Tomorrow is my FIRST road race!!!!!!

Whoa nelly! My first ever cycling road race is tomorrow. My hope is to just sit in and learn from people. Listen to noises, watch faces, and drink the tears of human suffering =) Okay no really, prolly won't be doing that but my hope is to just enjoy racing my bike. It'll be a first for me because unlike running, one must strategize, think about fellow competitors, stay alert for accelerations and all this other kablooey. Whereas in running, you throw on the shorts, lace the shoes and keep the appointment you have with yourself. No need to think about drafting, accelerating or all that other stuff. Just get out and run. Simple. Fastest dude wins. Cycling however, I've learned that you don't have to be the strongest guy to win. In fact, you need to be fastest guy to react to things. And that's different.

Think of it as missionary vs. dog...ahh, nevermind. I'm drifting off somewhere in the gutter. In other exciting news, I'll be getting the faux-hawk tomorrow. Yes, you read correctly. If you've been following the blog, I've been contemplating this decision for a while. Truth is 2 folks at my job have this and every day I see them I go 'I love you hair and am jealous'. Well no more! Now that the banking shackles are off, it's game-on for tomfoolery! And so...the shit storm begins! =)

Know what you get when...

...you turn 2-3 around? Triple-double's baby. ALL DEE TIME! ALL DEE TIME!
HAHAHA I absolutely LOVE these Nike-Lebron-Kobe commercials.
Just awesome....

Peep this one out: LEBRON KOBE MRS. LEWIS

I love the last line especially:
'Oh that was Mrs. Lewis....she said you ain't go no defense!'

Much needed recovery day. On a cool note, the kind folks at www.srm.de decided to give me a brand spankin' new PowerControl 6 [asked for the 7 but didn't get it, of course!]. This computer alone is like $900 but it's been the best investment as it helps my training. On a completely lighter note, you need to watch this one too:

Tuesday Download - Straight Slap

This Tuesday, iTunes and Armin Van Buuren are on the same page. And thank the lord too, it was suckin' for a bit with the 'best albums of the year' thing running forever and a day.

My tip: Go get the entire Armin Van Buuren state of trance January CD. Really good tracks to throw down to, let alone keep awake at work ;-)

In other news, been flirting with the idea of a faux hawk a-la David 'Becks' Beckham. Check that photo out...and get your thrills as this will be the FINAL time I have him on this blog. Grossing me out already in fact.

So far, I'm getting mixed reviews.

Some say 'sure, why the f-not.'.

Personal favorite response: "Just. Say. No."

Thoughts?!?!?!?!!?

Vegan Alfredo??? Say WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?!?!?!?

This weekend, dad and I made plans to make a vegan alfredo sauce. Truth is, my dad isn't getting younger and he won't kick his caffeine addiction anytime soon; thus, he wants to eat better and of course, I was first to blurt out 'VEGANISM!'. So after careful thought and planning we set out to make a vegan alfredo sauce.

Ingredients:

Soft tofu

Nutmeg

Salt + pepper

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Vegan margarine

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

We blended this nonsense all together until it was a creamy sauce. Then, we transferred to a sauce pan which included........

1/2 onion chopped

4 cloves of garlic

5 shiitake mushrooms

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

Simmer on low flame and there you have it! Vegan alfredo! And the outcome? Well...I was certainly happy! I haven't had alfredo since....since....before veganism!

P.S. had the subway veg-patty today. Barf Barf Barf. Truth is someone at work was buying and what can I do except accept? Despite the heaploads of veggies piled on top, I still remain firm in my assessment of all things Subway: It sucks balls.

Anyways, from dad and myself, try this vegan recipe and then go out and get a lottery ticket.

"You're going to like the way you look, I guarantee it."

-The dude from Men's Warehouse commercial.

Crits = Suck

Criteriums....the simplest of races; riding around in circles for 45 minutes over 30 mph. HR's north of 170. Yeah, it blew. I've been a bad guy and haven't been blogging. Truth is, I've been sleeping! Yes, you read correctly. Sleeping 8 hours these days and loving every minute of it. Truth is, interval training is taking a lot out but that's no excuse. Anywho, I'll get to what you really wanna see. The weekend log:

FRIDAY

Wasted day and I didn’t do my intervals. I had to get my tire replaced [again] and didn’t want to risk anything one day from racing and hence, the reason why you’re not seeing any Friday data. I got a provisional tire until my training tire comes back in [this one is a ‘wire’ tire and will hold up a bit better than my road tires].

So I decided to do some light yoga at my gym and spent the time with my dad. We got some vegan thai food: spicy eggplant tofu, green coconut curry with seitan. Wow. Add to that some brown rice and some ass-kickin mint tea? Umm, hell yes.

SATURDAY

The best day I’ve had on my bike since I’ve been back home. For the first time, I rode with my team, the Berkeley Bike Club. There were a bunch of people around that had really, REALLY expensive bikes. Anyways, we got to the first climb which is about 1.5 miles up and I set the pace and noticed I had some company. About mid-way I up I start throwing down watts and no one is left. At the top, I ride back down to be with the bunch and then cycle up again. Second climb was awesome too because I got up and would hear people behind me saying ‘going in the small ring’ while I kept going and grinding. Looking back, there was no one there and it was great. Pretty sure I solidified myself as a climber.

We went 65 miles on the day and it was great. There were 3 climbs. 2 short but gnarly ones and I had a blast just tearing legs out there. Then, on the last climb, it was 3.5 miles [an actual long climb!]. Coolest part about this was prior to the climb, a team mate had a flat tire so I pulled over and waited while 6 riders went ahead. 5-6 minutes later, we started back up again and I had an awesome climb. Once we started, I immediately separated from the bunch and then, little by little, I caught the rest of the 6 riders. Each time, they got on my wheel for as long as they could but couldn’t hold. It was great. Super super watts. HR’s north of 190, just ripping it out there. My descending was great too! Man, I LOVE CLIMBING!

Worst part of the day: SRM didn’t download data correctly so there’s no way you could see how it was. Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo disappointing. But not as disappointing as….

SUNDAY

Woke up quite sore from yesterday but not tired; Implemented my pre race rituals. One thing: Seems that I have to use the restroom a lot. This is true when I was running. I was so nervous that I had to use the restroom a bunch!

First thing I noticed: pace was really, REALLY fast and part of this has to do with the super Saturday I had yesterday. Legs were a bit tired but that was no excuse. I stuck my head out there and moved up with the pack little by little. I noticed a lot of little breaks at the front and a lot of wasted energy. These were mainly small breaks that would be reeled back in over time.

I was doing my best to identify the thalweg and I was in a really good draft. There were times I was barely pedaling but moving up somehow? Another thing was I marked 2 people and noticed where they were in the pack. One lap to go and I start to move up when they move. I love how people will go up and I just hop on the train where possible. But again, pace was FAST this time; that or I was just tired and had to work a lot. Not so sure yet. Anyways, I was in the bunch when the sprint happened and right when I was getting up to speed, I heard weird sounds from my bike and realized 2 spokes were bent and coming off. Bike was wobbly and I decided to not contest the sprint and just keep it safe. It was crappy, finished in top 20 but that’s pretty sorry in my head. I mean, might as well not finish at all.

