Blogging from Mililani Mauka

Vacation. Vacay. Vac.A.Tion. Alex-time. Whatever you want to call it...it's wonderful to be in Hawaii, coming to you live from Mililani, a quiet Hawaiian town and literally, a spec in the middle of the ocean. But within spec, some of my closest friends reside and as I write this, I'm at a friends house now punching keys, drinking a 'lychee martini*'

*this martini is not a 'true' martini. it's all vodka and some fruit inside of it. harsh.

Anyways, it's memorial day weekend and I'm contemplating getting an iPad. I went into the apple store, put my hands on one, logged onto my blog and said 'hot diggity damn'. Then I did the whole cyclingnews.com thing and was hooked. It's essentially a big boy's iPhone sans the phone. Sigh...then again, you CAN read books on it and I just picked Super Freakonomics v2.0. =) I've been enjoying my time here on the islands and to think, more tomfoolery is yet to come. Scary? Possible? That's what she said. =)

Normally, I would go on and on and ramble about nothingness but I've got to bake some vegan pizzas so I'll leave you now before the oven gets to 400 degrees.
Good eating -

yhp

Views from Paradise...

The title kinda speaks for itself but yea, in case you're having difficulty reading it, it's essentially a post about the beauty known as Hawaii. When most people think about Hawaii, the typical response is 'an exotic land' complete with 'tiki torches, people dressed in leafy clothing and people saying 'Aloha' a lot. Well, that's pretty far from the truth.

To each his/her own but to me, the islands possess something far greater. They are a place of refuge for me and my family. Growing up, my mother and father were hard working parents and my mom would travel to Hawaii EACH AND EVERY WEEK to go for a job. Yes, that's commuting from CA --> HI on a weekly basis. During the summer, my dad would send my brother and I to the islands where we were enrolled @ Punahou and could be with mom again. As you can imagine, those times were precious to us all and all the more sweeter when my dad could come out and join us.

And now, years later, it's amazing to believe that - as the line goes - 'I found myself' on the rock [i.e. Oahu]. I found the gift of fitness and gab. I found something I would never have dreamed of: a life. A life filled with: my buddhist church [going there this AM], my running coach and buddies, my cycling friends and mentor, vegan restaurants and lets not forget, Down To Earth Grocery store - the home of the gluten free rice crust pesto pizza! bam! 2 years ago, I contemplated if I could be athletic or not. 2 years ago I saw people on magazine covers and wondered if I could ever....

2 years later, we know that answer. And thus, this post is dedicated to the islands and everyone here who helped me out to where I'm at today....

Mahalo nui loa Hawaii

Madeline, meet the WORLD

From sunny and beautiful Hawaii, Madeline and I say 'Aloha!'.

I'd like you all to meet the current woman of my life: Madeline ['Maddy' for short].

As you may recall, the road bike's name is Evelyn.

Which means I've got: Eve & Maddy.

Ahh, life is good.

Anywho, here are the specs on Maddy for you to drool on.

Yeah...betcha wish I could be on top of you like how I'm on top of her huh? ;-) bam!

-----------------------------------------------

Frame: Scott Plasma LTD Size 49

Groupset: Shimano Di2 [!!!]. Electronic. Finger. Shifting. Need I say more? I push buttons.

Aero bars: PRO Missle, straight bars.

Saddle: Fizik Arione Tri 2

Drink System: Profile Design [not shown]

Cranks: SRM [also not shown...awaiting the BB] FSA

Pedals: Speedplay

Handlebar Tape: Fizik

Name: Madeline AKA 'Maddy'

Training Wheels: Roval

Race Wheels: TBD [if it were up to me, I'd throw zipp disc and 808 on front]

Keith Nishimoto and the boys at Momentum MultiSport [see link!] hooked it up and got me fitted for her in one day. She and I will go on our first ride in a few days....

Post Numero Uno

Aloha from the islands!!

