Triathlon – International Relay
Sunday Sarah, Alyssa & I raced the Chicago Triathlon as a relay team. It took us 2 hours, 44 minutes, and 12 seconds for us to swim 1.5k, bike 40k, and run 10k. Out of 174 teams we placed 45th which meant we were in the top 25th percentile. Fantastic!
The day started with getting my bike into the transition area at 5am. Alyssa wasn’t due to enter the water until 9:56am so we had about 4 hours to kill. The course was on the inner two lanes of Lake Shore Drive starting at Randolph and ending at Foster Ave. With a total gain of 509 feet it was an extremely flat course so I stayed in my big ring the whole time. The north wind was a bit tough starting out, but then heading south was spectacular.
My goal for the triathlon was to average 20 mph for the race. I was averaging 21 when on the fourth leg my left calf started cramp up. I probably didn’t have enough salt in me or I was really not used to riding with aero bars. Either way I had to slow way down to stretch out my calf muscle. You can actually see it when you look at my heart rate graph above.
It was very cool seeing Amy & Chris during the event and thanks to BenVC for loaning me his aerobars.
In the end I averaged 19.5 mph over a time of 1:17:55. I’m not sure if I really want do a triathlon on my own or not. On one had it would be fun to train with Dana and an accomplishment in its own right. On the other hand I am a terrible swimmer & I tend to dislike running. We’ll see.
Piano
When I was a kid my parents made me take piano lessons. I hated every single minute of it. Mrs. Scott was my saint of a teacher who rightfully scolded me for not practicing and for my poor posture. The parents recently moved and I inherited the old Baldwin they bought back in 1978. That was two years before I was even born.
I plan on finding a teacher in the winter after cyclocross season ends and the cold keeps me inside more. In the meantime I’ve been fooling around on my own playing a little bit everyday. Mostly I’ve been teaching myself songs I already knew on guitar and banging away using chords. A lot of “Both Left Right Left..” and “Right Left Right Right Left…” My poor neighbors.
New Music & That’s A Lot of Creedence
This past year I’ve bought a lot of new music. More & more of it online (iTunes or eMusic), but still the majority I physically purchased at record stores like Reckless Records or Amoeba Music (usually used). Today I took at look at what artists I have the most albums from. I counted actual albums, not E.P.’s and singles. I did however lump together side projects and solo efforts. So for example Tom Petty gets bundled with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers & The Traveling Wilburys.
01. Hot Water Music* – 18 albums
02. Bob Dylan – 14 albums
03. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers** – 14 albums
04. Wilco – 11 albums***
05. Jawbreaker` – 9 albums
06. Metallica – 9 albums
07. The Beatles – 9 albums
08. Fugazi^ – 9 albums
09. Creedence Clearwater Revival – 7 albums
10. Johnny Cash – 7 albums
*Includes Hot Water Music, The Blacktop Cadence, Rumbleseat, The Draft, Chris Wollard & The Ship Thieves, & Chuck Ragan
**Includes Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Tom Petty solo work, & The Traveling Wilburys
***Includes Wilco, collaborations with Billy Bragg, The Minus 5, & Jeff Tweedy solo work. Does not include Uncle Tupelo
`Includes Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil
^Includes Fugazi & The Evens
Tour De France Results: 0 for 4
(Thanks BenVC for alerting me to this awesome photo from Pez)
I ended up being completely wrong on who would be wearing a special jersey in Paris. Oh well. On the plus side both Japanese cyclists completed Le Tour! Congrats!
I went to San Diego recently. I’ll be posting pictures soon, but in the meantime check out my flickr for a preview.
Holy Sh!t! An Asian in 8th Place at the Tour de F@cking France!
Japanese rider Fumiyuki Beppu (Skil-Shimano) was able to hang with the break today and get himself a top ten finish. The highest an Asian has ever placed in the Tour. No, Kazakhstani Alexandr Vinokourov does not count. My mind is exploding.
I meant to make my predictions for this year’s Tour and here I am a little bit late.
Overall/Yellow – Lance Armstrong
Points/Green – Tom “Tommeke” Boonen
Climbers/Polka Dot – Andy Schleck
Young/White – Roman Kreuziger
edit: Woops, I forgot that Andy cannot win both the Polka Dots and the White jersey.