I am feeling disappointed in myself and frankly, I just don’t like crits. No hill climbs and places where I can really rip legs apart. But re-reading what I just typed, I’m motivated for this weekend. I know I’m not good at crits but I also know I have the potential. But wow, if you look at the SRM HR’s were well over 170 for the duration so there was some serious work being done. Looking at the past .SRM files over time, I realize that each time, I’m getting faster, cadence is up, HR is up and power is up so there’s improvement. But I can’t help but get down on myself when I think ‘man, I should be killing these guys up and down’. There time will come soon.

Rest Day! OOOOOOOH YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Does the title give it away? Hmmm....

Let's just say I'm THRILLED tomorrow is a rest day. 2 interval days in a row = punishing. Right about now, I've got a full stomach of pasta [wasn't very good, eggplant and kalamata olives...err...not so good] soy yogurt and banana. Man that's good.

I had this sobering moment today. Whipped out the iPhone and checked the 7-day forecast for San Francisco. What did I get? Temperatures in the 50s with rain almost everyday. Switched over to Hawaii and found temperatures in the 80s, sunny. Sigh....that's life eh?!

In other less exciting news, I've become a huge fan of baked falafals! Man these are good! There's this place around the office that makes them vegan style. Spicy baked falafal, roasted potatoes, eggplant, hummus, lettuce and tomato on a homemade lavosh wrap = $6.75. Yeah, the weather sucks but the food [most important!] ain't that shabby at all. =)

Legs are screaming right now...

I think Lance Armstrong put it best when he described the sport of cycling - let alone all endurance sports. It is simply about being in total denial over everything. You have to be in denial that there is a tremendous amount of pain, be in denial that you love and respect yourself and most importantly, be in denial that you are fatigued.

For me, there comes a point in both my cycling and running where the mind is ready to roll, where there is a limitless supply of passion and drive, but the body cannot respond. Great example was today. I had to do some intervals on my bike and the targets were pretty good considering the workout [2 intense interval sessions, all within the SAME workout]. The first half, I went all out and left it on the 'field'. The result: a cespool of sweat and misery left around my bike and garage floor. My dad came down to get some paint for his art and said "wow, this looks like the aftermath of a World War 1 battlefield." The second half was so, so painful. There was a constant struggle between my mind and body. Simply put, my body just refused to turn the pedals despite my mind trying to 'will' it to do so. In the end, I ended up missing my target wattage by a significant amount but I feel good about it. Good that I didn't leave some in the tank to finish strong; instead, I went as far as I could, and then did the best job possible with what was left in the tank [which was already on 'E' for empty].

So there's my bit of training advice. When you have intervals, dont half-ass it until the last one and then blow it out of the water. Rather, all the REAL work is done prior to the last interval and EXPECIALLY the two sets prior to the final. Those are the ones that the legs will be totally fried but you have to will yourself to get through it. To give you an idea, my 'RESTING' heart rate [in between intevals] was between 170-163 bpm. Which means everything else was north of 170 bpm.

Know anybody going to bed early tonite? I sure as shit do. Night.

Man: 1 Machine: 0

Wanna know how the day starts off?

Typically, I'll have my alarm set for 5:20. Do I get up at that time? No. Hell No. Who does?! So I turn on the snooze and then roll around for the next 20 minutes, doing my best to wrestle with the morning and gain courage for stepping on a cold floor [man, I miss carpeting].

Bam, the TV goes on and I'm awakened with the Bloomberg Channel's opening bell show to see how markets are doing. Turn on the espresso machine cuz hey, what's a Monday without a decaf soy latte [many of you ask: "Alex, what the f*ck do decaf soy latte's do for you?". My response: "They help me whoop your ass up and down the hill."], and a big ass bowl of fruit salad. Add to this some raw vegan granola and Monday's start to look up.

Full stomach and bright-eyed, I open the door and am slapped in the face with 40 degree weather. At which point, my courage retracts inward and my covers look all the more appealing. Hop in the ride [94 Accord, cuz I roll real dirty like that....] and it's off to BART [Bay Area public transporation thingie]. While on the BART you can find me reading one of following magazines:
1) Runner's World
2) ProCycling Magazine
3) Road Magazine

And the job? Well, that's looking pretty good actually. I like and respect the people I work with and am THRILLED that I can roll to work in jeans, tshirt and my Inov-8 shoes. I see those poor blokes in shirts and ties and I sigh, nod my head and think "son, I have been to the top of the mountain...and it is good"

And that's the Monday commute.
In response to the lovely Miss Amelia - What the heck does 475 Watts look and feel like? Well, let's break it up piece by piece shall we? The light bulbs we have here are 60 Watts. Divide that into 475 and you get roughly 8 lightbulbs. In this room that I'm typing this blog post, we have 7 light bulbs plus the hallway makes 8. So basically, I can power half my house =)

In terms of what that feels like? Well, it's not so bad. It feels like a good level of resistance at first. Keywords: AT FIRST. And then the next 20 seconds roll by and your legs are absolutely screaming. 10 more seconds of insanity and it'll all be over. 10..9..8..7.......6........5.........4............3...........2.......................1...........................Done! Feels like friggin forever. And get this: You got 11 more to do.

Turns out that Kitchen-Aid also makes a plug-in appliance that people use for mixing. I have a picture of it above. That can generate power of up to 475 Watts. What I'm saying, is I can beat that egg faster than the machine. Yes. Man: 1, Machine: 0. So yeah, if you ever need flower mixed, or eggs beaten....ya know.....

Weekend Insanity

To make up for my weekend, here's a nice and long post =)

Friday - After my Thursday rest day, legs felt better but still sore. This being the second week of dedicated cycling, some of the interval days leave me a bit tired. Nonetheless, I got up and pounded out my intervals. Typically, I find that in the PM when I'm 'awake' and coming back from work, I do better in my training but there was no excuse that morning. Almost all of them were under 430 watts [target] but over 410 watts. In the PM, the session was okay but it's tough to do around here when it gets dark. Sigh...my how I miss Hawaii [and of course, the bikini-clad women holding surfboards!]

Sunday - Earlybird #2

We did cornering practice so the mentor ride dealt with cornering vs. pedaling through a turn. I tend to be a corner-guy myself, but it seems a lot of people favor the pedaling through. I also took notice of the field and recognized one of the guys that was in the break with me last week. I 'marked' him and was firm in my staying behind his wheel for a bit.

My strategy was to do nothing for the first 5 laps [back of the bunch] and then move up. Then on the final lap with one turn to go, I was going to try and get in a break to where it would come down to a sprint with a few guys and then turn on the afterburners.

2 laps into the race, I witnessed the chilling sound of carbon fiber hitting the ground and witnesses bodies gyrating in the air as some people touched wheels ATTEMPTING TO PASS ON THE INSIDE! Hmm, no thanks. I was caught behind the 4-person crash and 'threw' my bike [pushed my butt way back on the saddle while applying the brakes] and then clipped out to avoid the crash. I was worked back into the group but man, that was just ugly, ambulances came and everything. Yikes.