Honestly, this post would have been sooner had it not been for Delta being delayed by 2 hours. Something about the president flying into SFO? What's all that hub-bub about? In the words of Sergeant Schulz: "I know nutttzzing!" No but really, when AF1 flies, NO ONE ELSE FLIES....So we sat there like a bag of hammers...I all but finished my book and the guy next to me had a fierce snore. FAIL.

Some 7 hours later, we get to Hawaii. Mike picks my skinny ass up and we promptly make our way to Safeway for much needed bananas. That night I killed 4 of them along with a LaraBar. Of course, I'm jetlagged as all hell the next morning and get up at 4:25am and start to work on the bike...getting her tuned up. At 6:30am I hit my first morning ride, quick recovery. At 10am I ride out again to momentum to see madeline! After that, a quick lunch, a happy Borders run and a nap later, it's time for ride numero 3. Ugh....safe to say dinner was a lot of brown rice pasta ;-)

Food for the day:

1) snack 1: A hawaiian oatcake [exclusive to the islands] and a small Tea at Sbucks.

2) Acai warrior bowl! Acai smoothie with kiwi, bananas and granola on top [sans the honey]

3) Oogave Soda! [agave flavored soda!] one vegan sandwich and 2 slices of vegan gluten free blueberry loaf. Man it's good to be back on the islands.

Bikini-toting-surf-board-women? Ummm...hells yea!

It's Aloha time folks...

In a few hours, I'm off to the beautiful islands of Hawaii for a long-overdue vacation filled with cycling [duh], eating [duh], bikini-clad-surf-board-toting-females [duh], watching NBA playoffs [duh] and overall being a lazy bum. Yes, it's off to live the good life, equipped with HAWAII EXCLUSIVE jamba juice bowls and numerous trips to Whole Foods.

As always, I will be posting the aforementioned tomfoolery daily so you can get your morning coffee, come back to your desk job, stare at my photo and contemplate: "what the f*ck am I doing with my life!?"

...okay, maybe you won't do that but you get the idea. If I didn't rub it in on ya, I wouldn't care would I?! =) Next time we speak, I'll be in Oahu, probably stuffing down a banana or two and kicking back in the hot tub. Till tonite or tomorrow amigos..

ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHA

Veganism + Waikiki = Veganiki

Waikiki Beach...the view[s] are nice.

Almost sounds like a hurricane huh? Or better yet, a tsunami?
Okay, okay, bad joke...that was poor humor but for those of you that have followed this silly blog, last time I was in Hawaii we had the tsunami scare. And then Michael Chua took over writing this blog and did an okay job. He mainly wrote about what he does best: mocking me and my veganism while eating down spam musubi.

BUT NOT THIS TIME! Nope...the young man [no, I didn't refer to myself in the third person] makes his return to Hawaii. I can already sense the ethereal atmosphere as I walk blurry-eyed off of the airplane right arond 8pm HNL time. Just in time for some quality jdramas and a few LaraBars to get over 'jetlag'.

My plan in Hawaii:
Get fat ass up [around 7 or so...]
Check: cyclingnews.com and watch Giro
WHILE
checking raidernews.com
After Giro stage [still in PJ's], stroll out to Jamba juice shirtless...
Order Acai bowl and consume
Walk back home, change into cycling gear.
Play PS3 and read.
Eat [again]
Cycle 65 miles
Eat [yet again]
RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN 7 miles.
Decompress at Honolulu Club.
Get physical therapy for muscular atrophy from sitting in hot tub for so long.
Go to Waikiki.
Eat [Thai food].
Eat [other stuff besides Thai food].

What's Waikiki? Gee...thought you'd never ask!
But before that, I've got some intervals to knock out on the biccicleta. Come now, you didn't think I'd make it that easy right? Gotta be able to sleep at night for Pete's sake.

The [Vegan] Difference

Katsup on the right is 'plain', left is sweetned with Agave.

Being vegan isn't just about not exploiting animals - it's way more than just 'that'. Because of our[vegan] nature, we are forced to be avid label readers, almost to the point of OCD. But ask yourself, with so much shit and crap in today's food, is this a bad thing?




