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!

A Catch-Up in Pictures...

Once again I am alive! I know, even I have no excuses for my pathetic lack of blogging. But here I am. I figured the best way to catch up on what's been going on is in pictures.

Sooo.... I've been riding!!! I took this shot off my bike, that is my friend Richard. He is becoming quite the bomb cyclist. This is up in Westchester near Armonk. It is beautiful. And really only requires about 45 minutes of annoying city riding to get into a nice, peaceful area with great roads and some  decent hills. Richard is great to  ride with.

The day after I rode with Richard I had a friend in town and we went to a Yankees game. It was my first game in the Yankees' plush, beautiful new ballpark. Wow. It was a perfect day for a ball game. I actually got a little sunburn even.

After that visit, my mom came to town for 10 days. What a cute little thing!!!! She was in a state when she arrived (another entry on that another day) but by the end of her visit she was doing really well. I am proud of her, she is trying to make some changes after years of bad habits, and she is doing a good job.

When she was here she had her first sushi experience, and she loved it!!!

What a cute little thing. I don't think I had ever seen her try something new like this, it was a little bit weird, but not in a bad way!! She had a great time in New York and I really enjoyed having her. Not only is she a fun little person to hang out with, but she was basically my personal assistant. I could really use a permanent assistant. But what can you do, only so much money in the world!

While she was here I raced my bike for the first time. It was so fun. Here I am post-race in my bomb new kit.

It is such a great team of girls and I love how we look bombing around the park in our sweet kit. I haven't raced since then just due to weather - I'm not quite ready to race around in the rain.

Last weekend since I didn't race I went for two really fun rides. Here is one of the highlights of the first ride:

These are from a new joint in Nyack called Gypsy Donut. They were totally homemade and incredible. I spoke to the owner for a while and he was a really cool guy who is clearly passionate about making the best possible donuts in all kinds of unique flavors. The rest of the ride was great too - I started out from the Soldiers and Sailors monument with  my friend Wayne...

We ended up running into his girlfriend and some of her friends when we were almost in Nyack and did the rest of the ride, including the donut adventure, with them. I always enjoy meeting a nice group of strong women to ride with.

Then on Sunday I went for a great ride with my friend Joe. He is one of those people I randomly meet out and about on my bike because I am that obnoxious chick who will ride up to you and say 'Hi!!! I'm Barb!!! Where are you riding today??? Can I come???' I am exaggerating but not much. I met Joe last weekend when my friend Scott was in town and he is so fun to ride with. He has a Brooklyn accent and is a very good cyclist, and he is also really fun to hang out with. So we rode to the apple orchards and back.

Even though I love summer I'm really excited to head back in the fall for apple picking!!! It was a beautiful and really fun ride.

Last night I was in the park not riding for once, and it rained a little, leaving a rainbow over the park. Beautiful.

This weekend should have more of the same - ride, food, fun, friends. I am feeling lucky to live the life I've got right now.

I'm alive! I did a bike race in fact!

Well yes in case you were wondering, I am alive. Frankly I would say I am barely keeping my head above water. I have had visitors constantly for what seems like a month. Visitors are high maintenance as much as I love them! My mom is here right now for 10 days. She is very cute. Then she  leaves and a friend from Boulder arrives and then he leaves and I will be visitor-free for a week and then after that it is NO VISITOR ZONE for at least a month. I will need some Barb time.

What have I been up to, you may ask? Well definitely not swimming. I moved and then I thought swimming would be easier, but no, it just hasn't happened! What a slacker. I have been riding a ton. I joined a bike racing team here in NYC and it is so much fun so far. In fact this past Saturday I did my first bike race in New York. It was a CRCA race meaning only NYC clubs could participate, in a mixed Cat 3/4 field. The course was 5.75 laps around Central Park. Home turf, about .2 miles from my apartment. It was FUN. I was so nervous but I didn't almost crash even once. It was so different but awesome. I ended up 25th which I think isn't too bad for my first bike race in over a year, and my very first real circuit-type race. My mom was so cute and she watched. Sadly I didn't give her a camera to take pictures with, so I have none! I looked bad ass though, I think :)

So tris and me, I just don't know. We need some time apart. Every time I run my butt still hurts. I can't seem to say no to doing fun social things to swim. I just don't know that I want exercising to be a huge part of my life right now, which is why focusing on one sport that doesn't hurt or make my hair look gross may just be the ticket! We'll see. I may not be done with tris forever, but for now, I am enjoying taking a break and enjoying doing other things.

