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!?!?!?!?

Italian Feasting

Like I said yesterday, I went upstairs to dine with my landlady and her husband and safe to say, hearty italian food kicks a lot of ass. We had some wonderful all vegan pesto on linguini, followed up by nice potato wedges and rice inside of a hallowed out tomato. Kapow! Certainly a wonderful meal spent with great company. They have a daughter named Madeline and a boy named Julian. Safe to say that boy is fueled on red bull, at least, he acts that way! Regardless, he's a lot of fun and I certainly enjoyed making paper airplanes for him. Brought me back to my own boyish years. Errr...wait, I still am a boy huh? Sigh.

Weather in the bay area has been much like my sleeping pattern as of late. One day it's fine and the next...blah. Somethings going on but rest assured, I'm going to sleep like a baby tonite with a good workout and a full stomach? you betcha. All that's left is to watch my korean drama and whew....stick a fork in me.

A friend wrote me about a soy problem she has been noticing and I'm going to address this specifically tomorrow so stay tuned for that.
Talk to you all tmmr!

Oh Ale-ale-jandro....

.....my how you take my breath away :-)

A collection of some of the finest comments from Lady GaGa's Ale-Ale-jandro music video which is no doubt, her latest single and the single largest producer of iTunes downloads the last month. Eat that.

[Click to make bigger.....that's what she...well, yea.] ^^;

Weekend Tomfoolery

Gosh, hard to believe it's a) Sunday and b) not butter [although, I DO believe it's not butter. Wait...did I just contradict myself? Hmmm]. My weekend has been incredibly full of hard training rides, good friends, good laughs and of course, good food.

Friday was an off day on the bike and so I hung out in the city with the misses and then we went to Fellini's in Berkeley where a) we pigged out on wee-gan pizza [AGAIN!] and b) the owner, a good friend of my family, poured cold water over my head - to embarass me, of course. He's such a silly portugesean [<-- my word!]! In typical Alex-esque fashion, I've taken all of my 'less than flattering' photos which I'm sure my mom will have something to say about.

Saturday started off sucking big time but got better after a long nap in the afternoon. The bike ride was solid. Turns out my new 'steady state' power is 163 bpm @ 270 watts. Went to San Francisco to meet up with 2 of my closest friends, Mike and Tagaya and we always have a laugh - not to mention a few bottles of soju & kuronama beer [imported Japanese dark beer....outstanding!]. As all of you are now used to seeing, that's me trying to eat Mike's ear off because as a vegan, ANIMAL flesh is off limits. HUMAN flesh however....:-)

Sunday morning I got some okay sleep, woke up and watched Leige-Bastogne-Leige race [Vino?! Really?!] and then headed out for a quick 80 km of riding. Nothing epic but just the usual Sunday recovery ride. Today is grocery shopping so you all know what that means: bananas. But dinner tonite will be a special treat as I'm having it with my upstairs neighbors who are fixing me 3 italian, vegan pizzas! kapow! Naturally, I'll take photos of all that phoney-baloney and taunt you with it ;-)

And with that, it's time to eat again! Best part about cycling: I download data from my SRM which tells me calories lost. I take that number and divide by the calories in my favorite vegan burrito. Tip: My ass rounds UP!

Watts + Fresh Baked Pizza = Thursday

Sigh...where to begin? Today was one of those days that was so interesting with respect to 'overall life' that I will have to take a while with this post.

Things got off to an auspicious start. Woke up to a sweet email from the ladyfriend which is always a joy :-) Afterwards, I rolled out of bed and for the first time, WAS NOT FREEZING MY OKOLE OFF! Wow, get a load of that! Got up, went to work and things were pretty chill there too. Checked email, answered some even! and then a coworker got me a free Jamba Juice. And if you're wondering, that's a Strawberry Whirl [bananas + strawberries] sub soymilk for that juice-crap they put in there.

My boss came by and paid a visit to my desk and he said 'holy shit man, how many bananas do you eat a day?' Alex: 'Not enough, I still cramp on my bike sometimes!' And before you could say 'got another banana, Alex?' it was 11:30, time for Indian Buffet at Amber [best Indian in SF, HANDS DOWN]. Went there with 3 other coworkers and promised myself NOT to overeat [I had a hard bike workout in the PM]. Naturally, I overate. So shoot me. Blah. And you know what it was? The saffron basmati rice and the rice pudding at the end [damn thing had slivers of almonds!]. Rolling out of the restaurant [literally!], it hurt to walk. I knew that if I sat down, it would be the end of me. So instead, I pulled up a pillow and kneeled on the ground for a good hour or two.

Somehow, I wasn't inundated by food coma and actually made it to my 3pm meeting. Even my bosses were impressed! 5 o'clock hit and that's go time for the bike. Good workout and it was fun because the Cal cycling team came out to do hill repeats too. It's even better when you blow right by them and their lead riders :-) Tearing some serious okole out there! Mike, wish you were here mate! Following up on yesterdays post, I also saw Mr. and Mrs. Bambi [deer] out on the road. They were pulling for me and after a minute or so, they pulled off and left me about 500m from the line. Good pull guys.

I come home, exhuasted and happy, to a freshly baked all vegan pizza that my landlady baked. Hand made vegan dough. Tomato sauce and lots of mushrooms. The note says "Alex, please enjoy, it's all vegan." How could I not? Before I even took a shower and get outta my cycling bib shorts, I finished the pizza. It was amazing. Hot off the oven....stupid good. And that pic is proof that vegans do, in fact, make the world go round. :-)

And with that, my stank ass needs to shower. Ciao!

