Bike to Work #2

As promised, I rode my bike to work again. I felt a little bit of knee pain during my ride home yesterday, but it was only a minor annoyance. This morning, the pain was much more intense, forcing me to ride in a lower gear with a faster cadence. My speed ultimately suffered, averaging 0.6 mph slower. I don’t often get knee pains, so I suspect it has something to do with how Brooke’s bike fits me. For my ride home, I’ll try raising the seat and moving it back.

In yesterday’s post, I forgot to mention the $5 of gas I would be saving for every day I biked to work. But after today’s lunch, I realize any savings in gas would be spent feeding my growing appetite. My usual lunch of a six-inch Subway sandwich will definitely not cut it anymore. Today, I ordered a large plate of Costillas de Puerco con Chile Rojo (pork ribs stewed in a red chile sauce), with about 5 tortillas, and a scoop of beans and rice. When I finished every bit of my own meal, I then proceeded to help a coworker finish her Presto Pasta lasagna meal. Two hours later I was hungry again, so I ate a granola bar and a pack of gummy fruit snacks. At this rate, I’ll never need to write a post on how biking has helped me lose weight.

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Update - 6:40 pm

Maybe it was the raised seat position or maybe it was the extra strength aspirin, but my knees felt a lot better during the ride home....and my speed reflects it. Here are the stats:

Doing my part for the environment...

I care about the environment and I definitely believe in global warming, but I'm by no means an environmentalist. In fact, Brooke and I continually get lectured regarding our consumption of bottled water and our unwillingness to walk anywhere. Basically, it comes down to laziness. We recycle because it's easy and convenient, but then we use mostly paper plates and cups at home because it's easy and convenient.

Being lazy, it's was a surprise to even myself that I should feel compelled to start biking the 13-mile journey to work. I don't mind so much the physical act of biking, instead I hate having to wake up an hour earlier in order to make it to work on time.

Despite the laziness, I finally acted on the urge to bike and purchased new shoes to fit on Brooke's bike. I waited for the weather in SB to cool down and today, for the first time, I biked to work! And it felt great!

















Here are some stats and maps from today's ride. (the ride home was 4.75 miles longer because I chose to take the long way, riding over the Mesa and then riding to a machine shop to pick up parts for work)





























Biking to work definitely requires some nighttime planning. I had to make a checklist, then gather everything together. Here are my things to pack for tomorrow's ride:
Work clothes (pants , shirt, underwear, belt, shoes, socks),
Keys, Cellphone, Watch, GPS watch, Sunglasses, Towel,
Sandals (to wear while changing in the dirty work bathrooms),
Bike tools, Machined parts for work, plus all my biking attire (not shown).
















I don't know how many days per week I'll be biking, maybe just one or two. But every little bit helps, right?

Summer Solstice in SB

It was an unbearably hot weekend in Santa Barbara, 90 degrees yesterday and 92 today. It's 11pm and the temperature outside is still 80 degrees. The warm weather is very fitting, since it was the summer solstice. Here are a few photos we took from this year's Santa Barbara Solstice Parade.....

WWWT

Tonight's WWWT food theme was Italian, so I decided to make some tiramisu (something I've never made before). I chose a Barefoot Contessa recipe from foodnetwork.com. I've also posted the recipe below because the Food Network describes this as "available for a limited time only".

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6 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup good dark rum, divided
1 1/2 cups brewed espresso, divided
16 to 17 ounces mascarpone cheese
30 Italian ladyfingers, or savoiardi
Bittersweet chocolate, shaved or grated
Confectioners' sugar (optional)

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on high speed for about 5 minutes, or until very thick and light yellow. Lower the speed to medium and add 1/4 cup rum, 1/4 cup espresso, and the mascarpone. Whisk until smooth.

Combine the remaining 1/4 cup rum and 1 1/4 cups espresso in a shallow bowl. Dip 1 side of each ladyfinger in the espresso/rum mixture and line the bottom of a 9 by 12 by 2-inch dish. Pour half the espresso cream mixture evenly on top. Dip 1 side of the remaining ladyfingers in the espresso/rum mixture and place them in a second layer in the dish. Pour the rest of the espresso cream over the top. Smooth the top and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
Before serving, sprinkle the top with shaved chocolate and dust lightly with confectioners' sugar, if desired.

RAW EGG WARNING
Food Network Kitchens suggest caution in consuming raw and lightly-cooked eggs due to the slight risk of Salmonella or other food-borne illness. To reduce this risk, we recommend you use only fresh, properly-refrigerated, clean, grade A or AA eggs with intact shells, and avoid contact between the yolks or whites and the shell.

