2010 Mileage: 3424
On my day off yesterday I planned out my route and was excited for my ride out to Cunningham Park in Queens to do some mountain biking. Lets just say that I am not all that familiar with Brooklyn/Queens and I ended up in a neighborhood where I was getting some very funny looks and I didn't feel all to comfortable. I decided that as much as I wanted to go mountain biking it probably wasn't worth it so I looped back and headed over to Prospect Park. While riding my first lap I noticed that there is a dirt trail that parallels the main road for a majority of the 3.5 mile loop so I was able to get in a bit of "trail" riding on that on my next two laps. It was only a 26 mile day but it was fun to switch things up a little bit.
Tomorrow it is back on the road bike as I meet Larry in the morning for his first ride over on River Rd.
Lindsay (my wife) also started a blog that you can find here. She is still trying to find a direction to go with it but if it helps her spend less time on facebook then I am all for it.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
The End Of An Era
2010 Mileage: 3377
This morning I enjoyed breakfast with Lindsay while we watched Lance Armstrong take his final laps around the Champs Elysees on a bicycle. This was (once again) his last Tour de France and it was almost painful to watch. Lance has been a hero to so many people (including me) and the way he ended his career was so uncharacteristic of everything he did to climb to that iconic position. Through watching this whole tour I have felt at a loss for words to describe how I have felt about his performance. On one hand he still managed to be complete and somewhat compete in the most difficult bicycle race in the world. Luck was not on his side and he stuck it out anyways. But on the other hand we had come to believe that Lance was an unstoppable force and he would go out on top because he was Lance Armstrong and that was just what he did, he won. I am starting to ramble and you can obviously see that watching a hero of mine end his career in this fashion still has me a bit confused. Atleast he got to stand on that podium one last time with the Radioshack team. I got to see Lance take those laps around the Champs Elysees when he won his 7th tour and below you can see some pictures (of pictures) that I took when I was there.
Now we are going to watch our hero take on another battle with the witchhunt being led by Jeff Novitzky of the FDA. He and Floyd want to make sure there names are on the front page of every major paper in this country (and I despise them for it). I want our sport to be clean as much as anyone else but testing is the answer to that, not dragging the sport through the mud with a bunch of bogus third hand accounts from confessed liars and cheats. For the good of the sport Floyd Landis needs to crawl in to a hole and never come back out.
This morning I enjoyed breakfast with Lindsay while we watched Lance Armstrong take his final laps around the Champs Elysees on a bicycle. This was (once again) his last Tour de France and it was almost painful to watch. Lance has been a hero to so many people (including me) and the way he ended his career was so uncharacteristic of everything he did to climb to that iconic position. Through watching this whole tour I have felt at a loss for words to describe how I have felt about his performance. On one hand he still managed to be complete and somewhat compete in the most difficult bicycle race in the world. Luck was not on his side and he stuck it out anyways. But on the other hand we had come to believe that Lance was an unstoppable force and he would go out on top because he was Lance Armstrong and that was just what he did, he won. I am starting to ramble and you can obviously see that watching a hero of mine end his career in this fashion still has me a bit confused. Atleast he got to stand on that podium one last time with the Radioshack team. I got to see Lance take those laps around the Champs Elysees when he won his 7th tour and below you can see some pictures (of pictures) that I took when I was there.
Now we are going to watch our hero take on another battle with the witchhunt being led by Jeff Novitzky of the FDA. He and Floyd want to make sure there names are on the front page of every major paper in this country (and I despise them for it). I want our sport to be clean as much as anyone else but testing is the answer to that, not dragging the sport through the mud with a bunch of bogus third hand accounts from confessed liars and cheats. For the good of the sport Floyd Landis needs to crawl in to a hole and never come back out.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Morning Ride With Per
2010 Mileage: 3339
I have been doing a bit more riding lately with a few laps after work in the park on Tuesday and Wednesday, although that did just serve to remind me why I love Central Park in the winter time and tend to avoid it in the summer. It's a bit too much of a zoo in there for me to really enjoy the ride and it always astonishes me how oblivious some people can be (and how many guys on $1,000+ bikes that can't ride in a straight line). This is exactly why I love River Rd. and that is where Per and I headed this morning as I left my place at 5:30 this morning. We even added in a few extra climbs and I got a majority of my 50 miles today done before 8:30 this morning. That was a great way to start the day and then headed over the they Rapha Cycle Club to watch the Tour de France stage with Cassidy and Kyle. It was great to see Schleck take the stage but I just wish he could've gotten some time on Contador. I'll be bummed to see the Pistolera win another tour.