Then again, it's a common cliche to assume that all wee-gans are think and protein deficient. I've made some livin-large-and-in-charge vegans and you look at what they consume: coca-cola, potato chips and soy hot dogs. Yes, those are all vegan. Yes, if you eat those and not do anything to burn them, you will get fat. Vegan or no vegan. But I digress.



Back to label-reading. One thing I'm sure you've all heard of it the whole hub-ub about 'sugar' and why it sucks. The reasons are countless but paramount among all of them is the amount of inflammation refined sugar causes to the body [not to mention acidity]. And it's in EVERYTHING. Including Katsup...my old time friend. And then, Vi, my favorite bike mechanic and former high-school running teammate introduced me to organic vegan katsup sweetened with agave nectar. How cool is that? My long winded reason for writing this post is to encourage all of you to be rabid [yes, RABID!] label-readers and always know there is a better alternative. Even for my non-vegan readers / 'friends', simple things like: more fruit and veg will do wonders. Trust me. I'm a doctor ;-)

A YHPRunning First: (Vegan) Pancakes & Sausage

Let me preface this post and say that even when I was a meat-eating-milk-guzzling-omnivore, I STILL didn't eat pancakes and breakfast sausage all that much. Well, that's not true. I liked breakfast sausage. Since I became veganized, I haven't had pancakes with fruit, syrup and sausages in a loooong ass time. You can imagine my enthusiasm then when my mom suggested we give a crack at vegan pancakes, sausage and syrup.

What you're looking at ladies and gents, romans and greeks, cyclists and non-cyclists: vegan, gluten-free buckwheat pancakes made with buckwheat mix, soymilk, some vegan butter and agave syrup. [that's the batter].

We then chopped up a lot of strawberries and put it on top and then drizzled with MORE agave syrup. MMMMMMMmmmmm...

The sausages: naturally, these are soy sausages. Honestly, they were meh. I guess part of it is due to my dislike of truly artificial things such as soy sausage, soy turkey and all this other nonsense. Part of me thinks that in those situations, if I wasn't a devout vegan, I might as well eat meat because it's got less shit in it then the altered soy stuff. But, given how rare it is I have this meal [say, once every other 5 years], I figured what the hell...bring on the soy.

All in all, it was okay. Not outta this world but okay. Would I have it again? Well, if I had a lot of time in the morning and I wasn't cycling? sure. bring it. I have to admit, the reason for trying this meal was all the pre-ride / race meals I hear people eat before they hit the bike. It's crazy! One pro rider is like: eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes and hashbrowns...otherwise known as a Denny's Grand Slam. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

When I was riding in Hawaii for example, my 'pre-ride' meal was A banana and some water if I was thirsty after that. None of this other stuff...like bacon and eggs. No gracias.

Ill tell ya a secret tomorrow about running too I betcha never thought you knew...

Big News! Announcing: Madeline, Evelyn's sister!

In typical Alex fashion, I'm telling you all this a smidget late:
I'm traveling to HAWAII next week!

For how long you say? How's about an entire week! bam! Cannot wait and am sooooo looking forward to it. Quality acai bowls made with soymilk, delectible vegan pizzas and soups, incessantly being made fun of by my friends for my choice in food [you all know who you are] and of course, surf-board-toting-bikini-clad women. ;-)

Current weather in HI? 83. Tomorrow's forecast? 83. The weekend forecast? You guessed it, 83.
Safe to say I'll be basking in the sun for the most part which is difficult to imagine because I already spend a crapload of time in the sun and have horrid tan lines! My daily agenda? Pssshhht. I'm shocked you should ask. Get up. Blend smoothie. Run on beach. Cycle. Lunch. Lounge at the Honolulu Club. Dinner. Blend smoothie. Japanese and Korean dramas. Wow. And just think...An. Entire. Friggin. Week.
Oh, and the Giro is on the internet-O [again, I got mad rhyming skills!]

