WHO'S THE MASTER?!?!

I'm moving

2007-03-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been feeling more like Thor than Shogun, so I have decided to start a new blog for Thor. The address for that site is feelmythunder.blogspot.com. I'll be posting there until Shogun comes out again and has something to say.

Thorgun

It's Almost Daylight Savings Time!!!!!

2007-03-05T23:10:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that I was excited to hear that Daylight Savings time starts this coming Sunday. I am actually excited to hear that becuase to me that means it will be lighter, later in the day and hopefully is signaling an end to this cold weather we have had so far this winter.

Did Phil see his shadow this year????

Up Close and Personal

2007-02-25T21:57:00.000-08:00

One of the things I like about cycling is that for the most part, it's still a very accessable sport. Because it's not huge and the athletes are not making millions of dollars, they are all usually pretty cool with the fans. Here are some pictures from our San Francisco trip where we saw some of the Tour of California.

Behind me in the vest to the right is Bob Roll. He is very famous in cycling. He is a retired cyclist who was on the original 7-11 cycling team. He is also quite a riot.

These guys are the complete broadcast team for versus. This is from about an hour before the race.

This is Tommy Danielson. He is a rider on Discovery (the only American sponsored team that rides in Europe). But as you can see, the riders are just riding through the crowd. You really have to keep your head on a swivel when you are walking around so you don't accidentally get run into by these guys. They are clipped in, so it's rude not to give them the right of way. Plus it's frickin Tommy D (do I sound 10 there?)

This is in front of where Credit Agricole was warming up (they are a big French team). The guy in the middle is Thor Hushovd who is the champion of Norway (thus the norweigian flags around his collar and sleeves). He is one of the most popular guys in the peloton, and definitely has the coolest name.

This is Michael Barry. He is a canadian who rides for T-Mobile (a german team). He used to ride for US Postal and then Discovery last year. He moved over to T-Mobile during the winter. But the reason I took a picture with him, is that he wrote a book I really like (Inside the Postal Bus). His book is a behind the scenes book about what it is like to be a cyclist. It was very entertaining.

Niiice Parenting

2007-02-25T11:25:00.000-08:00

I was walking through a store at Plaza Bonita yesterday and I hear a woman extoll this to her child...

I fucking told you to watch your sister...

Very Niiice.

When 100=0

2007-01-28T21:37:00.000-08:00

As a direct effect of my year in motion, I put in 100 miles this week (92 cycling, 10 walking/jogging). So you and I would say, "hey that's great!!!", but it's kind of a bummer that my scale doesn't say so.

My clothes even agree with the scale...

I ate ok, but I know I could have eaten better.

Maybe it's because it's just so cold. I feel that if I would have put in this milage during the summer, I would have burned a lot more calories.

Lets try it again this week and see where we end up.

201/26.6

The Year of Motion

2007-01-03T21:18:00.000-08:00

This is going to be our year in motion. So far we have already hiked up Cowles Mntn and went Indoor rock climbing at Solid Rock (near old town on Hancock st). Sailor Moon bought Lotus a One month pass to Solid Rock for herself and one family member (me!!!).

Tomorrow I'll probably ride my bike in the morning, then I think we are going rock climbing again in the evening. Since my ankle has healed (more or less) I can now jog also, so hopefully I will be successful in my push to get to my goal weight by this summer!!!

I should go do some sit-ups or something instead of blogging.

201/26.3

I'm actually kinda bummed

2006-12-13T21:36:00.000-08:00

You always here about famous people passing away, and usually one greets the news with a hmmp. Or a, oh ya I remember him or her. But I have never tied anything emotional to it, until today.

Peter Boyle died today. He was probably most known as the Father of Raymond on Everyone loves Raymond. He was also in Young Frankenstein and a few other things, but I've always like him and thought he was especially great in Raymond.

I guess I care, because he really made me laugh. I feel like out of almost all the characters I see on TV, his was the most real, or the one maybe that I most relate to. Nothing seemed faked or set up. Just genuine reactions to the situation at hand.

Now I guess it's unfortuneatly time for 2 more to pass, since they always pass in 3's.

Holy Crap Marie.

Is it just me???

