Commute to CT - Listen to Your Heart

This was a ride I had tried a while back but there was some sickness on the other side so I aborted, disappointingly. Now I was looking for a big ride in preparation for the NYC Century and my wife said that we were going up to Connecticut, so why didn't I just ride there? She's wonderful, isn't she??? So on Sunday, August 19th, I tackled the commute to Connecticut.

I was a bit nervous about this one because I didn't know much of the route. So there was much dependency on the GPS. I mapped it out on Garmin's site a while back so I just sat and tried to study it and I figured I'd keep the watch on the map screen. It does an ok job in drawing a line for me that I can follow, but no verbal directions like "left turn here".

I took off at 9am on an absolutely beautiful day. My ride took me through some pretty safe streets for a bike into Queens and eventually I got to Union Turnpike. Ahead of me - Alley Pond Park. My nemesis. Cloverleaf turns, GPS ruining trees, a sure way to get lost. Knowing this ahead of time, my GPS took me on Union for a bit and then I ducked into the park to hit the Greenway. Problem was my GPS didn't know that I had to carry my bike up a hill to get to the path. That's ok, I figured it out immediately. From there it was clear sailing until I got to Flushing Meadows Park.

Picture from Wikipedia.org

I love going through the Worlds Fair grounds. It's open, it's beautiful, it's got history, it's got people playing soccer and volleyball and throwing frisbees, it's got everything. The Unisphere is something to behold and it's just plain cool to ride through. Problem is there's a mess of highways that go through the park and it's easy to get lost trying to get out of there. Eventually I made my way to 34th Ave after having to abandon the park and just head north on a street that looked like it would go all the way through. I made it and then headed west towards Astoria.

I have never been on the RFK bridge (formerly known as the Triboro) on a bike before. Last year, when I did the NYC Century, I broke a spoke before I got to the bridge so I didn't get to do it. This time I was really looking forward to it. Unlike other bridges like the Queensboro and Brooklyn, the RFK wasn't really made for bikes, so you approach a stairway on Hoyt Ave and carry the bike up. Then you ride for a bit and get to another stairway. Once you navigate that one, it's clear riding until you get to your exit onto Randalls Island. That was very cool. Wide open area, fields and parks everywhere. The soccer fields were absolutely enormous. Yes, a few industrial plants too, but I didn't care. This was a new experience. I headed north and eventually hooked up with the bridge again to get to the Bronx.

I'd never ridden in the Bronx before either. I got a little intimidated by Bruckner Blvd, and got a little lost from my route on the GPS so I just headed generally northeast and eventually found my way to the Bronx Zoo and picked up Pelham Parkway. And now I was back on the Greenway. A fabulous (although overgrown) path through Pelham Bay and Orchard Beach.

The ride on the protected path ends in a neighborhood and there I did my mitzvah (good deed) for the day. A teenager and his father passed me in the other direction heading to the protected Greenway. I heard the teen wipeout before he got to the path and when I turned, the father obviously didn't realize it. So I turned around and asked if he needed help. He was just a little bruised and scraped up and old enough not to care so much, but he was a little jittery. I used my first aid kit (insistence from my wife) and patched him up in a couple of cases and he finally got a hold of his father on the phone. The father didn't seem to want to come back, so the son said he'd just ride up to catch him. He seemed ok and thanked me for the band aids. Feeling good about my "pay it forward" moment, I pressed on.

The ride continued on and of course the rolling hills of Westchester were not something I was used to on Long Island, but I welcomed them eagerly. I passed through Mamaroneck, Larchmont and Portchester on the East Coast Greenway (needs better signage!). Just the thought of riding up and down the east coast gave me goosebumps. Maybe in a few years :). It was on this segment, now that I felt a little more comfortable with the route, that I realized I didn't have any songs in my head. Yeah, that's all it took. I guess I had been concentrating so much on my route, that I didn't have the mental energy free to start perusing my mental playlist. I stopped to top off my drinks in Portchester and along with some peanuts, I walked out of a Valero station with Roxette.

Wow, that was really 80s of me. The song isn't really tailor made for any kind of exercise, more for holding a candle in a concert arena and swaying back and forth. What was funny about it was my wife knew I was over my 50m barrier for my older son getting more annoying ones into my head so on the ride home from a friend's house the night before and my son started singing a Rhianna song (I think), she shushed him and we all had a laugh. That morning I was thinking of a song I heard earlier in the week (Duel with the Devil by Transatlantic) but I can never predict what will pop in when I'm on the road.

Listen to Your Heart has always struck me as kind of a forlorn song. The singer is telling a woman who is about to call it quits to a relationship to pause and realize that the guy isn't so bad. At least that's my interpretation. Frankly, I'm all in favor of "listen to your gut". Your heart can get you in trouble.

