Well this has been different

So you may have noticed I didn't write a NYC Marathon race report, because it was canceled! We have had a lot going on here in the Northeast. Hurricane Sandy really beat the crap out of us, and then while we were still recovering (one of my clients STILL doesn't have power), we had a Nor'easter. In all that hullabaloo, they canceled the marathon, because it seemed gauche to create a lot of chaos especially on Staten Island which was really devastated by the hurricane.

So that happened.

Which was probably good from a purely physical perspective because I was in no shape to run a marathon. Although my butt (hips really) has been doing better, I still can't really run 20 miles, much less 26. I'm sure I could have gutted it out, but I wasn't disappointed. I still have to figure out whether or not I'm going to run NY next year, as I would assume anyone who was signed up this year will get a guaranteed 2013 entry. I am of two minds.

I also almost signed up for Philadelphia, since I'll be there next weekend anyway, but the process for NYC Marathon entrants included your confirmation number which I had totally forgotten and deleted any record of. So that didn't happen. Which is fine because I shall go to Philly, and have fun, and not care how far I run!

Anyway here is a snap from the post-Sandy wreckage.

Yeah that's a tree that fell on a car. There was a lot of this. I have to say, if I owned a car, I don't think I would have left it outside for the hurricane. Just saying.

So I know I never blog but life has been somewhat mellow. I have been riding my trainer during the week. I don't really mind it (I know, I am nuts). I have been riding outside on the weekends. You should have seen the roads near Piermont and Nyack. There are so many trees down, it is really sad. I am joining a new gym that is two blocks from my apartment so I have no excuse to not swim. That will be fun. I lifted for the first time in a few months yesterday, I am very very sore. That is a good feeling.

All in all, life is good. It has been so busy. I would like things to slow down just a little. I think December is  the time for that so I am looking forward to it.

Different type of blog entry - Per Se dining report!!!

As many people who know me know, I love to exercise and race, but I love to eat almost just as much. Which probably explains why I am a chubby little thing in spite of exercising all the time! Anyway, in that spirit, and because my mother has been asking about this a lot, I decided to do a Per Se dining report. Per Se is a restaurant that is super fancy. I had been wanting to go forever and when my friend Randy decided to come to town for a wedding I got us reservations. Which was kind of a quest in and of itself, and definitely took a while. It reminded me of when you really want to go to a concert and you have to get online the day tickets go on sale and you try and try to get them and hopefully you do. But I got us a lunch reservation and so we went!!

I thought I would go through the pictures and talk about everything we ate and the overall experience. We are food dorks so I made Randy take pictures of pretty much everything we ate. Luckily we did a five course lunch menu so there is only so much food you have to look at.

First up were two amuse bouches which we did not photograph. Tiny gougeres (basically bread wrapped around melted cheese, yum) and a little cone with salmon tartar inside it. Bananas.

Next was something I was nervous about - sea urchin "panna cotta". Now sea urchin (often called Uni at sushi restaurants where it is most commonly served) is definitely not beginner sushi. It is briny, funky, and can cause all kinds of weird feelings when you eat it. And I must say I know I must not have a sophisticated palate or whatever but I didn't love it. It is just a very strong flavor. 

For the rest of the courses there was often a choice so we would get one of each and trade halfway through. So many flavors. This was a kampachi dish (google it, I don't really know what it is) which was incredible. Very light, lots of citrus and bright flavors. I really enjoyed it. The picture doesn't do it justice but the colors were incredible.

That was a nice counterpoint to a much heavier dish which was veal sweetbreads. No this is not like a sweet roll (google it, I don't want to think about what it actually is, but it was delicious!!).

I think the next course was perhaps the highlight but well frankly everything was so amazing it's hard to say. I had half an order of these scallops:

I can't even remember everything that came with them (and they've already changed the menu) except I know there was pistachio involved. It reminded me of California. Awesome. We also split an order of halibut which was amazing:

There's crispy potato on top and then soft potato below it. So many flavors and textures that all went together so well.

After that we had a crazy Wagyu brisket that we forgot to take a picture of. It was amazing. They braised it for a day or something ridiculous so it was quite tender, and it came with pasta, spinach, and a crazy sauce. I can't give it a better description than that - it was insane.

That was followed by the fanciest "cookies and cream" dish I've ever had.

