Hawaii Vacation

I try to get to Hawaii every 1-2 years. In addition to visiting family, I use the opportunity to bring my bicycle along and get in some warm weather training. I owe a big thanks to my cousin Ben and his cycling team HACC for their generosity and for letting me beat up on them!

On the HACC ride on Sunday 11/11, I had the pleasure of breaking a pedal. Luckily this happened when we were 'noodling' along at 15 mph. I was on the down stroke and my foot kept going until it hit the ground. The pedal looks old and beaten up, but it is actually only ~1.5 years old (damn that family curse of having so much power!). On the bright side, this forced me to the Keo Pedals that I've been meaning to switch to.



On Wednesday, 11/14, I had the pleasure of breaking one of my toes. This happened as I was walking to my Grandma's porch. There is a small step down. I slipped on the carpet and landed on all my toes with all my weight. When it first happened, I thought I broke more than one, so I guess I'm lucky! This didn't deter me from doing a 2 hour ride later in the day with the HACC boys. Lucky this was an easy day for them and I pushed through the pain (I was too pissed at myself for the lack of attention that made me slip in the 1st place!).


The family curse of possessing sooo much power hit me again during Saturday's, 11/17, ride. Either that or Ben's bike was a piece of crap! Since Ben rides the same size frame as me, he lent me his bike while riding on Oahu (thanks!). I used Mike's Breakaway bike while on Maui (thanks as well!). While riding with HACC, we had just finished descending Pineapple Hill and moved on to the flat 'race' to Dillingham Air Field. I had just pulled through and had problems pedaling. The rear tire started hitting the frame. After many minutes of unsuccessfully trying to re-align the tire, I noticed the frame had a nice crack in it. Lucky again as this could have happened at one of the 45mph down hill sections!

Here I am riding with the HACC team. Notice my helmet. I was so worried about my broken toe and if I could ride or not, I neglected to bring my helmet with me. Ben called one of his team mates who brought me one of his spare helmets to use. Thanks!!!

Who can forget the beer! One night we headed over to the Kona Brewing Pub. Good beer is few and far between on the islands. I enjoyed their Black Sand Porter and then their IPA.