Training's Starting (Late as usual....)

Time to get this show on the road! So to speak. I leave for California in 19 days and my training to date has been....well....pretty non-existent. Am I taking this 4-day, 250 mile trip too lightly after cruising cross-country in 2012 for 4,000 miles over 85 days? Possibly, but I prefer to blame the crappy NYC Winter and late-coming Spring. It's been cold, blustery, rainy and snowy for a long time -- and just not very conducive overall to fun riding.

So I've done my best to stay in a modicum of shape with regular morning spin classes at the Flywheel studio on the Upper West Side. They last for 45 minutes each and give you a heck of a cardio workout -- but, in truth, I don't think they do much to prepare you for outdoor biking. What spin class really does, I think, is prepare you for....more spinning. Not a lot of translation in my experience, so far, to outdoor actual riding (although I do find spin helps with not getting winded walking up subway stairs!). Although, maybe, spinning has marginally improved my outdoor riding position -- spin instructors regularly remind you to put less weight on the handlebars and use your core muscles to stabilize and provide strength to your legs -- concepts that apply well outdoors too.

But I definitely need a bunch of outdoor actual riding time, and today's forecast looked like the best I was going do this weekend, reaching into the mid-60s and partly sunny, but marred by a steady 10 to 20 mph NW wind. Hmmm. I kind of felt like doing one of my standard rides: North on the Westchester County bike trail to Croton Harmon (about 48 miles), which is fun because I then return on the Harlem-Hudson train (yes, bikes now allowed) and avoid going over the same ground on my return. But with the wind blowing as it was, I decided to give myself a break and reverse my usual pattern -- I took the train first -- up to Croton-Harmon -- and then rode back to NYC with a generous tailwind! Not bad thinking....although not necessarily as good training as the other way around. But I'm just getting started (I hope).

If you've never done the ride, it's quite gorgeous (ask my sister-in-law, Karen, pictured below on the ride, to whom I introduced it last year). You spend the first 10 miles or so cruising alongside the vast Croton reservoir, including crossing the Croton Dam, which separates the reservoir (a good thing!) from the park immediately below it. Then you hit the Westchester Country trailway and are on a protected, relatively empty bike path (especially compared to NYC's Greenway). All the way back to Van Cortland Park in the Bronx.

So that's what I did, stopping occasionally to take a photo (all somehow subsequently lost on the new phone GPS mapping app I was testing!) or wolf down a PowerBar or, at one point, a six-inch Subway sandwich. Not exactly high cuisine, but otherwise all well and good. And even a bit of a rain shower once I hit the Bronx didn't spoil the energy and good feel of the ride.

In case you're wondering whether I forgot how to do it, here is today's route:

Karen on a bridge spanning the Croton reservoir

And if you're reading this far and haven't yet donated in support of my upcoming Climate Ride, please consider doing so by clicking here. Many thanks in advance!