5 laps to go and I figure I might want to move up and begin grabbing wheels wherever possible, always conscience never to touch the wind. I also take note of the marked guy that I wanted to be behind. Anyways, laps 6-8, I begin to move up and up, getting into the top 15 and not surprisingly, so is my marked buddy who noticed that I was behind him. There was a team at the front driving the group which was pretty much single file for the most part.

Bells go off and there's the sign for the final lap. This lap is kind of hairy because most of the folks in the rear burned a lot of energy and caught up to our group so I found myself in a group of 20 guys going into the second-to-last turn. We take the second turn and I notice the legs from others aren't really turning the way they should and so, I figure let's have a small, small attack [a light one too, didn't even get out of the saddle] to see if we can break some people up. The guy whose wheel I had been on [the 'marked' guy] followed me and I put in a light attack just to get some room going into the turn. The marked guy went in front of me and I caught his wheel. However, I noticed we were slowing down significantly and you can see this on the SRM [sharp decline at the end].

Going into the final turn it was myself, the 'marked' guy and this other dude that had bridged the small gap. Suddenly, a group of 10-12 guys comes roaring by as we head into the final 200 meters. I realized that we had missed 'the real' break and the winners were well ahead. Upset, I motored ahead and beat my small group at the line and placed a miserable 11th.

Off-Day [finalllllly!] + failed photo shoot =(

So today was the first off-day I've had in 6 days. And man, this was sorely [get it!] needed. 2 days of back to back 2-a-day interval sessions = suck. Off-day filled with friends and family = better. I got up and slept in till 6:20am [wow, can't believe I said that!] and got up with a nice smile. Man, I do love me some off-days. Had some muesli with soymilk and then threw in about 20 strawberries, 2 bananas and a hefty sized orange. Wow. That was an awesome breakfast.

Went to work and programmed some SQL and for lunch, I'll be really nerdy and show you the syntax [in SQL].

USE Alex's Stomach

SELECT roasted eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, avocado, greens FROM

Cafe Cicils

WHERE bread = freshly toasted ciabbata

AND 1 banana

GO

BAM! Now some of you have wondered where those photos were. Sigh...they're coming. Truth be told, I ate all of it before I had a chance to do anything. Don't blame me...it was Tim Geitner, oh wait, the ex NY Fed Bank Chairman, errr...the devil =)

[if you don't know, check www.bloomberg.com].

Tomorrow won't be too pretty but hey, it's Friday and I can go to work at 10am. Best part about Fridays would be getting Vegan burritos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Vegan sour creme, black beans, brown rice, soy chikin', salsa and guacamole.

To summarize: Vegan burrito > Vegan sandwich

[not even close]

Training just hurts right now

Right about now, my legs are perched up on the desk as I write this blog...trying to drain the lactic acid buildup that is no doubt accumulating. The past few days, I've been a bit tired and difficult training really isn't helping the war effort. In fact, the past few days of training have been so hard, I'm beginning to question the meaning of life.

Apparently, buddha said life is suffering. Well friends, that rings ever true when I'm suffering on my bike. Interval sessions on the bike are similar to running sessions when one does interval training. Difference is, on the bike you can do MORE of them whereas in running the body really begins to break down [like...seriously].

I had this workout today that was so blisteringly difficult, even the pasta I made after it tasted bland! I mean, c'mon! That's pasta and for those of you following this silly blog, you KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE PASTA! That should tell you something.

So I'm going to make it up tonite and treat myself to a belgian beer. Ahhh, the simple pleasures. Work has been going well but I'm constantly freezing my brown-ass off in and outside the office. What is that Mark Twain once said? The coldest winter I've had was a summer spent in San Francisco? Some shit like that...can't remember.

Tomorrow: much, much, much needed off day.
Oh yeah...got this awesome sandwich I'll prolly snap photos of tomorrow.
Toasted ciabatta bread with avocado, ton of greens, roasted eggplant, peppers, zucchini and jalapenos to boot. All that and a freckly banana = one happy 25-year old kid. =)

Okay, on to the beer.
Cheers or as they say in Flemish: "Asmdjfklasngkn vjoebnjksenrjhb"
Okay that don't really say that but you get the idea!

New Job: Day Uno

So I'm working in San Francisco and let me just say, it's COLD. As in BRRRRRRRRRRRRR cold. Then again, my panzy-Hawaiian-sun-kissed self cant really say much especially to you east-coasters. Regardless, it's cold and thank god for warm tea. Chamomile is my preferred weapon of choice with some agave syrup. Hmm...think I'll go brew some of that right now.

-------15 minutes later-------------

Okay, we're good to go. Where was I? Ah yes, work. So I work at 388 Market Street which is near the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Really nice area and my commute is roughly 40 minutes. 40 minutes! That's way more than my get-out-of-bed-check-hair-and-go 10 minute commute in Honolulu. But here's the thing: There's a local and organic cafe across the street from where I work. So what was for lunch you ask? Grilled veggie sandwich with pesto on toasted french bread with a side salad. Yum.

Joined a gym called Equinox that was cool. Aside from awesome facilities, spa, indoor pool, lounge, cafe, juice bar, internet area, steam room and what not, the shampoo and soap are all from Kiehl's. Yeah. It's nice. Can you say 15-minute showers? Um. Hell yes.

My first bike race...

...well, it wasn't really a race per se as there were no 'placings' but rest assured, everyone one in my race [65 people] were all gunning to win. First things first: really good experience but I'm just no crit racer. I like climbing and road races and this was just off-and-on speed. Sometimes it was slow and other times it was getting fast.

Race - 10 laps, 4 turns.
Race started and that's when I switched the SRM on. First 5 minutes I was barely working and then the pace went up as jitters and attacks were thrown. Really kind of pointless in my opinion. This was my strategy going into the race [per recommendations of a good friend]: Sit tight in the bunch first 5 laps. At 5 laps to go, begin to move up. By lap 2, be in the top 10. On last lap, go with every attack but be sure to never touch the wind until final 100m, then go for it. First 5 laps, I just stayed with the bunch and never really was at the front. I just moved up where possible but let the idiots throw attacks for the first 5 laps.

With 5 laps to go, I decide it's time to break a sweat and move up a bit. Little by little I move up and start clawing my way to the top 20. With 3 laps to go, still stayed in the top 20 and moved up with people that were bracing the elements. Basically, I sucked wheel all day and tried to never touch the wind and have others do it for me. 2 laps to go, I'm in the top 15 people. Effort was mixed, sometimes I could feel it start to rev up and other times, I'm spinning at 180 watts or so. Really up and down and not one hard effort. With 1 lap to go, I place myself in the top 10 and it seems a lot of people are moving up so I think I slip into the top 20. Then approaching the final turn, this one guy [this was the winning move] launches an attack and I see 2 others following. I decide it's go-time and get down 2 more gears and go with this group of 4. We take the turn and this one fellow starts to sprint. I wait [my big blunder] for the other 2 to kick so that I can get a free ride up. In the end, I finished 4th and didn't even get out of my saddle!

So I KNOW I can go harder. Big lesson learned: Don't wait with final 100m to go.

Post New Year's Tomfoolery

So that's my dad doing what all painting-italian-studying-yogalates-retired guys do: make art out of anything, including my glass and my cousin's. Yes indeed, things in the Tellez family are pretty ho-hum.

Had my first ride today with a group of riders from the Clif Bar team. Fortunately for me, much of these guys go into hibernation for the off-season which meant I was in plenty good shape. Problem is the weather was in the mid-forties as we made fast desents and braced up to rain and strong headwind. Throw in the added benefit of thinned out blood from Hawaii and the fact that you're wearing cycling shorts and not long pants and well, you've got a sure fire recipe for freezing you ass off. And ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake, I FROZE MY ASS OFF.

As I was cycling, I looked left and right and was startled to find cows, green fields and cars, LOTS of cars. Palm trees? No. Mountain ranges? Nope. Bikini-clad women holding surfboards? Negative. Sigh...the choices I make.

In other news, tomorrow is my first bike race ever! An earlybird criterium in Fremont, CA. Oooooh boy, this will be interesting. Upon asking a good friend about crits, I was told "stay away from the idiots!". Yeah...problem with that is what the hell am I supposed to do if I'm an idiot myself?!?!?! More news at 11 =)

So this is home huh?

One night of restless sleep and dreams about playing poker with dogs, I woke up bleary-eyed at 3:38am to January 1, 2010. Upon pounding some water, I fell back to sleep, then got up again to the smell of coffee. Big whif of that is just what the doctor ordred for breakfast: 3 bananas and 1 Larabar. After that, I took Evelyn [bike] out of her box and realized just how fu*ked it was. There was a partially bent part and when I tried riding her, she complained all afternoon and I couldn't find the higher gears while climbing. so instead, I did 22 miles of hilly terrain in the big ring and middle cog - crap.

Soon after that, I took it to the only bike shop open today and BAM! Go ahead and light $120 on fire all for my Evelyn. Sigh...the things we do for love. But now she's good to go and after 3 vegan tameles [mmm mmmmmmmmmm!] and watching the OSU vs. Oregon game, I feel a lot better.

Right now, I should be excited about the new chapter in my life, full of zest and all that jazz. Instead, I'm a bit lethargic and am not ready to admit that Hawaii is temporarily gone. I guess it's because I make trips often and so I'm not 'feeling home' yet. It's like I'm waiting to go back in a few days but nope...not this time. And so my New Year's passed by, the real fireworks at the Tellez residence begins tomorrow. Whoa nelly.

Tomorrow, I'll be riding with the new team, Berkley Bike Club [BerkeleyBike.org]. We'll see how that goes...peace out son. Hope you and your's had a safe and vegan new year's.

Last Blog Post from Honolulu

The day is here that I'm leaving this islands for a bit. Soon to return for the Great Aloha Run in 2/15/10!
It's been real Hawaii.
No doubt, my life turned around 1080 degress on these islands. For that, you [Hawaii and my friends] have a very special place in my heart.

So many good things happened here and the people I met, the food I ate [and then ate again and again and again] will never be forgotten. I loved every minute of my time here and you will ALL be sorely missed.

And with that, I'll wave a shaka, say Aloha and do the head-thing.
Next time we talk, I'll be on THE LEFT COAST!

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT [in case you didn't see that in the title!]

I will be relocating from the beautiful, bikini-clad shores of Honolulu to the foggy and damp shores of San Francisco, CA on 12/31/09. As most of you readers know, I was severed from my job sometime in September and have been looking for jobs in Hawaii to no avail. Given these circumstances, I looked elsewhere and found a home working as a Senior Statistician at a company called Quality Planning. This group does risk analytics for car-insurance companies and I'll be on the research side.

Perks about it:

1) 22 days of PTO. Can you say Hello Hawaii in February!

2) Nice benefits plan

3) No aloha shirt and slacks.

4)...No slacks

5)...No slacks

6) Jeans and shirt = okay. tucked in = not required

7) Most importantly, it's interesting work! oh thank goodness!

8) Hours are fairly flexible. can take hours off the front and stay late, or come in early and leave early. Either way, it's nice that there are also work-from-home options too =)

And though I'm excited to push the re-start button, I will be leaving some awesome views and awesome friends behind in Hawaii. Thank god I'll be back often to race here. I owe so much to so many people that have helped me out. There are more names on that list than the US's terror watch list [and some of you belong on that list! =)]...errr...bad joke? nah. I left out the part about strapping-shit-to-undewear.

All in all, I am reluctant to admit that I'll be leaving the islands and quality friends here. To use a hackneyed line, "I found myself here". No, I really did though. I'm pretty sure I'm a cyclist who just so happens to run, rather than a runner that just so happens to cycle. But before this, I was a former-fat-ass-lard-slabbing-jelly-doughnut-yes-i'll-take-more-butter-on-my-biscuit kid. Now, I'm far from it and have no intentions of looking back. I'm going to take the next blog posts to recap some awesome memories about the islands I have and tips for those in Hawaii that want to know my favorite grinds.

"Leave the bike, ship the kale" =)

-Best said with a Scottish accent.

Somewhere in between, Xmas passed?

Whoa, and just like that another Xmas gone by. What made this one a bit more significant was that I was away from family for the first time in my short-lived life. And so the mexican hot-chocolate, vegan tamales, and unwrapping bundles of goodness would have to wait. Sigh...instead...I made the above pizzas! It was so good, even Jun liked it [look at his smile!]

Yep, those are vegan pizzas with TONS and I mean ASSLOADS of fixins' including: jalapeno peppers, caramelized onions, mushroom, pesto, sundried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, asparagus, eggplant, broccoli, raw vegan 'alfredo' sauce...and tons of other stuff. Basically it was so good, you'd want to slap yourself for eating anything different all these years.

Along with all that vegan goodness, we washed down all of that with Opus One wine, Vueve Cliquot champagne, a merlot, a pinot and a cab. That was the most alcohol I've consumed since grad school! And by most I mean like 5-6 glasses of wine and 1 glass of champange. I was totally roasted! But I think I'm entitled to this seeing as how it comes once [twice...three times...check that, four times] a year. Enjjjjjjjoy!

Xmas Chatter

All this talk of Xmas has got me tired and worn out! Ugh! Normally, I’m not this pooped but man, it’s been a long holiday season [and to think, it’s not even Xmas yet!]. Right now, the weather in Hawaii is roughly 80 degrees but the weather inside the office is close to 55..brrr….I’m shocked icicles aren’t sprouting from the ceiling yet. Pretty quiet day here in Hawaii and the office in general. I imagine things will come to a screeching halt in the coming days and so will my own training as I take some time too for holiday. Didn’t think I did that did ya?!

I’ve decided to try a new recipe inspired by the Garmin-Transitions team nutritionist Allen Lim. Obviously, I have “vegan-ized” it for my meat-less taste preferences but feel free to add your own twist on these rice-cakes.
NOTE: If you’re familiar with Hawaii then it’s like a musubi. For those familiar with Japanese culture and food, this is essentially an o-nigiri. Having said that, let’s get started on the ingredients I need to buy:
1) Brown rice [probably 1 cup should do for now]
2) 2 tsp of sesame oil
3) Furikake seasoning [seaweed with sesame seeds]
4) 2 tbsp wheat-free tamari OR Bragg’s liquid aminos [I like Bragg’s personally]
5) 1 tbsp agave syrup to give it a ‘teriyaki flavor’.
6) 1 packet of shiitake mushrooms.
7) [Optional] Raw-vegan ‘Parma’ powder [Like parmesan cheese but taste is waaaay better and obviously better for your health] to taste.

Combine all of this nonsense into a rice-cooker and blast away. I have made rice like this with meat back in my dark-aged-meat-eating days but this will be much better. Anways, after it cooks, stick in a brownie pan and make ‘bars’. Drizzle with some more agave nectar and tamari and put in oven a few minutes to get a nice crust. Then, pop tray in fridge and consume as needed. Because there are no meat-products and this is all vegan, it should keep for a little more than a week. I cannot and WILL NOT attest to this simply because most of the food I have never makes it one week anyways! =)

In other news…I ran 7 miles in 44 minutes this morning. My legs hurt now. Check that. They’re really sore. Can you say recovery ride?

Oh Mariah....what are you doing to me!

I walked into the office this morning to an interesting note written on my whiteboard [see photos]. If you've got eyes like mine, even bold, size 22 font wont do it for ya so I'll save you the trouble. It says "Dear Alex, All I want for christmas is you! Love, Mariah".

In truth a co-worker plays this damn song like every day - or rather, USED to. Seriously, it was on repeat1 I swear! I mean, I love Mariah and all [see older posts] but this song just was too much. Instead of getting in the Xmas spirit I would get mad! I was like 'ahhhh f*ck, AGAIN!'. And the CD that you're seeing, that's a burned CD, 12 songs deep of the same damn song: All I want for Xmas is you.

Good lord. Pass the vodka please =)

Diet:

Breakfast - fruit salad

Lunch - Miso marinated tofu with eggplant, brown rice, lime spiced coleslaw

Dinner - Oatmeal, almond butter, bananas, apples, blueberries and clif bar.

NOTE TO SELF: Say NO to cruciferous vegetables for breakfast and lunch. Not fun in my tummy. Super bloating...ugh.

7.5 miles today with extreme bloating. I swear...it's either cabbage or kale that do it to me! romaine? no problem. kale or cabbage? Let's not go there shall we...

What about Xmas?!

Given all the lights around town, I’m under the impression that some holiday is coming up? Oh that’s right, it’s Xmas. And what’s that mean? Shopping. How much of that have I done? *Some. More to go? A LOT. You see, most folks associate Xmas shopping with walking around malls, interlocking arms, laughing the day away while sipping on a peppermint mocha-fappuccino. Yeah…see, here’s the thing: walking around malls AFTER ripping your legs apart isn’t as appealing anymore. Add to this the ‘satisfaction’ of an afternoon run and online shopping becomes the clear winner.

Funny, I used to like doing the shopping thing but now it seems getting me out of compression tights, a solid dinner and a tall beer is virtually impossible. Speaking of tearing legs, Mike and I climbed Tantalus road yesterday and the highlight was the guavas consumed at the top of the road. Let it be known on this blog that in addition to mejdool dates, I AM A KNOWN MURDERER OF GUAVAS – in particular, strawberry-guavas. Wanna know what I’m doing tomorrow? Laps around tantalus with plenty of ‘guava-stops’ factored in. I’ll be sure to take photos of that one. On the descent we had the opportunity to see what downtown Honolulu and Waikiki looked like just as the sun was setting – breathtaking is the only word I can use.

Outside that, a pretty quiet Friday here in Hawaii. Getting ready for the weekend ‘festivities’ chief among which is to clean my condo and do some laundry. But before we can get there, an afternoon run down Waikiki Beach calls out to me. Guess I just never learn do I? =)

Aloha

AM: off-day on the bike [gasp!]
PM: 7.5 mile run
Diet –
Breakfast: Fruit salad
Lunch: Tofu-brown rice balls with hot-sauce and mock tofu ‘chikin’ strips
Dinner: Going to be Oatmeal, peanut butter, bananas, blueberries and apples.
Snacks: Clif Vegan protein bar, water, banana, protein shake

Whole lotta food today ya dag?

Pak dat Shiiieeet!

Roughly translated: “Kid, give up that running shit and concentrate on cycling!”. My buddy Mike utters this phrase to me and I guess it’s got some truth. It’s hard to have cycling AND running ambitions. And by hard, I don’t mean like solving differential equations…no, hard as in breaking down the body like crazy. Running and cycling is bad enough but combine this with running HARD and cycling HARD and you’ve got a recipe for trashed legs. And did I mention…do this everyday with 1 ‘off day’ [no running, but still cycling]. That shit adds up son.

Right now, I enjoy doing both but I see the turn coming. Either be a damn good cyclist and a middle-of-the-pack runner [not like I’m not already] or a recreational rider [yawn] but an elite runner. Tough trade off. That’s like asking me to pick between Mexican food and Thai food. No can. I’ve also fielded requests for dual’s, CX, and MTB. I listen, nod my head and say “word son, sounds like fun.”

Running gives me great, great, GREAT joy. There’s something about waking up, throwing on some shorts, lacing up your shoes, and keeping the appointment you have with yourself. By the same token though, there’s also something to be said about throwing down serious watts on the bike or climbing really steep hills [only thing I’m reasonable at]. The one thing about cycling I really enjoy and love is that it’s so hard and painful [I’ll refrain from my usual ‘that’s what she said’ comment]. Ask any cyclist worth his/her salt and the answer to the question: “What’s at the core of cycling” is unanimous – SUFFERING. Suffering is absolutely at the core of cycling. Don’t get me wrong, I suffer when I run but unlike cycling, there’s no such thing as ‘recovery’ [can’t just stop running in a race]. This is good because I can a) regain consciousness, b) regain blood-flow to my arteries, and c) feel my legs again only to suffer some more later.

But I’m not ready to make a call on running or cycling. All the runners I see say ‘damn kid, you’re built to run, go be a runner’, while all the cyclists I know say ‘Pak dat sheeeiiit’! Decisions, decisions.
Diet:
Breakfast – fruit salad with a hefty dousing of agave syrup
Lunch – Vegan burger on whole wheat bread and lime-spiced napa cabbage ‘slaw.
Dinner – Either pasta or oatmeal..haven’t made up my mind yet!

Aftermath of yesterday

1,246 kj’s later, my legs were completely trashed last night. We got out to a wicked-fast start and I can remember a good couple miles where my heart rate stayed north of 180 bpm! We slowed down a bit towards the climb of Hanauma Bay and on the way back but guaranteed, we were hauling some serious A-S-S for a while. Safe to say that when I got home, I pounded a SunWarrior raw vegan shake, a Clif builder’s bar and threw on the compression tights.

Good workout and just what I needed to help jumpstart those 4 days of inactivity last weekend. Honestly, I don’t remember going that long without running or cycling…scary shit. Safe to say the early morning recovery ride was needed and deeply appreciated. And now that the lactic acid has been all but drained it’s time to do it over again with a solid 7 mile effort because hey, what’s dinner without the feeling of exhaustion and borderline-starvation?