The picture below is a shot of Per and our bikes at the top of "Forbidden Hill" (so named because you aren't supposed to ride it) on our ride this morning. I still don't know why he does these long rides with that backpack on.
I have been doing a bit more riding lately with a few laps after work in the park on Tuesday and Wednesday, although that did just serve to remind me why I love Central Park in the winter time and tend to avoid it in the summer. It's a bit too much of a zoo in there for me to really enjoy the ride and it always astonishes me how oblivious some people can be (and how many guys on $1,000+ bikes that can't ride in a straight line). This is exactly why I love River Rd. and that is where Per and I headed this morning as I left my place at 5:30 this morning. We even added in a few extra climbs and I got a majority of my 50 miles today done before 8:30 this morning. That was a great way to start the day and then headed over the they Rapha Cycle Club to watch the Tour de France stage with Cassidy and Kyle. It was great to see Schleck take the stage but I just wish he could've gotten some time on Contador. I'll be bummed to see the Pistolera win another tour.
The picture below is a shot of Per and our bikes at the top of "Forbidden Hill" (so named because you aren't supposed to ride it) on our ride this morning. I still don't know why he does these long rides with that backpack on.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Back On A Road Bike
2010 Mileage: 3224
Yesterday I enjoyed the nice (and really hot) weather to head over the GWB on the new road bike. I wasn't feeling that great and I could tell that I am a little out of shape but the joy of riding a brand new bike definitely kept me going. Along the ride I swung by to visit my Aunt in Tenafly. It is always great to see her I just never seem to remember just how steep the climb from there house back up to my route is. I just looked it up and it is over half a mile of over 8% average grade (that is pretty steep). But it was still worth the visit. Here is a picture of the new bike:
And here is a picture of why I needed a new road bike:
Now its taking care of a few errands and then hopefully another long ride on the new toy. And then Per and I have a man date tonight since both of our wives are out of town, probably just watching a movie that Lindsay and Jo wouldn't watch with us but it should be fun.
Yesterday I enjoyed the nice (and really hot) weather to head over the GWB on the new road bike. I wasn't feeling that great and I could tell that I am a little out of shape but the joy of riding a brand new bike definitely kept me going. Along the ride I swung by to visit my Aunt in Tenafly. It is always great to see her I just never seem to remember just how steep the climb from there house back up to my route is. I just looked it up and it is over half a mile of over 8% average grade (that is pretty steep). But it was still worth the visit. Here is a picture of the new bike:
And here is a picture of why I needed a new road bike:Now its taking care of a few errands and then hopefully another long ride on the new toy. And then Per and I have a man date tonight since both of our wives are out of town, probably just watching a movie that Lindsay and Jo wouldn't watch with us but it should be fun.
Monday, July 12, 2010
River Road With The Wife
2010 Mileage: 3140Saturday Lindsay and I set off on the longest bike ride she has ever done and ended up with 41 miles on the day. After a long breakfast of waffles and coffee (becoming our saturday morning ritual) I took her on one of my favorite rides around as we headed up the Hudson River bike path and over the George Washington Bridge and then continued North along the Hudson in Palisades Park over in New Jersey. We went at a fairly casual pace as Lindsay learned to transition from spin class to a long ride outside but she did amazingly well and really seemed to enjoy the ride asking to do it again on our next day off together. We also got lucky with an 80% chance of rain in the forecast and not seeing a drop of it. I'm looking forward to taking her up the Alpine Hill climb on our next trip out there.
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