Notes: To make espresso for this recipe in your electric drip coffee maker, use enough water for 4 cups of coffee plus 1/3 cup of ground espresso.
You can find savoiardi and mascarpone in an Italian specialty store.
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I think the recipe turned out great. The only thing I would change is to dip both sides of the ladyfingers in the espresso/rum mixture. I'd rather have slightly soggy ladyfingers than have dry, hard ones.
Mixing the egg yolks and sugar...
Egg yolks, sugar, espresso, and rum...
The finished product...
We didn't coordinate very well because when we arrived someone else had already brought a dessert, a very yummy almond cake with whipped cream and a strawberry-rhubarb compote from Thomas Keller's Bouchon cookbook. (my poor photography doesn't do it justice)
As for the wine, we had four Cabernet Sauvignons, all of which were under $10. The wines are arranged by their rank, the best being on the left. We watched the season finale of Top Chef tonight, so we might not have another WWWT post for quite some time.

Disneyland Danskin Triathlon

I finished my first race of the season! We were all finished with race stuff by 8:30AM, and after a quick shower to wash off the lagoon slime, we headed to have some dim-sum as our reward. For more details on the race, see my training blog.

Race Day!

Brooke and Lu finished the race with a great time!
See results by going to: http://www.timberlinetiming.com/index.cfm?action=dspClientHome&clientid=1&showBanner=1
Then to the go bottom of the screen and search for results in the "2008 Los Angeles Results".
Brooke's bib number is 1439
Lu's bib number is 1479

We've got to checkout of the hotel now, but photos will be up by later this evening.

Anaheim

I'm currently in a dark hotel room, sitting in the only location where the wireless internet works... on the floor, beside the front door. Brooke and Lu are already asleep, knowing they'll have to be up by 4:30am. As our two loyal readers may already know, we're here because Brooke and Lu are competing in the Danskin Triathlon tomorrow.

We started our day fairly early this morning. By 8:00am we had all our gear ready and waiting at the bus stop for Lu.
















We made a quick stop for our usual weekend coffee and pain au chocolat at Renaud's, then proceeded to drive down to Anaheim. The traffic was fairly light, especially by LA standards.
















We arrived in Anaheim around 11:00. I dropped Brooke and Lu off at the Hilton conference room for their pre-race overview and instructions. With a couple hours free to myself, I drove around Anaheim and Santa Ana, with the specific intention of finding Little Saigon and getting some good Vietnamese food. When I found Little Saigon, I drove around, peering inside restaurants, trying to determine whether or not the host would give me the embarassing greeting of "Welcome. Table for one?" In the end, all I saw were restaurants full of large family gatherings, so I chickened out and I got no food.

I still had fun driving around despite my hunger. I saw a small parade of people bearing flags. They didn't seem to be protesting or celebrating anything. I guess they just wanted everyone to know that they're proud to be South Vietnamese Americans.

















Temple in Little Saigon.
















When Brooke and Lu finished with their pre-race meeting, we checked into our "very modest" hotel, The Anaheim Maingate, ate inhumanly large portions of food at the Cheesecake Factory, then went shopping at REI. Of course, everywhere we went people would ask, "what are the numbers for?"































Now for the complaint portion of the post....
I love watching baseball games. I've attended many Seattle Mariners games in my life. I've seen them go through record winning seasons and some very bad seasons, and understandably, fans are always more enthusiastic during the good seasons. Going into tonight's Anaheim Angels vs. Atlanta Braves game, I knew the Angels were playing well. With a record of 41-27, the Angels were leading the AL West and had the third best record in all of MLB. This is going to be a great game I thought to myself. Wrong. The Angels fans suck.

This first picture was taken a couple minutes before the first pitch. Notice how only 20% of the fans are in attendance. Did I already mention all the tickets were sold out for this game? Where are the fans?
















By the middle of the 3rd inning, more fans had trickled in, bringing attendance up to about 75%.
















Even then, 1/3 of the 75% in attendance couldn't be bothered to look up from their cellphone text messages, leaving only 50% of the seats with fans who are watching the game. Of the final 50%, I think half of them were Atlanta fans. I think Lu's face says it all...

(End of complaint portion)

After the game, before heading back to the hotel, we got some Panda Express. It was hardly a substitute for the good Vietnamese food I could have had this morning. There's always tomorrow....
















Van

I can't wait........

WWWT

Tonight we tasted Pinot Noir. We also had a little bit of a South American theme going with the accompanying snacks. We had homemade eggplant empanadas provided by our host. Another wine-taster brought some delicious Quinoa with corn, green onions and goat cheese; a combination I never would have thought of, but I really enjoyed. The wines happened to be ranked in the order from most expensive to least expensive tonight, starting with the Walter Hansel 2005 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir, then the Chateau St. Jean 2006 Pinot Noir, then the Acacia 2006 Pinot Noir, and last, and this time I would certainly say least, the 2006 Red Truck "California" Pinot Noir.

Bowling

Nothing but the usual activities for us this weekend. Dinners out, a movie, and a bike ride. We did however go bowling (something we rarely do). My first attempt was a gutter ball. Here's my second attempt....