Wild Turkeys

Today on my ride, I saw a yhprunning.com first: Wild Turkeys.

Yes, apparently

a) They exist in California

b) They exist on my local 15 minute climb.

Who woulda thunk it?

And let me say this, them brothas are S-C-A-R-Y!!

Big ass talons that look like they could tear a new one into my okole....not to mention eyes that are going every which way. It's like, they were mean-mugging me AND looking the other direction. Some crazy stuff huh?

There was a family of 3 that I noticed and one of them was just staring at your boy. Just looking at me like he wanted to do something! However, I quickly diffused the situation and proudly exclaimed:

Don't worry Mr. & Mrs. Turkey. I'm vegan.

They bowed their heads to me and then offered me a bottle of Wild Turkey burboun.....Okay, that's not what happened, but it was cool to say that. We had a connection ya know...a thing.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Sea otters? I wouldn't put it past me!

Terrible Tuesdays

Yezzir! As the title implies, Tuesday, the king of all suck days. Why is that? Well, Monday is typically an easy spin for me - gotta clear out the lactic acid to make room for more! Tuesday, however, big ugly pain face? Check. V02 Intervals? On point like yo mama's eggplant casserole [and it is on point!].

The whole day I was just resenting the tragic fate that awaited me in the afternoon after work. Turn's out it wasn't the death-by-bike-flogging I imagined. My targets were a bit high this time @ 4 minutes of threshold work [HR > 170 bpm]. Sounds easy? It is. That's why we do it 5 times. :-)

Someone asked me what is a V02 interval like. Here's my way of describing it. With respect to the suffer-scale, 10 being "Oh misery. Shoot me now, oh misery" and 7 being "burning legs and audible breathing", V02 is around 8 for me, essentially: "F*ck me, how much longer! My legs are screaming right now!!!!!!!!!!!!!" So yeah, that's that.

Top that off with some frigid cold temperatures and you'll understand why I cut my intervals short by 1 [should have done 6]. But thank goodness that kablooey is all over with and I can crawl my sorry, stank ass in bed and live to fight another day. Brown rice pasta + vegan pesto helps enormously with the recover process too :-)

After my near-death experience, I rode easy to Montclair [village where I live] and they had a food tasting from all the restaurants. Naturally, I stopped to catch my breath. There I was, all 64 kg of me, head in hands, shaven legs propped up on a chair, too tired to even get the free samples - then again, they prolly weren't wee-gan huh? Some lady asked me if I had a good workout. All I could muster was "enjoy your meal." Was that rude?

J-town Cherry Blossom Festival 2k10

Long about this time every year, cyclists are just now sobering up from the hang-over of what is known as 'Holy Week'. Essentially, two of the biggest single-day classics in the world - hehe, look at me, talking like I've been doing the sport for more than 20 years - De Ronde Van Vlaanderen [Tour of Flanders] and Paris-Roubaix. What makes these 'classics' so classic are the distance and terrain. We're talking in excess of 260km of some of the WORST roads in Europe; oh and I forgot to mention, cobblestones. Lots and lots of cobblestones on narrow roads with big, steep hills. Sounds fun to ride no? I myself got up at the usual 6am on Sunday morning to watch, in bed, holding a hot mug of decaf espresso and some bananas [duh] mxied into some Swiss Muesli. For those that don't follow the sport, Fabian Cancellara won both races in convincing fashion - causing some to question his strength and whether or not he is of this earth [no lie!]

After I cycled off my 'hang-over' [soreness], I decided to haul my ass over to San Francisco to watch a very special young woman participate in a kendo demonstration and the rest of the Japantown Cherry Blossom Festival. It was a huge event, packed with people dressed in everything from traditional kimono down to CosPlay [where folks dress up to look like their favorite anime character].

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And before we go further, let me just say that if I were to EVER do that [CosPlay] I would dress up as 'Ikuto' [baller ass name btw] from my favorite anime of ALL TIME: Nagasarete Airantou [Cast Away - Airan Island]. Here's the description [you can sooooooooooooooooooooooooo see why I'd be down for this particular anime:

Ikuto runs away from home only to be stranded on an island with no men. The island is completely inhabited by young and beautiful women; And each girl is racing to become Ikuto's bride and save the island. Furthermore, each girl is willing to kill the other girls to persuade Ikuto to marry them.

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I digress. I went to the cherry blossom festival and saw Ms. Hidden Dragon put the hurtin' on some poor souls in kendo. She does kendo. She knits. She plays the piano. She is vegetarian. She is buddhist. Best of all: She can kick my f*ckin a** all up and down the streets of San Francisco.

In addition to this, Tagaya met me for lunch and we did the college thing. Ya know? Soju + Soju + Kim Chee Ji Ghae + Kim Chee Jun = 'the college thing'. Afterwards, he headed towards Bushi-tei [my favorite favorite favorite restaurant in all of SF] to watch - in the comfort of chairs and air condition - the floats go by. It's probably going to come as no surprise to you all that I took pictures of the 'Ms. Japan [STATE in the US]'.

Editor's [me] note - I mean c'mon. Did you really EXPECT I'd take pictures of others floats? Really? Ask yourself that!

Hope you all had a wonderful and warm-weathered weekend.

Shouts out to Ryan and his fiancee Ms. Bethany as they run their asses off at today's Boston Marathon! Ganbareeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~!

Lunch with Mom [again!]

My mother - as most of you know - is an incredibly influential person in my life. Same goes for all of my immediate family in fact but today, mama tellez paid a visit in the city and we had a great time. Of course, we went to our favorite [my favorite] middle eastern shop and they know us very well. The owner gives my mom a hug and as usual, I give a high-five. Naturally we do the vegan thing and pick up 2 wraps doped up with lettuce, hummus, artichoke hearts, mushrooms and bell peppers. Add to this some basmati rice with lentils and grilled onions and you've got a tasty - tasty- tasty- lunch.

Per my last-last post, my heroes are my parents and brother. I've been to the Philippines once and saw where my mom was from and where she was raised and let me say this: If you think you've seen 'the hood'....well, let's just say, you aint seen jack shit yet. Born in the capital city of Manila, what she has done through this point of her life is nothing short of remarkable. Add to this farmer-parents and you can easily see why she is my hero. And the most amazing part is after all the work she goes through, the endless meetings, meetings about meetings, and then debriefings about those meetings about meetings, she still has time to come visit me, ask me if I'm taking my vitamins and encouraging me to eat more. Sugeeeeeeeeeeeeeei!

I put this photo up not because it's of me with my shirt off [again] - ALTHOUGH...... ;-)......if that wasn't reason enough to go vegan [go vegan, drop the kg's and look better than me!], I don't know what is! This photo was taken at the Bay to Breakers race last year and my mom was there. She got up @ 4am with me and waited patiently at the finish line for me to cross. She bought me bananas, and afterwards, we got to pig out on yummy food at the OrganicAthlete tent. This photo is great because we were having a laugh and someone caught it - an honest kodak moment with my hero. Mother and son, vegetarian and vegan.

Interestingly, Michael Jordan's heros were his parents too.

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Revision to yesterday's story from an 'accredited source'

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Kenji screamed like a girl too.

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End revision

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"The Story" [that Mike was referring to]

As the story that Mike is referring to [see comments on last blog] is a bit ridiculous, let me preface it with a nice picture today of the city. Sunny skies [still, not quite Hawaii weather...], sweet view of the bridge and a full stomach off of middle easter brown rice + lentil plate = bliss. Had it not been for orbitz sending me some goofy snail mail, I would never made it back to work on time. ;-)

The next pic is a photo of my long-time good friends from Brown. That's us girls singing karaoke 2 nights before I went on placing 3rd @ the SF half marathon. The song: Backstreet Boys, I want it that way. Straight. Filth. Son. Combine this with a few glasses of wine and let's just say the singing was more like shouting. Nevertheless, good times as always.

-----------The Story-------------

So here's the thing: As a senior living at Brown, I lived with 3 others in a suite. Thankfully, one of my best friends, Kenji, was there with me so it wasn't just my vegan self [although I was an omnivore at the time]. One afternoon, I think it was a Wednesday, Kenji, Mike Santos and I just finished a late lunch at Brown's infamously shabby dining facilities [you'd think they'd spruce it up a bit more for a preppy private school but no...............] and we decided to go back to the pad and listen to music.

As we're walking in, Santos notices a small mouse run into one of our roomates room [we'll call him 'Sam' for the time being]. Thing with Sam is his room was a hell hole of clothes, games and golf clubs / golf balls. We bang on the door and tell him a mouse ran into the room. He opens the door and we set up a path for the mouse to crawl out on and get in the mouse trap. It was a prime battle between nature vs man. Anyways, Tagaya asks me what happens if the mouse gets out, 'shouldn't we kill it?'. 'I guess', says Mike. So Tagaya, being the true diplomat, hands me a frying pan - like I'm supposed to do something with it. Anyways, Sam pulls clothes off from the floor and lo-and-behold, there's the mouse. It scurries out into the path we made for it and then deviates.....

...what to do, what to do?!?!?! The only thing that came to my mind was to scream like a pre-pubescent girl...so I did just that. Meanwhile Kenji and Mike are laughing at my sorry ass. So I decide to kill the mouse. And with all my might I raise my hand with the pan and BAM! The pan strikes Mike square in the face. He goes down, the mouse escapes, Kenji is laughing and I'm still screaming. At the end of the year, we had to return the pan to its owner. Did we? Nope. Unless they wanted a pan with an imprint of Mike's face on it. ;-)

Couple of things about me....

...I've been fielding some interesting thoughts and comments that prompted me to write today's blog: Absolutely useless [fun] tidbits about me you probably think you know...and now I'm going to confirm them for you. =)

Where to start, where to start...might as well be the beginning eh?

1) I was born in Oakland, CA a city with a less than stellar track record for education and police hospitality.

2) I went to public school until college and while I was raised on the other side of the fence thanks to great parents, I tend to relate more to the scrappy guy vs. the suave guy.

3) When I was 3 yrs old, my brother put on Dr. Dre and since then, I've listened to rap music - or so the story goes.

4) I CAN believe it's not butter.

5) They're called briefs, NOT boxers.

6) Hot sauce is clearly better than BBQ sauce.

7) I have a few quality friends that I rely on and puposely chose quality over quantity.

8) I'd rather try and fail then fail to try.

9) I got a faux hawk because my favorite rider [Damiano Cunego] has one too. No I'm not on his grill, why you ask?

10) I would love to travel to India, Korea, Austria, Belgium and Vietnam.

11) One day, I'm going to go on Iron Chef America, armed with bananas and brown rice pasta and make Chef Bobby Flay call me 'daddy'.

12) I say 'that's what she said' too much [but I'm getting better!] and 'you know what I'm sayin!'. Last year, it was truly ridiculous.

13) I like it when my apples are cold so I put them in the fridge.

14) On a Saturday, I love sitting outside with my feet up, soaking in some sun, listening to my iPod and eating those aforementioned apples.

15) The LaraBar Cashew Cookie trumps all others ESPECIALLY the coconut cream pie bar.

16) Brown Rice > White Rice. I mean, that's just simple nutrition right there.

17) My hero's are my parents and my brother. I think youth these days don't realize how much our parents influence us.

18) I'd trade all my cycling and running talent for NBA talent any day of the week. Living above the rim = sooooo money.

19) Simplicity is key. Only by letting go do we finally realize what's important to us because it's still in our hands.

20) I really, really, really, REALLY like bananas.

21) Who would win between a lion or gorilla? Trick question. Face-to-face, pound-for-pound the gorilla would own the lion. However, for the lion, the gorilla is not its natural prey. BUT, if the lion were to hunt the gorilla [the way it does other animals], most likely the lion would win by surprise.

22) I went from a waist 36 to a 30/29 by going vegan and mostly raw. Hot diggity damn.

23) My favorite TV show right now is the jdrama 'Celeb to Binbo'.

24) Of all the foods I miss since being 'wee-gan-ized' I think egg and the taste of fried chicken are at the top.

25) Being vegan, I'm glad I gave up: Milk and Steak. No mas.

26) I don't drink alcohol most of the time [most of the time = maybe once, at best twice a week now] but when I do, I enjoy Wild Turkey or Knob Creek.

27) If you can believe it, I used to have diamond earings. I'm contemplating getting them back. thoughts?

28) One of the best Xmas eve's I've had was last year in Hawaii. I had 2 slices of my favorite vegan pizza and then went up Tantalus 4 times. Why? The sweetest guavas are at the top of the mountain. And I have been to the top of the mountain. And it is good young Skywalker.

29) As a boy, I played: soccer [Bay Oaks squad], basketball [Japanese league], YMCA basketball, kendo, and karate. In the end, I quit all the sports and took up running and now cycling. Being a glutton was just what the doctor ordered it seems.

30) If I had to do it all over again....oh wait, I don't have to huh?

The above pic shows Mr. Doofus himself [me] and my good friend Mike. He made this ridonculous cheese stack with like 9 different cheeses on a little piece of toast. Anyways, he ate the whole thing....whata silly guy.

So that's me right now and some of the things about me / I believe in. Hopefully these things come through despite my incessant urge to show off my bronzed legs and my 'less-than-flattering'-tan-lines.

Ciao!

yhp

Indian Buffet-ing

On Friday, my good coworker [another Statistician, only this one isn't wee-gan] Sanjiv and I went out to SF's 'bestest' Indian Buffet, Amber. Supposedly, Bill Clinton - our nation's first black president - comes here every time he is in SF. Naturally with such a ringing endorsement, I had no choice but to go and see what all the hub-bub was about.

Normally, I'm somewhat particular with indian simply because there are so many spices I can't tell the difference between foods! Like my mouth will be so on fire from the garbanzo bean curry that the mushroom curry will taste like bananas...or maybe I just eat too many bananas and this is why I think everything tastes like bananas? Anyways, I digress. But it's called 'Amber' and it is one swanky place. A little too swanky for my scrony cycling ass but you get the idea. Walking in, I could immediately tell that 'Amber' and indian people have met and got along well - the place was PACKED.

The food was so good that naturally I overate. As if the first and second plate was satiating enough, I had no choice to go back for the chickpea + zucchini curried 'fritters' with more safron infused basmati. Yea, safe to say it got ridiculous and I'm positive I reached my daily caloric quota with that one meal. What was also key was 5 steps after we walked outside, Sanjiv and I stood there and groaned in unison!!! Safe to say that at 1:30pm PST, Alex came down with a severe case of food coma and from that time until around 3pm.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

What? Oh yea, the blog....where was I? Right 3pm. Yes, until then, it was difficult to concentrate.

And on that note. Good night. =)

Tomfoolery: Before & After

Never one to pass up the opportunity to show off my sun-kissed tanned self, I figured now would be a good time to 'flaunt and strut my stuff' now that I'm living Californication.

Yesterday I had my first 'decent' ride since I got sick...2 hours total but it was good, love jacking my watts up and nice to know the fitness isn't all lost.

Anyways, the first two photos are 'pre-tomfoolery'. You'll see my legs [of course, a daily fixture on this blog], my trusty organic athlete coconut fiber socks and and me consuming a pre-ride chocolate weegan clif bar. Chocolate - in my opinion - is the best flavor. I dont mess around with other flavors because they're just not baller enough to me :) However, Bluberry Crip isn't that bad. But let's face it....between us girls, noone, and I mean, NOONE better lay a finger on my LaraBar cashew cookie.

The second is of after the ride, I was torched as it's the first time in a while I have ridden Evelyn longer than one hour [my shit is quick fast.......3 minutes! That's a heavy weight bout...hahah, some of you knwo this inside joke]. First pic is one of me that my mom calls 'less than flattering'. The second one is of...well...my legs [again]. Just look at those tan lines. And that, was only after 2 hours. Can you imagine how gross it'll be tomorrow after a long, long training ride. The word that comes to mind is: epic.

Have a good weekend everyone! I'll try and blog about more silliness this weekend. Capping off with me eating my way through my vitamin C gummi bears. Can you have too much vitamin C? We'll know more after these messages from our local sponsors. Weather at 11.

Meet: The Taiwanese Whitney Houston

Good. God. Almighty.

Normally, I shun away from posting youtube videos and such but this sh*t is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Emily sent me the link yesterday and I showed it to my brother and his response: "Wow."
Safe to say, I was blown away by this baby-faced, big-lipped-wide-nose-breathing, bowl-cut ass Taiwanese dude but I can't help but step back and marvel at his technical prowess. I dare to say it but I don't think Whitney Houston could even f*ck with this kid.

This video, is RIDONCULOUS.

Enjoy!

Taking the chill pill

Yes, life ain't too bad for this ex-banker-from-Hawaii! Current weather right now in the bay area: 68 degrees with a light breeze. Not shabby. Today, I had a light breakfast with a good friend of mine and somehow or another, we got on the topic of razors [for shaving one's legs of course]. I told her about my experience with the schick venus and she concurred. So much so, she even recommended that her mother use it. Best line of the day was the response:

" Well, if that razor is good enough for Alex's legs, they are certainly good enough for mine! "

Brings a tear to my eye when I think about the beauty in that statement. =)

Also today, I decided to finally post a pic of what San Francisco is like now. Usually, I go on long walks by myself [awwwwwwwwwwww.....cue puppy dog eyes] after eating my lunch and that is the view I see. Impressive huh? Such is the beauty of San Francisco and the place I now call home.

The other pic is one I took of myself sunbathing [as if I need it] this past Saturday from my home. Look at all the foilage and greenery! Now that's living! After a hard bike workout, a soid vegan pastry and like 4 bananas, nothing says 'Lazy Saturday Afternoon' quite like sititing outside and doing nothing. Ahhh...looks like summer's almost here. ;-)

Surprise visit from Mama Tellez!

Whoa! Mama Tellez came out to visit me for lunch today!
What an unexpected visit!
We got nice weegan sandwiches sat outside and took in the nice day in the Bay Area.

She got a physical recently and not surprisingly, all results came back very positive. Why wouldn't they be...she's a vegetarian!
And that's when we contemplated making tshirts for this silly blog. We knew it had to be something insiders would know that was unique so we thought of the following slogan:
(on the front)
GO WEE-GANISM

(on the back)
yhprunning.blogspot.com

...because that's what she would say.

I'm open to criticism on this. Until then, I'll keep thinking of goofy weegan one-liners....

First off - I'm back! Okay well, not really back, back but back to blogging. Full health is about a week away. Shucks! My bike form was starting to come around with all those damn V02 intervals. I swear those things are just miserable. It's like a reverse colonoscopy - not that I've had one. Gross. This weekend I spent catching up with friends and generally making a pig and fool of myself at herbivore in Berkeley.

You'll see 3 photos here. The first of of Emily doing what she does best, looking pretty while eating a burrito. This is the exact opposite of me. I tend to look like a rabid monkey devouring the flesh of an overly ripe banana. The adjective that comes to mind is: VIOLENT. She, somehow is very composed throughout the whole thing and suprisingly lady-like [uh oh...I can feel I'm going to get my ass kicked shortly....]. More impressive: She finished the whole f*cking thing! I guess the old joke is true: The littlest things pack the biggest stomachs [cue second beat down].

The next is of yours truly doing what I do best: sticking a NON-fried french fry up my nostril. Why? Because I can't think of a reason why NOT to do that. And besides, those seasoned potato strips were damn good with the addition of Agave Sweetened ketsup. =)

Finally, I got caught up with my good friend Amy who - to my extreme happiness - is focuing her efforts on self improvement and generally being a happy person [not that she wasn't!]. I told her one of the side effects of being vegan [besides looking uber-sexy sticking stuff up one's nostril] is that one is happier and less agitated [must be that lack of animal hormones running rampant]. Though I thought my rhetoric was pursuasive, she didn't take the broccoli and she is still a carnivore. Soon enough...she'll see the light. I did, however, relish the half-hearted victory as she ate her Vegan shwarma wrap [pictured above] and - with a mouthful of goodness - mumbled 'mkdhdhksjfdkj I'm going to come back here with friends kajdkfhdhgkjfkdjadfkj'.

Yeah...it was a good weekend. And it was Easter.

p.s. what the hell holiday is that?!

Nature Express & Vabio Love

Couple of days ago, my dad took me to lunch at my favorite vegan fast food joint. As you all have read about, that place is non other than Nature Express located on Solano Ave. In addition to the many, many delectible desserts they have - did I mention, they have VEGAN DONUTS! - they also have some damn good burgers and breakfast burritos. My favorite being: the works. Rice pilaf, beans, soyrizo and green salsa all in a spinach wrap. Along with this comes a giant sized portion of Tapatio hot sauce.

For those of you not in the 'know', Tapatio is a hot sauce from Mexico and it is the shit. I dont care what you put up next to it, Frank's, Chalula, Sriracha....Tapatio is where it's at. Anyways, our server brought out this gigantic tub of it and it was a damn near sexy sight.

Almost as good as....vabio. =)
My dad's name is Pablo and when he ordered, our server asked for my dad's name. He, of course, said: "Pablo". Apparently, this came out as "Vabia".
And then changed to "Vabio". [not even 'FABIO']
And then finally, it came back to "Pablo". How epic is that!

The best part as you can see from the receipt, is next to the name, there is a cirlce with "hehe" written inside. Now that's too funny! [picture coming soon!]

Sick, sick and sick

For those that are not my mom and actually follow this goofy blog, I'm sorry I've been neglecting you all! Truth is, I've been under the weather which is weird. I thought wee-gans NEVER get sick or under the weather! Clearly, I got it from something.....or SOMEONE! HA!

Okay but really, I'll blog tomorrow when I'm back home earlier. For now, I can't even ride Evelyn hard =(

Wards Ferry RR

So this past weekend, I raced in the Wards Ferry RR all the way out in Tuolumne, CA! For those that don't know, that's in Yosemite which is like 2.5 hours from Oakland. Hells bells that's far! Safe to say Friday was a quiet night and even my dad spared me and turned off CNN early. Of course, it doesn't help when you got Paul Mooney doing standup on HBO but you get the idea. =)

Anyways, got my fat ass up @ 3:30am (!!) and was picked up by a team mate and we trekked out to Wards Ferry. And the whole time it was talking and all I wanted to do was sleep. A few hours later, we get there and it's ass cold. Like 38 degrees. Fk me. I'm in leg warmers, gloves and arm warmers. Not surprisingly, so is everyone else.

Race begins @ 8:09 and the first lap is somewhat quick. We dropped folks halfway through and then on the climbs, I saw many laboring away, breathing deeply, long and hard [tee hee]. About 1/4 way into lap 2, I drop the chain completely. The fker is wrapped around my crank arm! I stop and fix it and takes like 4 minutes. Of course, the rest of the field passes me by and I hop on my bike only to drop that shit again. Bam, another 4 minutes. By now, I'm pissed. I take off the arm warmers, leg warmers and pound some vegan electrolyte drink. For the next 40-odd miles, I have my head down and I'm in the pain cave. Insane watts were thrown down. In the end, I cought 14 people in my race and finished 15th. BAM! Not a top 10 or any points but holy shit, that was the most gratifying 15th place I've had in a long time.

I also put my breakfast of champions above. You'll see 2 bananas, truth is, it's normally 3-4. A Whole Soy Mixed berry yogurt, an ezekiel english muffin with cinammon and raisin and a vegan clif bar. Normally, this is a cashew cookie LaraBar but eh....this was what was left in the pantry. Also not pictured is a tall glass of FRESH and organic OJ. Not made from concentrate or shit like that. Just fresh squeezed OJ. Oh yeah son. And for shits and giggles, I'll put almond butter on the muffin if I'm truly feeling like a fatty =)

Also pictured is what was bought today at the Berkeley Bowl [equivalent to Whole Foods]. Stevia sweetened "soda", soy yogurt, bananas good for 3 days, frozen cherries, spinach, apples, oranges, VEGAN AGAVE SWEETENED GUMMI BEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, fresh OJ, blackberries, blueberries, Amy's all veggie wee-gan pizza, arrabiatta sauce for pasta and some english muffins [sprouted ezekiel and barley....vegan, of course].

Whew, that was a mouthful. Only one thing left to do now: watch family guy.

Green Smoothies + Cascada?

My other vegan [wee-gan] cyclist friend's recipe was nothing short of inspirational and I put my foot down and vowed to try it this weekend. To recap it was the following:

1) Spinach

2) Almond Milk

3) Macha powder - cuz I need that stamina ya know. ;-)

4) Frozen cherries. Personally, I'm thinking like half the damn bag. Figure the bag costs what, $3....eh....I can afford that.

Cherries, what a new [old] concept for green smoothies. I'm going to try a new one this weekend too although this bad boy is going to be all fruit. What about.....

1) 1 peach

2) heaping handful of strawberries

3) 1 banana

4) 1/2 cup of vanilla soymilk or water

Try before me and I'll go over to your house and make out with you. =) Okay but seriously, you get the idea! And now on to my second topic, Cascada. Who? What? When? Where? Why?

For those who don't know, Cascada is essentially the Brit version of Lady GaGa. And while I don't think she's as sexy as Lady GaGa - primarily because she has yet to make a song about yours truly, Ale-ale-jandro - she is one HEALTHY and good-looking Brit! She even has straight teeth too! Okay, bad joke, bad joke. Sorry to all my Brit readers.

Put it to ya like this. When I was studying Economics at the London School of Economics - cuz what else would you study?! - I saw very few dentists. Just a lot of pork and beans.

Tomorrow, I'll show you what I've been consuming for the past umpteen days for breakfast. And it's so friggin good too. Until then, try that green smoothie before me and be sure to put on your makeup. Except if your name is Mitch. Then....gross.

Interval-ing-ing-ing-ing-ing-ing

Yes today's workload was intense. With respect to the 'suffer-scale', I'd rate it at an 8 [8 = tolerable pain, 9 = misery OH misery, 10 = dead]. It started off with 2 x 8 minute intervals at a high target, x > 320 watts. And with intervals on the bike, it's not hit 320 watts and hold it...nah, it's like go over 400 watts hold that for a bit, then hold 280 watts for a bit and repeat that beezy a bunch of times till you're cross-eyed.

And just when you thought it was over.....3 x 12 minute hill repeats at x > 310 watts. Safe to say that intervaling was so intense, these hill repeats seemed like joy rides. Coolest part about intervaling on the trainer is that people who walk by get to see how bad-ass you look. You're just out there, big, ugly pain face on, shaven legs and dripping sweat. Sexy? You betcha. Well, at least to me....and your sister and your cousin ;-)

And after all that nonsense is over, it's such a relief to sit down to some wee-gan risotto and a big ass vegan italian sandwich. Each time I get a sandwich, I have fond memories of Chappelle's show where Dave is playing P.Diddy on his version of "Making the Band". He looks at Fonsworth and is like "Fonsworth! Make me sandwich!". Yeah that one was money.

