Bike Race Number Two - Alpine Hill Climb!

I completed my second bike race yesterday. This was somewhat delayed just because of weather and then me being an idiot, so I was eager to get another race under my belt. Now considering the fact that my longest race last year took over 11 hours, this was a silly event - a hill climb up Alpine Hill in Palisades just across the George Washington Bridge from Manhattan. Convenient yet I only expected the race to take around six minutes. Ha! The last time I raced in a six minute race was probably in college.

This is a snap from the base of the hill that I took on Wednesday, when we practiced climbing it four times. In 95 degree, humid weather. Good times, good times.

It's actually really, really pretty, and the road was paved about a week ago, so that was nice. It used to have a ton of potholes. So I woke up around 5:45 Saturday morning and met a few teammates to ride over. Our warmup was around an hour, just because that's about how long it takes to get to the base. My legs felt somewhat busted but I hoped I would be able to push hard for six minutes.

The best part of everything was that since it was technically a Time Trial, a nice man held me up, clipped in, before I started. That was fun. Once I started I just tried to ride hard. I couldn't get my legs to do what I wanted but I tried to push and definitely picked it up towards the top where it levels out a little. The general profile of the ride is medium, then steep, then medium again. I finished in 6:34 which I was a little disappointed with - I thought I could do a little closer to 6:00. But sometimes your legs just don't agree with plans!

After the race I rode to Nyack and back with my friend Anneliese and this cool guy Nobby, it was really fun and mellow. That was probably the most fun part of the ride aspect of the day. Although I did enjoy the race and I ended up fifth in the Women's 3/4 category which I am happy about.

I have been taking a few cool pictures when I see things I like. New York is amazing in the summer.

Here is a picture from my ride  on Friday, this is the sun setting over the Hudson.

I am such a poor photographer but it was stunning in person. And here is a view from a little nook in the park I found on Saturday after wandering around with a few friends.

I love it. The city is so nice and quiet on summer weekends unless you're in really touristy areas. I had a beautiful ride today with my friend Max. I did bonk towards the end - just didn't bring enough nutrition with me, oops! - but it was an awesome ride with several fun climbs. Then I crashed on the couch for a while before I had to go out. I swear I do not know how I fit everything in on the weekends, but that's a good problem to have!

Next weekend is another Central Park race, a little longer at around 42 miles. Should be fun!