Hell on Wheels

This is not me riding my bike around town.  It is the name of a new show produced by my company that will premiere in AMC tomorrow night. 

The Beard is Back

The woman who I live with to whom I am related to by marriage has went on a 3 week vacation back home. As she does not like me with a beard, this is my chance to grow one.  The last time I grew one was on the 2009 trip. I have noticed alot more grey this time around,

The weather today was very nice. It must have been in the 70's.  I usually rest on Fridays and today my legs felt really strong.  I biked 117 miles today which was the second most ever. One of my goals this year was to bike 1 century a month or 12 this year.  Today I achieved that goal. I remember during our trip in 2009, my group would always round up to 100 miles on days we were close. Karen would say you do not get many chances to bike that many miles. Towards the end of the trip I was so focused on EFI on some days I would not round up. I regretted that and that is the reason I set that goal. Every time I bike 100 I always hear Karen's voice in the back of my head.

Quarterly report

Given that my job is focused on quarterly reports, below is my report for the 3rd quarter of 2011.


I bicycled 3,485 miles in the quarter. I was aided by seasonably low temperature and extra sunlight. Year to date I have biked 27% more miles than last year.

During the quarter I took a business trip to Amsterdam. A few pictures:

 
The current quarter has started very well and I am on pace for a little over 1,000 miles this year.
 
I enjoyed reading my fellow XC09 riders blogs. I was particular happy that Bob continued his long distance riding, Hank enjoyed his new roommate, Al's  blog was as funny as ever, Champ enjoyed the history along the route and Jim biked at the back of the pack.
 
Tom D- If you are reading this I really like the nickname for me on your blog.

Nice Jersey

While most of the country has suffered from a heatwave, it has been unusually cool this time of year. During the early morning the sun will shine until 9:00 ot 10:00 in the morning by the beach.

I received a nice surprise in the mail from Harry.  He sent me a very nice jersey from a bike centre in Liverpool.  By coincidence when I stopped to take a picture there was a bud light glass waiting there for me.  The glass was empty.

This past weekend I did an easy 160 miles. I say easy because the two weekends before I did some climbing around the mountains close to where I live.  I was somewhat nervous as this years training has not included that much sustained climbing.  This climbing was around 8 miles and took me up to an elevation of 2,300 feet which is high for Los Angeles.  On one of the climbs I biked through clouds that were moving from left to right. That was a pretty cool feeling (it really was cool as soon as I biked out of the cloud there was a noticeable increase in the temperture).  I was happy that I could do those rides and ofcourse happy to have another chocolate milkshake to reward myself for finishing the ride.

Baseball

Living and growing up in NY, it was either the Yankees or Mets. It is the Mets for me. This week I got to experience the All Star Festivities. The Home Run Derby was held the day I arrived. Although the pitching speed is not the same as a regular game, it is impressive to see the players turn on a ball and hit it a long way. In the finals it was Yankees (Robinson Cano) vs. Red Sox (Adrian Gonzalez). Both Players did well and hit a lot of homers. Cano won and what was pretty neat each player is allowed to bring their own pitcher to throw to them and he chose his Dad.

My company produces the short digital videos for a project called MLB fan cave. Two guys watch every game of the season in a space in New York City. You can see the videos at www.mlbfancave.com. The two guys were flown out to the All Star game and the Fan cave was set up at the pool area of the stadium. I visited the pool.

The morning of the game we got to go down to the field. We were able to have catch in the Outfield. Pretty cool to be throwing a ball on a major league field.

We saw the game which the National League won 5-1, and went home the next day.

July

The weather at the end of June was 10 degrees below normal for this time of  year which made bicycling great.  However, July seems to have started a little different. It has  been 100 degrees where I live. As I have not felt so great this weekend no biking for me. As tomorrow is a holiday and I am feeling better perhaps a little ride.

With the XC11 finishing I think about when I finished nearly two years ago. You think that you are going to make great changes in your life, but at the end of the day, you are who you are.  It is fun riding the bike, but what makes it harder for me is that I still pass where we started in 2009 and it is now a bittersweet moment.

