Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer #11 Saturday December 17th 2016

December 13, 2016 by admin Leave a comment

This Saturday is the 11th annual Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer!

For the first time ever I’m asking for a donation at the start for Danny Chew, who created the Dirty Dozen, which FML is based on. Danny was in a solo bicycle accident that has left him paralyzed. Money is being collected to help him with basic needs including making his home wheelchair accessible. Read more about him in this excellent story in Outside Magazine. Looking for $5 to ride and $10 if you are going for points, collected at the start. If you’d like to give additionally, you can use this link, but if riding please bring it day of.

I know there are many organizations that need your money now more than ever. But for those who have ridden this anytime since 2006 I want to remind you I took the exact concept of the Dirty Dozen and simply applied it in Los Angeles. I’ve also never charged and spent my own money for shirts, patches, bananas, coffee, etc in the past. The very least we could do now is give a little back to the Million Mile Man who inspired ten years of hill exploration in our city! Thank you for considering.

Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer #11

730am Saturday December 17th 2016

Sunset Triangle Plaza

facebook event page

This is an event where we ride up 10 of the hardest/steepest/dumbest hills in Los Angeles. See map below.

You can buy these terrific Danny Chew benefit shirts from my good friends at Garbella. Make sure to tell them you are donating from #bikeLA and pick up a pierogi button while you are there. We will have sample sizes at the start and a way to place your order there.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1wvRirxmPgwR1Atsw_lkby0p9kO8

Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer #10 Sunday November 8th 2015

November 7, 2015 by admin Leave a comment

Once upon a time, in a Los Angeles long past, I dreamed of an LA version of Danny Chew’s famous Pittsburgh hill race, the Dirty Dozen. I wanted ‘racers’ to ride their bike deep in the city and I wanted to show bike commuters the fun in a physically challenging ride. In other words, the manifestation of my cycling ADHD- ride everything, everywhere and keep it fun! And of course an obscure nod to BMX history.

That first year -2006- saw pouring rain and possibly more volunteers than riders, but we pulled it off. We showed that Los Angeles has paved roads as steep as anywhere (take that San Francisco) and more importantly we got people on their bikes in an auto-centric city to explore incredible, tucked away locales. I measured it successful when someone in a cycling forum refused to believe that the photos were indeed taken in Los Angeles.

And here we are nine years later at Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer #10. Number ten! Los Angeles is much improved for cycling and the number of events each week is too much for me to keep up with. This could more related to the fact that I am now in my mid-30’s, not my mid-20’s (yet somehow that doesn’t stop me from getting red light tickets on my bike, like the one I got last night!). I’d list some of the groups doing great work for cyclists, but there are so many I’m afraid I’d leave some important people out.

EldredSt.

This a long way of saying that Sunday November 8th is this year’s event. If you are first hearing about this now, I apologize! Between my instagram, facebook and twitter I feel like I rarely write on my site anymore. Here is the facebook event.

Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer #10

730am Sunday November 8th 2015

Sunset Triangle Plaza

The standard rules apply- no event-affiliated cars allowed on the route for any reason. No entry fee, no prizes, no bs. Open to anyone and everyone on a bike. Causal, non-competitive cyclists encouraged! PLEASE read through the history for more detail if you plan on riding. Here are some great photos from 2014 to get you stoked. And there’s a video below.

A huge thank you to everyone who has helped out or ridden and the entire #bikeLA world. It’s an honor to be a part of this community and this event wouldn’t be possible without you.

See you Sunday! Follow along at @MattRuscigno.

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=z8hBCztL5bR0.k54M-cq0f1c0&w=640&h=480]

A few of the climbs on video.

Posted by Ramon Cortes on Monday, November 10, 2014

Strongest Hearts going strong!

June 7, 2014 by admin 2 Comments

Our Kickstarter to fund the next phase of Strongest Hearts (previously Day in the Life of Vegan Athletes) is moving along nicely! Thank you to everyone who has donated or shared our campaign page. Every little bit helps and we need your help right now to reach our goal. Can you make a donation so we can continue to make these videos?

