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.

Valentine's Day

I hope you all had a happy Valentine's Day. I won't go into all the details again about how I think it's a marketing conspiracy by all the retailers to pilfer from our wallets.

I got Sarah some roses and our usual cake for holidays. I can't believe how much more they increased their prices to exploit this day. They doubled the price of the roses! I couldn't believe the price gouging. Nevertheless, I forked over the cash. They know that men are captives to their business practices. If guys don't pay up and buy the gifts, then their women will kill them.

Hit By A Car

I got hit by a car on my way to work in the morning yesterday while riding my bike. I was riding westbound on Cesar Chavez going to Downtown L.A. This car coming from the opposite side made a left turn and kept coming. She didn't stop, but kept going. She hit me with her front bumper. I flew about 10 feet and hit the road. I kept sliding on my arms, knees, ankle, and chest. I thought I was going to die. Fortunately, I had another life left. If it was anyone else, I'm sure they would have been seriously injured or could have died.

The person who hit me was a fat Hispanic lady aged 54. She was with someone who I think was her husband. She was entering this warehouse that seemed to be a discount store wholesaler. It looks like she knew one Hispanic guy that worked there because I saw her talking to him.

A person on the street said she would call 911. Nobody else stopped because there was no place to park and they all probably wanted to get to work without getting involved.

A firetruck and ambulance came in about 5-10 minutes. They bandaged me up and asked if I needed to go to the hospital. I declined, because I felt okay aside from my cuts and sore muscles. I should have gone to the hospital, because I'm really sore now and maybe I could have gotten checked out. My legs are really sore. My back, neck, and chest is also sore. I got cuts and scrapes on both my arms, elbows, knees, and left ankle.

I asked the lady why she didn't stop and she said that she stopped and that I hit her! That was total b.s. She kept going and didn't stop until she hit me. I screamed out in pain. She said that I was coming down at 35 mph which was not true since there was a lot of traffic. I went slow around 10 mph. If she said I was coming down fast, then she did see me, but she didn't stop.

My bike is ruined. My front wheel is totally bent and needs to be replaced. I have to special order a derailleur hanger for my Motobecane Nemesis. I also need a new rear derailleur because it's bent. My bike seat is scraped up. My bar tape is also scraped up. I need new brakes and cables. I probably need a tune-up too to make sure that the bike will run okay. My front bike lights also fell off and broke.

She seemed to be in a rush because she said that she had to get to the airport to go to Florida. She said she was coming back in 10 days. She didn't want to give me any of her info until the police came. When a police officer finally showed up he took my info but said I needed to order a police report. I still don't have her insurance info. Hopefully, the police report will be okay. I'm not quite sure if he took the correct information about what happened and how much damage there was to my bike. The fat lady asked how my tire was. It wasn't my tire, but my whole wheel. I said that the wheel probably costs around $200. She said that she would pay for it if I showed her the receipt, but there is more damage than just the wheel. She probably doesn't know anything about bikes so she didn't think there was much damage.

She didn't even apologize to me. She kept insisting that it wasn't her fault. She kept lying to the police officer so she wouldn't get in trouble. She said that the car she drove, a junky bluish 1996 Nissan Sentra with different colored body parts and duct tape, was not hers. I guess she borrowed it from someone. I hope they have insurance. She and her husband were not injured and there was no damage to the car.

The pictures don't quite show the magnitude of the damage to me and my bike. It's worse in person than in the pictures.

Hopefully, this case will be resolved soon and quickly. I hope both my bike and I will be okay and riding together soon.

Santa Ana River Trail

Andy and I biked on the Santa Ana River bike paths on Saturday. We went from Fullerton to Huntington Beach. Our round trip mileage was about 44 miles.

The Santa Ana River bike path is really beautiful compared to the San Gabriel River trail, which goes from Azusa to Seal Beach. I wanted to take some pictures along the paths but we were going too fast for me to stop and smell the roses.

I've never seen so many cyclists on bike paths before. There were a lot! There were a lot of club riders too all wearing the same team jerseys. There were a lot of guys on triathlon bikes too. It seems like there are more active Orange County people than in Los Angeles.

This path was so nice that I wish it was hundreds of miles long. I feel like I can ride on this trail forever.

Andy and I are on Team Motobecane.

The Steepest Hill in Los Angeles

There are a couple of races that I know of where the toughest cyclists climb the steepest hills in Los Angeles. One is the Fargo Street hill climb race and the other one is "Feel My Legs I'm a Racer" ride where they race up 10 super steep hills in Los Angeles.

I tried practicing for the race later this month by going up Baxter and Fargo streets. These hills have a 32-25% grade. At first I wasn't sure where it was so I went the entire length of both streets.