This kind of shows why I love Thomas Keller so much. He clearly was obsessed with Oreos as a child, as was I. Yet he elevates the idea of an Oreo to a fancy and amazing dessert. On the right it is a marshmallow-like substance that was bruleed. It was so good.

So you would think well that is pretty good. BUT there is more. After all that they bring you more treats in a fancy French thing called MIGNARDISES. I love them whatever they are. Some nice young man came by and showed us 24 chocolates and let us take as many as we wanted!!!

We only got four, I mean how gross can you be. They were fun to try. The best one was dark chocolate with salted caramel inside.

Then they brought something called 'coffee and donuts'. LOVE. The coffee substance was a semifreddo (kind of like ice cream) and then the donuts were warm and soft and perfect.  And there was also a tin with macarons, more chocolates, and then these little candies that looked like taffy inside.

This is seriously like heaven for me. They apparently have a five course dessert tasting menu which I will go and do if I ever reach my goal weight. Ha, like that'll happen in this lifetime, living where I live.

Anyway, I think we both agreed it was the best meal we'd ever had and just an incredible experience. The service was ridiculous. You couldn't even walk to the bathroom by yourself - they insisted on showing you the way. They sent us on our way with little bags of shortbread sandwich cookies and a book on where they get all their ingredients. Truly a meal of a lifetime and I am really lucky to have had it with my food soulmate!

Thanks also to Hurricane Sandy for barricading me in my apartment so I would get this written!

Off-Season!

I suppose it's a sign of a good off-season that I've been too busy having fun to write about it. And I mean this is kind of a sporty person's blog, so do you people really want to read about my lack of exercising? Doubtful!

So, the off-season has been great. Not any less busy but my time has been occupied with some fall riding and some other non-riding/exercising stuff.

My parents came to visit two weeks ago which was awesome. We are so codependent. But in a good way.  I took them over to Brooklyn to see an arts festival. There wasn't a ton of art there, but there were some nice views!

 Then I made reservations for a fancy dinner. I love having fancy dinners especially when someone else pays. Here is me and my stepmom. We are so fancy and cute!! You wouldn't know how humid it was, I don't know how my hair stayed even remotely normal.

 Fall riding has been a lot of fun. This is a view of the Hudson from a dirt path. I gotta say, I am really loving riding on the dirt. Too bad I refuse to buy a cross bike until after I sell my mountain bike, I'd really like to have one. But I can only hate my money so much!

 Last Saturday we went out to the Dirty Jerz for some riding. It was great to see a new route. You can tell I am happy. I love riding.

In other news I have a new team for next year and I am super excited. It is a truly awesome group of girls and I hope to make a positive impact on the team. They are all so much fun to hang out with and ride with. This also means NEW  KIT. God I love new kit, there is nothing like it.

I am off for a 'long' run soon. This marathon should be interesting considering my long run will probably be 13 miles. But you know the goal for the marathon is to have fun and finish - very low expectations! I hope to post some foliage snaps in the next couple weeks, it's still a little early but it's starting to look very pretty. I love the Northeast in the fall.

Where DID the summer go?!?!

Life has been so incredibly busy this summer, I seriously do not know where it went. It is insane. Now it is cold in the mornings and I have been riding in knee warmers and it gets dark a little after  7:00 and there is football on television (not that I would know, because I do not have time to watch it, but I believe it to be true based on many passionate posts on Facebook), and I am happy, because I love fall, and sad, because I love summer, and amazed that I will have lived here for a year before I know it! How's that for a Faulknerian life update (for those non-English majors, that means that was a very long sentence).

So what is new? Well the season is winding down. There's one more CRCA race on Saturday but I will be marshaling. Meaning that I am basically a volunteer for the race. I stand around and blow a whistle when the racers come by so that others in the park know not to run out in front of them. It is sometimes effective. So I may be done with bike races for the year. And back to half-hearted marathon training. I've decided I am running New York even though I am not in shape even a little bit. I just want to do it to have fun, and have the experience, so who cares if I run a 4:30? I certainly don't. Frankly it's really expensive so the longer it takes, the more I get my money's worth. Take that, NYRR.

