So I've made the decision to do the MS Ride in NYC. So I'm keeping my miles up. My wife made plans with her father to take the kids to the Central Park Zoo so I decided to meet them there.
I left on a very beautiful Sunday morning and planned on taking a non-direct route to get there. I made my way eventually to the Shore Bike Path on the Belt Parkway. It's nice as you go along the water, although the construction is a bit of an eyesore.
When I first took off, I had a Maroon 5 song from a while back, This Love and I assumed that would stick. But while I was on Linden Boulevard in Queens, all of a sudden P!nk's Blow Me (One Last Kiss) popped in there. The new one:
(Warning - explicit lyrics)
Forget the fact that my wife giggles at the title, she's such a child... I've decided I like P!nk's music. She's got a lot to say, and while I myself like to approach things in a positive way, I like the fact that she's got some depth to her lyrics. The songs are obviously poppy, but nice and catchy.
What was funny, was this wasn't the only song stuck in my head. It kept vacillating between that song and this one:
(Warning - explicit lyrics)
I realized something. P!nk has a formula she uses. It's not unlike a lot of pop music today. And this is the reason why I prefer to listen to progressive rock more than anything else. The formula is:
[Simple intro] - [Verse with open spaces between beats] - [Driving 4-beat chorus much louder] - rinse and repeat
Once my mind playing a few tricks to modulate Raise Your Glass into the same key as Blow (something I usually don't let it do because it's annoying), it became one song for the next 40 miles, just moving effortlessly between the two. I will say though that it's fantastic to bike to. It kept my cadence up and while I was alone on the path (not in the streets with lights or other obstacles), I was able to keep a really good speed.
Anyway, I stopped at Carnarsie Pier to take this pic:
I made my way through Brighton Beach and got back onto the Shore Path, under the Verrazano Bridge and then took a shot of an FDNY boat and then the panorama of lower Manhattan and Jersey City.
I headed north in Brooklyn and crossed the famed Brooklyn Bridge
Then it was to the west side and boy was the Hudson path crowded!!! I got into the 50s and then got to Central Park.
I did a loop of the park and finished at the zoo. What an incredible day - low 70s, a little headwind that didn't detract from the ride. It was gorgeous!
Hurt shoulder and all, I decided to take a shot at the century ride. My family thought I was being stupid, but you work at something and if you have a chance at doing it, you want to do it. Plus it helps that I'm really stupid this way, so it shouldn't shock anyone.
I woke at 4:15, late actually, and raced downstairs, got my stuff and rode to the LIRR station in RVC where I went into the city, picked up the 2 and got to 110th St. There it was a short walk across the street and I was at the starting line by about 5:45. It was kind of packed, I'm not sure how many people were there, but everyone was super psyched, despite the early hour.
The route was to take me south through Manhattan and then through 4 of the 5 boroughs and then back to Central Park that afternoon.
We went south down the west side of Manhattan and to be honest with you I was a bit timid. The pace wasn't very quick anyway as it was dark to begin with, but then it lightened up and there were a lot of bikers around me. I normally am not skittish, but with the injured shoulder, I took it easy. We took a nice easy pace south all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge and into Brooklyn.
The hills going up to Prospect Park kept everyone pretty slow. The Bridge was slow too. Actually, one thing that was interesting was that the bridge speeds were VERY slow. It was mostly single file and people didn't want to take them very quickly. Anyway, we got into Prospect Park and that's where it finally opened up. I broke 30mph, did a nice 24m pace on one mile and I was loving it!
That was where the first rest stop was. I grabbed a PB&J bagel and took off again. Brooklyn was more hilly than Manhattan, so the pace kind of varied. The lights were never with us so that also slowed things down. But I was feeling a lot more confident in my shoulder so I was willing to push it more. We got to the harbor and I got a really nice shot of the Verrazano Bridge.
I kept going along the southern edge of Brooklyn and since we were on a closed path, the pace slowed again. But it was an absolutely beautiful morning. It was about 70 degrees and perfectly clear with a light 5-8mph breeze out of the NNW. I was so happy I decided to do this. Still no pain from my shoulder. We made our way into Coney Island where I saw the famed Cyclone in all it's glory.
We then turned north, snaked through Brooklyn a bit and had another rest stop in Marine Park (30 miles in).
I then moved on after topping off my fluids and headed to Flatbush Avenue and then south along the Gil Hodges Bridge. I should point out that the day before a tornado touched down in this area (Breezy Point) and I was sure the ride officials would route us away from the area, but we were fine. Very little debris on the ground where we were, which was a little east of where the twister hit. We then hit the winds in Rockaway Beach and I rolled into my old hometown.