2006-12-13T20:46:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or is it cold this year? Ok, I know I'm a pussy, that's why I live in San Diego though. I saw some guys riding their bikes the other morning at about 7:30am and they had the long pants on, jackets and one guy had a turtleneck on under that. They looked freakin cold and it was frakin cold outside.

I think it was about 40 that morning, which is really cold for San Diego. Is it usually this cold?

I guess I am noticing more this year because it has stopped me from riding outside for the last few weeks. I tried to go a few days ago around 11am, and never got out of my neighborhood. I had a jacket on and it was still too freaking cold.

Luckily my ankle has healed enough now that I can jog on my treadmill, so atleast I've been able to keep my weight in check during these glorious holidays.

Only 2 weeks until we start putting Valentines out!!!!

EYE SEE YOU

2006-12-08T00:11:00.000-08:00

I recently went to an eye doctor and he dialated my eyes. I had to go to work shortly after this. The whole gang at 32nd started singing, "I wear my sunglasses at night..."

Hmmm I'm Hungry

2006-11-18T20:46:00.000-08:00

Hmmm I'm hungry. I'm really craving a good hamburger. I wonder if I can find one accross the river.

Maybe I should just ask someone for their favorite....

Should I ask this guy????

Naa, He looks like one of those guys who films someone taking a picture of someone taking a picture. What a weirdo. He's probably going to the worlds largest Applebees anyway.

How about this guy???

Whoa, this guy has some issues

What about this guys behind me, think he might have any ideas???

OK, I'm not eating anywhere near here!!!!

Let's get back above ground

Hmmm. What is this???

A beautiful park, right accross the street from a New York landmark, the flatiron bldg (sorry no pic). But hark, look at the squirrels (or are they furry rats???). But alas, I'm hungry, lets see what is cooking

Burgers, Dogs, Shakes and Fries oh my. I've actually heard about the burgers here from a TV show on Discovery channel called, 'Cash Cab'. So we try the burger and Fries with a shake.

OH....MY...GOD... It's really good. OK, not really good, it's actually really great, ok it's not actually really great, it's probably the best hamburger I've ever had at a restaurant. Everything about it was great!!!

The meat was very tasty, the bun was real good (an egg type bun if I'm not mistaken) and it was cute the way the bun was actually cut open, but not all the way through so that none of the buger slide out the back. Everything about it was the greatest!!!

Here is a closeup of the burger

It was so good Lotus and I went back a few days later and had another. And the shake, the shake was real good too. Extremely creamy, but still thick enough to be called a shake.

Soo to test my thoughts I actually did go to In n Out about 2 days after we got back from New York, and I was right.... Shake shack has spoiled me forever. The In n Out Burger was just alright. Still better than most other places burgers, but just not as good as the Shacks burger.

So if your ever in New York, near 23rd and Madison I highly recommend trying the Shake Shack!!!

50 Freakin Miles

2006-11-16T20:51:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I rode 50 freaking miles today. It started out innocently enough this morning, and actually took a turn for the worse because nature was calling, so I cut my ride short (18 miles) and headed home.

But then when I got home, I still had quite a bit of energy and felt pretty fresh so I headed back out (plus riding my bike is more fun than working, my boss was here for the last two days and he left happy, so screw it let's ride).

I was thinking I would just do my normal short course which is 22 miles (that would have put me at 40 for the day, which was my previous longest ride), but then I was like, hell if I'm pretty sure I can do my short course, why not push and see, just maybe... maybe I could do 50 freakin miles.

Total for the day: 3hr 39min, 3,300 calories burnt, 1 sore butt and neck

Borat, I like yes...

2006-11-12T20:04:00.000-08:00

Lotus and I saw the new movie Borat today. The previews just looked to hilarious to pass up. It's the first movie we have actually seen in a theater in quite a while.

There were not a whole lot of real funny parts that you did not get a glimpse of in the previews, but there was one scene that definately makes this movie worth seeing. Lotus and I were rolling with laughter.

I recommend seeing this movie sometime in your life, but if you can wait until it comes out on video there is a scene you may want to rewind and watch again and again.

