I’ll be spending the next few week in San Marino, CA and would love to find some fellow ST’s to train with… I know there are severl cycling clubs around there including I believe the Pasedena Tri club? I’ve also seen a HUGE bike group riding down the main strip in San Marino (forget the name of the street). I’m guessing there are several groups… Can anyone send me some info?
Also, I know the Rose Bowl is a pool that I can swim in down there, but is there anything closer to San Marino? Something that wouldn’t require me to get on the highway and fight traffic in the mornings?
Wow! I never would’ve expected to see my old home town on Slowtwitch. It was a great place to grow up, but a terrible place to train-unless you’re willing to drive a bit. I guess that’s why I went on to play baseball in college (the ultimate lazy man’s sport). Thankfully, I left about 20 years ago for San Diego and Orange counties.
I don’t know of anywhere good to swim other than the RBAC, but it is a great swim complex and a decent place to do a swim/run brick (as long as you beat the smog w/an early morning workout). The San Gabriels have the best mountain biking in SoCal. Yep, THE best. There used to be a couple of road rides that met in La Canada (Tues and Sat I think?) for either a long spin or a great day in the mountains. Steve at the Open Road Bike Shop in Pasadena knows all of the local rides. Really good road climbing up Angeles Crest-----just watch out for the motorcyclists and idiots on cell phones.
This time of year your worst enemy is air quality (or lack thereof). Even here in Newport it sometimes sucks a bit.
I think San Marino (Beverly Hills East) is a great place to train. You probably have a olympic size pool in the house that you are staying at already so I won’t mention the swim.
Rose Bowl is 5 minutes away and you can train with the Pasadena Tri Club three/four times a week. On Saturdays, a huge group bike ride comes down through Huntington Drive going east starting about 8:30AM. I believe they start at Descanso Gardens at ~8:00AM. At Cal Tech, they have a master’s swim team.
San Marino with its hills and wide streets is a great place to run. I run through San Marino all the time.
you can ride the san gabriel river bed all the way down to long beach or huntington. it’s about a 5-8 mile ride/drive to the river bed entrance (at either valley blvd in el monte or near the 210 and 605 intersection) from the san marino area. if you drive it’s probably better to park at the 210/605 entrance.
there’s also a pretty good neighborhood loop in san marino with a few small climbs - minimal traffic. not sure of the street names but it’s in the area of the huntington library. you can also climb the roads up the mountains to redbox (beginning in the la canada area) but you’d have to drive from san marino to get there.
after your 35 mile ride to long beach, you can do the 2.2 mile swim around naples island then ride back up the river bed.
i do my weekday swimming at LA Fatness early in the mornings - it’s not that crowded really early but it’s not an olympic size pool. on weekends, i do a portion of the naples island loop.
as for the group of road riders you see weekend mornings, there are at least 2 groups. one meets around 7 or 8 at the trader joes in south pasadena and ride east on huntington (the main strip) and head up to san dimas. there’s another group that meets in san marino but i’m less familiar with those rides. not sure how good a workout you’ll get because of all of the drafting involved. give “benson” or “randy” at call at jones bicycle in san marino and they could fill you in.
these group rides are not too friendly to TT/Tri rigs (what road groups aren’t)?, you should bring your road bike.
i’d offer to show you around but i’m still recovering from a herniated disc.
i agree w/ the above post about mountain biking in the SGV. el prieto is one of the finest pieces of single track around - bar none - including my epic rides in moab.