Musically it has all the elements of 80s ballads - ethereal electronic keyboards, question and answer chorus that coalesces to a high pitched whiny plea. I actually liked the song when it came out in the 80s, but it does little to differentiate itself from the rest of the music of the era. I will say that Roxette's Marie Fredriksson had a nice almost Annie Lennox-like voice that carried the song well.

I made my way into Connecticut and travelled through Bruce Park (wow!) until I got to River Road. There I hit my 60 mile mark. And my GPS did something really weird. It played a song, similar but different to when I reach a destination, and then powered down. With my map. In the middle of an area I don't know. I went into a mild panic and tried to turn it back on. It did and seemed to pick up where it was but the map wasn't visible anymore as there was a big splash screen in front that blocked the viewer asking if I wanted to save my route. With frustration from technology, fatigue began to set in and my legs were struggling to get up the hills. I began to ignore my GPS at this point and just trusted in my (reputably) good sense of direction. I wound my way under and over I95 a few times and then got to US1. Then I knew I could get to my destination, assuming I could survive the busy street. There were no fears there though as I got to Binney Park in Old Greenwich and ended up at my in-laws house in one piece. Unfortunately I missed my father-in-law and wife and two kids who left 15 minutes earlier to go to my F-I-L's boat for a ride on the Long Island Sound. Oh well, I did get a nice shower in and spent quality time with my mother-in-law (who I actually enjoy talking to believe it or not).

All in all, it was a good ride. I'd definitely do it again. I need to get more comfortable with my GPS. It's great for recording stats and trending and showing where I've been. It's not so good for navigation though.

Vitals:

Distance:	63.03 mi
Time:	4:20:45
Avg Speed:	14.5 mph
Elevation Gain:	2,084 ft
Calories:	3,797 C

Commute to Work - Light the Vine with a Burning Rope?

So I had gotten it in my head that I wanted to bike to work. I live on Long Island and my job is as far south in Manhattan as you can possibly imagine. If I jump out a window of my office, I'd probably survive because I'd land in the harbor. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit - South St. is between us and the water, but you get the point. Every day I picked out to do this previously was a wash - literally. It rained. This would take planning because I needed to take clothes to work beforehand and then I'd shower at NYHRC and be at my desk by 8:30am. No problem, right?

So I settled on this past Wednesday because I also had to go to Central Park to umpire a company softball playoff game. I'd play but my shoulders are totally messed up. So the plan was to ride to work in the morning (23m), ride to Central Park in the afternoon (8m) and then home from Central Park (24m) for a total of 55m. Good warmup for the NYC Century ride.

Setting off at 6am, I was very pleased. A very nice 75 degrees and almost no wind. I headed down Sunrise Highway and didn't have any issues with traffic until about 6:30. By then I was on Conduit Ave and I realized that once you pass Cross Bay Blvd, it's not very friendly to bikes. Noted for the future. I eventually wound my way onto the streets of Brooklyn and as I've mentioned before, BKN is very bike friendly. Well marked roads, signs that are easy to find and follow. It was awesome. At that point I finally relaxed and an odd song found its way into my head: Polyphonic Spree's Light and Day.

My wife and I first heard this on Scrubs and instantly were taken by the song. We got the album and were incredibly disappointed. It's a bit too "ethereal" for me. Anyway, it's a weird song to bike to because there's no driving force. But there it was and I had to deal with it.

I was on Bergen Street in I believe Prospect Heights and the bike lane was on the left side. A car slowly pulls out from the right side and begins to get onto the street but doesn't turn at all. It kept going across the street at a very slow 5mph. I had already been slowing down because I had no idea what the car was doing. then he crossed into my lane and I pulled to a stop. He hit me anyway. No one was going at any speed so I wasn't hurt. I yelled at the guy to pay attention. If he hadn't hit me, he would have it the car that was parked right where I stopped. When I saw into the car it was an elderly man who seemed to be suffering from dementia. Or at least that's what my adrenaline-pumped mind was telling me. Regardless, I kept going after slamming his hood with my hand to drive my point home. About 100 feet down the road I turned around and noticed the car was still there. In the middle of the street. Not moving.

Anyway, I picked up again and headed for the Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately at a light at Pacific and I believe 3rd, I pulled away from a full stop and my chain snapped in half. End of ride. Bike fail. I was so incredibly upset. More often than not my bike fails before I do. It stopped me in the NYC Century last year, it's happened on Snickersville Pike and a few other places. So I took my bike onto the R train and went to work.

