Wow this week flew by. It is hard to believe that Tuesday is Christmas. Still haven't finished the Jake, sorry Jim. Hopefully I will this week and take it out for a Tuesday ride after the 1st of the year. One of my roles at work as the senior enlisted person is to try to keep up morale by coming up with team building activities. On Wednesday our team building activity was 6 person outrigger canoeing at the Hickam Beach. Last time we tried this only myself, My Boss and one other person showed up. this time we had 9 people so we used both boats. We started with some lessons on proper technique with the boats on shore then we paddled around the harbor. Not a bad way to start a Wednesday.
Friday morning my office met at the Wright bro's cafe along the mouth of Pearl Harbor for breakfast and a holiday staff meeting. While we eating a couple of HACCrs rode by at a snail,s pace. It was falsely reported in http://bensambrano.blogspot.com/ that I was seen eating a high fat high carb breakfast. This simply was not the case. I had a very healthy, nourishing breakfast that any self respecting cyclist would appreciate. An omelet, WW toast and about 6 cups of coffee. After the breakfast we went back to the office and played a round of hallway golf, ate Christmas Cookies, fudge and were released at 1200. Not too bad of a day. Heather and I played a round of golf at the par 3 course in the afternoon. That makes for 2 rounds of golf in a week not including the round of hallway golf. Maybe I will give up cycling and take up golf. Both let you wear colorful clothing and are popular on the Island. Golf doesn't allow you to enjoy the feeling of maxing your heart rate up pineapple hill only to be passed by Bryant. I think I will stick with cycling and only play golf when I need and opportunity to play sport while drinking a beer and smoking a good cigar. Two pleasures that don't mix with cycling very well unless you are riding along the hickam bike path on Pearl Harbor at a snail's pace.
I knew I wouldn't have time to do the full Saturday ride and when Ben said he didn't either I suggested we ride from Hickam. Word got out and we had 6 riders show up to ride today: Ben, Corey, Cassey, Jim, Steve L, Slider and Slider 2 (me, explain later). We started with out Tuesday route out to the tower. The pace was pretty mild until Steve L pushed it to the front by the sea breeze. I caught his wheel and we pushed a 24 mph pace out to the tower. On the way back Steve sprinted at the overpass and stayed out front until he made a pit stop at the beach for some bladder relief. We headed out to Lagoon Drive. Cassey took off on lagoon. I pushed it to catch his wheel and we did a strong run to the parking lot at the end of the road. I could tell Cassey was feeling his week of hard riding as I was able to catch his wheel. We headed up to AMR to do a couple little climbing. The small hill killed me on the first pass but I recovered and felt pretty good on the big climb. I was in the lead coming down the hill and feeling kind of cocky. That feeling ended abruptly as I leaned into the turn by the gate. I didn't even think about the wet pavement until the bike slid out from under me and proceeded to slide across the road. The wet pavement was a bit of a blessing though the water offered a buffer saving my shorts and bike and only costing me some skin on my hip and elbow. Luckily my cell phone was in the opposite pocket and I didn't bring the camera or the crash would have been more costly and probably more painful. The Dog seemed quite concerned however. I am also experimenting with a new hair style, something that makes a statement yet is easy to maintain.
My wife Chris had a tough week. On Monday she woke up with a stiff back and when she bent over to put on her pants her back spasmed. It pretty much kept her down all week which was tough with everything required to getting ready for Christmas. She did manage to go to my Directorate Christmas Party but ended up leaving shortly after the meal missing me doing the Cha Cha slide with our div chief. Hopefully no one got pictures.
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