In other important news, I'm really, REALLY getting into sweet and juicy fruits instead of the all functional banana. Make no mistake, I still AND WILL CONTINUE to consume bananas by the hand each day, but there's no denying my newfound love for oranges, fresh squeezed orange juice, crunchy COLD apples and grapes. I consider grapes the ultimate snack food, next to LaraBars of course [don't buy the coconut creme pie one though....a woman I know is going to kill me....].

Trying to think of a good green smoothie creation but am drawing a blank on what would mix well without being too 'Jamba-Juice-ish'. Oh, and on that note, Jamba has this 'all-fruit' drink that's like a 'suicide' of fruit [the original 'suicide' was you put your cup under each soda and make a shmorgesboard of carbonated sugar water crap ish thingie]. It's good every frozen fruit out there which begs the question....why add more ice at the end? Make it coldER?!

Alrighty, the Lakers are on TV and that means one thing: Taunting my dad because they [the Lakers] are losing and my dad is a huge Laker fan.

Contemplating bike-induced death? =)

Pain, suffering and misery. Normally, these are the emotions I feel when walking into old meetings when I used to work at the bank. That, or an unexpected trip to New Jersey =)

Nowadays, I think of these adjectives in a wonderful way through squinting eyes of a [vegan] dude on his bike. That or an intense run. And though I'm a bike guy, I still appreciate the thorough ass whopping one can achieve doing intervals on the bike or on the track. Either way, if the HR isn't going over 180 bpm, safe to say you got more in the tank. Let's pick up the pace Nancy.

However, I recognize the need for music and how influential it is over me and my emotions. As such, here is what I am listening to now [and listened to today while suffering on the bike]. Be forewarned though, if you dont like pounding to dance/trance music, go ahead and scroll down to another post.
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FORMAT: Artist - Song.
Deadmau5 - Strobe. Michael Woo remix
Give it all away - DJ Rap
John O'Callaghan - Out of nowhere
Ashes and Lashes - Dub Mechanics [really, really suffer on this one!]
AcquaFix - Drunken Stars
Stand to Lose - Kyven
I Will be Here - Tiesto
Armin Van Burren - Broken Tonight

Try that on for size. In the words of the dude on the commercial:
"You're going to like the way you like. I guarntee it."

Yet again, another post on vegan pizza...

Now look at that handsome, tall, [slightly] sun-kissed man. Tell me that doesn't look damn good! That is called the 'smiling cow' pizza and is made with gluten-free bread, soy 'teese' [it melts!], soyrizo, pepperoni and onions. In total 12 slices. Alex consumed 10. Safe to say, I replaced all those missing calories that I burned on Sunday =)

My dad is going towards vegetarianism which is awesome. I took this photo of him slurping his kale, potato and soyrizo soup. The verdict: He'll come back. And thank heaven for that. The owner is this kind, bald-headed italian bloke whose name I've decided is 'Antonio'. Chances are high that I'm wrong but well, what can you say except the man makes a damn good pizza. He knows our family, and I know his pizza chefs =)

In other news, the weather it seems is perfect for cycling. And if today wasn't a rest day, my fat ass would be outside, pounding to some solid music fit for climbing. Which brings me to my post tomorrow. A lot of you have been asking for a playlist of what Alex listens to when he's out throttling himself on Evelyn. Wish granted. Tomorrow, the blog post will be dedicted to a playlist inspired by young hova. =)

And until then, that's the vegan risotta. Wow. Super good. Cream is the unsweetened cashew creme substitute. Mama mia, santeria, lotteria [like the game!].

p.s. heard the dopest italian last name today: Pietropoli.

Hay-sus maria!

Welcome Back Dad!

Yesterday, my dad came back from a 3-week 'staycation' in NYC, the land of sex, scandals, bad food and worse transporation. =) I mean, where are there hills to cycle?! Oh wait, that's right, that place is called Connecticut. Whoopsie.

Nonetheless, he came back to nice California weather dressed in a down jacket, a scarf and his snow shoes. It reminds me of myself but the opposite [goofy Hawaiian kid with little clothing on]. We picked him up at night but before, mom and I killed some time at borders and you wouldn't believe the book we stumbled on! Take a look at that gem! 'Stuff that White People Like'. Now tell me that doesn't scream class all over it?!

Today was once again beautiful. My mom joined me for lunch and we went to this middle eastern place followed by a hefty italian sandwich. Let's face it, they LOVE me wherever I go. I high-five the mail man, high five the lady at the middle eastern store, high five my mom, Emily's mom, your mom and your cousin's mom. =) Hot diggity damn, that was some good eating. And what did I get for dinner tonite? The same mutafu*kin sandwich! God damn that sh*t is good! What you're seeing there is a vegan roll followed by sundried tomato, artichoke hearts, roasted red bell peppers, eggplant, kale salad, baby greens, tomatoes with a nice spread of fire roasted red bell peppers. Ummm....I'll take another?!

Weather is finally looking up!

Currently, as I sit typing this blogpost in my compression tights - cuz I'm real smooth like that - it's 72 degrees in the house and my mom is complaining of the heat. Little does she know that 72 degrees is par for the course in Hawaii. Sigh.....remind me, why did I move? Oh wait, that's right, I got laid off along with 25% of the staff. Gotcha. ;-)

But hey, things are much better now in some respects. And finally, the weather outside is looking up. For the first time in months, I went outside and and cycled for a good hour. This of course, is after the hour long pain-fest in the AM. Not surprisingly, I saw many other cyclists out on the road, a sight that if you lived in Hawaii, would be RARE. However, California lacks on key element: bikini-clad-surf-board-toting-babes =) hehe, so shoot me.

