New Record!

I rode to work today in the fastest time ever! Here are the stats:

Distance: 19.44 km
Average Speed: 31.71 km/h
Time: 37:16 (traffic stops not included)

Sensations: legs felt fast! lots of annoying trucks. One very nice truck on Avenue Road between Eglinton and Lawrence....50 km/h for a couple minutes with nearly zero effort (although it did stop at traffic lights a couple times)!

I wish the ride were longer...it would be better training for races. This is good training for time trials and sprints, but not for a longer ride.

Today's Ride

Distance: 40 km
Average Speed: 29.18 km/h

Sensations: Tired. Didn't sleep well. Not able to focus at work (my foosball skills have suffered tremendously!).

While riding home, there is one section south of St. Clair on Spadina that is pretty flat and kind of ends in a very slight uphill, rather a false flat, where I really like to sprint. After that little part at the next traffic light, the guy in the van that was behind me, pulls up beside me and says 'DUDE! You were going like 60 km/h back there! You were at a steady 50, then went even faster!'. hehehe....I think his speedometer is slightly off, my max was actually about 50.5 km/h.

Speaking of people pulling up beside me, one day I was on Avenue road at Bloor, waiting for the traffic light to turn, and i hear from my left 'hey hot stuff!' I turn to look and there was a girl with her window rolled down calling out...but she was ACTUALLY calling her friend on the sidewalk just on the opposite side of me! HAHA...then I think she said 'not THAT hot stuff'.

yesterday's ride

Distance: 40 km
Average Speed: 31 km/h

Sensations: strong legs, very hot weather, especially when stopped at traffic lights. Funny clanking in my bike that needs to be checked out.

Garbage Picking!

Yesterday was the annual U of T Mountain Bike Team Don Valley Clean-up, which consists of a bunch of us going to the trails we use so often armed with garbage bags and a bbq, and cleaning for two hours. It's disgusting how much stuff is just tossed down into the valley. Tons of plastic bags, cement left over from construction projects, old vacuum cleaners, and dozens of old car tires. We found 17 tires! crazy! We didn't put garbage in the bbq, that was used to feed us afterwards! :-D

here are some photos!

http://mtnbike.sa.utoronto.ca/pics/2006cleanup/2006cleanup.html

Cheers
GSM

New Speed Record

I forgot to mention last wednesday that I set a new record for maximum speed on my bike. On a downhill on that day's ride, I reached about 83 km/h, which for the imperial unit readers out there is 51.6 mph. I think that's pretty damn fast! YEEEEEHAAW

I am so smart!

s, m, r t...D'OH!

I figured out some cool stuff in my work today....stuff that I had no clue how to do yesterday. It's amazing what sleeping on it will do. And also, amazing how much less stressful things are when you're actually interested and also when there aren't 15 assignments due tonight at midnight.

the wonders of grad school!

yesterday's ride

Distance: 20km + 63km = 83km
Average Speed: about 31 km/h
Legs: pretty good mostly, except at the end when I started cramping a bit. Hadn't brought any food. Oops.
Today: upset stomach and a good book kept me from sleeping well....VERY sleepy!

Oregon details

sososo, I've purchased my flight to Oregon. I decided not to use my mom's airmiles since it would have cost $350 anyway, with the extra miles I needed and the taxes, and the flight I bought was $550 all included. Might as well use the airmiles when we can get a whole flight with them! I leave June 26 at 8 am, and return July 7 in the evening. My 24 hour relay mountain biking race is June 24 and 25! leaving the day after at 8 eek!! I hope I'm able to get up in time for the plane!

My favourite author

I've discovered that my favourite author that I've read so far in my life is Graham Greene. When I pick up one of his books, I feel like the things that are happening and the characters are real people somewhere in the world, only a few chapters into each book! He is such a good writer. Unfortunately, it's too bad that all his books are about sad things happening to good people. Quite depressing really. So because of that, I don't like reading his stories. I get too interested and depressed when I do. How frustrating: unable to read my favourite author's books.