Vitals:

Distance:	19.52 mi
Time:	1:07:25
Avg Speed:	17.4 mph
Elevation Gain:	143 ft
Calories:	1,521 C

So now I had to get the bike fixed. That was done by Gotham Bikes on West Broadway near Chambers St. I always feel like I'm cheating on my local bike store when I go somewhere else. But I wanted to get home and I can't take my bike on the Long Island Railroad during rush hour. So I went to Gotham and they replaced the chain as well as the carriage (keep in mind I'm nowhere near a bike mechanic). I picked up the bike at about 3:15 and then headed up to Central Park.

I love taking the West Side bike path and at 3:30 in the afternoon it's pretty wide open. As I was moving along an old Genesis song, One for the Vine, came into my head.

I can't get this video to embed

This is a very powerful song, not one for biking necessarily, but powerful nonetheless. It's all about how a man becomes a leader in desperate times. Probably my second favorite song from the Collins era behind Domino.

The ride was pretty uneventful and I made it to the game in pretty good time.

Vitals:

Distance:	7.26 mi
Time:	29:06
Avg Speed:	15.0 mph
Elevation Gain:	249 ft
Calories:	690 C

After the game I called my wife and she said "you taking the train?" I said no and she was a bit surprised. "You're biking?" she inquired. I said yes. "Why?" "Because I want to." She did a phone shrug and said "OK, just be careful." I should note that I hadn't told her I had gotten hit by a car. That would have to be done in person to show her I was ok.

I took off from the North Meadow and went through Central Park on the west side. Such a beautiful place and I'm sorry I didn't take pictures because it was such a lovely, albeit humid day. Anyway, I got a little turned around at the south end of the park because I got out too early. But eventually I made my way over the Queensboro bridge and onto Queens Blvd. I chose Queens Blvd because I know it's got a service road and it was perfect in that respect. Unfortunately the pavement was ripped up in parts so it was an uncomfortable ride. At one point I was going at about 19mph and hit the cut pavement and the only way to deal with it is to coast. You can't hit the brakes because you'll slide and crash. Boy was that unpleasant.

Anyway, I survived, but from then on I felt like I was struggling. I even got another song from Genesis in my head: Burning Rope.

Also can't get this to embed. I believe there's a Blogspot limitation to one video embedded per post. Will need to remember that in the future...

So despite the cool song in my head, I was huffing it. And I didn't understand. I was easily two gears below my normal gear and I was struggling to keep it up to speed. This happened for 10 miles or so. I've gotten so paranoid about breaking spokes (which happens WAY too often), that I figured that's what happened. I refused to look though so I just powered through it. Finally I crossed the Nassau border and I looked down and I'll be damned if I didn't have my chain on the wrong chainring. It must have popped up in gear when I hit that rough patch on Queens Blvd. I cruised home after that and hit some decent speeds despite being over 50m for the day.

All told, I was happy with the day. I'll do this again, but not this year. I'll wait until next year.

Vitals:

Distance:	24.09 mi
Time:	1:39:12
Avg Speed:	14.6 mph
Elevation Gain:	834 ft
Calories:	1,777 C

Bayside Marina - Olympic Fanfare

My usual MO for getting ready for a Century ride is to start about 4-5 weeks early and to build my mileage and seat time up. I'm prepping for the NYC Century on September 9th and this was my first ride. The plan was to go from Rockville Centre northwest to Bayside Marina along the bike path on the Cross Island Parkway. Continue along through the park to the end at Utopia Parkway and swing back to home. Total for about 33 miles.

It was a beautiful day on Saturday (8/4) but it was stickier than a freshly baked Cinnabon. I took off and the first thing that popped into my head was of course, the Olympic theme. The 1984 one written by John Williams.

My wife and I have been watching a lot of the prime time coverage for the Olympics, which unfortunately has had a distinct lack of coverage of cycling. Except the last couple of nights I was watching the BMX coverage and that was really cool!

No BMX here, just navigating the streets of NYC on the way to the Crocheron Park bike path which is always nice during the summer as there's a ton of sailboats on the water. And at the end you get a really great sight of the Throggs Neck Bridge while passing a bunch of soccer players. By the way, what's a Throgg? And what's so special about it's neck?

I had a diatribe I posted on NerdNYC that I'll repost here at some point on my assessment of biking in NYC. It's a love hate relationship. I love biking in Brooklyn. I hate biking in Queens. That's harsh. There's some beautiful areas to bike in like Forest Park and the Crocheron path and Alley Pond, but the signage is horrific. Brooklyn's got great signage, but I always get lost in Queens when I try to take the Greenway. So I am forced to take the streets, which I know well but are susceptible to traffic lights and of course those nasty cars. My trip back seemed interminable on Francis Lewis Blvd, but it was such a nice day that I chose not to be negative.