I don’t remember when but sometime in March when I got ‘really serious’ about my running [really serious = buying short shorts], food looked different. Food was no longer something to go out for, to reward oneself with, or to experiment a new cuisine. Food was – and currently is – fuel. It’s simply about fueling my body for the punishment / suffering that goes into running and cycling [not to mention at work!]. I don’t remember eating for the pure ‘enjoyment’ of eating…well, that’s not true. I remember that one year ago I memorized the subway daily footlong menu and would pound one of those for my lunch everyday [yep, but that on repeat one on your ipods]. Nowadays? That delicious fruit salad with some lemon and a LaraBar. Times change.

And on that note, it’s time for me to hit the pavement and go hustle out a run while my legs are still ignorant about what is to come. Here’s the daily log:
AM – Recovery cycle
PM – 7 mile run to the end of Waikiki beach and back. Bikini-clad women holding surfboards? Check. Dark Oakley sunglasses? Damn right =)

Diet:
Breakfast – fruit salad
Lunch – fruit salad [soo good, I had to have it again]
Dinner – Pasta with tofu.

NOTE: I would have had fruit salad for lunch too but ran out of bananas. =(

Early-morning-before-dawn-run? Yezzir!

“Woke up this mornin’ and feeling like P.Diddy”…or so the line goes anyways. For those of you young folks that listen to ‘pop music’, that was a lyric taken from Ke$ha’s song Tik-tok. Truth is, I did wake up this morning although without the P.Diddy-esque feeling.

Hoping to obtain this euphoric feeling of ‘I-rule-the-world-and-pop-bottles-of-champagne-and-date-hundreds-of-models-and-reside-in-Miami’, I set out for a solid run of 5 miles at an easy 6-minute-ish pace. Thing I dislike about running the morning is that it’s still dark in Hawaii. As such, I can hardly see the picturesque views of Waikiki beach let alone 3 meters in front of me.

Nevertheless, I knocked out 5 miles, drank my raw vegan protein shake, consumed my fruit salad mix and went to work happy and tired. Around 10am, my legs started to tighten and even now, I can feel soreness building up. No bueno. Why is that no bueno? Well, I am pounding some pavement on the bike in the afternoon and will need to do my best ‘No-really-I-am-not-tired-or-sore’ impersonation =)

Will let you all know how that goes tomorrow morning assuming I can a) get out of bed and b) find my computer.
Here’s the daily Log:
AM – 5 mile brisk run
PM – Cycle session

Diet:
Breakfast – Fruit salad with Clif protein bar
Lunch – fruit salad with soy mixed berry yogurt [giving this a try…]
Dinner – Pasta with tofu and arrabiatta sauce.
Snacks – water, banana.

Deuce-Five

Aloha all!

Somewhere between today [Monday, December 14, 2009] and last Thursday [12/10/09], I turned 25 years old. Holy crap. I was so jazzed because at 25, I would FINALLY be able to rent a car [!!] BUT in some states one must be 26. Sigh….and so, my bday was rather anticlimactic. Car rental policy = fail. Eating lots of good food and drinking champagne = success.

At 25 years old, I’m supposed to say that the world looks different, that I’m more mature [highly doubtful] and that my taste buds for fine wines have refined [more doubtful..or as some at my job would say “mostest doubteliest”…not joking here either]. In truth, the only thing that has changed is that my cycling tan-lines have become less prominent. And for those that know me, you know how much I pride myself on my ‘other’ t-shirt that adorns my body.

Did a quick weather check in SF, 38 degrees. Damn that’s colder than the blood running through my veins! The picture above is one among the many bottles popped for my bday. Veuve Cliqueot [positive this isn’t spelled correctly, but then again, not even the French can spell their own words correctly]. I missed some Bdays on 12/11 and so for those of you I missed, I toasted to your good fortune this morning as I put down a green smoothie composed of bananas, pineapples, blueberries, and kale. Not too shabby either.
Here’s to deuce-five. Let’s make it a good year

Back to running [hopefully]

The pictures I'm showing were taken at my pre-birthday birthday party [see later post on this] held at Phuket Thai. Nothing much, just a very small gathering of people. On the menu we had green papaya salad [a personal favorite], fried chicken [for the non-vegans], tofu pad-thai [too much sauce for me], and tofu coconut curry [personal favorite]. Naturally the vegan options were a favorite! =)

This week was good, climbed Tantalus in the big ring a couple of times. This pretty much shot my legs to holy hell and back and made running all but impossible. I'm telling you, this cycling shit is difficult! Today though, I got back on the good and righteous path to enlightenment. In the AM, I had my decaf soy latte and went out for a recovery ride of 30 minutes. Work and then a solid 8 mile recovery run tonite. Felt good but that's probably because the pace was incredibly pedestrian - hence, recovery run.

Here's the daily food log:

Breakfast - Green smoothie.

Lunch - Fruit Salad [see later post]...this is delicious when you refrigerate prior to eating.

Dinner - Brown rice pasta, tofu, arrabiata sauce.

Snacks - Water, Clif protein bar, Raw vegan protein shake[s].

Word son.

p.s. Rie was kind enough to get me a raw vegan chocolate cake! Wow! Was it good? Um, hell yes. Check that. Fu*k YES! You're all wondering how many slices did I have? 3 including Alex's crust and Lydia's cake [she said the raw vegan cake was TOOOOOO sweet!]

Rain Rain Go Away...

Was sooooo excited to skip outta work and go riding with my soon-to-be-employed friend Mike. I ran out, changed into a partially torn Liquigas-Doimo kit and cycled to our usual meeting point. During the way there, I noticed the dark clouds looming overhead and the ridiculous amount of traffic on the road. You see, the problem with living in Hawaii is that it's an island; thus, at 5pm, everyone and their sister takes to the road and there simply isn't enough space. For those that have never been to the islands, there are only THREE highways. Wanna guess their names? H-1, H-2 and H-3. Nice.

Anyways, we set out to ride for a bit and got dumped on with rain hard at the end. At which point, we turned around and hobbled back home. Certainly not enough of a workout to justify all the calories I consumed but hey, when is it ever?!

Waikiki is also pretty hairy to cycle because of the crowds that sometimes have exceptionally beautiful women. At which point, steering into a pole as Tiger Woods did becomes plausible. Okay, bad joke, bad joke. But seriously, the Japanese Travel Bureau AKA JTB has a trolly that takes hordes of Japanese tourists [see above photo] around the 'scenic and friendly' parts of Oahu and oftentimes, those tourist busses have some giddy high school girls that scream at the sight of a cyclist, let alone runner with no shirt on. Normally I'd take donations but it's tough to catch all that change while running / cycling =) Again, I kid, I kid.

Tomorrow is my pre-birthday birthday party. You read that correctly. Just like at 10am I eat my pre-snack snack...this is kinda the same thing. Of course, there will be vegan food, probably some beer and wine...hopefully not mixed together - did that waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much in college. Hope your day wasn't filled with rain, traffic, giddy tourists [not so bad], and people who can't drive.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday.

Visit to the Doctors

Today I went in for my final visit to the doctor's office to check up on my hand from run in with the car a few months ago. Though I have no finger nail, the doc says I'm 100% healed but the bone in the top half of my thumb still shows some fracture signs. It healed quickly for which I'm grateful for!

