Oh it's on

The Tour started today and the first stage had an impressive end. Alejandro Valverde who is one of the favorites to win the whole thing made an amazing acceleration at the end of the stage to win it. It was like everyone else was standing still. It was quite impressive.

Kind of reminded me of my ride today. I was doing my Saturday training group ride and a few groups passed us like we were standing still. Man I still have a looong way to go.

We did 37 miles today and I felt pretty good afterwards. I could have went much farther if needed. I did manage to break my seat post today on the ride though. I was "dancing on the pedals" going up a hill and on the top of the hill I guess I just sat down with too much force (or ass) for my poor bike and I heard this load CRACK. I pulled over quickly and did not notice anything really wrong a the time. But as I continued I felt the seat getting a little bit looser, until with about a mile left I knew it was going to give at any minute.

So I cautiously finished the ride and luckily it never came off the post. I took it into Trek today and they ordered the new post from Trek HQ. Hopefully it will come in this week so I can ride this coming saturday. It will be by far our toughest ride, 4000 feet of climbing (mama mia) and I'm actually interested to see how I would fair.

Good Stuff costs Good Money

Shoot riding a nice bike costs lots of money. It's kind of like owning a German or Italian Sports car. When everything is working right, there is nothing like it, but when they break, oh man...

Right now I really need new tires. My current tires (or tyres in Europe) are getting pretty worn, and the rear one is actually pretty scary looking with all the micro-cuts in it. It's just a matter of time. Minimum I'm probably looking at $60 for the pair (now remember, you can buy a new bike at Target for $80 or so).

THEN my garmin Edge 305 started acting up on Sunday. I rode my bike towing Crong to visit my parents on Sunday. Everything was fine going there, but when I went to leave my Garmin would not turn on. When I got home I looked on the website for how to reset it, and that seemed to work, but when I tried to download the data, it would not transmit. And now it's only turning on sporatically.......

I sent an email to Garmin, we'll see what they say. It's not under warranty anymore, so it will probably cost me $99 to fix it... Hmmm the new 705 would only be 499 or so... NOT.... Maybe I'll read the fine print again with my credit card. I think the one I usually used last year actually extends the warranty for a year on anything you buy. That would be sweet.

Here we Go!!!

I just pedaled my 3,000th mile a week or so ago on Thunder (my road bike). I just checked and I bought the bike in Dec of 2005. Considering I really have not riden more than 200 miles in the last 6 months, that would mean I was averaging 1500 miles a year (not bad for a recreational rider).

Well I'm hoping to get my milage and fitness back to where they were and then some.

I got an email from my local Trek bike shop that said, "Want to ride a Century? We can help you do it"

Ok they piqued my interest, as I read on it's an email about their Century training program that helps you build up your milage so that you can participate and finish a Century (A bike ride of 100 miles) and in this case the one they are pointing towards the Poway Century the first Sinday in October. As I read on I say to myself, I've always wanted to, the training is free, why not!!!

So this group rides on Saturday mornings and gradually rides farther each week, starting this Saturday with a 25 mile ride. Then adding about 5 miles each Saturday. They also recommend some smaller rides during the week, which shouldn't be a probelm to complete, except for trying to schedule them into my day (or night).

But the key thing about this, is that it will have tremendous benefits to me physically and emotionally. In total I should do about 1800 miles over the next 4 months including the event. That equates to 129,600 calories burned or about 37 extra pounds burned off vs. doing nothing.

I'm excited!!!

Here we Go!!!

Whoa this sucks

This makes me cring. There was a recent bike race in Mexico right across the border from Brownsville Texas. Here is a link for some video.

link to kare video

Newschannel 5 story and video

Freakin Idiot. He apparently was soo drunk that he just passed out behind the wheel and plowed into the group of cyclists. There was even a cop there who totally swerved out of the way of the car.

Look what I found

You may be saying, "What is it?" It looks like a funky corn dog woth powdered sugar and sprinkles??? But that just does not sound like a food.

Well you are close. It is actually the thing that I went all the way to London to look for, the thing I was kicking myself for not finding when I was in New York, the thing that I was soo disappointed with when I tried it at the del mar fair, it is a.........

DEEP FRIED TWINKIE!!!!!!!!!!

But this one was done right. What is so hard about sticking a stick into a twinkie, dipping it in a healthy (ha ha) amount of batter and deep frying the sucker.

IT WAS GOOD..... Pretty much everything I was expecting it to be. Not the best dessert I ever had, even by a long shot, but it was everything I thought it should be. A fun over the top treat. Nice creamy center, soft normal twinkie cake blending into the battered shell.

The powdered sugar was good. I'm glad it had some. It's sad but I think if they put a little whipped cream on top with the powdered sugar it would really top it off. It would add a little extra creaminess to ofset the powdered sugar.

Well if you are every in downtown Las Vegas, right next to Glitter Gultch on the corner is some kind of carribian themed casino. In the back you can get some Nathan's hot dogs (which were also pretty good must say), but you will also find the elusive deep fried twinkie!!!

Here is a pic of the inside.

Sorry about the picture quality on the second shot. The camera rep doesn't have a camera with him and is still learning how to properly use his phone camera.

Here's your Chance

We have ridden our bikes a bit on the Southbay expressway and got busted once. Well your chance to ride (or walk) a bit of it leagally is coming up (and will probably never happen again).

Here is the link for info. http://www.southbayexpressway.com/fun/

I signed us up for the bike ride.

Hopefully we will be in Korea, but if we aren't then you'll find us here.

I need my bike

Ahhhh.

My road bike has been in the shop for 3 weeks now. My rear rims has some hairline cracks in it, so I took it in to get checked out. The good doctors at Trek confirmed that Thunder needs rear rim replacement (and it's covered, yea!), but they are having a problem getting the rim from Trek.

So I have been without my favorite bike for quite a while now. I have riden my mntn bike a few times with Lotus and that is fun and a good workout, but Thunder is like my ferrari, where Lightning is like my mustang.

Damn I miss my ferrari.