November 4th
Ralph Macchio turned 44! Now even I am feeling old, he was the bloody Karate Kid when I was a kid.
Terrell Owens is absolutely out of his mind. Trade him back to SF so he can learn some humility. I'd like to hear what he would have to say about Cody Pickett.
Slept pretty late today (7:15) since I was up late last night. Joel was just holding his Care Bear staring at his girlfriend staring at him on the computer. Glad I had the Star Wars DVD to keep me from strangling him. I got to the DC at 7:30, and picked up some oatmeal a small non glazed donut, a muffin, and some cereal. Banana pudding in the oatmeal, but that didn't make it any less plain, should have just stuck with the sugar free sweetener. So I ate 2/3 of it. I had fruit as usual, and water. Could have eaten more but just left. The weather looked okay, how naive I am. I got riding with my backpack full of stuff, including my laptop, and headed towards Saratoga. The start off the ride was basically looking for a restroom. Not an easy task when there are no parks along the main route. On Campbell Ave. I found Campbell Park and that saved me further discomfort. Then I made my way to Saratoga, the weather didn't look nice but I thought it was just cloudy like on Mt. Hamilton. After yet another nature stop, I slowly make my way up the 2200 foot gain road. And I was struggling, I felt okay but was going slow, and the roads were getting wetter, and wetter. It took me 40 minutes to go the 7 miles, pretty slow, whatever. I planned to go down highway 9 because it is the easiest route. But the roads were soaked, and it wasn't looking to be getting better. It wasn't so bad, but the further I descended to wetter is was getting, and then some raindrops. Pretty ominous. As I pass the route 238 junction it is clear I should have worn my spare Carnacs. Then on the outskirts of Boulder Creek, there was a downpour, I hadn't been rained on like that for a while. I was really trepidatious on my descent, not wanting to ride in the shoulder or on that slippery white line. Add to the fact I'm freezing, but what can you really do to when its wet? I mean no matter what you'l be soaked, unless you are wearing a wetsuit you'll be soaked, your feet will be soaked, your bike will be soaked, you just have to suffer through it and not ride any longer in it than you have to. The rain would stop in Boulder Creek but the roads were still soaked. And the traffic, lord the traffic, I just wanted to scream "WHERE ARE ALL OF YOU GOING!!!!!" So many cars, does anyone work! If I slowed you down or made you 10 seconds late I don't apologize, and never ever will. When I get to Felton I decide to go on Graham Hill Road, never again, I forgot how long the climb was. It is easier to go through Scotts Valley. On the climb I actually spun out the back wheel, because it was 9% wet and I was on the white line. It was pretty scary trying to restart in the wet, and with all the cars. Finally I was going downhill again and just as the weather and road were drying out and the ugly day was looking sunny... . An accident, someone had hit a motorcyclist, and he looked pretty bad. At the risk of sounding terse, that stamped no matter if I find a bag of money on the street it was a bonafide crappy day. \
Finally I make it to Santa Cruz, and I guess it was the adrenaline (or my bladder) but I really hammered back to Aunty Charlotte's house. Man was I a mess, my bike was covered in debris, my pants, shoes, and socks were soaked, my legs were very dirty, luckily the plastic bag I put my computer, and notebook in protected that investment. But still wasn't feeling good, but a warm shower made a big difference. That felt good. Then I ate my after ride sort of meal. Cheerios with yogurt, carrots, a banana, and some other stuff. I then watched TV and picked at the food in the house until later. Aunty Charlotte made a curry dish that was pretty good, with rice, asparagus, cucumbers, spinach, string beans, and this chicken she bought at Ralph's I liked it even though she said it was so dry. Nothing is to dry to me...I'm full but still hungry? TV 'til late (11), saw this thing on PBS about sandwiches, or they could have been called coronary bipasses between bread. I don't agree that fat makes things taste better, but I seem to be in the minority.
