NYC Alley Cat Race. Fixed gear, no brakes, no holds barred. The photographer riding with these guys is phenomenal
Riding All Day
I left the house at 8 AM in order to try Subway’s May special. Buy any 6″ sub and get a breakfast sandwich free. The one word that comes to mind is “Don’t”. When the young girl put the egg part of the sandwich on the counter it look like the fake vomit we used to see as a kid. The bacon didn’t look any better. The bread was good though. One more thought about Subway. I keep track of my food on myfitnesspal. Occasionally my daily salt consumption would be off the charts. When I looked at my subway entries and found that was the cause, I decided that I will not eat there very often any more. I have some money left on my app to use up, and that will be it. Too bad because I kind of like the place.
Besides 25 miles of riding today I got to cut the lawn that, with all the rain lately, was turning into frog grass. (Kneedeep). Tried in vain to get my Honda power washer started. It’s less than a year old and I think it’s dead. 
A buddy came over to help me move a 300+ lb mahogany entertainment center into my garage. I think he is dead also. It’s on Craigslist and is offered for free, but there are no takers. It will go out for the trash pickup on Wednesday. (If I can get a hand moving it).
I ended the day getting the road bike ready for some serious riding. Cleaned, lubed and summer tires installed. All I need is a few hours of sunshine which has not happened in the month of May yet. Maybe Monday. Maybe not.
Early Morning Is The Best Time To Ride
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
So Close
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…
NYC Five Boroughs Ride.
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.
Did I make a movie. Of course.
2016 NYC FIVE BOROUGHS from John Sullivan on Vimeo.
Day 29. Exercise Tiger
Day 29 of 30 Days of Biking was a 17.5 mile loop on a sunny, cool, windy day.
I got the Novara Randonee bike all tuned up for NYC tomorrow and took it out for a shakedown ride. Everything is working fine and after eight years, I finally decided to adjust my saddle to eliminate the problems the pressure caused. It took that long because this is primarily my touring bike. During and after every tour I promised myself to adjust the seat. I always forgot about it till the next tour. After taking it our for a test run last week, I was determined to fix the thing. You can’t imaging how painful things became trying to relieve myself. It always turning into a scream. All is good now.
The ride took me into the city (New Bedford, Ma), around the peninsular and into the old Army Base name Fort Rodman. I stopped by the military museum and the old Fort within a fort, Fort Taber.
A stiff ocean breeze kept the temps in the low 50’s but the wind was at my back for the return leg of the ride. The beaches were deserted except for a lone man hunting for treasures.
Rain is in the forecast for Sunday’s ride but for now it looks to be off and on showers. We can live with that. My last day of 30 days of biking is very likely to be a lap around the parking lot in Staten Island tomorrow. Fortunately there is no minimum distance in the rules. Thirty days of riding is a done deal and Sunday begins “The National Bike Challenge“. My hometown of Fairhaven, MA will be out to regain our spot as the winner in the local challenge that we lost last year to our Neighbors in Mattapoisett, MA. I’m pretty sure we got this.
Day 28 of 30 Days Of Biking
It was a light day of riding, 10 miles of back and forth around town from home. Coffee, bank, Subway. Tomorrow I’ll take the touring bike for a long ride to make sure everything is OK for Sunday’s NYC ride. We will be driving to Staten Island on Saturday, and check into our hotel before catching the ferry to Manhattan for registration and a day of sightseeing.
Our team has a 7:30 AM start which is the best we could ask for. That will allow us, if we want to finish by noon. That’s including a couple of rest area stops. The weather will be near perfect, partly cloudy and 67 F. This is going to be so cool and my 8th time riding this event. Yup, it’s that good and unique to say the least.
Register for the 2016 TD Five Boro Bike Tour! from Bike New York on Vimeo.
Day 27 High Hopes
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.
https://www.strava.com/activities/558645785/embed/7e328acd26a4b8fb4ff53a5e5ccd926e190b4470
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.
Beating the Rain
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.
30 Days of Biking. Day 25
A ride in the morning for coffee then again in the evening for a superb $3 sub at Subway. mmmmm
A Midnight Rider 