Recovery Week blues
It’s only Tuesday and I’m already feeling the recovery week blues. Hell, I only finished my Bonelli race report yesterday evening. After the long, relatively intense week last week (13+ hours of training and racing), Coach John insisted that I take a recovery week. And I HATE IT. Already.
“Recovery week” means Monday off, no Griffith Park Brick today (instead I did a low-intensity Brick at home) and slightly shorter and less intense workouts for the rest of the week. I’m still doing the Speed Circuit swim tomorrow morning.
I’m sure – positively sure – that I need the rest, but how f-ed up is it that 48 hours after a hard effort, high intensity race capping off a long week, my skin is already itchy and crawling, I’m in a grumpy mood and all I can think about is why I’m not training?!
Anyway…
A few days ago, a reader named Steve wrote in the “comments” that he’d be in LA for the month of July and was looking for some good rides and runs to do while he’s here. I’m new to LA myself, but I’ve been getting out there and have a pretty good sense of where and when to train. Here’s my list of must-do’s (and some to-do’s) so far:
- Climbing Palomar Mountain. It’s tough and not for the faint of heart, but the feeling you get at the top – and during the descent – make it all worthwhile. When I did it, we parked at the Harrah’s Rincon Casino and climbed the South Grade. Here is a map of the 68 mile loop I did. Friends who did it separately the same day parked at the intersection of Interstate 15 and Highway 76 and rode from there to the bottom of Palomar (about 20 miles) and then did the climb and returned the same way. Either way it’s about a two hour drive from LA.
- PCH. As far as I can tell, the most popular riding out here. It’s pretty convenient, there aren’t many stoplights or stop signs and the cars are generally respectful of cyclists. And, every time I’ve been out there, there have been a fair number of other cyclists. I either start the ride from San Vicente and Ocean Ave and make my way down to the PCH or park somewhere along the PCH and go from there. You can either just ride north for as long as you want, or, for some climbing, you can go up one of the many canyons. I’ve done Mulholland and Yerba Buena, and people talk about Latigo, Encinal and some others.
- Angeles Crest. I haven’t done this ride yet, but it’s supposedly a really sick climb. I think most people start in La Canada or Pasadena. I haven’t done this one. Yet.
- Griffith Park. Steve said he’d be staying in Echo Park, so while Griffith Park doesn’t have the sexy fame of the other stuff I’ve listed it’s convenient and still pretty great for running and cycling. For cycling, you can do any number of loops around the inside of the Park and/or jump on the LA River bike path that goes for about 5 miles starting near the north-east corner of the Park. You can do a nice climb up to the Observatory from a couple different locations. For running, there are tons of paths – streets, dirt paths, non-technical trails. Depending on how adventurous you are and how good your sense of direction is, just pick a direction and go!
- Beach running. All along the beaches from Hermosa (at least) up into Malibu there are running paths. Pick a beach and go run it. On Saturdays after riding on PCH, I’ve been running in Santa Monica, either on the grass median on San Vicente or on the path along Ocean Ave. Also, someone today was telling me about the Manhattan Beach Sand Dunes. Evidently, it’s a really steep sand dune that people do hill repeats on. It’s near 33rd and Bell Avenue. It’s another one on my list.
- Solvang. Steve mentioned a century ride in Solvang. Solvang is north of Santa Barbara – a couple hours north of LA, I think. Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about the riding up there.
- Ocean Swimming. Check out the LA Tri Club website for their organized group swims on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. In general, you don’t have to be a member to join the fun.
- Trail Running. I love running trails, but other than in Griffith Park, I haven’t done that much of it out here. The Santa Monica Mountains have tons of trails that are good for running.
I’ve also had some success finding running and cycling routes on mapmyrun and mapmyride. You have to weed through a lot of shit to find a good course convenient to where you want to be, but it’s worth it if you’re trying to find something new.
As I get some more experience, I’ll add to the list!
Brick – June 9
Total Time:
Indoor Bike:
Time: 30 minutes
Average heart rate: 119
Transition Time:
Run:
Distance: 2 miles
Time: 15 minutes
Average heart rate: 127
Course: West Hollywood