And in other news, I absolutely love living in New York for reals (not in Jersey really close to New York). Every time I walk out of my apartment and head into Central Park, I am just in love. It is so beautiful this time of year, it's really stunning. The whole city is so alive right now with spring. It is great. But you'll have to take my word for it, because you can't visit!

Sometimes my life is too exciting for words

And sometimes it is not. My big excitement of tonight was mopping. No, I am not joking. But I must say that the floors in my apartment were positively filthy when I moved in, it was driving me nuts, and I didn't have time to buy a mop until tonight. I know, don't be too jealous.

But today was super fun!! So I did this ride series with the New York Cycle Club all spring which was a lot of fun, and very time consuming, so while I enjoyed it and met a ton of people, which was great, I am not too sad that today was the last ride. But it was awesome. We rode to Cold Spring, New York, via all kinds of awesome quiet roads. We also climbed Bear Mountain. Now although I must say that as someone from Colorado, I question the use of the word 'mountain' in describing this place, it was great.

Here are a few views from the top:

The first picture is of me and a few cycling buddies. They are awesome. Once we got to Cold Spring we got to take the train back to the city, fun!!! I hadn't been on a Metro North train since I was 5 or 6 years old and my dad lived in Connecticut.

Here is the super cute train station:

The ride flew by because we were all chatting and I was looking out at the scenery. So pretty. It's been raining a bunch this week so everything is like GREEN. WOW. I am in heaven. What a super fun day, in spite of the excessive mopping.

So the only other news is that I am positively in love with the Upper West Side. It is so amazing. Everything is super convenient and being in the city just fills me with joy. I know that is cheesy but well, deal with it. Waking up in the morning and running for three minutes, or leaving work and riding for two minutes, and ending up in Central Park, is worth the price of admission. I just love it. I must say I am getting all mushy, probably because I am exhausted, but here are a few of my deep thoughts. First off it is weird to live in one place for almost your whole life, and to move somewhere else when you are in your 30s, and feel like you are finally home. Isn't that strange? I never felt like I 'fit' in Denver. And I just fit here. It is so peaceful in my soul even though I am in a busy, crazy place. Now here is the second thing. It was scary as crap to move here. I had no idea what it would be like and I hardly knew anyone and it's very expensive and there were about a million reasons not to move. But I thank God every day that I did it. Also, people always used to tell me 'wherever you go, there you are'. This is true in many ways but the experience of moving across the country is incredible, and I really feel like making the change was something I just had to try. I am shocked by how much happier I am. So if you're thinking about doing something that everyone thinks is crazy, well my advice would be to make sure it's something you really want to do, and you want to do it for the right reasons, but don't let anyone talk you out of reaching for your dreams.

Banzo OUT!!!

Apparently I've been away so long that the blogger interface is totally different!

Oops. I really do want to have a blog. I swear. And yet. I think the last entry I wrote was about how I wasn't going to race Galveston because my calf and my butt always hurt. Well a lot has been going on! It seems like I might be well-served with a list. Which I see can be done in blogger, neat!

• I decided also not to race an Ironman this year. I just don't want to. My body didn't feel great for a long time after Wisconsin. Racing an Ironman is expensive and incredibly time-consuming. And I don't want to just finish one, that's not really interesting to me. So I pulled out of CDA. I feel really good about the decision. 
• I am moving! Just a few miles but it is a big step to be living in Manhattan. I cannot wait. 
• I have actually been riding a semi-decent amount. I rode 100 miles yesterday with my cycling club. It was so much fun! It was by far my slowest century ever but whatever, I am not doing this ride series to go fast, I am doing it to have fun and explore. We have been doing some great rides. Last week I think was my favorite but we have done so many. I will do a big picture post at some point. 
• My brother visited. It was awesome! We went on a really fun ride, and ate a lot of good food, and walked a bunch, and went to museums, and all kinds of fun stuff. It was his first trip to New York and he loved it. 
• I am just so busy these days. Part of it is definitely moving .What a nightmare. I do not recommend moving across the country with way too much stuff. I have thrown away what feels like half of my apartment and I still feel like I need to get rid of another half of my stuff. Part however is having a social life. This is fun and something I recommend rather than exercising all the time. Then again my life and goals have really changed in the last six months or so. It's not for everyone but I'm enjoying it!
• I may start racing bikes a little bit. I have enjoyed a casual ride series but I do think it would be fun to race bikes and there is a cool team I've been chatting with. Which means at some point I will stop wearing my cute Colorado kit and really start to fit in. Exciting!

