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Kissena Training Camp

50 comments · 722 views
GregHoge
Dec 05, 2023 at 02:59 PM
Hey fellow Kissenista! 

We're looking at putting together a training camp for this upcoming season and want to get your input.  Right now we are in the early stages of planning, but things can move quickly so the more member feedback we can get the better!

If this is something you're interested in, please take a second to fill out this quick survey for location, dates, and cost. 

SURVEY IS HERE

GregHoge
Dec 15, 2023 at 09:29 PM
Last call to fill out the survey before we lock in camp details.  If you are interested, PLEASE FILL IT OUT.

SURVEY IF HERE
DavidVibert
Dec 22, 2023 at 09:34 PM
Psyched for this! Have always wanted to do a team training camp somewhere warm and cool.
GregHoge
Jan 09, 2024 at 12:37 PM
Fellow Kissenista! 

Are you tired of staring at Zwift? Do you want to ditch the cold, wet weather of NYC this winter? Then come join us in LA for the 2024 KCC Spring Training Camp.

Dates: March 9th - 17th
Location: Los Angeles, CA (Monrovia)
Cost: $1200/person (price based on minimum 4 people; excess will be refunded if more than 4 people attend)

What's Included:
What you will need to book/be responsible for:
  • Flights
  • Food
  • any other extras (eg. massage, etc.)
Other Important things:

To reserve your spot, fill out this form and I will send over payment information (Paypal). Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Greg Hoge
President
LennartZandbergen
Jan 09, 2024 at 03:38 PM
Super awesome!! Signed up just now. 
BlakeFoster
Jan 09, 2024 at 08:09 PM
Assuming spots are left I'm signing up, too. Stoked for this!
PatrickGrehan
Jan 12, 2024 at 04:01 PM
I’m on board 
Mark Taylor
Jan 15, 2024 at 09:18 PM
Is there an option to not stay for the entire week , Understanding that i will still have to pay the full fee
GregHoge
Jan 16, 2024 at 06:38 PM
Yup!  You're welcome to arrive and head out whenever you need to.  To avoid piecemealing the cost down, it will still be a full share.  If you (or anyone else) decides to go that route, we can work out logistics for getting to/from the house, but it's likely you'll need to Uber.
David Yang
Jan 26, 2024 at 10:28 PM
I'm in for the first weekend - March 9th & 10th! Scoping out the good eats around Monrovia/Pasadena.
DavidVibert
Jan 28, 2024 at 12:32 AM
I'm in Friday to Friday!
StephenAschkenes
Feb 01, 2024 at 02:44 AM
Damn so jealous! Would love to go but I have an overlapping vacation. Can’t wait to see the pics
David Yang
Feb 02, 2024 at 11:09 PM
Also there's a Costco nearby which is like the best news ever. 

https://www.costco.com/warehouse-locations/azusa-ca-412.html


DavidVibert
Feb 04, 2024 at 02:07 AM
The San Gabriel valley is known for great Asian food!

Monrovia CA is the home of (now unfortunately union busting) Trader Joe’s grocery chain 
PatrickGrehan
Feb 05, 2024 at 12:34 AM
My sister in law may be out of town but concurred about the great asian food options
mugwump
Feb 05, 2024 at 01:55 AM
It's a huge area.  I think all you can do is just see a place from the street, park, and take your changes.  
Mark Taylor
Mar 15, 2024 at 01:28 PM
Epic few days in Los Angeles 
Matt Budofsky
Mar 15, 2024 at 01:47 PM
Looked like an epic trip on Strava with some great miles!
PatrickGrehan
Mar 16, 2024 at 06:08 PM
As I wait to board my flight I have a moment to reflect on the LA training camp and post some notes to the forum. We posted rides to Strava and took plenty of photographs and video. We even have a little drone footage that I hope to edit next week. The reality was that we were riding 6+ hours a day and the rest of the time was spent eating, planning meals, sleeping, watching races on the TV, and generally recovering, which surprisingly took much more time than I expected.

Overall the trip was awesome. Big thanks to Greg for organizing the 12 person van and VRBO that comfortably housed the seven of us. We started with Greg, Lennart, Mark, Dave Y, Dave V, and Blake, but not everyone stayed the same length of time. Over the past 6 days I rode for over 27 hours, covered 380 miles, climbed 29,619 ft, and racked up 1478 TSS. The guys who are leaving this weekend have some big ascents on the agenda today. 