More like Daylight sucking time

2006-11-11T18:12:00.000-08:00

I hate daylight losing time. Why don't we just keep our clocks set to the summer time. Since I don't ever get up when the sun does come up, I can't tell you how it might help those early rising farmer fucks. All I know is that it is seriously getting in the way of my biking. It is getting fairly dark at 5pm now. So if I want to get a good ride in I need to be out the door by 3pm, so I need to be home by 2pm to unwind and suit up (yes it takes that long, and fuck you for whatever else your thinking).

Some how I got to 1500 miles on my bike, now I'm going to have to push it to get to 2,000 by the end of the year since these farmer fucks and early morning comuters don't like to drive in the dark.

Bastards...

This is pretty bad too!!!

2006-10-29T11:12:00.000-08:00

As a follow up to my previous post, here is another pretty bad job.

Worst Job Ever???

2006-10-26T23:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know there are worse jobs. Many are highlighted on Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe which is a nice show to watch on Discovery if there is nothing else on.

The poor guy had to keep this real big drying off the outside of your teeth grin on the whole time. I feel bad highlighting him like this. I hope he gets paid well.

Taste Test via New York

2006-10-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

While in New York City I was able to do some "research" for my work. I dragged Lotus to a couple of chocolate shops (Neuhaus, Jacques Torres and Maison du Chocolate).

Neuhaus I knew from Belgium and is my current fav, except it's hard to get since the closest store is in Macy's San Francisco (on line is too expensive). Jacques Torres is just in New York and Maison du Chocolate is based in Paris, but has a store in New York City.

The way I routed our day, we went to Neuhaus first and I picked out a 9pc box there (after we had coffee and pastries and got Lotus her cookies). What I really like about Neuhaus is the creaminess of thier fillings. Since I was somewhat familiar with their products, this stop went fairly quickly.

Later in the day we stopped in at Maison du Chocolate. I was not too familiar with their products, but I had heard of them and read positive reviews. I did not end up buying anything here, becuase the place had really bad chi. The pieces of chocolate were really small and a 6 piece box was 11 or 12 bucks. If they were reasonable sized pieces, then maybe, but these were really small. The store had a real uppidyness to it and just did not have a good feel to it.

Our second to last stop that day was Jacques Torres Chocolates. This was a nice store. It was in the SoHo area of New York and was a bit industrial looking and they make a few of the items there (the main factory is across the river in Brooklyn). We bought a quarter pound box and some asst bulk items for my parents for Xmas.

So last night I did my taste test. I tried some of the new Godiva, some Neuhaus and some Jacques Torres. Here are pics of each:

Neuhaus:

Inside the box, plus Lotus's chocolate cherry:

Jacques Torres:

Inside the box:

Godiva, I have some in bulk, so I just put them on a plate for this pic

So after exhaustive research I have determined that I still like Neuhaus the best. Some of the new Godiva items are pretty good, and Jacques Torres is good too, but for me, Neuhaus is a step above. I liked the Jacques Torres, but it's not noticeably better than Godiva or Neuhaus. I think Jacques Torres had a few flavors that were different and interesting (port, wicked fun (ancho & chipotle chili's), earl grey tea (which I did not try), etc) but the chocolate was not a step above, etc.

So in a nutshell, Neuhaus still rules, but Godiva is still a good choice since getting Neuhaus is not an easy thing to do.

1000 Mile Blow Out

2006-09-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

I was all stoked to have a great ride today. I was super fueled from all the food at the wedding yesterday. I did not do any exercise the day before because of the wedding and I knew I was going to pedal my 1000th mile on this bike while I was out today.

After mile 1003 I hear pssssssssssssssssssssss.

Ahhhhh shit, just what I didn't need, a flat. So I pull off the road, take off the rear tire and take out the popped tube, pull the hair thin piece of metal out of the tread that caused the flat, and put a new tube in. The repair was actually going well especially considering that this was the rear tire which is more difficult to work with than the front tire.

I pumped up the new tire and went to remove the pump and then I noticed that the valve on the new tube broke. Shit... I only carry one spare. I had to call team car for a rescue. Lotus picked me up and brought me back to home base.