Also I have been riding. I just cannot get enough. I went out Saturday after missing the ride I was supposed to go on for a solo jaunt and ran into a big group of dudes who were going the same place so I tagged along with them. It was awesome, and really really hard. I loved it. There is nothing I enjoy more than hanging on for dear life with a big group of guys. Also, guys are fun because they treat every ride like a buffet. So we made a number of stops for  snacks. Including at the Orchards for the best apple I have ever eaten.

It was so crisp and flavorful. The apple cider donuts weren't half bad either. Families were up there picking apples. It reminded me of a run we used to do in college every year - we'd run on these awesome snowmobile trails and then go apple picking.

I've also had some extra time, now that I don't go out of town every weekend, for meandering. On Sunday I had dinner with some friends and wanted to bring cupcakes so I wandered through the park and discovered a new spot. It was really peaceful and gorgeous.

I continue to plot and plan for next year, but that's another topic altogether, that I'll think and write about later. But right now my primary goal, and I must say I seem to be doing fairly well at achieving it, is to make every year better than the last one. It's nice to feel happy.

Hunter Mountain Fall Classic Race Report

Or, how to be stupid and still win a bike race.

So I didn't really want to race yesterday but I knew it was a decent sized field so there were points up for grabs. I am a points slut now that I got a taste of them! For those who don't know what I am talking about, here's a link to the USA Cycling rules. But basically in cycling the way we race is in categories. 1 is the best category, going down through 4 for women and 5 for men (there are way fewer women who participate in bike racing). Everyone starts in the lowest category and the way you move up is by amassing points by placing in races, or participating in lots and lots of races. With my win the other week I started accumulating points towards a Cat 3 upgrade, and now I want to get the rest of them as quickly as I can to become a Cat 3. Not any big deal but it would be cool, it's been a goal of mine once I kind of knew how cycling worked.

But anyway I digress. So this race was up near where Tour of the Catskills was, and it wasn't too far, and three other girls from my team were going so I decided to go. I am so, so glad I went! First of all we had a great time. Two of the girls had done GMSR (a big stage race in Vermont) the previous weekend when I was in Colorado and I wanted  to hear EVERYTHING about it!!! It sounded amazing, I can't wait to do it next year. Also they are generally a really fun and entertaining group of friends and I just love them. So it was great.

We left the city around 7:15 and got to the race right around 10:00. With a 10:40 start time this didn't leave a ton of time for a warmup but I figured the neutral rollout would serve as a warmup anyway. It was a 39 mile, one loop road race with one not insignificant climb. If you want to see how it looks on Strava click here. Not bad though, nothing like the crazy climbs we had to deal with in the Tour of the Catskills thank heavens. So we started out and the pace was pretty nice and mellow. I tried to stay about third to fifth wheel back for the most part to avoid squirrelly behavior. There's always someone who can't ride in a straight line in these races. I like to keep out of trouble. We started trying a few attacks but nothing would stick, partly because it was really windy, partly we just couldn't get any separation. But it helped to drive the pace a little better than just kind of cruising along which gets boring. I knew if we just rode all together until the end and left things to a field sprint I would not get points!

About halfway through we started the longest and steepest climb of the day. Now why I said I am stupid is that I had no idea how long or steep the climb would be, but I decided to attack anyway. So I break and no one goes with me. What the heck?! No idea how that happened. So I just rode as hard as I could until I got to the top of the climb which I believe took about 20 minutes. It was brutal! I was so tired and my heart was beating out of my chest. But I looked back and I couldn't really see the pack anymore so I just told my legs to shut up and I kept going. Once I got to the top I was so relieved but I knew I had to keep pushing the pace if I didn't want to get swallowed back up into the pack again, which would have sucked. After all that work I'd have been spent and useless in a sprint.

The moto (a motorcycle who has to stay with the leader) kept telling me how much time I had up on the pack so at 25 miles I had 30 seconds, at 30 miles I had 48 seconds, and then at 35 miles I had over a minute. So I knew by then I was in good shape although I was really surprised because around mile 30 I turned into a massive headwind which sucked. In that type of situation a pack is going to have a huge advantage over one person because the pack can take turns leading whereas when it's just a solo rider, you have to take the beating from the wind all by yourself. But I just got as low as I could and pushed as hard as I could. And I guess it was enough! I ended up winning by about a minute over the rest of the field. I was super happy and excited. I knew this was a bigger field so it meant MORE POINTS. Awesome. Also my teammates ended up in 5th and 6th I think (or 6th and 7th), either way very good for them. One of our girls had to DNF due to a cramp which sucked so much for her, I feel terrible she had to go all that way! But overall it was a great day and I had a fabulous time. I am very happy with the results. Solo breaks are a hard way to win a race and I don't recommend it, but it is effective!

