Sorry, It's been real

I am redirecting my "blogging" to tumblr. follow me if you please.


http://www.ericgantbastard.tumblr.com

I want.

Izalco Extreme Super Record. Mmmm.

Lucifer

It's almost as though he's always instigating a photoshoot.

Addicting Habenero Salsa

Makes roughly 32oz of delicious salsa you will have a hard time not eating in a single sitting.

In order to complete said task you will need:

A pot. 3 quarts? Likely the one that you use when you make pasta.
A blender or food processor. If you have both, use the food processor, the blender too often purees it.
Lots of tortilla chips.If you can, make your own. You may as well.
Peppers, carrots, tomatoes and an onion. Personally, I'm a fan of this combination:

3 Habeneros
4-6 Jalapenos
2 Serrano Chilies
2 Anaheim Peppers
2 Padron Peppers
2 Bell Peppers
2 medium sized carrots, skinned, chopped
1 small onion, peeled, quartered
3-4 tomatoes, cored, roasted
1 pinch of red chili flakes
salt to taste
water

Here's what you should do:

Boil everything together in just enough water to where it's almost submerged for 15 minutes or until everything is tender. Strain, and reserve the water to adjust viscosity. Throw it in a food processor, and press "Go". Add reserved fire water and salt as needed. You should mess with all kinds of peppers until you can dial in your personal spicy/sweet salsa requirements.

Enjoy.

Tour De Water Tower

via Go Means Go

We were exploring and getting acquainted with our new city during last years Tour De Water Tower. So needless to say (but I will regardless) I am very excited to race this years "Guerilla TT."



And while we're on the topic of bike racing, I'd like to share that my new friend, Eric Becker (Thumb Print Racing) talked some sense into me and I will now be racing the rest of the season's Seward Park Series for experience and for the hopes of a late season upgrade to CAT4. Commencing name taking/ ass kicking.

Recap

Things I liked this week.


Our cats, Lucifer (top) and RZA (bottom) "wraslin"


Warm and sunny early morning bike rides


I was given the components for a special last Wednesday and I came up with this: julienne Padron pepper saute over herbed goat cheese on toast.


My good friend, Brad Terry, just started a new art project he's calling "Black Teeth" (left). I'm way into it...So into it that I'm compelled to decorate these lovely stickers compliments of USPS.

Semi-Exciting Stuff

New Knife: Yoshikane Nakiri [Vegetable Cleaver, top]


New Training Plan: M-Rest, T-Hills, W-Aerobic, Th-Sprints (crit style), F-Rest, S-Endurance w/Sprints, Sun-Race and Destroy
All of which include awesome visuals such as these-




Thanks Mike.

b+ radsport: North West

My friend and teammate, Mike Roecklein, stepped outside his warm and sunny comfort zone of Southern California for some business in our fair city of Seattle. During his stay we made sure to include a couple training rides, one in particular included the classic 55 mile Lake Washington loop (counter clockwise). I've completed this ride a dozen times before and not once have I encountered a mechanical mishap (lucky I know). Wednesday just wasn't our day. My water bottle popped out of the holder on a decent and was ran over by a Benz, then Mikes seat post mounted holder failed and dropped both of his bottles...one of which was ran over. I then was confronted with glass penetration for rear flat #1, changed the tube hand pumped it and delt with it until Bellevue where we found Gregg's Cycles. Largest bike shop ever. We re-upped on supplies and off we went. As we started our climb out of downtown Kirkland, Mike managed to find a nail to puncture his rear tire. Luckily we were prepared due to my initial flat, because 48mm valves don't fit in 70mm carbon rims. All interesting fails aside. I had a lot of fun on this ride. It truly makes a difference when you're not going it alone. Thanks for the good company and words of wisdom Mike.

Learning To Have More Fun With This Thing

After recently being introduced to a (now inactive) blog whose mission statement primarily invokes creativity among its readers, Jessica and I have been sucked in. I would assume that most (new/ish) "bloggers" struggle with getting creative and consistent posts up for readers, and with this new find the motivation is here! The said blog is called "Learning To Love You More". And thanks to Ms. Lindsay Hall for introducing us to this, Jess and I have begun to embark on our own creative journey to get the juices flowing.

