 2004 was my best climbing year as I watched my weight for that reason. Now I'm just riding trying to win the battle against old age. I think I'm losing!:p

When I was 3.5 years old, my father put me side-saddle on a bike in Denver and belted me to him (a belt around his waist and mine) on a regular basis. I loved it until one day, I was swinging my legs back and forth and my right ankle connected with the spokes. One broke and impaled the ankle and the rest cut through my foot at the ankle down to the bone. The doctors at the emergency room wanted to immediately remove my foot as there wasn't much left of my ankle bone, but my mother (5'2" and southern - but you think I got attitude?) screamed at them until they agreed to bring in a specialist. He was able to save the foot but told my parents I would never run and walking, at best, would be with a limp. My parents never told me that (well...not until years later).

At age seven, my father, who to this day still feels guilt over what happened and hates for me to even joke about it, bought me a 3-speed bike. My sister, neighborhood kids and I rode for hours. We "played" on our bikes. It was our method of transportation. It was our freedom - often we would go out at night, sans helmets and lights, and ride in the dark. I couldn't get enough of it.

Flash forward, three years ago, I purchased my first Trek, not really having a clue if I'd like this whole "road cycling" thing. Now, it's like "playing" on a bike as a grown up. I really feel that way on night rides as I think it triggers memories from my childhood. :)

Last August, I started riding with a flat 10-mile loop in traffic (i.e. lots of stopping/resting at red lights). It was a couple weeks before I even attempted my first "hill" -- a highway overpass. I was content with just slightly increasing my mileage, not realizing that I really wasn't making much progress without getting my heart rate up. It wasn't until I started riding with the club that I was made to understand pain, uh, I mean motivation. :)

I started riding last June on a mountain bike on a beginner's trail. Joggers went faster than me up hills and I bonked 15 mins into the ride. Picked up a road bike after that and started cycling on paved roads. First time up outter Torrey Pines and I have to stop 2 times. Next time up no stopping; and I have steadily dropped 30s every week up that hill from 15min and have plateau'ed for a few months now at 9m30s. That's the hill that I gauge my progress on, and I guess I'd need to ride more often than 1x/2x a week to go faster.

I have always been into cycling, ever since i was a little kid. When I was about 5 years old, I took our 5-speed bike to the back yard, and tried to learn how to ride. No one taught me, and I wanted to learn on my own. I straddled the bike, leaned against the fence, and kept trying until I found my balance. This was on grass, mind you. My family didn't know where I was ... all asking where's Ron???

That was the start. Then, after getting out of college, I bought my first bike. It was a Miele, for $900. I figured if I was going to spend this much for a bike, I better use the heck out of it. It was my first clipless, and they were Sampson pedals. The hard part here was not just getting in, but getting out of it. I fell so many times, it was ridiculous. Eventually, I got tired of it, and got look pedals, which was much better.

I've gone through several stages. First, rode with clubs on 30-50 mile rides (very social). Then, rode longer, and did on average 2 centuries a year. After getting tired of those, decided work on my speed, and started riding with Montrose, and the Rose Bowl pack ride.

Then, I had a drastic change. I moved up to the Bay Area. I then had to contend with hills ... steep hills. I'm still not a climber, but I love riding hills now. I'm always the last one up the top of the hill.

Recently, my mom passed away, so every month, I come down to visit dad. It gives me an opportunity to ride in SoCal again. A friend of mine looks at how well I am riding, and says I am doing the triple crown. Ok, so I start training harder for that.

Eventually, I completed the Solvang Double. This was earlier this year. Then, I log onto Bike Forum, and didn't realize that I was riding part way with ME, Magicant, and Scootcore. Ever since reading these posts, it has gotten me more motivated to punish my body, and you know what ??? I like it!!!

Sorry for the lengthy bio, but I can't be on the road this weekend (I'm on-call), and just needed to put this down.

Last August, I started riding with a flat 10-mile loop in traffic (i.e. lots of stopping/resting at red lights). It was a couple weeks before I even attempted my first "hill" -- a highway overpass. I was content with just slightly increasing my mileage, not realizing that I really wasn't making much progress without getting my heart rate up. It wasn't until I started riding with the club that I was made to understand pain, uh, I mean motivation. :)


You've only been riding since August? Geez I hate you fast guys!:D

You've only been riding since August? Geez I hate you fast guys!:D


Lotsa inspirational stuff on this thread. I've been riding for about a year, too.

Years ago I had a stress fracture in a lumbar vertebrae. I was a gym rat and felt it "go" while doing a 240-lb leg press. My rehab consisted of lots of swimming and I gradually worked up in distance, until I was routinely swimming 2+ miles. Further rehab involved a lot of walking, then as my back healed, running. I eventually was running 5-8 miles, albeit very slowly.

Last year I was dating a roadie. I eventually ditched the cyclist and bought a bicycle. Within a couple of months, I was competing in triathlons. It wasn't a big leap, because most of my friends were triathletes – and extremely supportive. I noticed very quickly that as slow as I was on the swim and run (not genetically gifted in those departments) I was easily finishing in the top half in my age group for the bike leg, even though I just learned how to ride a bike.

