Randomland

It's Friday, so I'm a bit brain dead.  And since it got all super serious yesterday with the shenanigans surrounding the World Triathlon Corporation, I'm pointing this ship to Randomland.  Here are 5 completely random things in orbit around my world at the moment:

1)  Big Ups to Canada.  I've been thinking about this a lot lately and I've decided my dream city would be created if Vancouver could physically be moved to Southern California.  That way I'd get to run on the Seawall without the fear of it raining every day.

 2)  I am still capable of acting 12.  I was on my bike today when I saw a Google Maps camera van coming cross traffic from the left.  I instinctively flipped it the bird as it drove by.  I was at  Edinger & Bolsa, Huntington Beach, CA 92649.  Check for it.  I'll be the guy with his middle finger up.

3)  The Spanish Madre.  I know this is old news by now, but I can't shake a completely fictional mental image I have of Alberto Contador's mom pushing his skinny ass out of the way at a press conference to announce that her son may quit pro cycling, all while staring directly at the reporter from L'Equipe.  Maybe you have to be in my brain to get a chuckle out of that one, I dunno.

4)  When college kids get a dream intern job at a record label but then are asked to take apart office furniture, it never works out.  I inherited some cubicles from the record label division of the company I work for.  I saw the interns taking them apart, and in fact carefully numbering every part and panel.  However, for some inexplicable reason (which I admit could possibly be me) they are not going back together as easily.

5)  The 24 Hour "Idiot Shiver" Test.  I usually read my blog posts the day after I publish them to see if anything I wrote is embarrassing in the clarity of hindsight.  Here is the last paragraph of yesterday's post about the WTC.

"Do not fear change, embrace it.  Better yet, do everything in your power to be part of it."

Can I get a mulligan here?  The quote is a little dramatic even given the context of the post.  But if you swap out "change" for "a challenge", "the unknown" or something similar, then in a broader sense it's OK.  Thanks for that.

(It's) Tough (not to like being) In Vancouver

Though this may be odd for an old school punk rock kid to admit, but I like Michael Jackson.  Specifically, I like roughly half of "Off The Wall", "Thriller" and "Bad".  Because of this, I currently have one of the MJ "Greatest Hits" albums on my Ipod.  It's got all the good stuff, but it's got a lot of the bad stuff too.  I was in the gym yesterday and had my Ipod on shuffle.  And when the Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney duet "The Girl Is Mine" came on (which is not only the worst Michael Jackson song ever, but quite possibly one of the worst songs in the Universe),  I did what almost no one who dislikes this song as much as I do would do - I took a picture.

Like most people would have, I should have just hit the "skip" button - the next song was "Melody Lee" from The Damned, which is a fantastic track.  But instead, I decided I needed visual proof that I could keep it together even when listening to bad music.  As you can see, I look the same.  Maybe even tougher than usual.  And the dog-gone girl is mine.

That's how I roll in Vancouver.

This has been a great trip.  When I'm here, I go into running mode, because Vancouver is such a great running city.  Basically, anywhere there is water, there is sea wall.  And since there is plenty of water, there is plenty of sea wall.  That means there are miles and miles of uninterrupted, traffic free running.  That'll do.

I'm staying in the Yaletown neighborhood about 2 blocks from False Creek.  From the end of Davie Avenue I can pick up the sea wall and essentially start running as far as I want.  Yesterday, I got in a quick 5 miles first thing in the morning.  Earlier this evening I went on an epic 10 1/2 mile run that included a lap around Stanley Park.  Regular readers will remember that I ranked Stanley Park as the best run I've ever done in a post last week.

Once again, Stanley Park did not disappoint.  The weather was damn near perfect - sunny and mild with a light breeze blowing in from Burrard Inlet.  This run was for me, so I went out nice and easy. To be honest I didn't really want to stop, and I actually should have kept going.


This trip leaves no doubt in my mind that Vancouver is the PREMIERE city for runners.  If The Road had "Best Of" awards, Vancouver would hands down be the winner in the running category.

I fly home tomorrow evening.  And oh yeah, I got everything else I needed to get done sorted out.  But talking about it wouldn't make for interesting writing, so that's it for now.

I wouldn't call it a trend just yet, but...