And thank heaven too...my Campy ergo-shifters work if you have working thumbs! Prior to that I was "index-finger shifting" which was hairy at best. But now, I can use my thumbs and shifting is obviously much better.

Apparently, your finger nail grows back in 3 month 'phases'. First 3 months the nail looks gross [like it is now]. Next 3 months it gets a lil better and then the final 3 months, the nail is 'as good as it's gunna get'. Guess I got 8 more months to go so we'll see. Would take a photo but it's kinda gross in fact. I'll just leave you on a good note: got out and ran my ass off for 7 good miles to Kapiolani Park and back. Good effort but man, it's getting darker and colder earlier. Translation = I took a 10 minute shower when I got back and sat in the hot tub. Was even thinking about a glass of wine but then I thought better of it and pounded a beer. =)

Shit, IT'S HARD TO BE A WOMAN

Okay, this post kinda has nothing to do with running or cycling but something I felt compelled to write about. Went into Long's Drugs today [no longer on the mainland, we have this in Hawaii] and I was buying St. Ives apricot scrub and this woman next to me had a basket full of different soaps, creams, creams of soaps, soaps of creams and all this other crap that I knew nothing about. I looked at her and smiled and said 'that looks complicated...thank goodness mens products aren't that bad!'. She then proceeded to tell me the subtle differences between various anti-wrinkle creams and how one promotes collagen while the other depletes it...basically, sounded like ancient greek to me. Best I could do was nod my head in bewilderment.

And so there's my statement today, man it's rough being a woman. Gotta decide and do a ton of stuff that most men have no f-ing clue about [nor care about]. Respect son.

How you can tell the difference between various nail polishes and colors is beyond me. Myself, I keep it stupid and simple...just get Dr. Bonner's all in one soap. But ahhhh...talking some sense into women is sometimes more complicated that a denuclearization conference between the US and North Korea...simply won't happen.

On that note...had a good morning run. Nothing too crazy and epic due to the afternoon bike ride. Solid 7.5 miles...I'll put in 8 tomorrow and will drag my panzy ass to bed on that note.

Good fight, good night <--Remember Celebrity Deathmatch on MTV2?!?!

Grocery Shopping with Alex Part Deux

I need to preface this blog post by stating that mama tellez stocked me up with some quality groceries which include:

1) Almond milk [yum]

2) Roasted eggplant tomato sauce [yumm <--Note one more 'm']

3) Frozen blueberries, blackberries and raspberries

4) Celery...lots and lots of celery.

Now that we got that shit straight, let's get to what's in the basket shall we? This weeeeeeeek:

5) 2 bags of frozen pineapples. I'm basically going to make my delicious fruit salad all week.

6) Hummus - because hey, how else am I supposed to eat all that celery?

7) Lavvazza Italian Decaf Espresso [one shot of this is more than enough for me]

8) Ricera Mixed Berry soy-free, gluten-free "yogurt"

9) Bananas...can't get enough of these bad boys.

10) Apples, I'm recently on a chilled apple fetish.

11) Kale for morning smoothie

12) Chalula Hot Sauce! Can't find this anywhere! Stuff tastes sooooo good too!

13) Guiness Beer. More proof that buddha loves me =)

Put in 7.35 miles running a slow pace. Definitely a recovery run given the hell that is to come tomorrow. Can you say 9 ass-whooping miles in the AM followed by a bike ride in the PM? Ummmmm yea...I think the word you're looking for is: F#$%!

Soooooooo not looking at my bike tomorrow

gjgfkdajkdhksnieroeorjijkdlkkjknkjdfhihohwherieirwueiuficksdnkljdkfnds

That's how I'd describe my feelings right now for physical activity. I'm beat today and my legs - well, I don't think I have legs.

I sat and soaked in the hot tub and while that should make things feel better, my legs are still trashed. Let's see, how to describe it....not as bad as post-race day but resembles the feeling I get when I do my long runs.

Went grocery shopping today and I'll let you in on what was bought at whole foods. I felt the need to reward myself - this is a constant need btw - so I'm sipping a beer right now. I think old age is catching up to me =) Hard to believe I'll be the big deuce-five in 11 days. Crap. =)

My hope is that your legs aren't as trashed and that you can keep your eyes open for more than 9 seconds. I've passed out twice writing this short post...shameful isn't it.

Delicious Fruit Salad

I got this recipe from the Cervelo Test Team's [pro cycling team] website where it lists their post-ride meal when they're doing their long 3-week stage races. Obviously, I've doctored it up a bit to no include refined sugars and stuff and I have attached 2 photos for you to see!

It's got everything the athlete needs. Carbs, good fats and some protein (4:1 ratio, carbs to protein). Here's what you'll need [feeds an Alex-size person]:

2 bananas sliced

1 orange, peeled and chopped

1 crisp red delicious apple

a round or two of fresh pineapple

1/2 lemon

some blueberries

raw granola if you got it, otherwise, a coarsely chopped LaraBar would suffice

some agave nectar

Chop fruit in chunks, add to bowl. Squeeze some lemon juice over the fruit salad, then top with raw granola and a generous drizzling of agave nectar. final step is obviously to devour!

As a note, that's the ricera yogurt I'm eating [made from brown rice and obviously, vegan]. Best flavor so far is strawberry.

p.s. I have to mention this or else I get my ass kicked. Went into Victoria's Secret today and smelled the scent "Very Sexy Hot" which smells very sexy - which, is ALSO a very good scent! I can see why women wear this...very good smelling for the record. Sigh...okay, now that my dignity is trashed I'll recover the parts with an electrolyte drink and compression tights. Hotness.

Happy "No turkey for me, thanks" Day

Aloha from sunny Waimanalo Bay Beach, Oahu!

Had a great Thanksgiving day with the family. Started off with a nice cup of tea, and then a 55 mile ride at an early 6:30am [man that's early]. But hey, gotta work to burn off those calories! Saw a lot of people on the road surprisingly. I was thinking, damn, these people were up before me and I was up at 5:50 on a holiday. Crap.

After the ride, I quickly showered, shaved and was back at home to get my parents. We stopped by Down to Earth foods where I got my Thanksgiving day meal which consisted of:

2 slices of gluten-free vegan 'pizza' with roasted tomatoes, tofu and caramelized onions, mock 'chikin' salad, 5 slices of seitan 'turkey' with garbanzo gravy. Kapow, put all those lost calories back in one sitting! =) My dad witnessed what he called 'a shameful display of gluttony' as I pigged out on the beach with the family.

For dinner, I had an amazing fruit salad that I need to share with all of you. Awesome recipe and stupid simple. You'll love it, promise.

Line of the day:

[while dad is driving]

Dad: You [Alex] drive with a lead foot and your mother has tunnel vision. Everything clear on the right? [he's making a left turn and asks my mom this]

Mom: I dunno, I have tunnel vision so I guess it looks alright!

Classic stuff!

Once again, pics from the beach and my parents passed out.

Someone mentioned Thanksgiving today?

Faster than I can say "No turkey for me thanks", it's the eve of Thanksgiving. and my, what an interesting Thanksgiving it's been. This time last year, my parents were visiting me on the islands and spent Thanksgiving. You can see a picture of my mom and dad sleeping on the beach looking like a pair of beached whales! [thank god no whalers were there!]