I had actually bought some new tires back in July when they were on sale at Trek, so I figured I would actually install them now, since the tires I was riding on were getting pretty worn. Oh man the beads on the new tires are really stiff. I think becuase these are still the entry pricepoint race tires the beads were extremely stiff, in better quality tires I think they are a bit softer. It took me about one hour to get the tire on the rim and get everything back together.

So now it's 1pm. And hot... And now the wind has really kicked up.

Anyway I was determined to ride somewhere near 30 miles today, so I headed out again and struggled mightily becuase of the wind, but I came back at 29.2 miles for the day.

At my current pace I could hit 2,000 near Christmas if it doesn't rain. And like the song says, "It never rains in Southern California".

Soo Good But Soo Bad

2006-09-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

We went to a friend's wedding today which was on the beach (totally cool benefit of living in San Diego). The wedding was pretty cool, but they had that all so enticing food lumpia. It's kind of like those commercials where they say, we bet you can't eat just one.

But then they not only had the regular fried lumpia, they had the banana lumpia, then the uncooked lumpia (never had that one before). Asst crudities, and chicken skewers later, the diet was all blown to hell.

Errrgh...

I was doing pretty well with my diet until today, but then I kind of thought today would be a bad day calorie wise because of the event. But at least the food was good, so it was kind of worth it. I hate it when I eat something that has a lot of calories that just isn't that good (ex: anything with Hershey chocolate (yuck), cheap pizza, most non-diet sodas).

I'm just trying to play it off as a day of rest and mega refueling. My last two rides have been pretty sluggish becuase I haven't had much in the tank to work off of since the good lunch on Tuesday.

Wipe Out

2006-09-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

Ever since I went to see the podiatrist about my ankle about 6 weeks ago now, I have been slowly gaining weight. It's gotten to where I am getting uncomfortable in my current sized clothes and I'll be damned if I'm going to open that box of clothes that is the next size up.

So against my docs recommendations (and instructions) I started cycling again last week. I did a short ride at a slow pace on Wednesday just to get my legs under me, ad then went out Friday morning at a more brisk pace.

I usually don't ride in the morning, mainly becuase I am not a morning person. I usually prefer to ride in the late afternoon (in the 4-6pm range). While I was riding I had reached the half-way point of my ride which is just a u-turn at an intersection, and I totally ate it. This U-turn is at a construction site and the street sweeper had just watered the intersection. I totally was not thinking about that. I just made my usual turn at the usual speed, but becuase the surface was wet, my bike did not handle the turn as usual and it just slide out from under me. If anyone saw me, I'm sure they would have got a good chuckle from it. I thought it was pretty funny.

So now I have two pretty good scrapes on my left forearm and left shin (cyclist actually have a name for it, road rash). I don't really mind that I have the injuries (except that they hurt like a mother when I change the bandages) but now I have these bandages on, and I'll have to explain to my doc on Thursday that I was not following his instructions. Plus now I can't ride for about 2 weeks, I would guess, until the wounds heal more.

Oh well, maybe I'll go and get my finger caught in a door today so I can't type of write for a few weeks too... That would just fit into my year perfectly.

MMMM Panchetta

2006-08-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

We went to Buon Appetito in Little Italy tonight.

I had the usual, Gnocchi with Panchetta and a 4 cheese sauce (not usually on the menu, you have to ask). OHHHHH it was soooo good. The gnocchi was actually just good, but the panchetta was awesome. The pieces were really good size pieces (larger than usual) and becuase of that the flavor of the panchetta really came through. So smokey, so bacon like, but yet not greasy or crispy like bacon, more chewy and savory. Each piece would give you almost 10 good chews in which each chew would release this inspiring flavor.

OH so good.

Clark I almost brought a piece home for you (It was that good)

Chuck Norris!!!

