Ok ok ok, I hear you all. A few responses...
1) No need to watch the youtube video. Here's a time lapse video that I made 3 months ago of the ride. This ride is longer since I go from my house up to Will Rogers (Pacific Palisades) and back but my commute goes from the start to the 5:08 mark (at which point I turn right and head up a small hill and get to work about 5 minutes later.
http://www.vimeo.com/5853181
I am in much better riding shape now so I don't stop for breaks (other than maybe a stop sign or red light sometimes) anymore. I can basically ride from home up to the end, rest for about 5 minutes and then ride all the way back in one shot.
I also took this video on my road bike but I was averaging around 13-14mph back then and am averaging around 16-17mph now.
2) Yes, I know how lucky I am to live a block from the beach and have any job let alone a job that is one block from the beach.
3) I am planning to pick up a Cygolite Milion 200 for the front and Dinotte for the back. There are many parts of the bike path that is not lit at all when I am riding back. I'd say about 40% of my ride back is in complete darkness where my lights are the only source of light.
4) There is definitely a lot of eye candy around that is distracting. But at 7:30am it's pretty cold so there are no bikinis. Coming home is after it's dark so again...no bikinis. But weekends are another story.
5) It's not quite a TT because there are other bikes, joggers, pedestrians, etc. on the bike path. There is also a lot of sand sometimes that can really cause problems with skidding. But yeah, it's nice.
I think I'll ride the mountain bike tomorrow but maybe I'll try the road bike on Tuesday to compare.
Thanks for the info everyone.
RVD.