Bike New York - Discover Hudson Valley Ride

Who knew that all I had to do to get my Aunt and Cousins up for a visit was dangle a long ride in front of Cousin Steph! Family came up for the first time and we road the Bike New York - Discover Hudson Valley Ride. It was a great day!

The race started in Poughkeepsie, NY. Wow is that a place I never need to go back to. The website I looked at made it look all quaint and cute... either we didn't ever get to 'that street' or Poughkeepsie was hit hard by the recession .... like 50 years ago...and has yet to recover.

This organized ride thing is so different from racing. We had a 'rolling start time', there was no pressure or nerves, everything was laid back. There was no grand beginning or end. It was actually kind of nice. There were a various distances to choose from. 15, 30, 44, 62 and 100. Dad was doing the 30 and Steph and I were heading out on the 62. She's from Texas. She has ridden all of ONE time in CT / New England... uh, two days ago. It's a little hillier (she would argue 'mountainous') here than it is in Texas. We set out and I was prepared to do whatever she wanted to do. If she wanted to suffer through the entire 62 miles of hills I was going to be right there with her.

We went over the Hudson River on a foot bridge. We had to go really slow because it was a FOOT bridge with a good deal of foot traffic, but I guess that's good because it made us take in the scenery.

Dad and I.

The view of Poughkeepsie.

Steph and I.

We got to the 17ish mile mark and we were coming up on decision time. I could tell the hills were wiping her out a bit, but I stood firm that it was up to her. She opted for the 30 miler. I think it was a good choice. She is just getting into cycling... and has zero experience climbing true hills, er mountains, and she didn't need to kill herself over ONE ride.

I decided to finish up the 62 mile ride. I need to get my butt in gear w/ this training thing ... because I guess I am technically training. Off I went. At first I thought I wasn't going to see another soul then I started passing a guy here and a guy there. I passed one guy (an older guy) on a hill as he was taking a shot block or something. He grabbed my back wheel as I went by. I had intended to try some pacing on this ride as I usually blow myself to pieces on the bike, and I'm not exactly distance fit right now. I also didn't have a ton of fuel with me ... you know the kind you need for BLOW YOUR QUADS to SMITHEREENS riding. Anyway, so this guy grabs my wheel and all of a sudden I feel compelled to kick it into high gear. I'm torn as to whether or not it was my pride feeling like I had to prove to this guy that I do in fact have some skills and fitness or being kind of irritated that he just grabbed on.

Either way I took off.. though I did follow my plan to take the climbs easy then kick it in on the flats and descents (working my strengths). And when I would slow down a bit thinking either he would take a turn or just pass me he would just slow down and hang back there ... SERIOUSLY! I know at this point I did get irritated. Did this guy think he was just going to ride my wheel for 44 miles? I came to the first available rest stop on this 62 mile section and had planned on blowing by all the stops, but hoped this guy would keep going. So I pulled off to grab some DELICIOUS beef jerky (really.. I always wondered who the hell eats beef jerky on a ride, but it was good). Wheel sucker cheater dude continued on to find another chick wheel to suck and I was able to get barrings as to how much further I had to go. Note: I tried to drop the guy, but couldn't. Tom said he needs to teach me to use power in the out of the saddle climb. He said it's good to give a little look back about 3/4 up the hill and then take off. He's got more skills than I.

So off I go to finish it up. I was cruisin' along by myself happy to not have some solitude to ride my own ride w/o the pressure of feeling like I needed to maintain a certain pace. (though I have no clue what that pace was as I had no computer.) At about 15 miles out I ended up being taken over by three older roadie dudes. We chatted a bit and when they set a pace line this time I grabbed the last wheel. I wanted to hurry back to meet the family and knew it would get done faster if I got with them. I FULLY INTENDED TO TAKE MY TURN PULLING IF THEY WOULD LET ME! They were finishing up the century ride, but were looking strong. Frankly after looking at their back sides and legs for a bit before seeing their faces I was shocked at their age. First thought: Gotta get the hubs back on the bike so he can 1. still be doing it at that age and 2. so he's still looking that good at that age.

Anyway, I rode in line with the guys and it was so fun. Not only did I feel like a rock star rolling as the only chic w/ the dudes (cause I like to pretend I'm a badass every now and then) it was so much more fun than riding by myself. It's such a different ride to ride a pace line than it is to ride alone. You have to be more aware.. no mind wandering. And pulling is HARD WORK! The first time I pulled we went almost immediately into a hill...not the best for me. I had been doing okay keeping up with them on the hills (yes, I was proud) and thought maybe I be able to suffer through enough without slowing down too much, but the group broke almost at the top and someone else pulled ahead. Bummer. When the front guy came back to get behind I tried to let him in, but he said, "you took your turn you should stay in".... barely took a turn, but I guess it counts. Later in the ride the group broke on some back roads for a little break and I waited a while than took off (nice long flat ahead) and hoped they would catch my wheel. They did and I got to do a nice long pull almost to the end. Felt good to lead (though I was surprising nervous and had no idea as to pace bc I had no computer). I was glad they let me. I was thinking they might pull the 'dad' thing and try to carry me the whole way because I am a girl and am young enough to be their daughter.