Now I am chilling on my couch after a nice but somewhat tough ride with my friend Sydney this morning, it feels like ages since I've had time to relax on the couch so I am really enjoying it. What a beautiful late summer weekend!

So I went back to Colorado...

I spent the last 5 days in Colorado for my little sister's wedding and some friend/family visiting, and of course since I am a lunatic, I brought my bike. I really wanted to see how I liked riding my new road bike on all the roads I used to ride all the time. And the verdict is, I LOVE MY BIKE!!!

It is awesome. Look how cute it is at the top of High Grade.

(It's the one on the left)

I also realized that even though there is way more climbing in Colorado, it is NOT steep! So if I ever moved back I would want a different gear setup. I kept running out of gears going downhill and on flats. Weird.

Here are a few observations about Colorado.

It is very DRY. It is hot as blazes. It is always windy. When I get to 8,000 feet in elevation, it is hard for me to breathe!

Anyway it was a ton of fun. The wedding was super cute. Here is a picture of my little sister dancing with her husband. They were an adorable couple!

The wedding was a lot of fun. Some people got drunk. That was funny. At one point I think my brother was dancing with four dwarves. He knows how to have a good time.

I got to do all my favorite rides which was awesome. I am tired now but I feel good. That said I did get a crazy massage from my awesome massage therapist back in Boulder, and she always beats the crap out of me, so I'm more sore from the massage than riding. I know, it's weird, but it was great.

Here is my favorite picture from Brainard Lake, which is at 10,000 feet. I really couldn't breathe there!

When I got back last night (very late due to some delay or another), the air felt so thick, holy crap. It was great. My skin feels better. I miss my family and I do really miss Boulder, but I'm glad to be back.

I may have one more race this weekend although I am debating - I am so, so tired! I think my legs will be recovered but sleeping in four places in five nights was not super restful. So we'll see. I may just call it a season, it's been a good one, albeit different from what I expected when the year started. I've given a lot of thought to what I want to do next year - racing bikes, perhaps a tri comeback, who knows. I want to decide soon just because if I want to do a few tris I need to start signing up, because tris are annoying like that! Who knows, I may even blog about it soon.

On a roll - Central Park Women's 4 Open Race Report

So now that I actually have time to write a race report or two... here is the report from my first win of my racing career (that I can remember at least). It was at 6:15 in the morning two weeks ago in Central Park. Five lap race, women's Category 4 only. Woke up and it was pouring rain. Felt sad that I had bullied my coach into writing me a race plan, because if he hadn't I probably would have turned off the alarm and slept in!

But I could not do that so I woke up, had a protein shake, and headed to the park and registered.

We started off and I tried to sit in as much as possible. It was hard staying on a wheel the first two laps because I kept getting spray in my eyes but I did it. The laps were exactly 18:00 each. Then on the third lap I kind of lucked out because one of the women in the race started to attack on the very end of the descent to the start of Harlem Hill. I got on her wheel and as soon as the road started to ascend I went off the front as hard as I could. I rode at my top effort until I crested Harlem Hill. My heart rate at the top was 191 so it was a good effort. I didn't look back and just TTed as hard as I could to finish that lap (the third one) and apparently got enough separation to win. The last two laps I tried to keep the effort up as much as I could in case there was a chase that could catch me.

The only thing that was confusing was that I got passed by a large men's field and then they slowed down so I wanted to pass them back but I wasn't sure what to do so I just dropped back and hoped they would speed up (they did). That was going into the last lap. My laps were in the 16:00-17:00 range. I came into the finish and I was so happy that I held everyone off and won. It was definitely a great feeling and I also am happy that I conquered one of my fears - racing in the rain. I raced in the rain and didn't die! I still don't love it - I was really not happy on every descent. But living in the Northeast you are going to race in the rain, so I figure I may as well stop being a baby about it.

At this point there is one more bike race this season and then after that it's off season. It will be nice to have a break, do some fun fall rides, and sleep more! I've had so much fun racing my bike so far.