But perhaps bigger news than that.....is the addition I will make to my (cycling) family. Yes, it's high noon Evelyn [current road bike] got herself a sister [a TT rig!]. Her name is 'Madeline', named after my land-lady's adorable young daughter. So now, you have 'Eve & Mady'. No doubt, I will have pics to follow....doctor's say she's due next week sometime. Fingers crossed for a defect-free birth!!!

EuroTrashin' Part Due [pronounced "Doo-eh"]

Heheh, you know I had to come real sick with it on my faux hawk! Look at that gorgeous and stunning mark of hair-cutting by my barber. I told her what I wanted and she replied: "boy, when I'm through with you, you're going to look like a Croatian kid with too much time and too much trance music". Okay, she didn't really say that but she did say that it was a popular haircut among football players [football = soccer. Not that other shit....]. But you get the idea right!

Responses to the new faux hawk?

K.Tagaya - "trashtastic!"

C.Jenkins - "fantastic. bravo!"

M.Chua - "Awesome! Euro Trash Alex v2.0"

GQ Magazine - "Stunning. The modern man..."

Vanity Fair - "Alex is so amazing that when he goes to museums, he gets to touch the art"

Vogue - "It's obvious why Lady GaGa made the Alejandro song."

Vanity Fair [in response to Vogue] - "Now we know what she meant by 'Hot like Mexico'."

D.Cunego - "akeirjeakhnfekhkfnedmjkjekrj d 420 watts akjdkfjdkjd"

roughly translated from Itlaian: 'Alessandro! now you can push 420 watts! when I got a faux hawk that's what I was able to do! ciao!"

yea......about that 420 watt increase..... :-/

Allora! Giro TT-ing & Music

'akldjfkjd akjk Maggio 8 - 30 ahiekmkmnvndkj .

kajdf Giro d'Italia kjjsirtk kajhithek.'

[in case you didn't know, that's Italian for 'this month from May 8 - 30, is the first grand tour of the season, the Giro d'Italia.] I figured your Italian skills weren't as good as mine and hence my translation. Normally I charge for my translating services btw...

Also this month, mama tellez came back from hour Tour de Med where she took a long cruise ship all over Europe. Must have been difficult...all those sweeping italian bikes, bottles and model =) I'm sure she endured some challenging times: how can a small asian woman possibly down all those pizzas and gelatos? I think Freud died asking that question too...

On a typical day I'd get up, eat some bananas and then watch the Giro on the internet-O [notice how that rhymes!!]. But today, I'm coming off a nice rest day yesterday. And today, I've got some nice, nice TT efforts ahead of me. Some of my more 'curious' readers are always curious as to what I listen to PRE, during and POST anaerobic hell sessions on the bike. So I thought it best to not only give you the names, but then link them up to YouTube as well! Riiiight! C'mon, who loves you!?

PRE-ride:

1) Michael Jordan Commercial - Break to Build

2) Nike Football Commercial - Leave Nothing [bad ass commercial]

3) Voyager - Ocean Grey [didn't think I listened to rock huh!]

DURING-ride:

1) Dirty Vegas - Tonight [above & beyond remix...the best remix around!]

2) OceanLab - On A Good Day [above & beyond remix]

3) DJ Tiesto - Everything

4) Fabrizio E Marco - Call it Love [because hey, what kind of Italian faux-hawker would I be without some euro trash music?!]

5) and of course, what cycling sesh would be complete without THE Alejandro song.

POST-ride [aka 'the Warm Down'...essentially 240 watts]:

1) Brave Citizens - The Same Way

2) DJ Rap - Give it All Away

3) Owl City - Vanilla Twilight [cuz Imma real sentimental muthafu*ker...]

So there you go girls, go listen to that and proceed to beat yourself until lactic acid runs through all of your legs and body. Once you've had that feeling, eat some bananas, down some oatmeal [made with soymilk mind you] and go make babies. 14 of em. =)

Oh the Frenchies!!!

So I was flipping through the latest edition of CycleSport and ran across an interesting quote from BBox Telecom's sprinter: Pierrrick Fedrigo.

