Early morning ride to get my hair done. I left the shop at 8;30 and it was just too nice not to ride. 45 and cloudy. It is the first day without rain this month. Met with a couple of bike friends and fellow photographers, Peter Perreira and Josh Sousa at Tia Maria’s European Cafe in New Bedford. Naturally we talked bikes. A ride around the peninsula in the city before returning home to power wash the decks and clean two bikes of all the crap they collect from riding in the rain. Probably do a second ride tonight
I have signed up for the National Bike Challenge, (in partnership with Cottonelle). When I pledged to do 30 days of biking, it rained, snowed, was cold, windy and raw for the first week. It hasn’t snowed during the first week of this challenge, but it has rained every day. Being part of a challenge does get me out to ride when normally, days like today, would be go to a movie or watch TV. Smart phones make it possible to keep and eye on the approaching rains in real time so I can either take shelter for a while, or beat feet it home. That system works pretty pretty good, but there are times when things don’t. For instance…
Our team of 10 riders traveled to NYC to do the Five Boroughs Tour. I have to confess that I don’t know some of the team members, nor have I met them. I only saw one of the nine others over the weekend and things did not work out that well for him. Did you ever stop your bike not unclip and fall over. Yea, me too. It happened to Paul at around the 25 mile mark in Queens. He is going into surgery today to have his broken hip repaired.
Things were a bit worse on at the Red Hook Crit on Saturday night 10 seconds into the race when the pace motorcycle stalled.
Our ride started in a light rain and all the comments were how not so bad it was riding. By 10 AM the F bombs started as the intensity of the rain increased. The last 10 miles on the Bronx/Queens expressway sucked. Heavy rain, wind and almost all up hill. Everyone who finished was glad they did. A lot never got that far. I’m guessing the subways got crowded as people bailed. I can’t wait for next years tour.
It’s still below normal with temps in the mid 50’s. The weather will continue to improve for my 30 days of biking, culminating with a 65 degree day for riding NYC on Sunday. I planned on riding a new route beginning at yoga and adding 10 miles to my workout. Things didn’t pan out so I did one of the standard 26 mile rides.
It was hit and miss with the wind. It’s wasn’t bad for the most part, but there are sections of the route that are wide open farm land. Whenever I rode into one of those areas, it was a struggle to maintain anything over 11 or 12 MPH. That and a couple of the hills conspired to keep my average for the ride at just under 14 MPH.
I hadn’t planned on doing any stopping, sans Lloyds Market, but the animals were out in numbers today and being the sucker I am for good animal photos, I ended up making four or five quick stops.
The little guy above saw me stop, took a look and began meandering my way. As he got closer we spoke to each other baaaa-ing our feelings. He let me scratch his ears in the hopes I’m sure of a treat. From now on I’ll be packing something for them and the horses.
I see you.Let’s talk about treats.The Clydesdale were outRescue horses
The local weather gave a 40 % chance of rain for an hour followed by 10% for another hour. That gave me time to get in 26 miles for day 26 of 30 days of riding. It was one of those days where I got into the zone. For instance, Vaughn Hill is a nemesis of mine. I begin to dread the climb a half mile away. Today, I came out of the zone and realized I was a mile beyond Vaughn Hill. I climbed it and didn’t even notice. I did other hills at double digit miles where before today my speed would drop to 6 -8 MPH. I was having a blast.
I was really excited to see my stats for this ride because I know it was the fastest by far, of the season. Naturally, when I got home I shut down my Garmin and didn’t save the ride. I do have a wired bike computer attached but that only told me the time and distance with none of the fun stuff that Strava tells me when the information migrates from connect.garmin. Oh well. It would have been nice but within a couple more rides, this one would be out of sight and mind.
The last ride of this event will be in New York on Saturday. I’ll probably do a short ride in Staten Island before we take the ferry to Manhattan for registration. Sunday will be a celebration of completing 30 days of biking with 32,000 friends as we ride the 5 Boroughs and 5 Bridges of NYC.
The all turned and walked away when I approachedI had the roads all to myself
Sunday yoga. A direct ride is around 4 miles. I decided to take the long way which is a 15 mile ride through four towns. The wind was my nemesis and I had thoughts of not making it to class. I had to push myself but in the end I was only a couple of minutes late.
The route in the city (New Bedford, MA) was a completely new riding experience for me. I had to make a right turn and climb a hill to get to class. I had choices of which street to climb. Every time I looked up, I rode on. I ran out of options and had to climb this last chance street to get to the top of the city. It was so tough that I gasped up the hill. There was a car backing out of a driveway but I didn’t stop for him, I just went around. He passed me and took a left at the top and stopped. I came upon him and rode around on the drivers side. He had stopped to let another car back out of a driveway and do a three point turn. I heard him slow as he began to pass and was expecting a tongue lashing. I looked and saw his passenger window roll down. Here it comes I though. “Your the man” he said. “Your the only biker I have seen ride up that hill. Even the kids get off and walk their bikes.” I wanted to respond but I had no breath in me to say anything. I just gave him a thumbs up and put my hand on my heart and took a deep breath. I’m da man. Nice
Tonight is date night and wifey and I have tickets at the Z to the Gypsy Kings concert. Another nice.
If I didn’t commit to 30 days of riding I very well may have ditched today’s ride. For a plethora of reasons, I didn’t leave the house till after 4 PM. The first few miles were a struggle to say the least. I could have turned around anytime and still have fulfilled my 30 days, but…… I have an event next weekend and don’t want to go to NYC wishing I had put more miles in preparation. Continue reading “Day 23. I Am The Egg Man”→
Day 22 of 30 days of biking. A short 10 mile ride into the city for lunch. They have a healthy salad that is so wonderful it’s called wunderkind. It’s big as most healthy salads tend to be. It the kind that takes 45 minutes to eat and you only consume like 6 calories. I also had to take a photo in preparation for this years coffeeneuring challenge.
Wunderkind salad and tomato basil soup. mmmmmcoffee at Destination Soup in New Bedford, MA
It’s a full moon and I’ll probably go out tonight and ride the FBC Fairhaven club ride alone again. The full moon rides died out a few years ago when no one would take over the logistics of the monthly ride. But FBC Sandpoint is still going strong. It’s also earth day so I’ll stop along the way and find a sexy tree to hug. No, really. I do that every once in a while. I’m a tree huggah. (said in my best Boston accent).
Cranberry bogs in Rochester Ma. Day 21 of 30 Days of Biking
Day 21 of 30 days of biking took me on a longer loop of 25 miles. Ten days from now is the NYC five boroughs bike tour and I’m doing my best to get some serious miles in. I did stop a couple of times and took photos but today was a training ride.
One of my stops was to answer my cell phone when wifey called from the Dominican Republic. When we travel we use WhatsApp. We were turned on to this app by an Israeli soldier when we were in Panama last year. WhatsApp uses the internet to make calls, texts etc anywhere in the world. No more paying for international calling on my cell phone.
I used the Novara Randonee touring bike for this ride to make sure everything was working OK, not only for the NYC ride but also for my short summer bike tour. The tour is narrowed to two possibilities. Leaving from home and riding Cape Cod and the Islands or traveling to West Virginia to ride the North Bend Trail. The Cape is solo and West Virginia is a fully supported tour. Decisions, decisions.
A Midnight Rider 