Jackass

I was trying to go down all the stairs in my building from my floor. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.

The security clowns in my building said that the head of security didn't want me taking my bike through the main lobby. So now I can't take my bike on the regular elevators. I have to take the freight elevator with the rest of the chumps. It wouldn't be bad if the wait wasn't that long. I seriously wait 30 minutes for the freight elevators just because there is so much construction going on in this building. They stop at almost every floor in this building which has about 60 floors or so. One time I waited over an hour because one of the freight elevators was not working. The elevators are always full. If I can't get on, then I have to wait again for the next one. I see the disappointment and frustration on all the people's faces when the elevator is full. They just have to stand there and wait. There are guys waiting on almost every floor. This building sucks compared to its bigger twin. I had no problems when we were on the 40th Floor of the other building. The security guys are not as friendly and cool. The elevators work fine. There's no construction going on. There's no false alarms going on forcing us to leave the office every month or so. I can take the regular elevators.

I had to carry my bike down the stairs, because I didn't want to wait forever for that stinking freight elevator. There are extra stairs to go down, because the exit is at the lowest level, not the 1st floor.

The staircase is really slippery. It's 10 times worse when you have road bike shoes with plastic Look cleats on. Even my bike, which is very light, started weighing a ton after awhile.

I brought my mountain bike so that I could go down the stairwell. I'm usually pretty good at going down stairs on my bike. The staircase in our building was just too slippery. They must have put Teflon on the metal steps. My bike tires had no traction at all. Plus, there wasn't enough room for my bike to clear the corners at the bottom of each level. My bike was longer than the level at the bottom.

I wanted to go down all the way to the bottom, but I probably would end up all battered and bruised, if not dead by falling off the side of the railing.

I wanted to look cool by clearing all the stairs, but I ended up looking like one of the guys from Jackass instead.

Ice Skating

After our delicious dinner, we went ice skating. Tony and his wife also came.

The last time I went ice skating was about 9 years ago. I went with church friends. Some of us were holding hands. I was trying to go faster. A girl who was hanging on to my hand was losing control. Instead of letting go, she kept hanging on. Then, she slipped, and her head landed on the ice. She got a big lump on her head. I felt bad ever since and didn't want to go ice skating after that.

A lot of people were falling on the ice when we went this weekend. Some guys were crazy and were weaving in and out of traffic. Some punks were going the wrong way and almost made me fall.

About an hour later, I saw that there was a big crowd over someone. I went to see who it was hoping it wasn't someone from our group, but alas, it was. Some girl made Fenny fall. She hit her tailbone hard and was in a lot of pain. That brought the end to our fun. We decided to call it quits early after that.

Mikey surprisingly was a quick learner. At the end he was skating by himself for a little bit. He wanted to go skating again. Mikey agreed with his dad that he would not go to Chuck E. Cheese if he gets to go ice skating.

Honey Kettle Fried Chicken

The BSBC Sunday School Teachers had dinner over the weekend at Honey Kettle Chicken in Culver City. That place had delicious friend chicken and sweet honey biscuits. That place gets packed during dinner. It was a good thing we got there a little before the crowds.

Fenny, Jenny, Hyejin, Grace, Miju, Sharon, Sarah, James, and Mikey and his dad were also there.

Koreatown Forge and Gorge Ride

Last night I rode on the Ktown Forge and Gorge ride. There were about 12 riders, mostly on fixed gear bikes ("fixies"), that met up and rode close to 20 miles. We went around Ktown, Silver Lake, East L.A., and other surrounding areas. The gang went for some all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ buffet afterwards. I left early and didn't eat this time, although I was really tempted to. Korean BBQ is so delicious. These rides are kinda late for me since I have to wake up early in the morning for work. Also, I'm trying to improve my diet and nutrition for my triathlon training. I can't be gorging on all you can eat BBQ buffet after 10:00 at night anymore.

The ride itself was not a beginner friendly ride. The riders themselves were a nice group of guys. It's just that some people get dropped, if they can't keep up with the lead group. It's not as fast as the Wolf Pack, but definitely faster than most Midnight Ridazz rides. I hope the guys that got dropped knew where we were supposed to meet up afterwards. Otherwise, they will feel abandoned.

It's a bit dangerous since these Midnight Ridazz blow through lights many times, and the whole group has to get through the red lights to catch up.