Subway Sightings

I'm sitting on the subway on the way home from the bar last night. Sitting in front of me on the opposite side of the car are two friends: a tall white girl in a white jacket, blue jeans, and not-so -high heels (you know the kind that aren't too pointy?) and her friend, a short asian girl in a black jacket, darker jeans, and huge stilletos. The train stops at Bloor, and these two get off and turn right, outside the door, and away from my line of sight. As it often does at Bloor, the train sits there for a while. Then from the right outside the train the two friends walk back from where they came....but wait! It's not them! It's ANOTHER pair of girls, one tall white girl in white jacket, jeans, and not-so-high heels and her short asian friend in black jacket, darker jeans and stilletos! I felt like I was in the Matrix or something, with the deja-vu...and then the original two DID walk back and so these two identical pairs were walking by right outside my car.

weeeeeird.

Weights Lifted

Squats:
1 set of 10 reps, 140 lbs
3 sets of 7 reps, 210 lbs

Foosball:
2 matches won!

At last...

As promised, I have finally obtained my photos of the Tarte Tatin. Here is the first one I ever made.

Here it is, right out of the oven. Admire the golden brown surface of the crust....which unfortunately will be forever invisible due to the nature of the pie, because....

...the next step is to flip the whole thing upside down! Here I am flipping....

Here is the pie appearing from beneath the cooking vessel...i.e. the pie plate.

There was enough dough and apples to make a mini-pie too. I believe it's because I didn't notice the part about one pie only taking a half-recipe of dough, and I rolled out the whole thing! You can see the big pie in the background.

And here I am, with my mom, enjoying the fruits of my labour. If you could see my face (not shown to preserve my anonymity) you would see that I have a huge smile on, because it's really really yummy, even though this first one didn't turn out that great. How can you possibly go wrong with apples, cinnammon, brown sugar, and pounds of butter?! :-D

Surprise surprise....

...I'm planning a trip to Oregon. :-P

The ideal dates would be to leave Toronto June 7th or 8th, and come back on the 18th. My mom says that I can use her airmiles, which will signficantly reduce the cost of the flight! I would love to stop in Vancouver, and visit some friends there, but as the purpose of this trip is to see CC, and I still have a Masters to finish, it doesn't make sense to waste 2 x 22 hours on a bus going from Vancouver to Bend, Oregon! Worry not though, for those reading from BC, I will make a trip there at some point in the next year to visit! :-)

I've heard Oregon is beautiful....especially the southern part where I'll hopefully be going. I'm definitely looking forward to this trip!

Weekend Report

so, it's been quite an eventful weekend. On Friday, I made Tarte Tatin #2, which turned out quite nicely (although I discovered I like using salted butter for the apple topping better than unsalted butter), and I brought it to the gathering for the Toronto Photo Marathon, which I participated in last month. (http://www.torontophotomarathon.com/) I was a winner in one of the categories, so I got a nice big enlargement of my winning print, which is awesome. (Unfortunately I can't tell you which category.....that would compromise my anonymity here.) The party was pretty lame because not enough people showed up. We had a huge hall, and out of 100 photographers only about 20 or 25 showed up! How disappointing! But it wasn't too bad anyway, talked about photography to some interesting people.

On Friday I also found out what camp CC will be moving to in Oregon, for her bird field work. It's going to be the most remote camp they have out there...great for bird watching and for being far from civilization, but also bad for being so far from civilization...no running water, no electricity, and most horribly, no phone! I hope that she can find somewhere to get cell phone connectivity...no talking to her for 3 months would be really really rough. I might go down to Oregon in June....stopping in Van and Portland on the way.

Saturday was a most annoying day, because I was getting kicked out of my room by my older sister. She is pregnant, and my room was (much) bigger than hers, and her husband is coming back, so it made sense for us to switch, but I'm still allowed to complain about it! So we spent most of the day moving our stuff back and forth, and we (read I) moved her furniture around, because she can't really lift anything at the moment.