For the second week in a row I was out the door early for a morning ride.  And I'm pleasantly surprised that getting out of bed early is not that bad, and the ride was great.  And it gets even better.  When I got home around 10, Mary was leaving to take the Prius in for an oil change, and Ian really wanted to go with her.  So I got to take a nap, and it was pure bliss.

It's a good thing I burned some calories early because this afternoon we where off to a BBQ.  I've been doing pretty good the last couple weeks in terms of keeping my diet on track.  As I've written about before, I struggled through a period where I was eating either too much or not enough, and the mix of carbohydrate/protein/fat I was consuming was way out of whack.  But on the advice of Jenn from the Running Artist, I bought Chris Carmichael's book Food For Fitness, and it's been really helpful.

Anyway, back to the BBQ.    I did pretty good at not eating too much off the grill.  But when there is an abundance of potato chips with french onion dip, shrimp with chipotle sauce and chocolate chip cookies laying around, I'm going to get in trouble.  Today was no different and as I write I am nursing the stomach ache from hell.

Tomorrow I am getting up early again for an 8 AM right with OC Velo.  I'm going heavy on the bike this weekend because I'll be up in Vancouver Monday through Thursday.  While away, I'll get in plenty of running in at Stanley Park, but no cycling.  Swimming?  It's just going to have to wait a few days, unfortunately.

The next post will be from the north....

Top 5 running routes of all time (so far)

I know that I have a lot of followers who are straight up runners.  And lately my blog has been all about cycling and triathlon.

So runners, this post is for you.

The truth is that I started as a runner.  Of the last 20 years, I have probably been on some sort of regular running schedule for 10 of them.  It wasn't until last year that I bought my first serious bike, and it wasn't until January of this year that I officially declared myself a bike nerd.

Though I am obsessed with cycling, my most enjoyable workouts are still runs.  Because when you run and it's on, it's ON.  I've had some great rides, but none of them have yet achieved the sheer awesomeness of a good run.

Over the last 20 years, I've run in some pretty cool places.  Here are the top 5 (so far):

5.  Bradley Palmer State Park, Ipswich MA.

I'm originally from Massachusetts.  So in a running phase I went through between 1992-1994, Bradley Palmer State Park was where I went to get my trail running on.  I wouldn't call 92-94 my most prolific period for running.  Even though the run was only a 4 mile loop, there was a steep hill about half-way through that I could never quite summit without walking.

My mom still lives in the area, so about a year and a half ago when I was visiting I decided to try it again.  I figured that since I was in the best shape I had been in for years, I could knock this one off pretty easily.  Well, I was wrong - It ended up taking 3 separate visits to get it done.  The first time I sprained my ankle.  The second time I got lost (lost?).  I finally got it done a few months ago.

4.  Central Park, New York, NY

In 1998 I was living in New York, and in another running phase.  I worked at 23rd Street and Broadway, so after work a co-worker and I would to take the 6 train up to 59th Street and cut over to Central Park.  We'd then run up Central Park East to 72nd Street, cut into the park, run around the reservoir, run back down Central Park West, cut back to Broadway, and run down Broadway to 23rd.  One night, we got caught in a really bad thunderstorm.  I remember it was raining so hard that traffic was at a standstill. I ran through Times Square down the middle of Broadway soaking wet and laughing my ass off.  Good times.

3.  Chiswick/Kew Gardens, London England.

I lived in London for the first half of 2002.  To keep up some modicum of exercise, I got into the habit of packing up my running stuff in the morning, and then running the 3 or so miles home from the office.  This route took me straight down Chiswick High Street.  With the amount of vehicle and pedestrian traffic, coupled with the fact I could never get it together to look right instead of left when crossing streets, I'm surprised I didn't get killed.  But there was a undeniable energy derived from running like a madman down the High Street during rush hour.  On the weekends I would run in Kew Gardens, which was about a mile up the road from me.

2. Huntington Beach, Huntington Beach, CA.

I'd be remiss if I left my new home town off the list.  There's 10 miles of pedestrian path along Huntington Beach.  You get the sand, the ocean, and a nice breeze.  I ran there tonight.  Though I normally prefer the off season, the US Open Of Surfing is in town so there was plenty of quality people watching to be had around the pier.  All you runners - don't forget your running shoes when you come to California.  There are running spots like this everywhere.

