Is it the type of bike you ride or the environment you ride in... or is it the people you ride with?
Roadie prick? Rode thru every freakin red light and basically owned the road in certain parts. The weird part is, not once did we get honked at... at least I don't think. I guess that just means we were being a bunch of SAFE roadie pricks? lol And I am really starting like riding with others as one thing is certain.. I don't have to worry about my bike getting stolen on those coffee breaks... mine is the cheapest one! Sad but true.
This particular ride was the best and the worst so far. Great bunch of folks and the ride itself was fun but worst in the sense that overall, this ride was harder than anything else I have done so far particularly due to the fact that my fitness wasn't up to my usual par since I started real riding. Came out to be 87 miles but it was tougher than the century ride. My left thigh started cramping up on the bridge coming from Randalls Island back into the city. Thank God for
@1sh0t1b33r for giving me one of his gels which seems to have helped for a bit. Then a few later, my right thigh started cramping too on the greenway on the west side. Ate a half of a bagel sandwich leftover from breakfast and a banana but any resemblance of a hill.... the cramps came back and had to dial things down substantially. Felt bad for
@liong71er as he dressed a bit on the light side and had to crank things up to battle the cold but this wasn't to be. I am sure he dressed appropriately for his style of riding in this weather but he miscalculated.... he was ride with a NOOB! Let this be a learning lesson for him when riding with a noob! lol Once we got back to NJ, ate some food and back on the road. The cramping on the thighs disappeared but cramps started in the calves. WTF... Just can't win! Then about 45min or so... snow... just light dusting but then started coming down at Saddle River when I still had an hr left on the ride. Took things nice and slow... and slowly but surely I was on schedule to get home b4 dark. Last climb at WP faithfully known as the Pompton Rd Climb on strava, cramp on my right calf came back with a vengeance. No choice... got off the bike and walked up the climb for about a mile. The last leg back home was all down hill but this too wasn't going to be easy. With the snow, it was slippery as heck and visibility wasn't all that great. I was on the brakes the entire ride down and thank the heavens that there were no cramping on my hands or I might have ended up as road kill. Soon enough I see my garage and about 2 feet from it... cramp! Almost fell when trying to get off the bike. JUST CAN'T WIN....
Oh... last note for this ride... I was a freakin open faucet on this ride. Had 3 cups of coffee as I only got 3 and a half hrs of sleep the night b4 and drank 2 liters of water during the ride and whenever I saw a porta john... ironically it was like seeing oasis. Should have worn a diaper instead of the padded shorts. Could have killed 2 birds with 1 stone. lol
https://www.strava.com/activities/472720850