When I came in... I'd say to the finish, but it was just kinda.. done. Anyway. I saw part of the family standing on the stairs and headed toward them. Mom yelled that I needed to get my Tshirt. I said, 'yeah, I will." she said, "Now." What? Okay. So over I went and Jason and Lily handed me my t-shirt.

the Kids volunteering.

Apparently Jason loitered in the back of the tent then finally asked the man if he could help. They invited him in, gave him a tshirt for him AND his sister and eventually she came to join in the fun. That kid cracks me up. All he wants is a job!

Best Coconut water EVER!

After I got my shirt and we stooged around waiting for Jason and Lily's shift to end I strolled around the 'uh, expo' and found Zico Coconut water booth. I was a bit dehydrated and wanted some nice cold coconut water. They had this new chocolate flavor and I was haggling the woman saying it couldn't really be that good. I mean chocolate WATER? Really? She said it was good and told me to try it if I didn't like it I didn't have to drink it. OMG! It is SO damn good!!!! I mean really. It's nice and creamy! Apparently they put coconut cream in there. It does have a little bit of sugar, but it is minuscule compared to your standard (hfcs) chocolate milk. She said it was a new flavor. You better believe I'll be stalking the shelves at my local grocer and requesting it until it arrives.
I had a great time with Steph and dad. They both did a great job on the New England hills. Steph shows great promise as a cyclist. Hopefully she'll find some more people to ride with at home to keep honing those skills! I was impressed with her drive to just get out there and see what she could do. She didn't let the hills intimidate her and she didn't let them take the wind out of her sail. She just kept going. She took breaks as she needed and kept plugging along. Great job Cous!

MS150 - I LOVE the BIKE!

I knew I would enjoy the opportunity to ride my bike in some warm weather, but I had an amazingly good time at the MS150 this weekend. Hats off to my cousin Stephanie for getting the family together to ride in honor of my Uncle Don!

Not only was it nice and warm (after about an hour or so each day) and mostly flat (save a trip through a national forest on day 2) I got to ride with Tom... which doesn't happen that often. Kids and all. He even had a good time. He wasn't really sold on the organized ride thing.. lots of people he doesn't know (or trust on a bike) riding right next to him isn't exactly his idea of a good ride.. not to mention the fact that he hasn't exactly been riding. We're not even going to talk about the fact that he can NOT RIDE at all (mostly) for years and then drop back to back 50 mile then 75 mile rides. How does he do that!? I mean we didn't hammer it or anything, but come on! He's even asking what event we are going to do next.

The first day we did 50 of the 75 miles of the ride. We started in Waller, TX (apparently there were three start points) then stayed in some cabins (instead of camping in La Grange w/ the 13000 other people riding) and this was a good call.

As we were headed to the ride start I was saying to Tom that I didn't think I needed to eat lunch on a 50 mile ride. His response was that 'it wasn't about me' and I was thinking he meant that the ride wasn't about me and that I was making a judgement that they were offering lunch.. which I wasn't. As we came into the first rest stop and we were discussing stopping he again mentioned that it 'wasn't about me' and that's when I realized what he meant. That this ride was about the family and 'doing it together' not about here we are at the start and we'll see you at the finish. That husband of mine... he's a good man. So I begrudgingly stopped and waited for the rest of the family to join up with us at the first stop, and everystop after. I'm glad I did. And if Tom actually read this I would thank him for helping me not be an asshole... :) We met up with mostly eveyrone - except Tina because she thought we were out front and was trying to chase us down I think. We sat and had lunch together and were able to catch up on how everyoen was going. Which turned out to be a very good thing because dad got FOUR flats in a row and blew threw one of our tubes and ended up with a second of our (Tom's and mine) tubes. Tom changed the flats for dad which made it go much quicker for him so I'm really glad we held back.

Everything held together for dad for the rest of the ride.

The stops actually made the ride go by really fast and likely contributed to my lack of soreness for day two. The cabins were fantastic. Tom threw together a nice meal for us all to share while sitting and talking on the large front porch while watching the cows do their nightly routine. Did you know that they don't use horses to herd the cows anymore? At least this cowboy didn't. We saw an SUV out in the field and weren't sure what he was doing out there, but it quickly became obvious that he was using it to herd the cows back to the barn.

