Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Today in Training: Hudson River rollin'

Settling into the 12 mile roundtrip ride to work each day, but when I have a little extra energy at the end of the day, I'm gonna take that ball and run with it. Can't beat the sunset view on the Hudson River though!


T-Minus: 59 days
Fundraising to go: $1185
Total training miles ridden: 1034.8
5

Total books read since started: 26

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Today in Training: BPC to Yonkers

Bit disheartened now, after calculating my route today... and only hitting 47 miles. One of those days when you think "this HAS to be close to 60" (the number of miles I'll be riding each day for 5 days in a row) I mean before I got that number, I felt it was a great day. I rode for about 5 hours and most of that was the Hudson River Greenway. The best part of the day was coming across the South County Trail system, which is BLISS. It's flat, it's shaded, there are no frost heaves (every part of my ass is appreciative of that), it's so out of the way that it's not crowded and there are no tourists on Citi Bikes wobbling in and out of your lane...just miles and miles and miles of perfect training conditions. The only downside is that you've got to get yourself to Yonkers to get on it (and that involves riding on Broadway through the Bronx as the most direct route). I actually stopped at an arbitrary point to turn around today, so in theory I could have pushed myself to 60 miles (sooner or later I'll get a working odometer). I am getting a little stronger though, last year I remember feeling like 20 miles was an unattainable goal, so at least there's that. Time to get my fundraising back into gear so if there's anyone out there who hasn't donated yet, what are you waiting for!
125th St/West Side Highway



South County Trail, Yonkers. Smooth like butter.

Kept expecting to see John Travolta strutting down the sidewalk with paint cans.

T-Minus: 61 days
Fundraising to go: $1215
Total training miles ridden: 1002.3
5 (woo hoo! over 1000 miles finally!)

Total books read since started: 25

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Today in Training: Battery Park to Red Hook


How'd this T car end up in Red Hook?!
Slowly settling into my summer home here in Battery Park City... I love that it's so quiet and there are tree-lined bike paths everywhere... not so thrilled about the glut of wandering tourists that straggle in and out of those bike paths, but I'm working with what I've got here. Training is not going to be easy this summer: case in point, I was out for about 4 hours today and only netted about 20 miles. Took the Manhattan Bridge over to Brooklyn and headed over to Red Hook, then rode back over the Brooklyn Bridge (which I never learn, the BB bike path is never a good idea). Perfect day for a ride today—overcast but not too cool.
Taking a bite out of the Big Apple
Ain't 'fraid of no ghosts. Stumbled across the Ghostbusters Fire house today.
Back in Red Hook




I might as well get this tattooed on my leg. It ends up there after every ride anyway.
BPC is this quiet and beautiful.

T-Minus: 62 days
Fundraising to go: $1215
Total training miles ridden: 955.2
5 Total books read since started: 25

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Today in Training: Wormtown Tour

I want it known, I had nothing to do with the missing half of this sign.
Had another day to kill in the 'Burn/The Woo, so I did as much of a tour of the Paris of the 80s as I could without hitting one of those famous 7 Hills of Worcester. (which is not easy, let me tell you)
Pride o' the Woo: Miss Worcester diner

T-Minus: 66 days
Fundraising to go: $1215
Total training miles ridden: 909.85
Total books read since started: 25 (Read quite possibly the worst book I've ever read before. Click here to find out what I thought of Miranda Beverly-Whittemore's "Bittersweet")

Monday, July 14, 2014

Today in Training: My Own Private Velodrome

Final Score: Rockets: 5, Sense of Self-Worth: 0
Back in my hometown for a few days and it is muggy as all get out here, which is the worst weather to try to ride in. Managed a few miles before I latched onto the idea of just taking it easy and riding around in circles for a while up at Rocketland...'scuse me, Lemansky park. I wonder if it looked this depressing in my formative years?

