Riding With MoC

But if she passes me during the bike tour, I'm quitting.

Yesterday morning was spectacular. I did 31 miles in Central Park starting at 5:45 a.m. This included 4 laps around the park (6 miles each) and 7 additional 1-mile loops around the north hill (the hardest part of the park, by far).

I felt very strong throughout and barely sweated because the weather was so mild, milder, in fact than predicted. (In fact, I thought it was funny that I sweated much more dancing at a friend's wedding last night). I started to feel a little fatigue in my thighs only during the last climb at the Museum hill on the East Side, my very last mile.

I'm still much slower than I want to be (average speed, 14 mph) but, all in all, I was very pleased with the ride and where I'm 'holding' right now with a little less than four months to go.

When I train for events like this like this I tend to consume mass quantities of Advil. Not a terrible price to pay since it doesn't seem to bother my stomach.

The weather forecast for Sunday is spectacular. 80 degrees and nice. That means at 5:30 a.m., the time that I start my ride, it should be ideal.

I will double and triple check to make sure my alarm is on this week.

A serious rider of my acquaintance suggested a very cool training regiment for Central Park. Two laps of the park to warm up (12 miles altogether) then 6 laps of the north hill (each approximately a mile with a steep incline) followed by two or three more laps (depending on time), for a total of 30 to 36 miles about 10 of which will be on the steepest hills of the park. This sounds ideal because I really need to maximize my hill training for the bike tour which is going to be brutally hilly.

The list of riders already signed up for the Israel Bike Tour gets longer every day. When you sign up you are given a chance to write a brief profile and even include a picture.

It's exciting to read the profiles and also to see the many places, all over the US, Canada, UK and elsewhere, from which people are coming to ride in the tour. There are, of course, many Israelis as well, overwhelmingly Olim chadashim (new immigrants) and not so chadashim.

The age range is also very broad. There are men and women in their seventies who are doing the ride. Can you imagine getting passed by one of them?

This happened to me frequently in the New York City Marathon and was pretty embarrassing (and that was ten years ago!). One of the reasons I am training so hard is to prevent this humiliating scenario from coming to pass again.

Before going to bed on Saturday night I set my alarm for 4:30 a.m. I had filled my Camelback with Powerade, hitched up the bike rack to my car, and gotten my bib shorts, shirt and socks ready so that I wouldn't have to disturb my wife in the morning.

The plan was to be on the road by 5 a.m. at the latest and be in Central Park by 5:30. I could ride until 8:20, almost three hours (and around 45 miles), and still make it back in time to shower and get to the 9:15 minyan.

Sunday was supposed to be a magnificent day, with high temperatures in the low 70s. That meant temperatures ranging from about 55 to 65 during my ride. Ideal.

Except that I woke up at 6 a.m. My alarm didn't go off. It didn't go off because I didn't set it correctly. I did set the correct time but I didn't tutn the alarm on. What a loser.

So, instead of three hours on the rolling hills of Central Park, it was 45 minutes on the pancake-flat terrain of Hewlett Bay.

I tried to be grown up about this but that is not my nature. Sunday is the only day I can do long rides. I can ill afford to give up mornings like this if I want to be properly trained for the ride.

Here, here, here, here,

here, here, and here.

The links are in inverse order, most recent to first. Don't ask me why.

So as to avoid mixing lemons and esrogim, I have decided to post my bike riding adventures at this blog. My other ridiculous thoughts will remain at MoChassid.