A Taste Of Spring

As i sit here watching the Cavs v. Lakers game, I thought it was time to recap a good weekend of training.  

I'll start with Friday morning, once again I woke up early to ride my trainer before work.  Nothing monumental to report, rode for a hour, did some drills, watch some Sportscenter and VH1.  It's interesting, it appears the only hours that there are videos on TV anymore are before 9 a.m.  That morning, I rode, got cleaned up for work and got dressed.  I sat down on my couch to put my shoes on, got one shoe and and fell asleep.  I guess I was tired, b/c i woke up with one shoe on, 20 minutes later and almost was late to work.  Needless to say, I was in bed by about 10 on Friday night.  

Saturday morning I was up before 6 a.m. again b/c I had a team practice at 7 in Central Park.  I really like these early morning practices b/c it's the only time NYC is really calm.  I can drive the 80 blocks from my apt. to the park without getting stopped by a single traffic light.  No one is on the streets, it always reminds me of the Tom Cruise movie where he's in Time Square and there is no one there.  Anyway, i get to park, meet the team and we start our workout.  Ramon explains we're going to work on more technique and then get some miles in.  We warm up with a run to The Great Lawn.  Once we are there we do laps around the lawn counting foot falls at different exertion levels.  From here we went back out onto the loop and did what I used to call an Indian Run, maybe more PC called a native american run??  Okay or a pace line, basically you run single file, we had 6 runners, the person in the rear runs to the front and sets the pace for a few strides, then the person who is now last follows suit and runs to the front.  We did this for a few miles and finished by running some hill repeats on Cat Hill.  These were a fast pace up the hill with a cool down on the way back down.  I'd guess we covered 6 or 7 miles all before 9 a.m.  I think this is a great way to start a Saturday.  After all the serenity and calmness I experienced that morning, I was reminded where I was as I was exiting the park.  As I walked by the Imagine mosaic by Strawberry Fields, I walked past a homeless guy who had his  pants down for some reason.  Nothing like some homeless nudity at 9 a.m.  

Skip ahead to this morning, our workout plan showed a endurance ride or run.  The temps today reached into the 50s so it seems like a good chance to get out and ride.  I put on my bib shorts, which i think make  me look like a 1940s weightlifter, it's a good look, trust me, but they do provide a lot of padding for the boys when out for a ride.  I headed up the west side path and over the park.  The warm weather created a lot of snow melt, which in turn created a lot of Rhode Island sized puddles.  I felt like I was on the Log ride at Kings Island circa 1982.  I got to the park and did a few loops in a crowded, crowded park.  Everyone was out, runners, walkers, rollerbladers, families, dog walkers all the usual suspects.  There is a lot of rivalry amongst all the groups.  Depending on what i'm doing, I'm in a couple of these groups.  The dog walkers are annoyed by everyone and they are usually the cause of most of the problems in the park.  They never control their dogs, have those super long leashes and seem to think everyone should be exercising around them.  Most of them are middle aged Upper Eastsiders who probably were never spanked as children.  You know what kind of attitude this brings.  I really have a lot of animosity towards them b/c I saw an out of control dog take down one of my teammates on his bike a couple years ago.  He was probably riding to fast, none the less ended up with a dislocated shoulder and broken wrist.  He crashed right in front of me.  It was awful.  The dog owner seemed to think it was all his fault too.  Between the dogs and the people not paying attention b/c of their cellphones or ipods, it can be pretty dangerous to ride in the park.  The fear this creates usually means i don't ride super hard b/c i don't want to end up splattered all over the road.  I rode in the park for about an hour and headed by the west side path to head home.  As I was riding across 72nd street towards the path, i was thinking i was kind of surprised I didn't see an ambulance in the park picking someone up.  When I made it into Riverside Park, where the path is, low and behold there was an ambulance there.   An older gentleman was laying on the path next to his bike, not sure what happened to him, but when the roads are wet and your brakes are as well, it's pretty tough to stop.  I'm sure he was fine but these are the dangers of riding in the city.  I made it home unscathed but covered in water, salt and dirt.  I stripped down outside my apartment door and went into clean up mode.  Another issue with living in NYC is I don't have access to a hose and my bike needed a bath.  So I went with option B, which was putting my bike in the shower.  It took some good maneuvering, but I was able to give old blue a bath.  Washed all my gear and was finished.  Tomorrow night brings another group effort, and I'm sure another challenging workout.