i'll be in shape before i know it

Monday, April 05, 2004, at 07:43AM

By Eric Richardson

I carried my bike over to the bike shop this morning and they put my new tires on for me. I also picked up a Kryptonite lock cable for my front wheel, so maybe I can hold onto this one. On the back I've got a Kryptolock Combo and I've been happy with that.

Anyway, with all that done I hopped on the bike and headed toward work. I meantioned the other day Metro's site http://bikemetro.com. Today I tried out the route that suggested, and was pretty happy with it (if you want to see the route, click read more and I'll give you a start and destination to use). I missed a turn and deviated from the prescibed route a bit, but on the whole it worked out just fine. It was great riding weather today, nice and cool.

For some reason the first leg, up Vermont, really got me worse than my Pasadena climb. I guess I was just pushing it way too hard, and the sugar cookie I had right before I left didn't help matters at all. My times were right in line with what I was riding it in during the summer, even though I took it lighter for the second leg.

To check out my route from the Gold Line to JPL, go to http://bikemetro.com, click on Bike Routes, and then enter these locations:

Start: 125 E. Holly St. Pasadena, CA

Destination: 4800 Oak Grove Dr. La Canada, CA

If you want to see my apartment to the Red Line, for whatever reason, that would be:

Start: 1247 W. 30th St. Los Angeles, CA

End: 3191 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA