Pyzahl's Pre-EB Ride

I rode Pyzahl's Saturday B+ paced ride today. It is meant to be a slower paced warmup ride to the traditional Sunday Early Bird hammerfest. The ride starts in Rocky Point, goes out to Iron Pier Beach State Park, and back. Here is the ride route. It incorporates elements from both the Early Bird's North Route and the Trevor's Winter EB route. A nice ride with lots of rollers and good roads. Temperature was mid to high thirties at the ride start but it didn't really seem that cold. More of an issue was the wind, but still, not all that bad.
Especially since we had six riders (me, Percy, Kevin, Phil, John, and Robin). I had forgotten how good it feels to ride in a fast paceline instead of fighting the wind the whole time.It was a very good pace, around 20 mph average. A bit fast for a B+ ride but everyone was up to it and we had some nice tailwinds at times.
I hope to do this ride on the future whenever possible. I saw that Percy had his camera out at Iron Pier so if he post pictures from the ride I will add some links here.
Robin mentioned that a bunch of the guys have been doing the Spring Races in Central Park. Sounds cool!

Is it Spring Yet?

Did a 48-mile road ride this morning. Still a chill in the air but things warmed up as the sun came out. I was orinially intending to do Pyzahl's 55-mile ride in Rocky Point this morning but I didn't quite feel 100% ready so I decided to do a solo ride instead. In retrospect it was probably a good idea. As much as I want to get back to doing those fast group rides, I still have a ways to go to get the form back.



Ride today was nice. Mostly dry roads despite yesterday's rain. Still some melting snow in West Hills. Saw lots of bikers out, including a few remnants from what (I'm guessing) was the end of the Triangle Ride. Man, just thinking about THAT intense ride is making me think I've got a lot of riding to do before I'm ready for something like that.



Based on my upcoming work scedule, I don't think I will really be able to dedicate the time I want to to cycling until the end of May. The SBRA Spring (Bratwurst) century should be coming up in April. I would really like to try it. I need to see if I can get at leat one 75-miler in before then. Will most likely miss the Montauk Century on 5/12 due to work obligations. I won't even talk about racing (although the Great Neck Cycling Challenge is being revived this May 20th!)

Me (in blue) at the 2005 Great Neck Race!

Return to the Road

Well, February was pretty much a write-off in terms of the bike. Only a couple of outdoor rides, a week or two on the trainer, then....nothing. I hadn't ridden in over two weeks, almost three. Busy with work, some cold weather, general lack of motivation.

With forcast of temperatures in the 50's I was looking forward to finally getting back out on the road. Did the 50-mile "usual" route. Wasn't as painful as I was thinking it would be but still revealed that I've lost a lot of conditioning with my light riding schedule over the past 3 months. The Early Birds are starting up again out of Manorville tomorrow but I will probably skip it for a week or two. I've got to get some legs back before I try to keep up with that group.

Other bike news, I've upgraded my racing license to category 4 so hopefully that may open up the oportunity to do a couple of more races this year. We'll see.

Looking forward to another 50-miler tomorrow, maybe solo or maybe with the Early Birds.