the lack of oxygen

I ended up taking a slight break from training this past weekend to go to Colorado on some family biz. Turned out we had an afternoon with no commitments, so we took the opportunity to head up to the top of Pike's Peak. We rode the Cog train up to the summit at 14,000 feet. An absolutely breathtaking day! Cold temps (around 30º), and they had just had few feet of snow two days earlier.

Did I mention the lack of air? Turn your head too quicky at those altitudes & you see stars. Or you black out. Or both. I guess that's why they limit your time at the summit to 40 minutes. Oh yeah, we skipped the donuts.

Fall has arrived!

wow, what a beautiful morning for a ride. The commute in was full of blue skies, cool temps and fresh air. What a difference from the hot, sticky, smelly days of summer.

Enjoy!

typical commute

took these a while back - gives you a good idea of the terrain. Only difference is I shot these on a peaceful Sunday morning. There is no WAY I would be taking my hands off the bars on a weekday to snap pics. So picture these roads with MUCH more traffic :)

humming along Queens Blvd...



typical, beautiful landscape

reality bites

wow, and I thought I was doing pretty well. Silly wabbit. Yesterday the training team went on it's first "real" ride. (until now we've been training in Central Park - lots of distance but not too challenging) Sunday we crossed the Hudson and journeyed up 9W to Nyack. It'a a 40-mile round trip, but the distance really wasn't the point. It was the hills. The way up went ok, and I ran with the fast group the whole way. The way back was another matter. A series of hills at the start battered me one after another, and I crept along painfully as I watched the fast group roll out of sight.

I guess it could have been worse. I ended up completing the ride 4 minutes behind the fast group, and about 6 minutes before the middle group. I suffered though. Looks like it's time to get serious and start packing in more midweek riding.

On a bright note, my fundraising continues to go well. last time I tallied it up I was at $2990, just shy of the 50% mark. Keep it up everyone!

day 1

well, here goes. The intent for this site is to give you the idea of what it's like to ride the urban environment. Additionally, I am currently training to ride my first Century, the Tour de Tucson, so I guess i'll be keeping a running log of how that's going.

stay tuned...