memoryloot

So this weekend marks the last weekend of training before the actual race. I think I’m ready for this race. On Saturday I witness my team mate be the first one out of the water after swimming .5 miles in the ocean. I got on my bike and rode the best I could. The last time I trained at Zuma, it took me about 1 hour and 12 minutes to finish 18 miles. This time I was able to get 18 in exactly 1 hour! My consistent pedaling these past 3 months has certainly paid off in huge dividends. I was able to run my 4 miles without stopping afterwards. I was able to catch up and keep up with my boss who by mile 2 broke away from me and was probably about 5 seconds ahead. I felt so great after it was all done. I was so hydrated that I had to pee 3 times on the way home. That should be a record of some sort.

Another good thing that happened this weekend was that I found 2 articles of my possession which I thought was long lost. Such a fulfilling feeling to have my stuff back. I’m bad for needing these items. I also got a new memory card for my new digital camera. Can’t wait to take better quality pictures.

I’ve been bad at keeping my “Album” section updated. Even though I’ve been posting pictures from my Flickr account, having complete albums is much easier on my own site. I decided to upload another album from last month’s visit to San Diego. We went to my first NFL preseason game as a spectator. I’ve worked at Raiders game before in high school but this was much better being there and enjoying the game.

Hopefully the next updates will have pictures of the race. Stay tuned.

I decided to do a few things as part of my adventure for this beautiful Los Angeles Saturday. I pedaled up to my favorite train stop in South Pasadena and took the North bound train towards Pasadena. It was my first time riding the Gold Line up to the last stop in Sierra Madre. From there I made my way down 4 stories of car parking and rode over to Harbor Freight, Pasadena location. For those who don’t know what Harbor Freight is, it’s a store where you can find all sorts of miscellaneous tools and items you wouldn’t find at your local hardware store or even at an auto parts store. It was great because they had so many tools for all sorts of things.

I then cruised over to Sears across the street and bought a 15mm wrench. I finally used a gift card that had $0.94 of credit! One less card to carry. I made my way out of Sears and took the train to the Bike Oven. At the Oven, I had some time to work on my bike. I had to tighten up the chain ring bolts and rewrapped my handlebar. By time everything was over it was 5PM. Me and one of the volunteers decided to go get smoothies in Chinatown. We rode our bikes from Highland Park area and chilled out and chatted for about 30 minutes and went our separate ways.

I took the Gold Line and then transferred to the Red Line and got off Hollywood and Vine. From there I proceeded to the theatre that was having the 2008 Bicycle Film Festival. I was greeted by Mr. Rollers, a very well known photographer for the Midnight Ridazz. He offered to valet my bike and so I allowed.

First time getting my bicycle valeted and I don’t mind it at all, unlike car valets. I waited in line until 7:30 rolled around and we all finally got to see some movies about bicycles. It was inspiring. When we got out, the line for the next program was long! I wanted to stay back and catch this last showing but I was hungry and tired so I bolted out to the train station.

The train was crowded with families who spent their day at Universal Studios and were heading back home. I know because they were holding souvenirs. I got off at the Civic Center stop hoping to catch a bus and try using the bike racks in front of a bus for the first time. I waited almost an hour and no bus came so I got fed up and road home from Downtown LA to Alhambra. Fueled by popcorn, a smoothie, and a power bar from earlier in the day, my head was pounding as I made my 7 mile journey at 11PM. I quickly stopped by Yoshinoya and picked up a chicken bowl with a cup of water. A well deserved meal that eased the headache and my sore legs.

Not bad for a 19 mile day (according to my cyclometer).

No time to post a detail rant but here are the photos. We made it back a week ago and was delayed once again.

Lesson learned… Always check-in at least an hour before your flight takes off. We arrived 37 minutes before our flight and was denied boarding until 1:35PM. Our flight was suppose to leave at 7AM. Yes, 6 hour delay. To top it off, we didn’t even get to make that flight and was asked to wait another 2 hours. We didn’t get into Boston until 12:10AM.

At least we made it here and collected our luggage, which arrived before we did. Time to get some shut-eye. It is almost 5AM here! Yikes!

The ride back was another story. The train was crowded and getting into Pershing Square was interesting. Lots of people walking around. More hustle and bustle than I’m used to in Downtown LA. I almost got lost because I didn’t know where my bus was suppose to pick me up. It worked out fine since I got on a bus with open seats. Eventually along the trip the bus got crowded to a point that the bus driver denied entry for some people at a stop. It gave me the opportunity to explore the carpool lane heading East into SGV. It’s a hidden lane which starts near the Union Station. The lane runs in seclusion from the way we’re used to seeing. The Cal State LA stop leaves you at the bottom of a bridge where you either take the elevator up or take like 10 flights of stairs so that you can cross over to the campus. My bike was still securely locked up. I got home with my back soaked in sweat. It was cool but not cool enough to be wearing a jacket.

I’m definitely going to try to commute this way as much as I can. It was stress free and fun. I felt like I did something to help our over congested freeways and took another car off the road.

I came into work as described in my previous posting. Left the house at 7:30 AM to ride to Cal State LA. I locked my bike and walked over to take the bus. The bus came right on time and I didn’t even have to wait. When I switched over to the train, same deal with no waiting. It was so convenient. I got in about 8:49 AM. Not bad for a stress-free commute.

The bus was a bit crowded but I eventually found a seat. The train was practically empty. My theory is that we have more people driving into work than taking the train, therefore trains are rarely crowded. Other places like NYC, the subway commuters outnumber automobile commuters.

Last weekend we took some time off to go camping. Not just the plain tent camping but rather RV camping. It was our first time staying over and camping in a RV. RV was provided by my sister’s friends. The location wasn’t anything desirable but the experience was great. We didn’t have our camp fire but we did have a warm RV to sit around and chit-chat. Not to mention home cooking straight from the kitchen of the RV.

It was interesting seeing how people setup and pack up their RVs. I may consider getting one later in life. Much later in life. But for now I’m fine with tent camping. One thing for sure, I’m not camping in the winter!

Finally! The last set of photos from our vacation trip. We went back into Seattle and had some dim-sum in Chinatown and walked around the streets of Seattle. We eventually ended up in SeaTac (their airport) for our flight home. It was a good trip filled with so many memories and sights to see. I won’t forget how much fun we had. You can see from the photos everyone had a good time.

On the 9th day of our vacation, we went to eat dim-sum in Richmond, British Columbia. Hands down the BEST dim-sum we ever ate! I’d go back to Vancouver just to have another meal. We spent most our time coming back into America. 2 hour wait at the border. We even had guys selling ice cream in between the 2 lanes. We then took a detour out to Microsoft. Nothing really to see but plain buildings. We drove around trying to find where they developed the Xbox 360. No luck. We eventually made it back to Tammy’s place.

On this day, we had a quick breakfast at McDonalds. Funny to see that there is a “Canadian Idol” ad on the walls of the restaurant. We took the ferry across to Victoria. Endured a 1 hour ride into town and walked all over the place. Almost got stranded there due to a bomb threat on the way back. Luckily they loaded everyone in a huge cruise ship and we made it back ok.