1.  Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Picture this - 6 miles of paved sea wall around a peninsula where on one side the views are of mountains plunging straight into the sea and on the other you get the best city skyline view I've ever seen.  Did I mention that between miles 3 and 5 you run with a sheer cliff to the left of the path and the ocean to the right?  Add the 2 miles in and out of the park through a marina in Coal Harbor and you have the best 8 mile run in the world.  I always run this route off pace because there is too much to look at.

Run happy!

Westin Workout

I arrived into Vancouver at about 5 this afternoon and was met with the typical Canadian immigration scrutiny...what the hell is in my file? I'm like 7 for 7 with the extra questioning but also 7 for 7 with answering the questions and being sent through. It's really weird.

I'm at the Westin Hotel near the airport tonight. According to Expedia they had a pretty good gym with a pool, so I was excited to get in a workout.

But first I had to get to the gym. The front desk told me to get off the elevator on the 5th floor and it would be right there. So that's what I did. As I came out of the elevator I saw the sign for the gym:


The sign was pointing me toward the far end of the hallway - a pretty typical hotel gym configuration. So I walked down the hall and came to this door:


So I went through the door. But instead of finding a health club and a pool, I was in another long hallway. At the end of this hallway, there was another door:


I opened the door and was in yet another hallway. There was another door at the far end. This door had no sign on it, but when I opened the door, I saw this:


As advertised there where stairs. Not even sure I was still in Canada at this point, but more committed than ever to finding this gym, I took them down just to find another sign:


Another sign leading me down another hallway. Shocking. So I walked down the hallway and finally:


This is the door that finally led into the gym.

Once inside the place wasn't bad at all. They had some benches, some dumbbells, and a cable machine. I got in a pretty good lifting session.

The pool was fine as well - it was only about 15 yards, but assuming my counts where right, I swam 750 yards. I got a little dizzy though and it took me awhile to get used to the length without smashing into the side of the pool.

On the way back I got lost, but how could you not? I went down some stairs that I should have gone up, and ended up outside. Amazing.

At The Crossroads

Crossroads of my training world

Ominous title? Not really.

I went on a Garmin data analysis bender this evening and upon review of the various charts and graphs, I realized that I pass through this intersection on almost every run and ride I do. Plus it also happens to be the place where trail access for the Bolsa Chica wetlands is located. So I declare this spot as my training epicenter. It's where Warner Avenue meets Pacific Coast Highway.

Conveniently, there is a great Mexican restaurant and sushi bar here too.

Sorry I just wasted time you'll never get back with the above drivel. But wait, there's more...

The Haiku that everyone have been leaving are great. I was a little worried that the guys would not take part in fear that their man card would be debited for writing a poem. But apparently they all realized that Ninjas probably wrote Haiku before going off to battle so everything is cool.

If you missed yesterday's post, you may have no idea what I'm talking about. So here's the deal - I am running a granola and breakfast cookie give away in conjunction with Erin Baker's Wholesome Baked Goods. Essentially, all you need to do is comment with a Haiku and you'll entered to win some baked goodness. The details are here.

Speaking of food related give aways, both Kovas at Midwest MultiSport Life and Rad Runner at Rad Runner are also doing contests at the moment. Please check them out, as both are awesome. Kovas has heart smart cookbooks from CanolaInfo and Rad Runner has vegan cookies from the Alternative Baking Company.

Alternative Baking Company's cookies at my local juice bar. These things are incredible. That's a sweet hook-up, Rad Runner...

I'm a couple articles into my new position as the Triathlon Examiner for the examiner.com's Los Angeles edition. Though I need to get out there and report on some local local news, I want to periodically write profiles on the every-day athletes like ourselves. If you are from the LA area, cool. If you aren't, that's cool too. Personally, I think the profiles will be interesting and newsworthy because we are truly the backbone of the sport. If anyone is interested in being interviewed for this, hit me up at 17281posse (at) gmail.com.

Since I've been back from Vancouver, I've been hitting the training pretty hard. That said, I'm a little annoyed that my available training time comes in hour to hour and a half blocks. For running and swimming it works out OK, but I feel like I should be riding longer. But I do what I can do and the last 5 days have been great.

I just found out I need to go back to Vancouver again next week, but I think it might just be for a night. That would be great because my next race is the San Diego International Triathlon on the 27th and I feel like I could use some pretty intense training next week so I can taper the following.