French Open – Upsets Galore!
(Rahael Nadal at the Beijing Olympics)
Growing up Asian-American it is almost a prerequisite that I enjoy watching tennis. Maybe it’s because it is similar in nature to ping pong or maybe it was watching our hero then teenager Michael Chang tear it up against Ivan Lendl at the French Open.
This year I watched several matches mostly my new favorite from the Olympics Serbian Novak Djokovic. This weekend the 4th seed Novak was knocked out by German Phillip Kohlschreiber. I was really hoping for a final match between Djokovic and the seemingly unstoppable Raphael Nadal, but sadly neither one made it.
In honor of both I leave you with this video clip of Novak’s impresonation of not only Nadal, but also Maria Sharapova.
South America Rewind – Saqsaywaman
In the fall of last year I took a trip to South America. I’m only now getting to posting my pictures from the trip so if you see me in Chicago do not be confused. If you’ve missed any of my previous entries just click “South America” in the tags area. – jeff
(Click here for a larger view of this panorama)
I visited Saqsaywaman* today which is one of the more spectacular ruins in Peru and conveniently one of the closest. Most tourists join a tour or cab it to the nearby sights, but I opted to walk because:
A. it is good training for the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
B. getting lost by foot is more difficult than by car
C. I ate a lot of turkey & potatoes at Thanksgiving last night
D. and I can spend as much time there as I want.
The toughest part of the hike was just getting out of Cusco via the impossibly steep stairs that make up Rebalaso avenue. Vendors along the way were selling cocoa tea leaves. The idea being that the same plant that’s used for cocaine is good to treat altitude sickness as well. Perfectly legal in Peru I nonetheless refused thanks to the fear instilled in my after watching a couple episodes of Locked Up Abroad.
Highlights from the ruins:
1. The most striking aspect of Saqsaywaman are the multi-leveled fortifications. There are 3 tiers and according to the tour group I eavesdropped on there are 22 walls. Apparently from above it all looks like a puma so vendors sell small figurines and Puma t-shirts. The stones that make up the ruins are enormous and the Lonely Planet says there’s one that weighs over 300 tons. Which begs the question: Did they weigh the stone or just guess? I bet lasers were involved.
2. The parade grounds lay between the fortifications and the Radadero (a large hill with tiers of stone walls). Okay its just a big empty field, but I bet there were blood sacrifices there.
3. Adjacent to all the ruins is a large hill with a large statue of Jesus on the cross. One of these days I’ll have to go to Brazil and check out their’s too.
*Phonetically Saqsaywaman sounds like “Sexy Woman.” Yup.
S.A. Rewind – Beard!
Thank you Katy S. for use of the picture of me.
If you typed “jeff kao” in a search engine to get to jeffkao.net looking for treasure trove of goofy pictures of me then you probably been pretty disappointed. What can I say? I like to take photos, so I’m seldom on the receiving end of a camera lens. Well you all are in luck with today’s post.
When I was packing for my trip I carefully thought about each and every item before it was packed. Then I looked at that pile and I cut in half. Then I cut in half yet again. One of the first things to go was my razor and my more than 3 ounce can of shaving gel. So what happens when I don’t shave for 30 days? Hilarity.
South America Rewind – Cusco, Peru
In the fall of last year I took a trip to South America. I’m only now getting to posting my pictures from the trip so if you see me in Chicago do not be confused. If you’ve missed any of my previous entries just click “South America” in the tags area. – jeff
The average temperature so far in Cusco has been about 70-75 degrees during the day and around 40 at night. As nice as the highs are, the lows to me are a still a bit too much to sleep through without heat, something the hostel didn’t have. So I packed up my bag and walked up the steep stone steps to the Del Prado Inn. No more hostels for me. The Del Prado is a bona fide hotel with hot water, and heat!
Cusco is a pretty small city with a population of about 300,000 compared to Lima’s 8.2 million. There are a lot more tourists here since Cusco is the gateway to Macchu Pichu and the Sacred Valley. Similar to Brugge, Belgium it has an old timey feel. Unlike Brugge Cusco has structures that actually date back to incan & pre-incan times and the locals still dress in traditional clothing.
