First East Coast Rides and Turkey Trot Report!

Well I have been a busy lady! I thought I would have time to blog more in Jersey, not so much. But that is because I have been doing lots of fun things and also walking so much that I am pretty sure I have shin splints. What can I say, lots of walking happening here!

So it has been so much fun. I took the train (neat!! Yes I am a dork) out to Glen Ridge, New Jersey for the Ashenfelter 8k on Thursday. I met some very nice people there who have taken me under their wings for training purposes. I had to take kind of an early train so I took a few snaps.

 Cute little town!! I love the East Coast. Everything is so different.

The 8k itself was lots of fun and I feel that I ran pretty well. The first mile was really crowded but after that things opened up and I turned it up a little bit. Per my Garmin I averaged 6:50 pace, and considering that my first mile was 7:36 I am happy! I got a mug for being in the top 100 females. What a nice touch. The weather was perfect so that was a bonus. I swear I am getting spoiled by all the great weather here.
After a great Thanksgiving dinner up in Westchester, we spent the night in Norwalk and I rode from there (Norwalk is in Connecticut. Generally most days I end up in at least two states and a few days three!). My bike was excited to explore more of Connecticut, and I was excited to ride my tri bike for the first time since the Ironman. No I did not remove it from its box before moving. I am lazy.
Riding in Connecticut was great. However I did not do the route I planned because none of the road names from the internet were the same as the real roads. That is what happens when you ride on really, really old roads! It was fun though. Very different from Colorado - all rollers, no long climbs. I found the beach too. That was awesome.

It was a beautiful day. I rode for around two hours just kind of putzing around and having fun. Then I drove through two states and attempted to get a New Jersey driver's license. I was not successful but I will get 'em next time!
Today I went for a fun ride with New Jersey people. They were great and we had a very nice ride. Oddly enough we rode exactly by a town I did some work in about five years ago. That was weird! The weather was amazing. We rode on rollers. There were lots of cars. I took pictures! First this is Dan's behind. I saw a lot of this on the ride! He is a beast.

 You can see that it is pretty but all the leaves are pretty much gone. I cannot wait to do this ride in the spring. CANNOT wait!!!! I love trees. Here is a decent self-portrait I did while riding. Clearly my time off the bike has actually improved my photography skills.

I do not think New Jersey people are used to me yet. They are all like 'you smile a lot!!!' Ha, yes I do, people, yes I do. I just still can't believe I got to move across the country. It is so great. I am very lucky!!! After the ride today I still wanted to swim but walking everywhere takes forever so I took my road bike on an adventure! We went on the PATH train to Manhattan and then to the gym. Here is my bike on Chelsea Pier.

I only almost got run over by one cab. Not bad actually considering. I think everyone on the train thought I was bonkers but I was one of three people on the train with a bike so I didn't feel that bad. Carrying a bicycle over turnstiles and up and down stairs is good exercise! I have decided that once my mountain bike is sold I am buying a single speed bike. I really need a bike that is good for commuting longer distances than my cruiser, that is not a fancy carbon road bike that I worry will be stolen. Therefore I think a single speed would be ideal.

In other news I am just loving it here. It is so much fun. I seriously can't believe I get to do it. Tomorrow I am going into the city and doing my long run up to and around Central Park, then I am swimming, and putzing around until Brian comes into the city and then we will go to Chinatown and do fun things. I can't wait!! I will try to take pictures.

I'm here!!!

Well I have made it to my new home. I have no furniture except for my bed, but the rest of it should be arriving in half an hour. And that means my moving project is almost complete and I have time to blog again!! Moving is very time consuming. Especially cross-country moving. I moved in Denver a bunch but this was much more logistically challenging. Holy cats. Especially since very late in the game I decided to sell my car. Which was a great decision, but that definitely added a few challenges!

So here I am!! I am so excited. It is great. Very different, and it is weird living somewhere and not knowing anyone in my town, but I am excited to meet people! And luckily I have friends in the tri-state area. And my awesome friend Liz introduced me to some tri people so I have people to ride with this weekend which is very exciting. I haven't ridden my tri bike since the Ironman - once I realized I was moving I just  never unpacked it!

My family has requested photos so here are some photos of my neighborhood. And a few from my going away celebrations. I think it is so cool. I am very glad I ended up in Hoboken - it's a 10 minute train ride to Manhattan but here it is nice and quiet and calm. But there are still fun restaurants and things to do. I'm going for my first Hoboken run later today once I have unpacked a little.

View of the city from where I stayed Sunday night (I used points to stay at the W in Hoboken. If you want to visit me and don't want to sleep on the couch I highly recommend it).

My dad cooking on Saturday. They decided to do Thanksgiving since my brother and I will both be gone!

 Me and my brother at Noodles, my last meal in Denver. That was fitting since I am obsessed with Noodles and we have none here! Just for the record I think it would do really well in Hoboken.

 View of the city and the Hoboken waterfront. I think that's a mini-golf course. I will find out more when I run today.

One of many parks in Hoboken...

 Cool view of the city last night when I got back. I got these cool snaps because I got kind of lost when I was leaving the train station. What can I say, being underground is confusing.

 Another park with fantastic views that I found this morning when I walked to get coffee.

Thanks for taking a look! I will hopefully post somewhat more often now, and hopefully I'll get some good ride pictures this weekend!

I love New York!!!!

I will post more when my life finally settles down. But here is a cool picture of Central Park in the fall. And one from the race too!

Phone blogging!!

Excuse the typos and auto-correct issues. Hopefully it'll create something funny. So I'm riding at the gym and blogging. I am so productive!!!

I've decided moving across the country is kind of like racing. You do all the big work (major workouts, major planning) weeks out. Then you wait, get nervous, get excited, and have these annoying little tasks that remind me of the taper and its workouts. I'm under three weeks to the big move now. In fact I'm moving the day of IM Arizona so that's funny. Luckily most everything is done now since I'm going to New York this weekend to watch the marathon and cheer on a good friend! I'm super excited because I've never been there for the marathon before!! And on Monday I'm going to see my new apartment which is great!!! I can't wait, this week is going by slowly.

I am training somewhat although my season doesn't start until 12/1. I will be very out of shape on the bike, it's hard to ride when you go fun places every weekend! I think that's good though, last year I think I trained too much during the off-season. This year there's no danger of that! I rode with my cycling team Sunday and almost died! I am in decent running shape though. I'm running a thanksgiving race in Jersey so hopefully I won't embarrass myself.

That is about all I can stand to type on my phone so I think I'll sign off. Happy training!!!