At home again

Hello Everyone!
I am back in Berkeley now, back from riding my bike 545 miles to L.A. from S.F! I've been meaning to make a news letter of some sort to put all my thoughts, experiences, and photos in one place, but I realized that I keep adding things because I remember things at different times. The solution : become a blogger.
This is my first official blog site... except for aidslifecycle.org/6731 where I blogged about some training rides. But that site was already set up for me, so this is my first self started blog...wait...xanga...ok so this is my 3rd blog site.
Well, I am at my friend's apartment right now and everyone is watching a freaky movie. I don't like scary movies, so at times like these I usually go home and be lame, but I decided to use the computer until the movie ended.
Oh, the movie is over...I will be back tomorrow to start the story of my biking adventure- complete edition- days 1-7, color photographs, plus special bonus -orientation day and after the trip!

Orientation Day

Orientation day was the day before we began our bicycle journey.
All of us riders and roadies went to San Francisco’s Cow Palace to turn in paper work, get our tenting assignments, turn in our bicycles so we wouldn’t have to bring them the next morning, and watch a safety video. Between the power point slides telling us to always wear our helmet and stay single file, police chiefs and Hollywood Stars popped in and out of the video scriptedly wishing us a safe time on our “race" to L.A.

My tent mate was Shauna. She spent the night at my house after orientation day and my parents drove us back to the Cow Palace the next morning.

Day 1

Ok this is our route sheet for day one. We rode from San Francisco to Santa Cruz. I don't know why the picture isn't showing up, but you can click on it to see the HILLS and that we climbed. Every day we got a route sheet and I clipped it to my bike so I could look at at while I road. I picked up this tip from the seasoned riders from the training rides. You take a small binder clip and clip the sheet to the break wire tube things right next to the hand breaks.

My super nice parents woke up with Shauna and I at 4 am and drove us to the Cow Palace. It was still dark outside! This is by far the earliest I've waken up all year. Shauna is the girl in the front. Her back pack is made out of all recycled material! Sweeet

These are all the luggage trucks. They are filled with some of the happiest people awake at 4 am, volunteers who helped load our tents and bags every morning, and unload them every evening at camp. Each truck was labeled with a letter. I was letter C.

After we put our gear away, we headed into the main arena where a few people on the stage led us 2,500 riders in mass stretching warm-ups.

Shauna and I

On the way to Santa Cruz! Here is some lovely scenery. The girl on the left is Lisa. She is part of the Cal team too. Lisa, Amelia, and I trained together before AIDS/LifeCycle. The girl on the right is Ashleigh. Shauna and I randomly asked her for a ride to the BART station after Orientation Day and she rode with Amelia, Lisa, and I throughout the week. :D

Lisa and Ashleigh eating lunch on prickly grass. We are trying to stay on top of cardboard, but the prickly weed plants keep pinching us through our spandex. Good food. Lunch was usually sandwiches or wraps along with chips, cookies, power aid, fruit, and sometimes pasta salad. I had a greed wrist band, which is how they knew to give you vegetarian lunch or not. yum hummus.

Amelia and Ashleigh- we are taking a break to look at the view and stretch our legs.Day 1 was crazy. It was 80 miles long. The longest ride I had been on during training was 60 miles. I rode out from the Cow Palace at 7 am. It took an hour to get out of S.F. because of all the traffic lights. I arrived in Santa Cruz at 5 pm.

At camp, I stretched, showered in a truck, ate, and went to sleep. Lights out every night was at 9:30. We rose with the sun and retired with it too.

Day 2

My butt hurt so bad from the first day. But surprisingly after sleeping, I was fine for the rest of the week. I think the most pain I suffered was not even much pain, just a soreness in my wrists and hands from gripping the breaks and leaning over for so much of the day. The lovely chiropractic team helped me out a lot though and I felt pretty good the whole week. Also, another secret to no pain, I attribute a great amount of credit to chamois butter, pronounced "shammy butter. " I think many, if not all, used it on the trip- except for Ashleigh- it's because she does yoga. ahahah i don't know. But, anyways, you rub the cream into your padded shorts and then you just ride your bike! And it's like your are riding on air! It's not greasy or anything. People told me to get a soft seat for max comfort- but actually you want a firm hard uncomfortable seat because it will support you better throughout the day. Just get some padded shorts to even it out.

We rode from Santa Cruz to Kind City. It was mostly flat with some rolling hills at the end. Below is a picture of us at the top of a hill. See the semi parallel lines on the left side of the picture? The line to the right is the road we were on at the bottom. The picture is taken from the top.This ride was 105 miles!!!! So long! There was a man standing at the hundred mile mark to help cheer us on and let us know that we had ridden one hundred miles!
This was the day that I woke up late and left at 8:20. Every morning we have a window to leave between 6:30 and 8:30. They were threatening to sag us if we didn't leave in time. Being sagged meant getting thrown in a van and being shipped to the next rest stop. This could be for having mechanical problems, being injured, tired, or too slow. I think it stands for something but I am not sure.
Since I got a late start, I was always rushing to the next rest stop before it closed. The whole day I was chasing rest stops. If I didn't make it to a rest stop on time, I would have had to been sagged. Hooray for never being sagged the whole trip!

