beantownbiker
05-28-2005, 12:31 PM
I apologize, my camera’s battery died on me before the ride began so no pics…if you want pics, google, statue of liberty, riverside park, pier 6, battery park for images, then imagine a hundred people in each picture…
For those of you with a short attention span heres a summary:
Went for a ride, saw a lot of NYC people, came home it rained on the way home.
Disclaimer: I am not a writer, I am a grad student who just wanted to record his day, I thought I’d share it with this board, if you don’t want to read it, don’t, I don’t care, I if you want to criticize it, go ahead, have a field day.
Today I went for a ride. It wasn’t some epic century, it wasn’t even a half century, in fact it was a quarter century, that’s right 25 miles and change. It took me 2 hours to complete. It went from the door of my apartment, down to battery park and back, now sit back and I will tell you all about it.
It started at 1:00, I went out my door and got onto the West side bike path at the very top (dyckman st.) After about half a mile, my legs were shot, I felt done already, uh-oh. I drank some water, and pushed through the pain, hoping it was just the remnants of 2 weeks stuck indoors doing my finals (read: no exercise besides 2 afternoons of swimming). Pushing through the pain, looking forward to the little downhill at the GW bridge, I finally reached the downhill and cruised, the path opened up down next to the Hudson and what’s this? Damn, the wind is blowing right in my face, oh well at least it will be with me for the ride back. Cruising by the Hudson, I would just like to thank the five kids on their BMX bikes who tried to race me, that inspired me to go a little faster and momentarily I forgot that my legs hurt, oh and by the way, you guys will not catch me unless you pull your pants up enough so they stop getting caught everywhere.
I emerge from Harlem into the upper Westside population of nanny’s and strollers, and a few bikers, that was fun, all the kids were in the strollers the nanny’s all seemed to be in a good mood as I flew by. nanny's apparently come in two forms, college age girls who wear short shorts as the push the stroller in the park, and old foreign women who always look like they just ate a rotten egg.
Onto the west side, same deal as upper west side, more your white guys rollerlading swinging their arms and listening to their IPOD's (on your left i scream, everyone turns around except for the jacka** listening to his IPOD swinign along, i hope all your wheels fall off and then you sit in a pile of dog sh**). dont get me wrong, nothing wrong with rollerblading, i have even done it myself, just dont like it when they swing all over the path oblivious to the world. for more on rollerbladers keep reading.
By this time, my legs were no longer hurting, all I needed was a little warm up I guess.
Riding down the path I fly by 59th st. and emerge into the piers/Chelsea neighborhood.
At this time I would like to take a break from the ride to honor some of those I passed along the way
To the two cute girls on the tandem cruiser, I know your probably lesbians, but I think you two are beautiful and if you ever need a third wheel, I’d be willing to help out…
To all the children on bikes, I love it, even though you are swerving all over the path making me stop and go stop and go, etc…I love to see little kids on bikes, they remind me that maybe, just maybe this world isn’t going straight to hell. To all the parents whose kids weren’t wearing helmets, a pox upon you and your ancestors, how dumb can you be?
To the woman sunbathing topless on the meadow, stop that, you almost made me crash (damn wish I had my camera)
To all the rollerbladers, I do not care if your wheels are all in a line, stop taking up the entire bike path, and you look stupid when your swing your arms to go fast, also I seem to notice an outbreak of sleeveless jerseys on rollerbladers, you should stop that or the RBR police will come and beat you with their $5000 carbon fiber and titanium clubs (honestly what else would the use)
to the fat guy with the glasses and moustache who was flying on his merlin, nice bike but your shorts are getting a little worn in the back, and honestly, no-one wants to see that, I hope im never in a paceline behind you.