And the sooner we reach our goal the less I can stress about it! In our latest update we shared the graphics for the rad buttons (thanks bummerart and Pinbot) that will come with every donation over $20.

We make these videos to show the various ways veganism can work. We don’t preach one style of eating or body shame; we want plant-based eating and fitness to be accessible to the most people. Showing the interesting stories of athletes in a professional way has never been done. We believe activism and education can be positive, fun AND make a difference. It’s a lot of work to make these and both Sasha and I have invested a lot of time, energy and our own money into this project. So we are seriously indebted to the people who believe in us and have supported us financially!

We have great rewards- hoodies, t-shirts, Purist water bottles, signed books, cycling socks….check them all out at our campaign page and please share it widely with your networks. We are relying on our community to get this out there! Thank you so much.

Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer update for 2014

April 22, 2014 by admin 4 Comments

Usually by this time of year the hill climb event I put on, Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer, is already scheduled. Or may have already happened! This year I am pushing it to late summer or maybe even early Fall. I apologize for the delay, but a few things have prevented it from happening as normal. Don’t worry though, it will go on.

Also, I’m starting to prepare for 2015, which will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of this event! Hope to do a few extra things next year to really celebrate. Can you believe it has been that long? Long live #BikeLA.

Meanwhile, I was very fortunate to have Peloton Magazine cover it as part of their issue on climbing. It includes wonderful photos from my friend Jordan Clark Haggard, some of which you can see at this link, below the excellent photos of my friend Megan Dean of Moth Attack Custom Bicycles. Thanks Jordan and everyone at Peloton!

Also in the issue is my very good friend Steevo. We rode the Great Divide mountain bike route together in 2007 (more famous for the Tour Divide race that uses the route). We’ve been friends for 20 years and bikes have been a part of that equation ever since. He’s the 10x winner of Danny Chew’s Dirty Dozen hill race in Pittsburgh, which my event is based on. More interesting than that are the stories on his blog, which you should definitely check out.

When I schedule this year’s event I will post here on this site and on my twitter, @MattRuscigno.

Screening of 2006 Fixed Gear Furnace Creek 508

September 26, 2013 by admin 1 Comment

Yesterday I turned 35 years old and pointed out to an also-recently-35 friend that we are the same distance in time to 50 as we are from 20. Wrap your mind around that for a minute. If that doesn’t make you turn off your computer and run off to do something more productive, I’ll continue below.

Turns out that time is rather hard to put into perspective as this insanely helpful and great article with gradually increasing timelines shows. I’m feeling especially nostalgic because the weekend after this one is the Furnace Creek 508 and we are bringing back Team Bonobo: The 2006 four-person fixed gear team.

We were fixie famous before fixie famous was a thing. –Megan Dean

There’s even a documentary by Sasha Perry, the smarts behind our Day in the Life of Vegan Athletes series.

http://youtu.be/toVIKUDGd3Y

As an excuse to get together, hang out with friends at Golden Saddle Cyclery and eat Pure Luck burritos, we are hosting a screening of Eat! Sleep? Bikes! Thursday Oct 3rd at 630pm. If you are in the LA area I hope you can make it. It’s a free event with great people. I’d also like to point out that 2006 was as far in the past as 2020 is in the future. I imagine by 2020 we’ll be racing hover bikes and that predictive text will be good enough to just read my mind and I won’t have to put words in a certain order in my head or actually have to type them any more.

I’ve taken some time off from the 508 after racing it solo 3 years in a row. Two of those years involved swimming at either the pre-race meeting or the halfway point. Let’s see if we can work that in somewhere this year. If we finish, 3 of us will be in the Furnace Creek 508 Hall of Fame. I’m not sure if there’s a distinction related to swimming.

2010 Pre-race meeting. Photo by Lisa Auerbach. http://lisaanneauerbach.com/ — 2010 Pre-race meeting. Photo by Lisa Auerbach.

Thanks for reading! You can follow the race webcast here. Also, don’t forget that the No Meat Athlete book comes out October 1st and there’s a book tour; I’ll be along for some of the dates including this vegan book fair in Los Angeles.