Way back when, I lived in the above building. Only until I was about 7, but I still remember running around the playground between this building and the next. And if I remember correctly, my nursery school was in the building across the grounds. But apparently I was too pretentious for Queens and my family moved out to Syosset, on Long Island. Still, this was good enough to get the Barenaked Ladies song in my head.
No, I didn't break into the apartment, so I just kept riding and this song was in my head for the next, oh about 40 miles. It's a little slow for biking, but I really like BNL. They had such a pure sound and such a love of music about them. My wife and I saw them in Baltimore once and we genuinely thought they were having fun on stage. This has a couple of different shifts in the song where he sings about the apartment in almost an angry tone. Then it goes into a section that is much quieter and more somber, where he continually asks the new owner why they changed some of his favorite memories and then it almost explodes right into the same riff as the beginning that is fast and a little more angry again. The transition between these two sections is actually a good motivator on the bike as it gives me a change to hold on to and pick up the intensity a bit.
We then headed north from the Rockaways and across the Cross Bay Bridge towards Ozone Park.
The ride took us through some not so picturesque sections of Queens and then we hooked up with the Greenway again. Enter Forest Park and the 55m rest stop. Before I got to the stop though there was a nice downhill (which was good because it was a fairly decent climb up to the park). There were two gigantic divots that were the length of the road and I feared they would wreck my rear wheel because it was a downhill and I was going about 25mph. Luckily I was able to avert any damage.
My shoulder was great, but the hills before Forest Park, especially that one going into Hillside Park were wreaking havoc on my arthritic knees. I took some more Advil and after awhile the pain subsided. From Forest Park, we headed east (kind of) and along the best part of the Queens Greenway into Cunningham Park. It's very hilly, but a beautiful ride.
From Cunningham Park we go north to Northern Boulevard and for some reason we skipped Flushing Meadows Park. That was kind of disappointing. There was a very interesting set of bridges that we went over though that took us over Queens Boulevard I believe. That was tough negotiating some of the fences getting to the footbridges though and I can only imagine what the recumbent bikes on the ride had to do.
I was following someone on Northern Boulevard about 60 yards back and they blew right by the turnoff onto the path that goes along the Cross Island Parkway. I was pretty sure we had to go there, but I kept following them. Mistake. After close to a mile, I decided to stop and people who were following me (sorry!) stopped too. We all pulled out the cue sheet, realized our mistake and then went back before we went too far and got into Nassau County (Great Neck is NOT part of NYC!). The ride along the CIP was really nice as we could see Bayside Marina on the right side. I was blowing by just about everyone as people were starting to get tired as this was about 70 miles into the ride.
We passed the Throgs Neck Bridge and then headed near the airport and into the World's Fair Marina. This is where I ran into trouble last year with a broken spoke, but luckily I made it through no problem this year.
We kept heading west into Astoria and then into Astoria Park where there is a big rest stop. And this was the best picture I took all day:
That's the RFK (formerly Triboro) bridge in the foreground and the island of Manhattan in the back. We went over that bridge and into the Bronx where we made about a 7 mile climb into Van Cortlandt Park. Funny thing happened in the Bronx though, and this is where the BNL song left me. We got over the RFK bridge and because we were 90 miles into the ride, there was a lot of separation between the riders. I had one guy with me and we stuck together which was important because we didn't have the pack to follow anymore. It was kind of hard to see the markers on the street and with a lot of street fairs going on in the Bronx that day, we were afraid we were going to get lost. Eventually though we found a larger pack and we made it to the park.
By the way, it is NOT fair that the bathrooms were being cleaned right as we got to the park and we had to wait. Not fair at all... :-) I picked up after topping off my fluids again and made the trip over the Broadway Bridge and back to Manhattan where I finished my 107 mile trek around NYC.
It was such an awesome day. My second longest ride ever and much more challenging than the Ride to Montauk (109m) earlier this year because it's definitely not flat. I strongly encourage everyone to try this ride, at any distance!
My wife doesn't want me to bike. My parents I'm sure don't want me to bike. My kids? They say to go for it. Today was the first time on the bike after the accident 6 days ago. My shoulder hurts, but being on the bike didn't seem to aggravate it. I tried a hill, bumpy road, sharp turns, even waving to the neighbor (that hurt a bit). Nothing seemed to aggravate it.
The song I had was apropos. Tom Petty's The Waiting (is the hardest part).
It has to be at least 10 years since I've heard this song, so I don't know where it came from. But the lyrics are fitting. The entire week, every day I "got one more yard". That much closer to the NYC Century and I'd feel a little better, but not knowing whether or not I could do the ride. I worked hard to get to the point of doing this and want to do it. "You take it on faith, you take it to the heart" that you'll be healthy and be able to do this stuff and then BAM you have an accident.
