Chapters of accidents

It was one of those mornings - I could not get out of bed at the appropriate time to save my life, and late rising had a destructive cascade effect! I had an eminently sane plan (it is very rainy again here today) to take the new bike down to Sid's Bikes on the subway and then walk over to Chelsea Piers in time to have 45 mins. of strength training before the 12:45 spin class.

By the time I was actually heading out the door, it was clear time would be pretty tight vis-a-vis dropping off the bike first - and then I found that there were no downtown trains running from 116th St.! I did not have my helmet or gloves with me, as I did not expect to ride, so I had to go back up to my apartment before heading downtown on the bike (which was stuck in one gear) with an unpleasantly heavy backpack by now containing street shoes, spinning clothes, swim bag, running clothes and shoes, water bottle, a book for reading and a book for writing about and a notepad and my laptop - I went straight to the gym instead of to the bike store first, though, and was thereupon back on schedule for spin class at least....

(I had several hours yesterday early evening where I was in an absolute state of anxiety regarding lateness, mostly due to subway delays - I left an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Brooklyn to see the bike, but there were delays on the 1 due to track work and then there were no downtown F trains from 14th St., so I had to go up to 34th and switch to the downtown train there - in the end it took almost 2 hours, I was quite late, and since the 2 was running local rather than express on the way home I couldn't make the time back up - in the end I was only [!] fifteen minutes late meeting S. and H. for dinner, but I felt awful about it, though they were kind enough to say it didn't matter! Basically there are few things I dislike more than this kind of running late, especially when subway delays are involved - it sends me into an absolutely fizzing sense of anxiety that does not really later dispel!)

Spin class was good, though the substitute teacher had mildly incomprehensible banter - but he obliged me in my request for "long hills." Lauren persuaded me to have a quick swim afterwards, though I was full of sloth and got out after 500 and had a dunk in the hot tub instead!

1hr. spin, 500 yards swim

Then I walked the bike over to Sid's and had a highly satisfactory though expensive encounter with the nice mechanic there - I really like that store. Shifters need replacing, as do brake pads, but bike is otherwise in good order, and I should be able to pick it up on Friday afternoon, when he'll also help me tweak the fit as needed. It's $300 already and I haven't yet bought the helmet and saddlebag/contents (extra tube, CO2, tire irons), I think it's going to run me around $450 altogether, but it is still the most frugal solution to the problem, and my guess is that the bike will suit me perfectly well.

About to try and write quota in the Chelsea Piers cafe (the whole day has been sucked up by bicycles!) - I'm sticking around for the 7pm run class this evening, which I only went to once but which I think should be very enjoyable - this is my chance to do some group speed workouts (I gather that Monday is a mix of 200s and 400s, with some 800s mixed in for the Wednesday class) before hitting the treadmill over the summer...