Monday's Mission: Photograph an Animal


Spotted @ 89th and Aurora during training ride.

You can see Jessica's finds here: www.youandthewine.blogspot.com
More photo challenges to come.

Monday Miles: North Seattle

Woke up at the crack of 6:30 this morning and somehow managed to take an hour and a half to drink my 20oz. french-press, eat my oatmeal and get in the saddle. Its my day off so it doesnt really matter, but ideally I'd like to be rolling by 7 at the latest. The weather was perfect, 58 and partly cloudy, if I remember correctly... naturally the coastline became the destination. Road north to Zoka Coffee in Greenlake to say whats up to Brad and grab a shot before getting into it.

Turns out theres a lot of hills out that way, perfect for optimal views. This one is from High St. in Edmonds.

Time- 2:40.33
Avg HR- 141bpm
Max HR- 177bpm
KiloCalories Burned- 2,082
Distance- 42.3miles
Avg Speed- 15.8mph
Max Speed- 39.6mph

Published with Blogger-droid v1.3

(Mid-Season?) Base Training

Since my mental downfall at the Ballard Twilight and heavy drinking this past week, it only seem appropriate to regain maximum strength via "easy spinning" with of course the constant hill climb and occasional 15 minute interval session. I say "downfall" because I failed to preregister for my A-Priority race of the season and got left on the sidelines with at least 30 other people (unfortunate racers) to watch the 75 lucky (smart) ones race. Total buzz-kill.

Regardless, this was enough to make me want to whip into shape as effectively as possible if only to get a road racing clinic (worth 5 races toward my CAT4 upgrade via Cycle University), a couple track races, and a few intense Team Becher+ training rides in with a teammate/friend (Mike Roecklien)coming up from Southern California. There's no way in hell I'm about to accept the fact that I won't have the opportunity to race in anything over 30 miles for the rest of the season...even though, it's a fact... I won't.

I need to put the miles in my legs regardless of my emotional cycling crisis, so I've made sure to keep my phone and/or a real life camera with me for the excursions ahead. Consider the following (cycling related) entries part of the "Scenic Route" impromptu series I've just started.

Golden Gardens



Magnolia



Elliot Bay Bike Trail




Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.

PDX: Food Heaven

Last week Jessica and I took the train down to Portland to celebrate for her 27th birthday. Although it would have been nice to spend more than 8 hours there, it was still a success.

Veganopolis was our priority food stop until we discovered they were moving cities. We did however find ourselves at an equally mind-blowing vegan friendly spot: Vita Cafe.

The food went down too quickly to snap any photos, but I did have a couple of their delicious Bloody Marys.

I will say this though, best biscuits and gravy in the country. Some of you may be semi familiar with my U.S. Tour de Vegan Biscuits and Gravy that began a couple years ago when I was invited to tour with Embrace the End for their album release, Ley Lines. During our month and a half long trip around the country, I made it a point to order, consume, and reflect on vegan biscuits and gravy at any stop possible. At the time, Salt Lake City's Vertical Diner was holding strong at 1st place...but alas! Vita Cafe is now our country's leader. Portland peeps, get at it.

Think you've found the best? Please, do tell.

Until the next breakfast, thanks for reading.

This Never Gets Old

Criterium Training Time

At the end of this month Michelob Ultra is sponsoring Cascadia Crit Series held in our fair city of Seattle. I for one, will be racing on the very streets that I get the privilege of training on everyday, those being the second and third criteriums of the series.

May 30th - 35th and Phinney, Fremont: Cat 4/5's @ 10:20am

June 5th - 20th and Ballard Ave, Ballard: Cat 4/5's @ 4:00pm

Yesterday I did 4 sets of intervals during my training ride in preparation for what I am anticipating a crit race will be like. Each set consisting of 4 all out, pedal to the metal sprints for 1 minute immediately followed by 1 minute of easy spinning, with 4 minutes of easy spinning between each set. I usually don't put much emphasis on intervals during my training because, well...its really painful, and I'd much rather save my efforts for all the 10-20% grade hills I ride on everyday.