November 5th
Got up at 4 in the morning to use the bathroom, when I tried to go back to bed I couldn't breathe through my nose. It's hard for me to fall asleep breathing through my mouth. I had to use my entire massive lung capacity to force out whatever was stuck in there, not pleasant. I did fall asleep, but got up again for good around 6:50 before everyone else. I was a little worried because my legs were sore, we'll see. I eat a bowl of lucky charms with soy milk, then a bowl of cheerios with plain yogurt. That along with a banana, apple, piece of biscotti, a mini snickers, a mini nestles crunch, apple juice, and a small bag of skittles? Atleast I didn't eat a bowl of oatmeal as well. I eventually was able to get out at about nine before Aunty Charlotte and Grandma Ellen left. It was a wonderfully crisp clear day, not super cold. My route today
32nd- Hawes-30th-Portola-17th-Capitola-Soquel-Water-N. Branciforte-Goss-S.Branciforte-Glen Canyon-Mt Hermon-E. Zayante-Quail Hollow- Glen Arbor-Highway 9-Alba-Empire Grade-Pine Flat-Bonny Doon-Highway 1-Swanton-Highway 1-Mission St.- Laurel- San Lorenzo-East Cliff- Murray-Lake-East Cliff- Portola-30th-Hawes-32nd
I actually felt really good today, but wasn't going to really push myself, by doing intervals or anything. I figured Alba road would take care of my anaerobic part of the workout. Nothing eventful or new until Quail Hollow, it was a pretty easy climb and relatively quiet in terms of traffic. The down a little descent to Glen Arbor, and to Ben Lomond. My good day continued as the shoulder was pretty ample up the half mile on Highway 9 to the infamous Alba Road.
This got me thinking about the Tour of California, which is going to a big stage race with a bunch of upper echelon pro teams scheduled to show up (Lotto, CSC, Phonak, Gerolsteiner, note: they all have Americans in their squads). The Santa Cruz sentinel had an editorial moaning about why the race wasn't going through Santa Cruz. Of note it is in San Jose for two days, sweet, including a time trial. Santa Cruz is a cycling mecca, but why bother trying to boost the sport where it is already such a stronghold? Also the race apparently isn't going to include the harsh climbs of Cali. I would like to see them go up Alba Road, because....(back to the ride)
Almost 300m into Alba road I'm downshifting to the 39x23, FYI this climb must be hard. I rarely concede to this gear, but all I saw as I looked ahead was more beautiful steepness. The road didn't really snake like Jamison creek there wasn't even a hairpin. There were some steep 45-90 degree turns that looked nasty on the inside. The climb was tough at first but not continually brutal as say Bohlmann or the end of Jamison or Halekoa Dr.. But the road was longer than I thought, and it took 29 minutes to do 4 miles. So it wasn't that easy, but my knees felt fine unlike the first time up those aforementioned monsters. This climb made me want to try the Bohlmann-On Orbit death march I've heard even more harsh things about (how can you make Bohlmann harder?
Well I get onto Empire Grade and it's mostly downhill to Bonny Doon, and down Bonny Doon drive I was a speed daemon. I may have went faster if I had done this descent before, but 72kph is still quite fast for a California descent. Soon I was on Highway 1,and what a difference from last week. I mean I can see more than a hundred feet in front of me. I go a little ways, past Davenport population 375, and then to Swanton Rd. I had never ridden down it so I take the detour. Man what a great detour, its basically grazing/ farm country, with much more quiet roads as opposed to the freeway that Highway 1 is. There were a bunch of speeding motorcyclists that got me on edge, and then a mile long climb I was absolutely not expecting. This really put the hurt on my legs, but felt okay after the abrupt twisty descent. I continued along highway a little bit but I already had 69km as I was at the end of Swanton. So I decide to turn around before a downhill this super slow hokey "cyclist" was going down slower than I would go up it. From here it was 16 more miles to the edge of Santa Cruz. With no tailwind until the end this took longer than I expected. But nonetheless it was fairly easy and uneventful. Then through town I take the shortest route I know back. I avoid the boardwalk because it was such a nice day. And on a nice day the people of Santa Cruz are attracted to the boardwalk like a dung beetle to well dung. At the end of my ride, as usual, I felt really good and road pretty hard, except over the messed up road that was Portola before the aloha island grill. I rolled up to the house with 103?km and 4hrs and 1 minute. Great another long ride, got to get the miles in just in case the weather gets nasty later this semester.