T-Minus: 67 days
Fundraising to go: $1215
Total training miles ridden: 890.85
Total books read since started: 24

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Today in Training: Wolfe's Neck State Park

I woke up today in a bit of a funk... I *should* be leaving the house because I just had it deep cleaned [thank you Aaron & Ariel @ Bone Dry Cleaners!] for renters yesterday, but I'm not quite ready to make that commitment (I mean, c'mon, there's a lake outside the door and it's July and sunny...) Adding to my ennui was the fact that I've done all the projects I needed to do and packed away everything that was going with me to NY and everything that wasn't into the loft. So I gave a stab at riding at the gym, hoping that the new shoe insoles I got would make my feet feel better (they didn't...if anything they made it worse). I managed to scrape out 13 miles (which felt like no workout at all) and then promptly pulled a muscle in my back doing an easy stretch. *grumble* I threw a lobster roll at my general malaise and then just headed out in the car to see where the day would take me, and as it happened I was nearby Wolfe's Neck State Park in Freeport, which my good friend Becky recommended I visit. A cute little surprise, just what I needed to get me out of my funk. I took a leisurely 4 mile stroll around the park and reminded myself that it's not always about the bike.


"I eated the purple berries!" "How'd they taste, Ralph?...Good?"
 
"Tastes...like...burning..."


The Harraseeket Trail leads to this magical view of Freeport



Whoopie Pies do make it all better.


T-Minus: 69 days
Fundraising to go: $1215
Total training miles ridden: 875.85
Total books read since started: 24 (finished Terry Tempest Williams "Refuge" yesterday...a writer I thought sure I'd fall in love with, but after reading 2 of her books on nature and health, I'm pushing her down my list of 'gotta read' authors.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Today in Training: Working out the kinks

mmmm strawberries...
Looks like I've got another batch of metatarsalgia in my foot which for those of you without WebMD, means it's a big ball of nerves that feels like you're stepping on a marble...every time you take a step. The good news is that it doesn't hurt so much when I'm riding, the bad news is the only way it clears up is if I stop riding for a few days. This is the 2nd batch I've had in a month or so, but I'm noticing the pattern that it happens when I'm in a string of days when I'm riding in sneakers (and not hard soled bike shoes). Gonna have to solve this one soon or else it's gonna be a long painful summer.

Not wanting to overdo it, I stuck to my new favorite loop: Gray->New Gloucester via Mayall Rd which takes you by one of the farms Pineland Farms uses for their produce (they also have pick-your-own strawberries and if you stop and stand on the bridge the air smells like Strawberry Shortcake ...mmmm) It's a nice easy 12 mile loop—FLAT! which I need every once in a while.

T-Minus: 71 days
Fundraising to go: $1215
Total training miles ridden: 862.35
Total books read since started: 23 (finished Walker Percy's "The Moviegoer" today. Didn't love.)

Wednesday, July 09, 2014

Today in Training: still hot, still too lazy to ride outside

Oh good, 27.56 miles to go.
Another gorgeous 80º+  day, another day when I'm too lazy to saddle up and hit the backroads for my mileage. But I'm still at the gym, pushing pushing pushing to get myself...somewhere.
On the plus side, I FINALLY finished John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany" which I started when I began this training madness (at 640 pages PAPERBACK...  I read on that tiny little iPod that's featured in the photo, well let's just say that's a shitton of swiping.




Picked the Cannondale up at Rainbow today and I should give it a whirl but I'd so just rather be on the dock with a beer. It's 5 o'clock somewhere... thank god it's here.

T-Minus: 72 days
Fundraising to go: $1215
Total training miles ridden: 850.15
Total books read since started: 22

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Today In Training: It's too damn hot to be outside.

Okay, it's not *that* hot, but hopefully it won't be 85º with 75% humidity in September when I'm doing this ride. But then again climate-wise all bets are off so I guess I should be preparing for the worst. Instead I opted for another indoor ride while the bike I'm going to be riding for the summer (the trusty old Cannondale) was being tuned up. (turns out, you actually need to service the chain every once in awhile. Duly noted.) It also meant taking my Speedplay pedals off the bike I've been using for training (the perfunctory Marin) but not re-attaching them to the Cannondale, because I can't imagine riding in NYC clipped in. I was really hoping Speedplay was going to come through with the pedal covers I ordered 3 months ago, but alas, they seem eternally on back order.) It means that I can either ride my bike outside and inside with standard pedals or I can can ride it only indoors with the Speedplays. (or I can get a hernia every time I try change the pedals out.) So we'll see.

Been a week of limited training, with the holiday and the heat, but I managed an indoor 30 miles today. Long way to go...but rewarding myself with a Fluffernutter and a dip in the lake. Ahhhhh.....

T-Minus: 73 days
Fundraising to go: $1215 (The see me rollin', they hatin'!)
Total training miles ridden: 820.15
Total books read since started: 21