At the time, I was still a pretty overweight kid as you'll notice from the photo [contrast this with the one of me sipping fresh coconut water in June this year! OR the one of me sharing some raw vegan desserts with one of my hanai mothers]. It's crazy because this lifestyle that I currently live, basically: eat, sleep, rest, cycle, run, shit, shave has been on repeat for an incredibly long time. And while it feels like I've been doing this my whole life, the truth is 1 year ago I was no where near where I am today. 2 completely - and I mean COMPLETELY different people now.

There's a lot to give thanks to and I'm going to save that blog post for tomorrow but for now, I'd like to give a hearty 'thanks' to life for always giving people chances to remake themselves. Ask my parents or anyone that knew me before what I'm like now and the answer will be pretty unanimous: night and day. And that's the beauty of life...that we get to reinvent ourselves many times over.

...And so, green smoothie in hand, cheers to you life. Despite your cruelty and unfairness at times, I can't imagine a life that is different then the one I have now =)

Spending the day with family tomorrow and we'll probably watch some movie and eat at the beach. Will be sure to take plenty of photos. Have a good Turkey day everyone, and if you can help it, go easy on the meat.

Some might call it distasteful...

...in regards to the provocative photo of Lady GaGa that I have. In truth, I chose that photo among many for precisely that reason: shock. I think part of what gives her that unique panache is her lack of conformity to things most fine "normal". Take for example the above photos taken at concerts. That's what she wears and let me say, it turns heads - more than once! So for the few that find it distasteful.."there's nothing else I can say" =) [know what song that's from!]

In other news, been getting into fuyu persimmons a lot and right now they are falling. Super sweet and jelly-like in the middle. Been making some killer green smoothies using blackberries. Here's the recipe

1) frozen blackberries

2) 2 bananas

3) lots of kale

4) 1 pear

5) water

Blend, whip, and enjoy!

Lady GaGa - The Fame Monster

Ummm....hell yes! Lady GaGa's highly anticipated album, The Fame Monster released today and there are two words that I think describe it best: HOLY SHIT. Let's forget that whole what-gender-is-she-he-argument for a moment and take the album for what it is: DOUBLE URANIUM! [not even platinum son! too good for that! for those of you Chappelle Show lovers, that term was from what skit??????]

It was so good, I made a separate iTunes playlist which is basically the entire album. Which begs the question, why the hell did I need to create a playlist when the album would suffice? Good question. My guess: Senior moment. Cuz in like 3 weeks, I'm turning the big deuce-five! A quarter century old. 75 years away from being a centenarian! Social security, senior rates at movies, and Ross's Senior Appreciation Tuesday's here I come!

Before I conclude this post with more Lady GaGa awesomeness, let me also give a big shout out to everyone in the Yay Area. Soon, very soon, I have some good news to reveal.

Until then, you'll just have to hear me blab on about Ale-Ale-Alejandro 24/7 =)

***********NOTE!!!!**************

Dear Dad -

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for naming me Ale-Ale-Ale-jandro.

-Alejandro

TIRED...flat out TIRED.

Lately, I've been really, REALLY tired. Dunno why really. My coaches say because my season is all but over there is a feeling of lethargy running rampant throughout my 139lb body. Right now, I just want to lay down the base going into the offseason - especially as we get closer to December and weather in Hawaii gets "colder" [65 degrees = BRRRRRRRRR!]

Having said that, I put in some okay-miles on the bike and some okay-miles running. My legs will certainly feel it but hey, that's why they make recovery tights no?

Even now as I type this, my eyes are getting pretty heavy and it's not the beer I had either! More than likely it has everything to do with my body saying "Hey Alex, let's take a few weeks and just put in some easy base miles and then ramp up again mid-December." Chances are, that's just my lame excuse that I'm not ready to but out intense run workouts juuuuuust yet. Enjoying cycling and learning and living.

But I wanted to let you all know that I'm still here and still kicking - just not as hard right now. Things will ramp up slowly as I put in more miles but for now, the little break has been good. And with 12/31 drawing closer, I need to focus on some job-related things anyways. sorry about the blog delays...my body is pooped [would say my mind is pooped also but this wouldn't be any different from an ordinary day!]

Race Day Photos

Here are some photos of race day taken at the event.

...and yes, this is a cop-out for blogging today. waaaaaay too tired to think about what to write so here you go.

Now, we hit the restart button

Okay, tomorrow, it's time to rock and roll with the running again. Indeed, I love, love, love cycling but I need to get back into running if I'm to have any shot at being in decent condition for Honolulu. Tried to eek out an 8 mile recovery run but then quit around mile 6 due to some intense bloating. Truly sucked to be out there. Every two miles I had to pee and my stomach felt full of water despite not drinking any for 4 hours prior to running. Lesson: NO MORE CABBAGE.

Been having some serious fun with my espresso machine [thanks Andy!] and it's been a learning process. My dad still drinks a ton of coffee so I make him espressos on it; still haven't figured out how to do the single-shot illy packs yet but small steps...

Been sleeping a lot too, wonder if that's just my body getting tired on me and not feeling 100% recovered. Although I do feel that way. Odd no? So starting tomorrow, regular training regimens will begin again and I'll be back to running hard / cycling hard. Lucky for me, Mike has a pretty similar schedule so we'll be pushing pedals all afternoon tomorrow. Night everyone.

Vicious attack!

I was in Kahala with my parents for the day and we were grocery shopping and just futzing around for the most part when suddenly, this rabid t-rex tries to take a chunk of my face off! Lucky for me, I'm trained in last-second-t-rex-attacks-martial-arts so I knew the only way to ward off this creature it try and outrun it. Good thing I had on my Nike Air Max's =)

It's been really nice having family here. They're staying through the end of the month which is cool. However, we had this god-awful thai coconut curry today...nothing at all like phuket thai. This one was lacking coconut milk and heavy on ginger....ugh...pretty lackluster. BUT, we did buy a bunch of Oogave Soda ['soda' made with agave nectar...no sugars, no caffeine, no gluten]. Rootbeer and Watermelon cream soda are my personal favorites!

Hope you all had a pleasant weekend and were able to stay away from all those crazy t-rex's runnin' around the place. It's Jurrasic Park in this place~

And just when you thought it was over...

....MORE tan-lines!!! What do you think of those bad boys! Sexy huh?! Yeah....I'm quite proud of these legs, where they've been and how hard they've worked. Notice those lines too! I think I'm one of the few cyclists on the islands that is actually proud of tan-lines. Like a badge of courage, I show them to all. What's worse is when I run in the dark, you can REALLY see those lines. Grosses me out just thinking about it.

Oh man, after a solid 7 mile run effort yesterday, my legs pretty tired this evening. I eeked out a meager AM cycle followed by a recovery 6 mile run. Tomorrow will be a gnarly effort. Lots of cycling in the AM, hopefully get a haircut before I embark on a 16 mile run. No more recovery, no more taper-up period. Full gas for the next 2 weeks before another 2 week taper down. Sigh...thank god there is no goal attached to Honolulu.

Listening to: Doorman by the Clipse

The Album: Till the Casket Drops [almost all produced b Neptunes]