I did not take a single sip of water the entire time! And I still wasn't thirsty, and the good news was my weight was even with yesterday after the ride 151.5lbs. After using the bathroom (guess I'm not dehydrated), I start getting the calories in, I start with vanilla yogurt sweet potatoes, and cold cooked carrots. No cereal today, as I heat up a piece of that chicken Aunty Charlotte bought last night, I microwaved a bunch of the fat out of it, and even though is was clearly overcooked man it was good. Then a nice warm shower, and some more food, another sweet potato, a piece of biscotti, and apple, cold uncooked carrots, some soy sticks, a mini snickers and nestles crunch, basically I'm just picking at this point. College football has been ho-hum, Notre Dame won, later Hawaii would lose (I'm crying on the inside), looks real bad for UCLA right now, Texas absolutely destroyed poor Baylor, Penn State beat Wisconsin, and South Carolina became bowl eligible much to the chagrin of all the Spurrier haters out there. UCLA is now down 52-7 well 5 undefeated teams left, and Va. Tech is losing as well....
Aunty Charlotte's attempt at making Flan turned it into one of the best custards I've ever tasted, only problem was the air bubbles. My suggestion is to just mix the custard up, put it in a pie crust and cover it in whip cream. That would have been delicious, I hope she doesn't toss it. Gonna be eating Mexican food, I believe tonight, and then watching Millions (for me again but I want to watch it again). Watching football we may end up with just two unbeatens and that would make the BCS people extremely happy. I would be bummed I want a 16 team playoff
Went over to John's house, and watched football until dinner. Then watched Vanderbilt come back from a 14 pt deficit within 3 minutes, to send it to overtime. I thoroughly stuffed myself with all sorts of food in flour tortilla's. The best stuff was this mexican pork that was more like Kahlua Pig, brah it was 'ono. I had to save the cheesecake for later. Then after the first overtime with the game tied 42-42 the natives were getting restless, well mainly the guys (Aunty Charlotte's friend Alberto), seemed to me most were preoccupied with their coffee and stories. Anyway I didn't really have any vested interest in the game, but I do like to watch college football, but I acquiesce and tell everyone to watch the movie. It was just as good as the second time. It was a consensus that this was a good movie. Atleast I get 100% sometimes. I eat a whole bunch more, mostly candy. Found out V Tech lost, as did Vanderbilt bummer. Now the only unbeaten teams left are USC, Texas, and Alabama. Alabama still has some tough games left, oh well, just hope USC, and Texas both get upset leaving 6 or 7 one loss teams deserving of a title shot, then the whole system will be shot!
November 6th
"This is nothing like the simulations..."