I bought the bike in 2007, trained and was fortunate enough to bike cross country, meeting a great group of people and making friends who are more like family. I read the XC11 blogs, but it is not the same thing as biking it yourself. Sometimes now when I ride, I think too myself "Could I do it again ?" Will it be the same experience as the first time ? Sometimes the memories are better than you remembered.

The answer is i am not sure, but I would like to try it again, but a different route

That goal and thought is what keeps me riding.

The Music will never be the same

Dear Mr. Car

Dear Mr. Car

A bicycle has the same rights as a car.  Please bear this in mind when:

1) You make a left hand turn at a light and a bike is coming straight through the light.  The bike does have the right of way just like a car.

2) When you are riding behind me and the traffic is stopped at a light and you are beeping at me because I am slowing down to stop at the light and you want to be one car in front of me even though the light is still red and you have no place to go.

3) You decide to  make a right hand turn and do not signal and I almost crash into the back of you.

4) You decide to go from the left hand lane to the right hand lane and almost hit me.  You wave to me to apologize for almost hitting me, but somehow I do not think that absolves you of poor driving.

Your Friendly neighborhood bicyclist.

4K

While I enjoy the riding it has been a little difficult as I have ridden with no bike goal this year. 2 years ago it was cross country. Last year it was the death ride. Having said that I continue my riding on the weekends and my commute to work.  This week I hit the 4,000 mile mark. I feel it has been an easy 4,000 miles as not as much climbing as the last two years.

As most of the persons who follow my blog know, Harry has joined Barbie for her remainder of the journey she started with us in 2009. 

Ofcourse Harry coould not go without 1 and 2 and Boston. He even had some bottles from the death ride.

Empty Calories

Lately I have been riding with 2 friends who live close to me. Today we met one of my Friend's friends a little up north from where I live and whom we biked with last year. We drove around 40 miles north to meet them. We biked around Ventura and Santa Barbara County. There was a fair amount of climbing. We biked from a little north of Ventura around Lake Casitas. Below is a map of our route.

The ride was around 45 miles, but there was a fair amount of climbing.

After the biking some of the group decided to go to eat. It was decided that we would stop at

In 'n Out Burger. Although our intentions were to order a chocolate shake everyone in our group ended up getting a double double, French Fries and a chocolate shake (or coke instead of shake). For me that was around 1,700 calories.

After driving home I biked another 6 miles for a total of 51 for the day as I had to burn off some of those calories.

Ramblings

I do not sleep well on planes. Long plane rides result in jet lag. Jet lag leads to ramblings...

I watched the following movies on the plane:

Black Swan - I am not sure what was real and what was not in this movie. Natalie Portman was good, but I do not understand what all the fuss was about her role.

The Fighter - Boxing plus family dysfunction equals a very good movie. Christan Bale was excellent and I can understand why he won an Oscar. Michelle Leo was good, but maybe not as Oscar worthy.

Inside job - If you want an easy explanation of the financial crisis this is an excellent study. Both Democrats and Republicans share in the disaster. The brokerage firms, banks and insurance companies took advantage of deregulation or lack of oversight. With all of the hype over the new tech stocks this is beginning to happen again.

And finally, as I could not sleep, I save the best for last. Turning channels last night I saw the Shawshank Redemption. I have seen this film at least 10 times and never get tired of it. Easily in my top 5 of all time films.

It is still 2:00 AM and I am not tired, but I need to pretend to sleep....

Two years

It is hard to believe, but it was two years ago that we started the cross country trip.


I was reading my emails this morning and Bob sent an email out that if he was within 100 miles of the pier he would go. I was not planning on going, but like a magnet I was drawn to the pier.

As I was going I was going to take the beach path, but I saw all of the cross road orange flags on this years group. I did not want to intrude on their moment so I decided to bike as fast as I could on the surface road. As I was going uphill I saw the lead group and passed them. I arrived a few minutes before they did.



The first person I saw was Jim.