Above is the view from our cabin. We were out in the middle of no where and it was GREAT! Nice and quiet with a great front porch. Hmm here's an idea. I could have taken a picture of the cute little cabin, but I was so taken by all the cattle doin' there thing around us that I didn't even think about it. Plus there were cow pies everywhere. If you look REAL close you can see a little pile on the bench of the picnic table.
I drank about one glass of wine too many and had to get up in the middle of the night to drink an entire bike bottle of water before I could go back to sleep. Morning came quickly and we hit the road. Three of us had decided to do mostly the entire second day so we got sagged to a good jump in point, tucked some plastic grocery bags in our jersey fronts to block the early morning cold and set off on day 2. Legs felt just fine... saddle area not so much. Lot's of TUCK YOUR HIPS to stay on your sit bones .. OWWIE!! Spin saddle NOT the same as bike saddle...

At one point you could stay on the main highway course or break off into a state park that had more aggressive hills. Tom and I opted to go the park route and it was AWESOME. We got to bomb up and down hills in the shadded forest for about an hour. It's the only part of the ride that we really pushed and felt my legs getting heavy, but it was GREAT! I had a blast back in there and was happy to see that all the hill work in spin class is definitely paying off. I used to be HORRIBLY weak on the hills, but was able to hang on the climbs. Tom - without riding for a long time - can still kick my butt, but I was CHICKING some riders... and at one point a guy said "AGAIN?" as I raced past him on a hill.

We got back on the highway and settled in to a nice easy pace for the rest of the day. We had wind at our backs most of the day. Just a small section at the end with the wind at our faces.

All in all it was a great experience to be able to ride with the family and have a planned route. "Riding" is much different from racing and I really really enjoyed the no pressure atmosphere and seeing so many people that I know were out there conquering this distance for the very first time! I have to say that this years MS150 was a VERY different experience from my first MS150 over 10 years ago. The MS150 did an amazing job of organizing this HUGE (I already said 13,000 riders right!?) event. Not one cluster the whole day. I would highly recommend this ride. Get your family and friends organized. 2012 will be here before you know it!

Now I can't wait to get home and get into some serious bike riding. 100 miles... bring it!

Bike Town Weekend

Tom came home w/ this idea from a friend at work the other day. They called it Bike Town USA! I think it might have actually been Schwinn Town, but I'm pretty sure I can't call it that. ;) Basically the idea is that it's different stores etc that you can ride your bike to. You set up the shops and then draw the chalk lines and ride your bike in town.

Jason and Lily were ALL OVER this idea. They thought it was great. We asked them what they wanted to make and some of their ideas were coffee shop (duh), ice cream shop, pizza place, bike shop, school and grocery store.


Think we have enough bikes? Who do you think has more my son or me?

This weekend Tom and Jason hit the hardware store for some particle board and Pat and Tom constructed some basic store fronts for a Pizza place and an Ice Cream shop. Then we pulled out the pluthera of half full paint cans we have in our garage (bc this awesome town has no real good solution for disposing of it) and we helped them paint their shops. They did a great job.. only got a little paint in their hair and on their clothes, but most of it got on the shops.







Then they drew chalk roads on our driveway and made us pizza and ice cream.



If we can't LIVE it we'll just create it until we can be in a place where this can be our lifestyle. We another board. I'm not sure what store the kids are going to chose next, but we had an absolute blast making these little store fronts, watching the kids paint them and helping them add designs and decorations. They played with it all the rest of the day and that was the first thing they did the next day. We had to put the houses from the rain, but you can bet we will be riding in bike town again soon.

What do you think of this idea? Do you live in an area where this can be your REAL life instead of an imaginary one in your driveway?

Great news!!!

Well, two pieces of great news.... 1. (and more important/exciting than 2.) my brother and sister in law, Andy and Karen, are expecting their third child! She announced it on her blog so I suppose it's okay for me to announce it here! They aren't finding out what it is... jerks! ... and she's due on mine and Jesus' bday! :) 2. I don't HATE swimming anymore. I had my third swim work out today and felt quite improved thanks to my coach Chris! :) I actually felt like I was swimming.. as opposed to just flailing around w/ hopes of making it to the other end of the pool w/o drowning. Granted I used either a pull float thing (don't even know what it's called, but it makes your legs float so you can focus on your arms) or swim fins (which are AWESOME.. now if I could just grow some big gigantic feet I'd be in good shape). Anyway... I'm feeling much better and hopefully won't dread going to my next work out. I've also been instructed to do some strength training b/c .. well my triceps are like noodles.

Told you #1 was more important/exciting than #2. :)