Back to the ride
Once at the piers, I see that there are a few navy ships in for the week (is it fleet week?), I would salute you soldiers for doing your duty, but not being in the military myself, I feel that saluting you would be inappropriate, so I offer you my warmest welcome home and thank you for your service (this does not mean I support any wars, but it means that I support those who are serving in the war) There are a lot of people and the crowds mean I need to ride really slowy, oh good, practice for my trackstands, thanks to the German tourist who laughed it off when I lost my balance and leaned on him, good guy, wish I knew what he was saying, hope you have a nice visit to NYC.
A few mins later I'm at battery park, enjoying the view, (great day to see the statue). I sat down and realized I was starving, had a hot dog (the pinnacle of high performance nutrition, they should have hot dog vendors at the Giro and the TDF.)
I enjoyed the breeze, it reall did feel nice sitting there in the sun.
Looking uptown I see the dark clouds coming in, looks like its time to get home, now where’s the closest subway stop? (j/k).
I hop on my bike pick my way through the crowds and emerge behind another biker in full Bianchi set-up, with matching shoes/gloves and helmet, hey, that’s fine, each their own. He is picking a very good line through the crowds and has a nice loud whistle that clears the way, so I follow him for a few miles, then he looks back at me and starts sprinting, did I miss the memo? Was I not supposed to be riding behind you? (I was a good ten feet behind him, so I could have been drafting, maybe at a higher speed than 5 MPH. So I keep my pace and about a half mile later catch up to him and pass him, he sprints by me again and then settles back into a slow pace in front of me, at this point we are back at the piers and there are hundreds of people/bikers around so it is rather hard to pass him so I stay behind him for a little bit more and then he looks back at me, shakes his head and sprints off again, hmm, maybe I should try and stay with him just for fun, my legs feel fine at this point so I stand up and hammer until I caught up with him, he slows down, rides next to me, looks at me and smiles, then takes off to the right towards the east, oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Then I feel the first rain drop, damn, time to really sprint, I push it all the way until the GW bridge, then comes the little hill, shi**! My legs start to cramp up so I shift all the way down and push my way up the little hill until at last I finish it and shift back up and sprint home trying to beat the rain. 1 mile flat sprint to beat the rain and I finish up, run inside, and it instantly clears up, oh well, it was a fun ride and tomorrow, I think I’ll do it again.
For those of you with a short attention span heres a summary:
Went for a ride, saw a lot of NYC people, came home it rained on the way home.
Disclaimer: I am not a writer, I am a grad student who just wanted to record his day, I thought I’d share it with this board, if you don’t want to read it, don’t, I don’t care, I if you want to criticize it, go ahead, have a field day.
Today I went for a ride. It wasn’t some epic century, it wasn’t even a half century, in fact it was a quarter century, that’s right 25 miles and change. It took me 2 hours to complete. It went from the door of my apartment, down to battery park and back, now sit back and I will tell you all about it.
It started at 1:00, I went out my door and got onto the West side bike path at the very top (dyckman st.) After about half a mile, my legs were shot, I felt done already, uh-oh. I drank some water, and pushed through the pain, hoping it was just the remnants of 2 weeks stuck indoors doing my finals (read: no exercise besides 2 afternoons of swimming). Pushing through the pain, looking forward to the little downhill at the GW bridge, I finally reached the downhill and cruised, the path opened up down next to the Hudson and what’s this? Damn, the wind is blowing right in my face, oh well at least it will be with me for the ride back. Cruising by the Hudson, I would just like to thank the five kids on their BMX bikes who tried to race me, that inspired me to go a little faster and momentarily I forgot that my legs hurt, oh and by the way, you guys will not catch me unless you pull your pants up enough so they stop getting caught everywhere.
I emerge from Harlem into the upper Westside population of nanny’s and strollers, and a few bikers, that was fun, all the kids were in the strollers the nanny’s all seemed to be in a good mood as I flew by. nanny's apparently come in two forms, college age girls who wear short shorts as the push the stroller in the park, and old foreign women who always look like they just ate a rotten egg.