[On why the French have been winnnig significantly more races than Americans this year on the ProTour] "This Americans obviously aren't training hard enough. There can be no other explanation. They've clearly spent the winter eating hamburgers and drinking beer while we've been out on our bikes training."

Now, let's put aside the fact that:

a) He's French.

b) His first name is Pierrick, short for Pierre.

c) He's French.

I don't even think the French like the French, but that's opening up a whole 'nother can of worms so we'll stick to that quote. And while that may be true for some of my American compatriots, I assure you it's not applicable to all. For the simple fact that:

I don't eat hamburgers you Parliament-cigarette--smoking-womens-scarf-wearing-sockless-always-smelling-like-butter dbag!

...wee-gans know better. It's called BOCA burger. Get it right and come back after you choke on a piece of tuna from your salad nicoise. Damn straight. =)

On A Good Day

Wait.

Stop...right....thurr! [not a typo!]

Go to youtube right now...you know you spend a shitload of time on there anyways...but just go there now. That, or click my link! Tee hee! This video summarizes how my Thursday went. Sweet remixed trance song...sweet San Francisco day.

Weather? A calm 69 degrees, light breeze. Put that on repeat and you'll have the week's forecast.

So what made this day especially over the top? Well, hows about a surprise visit from the misses who MADE a vegan lunch! kapow! What were the goodies? Hows about some vegan rice krispie treats [home made], vegan risotto, vegan pasta salad and a banana for good measure. Wow. I destroyed the pasta salad and as we speak, I am destroying the risotto. the rice krispies, well, those were killed soon after my ride. We picnic-ed in front of the bay bridge and walked around speaking of doofiness, tomfoolery-ness, etc.

And my bike ride? Well let's just say it's been one of the best I've had IN A LONG TIME [thats what she....well, yea]. Retarded. Interval.ing. ing. ing. ing. ing. ing. Yep, 6 times. How long you say? Try 4 mins of anaerobic hell. Did it hurt? Fk yes. Was amazeballs? You betcha. Better than that in fact. It was...deep breath...

SUPER-CALI-FRAG-ILISTIC-ESPE-ALI-DO-CIOUS! Those that read that book now....the uncool people..read on. ;-)

Pretty much, my day has been one of excellence and overall happiness.

What else can make this day better? Umm...for the Lakers to LOSE! Yay!

San Francisco Days...

The above pics were taken minutes from where I work. Indeed, it's kinda trippy being back in the Bay Area but you just gotta love that scenery. I was thinking earlier today that while I love being back home, some things I certainly miss about Hawaii.

Things are a bit too 'formal' here.

Not so many braddahs in shorts, flip flops and tshirts.

Where are all the ramen-ya and udon-ya?

And when you walk into a 7-11, where is the spam musubi? [not like I even eat that crap anymore...]

and most important: where the hell are the bikini-clad, surf-board toting women?!?!?!!?

[come on...you knew that was coming!]

Still, it's tough to not appreciate the view ain't it? More so when you're holding a meditteranean wrap with hummus, brown rice and mushrooms.

Can you have too much Vitamin A,B,C,D, E, F (is this a vitamin?!)

...no worries vegans and non-vegans..I'll be your test dummy.

The above pic shows what I blow $18 of my hard earned money on each week =)

Yes, that, my friends, is the most delectible vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, gmo-free multi vitamin FOR ADULTS.

Now why is that in bold lettering? Well, most gummi vitamins are for kids. And while I'll be the first to tell you I'm 25 yrs old going on 16, I hesitate to say that most of you are in the same boat! As such, I've thought of you my adult friends....even my adult friends who are Lakers fans [honestly, how CAN you look yourself in the mirror each morning!?].

Here's the thing: The 'recommended' dosage is 2 / day. Fact of the matter is I've been eating like 9 or 10 a day. Why? Because never before has a pomegranate flavored ANYTHING tasted so good AND was good for you! My thought was can I OD on Vitamin C? I'll find out shortly but something tells me: no.