OK, that's a little melodramatic. I'm lucky. It could have been much worse.
Anyway, nice day out today for a quick ride around the neighborhood to test out the shoulder. We'll see how I feel tomorrow and then I'll make the decision for Sunday.
My shoulder's still tight. Swelling I believe has gone down so now it's a question of what's wrong and can I do the century? For me it's an all or nothing kind of thing. I either do it or I don't. Once I'm out there, if I can't, I'm willing to shorten the ride. But if I do decide to take it on, I'm going in with the assumption that I'm doing the entire ride. I think my wife is a little uneasy with that mode of thought...
With just over a week to go until the NYC Century, I wanted to get one more ride in. Especially since I didn't get the long ride in the Poconos that I wanted. My wonderful wife said we were seeing her parents on Saturday the 1st of September, so why don't I just ride there again? Sold!
The night before, we held a game night for our regular board gaming group, the NBGA. The night ended up being a very late one as two of our more intrepid members suggested a game of Tichu that lasted until 3:30am. And we didn't even finish...
So I didn't get up until 10:30 am on Saturday. I fed the kidlets and myself and took off for Old Greenwich CT at around 11:30. It was the same route I did a couple of weeks ago, except this time I was a little more familiar with it.
I made it into Queens with little effort other than the 10mph headwind. Also, the day was HOT. I was prepared for the high 80s my trusty weatherman told me, but not the pounding low 90s that I go. Luckily the humidity was gone, but I was going through liquids quickly due o the excessive heat. When I got to the Greenway in Queens I breathed a sigh of relief due to the shade the trees provided.
The trip through Queens was very pleasant now that I was becoming more familiar with the route. I got to Flushing Meadow Park and skirted the tennis center which had all sorts of security up for the US Open. I then decided to get smart and detoured to Roosevelt Blvd. and then picked up 34th Ave. and it's bike lane at the beginning. Straight shot into Astoria and then to the RFK Triboro bridge.
My wife is very interested in the Hell Gate Bridge as she heard on a radio show once that it was so overengineered, if we abandoned NYC and let the vegetation take over, this bridge would still be standing hundreds of years into the future. This shot is from the RFK/Triboro bridge walkway. This is where my ride got interesting...
I get to Randalls Island and enjoy the view until I get to the walkway to the Bronx portion of the bridge and there is where I notice that the walkway is closed. Gated even. Apparently, the Electric Zoo Festival was going on at the same time. The police officers there were even confused about what was going on so I ended up having to go into Manhattan over the RFK. I wound around a few streets there until I found a couple of nice guys who told me how to get to the Willis Avenue Bridge. From there I found my way to Bruckner Boulevard and my route again. Whew.
I shot up to Fordham Road and went past the Bronx Zoo. Always a fun place to go.
The song in my head that was prevalent for the entire ride was a little known one by Neal Morse, one of my favorite singers. It's called So Long Goodbye Blues (which for some reason Blogspot can't pick up on You Tube's embedding - http://youtu.be/MHYALO175qo). It's not a very appropriate biking song. A nice song, very relaxed and poignant. But it doesn't do much for propelling me forward with exercise. Neal Morse's career is one that is very interesting to me. He became famous in the progressive rock genre with the group Spock's Beard, one of my all time favorites. He left the group when he turned to God and decided instead to dedicate his musical career to expressing his feelings about religion. Despite the fact that I don't agree with his religious position, I am continually moved by the passion and some of the most incredible songwriting I have ever experienced. He puts so much emotion into his work that it is hard not to be affected positively. My favorite album of his is the one simply labeled "?".
Back to the ride and that curious tag on the title of this entry...
I followed the NYC Greenway through the Bronx and was starting to get very tired. The heat was getting to me, and although I had already filled my water bottle and had some beef jerky and a Balance bar, I was starting to tank. I should note that I had actually brought two water bottles on this trip, but somewhere around Randalls Island, the second bottle fell out of its cage and I was down to one. Bad omen...
Anyway, I left the Greenway and found this beautiful home at the edge of the path in Pelham Bay. If you read a few posts ago where I helped the 18 year old after wiping out, this was the view I had then, but I was distracted at the time. I sat in front of this house for about 10 minutes trying to get some energy back. But it was HOT.
I struggled along and then crossed into Westchester where I visited a store and topped off my fluids, had an oatmeal raisin cookie and an energy drink that I don't recall the name of, but afterwards I saw some pink elephants flying by. With a new boost, I whipped my way through Westchester, although I started cramping in Rye. The heat again.
