Felt like some fun carbs today after breakfast, so we walked a few blocks to the Donut Bar for a treat. I picked up a Butterfinger cake donut (yes, it has crumbled candy bar sprinkles in the frosting), and (half of) an old fashioned. The best thing about a high-carb diet is this kind of treat is never out of the question. They’re just calories. It’s not like I’m trying to stay in a state of ketosis or anything. I’m not saying you should eat tons of this stuff, but you can still lose weight having the occasional treat. BTW, you appreciate this stuff a lot more when you rarely taste it.

Pasta is a really light meal when you don’t add a bunch of oil, cream sauce, or meat to it. I’m guessing the pasta has about 500 calories, and won’t bother counting the vegetables and small amount of oil. I’m still hungry, so I’ll probably make a salad next.

This is Hollie again, leading the full Sunday morning spin class of 11 girls and me. But I don’t show up just for the view, we all work our a**es off for the highest, fastest calorie burn you’ll get anywhere. Every workout, I’m racing like it’s the Tour de France, and end up completely soaked. Plenty of other people in the class take it all very seriously, and this studio is our dojo.

There is no way I could ever get close to keeping up with fixie racers downtown (especially at my age), without these workouts. I can ride a lot harder here than on the road, because I don’t have to worry about saving enough energy to get back home, or to even control the bike. Sprints here are all out power exertions, then collapsing on the handlebars for air. (Forget what I might look like. Just watch Hollie.)

Just finished a fast fixie group ride with the AWLF/Cretins from downtown to Point Loma and back. We blazed out to Mission Bay, did a fast lap around Fiesta Island, and rode through the streets of Pacific Beach. We finished with a climb up Catalina in Point Loma, and pace-lined it back downtown.

These guys are fast racers (the guy in the middle is doing a trackstand at the light), and it was all I could do grab a wheel and hang on. Once I tried to close the gap to the leading group, and got stuck in “no-man’s land”. Made me think, “that was a dumb idea”. Well, maybe next time I’ll be smarter, or stronger.

George (on the right, w/o a helmet) crashed spectacularly right in front of me, at a pretty good speed, when we were racing up a hill in PB. He blew a tire, bent and cracked his rim. He changed his tube, and soldered on. Two flats and a crash. I made it back in one piece. Amazingly fun time.

Nine months ago I could barely move and was miserable. Now, 20 kilos lighter and in pretty good shape, I roll with the hipsters in my ‘hood downtown.

Rode around with the Awarewolfs last night for a little bit of exercise. It’s been warm around here, about 30° C before sunset last night. We rode down the big hill on Washington. Thank g*d for my front brake. I’m never taking it off.

I got a nice surprise today when Hollie brought me some eggs from her backyard chickens. She gave them to me after the spin class she taught this morning, and I cooked them up for breakfast. I scrambled them with a little half-and-half and butter. Add some fried up potatoes, mushrooms, and onions, and it’s my favorite breakfast after a 1000 calorie spin burn. I’m still completely fascinated by one-degree-of-separation food.

I needed to pick up some more vegetables, so I stopped by the farmer’s market after spin this morning. These vegetables were picked from a farm in Fresno yesterday. The people selling the vegetables also picked them, and drove them down. It’s great to know where your food comes from, to have some connection with it. I’m not sure if I eat this way for my health, or because it’s so anachronistic.

I’m trying a local CSA this week, where I picked up a box full of vegetables and fruit for $28. The food is grown by local gardeners, and is distributed from a house on 38th St. Today was the pick-up day, and I got some carrots, potatoes, onions, roma tomatoes, squash, tangelos, peas, avocados, etc. I chose what I wanted, which is a pretty good deal. My box of vegetables in my high-rise elevator was the anachronism of the day.

St. Mary Magdalene is a beautiful church in the Bay Park section of town. It was built in 1957 in a traditional style, and has wonderful views of the bay. The parish is pretty wealthy, and the church has a rectory and large auditorium. We checked out the weekly bingo Tuesday bingo game tonight, which turned out to be very professionally run. There were three big electronic boards on the auditorium stage, a hundred+ players, snacks, and even dinner before the games. I wish my parish (St. Joesph’s Cathedral on 3rd & Beech) had anything like this.

Rode with a group from downtown San Diego to Tijuana and back tonight. I rode my fixed-gear Cinelli for over 6 hours, and we didn’t get back until 2am. The tacos were great, I should have had more than two of them.