However, all that vitamin B has my pee turning kryptonite yellow. And before you go yelling 'TMI! TMI!' pretend for a moment you've got your big boy/girl shirt on and realize that everyone a) pees and b) the pee will be bright yellow with vitamin B. And of all the vitamins, I'd say I'm 110% good on Vitamin D which mainly comes from the sun. Being a cyclist, it's tough to NOT spend a lot of time in the sun so check to that!

Alright then, now that I've grossed you out sufficiently, it's high-noon you got your stalking ass over to youtube.com and check out the newest song I'm stunned with [good for pounding on long flats on the bike]: Aven - All I Want [Ferry Corsten Remix].

Ciao!

**************

T-shirt update: 2 desgins look pretty good and I'll be posting pics up soon. You know you want one too....and no matter where you are, I WILL front the shipping costs cuz I love ya like that!

My long-over due Race Report!

So this past weekend, I got back to racing my bike...and had it not been for an absolute logistical fuck-up of epic proportions, I would have raced Sunday too. But for now, I had to do a 12 lap Criterium knowns as the Mike's Bikes Cat's Hill Classic. The course featured 5 turns - 4 right and 1 left - 1 descent and one very steep 23% grade hill. Ouch.

Now, the thing with Criteriums or 'Crits' is that they are fast. Like. Really. Fast. Like. Faster. Than. I. Eat. Bananas. Get the idea? Good. Essentially, they are a skinny weegans nightmare, especially for the hill climbing type [me!]. Race started off and boom, I'm in the back, totally out of place. At which point, I realize I'm going to have to fight my way back up to the front with probably zero chance of having a go at it. One noticeable thing that is coming around: turning and flying through corners getting MUCH better. I guess it helps to descend at 60 kmph constantly to feel 'easy' going 55 kmph?!?! Anywho, getting back to the race, we race at the start and finally get to Cat's Hill. Bam. All 23% of her is just gruelling. I don't really feel like putting out a lot of energy at lap 1 so I put down 600 watts and lo and behold there are people going harder than that. Silly guys. It's a 12 lap race! And sure enough, the field keeps splitting and splitting. It's like they were waiting for me! And so, by sheer attrition, endurance and because my tarksome* ass is vegan, I manage to squeeze into the top group and then it's all over. Had this race been like the 3's, 20 laps, I woulda been right on up there, no sweat patna. It was good though, the form is coming along and I will be good to go for the weekend.

Sunday, whoa...I absolutely throttled my legs. I put down 2 hours and 45 mins on the bike and averaged 277 watts for the whole ride - not normalized~! Hot diggity damn son! That's almost good enough to stay with the rear of the pack in a P/1/2 race! Sigh. FAIL. So to make up for it, I pretty much took my elated feeling of lactic acid build up out on my stomach where I pretty much pigged out to awesome vegan food all day. Yeah, it's pretty tough to be a gangsta.

*Tarksome = New word I made up! Tall + Dark + Handsome = Tarksome. Conceited? Hmmm prolly not. Then again, my name is Alejandro ;-)

**BIG UPDATE**

yhprunning.com will have 2 TSHIRTS COMING TO TOWN! Yay!

The designs the prestigeous RND team cooked up [Alex with way too much time and after far too many bananas] are:

DESIGN 1) [FRONT] "Vegans Do It Sustainably."

[BACK] "I eat bananas at yhprunning.com"

(WAIT tshirts will be by TSDESIGNS.com. We will get the TSOrganic shirts that have the tshirt information on the sleeves! Check the website and you'll see what i Mean!)

DESIGN 2) [FRONT] Picture of Alex holding two hands of bananas in KOM [King of the Mountains] bib shorts...cheezin!. Caption: "ALEX KNOWS."

[this was actually a design by Nike for Bo Jackson entitled "BO KNOWS." but I wee-ganized it!

[BACK] "How many bananas did you eat today?"

Okay, thoughts!?!?!?!?