Here are a few highlights

Six of us arrived on Friday the 8th around the same time at LAX. A few of us were on an AA flight that landed nearly an hour and half early. Our hopes of being able to get the stiffness out of legs with a ride were dashed since everything takes longer than expected. Getting six bike cases, six people and assorted luggage into a 12 person van was more challenging than expected. Plus it took around 1:45 on the freeway to get to Monrovia where we had our VRBO. Of course the first thing we did when we arrived was put our bikes together. Dave Yang arrived after midnight in typical Yang style: he rented a BMW SUV. The drive took him something like 30 minutes.



 
PatrickGrehan
Mar 16, 2024 at 06:11 PM
On Saturday we headed to Santa Monica to ride to the Malibu hills. We had some false starts with missing water bottles and phone but this gave us an opportunity to check out the Rapha store and ride the beachfront a bit. Riding along PCH meant watching for heavy traffic, but we were rewarded with some beautiful climbing (Yeura Buena) and thrilling descents (Latigo). On the long drive back to the VRBO we stopped at In-N-Out. The lines were crazy, but we were unimpressed. None more so than Mark whose “veggie burger” ended up being slices of lettuce and tomato on a burger bun. Seriously? Afterwards the foodies made sure that highly rated taco trucks were on the menu.


PatrickGrehan
Mar 16, 2024 at 06:12 PM
On Sunday the group split up: Half the group climbed Angeles Crest to Mt Wilson, while the other half rolled through surrounding towns of Pasadena, etc. When we crested Angeles Crest we came upon a Sheriff helicopter that was landing to pick up rescue personnel and take off again to help a hiker who likely had fallen. Pretty dramatic to have a helicopter land in front of you on secluded mountain road. Once clear we headed to the top of Wilson and were rewarded with spectacular views of the snow peaked Mt Baldy and smog filled LA city area.


PatrickGrehan
Mar 16, 2024 at 06:15 PM
Monday was planned as an easier day. We headed north to Griffith Park and then climbed up to the top of the Hollywood sign. So, not as “easy” as expected but fun nonetheless. I was surprised by how large and hilly Griffith Park is. The backside was a fun albeit poorly paved descent. We ran into a local rider who was formerly from Brooklyn who invited us to the weekly 6:30 AM throw down around the park. Would have been fun, but also a bit too early for us as we were halfway across LA. Our ascent was delayed by a crane removing audio visual equipment from a rooftop overlooking the Hollywood sign. We learned later that Taylor Swift was going to have a surprise performance which got cancelled once word leaked out. We stopped at a high end coffee shop where I was introduced to Espresso Tonics. Mark bought a pound of their espresso that, wait for it, cost $40. Welcome to LA. Unfortunately, it did not live up to its price tag in Mark’s Italian coffee maker. Our first celebrity citing was John C. Riley walking past us as Greg fixed one of his multiple flats.

PatrickGrehan
Mar 16, 2024 at 06:16 PM
On Tuesday we set our sights on Mt Baldy. Planning on peaking at the ski lifts, we had 29 miles of climbing on tap. Greg and Lennart took off and the rest of the crew climbed at their own pace. Each of us passed a Coyote along the road. Somewhere before Mt Baldy village I passed Greg who had flatted (again) and caught back up to Lennart to start the final 4.5 miles together. Lennart rolled away from me. While the average gradient after the village was around 9 percent, there were several long section of 14 percent and more. I am pretty sure I had a cadence of around 40 rpm in my 39 x 32. When I finally hit the end of the climb I was horrified to see that Lennart had continued on all the way to the actual ski lifts. I felt compelled to follow him rather than turn back down the mountain. Fortunately the parking lot was far easier than the gradient that preceded it. Greg joined us and we descended back to a lodge at Mt Baldy village to meet up with the rest of the crew. A note about the weather. Tuesday was overcast and cooler and this was very noticeable on the windy descent from the lifts. The altitude and wind had us shivering. Fortunately there was a roaring fireplace at the lodge where bowls of chili prepared us for the ride down the mountain. So much fun to have such a long and twisty descent. 


PatrickGrehan
Mar 16, 2024 at 06:18 PM
On Wednesday we took the bike path along the San Gabriel river to Long Beach and back. This was the flattest ride we did, and our legs were thankful for that. It’s pretty cool that there were few if any stops along this 32 mile path. The start of the ride was a little dicey as we came upon three riders on horseback on the bike path. The first horseman was struggling to calm his steed who was spooked out at seeing six cyclists from NY. The other two horses got freaked out by the first horse’s reaction. The rest of the ride was pretty smooth with the exception of a passive agressive woman who made a snide comment to her husband as we passed by on the pier at Seal Beach.