I get up around 7:45. I know super late... Eddie and Forrest parked at Aunty Charlotte's house and are surfing "crack of dawn." Well atleast it wasn't 43 degrees like it was yesterday morning. Yes bloody frigid, funny because it didn't feel all that bad, but it was sunny. I get the newspaper, not much to read in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, except the thick Target toy add. The holiday's just get earlier and earlier. I wait to eat, which I conclude may have been a bad idea. First I have oatmeal, and take 10 minutes peeling a persimmon that I chopped up and input into my oatmeal then used Apple Juice as the liquid. It was a little to tangy the oatmeal, good but I'm using water from now on. Then I ate a piece of sweet potato, and then flaxseed tortilla chips, and then some cheerios, then the candy. Darn that candy, I must have had 8 or nine of those bite sized snickers and Nestles Crunches, and a small bag of skittles, oh yeah and two pieces of that delicious biscotti. I tried to make myself artifically full with a few sugar snap peas, but people just don't know my stomach, insatiable. Finally I force myself to brush my teeth and eat nothing, until I'm done with my ride in 4-5 hours. Basically I spent the rest of the time getting ready to go. I decided I should leave before 1, because the sunset is so early. If I were to get back at 5 it would be dark already. I drive up taking a detour because of some traffic. The traffic opened up so i got back on the highway, and got off at the same llama farm. Aunty Charlotte thinks they make sweaters out of their fur, I think they make upscale burgers for Capitola residents.... The ride back was as unpleasant as usual in the uphill portion, I wasn't feeling the extra weight, but I was still burping the taste of my extended breakfast up. It takes me 49 minutes to get to highway 9 (12 miles) then only 12 minutes to get to Saratoga (7 miles) do the math. In conclusion I went downhill fast. Then I was aided by a tailwind to Campbell Ave. then I continued down Campbell, and when I get to "historic downtown" Campbell my average speed is 29.8kph, but for a multitude of reasons when I get back to my dorm the average speed has gone down to 28.2 kph, had I a clear shot back it is obvious I would have maintained the speed. This clearly show that many of my rides have been hampered by the stoplights, and heavy traffic. My spped is much better than my numbers would indicate. Enough of my whining already.
I am back at three o'clockish not hungry at all. I take a lukewarm shower because I not cold either. So weird. After the shower I eat a yoplait low fat yogurt and a black cherry almond clif bar, and that's it. All 420 calories.... Well have to compensate for my splurging. Then I caught up on internet news I missed and football scores I couldn't follow while enroute. The Bengals are 7-2, wow. Then the Packers are 1-7, what is happening this season. And don't get me started on that idiot Terrell Owens, who was suspended indefinitely, and I will get for the whole season will do numerous interviews on how he has been slighted. Maybe send him to NFL Europe or something? Then I played a little Star Wars Battlefront that Joel picked up, it seems like fun but I need a video game controller, I have no dexterity with a keyboard and mouse, don't forget all the buttons, and the fact I've been using a hand held video game controller for oh 18 years (Nintendo-Super Nintendo-Playstation-Playstation 2) Then what I had been looking forward to all weekend chili. It was real chili like my parents make, a bit spicier, but pretty good. Never really eat chili with pasta though, eh when in rome....I'll have chili and rice when I get home in December. Or I could just buy a can of hormel and make all white rice at Aunty Charlotte's, nah, that's enough bad food for next 10 days. I think the DC is trying to test my will power, I mean Pecan pie! Needless to say...I have no willpower today. Boy is Pecan pie good, good thing I don't get myself more, that would have been bad. The menu this week looks so-so, the entrees are pretty lame unless you like Prime rib tuesday night, might skip that. In fact I may go elsewhere for dinner 3 nights this week. Subway is so much better IMO.than Cheese encrusted garbage. I shouldn't talk I mean after I do some homework and watch The Simpsons Treehouse of Horrors XVI (Yeah the Simpsons have been on 16 years! and I've been there through is all), I go to the village market to keep from wasting a meal, I pick up a small box of cream of wheat, a chocolate brownie clif bar, and **cough**Milky Way Midnight Bar **cough** that's cuts it, no more junk well until Tuesday night (banana split), and Thursday lunch Coconut Macaroons!!! I also can say I didn't eat all of the bar, probably only 170 of the 220 calories. So the total calorie count for today wasn't too bad, probably around 3000. What do I know...
The Eagles lost to the Redskins by 7 points, I bet T.O will say, "see." If my camera on my camera phone doesn't get better in a week I have to cancel that service. Also I have two more midterms coming up in a week. Next weekend I can't be side tracked by all those distractions (College football/ food). Luckily the 280 midterm will be Thursday. I think I should study this week for ME 240, just in case... I really like it here in San Jose, but everything everyone at home wants me to do I have zero or even negative motivation to do. I just want to ride....
Good night and good luck