2013 Feel My Legs I’m A Racer

May 14, 2013 by admin 4 Comments

The 8th annual Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer is now in the books! And by books I mean completed because unlike Danny Chew I do not keep detailed logs of the event. But fortunately a number of people come out and take great photos and videos so we do have documentation- see the entire history here. We had about 55 cyclists start, which is fewer than the previous couple of years, but on the other hand we had one of the lowest rates of attrition.

As always, thank you to all of the Swarm! volunteers who make this happen, especially Jesse and Jessica who ride up every hill and keep score for me. I couldn’t put this on without you two! And of course thank you to all of the riders who came out, had a great attitude and challenged themselves for no reward. The scenery and accomplishment are reward enough?!

Final points:

44 Jon Budinoff
41 Seth Britton
25 Ed McGreevy
16 Joseph Griffith
9 Michael Relth

Congrats Jon for not only winning this two years in a row, but for also winning the Swrve race the day before! And Seth for coming out and making him work for it the day after you won a road race.

Thanks Boyz on the Hoods for making this video:

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/65449347 w=500&h=281]

More coverage and photos:

Errin Vasquez / Frontage Roads

Center Line Rule

Thrasher’s photos

Donovan Jenkin’s photos

Michael Wagner’s photos

Thanks everyone, see you next year!

Top of Mt Washington / Self-Discovery climb.

Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer #8, Sunday April 28th 2013

April 12, 2013 by admin 10 Comments

[Update Tuesday 4-23-12: Strava data!]
[Update Monday 4-22-13: It’s official; we’re going backwards. Again. Same map as last year, which I also embedded below]

A lot has changed in the Los Angeles bike world since I first held this event in 2006! Urban riders have become racers with regularity, racers have found the benefits of riding in the city and unsanctioned bike races are the norm. What I love is that these were the original goals of my bike club, Swarm!, way back in 2005 when we put a name to what we are doing- blurring the line between being a commuter and a racer and adding DIY ethics to everything. Bikes are more than exercise machines- they are a medium for exploring the world! Putting yourself on a bike in a city is still an act of rebellion. With that said I present to you the 2013 Feel My Legs, I’m a Racer.

Sunday April 28th 745am at 3626 W Sunset Blvd / Sunset Triangle Park in Silver Lake.

Rider meeting at 810am, roll to first hill at 815. Please be on time!

Yes– fun, rain, shine, any bike, water, snacks, tube, tools, stokedness, riding just to finish, riding for points, waiting at top of each hill
No– bad attitudes, entitlement, car support, jock mentality, entry fee, prizes
See other FAQ on this earlier post and entire event history here. Last year’s info and ride report are fairly comprehensive. It’s a facebook event too.

Send any questions to BikeSwarm [at] gmail. Day-of announcements on twitter: @BikeSwarm
I may need some more day-of volunteers, please let me know if you can help out. Thank you!

What exactly is this?

This is a stage ‘race’ on 10 of the hardest hills in Los Angeles that started in 2006. We ride as a group between hills and then each hill is its own event with points awarded for 1st through 5th. We regroup and ride together to the next hill. The rider with the most points after 10 hills wins! It’s based on Danny Chew’s Dirty Dozen. Most riders are out there just to ride all 10 hills in one day, which is no small feat. It’s also a fun tour of hidden roads in Los Angeles.

[googlemaps https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=206715045568702755878.0004bbceeb7e6b381887e&msa=0&ie=UTF8&t=m&ll=34.086929,-118.231087&spn=0.068241,0.109863&z=13&output=embed&w=640&h=480]

Red- hills
Blue- route between hills
Green- route back to start from last hill

And strava data is available.

What are the hills?

Micheltorena
Duane
Fargo
Stadium Way/Boylston
Baxter
Marview
Thomas
Commodore
Eldred
Mt Washington

Do I have to race?

Definitely not! Most people on this ride are not racing, but are there just to ride up single every hill, which is a huge endeavor on its own.

Is there an entry fee?

No!

Are there prizes?

No!

Can I ride fixed gear?