The cramps got so bad as I crossed into Greenwich, I had to pause and rest for a few. I gathered myself together and set out to finish the last 10 miles to Old Greenwich and a glorious shower. And my wife and kids. :-)
I then came upon Byram Park. The perimeter road is not traveled by many cars, but I did notice that there was a protected bike path that I could hop onto. So I tried to do the safe thing and when I came across a driveway I angled my way to the path. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the driveway was raised by about an inch. Had I known, I would have taken it more gingerly and approached perpendicularly. Instead, my front wheel didn't negotiate the driveway and the wheel aligned with the lip of the driveway. My back tire slammed against the lip and I couldn't keep my balance. I slammed down into the pavement on my right shoulder, then my head (thank God for helmets!) and then my hip as I was thrown from the bike. There were enough cars on the road that they all stopped to see if I was ok. They even called the police, and when the officer arrived, he told me he was biking from Boston to New York the next weekend I believe with a number of servicemen and women. I refused medical attention because I tested that I had full range of motion but once it swelled up, they wouldn't be able to do anything about it other than to tell me to see my specialist. I've already had 3 arthroscopic surgeries on both shoulders so I'm familiar with the drill.
My father-in-law came and picked me up, about 6 miles short of their house and they all tried to be as positive as possible. I have no idea what this will do for next weekend. The bike was not road worthy, but it is fixable. Me? I'm going to have to see how I feel as the week goes on. Note that last year I went 82 miles into the ride before a broken spoke stopped me. I've completed two centuries to date, both the Ride to Montauk. I really want this one... :-(
My family took a trip to the Poconos on Lake Naomi. Unfortunately we arrived a little late because my youngest son was beating back a virus with a plastic sword. But once we got there it was great. My day for biking was Wednesday, August 29th. I was hoping to get a really long ride in. We were staying in Pocono Pines and I wanted to go back to the Delaware Water Gap and then back. Unfortunately, my GPS was on the fritz again and I was not familiar with the area enough to chance it. So I decided to stick to around the lake and the Sullivan Trail, both areas I'd ridden before. My 60m ride shortened to about 23m.
So I should probably go into the reliance on the GPS at this point because it's obvious that I've been having issues with it and have been complaining. I have a really good sense of direction. REALLY good. But I also love gadgets. What may be coming across as a dependence upon this device is more like getting my hopes dashed and then dealing with them. Before I got the Forerunner 310XT, I used to use what I referred to as a "poor man's GPS". This amounted to an index card that I used after mapping a route on mapmyride.com, wrote the directions down, stuck them in a ziploc bag and taped it to my handlebars. It was dangerous because there were lots of directions on there if I was on a long ride. So one holiday season, all my relatives pitched in and got me the GPS I wanted. I am not dependent on it as many times I just go riding without a route in mind. But when I'm using it in an area I'm not as familiar with like the Poconos, or Connecticut, or many areas of NYC, it's really nice to have. Plus I love analyzing the stats afterwards (yeah, that's the geek in me). So when it's not working, or it won't take the route I had planned like in the Poconos this week, I get discouraged.
So I woke up, had breakfast with the family and set out. I rode around the Lake Naomi area at first and worked into the rhythm of the ride. It was about 68 degrees out with minimal wind so it was absolutely prime biking weather. After touring the neighborhoods around Naomi, I shot out onto Rte 940 and headed west to Long Pond Road where I hooked up with Sullivan Trail. It was there that I was met with my companion for the ride, Goodbye Stranger by Supertramp.
I couldn't find a better video than this, so it'll have to do. I have always been a big fan of Supertramp. I saw them back in the mid 90's at Darien Lake near Rochester, NY. It was a funny concert. Whenever they played a "new" song the fans were either quiet or even a few were unruly. But as soon as they locked into a classic like Goodbye Stranger, the Logical Song or Fool's Overture, the place was rocking.
It's a good song to bike too also. It starts out with just the electric piano with a simple melody. Roger Hodgson's vocals then come in and the song drives on, adding complexity and intensity as it goes on. It also resets itself with a very simple and playful chorus which then adds voices in contrast and it all makes for a song that drives along very well.
I finished Sullivan Trail (at least that section) and came back for a really nice picture of Lake Naomi.
It was a gorgeous day and later on I was on the other side of the lake by the pool with the rest of the family. But for now I did a loop around the lake and then came back with a picture from the same area, but around a man-made falls.
I promise, these photos will get better. I'm hoping to get an iPhone in the next few weeks. Anyway, the day was complete and I came riding into the house we were staying in after a 23m ride that was incredibly satisfying. Not the length, or as much climb as I wanted, but still just what the stress doctor ordered. I just love riding in the Poconos.