Vitals:

Distance:	33.73 mi
Time:	2:12:23
Avg Speed:	15.3 mph
Elevation Gain:	417 ft
Calories:	2,202 C

Colonial Jamestown - Re: Your Brains

Still in staying in Williamsburg, VA, I took another trek on my bike when I had the chance. The humidity was absolutely brutal that day, so I headed out for an earlyish morning ride to try to beat the heat.

My family had listened to Jonathan Coulton's Best.Concert.Ever. on the way down to Virginia from New York. We're big fans, but one thing we hadn't counted on is the affinity that he has for the auditory cortex. Man, we were singing these songs all week long! Anyway, as I'm headed down John Tyler Highway (VA Rte. 5), I'm singing to myself, "All we want to do is eat your brains!" I believe I got a couple of strange looks from the people I passed on the path.

I do need to say that I was incredibly impressed with the respect for bike riders in Virginia. I often go in Purcelville, VA where we have friends and have done both Snickersville Pike (that's another post for another day - WOW!) and the W&OD trail. Now I can see that Virginia really goes out to help their cyclists stay safe. I happened upon the beginning of the Virginia Capital Trail which goes 50 miles from Jamestown to Richmond. The area I was on was a protected path that started at historic Jamestown, ran through cornfields and over the James River. You can't get anything like that on Long Island.

The humidity was a bit much, but it was a thoroughly joyful ride. I once again took a shot at the Colonial Parkway, this time as a route to Island Road, which should have taken me on a loop of Jamestown Island. Unfortunately Island Road was closed. I still need to upload the picture, but I got a distant shot of some old ships in the Jamestown port that was really nice.

As I left Jamestown, I was able to push the Coulton song out of my head and it was replaced by the second half of Spock's Beard album - Snow. I'd embed it, but for some reason the embedder won't take SB songs. Too bad, one of my favorite bands. I wasn't able to get a really great cadence going with the songs being all over the place, but I still had a really great ride. My only regret was not going into the Jamestown site like I had done with Colonial Williamsburg.

Vitals:

Distance:	21.39 mi
Time:	1:20:48
Avg Pace:	3:47 min/mi
Avg Speed:	15.9 mph
Elevation Gain:	471 ft
Calories:	1,226 C

Colonial Williamsburg, VA - Edge of Glory

I got the idea for this blog when I was riding in Williamsburg, VA. You see I have a long history of having songs stuck in my head and when I ride, the song kind of melds with the rhythm of the ride. Works really well when it's the pace I want. But it doesn't when all of a sudden Air Supply gets in there. That's not pretty.

Anyway, when I ride anything more than 20m, I tend to send out pics as to where I am to my wife and parents. My parents, my mother in particular, worries when I'm riding. That could possibly be due to the fact that I've been in two accidents with cars in my life - one when I was about 12 and another at the age of 37. Riding around Nassau County on Long Island, NY can be hazardous to your health. But that's another post for another day. Anyway, those pics are sent via picture-text over phone. But I have such enjoyment on these rides, that I figured I'd share them with a wider audience. Twitter's not my thing (although I may do that in the future), so I thought I'd do a blog. At least for the time being.

My family was in Williamsburg, Virginia with friends a couple of weeks ago, and as I am wont to do when I travel, I brought my bike and toured the area. On July 23, 2012, it was Colonial Williamsburg. My intention was to take the Colonial National Historic Parkway, but two things went wrong. First, the road is a rough cement which wreaks havoc on my 23cm tires. Second, there was a tunnel in Williamsburg that said "No bikes in tunnel". Knowing that they had pretty strict punishments in the 17th century, I decided not to push it.

So I ended up riding through Colonial Williamsburg itself and was rewarded. I'll eventually upload the pic I took on the site, but it was very serene. At 7:00am, there wasn't much going on so I really felt like I was riding through the 1600s. I smelled the sheep they had in the pastures (and immediately thought of the board game Agricola), saw an artisan walking down the road with bare metal in a wheelbarrow, and heard the sounds of silence - no cars. It was majestic.

Of course the song in my head to ruin that moment was Lady Gaga's Edge of Glory.

My kids are getting increasingly intolerant of music that they don't like on the radio; although to be fair, they do listen to a lot of genres. But whenever they can listen to a pop station with the latest from Lady Gaga or Bruno Mars, they get excited. And for some reason, like a positively charged electron to my negatively charged brain, it sticks. I will say though that this song produces a decent cadence. I wasn't going for performance, but when I left the colonial area and headed back for our rented condo, I put in a pretty good last mile.

Vitals:

Distance:	20.50 mi
Time:	1:18:10
Avg Pace:	3:49 min/mi
Avg Speed:	15.7 mph
Elevation Gain:	416 ft
Calories:	1,144 C