hi..

For the last week or so settling into the new living area has been interesting. Just b/c you live by the beach, have great riding paved no traffic areas and a jr. Olympic pool doesn't mean your training every day. Matter of fact I have finally started to get into some sort of consistence and get some training done. OK, OK, I have only ran a couple of times and I rode my bike once but hey that is good considering it was the first, yes the first, bike ride since IMCdA!!!!!!!!!

Now I have been hitting my little workout gym which has some nice equipment so that has to count for something, right? I guess that just makes me feel better for the not so good eating choices that have been around since moving to LA area.

I can say that since things are more settled I am ready to get structured and get things on track. I was nice riding my bike the other day for just over an hour and exploring Manhattan Beach, (watch for the signs that say Walk Your Bike) b/c you will get a ticket if you ride across in certain areas!!! And the running along the beach path is always nice no matter what time of the day.

This weekend was a nice tailgate party and NCAA football game at the Rose Bowl. It was Fresno St. vs. UCLA. The Rose Bowl area is nice and the stadium is pretty darn big and if your there during the middle of the day like I was, there is minimal to no shade which made for a serious hot 3rd quarter!! I mean it was super backing hot! Good thing I hydrated on all those beers before hand, HA!!!!

rockon'

as it goes..

Getting all moved in this past week and settled up was quite busy. Basically moved to a bigger apartment on Saturday morning, but wait let's back up to Friday night.

Friday night I started taking things over to the new bigger apartment b/c the 1 bedrm by the pool was just too small. So in the afternoon and evening I start moving some things. By about 7:30pm I see myneighbor from downstairs talking to his son in the parking garage and showing off his new motorcycle so I go say Hi and check it out. After talking with them for a few mins. I head back up to the apt for the night, which is about 7:45pm. Off to sleep and only to wake up at 6:50am to an email message saying my Bank account has irregular activity. I immediately hope on the computer and check things out and see that someone has hacked my bank account debit card, which has happened before in the past. So I go down stairs to the parking garage b/c I remembered I had my wallet in the car, (see where this is going) As I walk up to the car I basically see this:

and utter fuck! are you kiddn` me!! My passenger side window is smashed! I open the drivers door and immediately look to the back of my Murano as my Tri bike is still (thank God) in the back! I then look for my wallet and notice the glove box is open and then I see my wallet and Oakley's are gone! Bastards! So now I know why my bank account has been used. I go back upstairs and call the banks, all my credit cards and shut things down. 2hours later after calling the police to file a report over the phone, yes, over the phone, remember this LA there not coming out for a smash and grab I am done with all this nonsense. It was weird that I was talking to the neighbor and he was telling me that several people have had there cars broken into and a motorcycle was stolen from the "secured" parking garage. Not only that but this happened between 7:45pm and before 9pm b/c the first transaction on my bank account was at Trader Joes and they close at 9pm! So these were Health Conscious robbers, punks!

Bottom line they took my wallet with no cash in it but got my credit cards, tried using a couple but it didn't work and basically only got about $60 from my bank account which I will get back. They got my drivers license, ss card, picture of Pope John Paul ( I love that picture) and my sunglasses and few other things that are not to worry about.

It could have been worse, taking the bike, my Nike shoes, my ipod in the center counsel, and my check book. It cost my $200 to get the damn window fixed though and that was out of pocket being as insurance deductible is $500.

Welcome to California!!! (bitches..)

Finally got the apartment moved that morning and went to an Angels baseball game that night and hung out. What a day!

This week I have ran 2 times which is good, lifted weights along with some cardio and last night went to the Manhattan Beach Bikram Yoga which will be the new hot yoga home. That's some good stuff and although I am sore today I think I may go back tonight. Hey, its $30 for a week, intro price so gotta take advantage of it.

rockon`

Pictures..

Here are some pictures, finally, of the apartment area with the pool and lap lane, looking across the street at some nice training hills, be running at the beach today!! Yes, I did run! and of course the Disney 1/2 and 5k Finisher Medal!!

rockon

Elvis has left the building..

Notice anything different on the blog page...????

rockon`

Disneyland 1/2 and August.

So with all the month of August totally gone so much as happened in just a few weeks. I got sick in relocating to LA I didn’t eat for about 2 days, it was bad. So stay away from any HAM at any deli side road stop.

Let’s talk about this apartment with the jr. Olympic swimming pool with the designated lap lane, the super awesome workout gym with nice cardio equipment and flat screens on each piece along with the Free Motion weight machines, Oh did I mention the ½ mile from the Beach!!! Nice biking lanes and roads all over the dang place, it’s a tri training heaven!!! And being as I have not done crap since Ironman it’s time to get back with it during the 70 degree days, yes, the weather is totally awesome!!

Now with all this stuff going on I didn’t forget that the Disney ½ marathon was this past weekend and I was also signed up for the 5k run on sat. So I ran through Disneyland/California Adventure parks which is totally cool and knocked out that 5k with lots of fun and got a little Toy Story Finishers rubber medal. One of the great things is that I went to the Expo on Friday night and got really cool free stuff to see and do, the sales on running stuff.

Race: On Sunday I got to the race site, parked and tried looking for my dad also running but that was just not going to happen as there was well over 15,000 people. You were grouped based on your submitted pace at registration into corals and I was in Group B which left at 6am start. Standing there I realized I forgot my Chip and was not going to have any official time other than Garmin but it was way too late to worry about that, so no time for JT per Disneyland. The run went off and the humidity was up but things were going well. Around mile 6 I was getting tired and realized I had a long way to go so quit thinking about that. I took plenty of water/poweraid at the stops and basically walked the aid stations unless my HR got too high in between but that didn’t really happen till after mile 10. By mile 11 I was really getting tired and just hung in there for mile 12 as I knew I was close to finishing. The last couple of miles you are back running through Disneyland so that takes your mind off things and it’s fun.

Overall a Great Venue and fun to run. The course is pretty much flat expect for the couple of overpasses you have to cross. Running around Angel Stadium is cool and in and out of the parks is fun too. The best thing though is the Finishers Medal! Nice and Big and Flashy.!! The post race stuff is pretty much standard so not too much bragging there but oh, a Nice Sweet tech shirt in the goody bag and this Glade Electrical air freshener thingy, its cool. My overall Garmin time was 2:42 and I was about 3-4 mins off clock time, so not too bad for running a 5k on Saturday and then 13.1 on Sunday with absolutely No training what so ever since IMCdA! Not the smartest thing to do though. My right foot was quite sore on Monday and my quads were sore as well but not as bad as I had expected. (Pics to come) AS for everything else, well, it’s just working…

Rockon`