Needless to say, my efforts should really be applied toward my weakness... sprinting, which means if I'm aiming to do well in Criteriums, "intervals" need to be a priority. With that said, during my recovery ride today I took a visit to both the Fremont course and the Ballard one. All I can say is, Holy Crap. Both of these courses are on the shittiest roads in Seattle...or close to the shittiest.

Let's take a look:

Fremont .8mile Loop counter-clockwise concrete road: 35th to Canal St. to Phinney to 35th:

Start at white Jeep, sprint to left 180 degree turn at the end of the road.


Said 180 turn (L to R), photo does no justice to cracks in the road, there will be many crashes at this very spot. Slowing from 30mph into this? Lame.


.2mile straight road with heavy separation between slabs of concrete


2nd turn L-R


Turn 3 L-R, smooth/fast to finish. If your watching from the patio @ Brouwer's Cafe this will be your view (except you'll likely have 1 of their 364 brews in hand)


How exciting.

Ballard 1km loop counter-clockwise on brick, concrete, and asphalt: 20th and Ballard Ave to Vernon to Shilshole to 22nd to Ballard Ave:

Starting Line at intersection


L-R Left hand turn on Vernon to slight downhill


Left hand turn onto Shilshole. I pity the fool who tries to take this one on the inside and gets a piece of that asphalt.


Nasty left turn onto brick 22nd


I mean real nasty


Then left back onto semi-asphalt Ballard Ave to finish. Hopefully avoiding both sewer caps.


Got my eye on the primes, just gotta keep my rubber on the road.

When Taking It Easy Goes Wrong, Sort Of [Pt. II]

The other day, the boys and I went out for a little ride. And by "the boys" I mean Brad and Matt. It's literally been months since we all rode together, which is really pathetic if you ask me. Considering the rare occasion, we decided to take it easy and ride out to Fremont and enjoy the classic Gas Works Park scenery. It's a pretty mellow 4 miles, fun for the whole family.

After powering through endless swarms of gnats, being as how we are riding along the water front most of the time, we made it safely to the ever crowded Gas Works... A little too crowded, so we chugged along in hopes of a more relaxing spot. We eventually found the said spot, on the other side of the water. So on our way to the Fremont Bridge for some water crossing we spotted a huge bike gang, who just so happened to be egging us on to join the ride. Naturally, and skeptically, we did.


This picture doesn't really do any justice to the size of the group, there were atleast 30 peeps.

So we caught up to the group and chatted a little bit only to discover that it seemed as though NOBODY in the group seemed to have any idea as to where they were all headed. Sounds awesome. We trucked along figuring that we'd end up at some bar close by (they seemed like the drinking type). As almost a half hour or so of zig zagging our way through town (due north, which should be a bitch of a hill climb but wasn't somehow?) we found ourselves out in Shoreline (Google Map it) at a grocery store of all places... Go figure, what the hell would 30+ grungy cyclists be doing there?

BEEEEER!

It was getting late and unfortunately Brad was hoodie-less, I was glove-less and Matt... Well Matt was probably fine, but all in all we weren't really prepared for what was talk of a late night bonfire and lots of beer. Before ditching everyone at the store we asked one of the "leaders" what this was all about. Turns out they are all members of the infamous Point Eight Three bike club. As one could imagine, the name was born after the groups first ride... where they only made it .83 miles before stopping at a bar and getting wasted beyond repair (forgive me for any minor inaccuracy, for I was not present for the birth of .83)

Needless to say, we will return for future rides and we will be well prepared :)


Brad Terry


Matt Gastelum


Flat tire break

Michelob Ultra Circut - BUST

Since today's race was too far for me to make it, I did my own "Tour of Seattle."

It was a pretty awesome ride. Found myself some 27% grade hill climb (Ooowee).
Check out my loop here.

2-Oh-Sickness Relief

Come out and support some local fun. (Via GoMeansGo)

Lift Off!