That's it for now...

Rolling Into The Weekend

The LAX Pylons. One of my favorite public art installations. Designed by Paul Tzanetopoulos. Installed in 2000.

I flew home from Vancouver last night. It's always nice to come home, and I never get tired of flying into Los Angeles as night. The approach is a long, straight and usually smooth decent across the LA Basin into the airport. We landed at 10 PM and since the Air Canada terminal is conveniently located across the taxiway that arriving flights use to pull off the active runway, we where at the gate fast. There was no traffic on the freeway so I was home by 11.

Just before I got on the bike today. This photo is only remarkable for pointing out that a few years ago I wouldn't have seen my feet.

Today I had a ton of work to do, but I still made sure I got my lunch bike ride in. I must have been having bike withdrawals because the second I settled into the saddle and started spinning, a peaceful calm washed over me. It's funny how earlier this year I was struggling so much with the bike. Now I need it. I got 18 miles into the books over a 1 hour ride.


Tomorrow, I will be competing in my first Aquathlon, which is one of the events featured at the Tyr Playa del Run being held in Huntington Beach not far from where I live. It's 1K ocean swim and 5K run. I'm looking forward to seeing if I've made any swim progress in the last few weeks since I've had a coach. I'm also interested to see how well I perform on the run after not having just come off a bike. It should be a good time.

Kovas's Blog Header. One of my favorite blogs.

At the suggestion of Kavos Palubinskas over at Midwest Triathlon Life, I applied for and got the job as contributing triathlon writer for the Examiner.com Los Angeles edition. I mention this only because I plan to write my first article this weekend, using the Playa del Run as "Exhibit A" for a rundown of all the cool endurance and multi-sport events coming up this summer in the area. I'm looking forward to having another forum to ramble on and overuse conjunctions while trying to write in the 3rd person. Wish me luck.

Sunday I hope to do my normal bike/run brick, but I also have a feeling that the pressure from my wife will be too great to ignore working on the living room. Next up - clean years of carpet adhesive and other crap off of the concrete slab and prep it for a sealer. We've decided to go with industrial loft style concrete floors in the room instead of carpet or wood. I was a little surprised to see that the slab is crack free - the house is 40 years old and been through tons of earthquakes. This is welcome news.

What does everyone else have going on this weekend? Be safe, whatever you have planned.

Travel Day ("The Road" on the road)

LAX, 5:45 AM

I write to you from the Sandman Hotel in Langley, British Columbia, plugged into quite possibly the slowest Internet connection I've used since 1994. As a side note, I've tried to comment on a few blogs, but this connection and my Gmail account seem to be conspiring against me. Sorry if some of my comments don't post, but I'm reading...

My day started at 4:00 AM with a frantic search for my passport. I need to stop assuming that when I come home from a trip, my wife automatically puts things away where they belong. My passport wasn't where it should have been, so I had to search through a bunch of computer bags and other luggage before it turned up.

Then I had a bowl of granola.

Natasha doesn't even like strawberries.

I left for the airport at 5:00. At that time of the morning, traffic was light so I got up to LAX by 5:45. And that's where I hit traffic. Though annoying, it's somewhat comforting to know that I'm not the only that needs to suffer through the airport routine this early.

I have no idea what's going on with United Airlines. Last month I got a United flight direct to Vancouver at about the same time in the morning. Last week, when I booked this ticket, that flight was no where to be found.

So I flew Air Canada, which is a United partner airline. Like United, Air Canada treats you like crap from the moment you step into the terminal, although being that they are Canadian they are a little nicer and strangely apologetic about it. I constantly berate myself for choosing United years ago. Now I am so deep in their frequent flier program, I can't escape. So I take the abuse in hopes of the occasional upgrade or agent who is sympathetic when I find myself in a scheduling bind, which is often.

The flight was uneventful, and I slept the entire way. Canada, as usual, is a tough border. No where else in the world do I get grilled like I do when I cross into Canada. I know of nothing I've ever done wrong, and I've never been denied entry. But the questions always keep coming, and my bags are always searched. At least the guy today asked me if I liked my Newtons.

I made my way over to Langley, which is about an hour east of Vancouver. This is where our Canadian production facility is based. I'm up for a couple days because we are bringing in a new accounting system and are overhauling some of our business processes as a result. It sounds boring, but I actually LOVE this stuff, at least in terms of conceptualization. Because when it comes to actually really drilling down and creating flow charts, my eyes tend to glaze over and I want to take a nap. Luckily we have a good team of folks with all sorts of strengths.