You can try! We ride together from hill to hill and any gear that you could get up these hills with will be too low to stay with the group. You are welcome to come out and prove me wrong though. No automobile support to drive your bike around. I don’t care if you are the Messenger World Champion of the World. Using a flip flop hub is okay.

Will I get lost?

Probably not. We ride as a group from hill to hill at a chill pace. At each hill it will be obvious where to go. At any turns or confusing parts I’ll try to have chalk or a volunteer. We regroup at the top only after the last person has made it up. Either way, please familiarize yourself with the hills and the route.

How can I prepare?

Climb. A lot. Also check out all of the hills beforehand and learn the areas we ride through. A good gauge is Micheltorena off of Sunset Blvd. It’s long with steep sections and if you can make it up that comfortably I think you can hang on this ride. Another test is Fargo St, which is a monster of a hill. Most people who come out way underestimate how hard this is. Which is why more than half who start don’t finish.

Do I get a meal or picnic or something out of this?

I wish. In the past we’ve done everything from pancake breakfasts to picnics and from t-shirts to patches, all for a free event! I’m not sure we’ll be doing any of those in 2013, but I’ll see what I can do.

Who puts this on?

My bike club, known as Swarm!. We ride everything from alleycats to international UCI races. Collectively we think that the world would be a better place if people rode bikes and ate vegan food more often.

My friends want to watch, can they drive along the course and stop at the hills?

Absolutely not. We’re going to be on narrow roads in quiet neighborhoods; I don’t want to add to the car traffic. They are welcome to ride bikes along with us and I’ll help navigate the best places to see and how to get around. By the end almost half the people with us are just there to watch and cheer on the other riders! Again, no cars. I will ask you to leave. If multiple people cannot abide by this I will simply cancel this and ride away.

How long is this ride?

Plan to be done around 2pm, hopefully sooner.

Anything I can do to help?

Thanks for asking! I need help getting the word out. Please send this page to your bike club/crew/gang. I also may need some volunteers the day of. Getting up and down the hill may or may not be required. Photography is always appreciated, but again, by bike, not car. Get in touch at bikeswarm [at] gmail.

Thank you for your interest and I hope to see you at Sunset Triangle Park on Sunday the 28th!

Day in the Life 10; Badwater Ultramarathoner Michael Arnstein

November 29, 2012 by admin 14 Comments

Our Day in the Life of Vegan Athletes Series has a very special 10th episode today. We travel to the Badwater Ultramarathon, which has been called the most demanding and extreme running race on the planet, and ‘spend the day’ with fruitarian Michael Arnstein. Mike has a 2.28 marathon PR and sub-10 hour ironman results, which is super impressive, but not nearly as impressive as his positivity! Which is put to test during this 135-mile run in temperatures near 120 degrees. He has so many great things to say and he really captures the spirit of this race and what it’s like to run 135 miles. Without further ado, here’s Michael Arnstein’s attempt at Badwater:

https://vimeo.com/54268347

How crazy was that! He endured through the night and just when you thought he might not make it, he finishes top 20! Among many great quotes, here is my favorite,

“When you embrace the struggling, you just learn how to accept it and appreciate it.
Because the good times are only really great when the bad times are pretty tough.”

For more on Mike, his diet and other videos see his site, www.thefruitarian.com. Thanks for watching!

‘Veganism is dangerous’ response on Discerning Brute, the Mt Laguna Bicycle Classic and not bike pack racing

April 27, 2012 by admin 1 Comment

Is veganism dangerous for kids? If you read the recent NY Times Op-ed you might think so. Fortunately there are experts who can point to the real science. In my first contribution for my friend Joshua Katcher’s site, The Discerning Brute, I wrote about the response from Registered Dietitians and the vegan community– and how her article isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

;

Last weekend I had the privilege to ride the Mt Laguna Bicycle Classic, a fantastic AdventureCORPS century in East San Diego County. I rode the pre-ride in 2009 and the 2010 event– somehow finishing in just over 6 1/2 hours. How the heck did I do that? I guess the woman at the aid station who said, ‘I thought you were fast?’ when I leisurely rolled up on the far end of the bell curve knew something I didn’t. And this was before I broke a spoke on my rear ksryium wheel and borrowed a friend’s bike to finish…

