Just submitted my qualifying ride write-up for Ride the Lobster and wanted to share my experience and some photos. Jim (munivision), John Bain, Carol Bricker (as support) and I have decided to be on a team and we just finished our qualifying rides over the weekend. I can’t wait for RTL, it’s gonna be a blast!
DAY 1:
Jim, John and I started out our qualifying ride at about 12:30 PM, meeting at Jim’s work in Mission Viejo. The first part of the trail was great as it followed a river and was fairly smooth and very peaceful. We came to Aliso Woods & Canyon and decided to do some fire road for about 5 miles or so. We then continued on a bike path that was on the road where we started to do some ups and downs. We made it to our half way point and took a little snack break. Turned around and repeated everything but the dirt road.
We split from John on the way back as he was on a 29" while Jim and I were on Cokers. He had a cold and felt he was always last trying to keep up which wears you down both physically & mentally. He finished the ride by himself and said it felt much better not having to play catch up. Overall it was a nice beautiful sunny day and the perfect temperature for Day 1! I was a little worried as to how I’d do as I haven’t ridden a Coker or more than 15 miles in 10 years since Ride Across MN but I did just fine and wasn’t in too much pain. I even did some 1 footing, wheel walking and hand wheel walking! 
Overall we did 74.7 Km, ascended 1184.15 meters and descended 1189.33 meters all in about 6 1/2 hours!!
DAY 2:
On Saturday we decided to do a nice long beach ride from Redondo Beach up the coast to Malibu and back along the beach bike path. It was a beautiful sunny day with perfect temperatures! John had decided to do his own ride as he has a 29" and didn’t want to keep us Cokers behind. So it was Terry, Jim and I that started out on the bike path. The trail was wonderful with great scenery the entire time (in more ways than one!). We stopped in Venice Beach for 5 minutes to watch a street performer do a back flip on a pogo stick, then continued on and ate under the Santa Monica Pier. Made it to the end of the bike path (close to Malibu) and turned around.
We stopped by Venice Mt. on the way back and met up with John Long, Don and another guy. They were playing around with Don’s new 24" KH Shlumpf which was awesome! Made it to Hermosa Pier and took a little break to walk down to the end of it. The end was near, we could practically see it! After riding 73.45 Km, ascending 738.84 meters, descending 737.62 meters in about 7 hours, we were finished and qualified for RTL! Yes I was in some pain after both days of riding, but not nearly as bad as I though it might be!
I’m too lazy right now to actually post any pictures or video’s from the rides but you can find them all here.