2006-07-18T21:51:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a Chuck Norris fasination on the web. Here are a group of Norrisisms that I found:

1: Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
2: The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain
3: Chuck Norris counted in infinity. Twice.
4: Chuck Norris can devide by zero.
5: Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.
6: Chuck Norris can speak brail.
7: Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Chucktatorship.
8: There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.
9: Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.
10:Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting implies the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing.
11:Chuck Norris once visited the Virgin Islands. They are now The Islands.
12: When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
13: If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death.
14: Chuck Noris puts the "laughter" in "manslaughter".
15: The quickest way to a man's heart is with Chuck Norris's fist.
16: Geico saved 15% by switching to Chuck Norris.
17: Chuck Norris once ate three 72 oz. steaks in one hour. He spent the first 45 minutes having sex with his waitress.
18: They say that lightning never strikes the same place twice. Niether does Chuck Norris. He doesn't have to.
19: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself... The only thing fear has to fear is Chuck Norris.
20: Chuck Norris' cowboy boots are made from real cowboys.
21: In order to survive a nuclear attack, you must remember to stop, drop, and be Chuck Norris.
22: If at first you don't succeed, you are obviously not Chuck Norris.
23: Chuck Norris refers to himself in fourth person.
24: Chuck Norris once roundhouse kicked a midget and it burst into 25 gold coins.
25: Jesus owns and wears a bracelet that reads, "WWCND?"

Only in LA

2006-06-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

Said in a restaurant to Lotus and I, "You speak english!!! Really!!!"

Note left in our hotel room, "I don't speak english, so please circle whatever it is that you would like me to replenish in the room". Actually I thought this was kind of cute and helpful. I think they should have a system like that in all hotels, since they usually forget to refill something.

Time to cover our first 10 miles on a Saturday afternoon: 45 minutes

6-8 Weeks (at least)

2006-06-14T20:09:00.000-07:00

As some of you know I was invloved in an altercation about 2 weeks ago that resulted in many parts of my face being broken. You can barely even tell today, but regardless the face doc told me I cannot do anything that could possibly result in a blow to the face for at least the next 6-8 weeks. He said by then the bones would be 50% healed and there would be soft tissue formed in the cracks that would help keep the cracks from easily sliding and causing serious damage.

This basically means I cannot ride my bike for 2 months!!!! That totally blows. Just as I was getting back into it from coming off my ankle injury.

I'm thinking I may get a trainer (a device that lets me ride my bike in the garage or back yard), but I'm not sure I could do that for an hour or so to get a good workout (I might get too bored).

I have never had a problem doing the treadmill for that period of time, but I could put the treadmill in front of the TV and that would help pass the time. I really don't want to bring the bike in the house because the chain and sprokets are all greased up and my carpet looks bad enough as it is.

Holy Crap Prince was on American Idol

2006-05-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

That is something I just never thought I would ever see.

Prince on American Idol?????

What happened to being too cool for the main stream?

Go Figure

2006-05-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

I just went to my doctor's office today (for the 3rd time in a week), and got all my paperwork signed off on for the adoption. My doc says I'm pretty healthy. Actually I think he was surprised himself. My cholesterol levels are really good HDL 61/ LDL 90. He asked me if people in my family live into their 90's, I laughed and said no.

I actually can't think of anyone in my family who has lived much into their 80's. But it was rarely their bodies that gave out, it was usually their minds. I always joke that I'm one of the healthiest fat men around, my problem is, is that I am sort of a klutz. I'm not going to have a heart attack, I'm going to slip on a bunch of grapes and tumble down the hillside to my demise.

Oh well...

218/30.5

I'm soo Excited!!!!

2006-05-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

My new seat shipped today!!!

I finally broke down and ordered a new seat for my bike. I know it looks weird but if I don't like it I have 30 days to return it.

I have read a lot of reviews from people on this seat and 98% of them said they loved it... I actually did the research on it about 3 weeks ago and narrowed it down to this one and another saddle from this same company (Koobi), but it took me this long to get around to ordering it.

So here goes. I should get it in a few days, so Saturday will probably be my first chance to try it out.

Todays numbers are 217.5 and 31

OK Now it Starts (Again)

2006-05-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Finally everyone from work is gone, most of the family things are done, now I can get back to some serious dieting(or more healthy eating) and working out.

I had people from work in town for a large part of the last two weeks, and when people are in town we eat (and drink). It is customary that when people travel to your town that they take the person from that town out to dinner. Since dinner is always on their companies dime, we usually eat pretty good. We usually don't go to the most fancy places, but nicer than usual places and their is always wine or some other other drinking.

All of that adds up to much more calories taken in than usual, and much less working out.

