and more training

Instead of killing myself on endless laps of Prospect Park, I decided yesterday to do a perimeter ride of Brooklyn and Queens. Well, perimeterish. I was accompanied by 'Coach' Lisa again. This one thing I have learned to be true: even with a bike map and an iphone at one's disposal, it is all too easy to get lost in eastern Queens. It is just not laid out with cycling in mind, though I'm not sure that we would have been better off with a humvee and military gps.

I place some of the blame on Fredrick Law Olmstead for dying before Flushing Meadows was fully designed, some of the blame on the botanic gardens for not being in a more conspicuous location and not letting us ride through, some blame for the various community boards of eastern queens and the DOT, and even a little bit for my precious NYC bike map which lied to us outright on at least two occasions. Unless concrete walls now qualify as bike infrastructure.

We did eventually find the Kissena Velodrome and both took a couple laps. I removed the panniers and their 50lbs of whatnot for it. I like the velodrome and that it's open to the public during the week in nice weather.

Finally, after 38 miles, we wound our way around to the shore parkway bike path. A roughly 600 yard stretch of the path was washed away during some winter and spring storms we've had, which I discovered last week on the ride out to the Rockaways. That part I knew we would have to dismount and walk, but other than that, I expected this to be the easiest part of the ride. It's more or less level, I know the route well and there is no motor traffic. What I didn't expect was the 25mph wind gusting up to 35 or all the dust kicked up from various construction projects along it. Nothing like licking dust off your teeth a mile later.

Finally, we made it across to Coney Island, stopped at Nathan's for some large drinks and a hot dog, then rode back up Ocean Parkway toward home. Altogether, it was somewhere around 55 miles. It's supposed to get rainy later today, so instead of training, I'm going to spend the day inside working on some of the non-riding preparations I still need to do.