PatrickGrehan
Mar 16, 2024 at 06:21 PM
We woke up on Thursday to high winds with gusts of over 45 mph. We had decided to head back to the Malibu mountains but to minimize PCH by going across Mulholland drive and descending Tuna Canyon road (which was descended last year by Tom Pidcock at death defying speeds). The winds meant we needed to be more cautious about debris (including garbage cans) in the roads but was not a major obstacle. The real obstacles was a road closure on Mulholland. Funny enough as we unsuccessfully tried to find another non-highway to the Malibu hills the heavy metal road closed signs were being knocked over by the high wind gusts. We decided to head back to the car and get lunch. After regrouping we decided to head back to Griffith Park and race up to the Observatory. Lennart bested us all. My main goal was to improve on our time from a few days earlier, but this was made more difficult by a strong headwind. While I was several minutes slower than Lennart, I managed top 15 in my 55+ age group in Strava. Small successes. This ended up being our shortest ride time of about 2.5 hours. 


PatrickGrehan
Mar 16, 2024 at 06:22 PM
Speaking of Lennart, he said he had only ridden 7 times this year prior to this camp. It may have taken a few days for him to find his climbing legs, but once he did he was hard to keep up with. Greg was often close behind him. Our second celebrity sighting was one of my favorite actors: Bob Odenkirk walking his dog near where we parked our van.

Lennart’s rear derailleur cable gave up the ghost at the end of our ride Thursday (thankfully after the climbing given that he was now stuck in the 11 cog). Which necessitated a stop at REI where he paid extra for rush service. This was crucial as the boys were planning on completing a loop called the circle of doom the next morning. I have to say I was jealous not to partake in this suffering.       

I am totally ready to do this again next year... you should join us
LennartZandbergen
Mar 18, 2024 at 06:14 PM
Great recap Patrick! I'll add the last two days of the camp.

Friday and Saturday went different than planned. We had wanted to do the 'circle of doom' (Strava route), a 100 mile ride with some 3200 m / 10.000 ft of elevation, most of them up one long climb leading to an altitude of 2500 m / 7900 ft. Part of the route has officially been closed to cars and bikes since the late 70s, but online research showed it could be done on a road bike. 

The road up was beautiful, with hardly any cars. However, we did not make it to the closed part of the road: at +- 1500m/5000ft altitude, after some 48 km of climbing, it started snowing. Nothing stuck on the road yet, but by the time we made it to the Crystal Lake Cafe, we were very, very cold. The owner had hotdogs and chili, switched on a heater for us and told tales of bears breaking into the store to eat all the marshmallows. Shortly after the electricity suddenly stopped working. 

We decided that continuing up would be a bad idea, but riding back through the snow and 32F wasn't appealing either. While we were thinking about how keep ourselves from freezing with heath pads and rubber gloves, someone offered a ride down in his truck. We gladly accepted and got on or bikes again some 700 meters lower, with about 30 km of amazing descending left.


LennartZandbergen
Mar 18, 2024 at 06:23 PM
We thought about doing another attempt of the loop, or riding Mt. Wilson on Saturday, but even the most optimistic weather forecasts we could find projected rain and snow in the mountains. We decided to instead revisit the San Gabriel River Trail. We did some serious pulls in the headwind, but decided to take it a little slower shortly after, as we had quite some miles in the legs from the rest of the week. The contrast between the blue skies over Long Beach and the rainclouds over the mountains was pretty striking.




GregHoge
Dec 31, 2024 at 12:37 AM

We're finalizing the details for this year's training camp.  We'll be heading to either LA or Las Vegas!

When: TBD (Fill out the survey!)
Where: TBD (LA or LV)
Who: YOU!
Cost: $1200 - 1400
What's Included:

  • Accommodation
  • Rental Vehicle
  • One Fancy Dine-out Team Dinner
  • Route Planning
If you're interested in attending, please fill out this form.
GregHoge
Jan 07, 2025 at 05:17 PM
Fellow Kissenista! 

Are you tired of staring at Zwift? Do you want to ditch the cold, wet weather of NYC this winter? Then come join us in LA for the 2025 KCC Spring Training Camp.

Dates: March 1st - 9th
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Cost: $1200/person

What's Included:
  • Accommodation in the Calabasas/Topanga Area (exact location TBD)
  • Rental car(s)
  • Gas

What you will need to book/be responsible for:
  • Flights
  • Food
  • any other extras (eg. massage, etc.)

Other Important things:
  • There are limited beds available. Some rooms will be shared.
  • You only lock a spot by making payment.

To reserve your spot, fill out this form and I will send over a payment request (Venmo). Feel free to reach out with any questions.

Greg Hoge
President
DavidVibert
Jan 08, 2025 at 02:30 PM
Topanga Canyon is probably my fav cycling area in LA which is my fav cycling city outside of NYC. Really excited for this!