Well all of that is over (for the most part, we are reorganizing our territories at work, so my boss will be in town a few times, but we will eat more sensably when it is just the two of us).

Todays numbers are 218 and 30.3

4000 Miles ????

2006-04-26T01:35:00.000-07:00

Damn, I was riding my bike the other day and I noticed the odometer on my bike hit 500 miles. I was pretty stoked about this. I felt this was a fairly decent milestone in my biking.

For some reason I started singing to myself, "500 miles" a la Big Country. Couldn't really come up with many other lines to the song, just fragments, "between a father and a son", "500 miles", that was about it.

So I asked Lotus if she knew what the song was by Big Country that had the line 500 miles in it. I think she said something like, who the f..k is Big Country.

So tonight I finally found a few websites (There are more than one if you can believe that) that have the lyrics to all of big county's songs. Then I remember the line, "in fields of fire" at the end of the song. Turns out that is the title.

But as you have guessed by now, he wasn't singing "500 miles", he was singing "4000 miles". Fuck, I have along way to go now. Guess I need to order that new seat for my bike if I hope to make it that far.

I guess I am retaarded (how would you spell that to have the boston accent a la SNL?)

Secret Friends

2006-04-18T21:09:00.000-07:00

I think Ronin has some secret friends we don't know about.

For no reason at all I noticed that he has seating for 6 people on his front patio now.

I just happen to know this, was just passing by since he lives on a busy street and all.

I SAT ON ALL 6 SEATING SURFACES TODAY!!!! COMMANDO!!!!

I hope your secret friends enjoy their seats.

It gets harder every day

2006-04-17T23:32:00.000-07:00

I feel a lot older than I did just 6 months ago.

I went riding today and afterwords, my elbows were hurting, my neck was hurting, my left knee was hurting, I was just a mess. I also tripped on the dogs pillow becuase I was not lifting my feet very far off the ground (although it is a big pillow).

I was having some of these pains before when I would ride my bike, but I seemed to have traded a new knee pain (which is my old knee pain, it's just that it never bothered me before until I sprained my ankle back in February) for not having numbness in my hands and arms.

Maybe I just need to tweak my set up on the bike some more. I raised the seat today and that helped lessen the knee pain, but the elbow pain came back today and I have not had that since I sprained my ankle.

You know, I rode down Otay Lakes Rd today between Hunte and Eastlake pkwy. That road really sucks in that it is really bumpy. Maybe that is why I have the elbow pain today. I think I'll skip that piece for a while and see what happens.

Gee thanks for the advice!!!

Are you shitting me????

2006-04-13T20:58:00.000-07:00

I was walking up stairs and in the background I thought I heard from the TV, the following: "When we come back, Brittney buys a new high chair for her baby".

When I came back down I asked Lotus, did I just hear what I thought I heard????

She said yes.....

AHHHHHHH, how many people were involved in that story. The fact that it was a tease, in that it was designed to make me want to stay tuned to hear about it. Again I say AHHHHHHHHHH

THE FACT THAT THERE WAS VIDEO OF HER WITH HER SON COMING OUT OF TOYS R US WITH THIS HIGHCHAIR.... AHHHHHHHHH

THE FACT THAT I ACTUALLY DID COME BACK TO WATCH THE SEGMENT (sort of, I came back to it a few minutes later just to see via tivo).

I HATE MYSELF AND THEM

I think it was a Graco high chair, maybe I'll look into that model.

Dinner at our house

2006-03-30T20:59:00.000-08:00

I saw this picture and I just couldn't pass up not including it as a post. This meal was quite typical of our Friday night dinners. We would have a few cheeses, a few meats, a loaf of bread and of course some good wine (preferably a german riesling of course).

Oh ya, and Maggie (of course)

Lets get back on the horse

2006-03-15T21:04:00.000-08:00

It's been about six weeks since I sprained my ankle. In those six weeks I really haven't been able to exercise much. My ankle is still a bit sensitive, but I can do most normal stuff now, I just can't do stuff (without pain) that directly stresses the ankle. I was stretching today and I went to strecth my right quad, by grabing my foot and pulling up and back...big mistake...big hurt...

