Hello...

I'm wondering if anyone here (who races) could recommend good neighborhoods/locations to do some personal training. These locations would be ideal for intervals, crit-like turns, long laps with low traffic, smooth roads.

Although I'm very familiar with Los Angeles (and vicinity), the only local location that I could think of would be the Beverly Hills neighborhood north of Santa Monica Blvd, south of Sunset. The roads there are smooth - the traffic is low. It's easy to mark visual interval distances - palm trees are everywhere, large houses, etc:. The turns can be made quickly without having to stop too much, if at all, because of the really low traffic and with a creative management of the variation of stop signs at intersections. The neighborhood has slight incline in one direction (North) - which is good for variation.

I'm wondering though - can anyone recommend other local neighborhoods which would be good for this?

(besides the RoseBowl - that's too obvious)

Thanks.

don't bother crit training by yourself, it's like the difference between masturbation and sex- having other people there makes all the difference in the world... a 90º turn is no big deal 'til you do it with 90 others.

i don't ride loops by myself, too boring, but then i again i don't really do structured intervals either and i seem to be doing ok in the races. group rides are what you need

Yeah... but I'm tired of waiting for the Rose Bowl rides to pick up again. The Montrose and Simi rides are too far out of my range (and timing), sadly. Wolfpack is looking more and more appealing.

how about the long beach training crits tues and thurs nights? or encino or the adt velodrome both have training sessions and rental bikes.

Long Beach is too far, sadly. I could easily drive, sure, but I'd rather not. I'm more comfortable with the idea of riding 14 miles to the 'start' of a group ride than driving those 14 miles (hence, RoseBowl ride would be doable... when it picks up again).

Encino Velodrome would work. Don't have a track bike though, only a fixed conversion. (edit: yes, I can rent!)

Any other ideas? (I appreciate your help in this)

A velodrome isn't a good place to practice crit turns-- one of the nice features is that the track takes care of a lot of the turning for you. I do quite well at track racing, but I do so few crits that my cornering sucks relative to the people I'm competitive with on the track who also do crits.

Track is great for intervals for all the reasons that it's not good for cornering practice-- you don't have to deal with any of the things that get in the way on the road, so you can do exactly the workout you want most of the time.

The Rose bowl also isn't that great for crit turns either-- the corners are mostly too wide and sweeping, and people tend to hit the few sharp ones (north end) relatively slow.

There's a crit practice Tuesday nights out in Pomona, I'm not sure if it's going right now, though. Redal might know. I'll see if I can find out, I should be going out there myself until El Dorado starts back up.

most people pick up the montrose ride in south pasadena which is even closer than the bowl but no real cornering to speak of

Griffith Park. The zoo parking lot is pretty much deserted after 5. You can run a short circuit around the tree planters on the north end. Plus plenty of short hills to run drills on , and the river trail for intervals.

Griffith Park. The zoo parking lot is pretty much deserted after 5. You can run a short circuit around the tree planters on the north end. Plus plenty of short hills to run drills on , and the river trail for intervals.

Great idea.
It has been writ! So it shall be done!



Thanks, sounds good.

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