Last Weekend, April 24th, I had my first race as a Category 5 Road racer. There couldn't have been a better event to break the ice for me than the Pedal Dynamics Green Valley Time Trial in Flaming Geyser Park, Wa. There were only about 156 racers and most of them came equipped with full carbon TT bikes, as opposed to something like I have which is a road bike that normal people ride. This made for excellent bike and people watching, mostly because the people that specialize in time trials have the biggest legs you'll ever see and their aero suits are sorta funny looking anyhow. The course was 12 miles with a turn-around marker 6 miles out, fairly flat and straight and super wet. It started raining just before my start time :)

I'm going to have to say, I had a lot of fun and placed better than I thought I would.

Time: 30:25.67
Cat 4/5: 32nd place out of 45
Overall: 99th place out of 156

Avg HR: 173bpm
Max HR: 181bpm
Kcal: 571
Avg spd: 23.7mph
Max Spd: 25.3mph

Looking forward to knocking out 9 more races, then I can upgrade to a Cat 4. A fun journey I'm sure.

When Taking It Easy Goes Wrong, Sort Of.

Today is my "Sunday" and what better way to spend a "Sunday" than a nice long bike ride... With sort of a late start (8am) I figured I'd do the Lake Washington loop clockwise (~55mi.) at a leisurely pace, since I don't have any riding friends yet. As soon as I found myself at the Northern tip of Lake Wa, it seemed like a good idea to stay East and loop around Lake Sammamish.


L to R: Lake Washington, Lake Sammamish

Just as I got to the waterfront of Sammamish, I noticed a USC Trojans Team rider out in front of me (just far enough away so that I could barely read the "USC" on his team kit). It took me a few minutes to catch up to him, which became a priority because I'm so sick of riding by myself, but once I did he was very friendly and also stoked to be able to ride with someone. His name is Marcus, and he has a very pretty red Eddy Merckx 20-speed. After some initial bullshitting and occasional pulls we discovered that we were both trying to end up in Downtown Seattle.

Apparently Marcus does this loop often so when I asked him if there were any good climbs on our way around, he just laughed and said "Yeah, just follow me when we get to the stoplight at the bottom of this hill"... I had no fucking idea what I was about to get myself into. After the said stoplight we proceeded to climb, what I discovered is known as, the Issaquah Alps. There are so many trees and switchback turns the entire climb that I really didn't know when it was going to end or where the hell we were.

About a mile into it I dropped Marcus and just figured I'd wait for him at the top. Almost 45 minutes later I was still climbing and there was no sign of it letting up so I rolled in circles at the first flat area I found and waited. When he caught up, we road together another 20 minutes until we reach what I thought was the top...he directed us up a side road labeled "Dead End" but he assured me that it would be well worth the climb, since we came this far and all. I didn't think I was gonna make it, since my HeartRate had plateaued long ago and my legs wanted to explode, but we put the hammer down and road to the peak of what I learned is East Tiger Mountain. A pleasant old man named Bob lives on the summit and complimented our efforts while we soaked up this amazing scenery.


East Tiger Mountain Summit 3,004 feet! w00f!
(see flickr for larger scale)

Although, I wanted to die, Marcus was right... well worth the extra climb. Since I've never done anything like this before it was really inspiring. Just looking down and seeing the water and knowing that we climbed from Sea Level up to 3000 feet was fun. No, what was fun was bombing all the way down to Mercer Island, a true reward - new top speed! Just before we parted ways, close to Martin Luther King Blvd, he informed me of 3-4 fast paced group rides that I apparently could hang with. Thanks buddy, no more lonely rides for me :)

Thanks for reading.

4/20/2010
Time: 3:43.56
Avg. HR: 144bpm
Max HR: 176bpm
KCAL burned: 3025
Distance: 59.7 miles
Avg. Speed: 16mph
Max Speed: 42.4mph

BIRDS

I had no idea my friend Brian was anything more than a nice guy with an intimidating culinary experience and a solid sense of humor. "Impressed" doesn't even begin to describe how I felt when I walked into that coffee shop.







I look forward to more of this. Excellent work Brian.