As always Chris Kostman took a million photos, most of which are available on the results page. Now it’s no secret that AdventureCORPS helps out my bike club Swarm!, as does Swarm! help at most AdventureCORPS events so what I’m going to say may seem bias. There are a few things that separate a great event from a decent event and AdventureCORPS does them all. Here’s an incomplete list off of the top of my head:

-Clear communication before the event- what the course, aid and start/finish will look like and what participants need to know and have.
-Well-stocked aid stations with friendly, knowledgeable volunteers- not just partners of participants who don’t know anything about cycling, the course or the food/supplements being offered.
-Energetic volunteers! It makes such a difference to have people out there who are stoked. Most AdventureCORPS volunteers have done the events- it makes a huge difference.
-Food at the end that isn’t the same as the snacks at aid stations. Home-made Filipino food with vegan options? Hell yeah!
-Lots of high-quality photos, clearly organized and available for free!

It was a great way to spend my day and my first century since my bike tour last summer! Geez…

This morning the Stagecoach 400 Bike Packing Race kicked off in Idylwild, CA. I really wanted to do this race. I started the motions, was mountain biking more but then just didn’t get my stuff organized. What kind of organization? See my post before I attempted the Arizona Trail Race. My DNF there really has had a huge impact on me- a year later and I haven’t even finished writing about what happened. Even though this course is much more rideable, I still had my concerns and was only willing to show up at the start if I had pre-ridden all of it. But I didn’t get it together in time. Maybe next year? Meanwhile follow the brave souls who are riding this year including Jill Homer, who I link to often, on the Track Leaders Map.

Have a great weekend and I hope Spring has sprung wherever you are and that you’re enjoying these longer days. I know I am!

Day in the Life 4; Professional Cyclist Cara Gillis, Part Two: Intervals

July 11, 2011 by admin 10 Comments

Last week, in part of one of our episode with pro cyclist Cara Gillis we learned about her background in veganism, philosophy and pro cycling. Today, we ride! And boy do we ride. One thing that immediately impresses you about Cara is her diligence in following a training plan and her intelligent use of intervals. It has shown me the importance of having a good plan and following it closely.
In Part 2 we head to Mt Washington, a famed climb in Northeast Los Angeles as I try to keep up with Cara on 1-minute intervals. One minute, that’s all, but it’s easier said than done! We also speak with her coach Jeff Lawler about the importance of intervals and the most common mistake new cyclists make.
Enjoy!

How amazing is Cara? I’m almost embarrassed at how quickly she dropped me. Almost. But not, because she is such a bad-ass. Though I now know that I need to start doing better intervals! To recap Jeff, here are some tips to smartly introduce intervals.

Smart Intervals

-Hold the same pace for the entire length of the interval. A one-minute interval is not a 20 second sprint with 40 seconds of barely holding on…

-Give yourself a proper recovery time. Today we had a 3-minute rest for a 1-minute interval. You need enough time for your cardiovascular system and muscles to recover in order for them to push as hard in the subsequent intervals.

-Do at least four. If you are totally spent after two, you may need to adjust your pace or analyze if you are ready for intervals.

-Include a variety of lengths and intensities of intervals. Cara calls 20-minutes intervals the bread and (vegan) butter workout for fast cyclists. It’s a skill to figure out your pace and hold it for 20 minutes in itself. But learning that skill has huge payoffs.

-Intervals should happen a few times per week, max.

Thank you Cara and Jeff for spending your day with us. Cara would like to thank her team Missing Link Coaching Systems/Specialized, especially the directors who go out of their way to make sure she gets vegan food at races. That’s super cool. Even though she is not sponsored by them, she wants me to mention Hammer Nutrition products because most of their stuff is vegan. When her team has sponsors that don’t make anything vegan she buys Hammer stuff on her own.

What did you learn from today’s episode? As always, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time!

[If you enjoy these episodes please use the share button below. A lot of work goes into making these and we have no money or sponsors and only our friends and readers to spread the message that you can be vegan and an athlete. Help out if you can! Thank you.]