life hereafter

Yesterday, Perez and I inadvertently jumped head first into a 5 hour “fitness marathon.”

The day began with us going to the boathouse for the Dad Vail Corporate Challenge practice. We road our bikes from Manayunk to boathouse row and meet up at #5. On the way there the sky decides to open up and downpour. No warning. Just total drenching rain. Two minutes later it was over. It was like one of those weird summer storms, except it’s spring, and sometimes it’s still pretending to be winter outside. Once we arrived, we got changed and headed out. The moment we put the boat on the water it starts to drizzle again. Next thing we know, there are huge bolts of lightening and the sky opens up again. Then we notice all the crews coming back in with coaches saying how much worse it is up river.  Our coach decides to leave the boat on the water and have us stand in the boat bay for ten minutes to determine if it will “clear up.”

The entire time I am dreading her saying we are going to have another indoor practice. Those things are hell. A few minutes later it seems to be clearing up and we head out on the water.  Perez was in stroke and I was in 7. Stern pair is perhaps my least favorite position in the boat. I hate being in front of everyone and responsible for setting the form for the entire starboard side. The practice went alright. I was only jabbed in the back once with an oar by someone who fell completely out of time. Better than the first weeks in a novice boat at Delaware. I think we stand a very good chance of beating the other crews.

After we bring the boat in and place it in the bay, Perez and I hurry to get changed and get out of there. We signed up to do the 8th Annual R.E. Load Alley Cat race.  The event kicked off at 2pm and it was currently a little after 1. We still had to get down to 2nd and Spring Garden to register and pick up our rider numbers. We get to the back of the R.E. Load store at about 1:35 and find out that the start of the race is back at the Art Museum (where we just were!). Back on the bikes we booked it up to the Art Museum to meet the mass of about 200 people. This was a very diverse set of individuals. You had everything from the messengers with giant bags, tattoos and varied piercings to the crazy guy with a beard on a recumbent.  As is typical in Philly you had everyone in cars who were driving around the Art Museum circle beeping and hollering odd things.

At about 2pm, someone who was in charge grabs a megaphone, tells everyone to leave their bikes on the grass and head over to the statue/fountain thing. It was going to be a running start. As she is making the announcements and reading the rules she politely reminds us of what happened in Chicago a few months ago. This resulted in a rule change. It would no longer be a race, but a “fun ride.” With points assigned not for coming in first, but for doing the best at each of the various challenges they had set up at each checkpoint. We were also reminded that this was a highly illegal event. So be careful. After saying that she said perhaps she shouldn’t say that so loud. Moments later we were given the list of checkpoints with the caution that this was an April Fool’s race and a good number of them would be fake. We also realized that most everyone else had brown paper bags and were drinking from them. That should be safe.

We hopped on the bike and headed for the closest checkpoint at Lemon Hill first. About halfway there Perez finds himself leading the pack and climbing up the hill. At this point he remembers that he is on his fixed-gear bike and can not shift. Next thing I know he is hopping off from the front and pulling a u-turn. I asked what was up and learned that he wasn’t going to make it up the hill. Oh well. So much for that checkpoint. I bet it was fake anyway. Next we headed over to 25th and Spruce, which I thought said 25th and Spring Garden. Whoops. After correcting that mistake we were told to write a haiku about our bikes. Mine was something along the lines of:

green frame, red bar tape  | (i forget what was here) | don’t fail me now

It was lame, but it let me complete the checkpoint. From what I remember, Perez’s was funnier. At this point we started riding around the rittenhouse area and grabbed some food at Devil’s Alley. (Hey, it wasn’t a race anymore so who cares). After that we were riding down 21st near Cherry Street and the freaking road must have just recently experienced an earthquake. The road is completely broken and there is about a 10ft long, 1 inch deep pothole which I could not avoid quick enough. I go over and quickly realize that I have popped my rear tire. Not having a wrench on me, this was the end of the day. Frustrated I called a friend, left my bike in her garage and headed back to Manayunk.

