Los Angeles... or Beijing, China??

With the wildfires raging up and down the southern California coast, I feel like I am back in Beijing. The air smells and feels like it did in Beijing when I traveled there to race in 2005 and 2006. There is a heavy cloud of haze and smoke overhead causing the temperatures to become smothering and unbearable for training. To avoid not only the heat but also the air quality, I have been advised to move all of my workouts indoors.

It is really quite a sight to see people driving around with masks on and hear how the schools have kept the children indoors during recess time as a safety precaution.

Hopefully the fires will be contained soon. It is horrible to watch them blaze down through the canyons and mountains that I have spent hours riding on and even more terrible to hear about all of the thousands of people who have been evacuated from their homes.