Rent/Ride in LA?

My husband is living in LA for a few months to start a new job and I'm visiting once or twice a month. I just started my Ironman training and it's hard for me to give up 2-3 riding days per month. I'm okay with riding in a gym if I have to, but thought I'd run my options past some of the experts. ;)

I'm looking to rent/ride a road bike for 60-90 minutes to start out with, more like 2-3 hours down the road (loops okay, and I ride 15-20mph). We're in Culver City, right off the 405 near Venice. Driving distance would be okay, we could both rent on the weekend, but weekdays might be more difficult. Maybe I could just rent for 4-5 days and ride the entire time on and off, but I would want a decent road bike.

Any ideas of where to rent and/or where to ride are welcome. :)

Culver City is a good starting point for a lot of rides. You can take the Ballona Creek bike path to the beach. From the beach, you can head south into the South Bay - Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and up into the hills in Palos Verdes. You can head north through Venice and Santa Monica and up into the hills above Santa Monica or north on PCH into Malibu. Map My Ride has a lot of good stuff on there for these areas.

I know that sporteve, a women's sporting goods store in Culver City, is having Sunday morning group rides: http://www.sporteve.com/workshops_events.html

You might also check the LA Tri Club - some of their group rides are open to non-members.

I'm not sure about rentals, but the folks at Helen's Cycles (Marina Del Rey, Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach and other places) might be able to help you find something. Other LBSs are Performance, Bike Attack and Cynergy, all in Santa Monica. Wheel World is in Culver City - I've only really been there once but they might help too.

Wow, thanks a bunch for all the good info. :)

We knew about the bike paths (he wants to bike commute to work, though none of the really bike-friendly roads/paths go where he needs to go right now), but not really much else. I saw Wheel World when I was out running earlier which made me think about real riding rather than gym riding.

Also, a nice indoor option is YAS in Venice. http://www.go2yas.com. They have a lot of classes and a consistent schedule, which is nice, and their teachers are good.