All in all it was a very good day, and I managed to get some sun out of the whole deal. I realized that I was doing some form of exercise for the past five hours and I felt I deserved a whole lot of delicious food for that.

I am currently very disappointed with Human Zoom. I was attempting to add a front brake to my new bike today and realized that I didn’t have the proper tool to cut and crimp the brake cables. No biggie, I figured I could shoot down to Human Zoom, pick up the tool and a new set of bar tape. Well, I arrive and the sales guy tells me they don’t see those kinds of tools in the store. I could order one, but it would take over a week to arrive. This is lame, and I reject his offer. I figure I might as well just get the bar tape, and have a friend cut and crimp the cable another day. This leads me to my real anger towards the store. The Bontrager bar tape they were selling is $18. Ridiculous for some cork. The cheapest no name brand they were selling was $15.99. I could get the same stuff or better online for $5.

Human Zoom, you have disappointed me for the last time.

Now I’m left with a bike with no bar tape, and half a brake system. Sweet.

The new bike is finally on its way, and I’ll have it by Wednesday. Now I just need to order a new set of brakes and cables and my fixie will be complete by weeks end.

A good friend reminded me of the existence of foobooz.com, a site dedicated to food in Philadelphia. Upon perusing the site, I was pointed to this little gem, Dumpling House. A resturant in Chinatown dedicated solely to dumplings. AKA, heaven. I will have to find this place in my wanderings in the very near future.

One of these:

Or perhaps one of these:

For the past five years Winter has meant one horrible, painstakingly boring thing; Winter Workouts.

It was easy in college, if you didn’t do the workouts odds are you didn’t stand a chance at making the boat come Spring.  You had a coach and a team to let down if you didn’t make your way down to the field house for endless hours of steady-state.

Life afterwards is a whole other story. Now your by youself, theres no one there to yell at you, or give you the motivation to get up and get out there. And by out there, I mean in there, because its much to cold to venture outside. It’s up to you now, your motivator has to be the scale and the heart-rate monitor.

In an effort to curb the boredom I purchased a few books filled with various workouts.  It’s better than trying to figure them out on my own. Perhaps if I stick it out and push through the Winter hard enough, I can find a consistent group of people to ride with, just for a little extra motivation :).

Heres to a whole lot of catching up on movies and TV during those lovely indoor workouts.

More like 151.5 miles, but who was counting…

Saturday:

My roommate and I woke up in the neighborhood of 4:15am gathered our
things and headed to Woodcrest station in New Jersey. There was
absolutely no traffic until you reached the exit on 295. Woodcrest
station has a narrow lot :). After unloading our bikes and packing up
our overnight bags we headed over to the team tents. Once we found
ours we dropped off our luggage picked up our numbers and waited for
others to arrive at 6:45 the announcer came over the loud speaker and
started the count down for the first three teams to start. The three
highest fundraisers from the previous year always start first, however
this year things were staggered even more. We officially started in
the at 7:00am.

For the first mile or so there were tons of traffic lights and we
stuck with the other members of our team, however things eventually
opened up and John and I took off. After passing what seemed like
hundreds of people we found two other guys from Team Elf who we
started a small pace line with. It worked out nicely we cruzed along at
about 24mph and picked a few people up along the way.

At about the half way point we decided to stop quickly and fill up our
water bottles, so we pulled into the rest stop and ran around doing
everything as quick as possible. The Team Elf guys had lost a buddy a
few miles back and decided to wait at the stop for him so we were on
our own again.

After pulling out of the stop we saw and then passed some of our other
teammates. It was a bit impressive to see that they were only about
five minutes behind us considering one person was riding a mountain
bike and the other smoked about four cigarettes before the ride.

With about 30 miles to go we found another little group and had an
even larger paceline. These guys were really good. They managed to
keep things at about 24mph while a few others only maintained about
23mph (including us). We stuck with them until about 3 miles left. At
that point we saw what looked like two massive bridges to cross into
Ocean City. At a stop light the crossing guard tells us to be careful
the wind is gusting and could blow us painfully into the guardrail.
Sweet.