So last fall I got a tri coach who mapped out an ambitious 2007 tri campaign. My back however, did not seem to like the hard run-training. In a race earlier this year, the back "went" again. I probably should have stopped right there and accepted a DNF. But I didn't want to be a wuss in front of my friends so I continued running and finished the race in massive pain (damage-type hurting, not suffering-type hurting). It wasn't a fracture, but an injury to the lumbar facet joints. At this point we're not sure if it's arthritic, degenerative, or just a one-shot injury. If it doesn't improve soon, I'll probably have to get an MRI.

My coach is certified by both USA Triathlon and USA Cycling. As part of the USAT medical team, he is used to athletic injuries. As a coach, he understood that athletes never pay heed to the "stop training" lecture. Because my back wasn't hurting me too badly on the bike, he refocused the bulk of my tri training to cycling until I heal. So as of February, my training shifted a lot from flat, speed-based drills to hill climbing and becoming a better all-around road cyclist. I'm slowly rebuilding my running base, working on my core and trying to maintain my swimming, but my tri future is up in the air. :( I have three big fall races coming up, including the LA Tri (Olympic distance), and I'm still wondering if my back be ready for them.

In the meantime, I just keep riding... and riding... and riding.
ME, Magicant, JP, Vance, Trac', thompson, markg, Mr. Beanz and his endless devotion to Gina, The Incredible Shrinking Ronjon, and many others here are BF are such an inspiration to me. Who knows? Perhaps I'll be a roadie one day!
:D

wow! Lot's of great stories!
Happytime, I feel for you, I was a Footballer (soccer) untill 91 when I got a back injury, I couldn't walk and could barely stand for 3 months now it just "goes out" once a year so having been through it I can "feel your pain" I sincerely hope you get well soon...
My wife who is also a roadie had back surgery last October, she's now back on the Bike and doing 50 mile flatish rides and trying to work up to where she was before she left off, she suffered for over a year before the surgery but is pretty much 100% now....

Mr Beanz...75,000 miles is incredible!! Just remember, we're not getting Old, we're getting Better...at what, I don't know but Cycling deffinately keeps one young...and I should know, I'm probably the oldest on the SoCal Forum??

I vote merider #1 story so far, you could base a movie on that one!!

Here's my sordid tale.

In 2002, I picked up cycling as a way to get into shape, and fell in love with touring. I built up to a tour across England in 2003. After the tour, my interest in cycling waned as I didn't have any local friends to ride with. In 2004, I bought a house, a puppy, got a new job, and had a knee injury (the same knee that gives me very minor problems to this day). All cycling ceased at this point.

In July 2006, I'd regained all the weight I'd lost back in 2003, (and typically, gained more). I hit the 300 pound mark :eek: and panicked. At this time, the house was in order, the needy puppy was grown into a hyper but happy dog, and I'd built up many a brownie point on the new job. Sadly, my leisure time was largely spent drinking.

I dusted off the bike, and went for the most excruciating 3 mile ride of my life. Ah crap.

I started up in the gym for about 6 weeks to build up some level of conditioning. I missed the bike, but I wasn't ready for it.

In August 2006, at 290 pounds, I went on the most excruciating 30 mile ride of my life (along the completely flat Santa Monica beach path :eek: :eek: )

I started my old PCH rides and made some progress in August/September 06. I signed up with Team in Training to train for the Solvang 07 century.

Along the way, I went on 2 rides in December with ME that taught me the meaning of the word suffering. One that started in Griffith Park, went up around the Rose Bowl, and then the Bloat Ride. I had to quit both rides early.

In January 07, I basically quit drinking (went from 1-2+ bottles of wine 2+ times a week to 1-2 bottles a month), upped the mileage on the bike, and started to climb.

In March 07, I logged 500 miles, finished my first century and got the weight down to 250.

Today, I'm at 240 (20% body fat). I rode a 70 mile hilly, though not climby, ride with an avg heart rate of 120 and felt strong at the end.

I no longer fear rides with climbing, instead I fear rides that don't have climbing. I avg around 100 miles/week. I have many positive people to ride with, and rarely see my old drinking buddies anymore.

This time around, I can say that cycling is the best thing that ever happened to me.

At age seven, my father, who to this day still feels guilt over what happened and hates for me to even joke about it, bought me a 3-speed bike. My sister, neighborhood kids and I rode for hours. We "played" on our bikes. It was our method of transportation. It was our freedom - often we would go out at night, sans helmets and lights, and ride in the dark. I couldn't get enough of it.

Flash forward, three years ago, I purchased my first Trek, not really having a clue if I'd like this whole "road cycling" thing. Now, it's like "playing" on a bike as a grown up. I really feel that way on night rides as I think it triggers memories from my childhood. :)

+1

As kids we were all ove rthe place on our bmx'rs. And still today, all I can think about is how much fun it will be to get out on the next ride. It's play, fun and simple.

Hmmm lets see...

Started riding as a kid when my mom bought me a Team Murray BMX bike sometime when i was in 2nd or 3rd grade (still have it in the garage too). Rode it every chance i could around the street i lived (and still live) on. Took it on afew group rides with the church even (10 and 20 mile rides) over the course of the next couple of years. Rode on and off, mostly just for fun until high school. Didn't ride much at all for the next 12 years (4 years for high school, 4 years for college, 4 years of working after college).