But I was able to walk on my treadmill twice last week and today I went for a short bike ride. Everything seems to be going ok. I'm going slow for obvious reasons, but I'll try to get out by scregie's house on Friday (maybe to do a patio remodel) and then maybe a real ride on Sunday, we'll see.

Your Thighs are HUGE!!!!

2006-03-05T12:35:00.000-08:00

I would have to say that this phrase was one that I will probably remember for the rest of my life. We heard it when we were in San Francisco a few weeks ago during the first stage of the Tour of California bicycle race. The first day of the race is usually a short race in which each cyclist goes out on the course one by one, as fast as they can, and whoever has the fastest time that day wins. These days are really designed for the spectators as a way to get close to the racers in a large city center. After the first day the races usually head off into the back country where the races are really won and lost.

But this first stage (usually refered to as a prolouge) was unusually difficult becuase it was in San Francisco and they raced the last kilometer straight up a hill to Coit Tower. Imagine riding your bike straight up the steepest hill you can imagine for half a mile. This hill was huge!!! I have been riding for about 6 months now and there is no way I could even get up it without stalling, It's huge!!!

Anyway, we were about half way up the hill cheering on the racers as they passed by and one of the guys was really struggling. Then we hear, "Common guy, Your Thighs are huge!!!". We all were dying laughing. If the rider heard it, I'm sure he would have been too. If you have ever seen a pro cyclist they are nothing but thighs for the most part. So this is actually a huge complement, but it's funny too.

The rider shown here actually doesn't have that large of thighs, but it was the clearest shot I had since they were going by pretty fast and I forgot to set my camera to high speed (The guys with real big thighs were blurry since they went by so fast, becuase their Thighs were Huge!!!).

Injuries Suck

2006-02-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

I sprained my ankle a few days ago walking down a hill. I don't really care that I did it, in that it really did not hurt that much. But what really sucks about it, is that I cannot exercise right now becuase of it.

I'm supposed to basically stay off if it as much as possible for the next week or two. It is still fairly swollen and is very sensitive when I turn it sideways, so any thought of aerobic activity is probably a few weeks off.

This upsets me to no end becuase I was really getting into my exercise/training. Last weekend I rode my bike about 55 miles over the two days and I had a good ride on wednesday. I was all psyched to go for 40 miles in one day (on Saturday) and then the ankle went out... I'm bummed becuase I was working my way up to that milage goal (32 miles was my tops for one day so far) and that I was really in the zone burning calores and building up my fitness. On a bike ride of that length you are looking at a calorie burn of about 2500 calories over the ride. Plus the additional calories burnt while your body recovers easily would equate to a pound of weight. So now since I can't exercise I'm not burning the calories and my weight is going the other way. We just had the Superbowl party so that was a huge calorie intake, I have two days of company meeting starting tomorrow (lots of good free food (fish market, etc)) poker friday night, bros bday Sunday, valentines, and then a few other work roadies.... Ah this sucks....

Must ride bike, or jog on treadmill.... can't lose fitness or will have to spend weeks building back to current level...

Man Injuries Suck Balls...

How Come???

2006-01-27T17:28:00.000-08:00

Anyone know why I get real bad gas after I eat a Pollo Bowl combo at El Pollo Loco? I'm usually fine after most mexican food, but El Pollo Loco really messes with me.

I even order the Pollo Bowl without beans (so in case you aren't familiar with it, a pollo bowl combo is a bowl of spanish rice with chopped up grilled chicken on top. It also includes 3 flour tortillas, salsa, onions and cilantro).

Is it just all the carbs from the tortillas and the rice? I mean I can go to taco bell and get the usual (bean burrito, double decker taco and regular soft taco) and have no issues at all.

I just don't get it. I'll be back at work an hour or two after lunch and be wanting to light up the candles I'm stocking...

Help...

Batting Cages

2006-01-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

I went with Linesteppa and Bobette Vila the other day to the batting cages. It was real fun. I had not swung a bat in quite a few years and I have never been very good at it. I would actually have to say the other day was my best day ever swinging a bat. I don't know why, but I actually felt real comfortable. I definitely want to go back..

Thanks Bobette.

2005-12-21T22:10:00.000-08:00

Okay, I finally have something I feel I would like to talk about. I guess I felt that unless I had something really interesting to say, that it was not worth the effort to put it here...

