Friday TOB

I just had an excellent bike ride - it was non-blissful, in fact in every respect it seemed thoroughly ordinary - but I feel like I'm on top of the world - I now really and truly believe that I am in a position to train properly for long-course triathlon.

I am still at fairly infantile levels of confidence on the road! I did not succeed in riding the whole way over to Central Park on the street - I had several minor moments of discombobulation that caused me to have recourse to sidewalk (why, oh why do the buses have to park over the cycling lane on 106th St.?!?). But I did 4 very pleasant loops in Central Park, and rode back on a safe, sensible and non-evil-to-pedestrians mix of sidewalks and streets, and the park loop is hilly enough that I really can do quite a bit of training there and it will have good benefits...

I realize that the couple really awful and off-putting rides I had there last summer were partly harrowing because I was in a STATE but also harrowing because inexperience led me to choose terrible times, i.e. crowded sunny weekend afternoons. But the park is closed to traffic (except for a slightly awful bit at the south end where horse-drawn carriages of evilness and bicycle pedicabs of mischief vie with reckless cab-drivers for right-of-way, and cyclists and runners get squashed into one little side path) from 10-3 on weekdays, and in fact I have a HUGE GIFT that I really haven't taken advantage of - especially during the summer, but really during the school year also, as long as I work ENOUGH it often does not matter WHEN I work, and I can easily go during those weekday hours...

In fact this ride was successful enough that I think I will let myself off the hook for proposed GWB/Palidades weekend ride. I'll just do a long run tomorrow, my swim race on Sunday morning, then do Central Park loops immediately following post-swim breakfast on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday I'm going to Cayman, where I can swim a lot but where it is too hot to run much (still working out bike details); I'll be there for a week and a half, then for a week in London during which it will be relatively difficult to eat healthily and exercise properly, and no bicycle access whatsoever - but I will have a couple shortish morning runs in Regent's Park, and also intend to swim at least once (twice if I can manage it) here! Unfortunately the NYC triathlon is exactly three weeks after the day I get back, so there is no magical scenario in which I build such good bike fitness that I CRUSH THE COURSE - but I still should be able to do this race rather faster than last year, and mentally much more happily, which I think will let me have a better run too - last year I had water in my Camelbak rather than Gatorade, and was too nervous to drink much of it anyway, so even just the change to sport drink plus determination to drink it all should allow me to take 4-5 minutes off the run time...

25 miles bike