Here is a cute snap of me and Scott!

And here I am somewhere outside of Armonk last weekend. I made my ride leader take pictures of me, I am so obnoxious. I don't know how these people stand me.

It was even more beautiful than it looks. It was hard to capture just how green everything was. And then last Sunday it poured for hours so this week it was even better.

I think I will try to start blogging more but hey, who knows. I have three visitors in the month of May, and June doesn't look any more calm. But it is all good stuff so I won't complain, I will just apologize for being a crappy blogger!

Spring Rides in the Big City

Although you might not think NYC is a great place to live if you enjoy riding a bicycle, I have to say I am really enjoying riding here so far. I am doing a ride series with NYCC and it is super fun. This week we rode to Ridgewood, New Jersey, wherever that is. I still honestly have no idea although I believe it is Northwest of the city.

First I must say the park is looking insane, every week it is more and more beautiful. Everything is blooming. I need to take a leisurely ride there to take some snaps. This is actually from one of the parks in Hoboken, but you get the idea. Beautiful!!

Here is our fearless leader of my group talking about something that I probably should have been listening to, rather than taking a picture, but whatever.

It is kind of funny because they are teaching a number of basic cycling skills so I tend to zone out but I am learning a few things. It is hard to ride in a single paceline when I am not just hanging on for dear life like I would when riding with my old team.

Ridgewood was SO cute. It was the cutest little town. We hung out and had a snack in a park and I took pictures of some of the super cute buildings. We did not have anything like this in Colorado.

Right?! I also took a picture of one of my compatriots' bikes. This guy lives in Brooklyn and has a bamboo bicycle. Apparently it is quite light. You will notice it is sitting right in front of the Purple Hammer, my bike.

So I am really enjoying doing these rides. They are so not intense but I like finding out different rides to try, rather than just riding up 9W. One of the rides will be out to Long Island, I can't wait. And I guess we will be doing a Century. Which is funny because even a 60 mile ride seems to take us about 7 hours, so I have no idea how we will do that. Perhaps we will get home at 2:00 am. Oh well, we always seem to have a good time!

The DNS

Sometimes in life you have to pull the plug on a race because it just doesn't make sense. A few weeks back I had wanted to run a race in Prospect Park and Chad and I decided that it was a dumb idea because my butt and my calf hurt. And it was 30 degrees with a 25 MPH wind which is not great weather! We had another good heart to heart today (Chad is an awesome coach) and I have decided not to race at Galveston on April 1. I am sad for many reasons, but mostly because that means I won't get to see Kim or watch her first pro race. I am kind of sad not to race but frankly my body is in no shape to do so. Every morning I wake up and stretch out in my bed and hobble around for a good 10 minutes, because my body just hurts. My butt and my calf hurt the most but in generally I feel like a little old lady. I want to regain the spring in my step, or be able to break into a jog to make it across a street before a light changes, without feeling pain. I think I have always prided myself on my endurance and my ability to do lots of work without breaking down. Well, sometimes even Banzo hits a limit. I do this sport for fun. I love to exercise, and I love to push myself. But not to the point of feeling pain whenever I move around. The ability to move our bodies is such a gift. I want to feel the pure joy of movement again, which I know I can only do if I get some rest, and forget about racing. So that is the plan.

Sorry for the buzz kill of a post, especially after weeks of radio silence. But that is the big news. I did stop traveling and that is amazing. I am having a wonderful time living in New York and watching the city wake up from winter. It is such an amazing experience and I feel so lucky that I live here. Perhaps it is time for me to focus more on experiencing a new city, making friends, having fun, reading, learning, going to museums, and walking, than obsessively training. There is more to life and I think at times I have forgotten that. Here's to remembering. Even though this is kind of a sad post, I don't feel sad. I feel optimistic about the future and excited to have some new experiences. So I am a happy and more balanced person now, even if I won't be trying to crush the field in Texas!