But that is not really the case, it's just that I have been real busy with work and I have been working on my interests. I have found that what really interests me of late is being physically active. Being active is a lot harder now that we are older. When we were younger we couldn't help it. Before we had cars, we had to walk or ride our bikes to whatever was on the agenda that day, even if it was to play video games at the local arcade, since those arcades were still many blocks from our homes.

But today time is what keeps us from being active. We are adults and we have responsibilities and commitments. And unfortuneatly they take a lot of our time. We have our jobs which take the majority of our day (not to mention the time it takes just to get to that job and back again), and then you have the time it takes just to live in your home. When we were younger most of use just showed up at dinner time and whoop.. there was dinner. We maybe did some homework later that night, maybe helped with some dishes, but come on... what did you really have to do????

If you have ever cooked a meal (microwaves don't count) then you know just making a meal can take anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours. Hell it takes me 15 minutes to make a panini sandwich by the time I take out all the ingredients, plug in the panini maker, assemble the sandwich and put everything back in the fridge. But these are things we took for granted in the past that now take our precious time, like laundry, cleaning, and shopping.

But we all understand these truths to be self evident, and those of us who have kids have made the ultimate time sacrifice. They have decided (well maybe not always decided...) to sacrifice much of their own time so that their children can have a childhood that was hopefully even better than theirs. They more than anyone else, understand just how few hours there really are in a day.

I used to feel that I had sooo much to do in my life, that I did not have time to exercise. I realize now, that is a load of BS. I had time, I just didn't think it was important enough to commit myself to. I think it's really a matter of figuring out what is important to you. I never had really sat down and asked myself what was important to me, what would I like to be and be doing. I was really just going with the flow. I think the last time I really stopped and made a plan about my future was in 12th grade. Back then I had made some personal goals to myself mostly pertaining to where I wanted to be professionally, but I had never set any goals for myself personally except that I knew I wanted to visit Europe. Now that I have sat down with myself and examined who I have been, am now and might want to be; I realize that somethings which I thought were important to me aren't and of course that means with a new focus I can commit time to things which are now important to me, like exercise.

I always liked to play sports, but I was never really any good at any of them. I'm so competitive that if I can't be really good at something I usually don't try to pursue it with much gusto. So I never really got into anything much besides soccer (which I was ok at since it's an endurance type sport). I never thought about this much until I got out of high school, but the sports which I enjoy the most are endurance type sports. I've never been very strong or been able to build muscle easily, but I have always been run or bike for great lenghts of time.

Everytime I have lost copious amounts of weight in my life, it has been because of exercise. Sure it was a blend of diet and exercise, but I believe that the diet really follows the exercise. If you are really serious about exercise (at least an hour a day) that is such a dramatic commitment from the few hours we really have in a day, that you can't help but to better your eating habits. If exercise becomes one of the major things you do in your day, your not going to screw with it's good effects by eating those chips or god-forbid, supersizing...

So I have decided for many reasons that I am going to commit myself to exercise. Cycling and running are the main focus of my program, although I am also enjoying golf (carrying my bag of course for extra calorie burn) and even some weight lifting and core strenghtening. I'll get more into each of those in future blogs, but I thought I would get this one out there as my base.

Shogun says, "Get your ass off the couch and go walk to the store, then tell me if you still want those pringles."

2005-11-06T18:18:00.000-08:00

Chucky Cheez isn't soo bad

We just came back from ms Liley's Bday party at Chuckies, and I was impressed. I know you are saying to yourself, "what rock have you been under". But hey I'm mid 30's without kids and never even considered going when previously invited (mainly becuase I was a schmuck).

I thought the Pizza was ok (not good, but not bad) and the whole layout of the place including the Happy Birthday singalong was a great things for the kids. I kinda forgot how attached kids can get to life size characters. I thoght it was very cute how kids were coming up to Chukee and hugging him (reminesent of Disneyland).

But anyway, I just wanted to get this first blog out there. I thought I just would like to give props to the Chuckie franchise and if I had the money I would look into it as an investment since I see them sprouting up all over (since I do get all over).

Be one with yourself (but not that way!!!)