Onto the west side, same deal as upper west side, more your white guys rollerlading swinging their arms and listening to their IPOD's (on your left i scream, everyone turns around except for the jacka** listening to his IPOD swinign along, i hope all your wheels fall off and then you sit in a pile of dog sh**). dont get me wrong, nothing wrong with rollerblading, i have even done it myself, just dont like it when they swing all over the path oblivious to the world. for more on rollerbladers keep reading.
By this time, my legs were no longer hurting, all I needed was a little warm up I guess.
Riding down the path I fly by 59th st. and emerge into the piers/Chelsea neighborhood.
At this time I would like to take a break from the ride to honor some of those I passed along the way
To the two cute girls on the tandem cruiser, I know your probably lesbians, but I think you two are beautiful and if you ever need a third wheel, I’d be willing to help out…
To all the children on bikes, I love it, even though you are swerving all over the path making me stop and go stop and go, etc…I love to see little kids on bikes, they remind me that maybe, just maybe this world isn’t going straight to hell. To all the parents whose kids weren’t wearing helmets, a pox upon you and your ancestors, how dumb can you be?
To the woman sunbathing topless on the meadow, stop that, you almost made me crash (damn wish I had my camera)
To all the rollerbladers, I do not care if your wheels are all in a line, stop taking up the entire bike path, and you look stupid when your swing your arms to go fast, also I seem to notice an outbreak of sleeveless jerseys on rollerbladers, you should stop that or the RBR police will come and beat you with their $5000 carbon fiber and titanium clubs (honestly what else would the use)
to the fat guy with the glasses and moustache who was flying on his merlin, nice bike but your shorts are getting a little worn in the back, and honestly, no-one wants to see that, I hope im never in a paceline behind you.
Back to the ride
Once at the piers, I see that there are a few navy ships in for the week (is it fleet week?), I would salute you soldiers for doing your duty, but not being in the military myself, I feel that saluting you would be inappropriate, so I offer you my warmest welcome home and thank you for your service (this does not mean I support any wars, but it means that I support those who are serving in the war) There are a lot of people and the crowds mean I need to ride really slowy, oh good, practice for my trackstands, thanks to the German tourist who laughed it off when I lost my balance and leaned on him, good guy, wish I knew what he was saying, hope you have a nice visit to NYC.
A few mins later I'm at battery park, enjoying the view, (great day to see the statue). I sat down and realized I was starving, had a hot dog (the pinnacle of high performance nutrition, they should have hot dog vendors at the Giro and the TDF.)
I enjoyed the breeze, it reall did feel nice sitting there in the sun.
Looking uptown I see the dark clouds coming in, looks like its time to get home, now where’s the closest subway stop? (j/k).
I hop on my bike pick my way through the crowds and emerge behind another biker in full Bianchi set-up, with matching shoes/gloves and helmet, hey, that’s fine, each their own. He is picking a very good line through the crowds and has a nice loud whistle that clears the way, so I follow him for a few miles, then he looks back at me and starts sprinting, did I miss the memo? Was I not supposed to be riding behind you? (I was a good ten feet behind him, so I could have been drafting, maybe at a higher speed than 5 MPH. So I keep my pace and about a half mile later catch up to him and pass him, he sprints by me again and then settles back into a slow pace in front of me, at this point we are back at the piers and there are hundreds of people/bikers around so it is rather hard to pass him so I stay behind him for a little bit more and then he looks back at me, shakes his head and sprints off again, hmm, maybe I should try and stay with him just for fun, my legs feel fine at this point so I stand up and hammer until I caught up with him, he slows down, rides next to me, looks at me and smiles, then takes off to the right towards the east, oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Then I feel the first rain drop, damn, time to really sprint, I push it all the way until the GW bridge, then comes the little hill, shi**! My legs start to cramp up so I shift all the way down and push my way up the little hill until at last I finish it and shift back up and sprint home trying to beat the rain. 1 mile flat sprint to beat the rain and I finish up, run inside, and it instantly clears up, oh well, it was a fun ride and tomorrow, I think I’ll do it again.