The next stop will be…

My friend Joshua and I joined 30,000 other cyclists on the Five Boro Bike Tour today, a first for both of us. The tour, closed to auto traffic, covers 42 miles and passes through all five boroughs of New York City. It crosses two major bridges, the Queensboro or 59th Street Bridge and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge plus several smaller ones. The course also runs onto roads normally accessible only by cars such as sections of the FDR drive, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and the Belt Parkway.

It was really cool riding on those sections. Other favorites of mine from the tour include riding through Central Park, the well organized and stocked rest areas, and reaching the crest of the Verrazano-Narrows knowing it was all downhill to the finish. Here’s a few pics, there’s a couple more over at my Flickr account.

My friend and co-rider, Joshua.

The mass of riders waiting to cross 57th St. The course itself was closed to cars but in a few sections they made us wait for cross-traffic.

Cruising through Central Park, one of the nicer sections of the course. It was really pretty.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge viewed from the final rest stop. Intimidating does not begin to describe how it looked. We still had to cross it to reach the finish on Staten Island. Thankfully, it was mostly bark and only a little bite.

All in all, I had a super nice day. It was an awesome experience bicycling around one of the greatest cities in the world without having to worry about cars and all they entail. My thanks to Bike New York and all the tour sponsors for a wonderful and exhilarating bike ride.

And I think I’m ready. Spent an hour or so checking over my bike, picked out my clothes for the ride, and had a delicious pasta dinner made special for me by *E*. Now all I have to do is bike 42 miles. Whewww! I’ll send twitter updates from the rest stops to keep you posted on my progress. Wish me luck! Oh, and wish for nice weather. Thanks!

I LOVED riding my bike back and forth to work today. The weather was perfect, traffic was light, and I’d swear I had a tailwind both to and from the office. That never seems to happen. Even the Williamsburg Bridge, while challenging, did not bother me too bad. I wish all commutes could be like today.

In other bike news, I’m doing the Five Boro Bike Tour on May 4th. It’s a 42 mile ride that, as the name implies, goes through all five boroughs of New York City. 30,ooo riders have signed up this year so it’s gonna be quite a mass of bicyclists. The streets are blocked off for it so there’ll be plenty of room for us to spread out. The section I’m most looking forward to is biking across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. It doesn’t have a bike path so the only time you can bike across it is during the tour. Should be awesome!

I normally bike up First Avenue in the mornings until about 75th St. before cutting across town to get to work. Today I thought I’d mix it up a bit and cut over to Third Ave at 49th St. then head the rest of the way uptown on Third. Change is good and all that, being the prime motivator.

What did I get for a venture out of my comfort zone? An unpleasant surprise, the DOT is resurfacing Third Ave. so the top layer of asphalt was stripped off. Super! Nothing like riding on a torn up, gravelly road first thing in the morning. I was grateful that it only lasted a few blocks. On the bright side, I avoided the big hill on First between 49th St. and 53rd St by cutting over to Third so I had that going for me.

While we’re on the subject of biking, I missed about two months of riding this winter due to messing up my arm. It totally stunk not being able to ride. You can read a brief description of what happened here if you’d like. Anyway, thanks to the wonders of acupuncture, my arm is all better and I’ve been able to get back to bike commuting and some weekend recreational rides. I’m thrilled to be back on my bike and look forward to reaching my goal of commuting on it five days a week this year, fingers crossed.

I propose an update to the old chestnut above; “A Bad Day Bike Commuting is Better Than a Good Day Taking the Train.” Getting to and from the office under your own power is rewarding no matter how many cars cut you off or pedestrians step out in front of you. It’s the freedom, the exercise, and the exhilaration of zipping down Fifth Avenue in rush hour traffic that has the subway beat every time.

I’m typing this post with one finger, the pinky, as my entire body is one big cramp. Ok, not really but that was the most dramatic opening I could come up with. What’s the real story? Other than some general fatigue, a mild sunburn on my face, and the tingling in my left hand, I completed the NYC Century otherwise unscathed. That’s not to say it wasn’t challenging because it most certainly was, 55 miles is a long way on a bike.

Oddly enough the first leg was the most difficult to me. The course started at the top of Central Park and went down through Manhattan, mostly on Broadway, to the Brooklyn Bridge. That was generally fine and it was awesome riding through Times Square on a bike. The stinky part was that several blocks of Broadway were in the process of being resurfaced so the road was all torn up and rough. Not too much fun to ride on to say the least, it was like a washboard. I think I lost a filling. On the whole though, riding through Manhattan with very little traffic was a treat.

After crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, the first leg continued through Dumbo and Fort Greene eventually arriving at Prospect Park. This was the second stinky bit, by this point I was getting a little pooped out and I knew the first rest stop was at the park. What I didn’t expect was that we’d have to go around almost the whole park before we got to it. That’s a couple extra miles that I hadn’t anticipated and my low blood sugar wasn’t helping, I was getting cranky. However, I finally made it to the elusive rest stop and refueled with a very warm banana(don’t ask me) and several orange wedges provided by the sponsors.

That first rest stop made a huge difference physiologically and upon leaving it, I began my favorite section of the tour. I have no idea what neighborhoods we went through after exiting the park but we eventually made our way down to the Brooklyn shore. It was there that we entered the Shore Parkway bike path.

To be continued…

So that’s what tomorrow morning looks like for the NYC Century. Allow me to sum up, NOT GOOD!! Why couldn’t this weekend have been like last weekend when it was all nice and pleasant with moderate temps and low humidity?

In this kind of weather I’m gonna be less like a bicyclist and more like a mobile perspiration machine. Oy vey, I’m gonna be schvitzing up a storm! Oh well, no one said it was gonna be easy and I’m committed to doing it and finishing.

Crazy fact from my NYC Century materials: You lose 1 - 2 quarts of water an hour during strenuous exercise. I’ll say that again, 1-2 quarts. That’s a lot of sweat! I expect the full 55 miles to take me five hours so that means I’ll have perspired 1 - 2 1/2 gallons! Yikes!

My bike is ready to go as I spent the last couple of hours giving it a thorough going over. I installed bar ends so I’d have more options for hand positions and I also attached a water bottle cage. A water bottle might be overkill as I have a Camelbak that holds 50 oz. but I figure I can put water in the Camelbak and Gatorade in the water bottle. That should definitely keep me hydrated in spite of the anticipated excessive sweating. Not too mention I’ll be taking full advantage of the rest stops.

Anyway, I’ll be rising a little less than twelve hours from now to do something I’ve never done before. Wish me luck and godspeed and such! Just a reminder, I’m gonna take my cellphone and send Twitter updates when I get to the rest stops so you can follow my progress.