Then at the end of 2005, me and a friend were watching TV and saw a Gatorade commercial that featured someone doing Ironman Kona. I looked at him and sad "We so need to do that someday..." and before we knew it we were out running and swimming and i picked up my first roadbike March 2006. I probably didn't log many miles before my first sprint distance tri in April 2006 (probably only 100-200), but after that i found myself heading out with increasing regularity for longer and longer road rides, sometimes for donuts, sometimes to the beach. I can't do any huge distances still (did 64 miles on SART once and it hurt my taint pretty bad), but i can do 40-45 miles fairly easily for training rides. When i get a break from racing this summer, i'll be back on the bike and working my way up to doing a century. :D

It's cool reading these stories...I might add mine today if I can somehow figure out how to keep it under 10,000 words. :)

Yeah cibruin,

I have the same fear (10,000 words), but here's the short version:

Rode bikes as a kid, gave it up when I turned 16 (started driving), picked it up again when I was 18 (1968), when I went into a bike shop to buy a bike for college use. Turned out to be not your average bike shop, and I ended up ordering (none in stock in the U.S.) a Peugeot PX-10 for the unheard of price (at the time) of $200.00.
Learned about sew up tires, cleated shoes, Reynolds 531, etc. All good!

Rode for fun a lot when I was in college (almost no one else rode bikes then; pre-bike boom), then moved to CA (from MO), rode the Santa Monica mountains, bought a racing (Strada Special) Mercian, made the Peugeot my Touring bike.

Moved back to MO, rode with St.Louis Cyclng Club, did some club racing, eventually mountain bike racing, then ultra-marathon stuff, with my first double in '83, my first (and only) triple century in '85. Rode Bicycle Across Missouri (566 miles in 54 hours), in '85, Paris-Brest-Paris in '91 (though I finished four hours over the time limit), and moved back to CA in '95.

Started riding with OCW in '97-'98, switched to OCRR in 2001 or maybe 2000. Rode the Davis Double per suggestion from my new wife (old one moved on in '95), loved it, and got hooked on the CA Triple Crown. Now I've ridden 23 doubles, and still love the adventure of it. Not too many yearly miles, with 13,000 being my most (in '85) and right at 7,000 in the last few years (no where near Mr.Beanz at 73,000!).

Still ride mountain bike for fun, touring bike, Hercules 3-speed, go-fast bike and long-distance (with climbing) bike. Centuries are just training rides, so I much prefer doubles. Also love GMR (my favorite place to ride in SoCal).

Okay, still too many words, . . . and this was the short version!

Best Regs,
Rick / OCRR

When I was a kid, we had BMX-ish bikes that we weren't allowed to ride very far because it's such a dangerous world. Skip forward to the mid-90s when I was in college and learned that world really isn't particularly dangerous if you learn your way around. So I got myself a mountain bike and took to the trails in Connecticut. A friend and I would ride a few times a week in the woods around the local reservoir -- I could climb the hills miles ahead of him, then he'd pass me on the downhills because he was completely crazy.

In 1997 I moved to California for grad school and used the mountain bike as transportation around campus. My ageing back hurt from too much misuse and abuse and my hence interest in mountain biking waned. Stupidly, I bought a better mountain bike in '99 and never really got that much use out of it.

Skip forward to 2004-ish and the mountain bike got stolen. By now, my blood pressure had skyrocketed from too much working, schooling, etc. But I was starting to settle down a bit with a new house and fiance. She bought herself a cruiser bike -- the Electra Townie -- to ride to work. I was inspired. I replaced the stolen MTB with a Trek hybrid and started riding to work also. This was in March of 2006. I rode the Trek every day and started to feel really good. What a tough adjustment riding through traffic though! Nonetheless, I was hooked.

We resolved to ride to the beach as a Labor Day vacation. The wife agreed that if I fell in love with our first short tour then I could look into getting a touring bike. Of course, I had also become obsessed with BikeForums, so I was reading and being inspired constantly by all the talk hereabouts. Anyway, our beach vacation was fantastic. When we returned, I got an '05 Fuji Touring at a deep discount in September of '06. I have put 1800 miles on it since then. I continue to ride to work every day and do 25-30 mile rides a few times a week. My biggest problem is finding the time to ride really long distances, but I'm committed to doing at least my first century this year.

My greatest success has been with the blood pressure. I don't have weight problems, but the whole family has horrible BP issues. My all time high about 5 years ago was 175/115 with a resting heart rate in the 90s. Today, I'm consistently around 115/75 with a resting heart rate in the 60s. Additionally, all those old back injuries have been mitigated by road riding; my core and lower back have strengthened enormously. My biggest regret is that I didn't discover the joys and benefits of road riding much earlier. And I'm a deeply committed Fred :)

Thanks Jaquar for starting this thread. It's very interesting hearing how different folks got into this highly expensive but addictive hobby! :D

It's only expensive if you're the obsessive type that posts on cycling message boards on the internet.