Training and not training

Yesterday, I wanted to ride up to Hyde Park. Lisa accompanied me to Nyack and intended to turn around there. It was windy and cold and my shoulders were so tense, they were sore all night. Once we got to the hills I encountered the real problem. I had no power up the hills. I tried high gear, I tried low gear, I tried to find just the right one, but as I crested each hill, I would see Lisa a quarter mile ahead if I saw her at all. My legs weren't in pain, they were just dead. I knew I didn't have 104 miles of hills in me that day. So I settled for 65 and headed back to Brooklyn.

Today I did a couple laps of Prospect Park with the bags full. I then took off the bags and rode up to Queens on an errand. I had forgotten how fast Penny is unencumbered. I had little problem passing traffic on many of the roads.

Then, a surprise. There was a box that came for me and when I opened it, there was a GPS with a handlebar mount. Apparently, Emily's parents thought I might find it useful. Once I convinced the GPS that I was, at the moment, In Brooklyn, NY, not Portland, ME, I wanted to test it's functions. So I grabbed Penny and headed to the park. my lap was 12:09 with a top speed of 27.5mph, mostly because it was the time of day that cars are allowed in, so I couldn't really hit the fast bits. I did pass several people on training looking bikes as I climbed the hill. That's right, unencumbered, we go faster. I'll have to keep that in mind when I'm in the salt flats.

Anyway, thank you, Emily's parents. I'm going to try to play with it as much as possible before I have to ship the bike.