I got to the hotel about 5:00 PM. The hotel is a little underwhelming with the crappy Internet connection and all, but it's good enough. I'll survive. It's also not the Sandman hotel I originally made my reservation at. Apparently there are 2 within 2 miles of each other. I'd never even heard of the chain until yesterday.

The "gym" here consists of a Stairmaster, a treadmill, a stationary bike missing a pedal, and some sort of weird abdominal machine. Luckily the hotel has a deal with the community gym and pool down the street, so I walked over there. Between lifting and the treadmill I put 75 minutes in the books.

When I got back to log my training into Beginner Triathlete, it took so long for my log-in to process that I was able to take a shower and rinse off my work out clothes.

Food choices where Denny's (again) and The Sharkbite Sports Pub. I chose The Sharkbite and the food was pretty good.

And that brings me to now. It's 11:26 and I'm being picked up at 7:00. So I'll leave it here for now.

Yes, another self portrait.

Ready To Head Back West

Yep, I'm ready to go home.

I've been traveling since Sunday - Vancouver, now Boston. Though it will be nice to see some family tomorrow, I'm ready for that 6:45 AM flight home Saturday morning.

That said, do you find that you are quite aggressive with your flight scheduling when it's 2 weeks out? Much to my chagrin, I do. Because when I press "purchase" on that super early flight itinerary weeks before I actually have to get my a** out of bed and to the airport I'm much more optimistic about such things than I am 36 hours out.

So I'm ready to go home, but a 9:45 AM flight Saturday would have been fine too.

In my other life, I am half in the entertainment business and half in the clothing business. That means I make clothing for bands that are sold at concerts, online, or retailers like Hot Topic. The even shorter version is that "I make t-shirts". I've been doing it forever - 18 years in fact. I've tried to get out a few times to do something else but always get pulled back in. Oh well.

I shouldn't complain, because I get to work with some very nice people. But triathlon and entertainment people seem to be mutually exclusive. Actually that's not really fair - with exceptions, the entertainment people usually can't conceive why I do what I do in my off time (and to be fair, can you completely blame them?). The triathlon people are far more understanding as to the job.

I was in Vancouver at the home office for the various monthly meetings. Now I'm in Boston for the New England Metal & Hardcore Festival. The festival is 2 solid days of really loud bands. It's a good time, actually. My friends from Crimson Management put the show on. I really enjoy coming out east to hang with them. And I'll see a bunch of other people tomorrow I'm sure. I actually ran into an old friend tonight....

That's me (left) and Mike Gitter, A&R guy extraordinaire for Century Media Records, rocking out to the band White Chapel. I've known Mike for over 20 years. Note that I have my Specialized Bicycles cap on. I'm pretty certain I'm the only one sporting one of these at the show.

But I miss Ian. I miss Mary. I miss the dogs. I miss home in general. Admittedly, I also miss my bike.

Not to say that I wasn't able to substitute in some good running in Vancouver and Boston. I ran along the Charles River today and in Vancouver I did the Stanley Park Sea Wall route, which is a truly beautiful and spectacular gift for runners. But I could use a bike ride right now. I hope my bike feels the same. Don't worry bike, I will be home Saturday.

But I'll be spend some time with Ian and Mary first. It will be great to be home.

It wasn't always like this. I used to spend months away touring with my band and then later touring as a crew member on bigger tours. I loved the travel, the tour bus, the hotels, and basically being everywhere except home. Of course in those days, even the 3'x3'x8' bunk on the bus was nicer than the crappy apartment I shared with 3 other guys. But beyond that, not being attached to any one place was liberating. Funny how things change. I like routine now. Like eating granola in the morning. Like dropping Ian off at school. Like watching Sports Center at 10. And like training. Could it be that I am (gasp!) boring? I don't think so. Or at least I hope not. Nothing lasts forever. And would you have ever thought the guy playing guitar on the right was a future triathlete? Doubtful.

Video From The Old Days

In other news I have a 5K trail race this Sunday. It was supposed to happen last December, but it's been rained out 3 times due to trail sensitivity in wet weather. Can you believe it? In California.