8.30.09 No ride again

The whole past week was wasted. Plenty of stuff gave me the excuse to slack off, including big fire in La Canada. The whole San Gabriel Valley was covered in smoke. Nasty stuff.

8.26.09 BJ's

Wed ride shot to hell. It was triple digits in the valley. Fire in Azusa canyon, and La Canada produced too much dust for me to handle. Perfect timing for the AC to go out. Finished the day off at BJ's with beer and pizza with the guys. How long of a ride to burn all that off? Oh, boy. Next ride...Sat. We'll see.

8,24.09

Normally, Mon would be a ride day. But there's too much stuff to do at work. By the time I'm done with work, I just want to lie down, no motivation to ride. Hate to missed this one. Daylight is getting shorter. At least it's Naga Naga for dinner. Hopefully...ride Wed.

Rose Bowl ride 8.23.09

Did the usual 5 laps - 15 miles. Something of a time trail. Pretty bad time - 59:40. Really got to stop eating.

8.22.09

It's the weekend, Sat. Couldn't bring myself to do a real ride today. So I thought it's a good time to check out the gym equipment at 24 hr fitness sports Arcadia. Spent 20 mins on the stationary bike. It's more of a recliner, and not very comfortable. Feels like the feet are gonna slip off. But it does have a fan...and HD tv's mounted in front. After the ride, I did some back workout with the weights. I don't really like this place. LA Fitness on Lake is still better I think.

Rose Bowl...walk 8.19.09

After spending and ending so many vacations with foot pain and blisters, I decided I need to take my shoes shopping seriously. No more shoes off the sales rack for me. After stopping at a few stores, I ended up at New Balance. I got my foot measured, my walk analyzed, and some shoes recommendations. I already know that I have flat feet, but what I didn't know was that my feet is wider than normal. I'm around a 2E instead of a standard D. Needless to say these are the most I paid for shoes without cleats or skates on it. It's one of the most comfortable pair of shoes I had in quite a long time. So, just to make sure there would be no issue, I ditch my bike on my usual Wednesday ride for a walk around the Rose Bowl. I had Haley dog with me to keep me company and a little extra workout. I went at a good pace, and finish the three mile loop in about 50 min. Afterwards, there was no strange foot pain or blister, which is what I was hoping for. But ended up with a sore knee instead. Probably from the extra push. For now I say, it's because I always have some knee issue, and haven't work out my legs on the ground for a couple of years.

Wish I didn't forget my monitor. Wonder how much cal I burned walking?

North Pasadena by Howard 8.16.09

Getting kinda tired of riding around the Rosebowl. So, I'm trying to find an alternative training route around Pasadena, away from the cars, and through a more scenic route. The City of Pasadena promotes cycling, so I thought, I should use the Pasadena public works map as a guide. The route I'm interested in runs west on Howard, then I figured I'll improvise a southern route to the Rosebowl and loop back to Hasting where I start. I figured that I could probably squeezed out about 16 to 20 miles maybe.

So when I actually started my ride, I forgot if I was supposed to go up Altadena or Allen. I head up Altadena, and couldn't figured out where my left turn was supposed to be. The map on my GPS tells me if I head up Altadena, it'll connect to Allen. Then take Allen south to Howard then head west. Altadena north, had just enough incline to keep my heart rate up high (doesn't take much). And not knowing when it ends, I couldn't pace myself properly, but in the end, it was a good workout. The rest of the ride was just about finding my way home. This is my second venture into northwest Pasadena. This northwest passage was sketchy. I came to realized that there is no good ride through northwest Pasadena. Public Works just want to screw with people. Oh well. I suck it up and made improvise way west, then down Orange Grove, and then east on Walnut/Foothill back to Hasting.

The whole route was 17 miles. Took me a damm hour and a half to finish the ride. The only thing I like was ride up Altadena. On the bright side, my heart rate monitor tells me I burned 1500 cal. But then I put it back and then some at Castaways buffet just an hour later. Damm, no weight loss today.