We rode by many artichoke fields in the beginning of the day.This rest stop was so pretty! It was at a vineyard and there were flowers everywhere. When you get to a rest stop, there is food, water, Power aid, port-a-potties, wonderful volunteers who help serve us food so that germs aren't spread. There is no running water at rest stops. Actually there is no running water anywhere except for when we take showers in the shower trucks. All week I only washed my hands once a day. The other times, I just made use of the massive bottles of Purell Hand Sanitizer and Wet Wipes. Every rest stop is themed too! You will see in my coming up pictures from the later days.

Here we are at camp. Shauna, who is super speedy everyday, gets to camp 5 or 6 hours before I do. She is a racer and is sponsored by Cliff!!!!!! So crazy!!! She set up the tent before I got there everyday. In the morning, she would wake up--sit up, and then grab a cliff bar and start eating- and then she was off!

In the morning I usually drink water when I wake up, but all my waterbottles this week were always filled with Power Aid. Mountain Blue is not the best first thing to taste in the morning. Sleeping in the tents was very comfortable because all the camps were on nice soft grass.

This is Natasha and Kirsty. They were our tent neighbors, also part of the Cal Team.

Tents are set up in grids. We were all letter C and therefore set up our tents in section C everyday. Our address was C36? I think.

Day 3

We went from King City to Paso Robles. It was 66.7 miles. We rode up Quadbuster today. Everyone kept saying how hard it would be, but I think the people who trained with the East Bay rides were ok for the most part. There are lots of hills in the Bay Area to train on. I didn't think it was that bad. Some guys rode up it multiple times, helping people ride up it by pushing them from the back. The hill was a 1.3 mile climb, and the rest of the day was pretty manageable.

Left to right. Me, Anna, Anna's friend. This was the rest stop at the bottom of Quadbuster. Below is the last rest stop for the day.- Rest stop 4.- It was always the most entertaining stop. In this basket were complimentary body washes.

So, as I wrote earlier, EVERY rest stop was themed! The volunteers dress up and decorate the tents and the port-a-potties. At the Adam's Family Rest Stop there were face spiders in the port-a-potties!! This rest stop was Grease. Below is a Pink Lady. ...or Pink "Lady" They put on a skit/dance to a medley of Grease songs!Decorated port-a-potties are below.

I forgot which night, but one of the nights during dinner, we got to watch all the news clips being done on AIDSLifeCycle. Some of the hills we rode had names- like the Quadbuster, or the Evil Twins..etc. One of the news reporters reported on cyclists climbing up Heart Attack Hill! Which she just made up becuase there is no heart attack hill. hahahhaha

At night there is the news- in which we get to hear the weather for tomorrow, and what happened on the road today- if there were any major injuries or anything. One of the days, I think on Day 1, someone had to be helicoptered off because of injury- or dehydration???

Day 4

This is what mornings at camp look like (or is it evening? nevertheless): People hauling luggage to trucks in spandex shorts and helmets. And port-a-potties are always around somewhere. can you spot them?

Above: at the top of evil twin number 1.

We conquered the Evil Twins today on our way from Paso Robles to Santa Maria. YEEEE

I made it to the top! elevation 1762

Wind is such a big deal when biking. I don't remember if it was day 4 or 5, but it was super windy and we all had to pedal at least twice, if not a million times harder to fight the head wind, and went super fast if it was a tail wind. "May the wind be at your back." Anyways, at one of the rest stops, the wind started blowing so hard, and this guy turned to me and laughed..."Good! Blow my a$$ to Santa Maria!!" and then went into the port-a-potty. On the windy days, the porta-potties were a little island get away: Warm, and well shielded inside from the wind.

Day four... Today we reached the halfway point to LA! We peddled up this giant hill and then on the sweet ride down there was a turn out where all the bikers pulled over to take pictures in front of the crazy big pacific ocean!!!! This was the beautiful halfway point. I already felt like I made it all the way. So I stood in line with kirsty to stand on top of a big rock and lift my bike over my head. THIS WAS THE HARDEST PART OF THE WHOLE TRIP!!! Trying to balance on top of the rock with my clipless peddles and lifting a bike over my head. goodness. ahahahahhaKirsty here obviously new what she was doing. I must work on my upper body strength.

ABOVE: See the ocean in the background?

BELOW: The ocean in the foreground!!!SO MANY BIKES!!!! 2500 riders=2500 bikes!!!!

When we get to camp, there is a line of people there to cheer us in! This whole week was full of cheerful people. There were people who came out and parked their cars by the side of the road cheering with posters and pom poms and noise makers! At camp there is bike parking. Rows and rows of metal bars that we hang the bike seat on. It is very efficient! Each row has a name like Good Charlotte, Hearts, B-7 Bombers, or something like that and you remember the name and get your bike in the morning.