I felt I had an unfair advantage when I was riding since I had my time-trial/triathlon Motobecane Nemesis bike. The other guys had fixed gear bikes so they had to keep pedaling. They can't coast, and they only have one gear. Fixed gear bikes seem to be all the rage right now for some reason. I'm thinking about getting one too. A lot of the guys have track bikes made for riding in velodromes. They don't have brakes. You have to use your legs to slow down while pedaling. That can get really scary and dangerous going downhill. They're good for training your legs. Lance Armstrong also rides them sometimes to train. Since you can't coast, you're constantly pedaling. The only thing is that they're killer on your knees.

I need to put more miles on my legs in order to train. I also need to avenge myself in the superfast Montrose Peloton, a pack of about 200 pro level road racers.

It's good to ride in groups. I feel safer than riding by myself at night. Since we have multiple riders, drivers seem to be more careful. It's safer to ride in a pack at night except for when they blow through red lights.

Andy & Ayako's Wedding

Andy's wedding, 3/22/08, went pretty well. It took place at the Kyoto Hotel and Gardens, formerly known as the New Otani Hotel and Gardens. I was the best man. I was kinda nervous during my speech, but I think people thought it was pretty funny. I think having a powerpoint presentation helped when I was doing a name acronym for Andy. It was easier for people to follow along when they can see it visually.

It was a nice and very warm day. People were pretty hot sitting there in the sun. Andy and Ayako gave there thank-you speeches to their parents.

Kyung was the maid of honor.

I hope that Andy and Ayako are having a blast in their honeymoon to Catalina Island.

Bee Sting on My Eye

Yesterday, when I was riding my bike, a bee stung me on my lower left eyelid. Now, my left eye is really swollen. Somehow, the bee went underneath my sunglasses. It stung me about 1 cm away from my eyeball. I was going almost 30 mph too, and I had to pull over and flick it off. I rushed home to take out the stinger, because that was the only place where I could see it with a mirror. I put some ice on it and it should be okay in a few days. I have the worst luck with bees. This is my 4th time getting stung by a bee while riding a bike. Before I got stung while riding my mountain bike on my leg. Another time, a bee was on my backpack and stung my hand. Another time was on my arm. I got stung about a dozen times while minding my own beeswax. One time, I was swimming and a bee in the pool stung me. I'm unlucky that way. Dang it!

I hope the swelling goes away by Saturday. I'm the Best Man at Andy's wedding. I don't want to look retarded during the wedding.

Now that I think about it, there was an omen prior to my bee sting. There was a huge swarm of bees near my office building earlier that day. There was a security guard outside warning me of the swarm. I saw on the news that a truck carrying millions of bees flipped over on the freeway too.

I've been sick with the flu for two weeks. I'm better now thanks to my wife keeping me heavily medicated.

I also rant about the fact that there are tons of inattentive and rude drivers out there. I almost got hit several times when cars tried to make left turns right in front of me. They just see the cars in front of me. That's how I got hit a couple months back. I need to get a loud horn to warn cars to watch out.

Also drivers should not honk at cyclists if they're behind them. Drive around me by going to the next lane and pass me with lots of space. Don't just zip by inches away from me at 60 mph.

Montrose Peloton

This past Saturday, I rode with the Montrose Peloton. Some of these cyclists are pros and others are club racers. They like to train as a peloton on Saturday mornings. I got up early to ride to Descanso Gardens in La Canada where they meet up at 8:00 a.m. I had to bike about 15 miles to get there. It was cold in LC that morning. I could see the fog coming out of my breath. There were only about 20 or so riders at the meeting point, but as we rode along and passed the Rose Bowl and Huntington Drive, the group grew to way over 100 riders. These guys were fast though. I stayed in the back of the pack because I was riding my triathlon bike and didn't want anyone bitching about me riding a tri bike in a peloton. It was hard to keep up with them even when I was going over 30 mph sometimes on the flats. Sometimes I was going 24 mph and they were leaving me behind. I caught up at the lights, but sometimes the pack just blew through lights. Eventually, I got dropped after 20 miles. They usually ride for 40-45 miles in the San Gabriel valley area for the short ride. I got humbled again. I have to train a lot more if I want to ride with pro level riders. As punishment for getting dropped, I made myself bike about 100 miles more. I rode a total of 120 miles that day and my legs were sore. I think I just ran out of juice on my ride with the peloton, because I didn't eat breakfast. I only ate a little bit of bread because I didn't want to have to go to the bathroom during my ride. Next time, I need to eat more, and I definitely need to train a lot more. I didn't take any pictures, because they're so fast that by the time I got out my camera, they would have taken off.