I'll give you a moment to let that sink in and un-expand the photo.
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Back? Good. That was fast. That's what she....oh wait, that wouldn't be good. I took some pretty nice pics of downtown SF that I'll post tomorrow. The weather has been perfect! For lunch, I typically go on a long walk starting at the Embarcadero and go to Pier 39 [about a 2.5 mile walk, 5 miles total]. Tell ya what, eat a meal, then walk....man, you don't feel weighed down at all. Intervals after eating? Not so much. TAKE IT FROM ME.

In addition to thinking about my PM workout, I'm currently watching Iron Chef - the REAL one imported from Japan. The secret ingredient is pork. Hmm....what's that taste like again? Honestly, I haven't had one single craving for meat/dairy/eggs in so long it's crazy. I'm kind of immune to the lure of meat and honestly, the scent would probably gross me out a bit. Nonetheless, I recognize that Mike and Kenji will continue to poke fun of me as a result of my diet. Must be easy to say when you're recoving from a torn MCL =)

Risotto alla Zagorski

Wish I had some photos of this one to show but truth is....I ate the whole damn thing. That's 1.5 cups of brown arborreo rice [along with other vegan goodness which I'll get into later]. This recipe was inspired by the flying Scotsman aka Senor Z aka 'Damnit Mike' aka Mike Z. He frequently makes these risotto-thingies that I have just tried.

Let's get the big line out of the way: It is no surprise that Alex and his vegan risotto, are quite fond of one another.

So anyways, he would tell me risotto is a cyclists best friend. Here are directions:
2 leeks, cut stems, slice thin.
1 bag enoki mushrooms
1 bag of mixed mushrooms [not to be confused with 'shrooms'!]
4 bell peppers
1 Okinawan sweet potato [these puppies are purple]
Garlic
Edamame
Brown arborreo rice
Cashew creme [to make it creamy, of course]
2.5 cups of vegetable or mushroom stock to flavor rice
1 tbsp Toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp nama shoyu

Throw all that in your rice cooker. Press on and sit fat ass down on chair. When beeping noise is heard, keep lid on rice! 5 mins later, add some more cashew creme to achieve desired creaminess and you're done. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am.

Wish I could show you photos, but you probably dont wanna see now. =)
Gross.

Vegan Fast Food @ NatureExpress

Admit it, after a 6 hour ride and not coming my faux hawk, I look like a 'Josh' or 'Zach'.

It's a [Vegan] FastFood Nation.

You're damn straight.

This weekend featured some epic bike rides and lots of calories burned. That translates to numerous vegan burritos, splendidos, soyrizos, and choco-chinos [what are those?]. Mama Tellez and I made a weekend of it and went to Solano Ave and pigged out on some NatureExpress.

For those of you flat-footed dweebs that don't know [hehe, you LOVE it!] about NatureExpress it's a fast food wee-gan place. They serve up green smoothies, vegan donuts [ghea!], vegan burritos, vegan burgers and all around general goodness everywhere. Bottom line: I LOVE THAT PLACE. More than your cousins house....and you all know how much I love your cousins house huh? ;-)

The pics above include a pair of Southwestern Burgers [veganaise-thyme sauce, tomato, avocado, romaine, boca burger served on whole wheat foaccia bread] and 'The Works' burrito which has lime-pesto sauce, soyrizo, rice pilaf and some spicy 'coleslaw'. Wash that down with wicked good lemonade [sweetened with Agave no less] and you've got lunch. Holy crap that was good. Combine that lunch with awesome Bay Area weather [75 degrees and sunny] and some Thai food for dinner = Awesome Saturday.

Sunday was another solid ride in the bike. That V02 keeps getting upped as well. Goodness gracious. Now, if only I don't have flat tires in bike races....

Hawaii Part 4 - Two bottles of Opus One and the End

First off, sorry for the delay in part 4. Long day at work yesterday. Went home, cycled, showered, shaved and then passed out. Good night, good fight. Today was different and hence the blog post. Let's get started.

On our last day, Mike and I went to Ala Moana mall in Hawaii - perhaps Hawaii's biggest mall and my favorite place to sit with dark Oakley sunglasses and "people watch" err....yeah, you get the idea. Anyways, along the way we ran into the coi pond which is dope and Mike got to witness some keiki [Hawaiian for 'children'] doing some Hula as pictured above. Some difficult stuff - I'll stick to cycling!

Another pic is of my good friend Mike. Basically, I owe my passion for cycling and my current skill - lack thereof really - to him. Without his help and patience [he knows I descend hills like Sam Choy on roller skates!] I guarantee you, I would not be where I am in cycling [which aint much but eh...half a year into it, give me some time]. I took that photo of him [taking a photo of me] the day of the tsunami. That's all 150 lbs of that Scottish Hawaiian. Don't say he's English. And no, he doesn't golf.

There's another pic of Mike and my good friend Dr. Alex Silver. Quite possibly one of the nicest human beings I've EVER met. Seriously. We met at the Honolulu Club and since then our friendship has grown. Though he drinks some pretty weak shit as far as beer goes, don't let the looks fool you. This guy knows his WINE. And by 'knows' I mean he has amassed an enormous wine collection [for which I'm grateful...for which....for.....heheh, inside joke] that I tried to drink one night.

Hence, the two bottles of opus one. Safe to say we didn't fly that night and the next day was geared towards recovery. Lots of gatorade, bananas and Thai food. Not shabby huh! And so there's Hawaii in a few days. Hope you liked it. I'll be going back soon! Until then, you'll just have to put up or shut up with my vegan [weeeegan] rants.

Aloha,

Mike and Alex [no, we're not a couple.....]