Also, Randy from 2008 was there as well. Both were there last year as well. I said hello (and hugged Tracy) and as this years group were dipping their tires in the Pacific I mentioned to Rick that the temperature this morning must have felt like 20 degrees.

Tracy gave me my first cross roads job this morning. I watched every ones camera as they did the group huddle at the beach. I sure like my new camera !!!

This year I had a little different feeling. I was excited for this years group, but I did not feel the sadness that I did last year when I saw the last bike with their flag disappear over the horizon up Manhattan Beach Blvd.

Barbie , I know that today must be a bittersweet day for you, but you will complete your trip this year and I wish you luck.



Harry, hopefully not too many bud lights on the trip for you.

And to all of you reunion riders out there, only 5 more months until you start your new adventure.

Waving and Paving

During the cross country trip I got into the habit of waving to vehicles on the other side of the road. Two years later I am still waving, but it is to bicyclists. In my unscientific study, it appears that LA bicyclists are either not as friendly as those in the Midwest or their eye site is not as good as there is not as much waving back.

I had heard that one of the roads that I bike up had been paved. Yesterday I climbed up (not sure if climbing is the proper word as it is more of a steady incline). What a difference a newly paved road makes as it took less time to climb and it was more enjoyable.

Irony

As I work in the Television field I find it kind of ironic that we cancelled our cable TV subscription. I went to watching hours of TV into watching 1 hour a day. There is digital TV, but that has older movies from the 70's and 80's). It is similar to when I lived in Japan. There was a channel called Superchannel and it had TV programs from that era. The weather has been all over the map for the last month. Some days it rains, some days in the 60s, some days in the 80s and yesterday in the 90s. On a somber note, Fred who rode with us in 2009 passed away. Apparently he was cutting down a tree in his backyard and it fell on him. Fred completed his journey in Indianapolis and I carried his flag from there until Boston so in some strange way it was like he was there with me riding. to Boston. I mailed it back to him and I received a nice letter back from him in which he described his experience. Maybe not watching TV is not such a bad idea and getting out is more important than the box I stare out. I am still riding, but have no plans for any organized ride this year. Maybe, I can use the time not watching TV to find a ride to do this year.

Doppler 7000 and Chicken Wings

Due to some travel and personal commitments I will not be able to ride as much in the month of February. Therefore, I am trying to ride a little further on the days that I can.

Last Saturday, I rode up Pacific Coast Highway and went up Encinal Canyon, down Mullohand Road and back. I ended up riding my first century of the year (104 miles). The next day, a slight chance of rain at night was forecast by the Doppler 7000 weather person. It started raining about halfway through my ride. It was not as bad as some other days, but it was the first time I rode in the rain on my road bike. I am like protective mother with that bike and really did not like the bike getting wet and dirty. Me getting wet is fine, but not the bike.

Yesterday I was leaving for a trip outside the country so I only rode about 50 miles. I was taking a shower and the person who I live with that I am related by marriage was preparing lunch. When I came out to eat, it was spicy chicken wings. I guess that requires a little explanation. For as many years as I can remember during halftime of the Super Bowl that is the meal that we ate together. As I was not going to be there today (Sunday) she prepared that meal. That was a super feeling.

The trip overseas was uneventful, but we did fly over the Grand Canyon and it was a beautiful view of the Colorado River and the Canyon itself. The plane ride was uneventful, but the first question I asked at check-in at the hotel was where I could watch the Super Bowl. I have watched every game since Super Bowl III. Even when I lived in Japan, I was able to watch every game early in the morning. Surprisingly, the answer is I can watch the game in my room on the BBC.

And now I leave you with a few pictures of a trip I took in April 2008

Train stop

They only allow 400 persons per day to climb one mountain. We were 397 and 398.

At the end of the rainbow.

Timing

January has been a little cool, but it has not stopped me from biking. I have been out the past two weekends and it has been enjoyable. Today I biked to Pasadena and depending in your perspective, my timing was either too late or too early for the Rose Parade

I also went to dinner with a friend who lives in the Netherlands (pictured in the middle), but used to work with me and a fellow co-worker. A good time was had by all.