Sunday was a race day. I brought my homemade power gel. The race went ok, but I didn't push as hard as I could have. I wasn't sure I could rely on my legs not to cramp, but it seems like with this power gel and gatorade in my camelbak, I don't need to worry. In the flats and in double track I tended not to push too hard, worried that I might run out of steam before the end of the race. This is apparently unnecessary! I should HAMMER in the flats and false flats, and use my pretty decent technical skills to flow through the windy singletrack. I also reconfirmed (as discovered in the first race) that I need to do some weight training on my legs. I tested the theory that all I needed was to ride more between races, and this theory proved false; I really need tons more power to increase my power to weight ratio (while at the same time reducing my weight a bit, which is a bit high for my height and for a mountain biker). However, I was talking to a friend who noted that you see all sorts of physiques excelling at mountain...short stocky guys, skinny lanky guys, tall behemoths, and small gnomes. So there is still hope for me! I just need to work at it more. In terms of results, I didn't finish as well this race as in the first race, because I didn't push as hard, and also there were other factors...I haven't been sleeping, I had a tiring day Saturday, I didn't preride, and also I fought off a potentially nasty cold in the 3 days leading up to the race. Hopefully with some weight training, healthy sleeping, and good diet my next race will be better.

Ok, I guess it's time to get to work finally for the day!!!

I'm such a slacker.

GSM

Tarte Tatin #2 update

So, the pie was pretty good, and the crust was pretty tasty. It could have cooked a bit longer though. Also, it shrank! After about 20 minutes in the oven I looked and its diameter was WAY smaller than when it started! I wonder if it has something to do with forgetting to poke holes in it....

Tarte Tatin #2

in the oven and almost done!

The dough was better this time...I wasn't rushing as I made it.

Crap day

I feel like shit. Last night I realized that CC's phone is apparently not working....her number is invalid or something, so I wanted to call and talk to her but couldn't. It's been a while since we talked, so it was pretty upsetting. As a result I didn't really sleep well, at all. On top of that, my sister has been sick for a week and a half, like really sick, hacking up lungs here and there, so today I feel like I'm catching that, and I felt rotten at work. And on Sunday I have a bike race, so if I'm sick for that it really sucks! I want top 15 damnit! Hopefully tonight I'll sleep well, and I've taken my vitamins and echinacea.

this whole thing about not being able to talk to CC really really really sucks. It's driving me insane. I bought her a phone card, and sent her a text message with the number and pin number, and either she didn't receive the message, or didn't feel like calling, because I didn't get a call. I know she's probably busy a lot, and is enjoying the outdoors and stuff....but...I miss her! :-(

On the bright side, I did start making another Tarte Tatin today. The pie crust dough is looking good so far. I will try cooking it using the advice that I heard at the climbing gym.

blog = biking log :-)

Distance: 76 km
Average Speed: 30.67 km/h
Total Time: 2 hours 29 minutes
Total blog km: 317.75

Legs felt good. I did laps at the CNE, with about 40 or 50 other people (in addition the the ride to work and back)! It was awesome, I've never ridden in such a large group. And I'm happy to say that I think I wasn't the slowest, I tried to stay closer to the front most of the time, and had my share of long pulls! During my best one, I kept the speed up at 38 or 39 km/h into a headwind, and near the end a guy behind yelled 'yes yes yes!'....kinda surprised me since I didn't know what he was saying at first, hehe. Anyway, 317.75 km in one week....sounds ok to me. A Donut ride over the weekend would have boosted that quite a bit! (100+ kms). Today will be the last hard ride before my race on Sunday (at Albion Hills).