After dinner Lisa and I went to stretch out on the FOAM ROLLERS. We rolled out all our lactic acid. SO PAINFUL! Others choose to live with the soreness. I don't know which is more painful, being sore and tight or trying to roll out the soreness. I also took advantage of the amazing CHIROPRACTIC, and SPORTS MEDICAL tent volunteers! I went to chiropractic to get stretched out. They are so nice and spent more time on me than my normal doctors--who I have to pay!
Click "Older posts" (bottom right) to see more pictures!

Day 5 Red Dress day!

RED DRESS DAY!!! hooray!! Santa Maria to Lompoc. A nice short 42 miles. Originally, this was called dress red day because the route took us around a curve that if one looked down from above, it would look like the red ribbon for AIDS awareness. But it soon evolved to red dress day because AIDS affects the homosexual community and everyone likes to wear dresses. :D "Alright Ladies, and Ladies for the day... remember to drink, stretch, and eat!"
Many people went all out for today. Some wearing large wigs and fluffy tutus with glitter and make up. Some wearing nothing. Some biking in red speedo looking things.
Shauna and I. Shauna rode with me today! I told her I would slow her down by so much, but she taught me how to draft! Drafting is when there are 2 or more bikers and you ride really close to the person in front and completely trust them. You watch their peddling and when they stop peddling, you stop peddling. You get to go faster with less work because the person in front breaks the wind for you. This is the amazing JODI!!!! This lovely lady is the reason I got to do AIDS/LifeCycle! She let me borrow her crazy nice road bike! I miraculously met her on one of the East Bay Training rides. She saw me riding my mountain bike and told me that she was going to sell her bike because she was going to get a new one, not because the bike was old, but because it was a little too big for her. I didn't have enough moola, so she said I could borrow it! SO GENEROUS!! <333>!!! THANK YOU!! She told me that her bike was basically given to her too so she could do AIDS/LifeCycle when she didn't have a bike. Paul (next door tent mate who helped give us wake up calls), me, Shauna.

Today was so nice because since it was such a short ride, I got into camp around 1 or 2. I got to hang out for the whole afternoon, do some laundry with a bucket and a hose, lay outside in the sun, get my tan on...or rather get sunburned. I remember on this day...I was in a sheer state of bliss. I was in a state of complete happiness. I loved this ride because for one week I didn't have to do anything but bike, eat, sleep, and stretch. I got to watch the ocean waves, and look up and see a whole sky full of stars. I didn't have to check email, talk on the phone, worry about being somewhere, worry about paying for stuff. It was great. I couldn't stop smiling. And there were hot gay guys walking around in red dresses everywhere. ahahaha

Day 6

Lompoc to Ventura! 85.5 miles. What a beautiful day! We had to wait at this bridge until some road up ahead got blocked off for us to cross safely. We road down the 101 hwy a lot today. My dream come true! It was kinda freaky but so fun. I've always wanted to ride on the freeway!!Look at the all the bikers stacked in line! (picture below) They curve around the corner.I think this is the first rest stop of the day. Ocean side view. Below: Where is that man riding to?......Santa Barbara's Paradise Pit! The community comes out to give us FREE ice cream!!!!Nice volunteer man from Santa Barbara serving free ice cream! vanilla, chocolate... i don't remember the rest. probably chocolate chip. There were also free cookies- home baked? Content with the delicious ice cream on this warm day, we leave the pit stop and continue down the coast to the next rest stop, singing and laughing because....its' just another day in paradise.

Eating again. Almost as good as ice cream. Rest stop food consisted of bananas, peanut butter, gram cracker with Pb&j, CLIFF BARS--- which is what I ate all week mostly, other bars like protein bars and granola bars, power aid, water, hard candy.
This rest stop was themed Boogie days. I didn't take enough pictures of the dressed up volunteers!!! but you can go look at aidslifecycle.org to find more pictures that other people took.
More riding along the ocean! We rode right into rest stop 4, the last rest stop before camp. Everyday there are 4 rest stops and lunch.

This theme was Hollywood. We got to dance with the stars. There is Amelia, Lisa, and Ashleigh.


hot (gay-whyyyy??) glittery man
Ashleigh. Did I tell you how we met her? Well, she is from New Jersey and she is a yoga instructor, and signed up to do the ride by herself. She gave Shauna and I a ride to the BART station after Orientation day, and then miraculously we found her in the see of 3000 people on Sunday morning/day 1! AND we all (lisa, amelia, ahsleigh, and I) rode at the same pace! craziness.

This is Shauna and my tent. There was a candle lit vigil this night. Everyone got a candle. We walked out to the beach and formed a large circle of silence.
The circle was HUGE! all those little lites that look like city lights are actually people holding their flame.
Some people dressed up as brides it looked like, walked around the circle with lantern. We all got up and walked to the ocean to put out the candles with the ocean foam or water. We were riding for this. For all the people that everyone was thinking about during this vigil.