I climbed the first couple of hills on Baxter and Fargo in Silver Lake. At first I went to the west side of Glendale Blvd. I climbed up all the hills there on each side. Boy was that tough! There were nice views of the Silver Lake reservoir. Then, I crossed over to the east side of Glendale, and I could see the intimidating hills up there. I just barely managed to climb the first few hills.

When I got to the steepest hills on Baxter and Fargo Street, I was totally exhausted. My heart was pounding and almost fell like giving up. But, through sheer will power, I managed to climb all the hills. I shouldn't have saved the steepest hills for last, because at that point I was pretty weak.

I fell a couple times on my 7th and 8th hill. That was a humbling experience. I had to clip out several times, because I just could not pedal up. There were a lot more cars on Baxter St. than I thought there would be. Maybe it was because it was at rush hour and people were going home.

I went up the hills on my Motobecane Nemesis triathlon/time-trial bike. My time-trial bike is built for high speeds and not climbing. The gear ratios are very high. I had no granny gear to get me up the hills. I think I can do it on my mountain bike which has much lower gears. I thought it was going to be tough especially after watching videos of other guys do it, but it was tougher than I thought. You think you can do it until you actually go up there and try.

I had to zigzag up hill. There are some pretty steep hills in my neighborhood, but these hills are the steepest in the country.

There's a technique to going uphill. You need to power through when turning while zigzaging. Otherwise, it's extremely tough to pedal uphill at that angle. If you lose your balance, concentration, and/or momentum, then it's really hard to get back on the bike again at that steep of an angle. You will fall if you can't keep pedaling up.

Even downhill was tough. The hills were so steep that my brakes couldn't even stop me. I kept going down. Sometimes, I even felt the rear tire skidding downhill. I need new brakes already.

These hills are extremely tough on bike and body. I felt like I could almost rip off the handlebars from my bike when I put so much force on it while pedaling up. I felt like the chain and gears could even break. One time my chain actually broke going uphill on my mountain bike on a steep hill in San Diego.

I also had a backpack full of clothes, shoes, lunch tupperware, bike support stuff, etc. It weighed a good 20 lbs.

I think I could complete the race. I think I will only get a mediocre time though. I think it will be easier and much safer with many other cyclists and no cars around. It was dangerous because cars can't even see anything when they're going uphill especially at the crest. Downhill, the cars' brakes are getting fried too.

You can see Fargo Street from the entrance/exit to the Glendale 2 Freeway. I've always wondered just how steep that hill was and now I know first hand. It's no joke.

Even though I couldn't get up the steepest hills in one complete go (since I was tired from climbing all the other hills), If I could finish them on a high-geared triathlon bike, then I'm pretty sure I can do it on a lower geared mountain bike. It will still be tough, especially on a race of the 10 steepest hills in L.A. These hills are steeper than the ones in San Francisco.

Plus, I'm getting old. Before biking there, I twisted my back and pulled a muscle near my rib. I had a hard time breathing too, because it hurt when I tried to inhale.

It's a good thing I like physical challenges. No pain, no gain, right? If I'm free that day, I want to do that race.

My hats off to the guys who can do it on fixed gear bikes and guys who can do it 50-90 times in one day.

As you know, pictures don't really show just how steep hills are. You've got to go there and do it yourself.

Check out the links to find more about these races:

http://nowhip.blogspot.com/2007/02/feel-my-legs-im-racer-2007.html

http://www.lawheelmen.org/fargo.htm

Lost Season 4

What'd you guys think of last night's premiere of Lost? I thought it was pretty awesome. The only thing is whether or not they'll be able to answer all the questions about the island before the show ends. They introduce new mysteries every episode, and they haven't explained all the stuff in past seasons. I think the storyline is intriguing and the mysteries really get people hooked. It might be frustrating for some, but once they answer the puzzles, it's really anti-climatic. It's like knowing the secret to a magician's trick.

It's like J.J Abram's previous show, Alias, where they had mind-blowing concepts introduced in each episode. When the show finally ended and they explained that Jennifer Garner's mother was the leader behind a New World Order, I found it to be unsatisfying compared to the first season where every episode had an incredible cliff-hanger.

Going back to Lost, it seems like the writer's have been making things up as they go along each episode. Sometimes, they try to introduce things that will really wow people. But, they can't always seem to keep it up, hence season 3 where not as much happened.

They've shown us a lot of things that still needs to be answered satisfactorily. What is that black cloud-like monster? What is the significance of the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42? Why do all the pregnant women die on the island? Etc.

I think Lost is still the best show on tv.

Did you see the Oceanic Airlines commercial on ABC? It goes to a link:

www.flyoceanair.com

After the online commercial, it leads you to another website:

www.find815.com

Find815.com is a fun internet game where you play as a guy who is trying to find what happened to his girlfriend, a stewardess on Oceanic flight 815. Try it. It's pretty clever.