Memorial Day Weekend

What a freakin' fantastic weekend. Saturday I did a bike ride hosted by the San Diego Bike Club. Firstly, those guys are hard core! I'd never ridden in a pelaton type group before, but that's what Saturday's ride was for. I rode with the D1/D2 group. It was the most advanced of the Development groups. I learned how to ride in a rotating paceline. The total ride was 52 miles and took just under 3 hours. It was lots of fun and I plan on showing up this weekend for the same ride. After the ride I went to friends BBQ. I sat around the pool, ate food, and played frisbee all afternoon.

Sunday I was a little sore from the previous day. I woke up and rode 25 miles. I rode with another guy from SDBC for about 20 miles. Once again, those guys are good! My legs were sore going up Torrey Pines. I think I just relaxed the rest of the day.

On Monday, Jen, my roommate, and I decided to go on a day trip to Julian and hike along the way. We hiked to the summit of Mt. Cuyamaca, which happens to be the second highest peak in San Diego County. Then we had lunch and pie in Julian. It's not a very exciting place, but we had to go just to go. On the way back home we stopped for another hike. This one was much easier. Finding a way to cross a river was the only problem we encountered. There were lots of warnings for mountain lions and rattlesnakes. Fortunately we didn't encounter either along the trails. By the end of the day we'd hiked close to 15 miles.

Other happenings since my last update: I have a job.

Old and New

I got a new road bike! It was surprisingly harder than I thought to pick one out too. When you get to a certain price range the bikes are all very similar. I test rode the final two, a Trek and Specialized, and went with the Trek. I haven't been home or had enough time to get a good 30-40 intro ride on it, but that will change this week hopefully.

I had a 1985 Peugeot with a steel frame, down-tube shifters, standard double crankset in the front, and a 6 speed cassette (gears) in the back. The Peugeot was approximately 24.5 lbs. I put on new handlebar tape, break levers, clip-on pedals, one shifter (it took forever and a day), and a new seat. To it's credit, the bike did have one of the best frame mounted pumps. When I got the bike from my uncle, this is exactly what it looked like.


Here's my Trek. Everything is better. It has an aluminum frame with carbon front/rear stays and a carbon seat stay. Handlebar shift levers are awesome! I don't have to reach down and feel (in space) how far to move a lever to shift anymore. I have a compact double in the front with a 10 speed cassette in the back. And it's about 5 lbs lighter.

Back in SD

I took my bike to a different shop today and had them true the back wheel. The guy guessed it would last 6 months tops. So when I got home today I was stoked to be able to ride my bike and rode to Encinitas and back (36 miles). I broke a rear spoke... so much for that repair earlier in the day. I also fell at the end of my ride. I blame fatigue. And now I have a nice 2.5" cut along the side of me knee.

In other news... it's good to be back in San Diego. I went to PB tonight and had a great time.

Out of Options

I haven't been able to ride my bike at all since Monday because the back wheel is not aligned and it can't be fixed. And I tried to run, but my ankle isn't healed from snowboarding. Ahh! This sucks!

Goodbye LA, Hello SD

My time in LA has come to an end (for now at least). The past 2 months living at Robert's were awesome. I have now seen all 5 seasons of Lost, started to actually cook meals, and begun playing ultimate frisbee. I'll definitely miss LA and Rob's place.

Robert helped me move down yesterday and supervised most of the room set up stage. Thanks Robert!! I'm living in the same house from a year ago, just with different roommates. So far my room is mostly bare. There's an empty wall across the room from my bed that's begging to have a flat screen tv mounted on the wall. But that will have to wait a while because I'm still in the job market. Woo.. off to start my day.

Spring is Here

Still no job... but other than that life is going well. I'm moving to San Diego on the 28th. Last week I ran/rode every day. This week I ran 5 miles on Monday and racked up 110 miles on my bike over the course of three days. Today's ride was 50 miles with 2 killer climbs and a strong headwind for the last 7 miles. We went to Granville Cafe, aka the mojito place, for dinner tonight. Finally, after 3 not so successful attempts, I ate my entire southwest burger tonight! And then had a whole cupcake from Crumbs for dessert. Mmmm...

Robert and I are road tripping to Mammoth tomorrow. Katie is on spring break this week, so we all get to go boarding for a few days. I like how that works out. It's supposed to snow Saturday night and Sunday, which means Monday could be some good powder.

Hope Rides Again

Saturday night was amazing. Robert did his brotherly duties earlier in the week of letting me know that Lance Armstrong tweeted (...?) Anyways, after waiting a few days, I was informed that I was 1/100 twitter followers to be selected for the Hope Rides Again event in Hollywood. It started out with a 2.2 mile bike parade down Sunset Blvd and ended at the Montalban Theater. Once there, Ben Stiller introduced Lance Armstrong. Lance spoke along with the president of the LAF, the CEO of Nike, and Shepard Fairey. Topics included Lance's return to the bike, the LAF and fight against cancer, Nike's commitment to Lance and his foundation, the history of the yellow bands, some crowd Q&A and a few random stories here and there. Ben Harper finished the night with a concert. It was a great opportunity and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. Robert posted 5 pictures that I think accurately sum up the night, not to mention they're just awesome: Hope Rides Again Photo Summary

Sunday afternoon was also awesome. Robert had an ultimate frisbee touney. I went out to support the team and bring Robert food. I stuck around for the finals, which turned out to be a great performance by both teams. Robert's team was down 14-7. And that's when the game started. First to 15 (win by 2) wins. They rallied back scoring 8 points in a row. Talk about a turn around. The final score was 18-16. The first time I watched an ultimate game I was bored out of my mind. This game had me out of the chair and on the sidelines cheering 'em on most of the game.