I finished my first aid course today. Learned all sorts of useful things, for example did you know you can do the Heimlich manoeuvre to yourself? Take a large blunt object and hold it in front of your stomach below the xyphoid process (and not on the solar plexus), and just run stomach first into a wall as fast as you can! keep your head up too, or else you'll hit that first :-P. I think this is really important for people to know. Everyone can sorta do the heimlich manoeuvre, but not so many people think of doing it to themselves if they're choking all alone. I also learned CPR, how to deal with seizures, open wounds, broken bones, unconscious non-breathing but with a pulse people (one in five saves lives!), how to roll people around, recognize heart attacks, strokes, heat stroke, heat exhaustion, hypothermia, etc. etc. It was a pretty good course, because we really got to practise everything quite a bit, and also they gave us a handbook with everything we've learned in it.

Ok, hitting the shower...the salt from my ride is still on my forehead!

Total kms

Total kilometres since I started logging them here (last Thursday)

241.75

Ride Today

Distance: To work and back, 39 km
Average Speed: 26.57 km/h.

State of legs: tired in the morning, better in the afternoon. Didn't sleep last night, and took a sleep-inducing allergy pill at 4 am....still feeling its effects when I had to ride at 8.

Today's Ride

Distance: toWork + fromWorkAndExtraRide = 19.47 + 37.28 = 56.75 km
Average Speed: to work:30.33 km/h
State of Legs: fine...didn't feel strong or weak.

Call!

CC called me! :-D YAY!

Oh ya, the recipe

As per my reader's request, and of course it makes perfect sense since I've been writing about it so much, here is the recipe for the Tarte Tatin, it's on the FoodTV web site here:

http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=2565

It doesn't tell you everything. You should cook the crust separately from the apples, at least most of the time (my idea is to cook it mostly, and then put it on top of the apples for 10 minutes or something but I haven't put this to the test) and between two cookie sheets, apparently (according to a climber at the Rock Oasis! :-P Think of it: two guys in a climbing gym talking about baking! hehe) which I think is to keep it nice and flat. The reason for this is that if you cook it the whole time on the apples, the crust doesn't puff up as it should, instead it gets soggy and dense and tastes like it's not cooked. Also, a quarter of an inch seems a bit thick to me, to roll it the last time. Also, it is VERY important to SPOON the sugar into the pie plate after you've melted it in the pan, as it says in the recipe. If you just pour it, the sugar hardens almost instantly into a big glob in the middle of the plate, whereas you'd like it evenly spread around. If it hardens once it's spread around that's fine. You cook it with the apples anyway. Another tip is, a bit more sugar and butter and apples for each pie doesn't hurt! :-D

I've been ditched!

So today I was supposed to climbing at the Toronto Climbing Academy, with at least two friends. One guy suggested in an email that it was a bit too late for him, so I wasn't surprised that he backed out, but the other friend said 'yes, i'll go climbing with you at 4:30 at TCA' then at 1 pm or so called and said 'I'm bored and dont' want to sit around while I wait for 4:30 so I'm going climbing with someone else now at Rock Oasis' (Rock Oasis being the other gym). This was rather annoying because I'd brought all my gear with me to my other activities, and my afternoon had been planned around climbing at 4:30. Find something to do! It's either climb now and be bored later, or be bored now and climb later, and when you've committed to climbing later it's not very considerate to do that just because you're bored and can't find something to do.

ergh.

Ah well. I had a nap instead. And some deep thought about life, the universe, and the plants growing by the window. And I concentrated on feeling my beard growing (which I haven't shaved since CC left! aiya! it's getting shaggy).

Photos of Tarte Tatin will have to wait for later. My dad took my cam....err, ahem, I mean his camera away to France, with my photos on them.

Today's Ride

Short but intense, laps at CNE, alone, lots of wind changing directions.

Distance: 35 km (about 3.5 km to get there, and to get back, so about 28 km around the loop)
Distance/lap: about 2.5 km.
Average Speed: 31 km/h.

Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE, x/10): 5
State of legs: good.

Buy Power Gels? Pshaw!