I biked by my old house where I grew up in La Canada. Now, it's worth $1.2 million dollars or more. I also passed by all my schools that I went to: high school, elementary and junior high on my ride.

I missed out on the Fargo hill climb competition because of church though. Here's a picture someone took of the event on Sunday.

Acura L.A. Bike Tour

On Sunday morning, I rode in the L.A. Bike Tour-twice. It started at 5:50 a.m. The night before, I just came back from dinner and bowling so I wasn't able to fall asleep quickly. It usually takes me awhile to fall asleep these days. I don't know. Maybe it's because I have too many things on my mind lately. I finally went to sleep around 1:00 a.m. and then some people woke me up by talking loudly as they walked by my room. Sarah sleeps like a log so she doesn't wake up that easily. I then went back to sleep around 2:00 a.m. I woke up at 4:00 a.m. to eat breakfast and get to the start point early. There are over 16,000 riders, so you have to get there at least an hour early if you want to be closer to the starting point. Otherwise, you'll be behind tens of thousands of other riders and it will take you an hour just to get to the starting line. Fortunately, I got there early and I was off with one of the lead packs. I drafted behind some guys. The course was about 22 miles. At around 6:40 a.m. I already passed my church, so I just decided to go to the end. I was going to stop at church just in case I was running late.

I felt pretty strong when riding behind the lead group. I wanted to attack and drop all of them, but I also wanted to save my strength for the sprint to the finish. The finish line came earlier than I thought. I attacked at the very last stretch where there were tons of photographers. I almost ran some photographers over.

I got a finisher's medal at the end. When I looked at my watch, it was still only 6:50 a.m., so I decided to do the tour again. I was passing thousands of people. Of course, they were mostly just families and their little kids. It was like a sea of cyclists. I loved it especially since all the roads on the course were closed off to cars. This only happens once a year so I wanted to take full advantage of it. I think I might have been the only one to do it twice since I never saw anyone else. I never got passed, but I did pass everyone else. I still made it back to church before the 8:00 service. I got to church around 7:40 a.m. I must have been averaging 24 miles an hour for both rides. I had time to clean up and change and start setting up equipment for the kid's worship. A lot of people seemed to be late for church because of all the road closures. Next year, I'm going to try to complete the tour 3 times. I might just reach the end before the last stragglers make it to the finish line. If I don't then, they'll kick me off to make way for the marathon runners. I biked 13 miles to get to the race. Then biked about 22 miles for the course. Then, I did it again a second time. Then biked back to church. After church, I biked home. I biked about 70 miles on Sunday. You can see my tired eyes after riding 44 miles and getting only 2 hours of sleep. I had some girl on the road take a picture of me, because Sarah still didn't make it to church before I did.

I still haven't been compensated for my bike accident last month. I'm still waiting to hear from the driver's insurance company. Hopefully, they'll give me an offer soon. I bought some new parts for my bike, but I still have more stuff to buy to make it fully functional. My gears and brakes are terrible. I love my new Mavic Kysrium wheels. My original Xero Ultralight XR1 Aero wheels were lighter, but the Kysrium has black spokes that are more aero.

Bowl-O-Rama

On Saturday, the BSBC Sunday School Teachers had dinner and then went bowling. Tony bought dinner for us all at Caffe Village. The food there was really good.

Tony, Grace, Hye Jin, Fenny and her boyfriend, Erwin, Joseph, Sharon, Sarah, and I were there in attendance.

Los Angeles Critical Mass

There was a Critical Mass ride in L.A. on Friday night. There were about 200 cyclists of all types and abilities there to share in the joy of biking. We rode for about 20 miles around the L.A. and Hollywood area. It's like a huge party on wheels.

L.A. Marathon Expo

I went to the Los Angeles Marathon Expo, or officially known as the McDonald's (Lack of)Quality of Life Expo on Friday, February 29, 2008. There were a ton of booths and vendors there. I went to pick up my stuff for the Acura L.A. Bike Tour. Of course, Acura and Honda showed off their cars there.

There were so many health food products and stuff to buy for runners that I was amazed. I want to try the marathon next time, but I'll have to miss church then.