Halfway through the climb on the first bridge I loose John and the
group looses me. (Note for next year, learn to climb better). To pick
up speed I took the downhill at about 37mph which was awesome.
However, the meant I reached the next bridge faster. The second bridge
seemed easier and I was over that one a bit more quickly. I slowed up
a bit and waited for John to come back down, but he was beat at this
point, he told me to just go if I could. I decided to coast along
until the very end. As you come through the last mile they had signs a
posters congratulating the ten people with MS who were completing
this ride. It was a very touching mile.

As you came through the last turn there were people cheering and
yelling “thank you” and an announcer calling out as you crossed. After
an immediate and abrupt end to the course you have people directing you
and congratulating you and telling you to move. It was a bit crazy
after finishing 77 miles. I was immediately informed that I was the
first to finish from my team as well as one of the first 50 to finish
overall. (Including the 75, 45 and 25 mile courses). That was a bit
exciting. Moments later the roommate crosses and we are off to gorge
ourselves with food and await the rest of the team.

Sunday:

My alarm went off at 5:10am Sunday morning. Thoughts of throwing in
the towel and taking the bus home cross my mind. “You did 75 miles one
day. It was an awesome job. Why suffer again?” No. If I don’t do it,
everyone will know I backed out… So we packed everything up and rode
the three miles from the house to the start with our backpacks (not a
very comfortable thing to do).

The Sunday start was a whole lot less formal. Everyone was told to
start when they felt like starting. So we grabbed some breakfast,
refilled the water bottles and headed out at 6:45am. Going back over
the bridges was not nearly as bad as finishing at them the day before.
However the Sunday course was mostly uphill and times were going to be
slower.

The Sunday ride was a little lonelier, a lot less people decided to
ride back and from our team we were the only people I saw. We found a
few small groups early on and cruzed at about 22mph, things were
hurting. I developed a sharp pain in my left knee early on which I was
largely ignoring the entire day.

At around the half-way point we came to a rest stop exit. Normally you
go straight to pass the rest stop or right to enter the rest stop.
Well there was a truck parked in the intersection with an arrow
pointing straight. I was not paying attention and blindly followed the
arrow into some nasty road and a huge traffic cone. I fell off the
bike hitting my right knee hard. The volunteer runs over and screams
he is so sorry the car was pointing the wrong way. I said no worried
and limped with my bike up to the rest stop. After a few minutes of
making sure everything was okay we were on our way again.

Well, apparently this was the worst rest stop ever because myself and
a group of about 20 other riders realize we are no longer on the
course and have to ask a cop for directions back. Only a slight half
mile diversion.

A few miles later I manage to roll over some glass in an intersection
and my rear tire bursts. (Boo! This day is not going well). I quickly
change the tube hoping the tire was okay and will last the last 25
miles. A few moments later a SAG vehicle pulls over and offers to
check it out. The guy said the tire wasn’t going to hold, he took the
tire and in a matter of two minutes replaced it and put it back on the
bike. (Granted he just replaced a $50 tire with a $20 one, I was
pretty happy, at least I could finish the tour.)

The worst part of having to stop was the fact that we lost the good
group we were with and were largely on our own for the rest of the way
home. During the last ten miles all I could think about was finishing
and it was in such close reach. As we came back through Cherry Hill
everyone was cheering and the riders were staring to fall apart a
little. The final turn into Woodcrest station was awesome. Everyone
was cheering and the finish line was huge. It was fun to speed through
and feel a sense of accomplishment.
—

Day 1: 77.0mi / 3h40m = 21mph
Day 2: 74.5mi / 3h45m = 19.9mph
—————
Total: 151.5mi / 7h25m = 20.43mph

Next weekend I will be participating in the National MS Society City to Shore 150 mile bike ride from Philadelphia to Ocean City, NJ. The ride will benefit the National MS Society and local individuals living with MS. I will be riding as a part of the PwC team, and we have set goals for raising money. Any contribution will be greatly accepted and appreciated, even one as small as the cost of lunch.

To sponsor me, click here:
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?px=3857820&pg=personal&fr_id=2750