I just made my own power gel! I got the brown rice syrup in a store in Kensington ($8/litre...but he asked me not to tell anyone. I think he was just being a salesman though). I blended some raspberries, and put them through a sieve to get out the seeds. Then I heated the syrup, and added some raspberry puree, and some zone caps... I tried a small batch first to get the proportions right...and it's pretty good! And 1litre of syrup makes you a lot of actual sized gel packs! I think I'm going to try cocoa for the next batch I make. I still have around half a litre of syrup. Here are the proportions I used:

- 1/2 litre brown rice syrup
- small tray pureed raspberries
- 6 zone caps

These are not exactly to scale...i.e. I just tried it as I went along and added raspberry to taste.

This is WAY cheaper than buying some commercial gels! :-D

Now since I've been tasting gel for the last 30 minutes, I'm pretty wired! gonna go and ride!

Feeling funny

I am feeling oddly anxious today....or restless....maybe Antsy is the correct word. I don't know why. Perhaps it's the lack of bike ride to work, or possibly that I'm missing CC a great deal, or I ate something funny? Or a combination of the above? Anyway, it's a strange feeling and it's preventing me from focusing properly on my work.

I think it must be mostly that I'm missing CC...I've got a constantly furrowed brow because of it today. I wish she would call! I feel bad calling her because of the exhorbitant phone fees....if I call her it's free for me but 70 cents per minute for her! And I don't even know if she has reception at the moment. She's also probably very busy getting up at 5 am to catch and count birds, and learning the tricks of her summer trade. But I haven't had an email in 3 days, or a phone call since Saturday when she was still in Vancouver, and it's starting to get pretty hard.

I MISS YOU CC!!!!!!!

argh

Going the distance....going for speed!

Today's distance: 39 km (to work and back)
Average Speed: 29.8 km/h (includes slowing for traffic lights)

Time there: 41 minutes
Time back: approx. 37 minutes

State of legs: bit tired starting out, but felt strong after warmup.

Update on Tarte Tatin: After a bit of microwaving, the dough loosened up and was soft and yummy. The smaller pie with more sugar and cinnamon and also more apples(per square cm) was tastier.

Bike Rides and Pie!

Well, last night I went for a nice long ride at the CNE...and to my surprise so did about 50 other people! There is a nice loop you can ride around, over and over again, which can get pretty boring unless there are lots of people to talk to; I saw T-Rock and Cartwheel, which was a pleasant surprise. There were some pretty fast riders, at times we were riding anywhere between 37 and 45 km/h.

Total distance on the day: 72km.
State of legs after: a bit sore.

As you know I then went home, ate dinner and baked a Tarte Tatin....well, after the cooking was done, and a bit of cooling, the pies were flipped upside down (once an appropriate flipping dish was found) to their final form....they looked SOOOOO good! and smelled amazing. Unfortunately it seems as though I made the crust a tad thick, because it wasn't all fluffy as flaky pastry (puff pastry?) is supposed to be! Or maybe I waited too long before flipping and it got compressed? I'm not sure. Any tips on this? It still tasted good though, but the dough seemed a bit underdone. I think the smaller version of the pie I made with the leftover dough is better, since I rolled the crust thinner (and it seems to have become THICKER than the thick crust on the big pie after cooking!). Anyway, I will post pictures of our pies when I get home (I say 'our pie', because the initial impetus was CC's...I never would have done it otherwise!)

Tarte Tatin!

Before CC left for Oregon, she really wanted to make us a Tarte Tatin, a french apple pie that has flaky puffy pastry....she got about as far as mixing the dough ingredients together, with instructions to finish it at some point!

The longest part was making the dough...you have to roll it, fold it, wait for a long time, roll it, fold it, wait, and repeat that a few times...takes hours and hours! And in my case, days! But I finished earlier today, and so decided to make the actual pie. It is done cooking, and it smells SOOOOOOO good! I'm just waiting for it to cool a bit to eat it. It'll be extra special since it's something CC started. :-)

I MISS YOU CC!!

GS