Bike Geeks and Swim Freaks!

I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of crap about this, but as I continue to explore the "outside" cultures of cyclists and swimmers, I am thoroughly amused by these geek and freak tendencies!


Now, I've met quite a few runner-dorks in my day, but Biker (sorry) Cyclist take things to a whole new level. I think it's because they just have more to obsess over; meaning all the gear. They just have so much more to collect and fuss with and before you know it, their ENTIRE lives are consumed by frames, wheels, pedals, chains, saddles, cranks, you name it..... I'm sure I'll find this "cool" someday, well at least that's my hope but for now I just wondering what becoming a geek will do for my social life. At least, they all seem comfortable in their geeky skin... look they even sell shirts to proclaim their geeky-ness! ;)

But by far worse than any cyclist or runner's obsession with gear and their sport, are swimmers! Sorry folks, but I'm just convinced that too much chlorine exposure to your brain has made you all a bit too cooky. These people have NO idea what's normal or not... and worse, they just don't seem to care. I'm not just talking about the highly competitive triathlete who is working on their swimming. oh no, no, NO.... I'm talking about the crazies who swim for the sole purpose of an excuse to stretch their 20 year old speedos over their their (less than beautiful) bulbous bodies and hit the pool to practice their doggy paddle or aqua-yoga techniques. The people whose true highlight of their pool workout is when they get to walk around in the locker room stark naked forcing most of the other pool goers to maintain constant focus on the floor at all times out of pure fear of going blind or triggering their gage reflex. ugh... this behaviour (unlike the bike geeks obsessions) I just can not justify. Unlike Bike geeks, Pool freaks do not sell t-shirts that promote their cultural pride... oh no, "covering up" is just not their style.

Nope, I lied, here's their shirt....

I think I might start handing these out to all the freaky/naked people at the pool.

Road Warrior

Last night was a beautiful night in New York! Mild temperature, clear skies, and a gorgeous sunset! It was the kind of night that you just wouldn't want to waste sitting home say looking at endless wedding websites (barf!) or watching another episode of Anthony Bourdain.

After getting home at a decent hour (for once), I decided to quickly strap on my new cycling gloves and my trusty helmet and take my new bike for a serious spin around the city. As I started out, this man at the end of my block shouted out (in all of his Brooklyn stereotypical presence), "It's a great night for a ride!". My obvious reply, "It sure is!", and with that, I took off north towards the Brooklyn Bridge. My ride took me over the bridge, through Chinatown, and up the path on the east river park with my original intentions being to turn around at the Williamsburgh Bridge. But I was having too much fun to turn back at that point, so I headed up further to 23rd street and went cross-town. As I was weaving through traffic and between massive potholes, getting my bad ass fix for the day, I suddenly thought, how friggin' cool is this!?! It's just so great to be finally back seeing New York like everyone ought to, but so few actually do. I felt one of those spectacular rushes that I would get on my "I love New York" runs (although seriously missing my "I love NYC" running buddy)! :)


So, I finshed the last leg of my ride by heading south on the west side highway and then around the tip (west to east) and back up and over the Brooklyn Bridge. The ride was simply fantastic!

Click the pic below to see my ride..

Brooklyn Biathlon

I swung by the Brookyn Biathlon yesterday morning in Prospect Park to observe the transition and to check out the performances of some of Coach Cane's crew. Here are the results of some of the City Coach athletes from his blog. As you can see there were quite a few strong performances!

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And my fellow blogger friend scarinzic had a solid opener of the season as well!

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Great Job Everyone!

Five simple (and silly) things I learned about multi-sport transitioning...

1. Experienced bi/tri athletes do not re-tie their shoes and simply slip on their racing shoes and take off ...which makes perfect sense.

2. The area between the "dismount" and the transition section can sometimes leave you running 20-30feet in your socks or cycling shoes. I was wondering how that was going to work.

3. Transitioning is probably much smoother if you do the same thing every time, as in developing your own routine and sticking to it (which will probably help you also avoid #5). It looked like a lot of people had their own unique plan of attack for this process.

4. The size/shape of the bi/tri athlete means nothing about whether or not they are good or not (where as in running, this isn't as often the case). There were some "larger" people out there whooping more "fit" people on the bike. I wonder if that one man's stomach was actually one round muscle and not a beer belly??? ... because he was flying!! :)

5. There really are goobers who run out of the transition area with their helmets still strapped to their heads! Coach Cane wasn't kidding, it does happen! :)

(MRI) - My Ridiculous (health) Insurance!!

So, here I am in my naive little world complaining the other week about having to pay money for a doctor's visit where I didn't learn anything new about this chronic hamstring issue. I've missed days, I mean weeks, of running and am still in pain just walking around... and on top of all of this I just found out that my MRIs (yes, two) are going to coast me $500 out of pocket. Seriously?!?! Not to mention the woman I dealt with at United Health Care, wasn't the most pleasant and caring person in the world!!


I do not want to turn this post into a b*t@h fest and I had plans of writing something fun and uplifting in celebration of today, my 28th birthday!! I wanted to write about how I woke up to a great gift from my roommate and to several fantastic texts, e-mails and messages from my friends, family and fiancé. I wanted to write about how I bought a birthday gift for myself, a beautiful brand new road bike (with Coach Cane's help) and how excited I am about it. But instead, I'm holding back tears regarding this health insurance issue and thinking that life is just sometimes unfair. Ironically, I've spent the last week and a half consoling countless friends, family members and students (at work) who were on the edge of complete breakdowns. The amount of people crying to me has been borderline absurd! (Must be something in the air??) And now, I'm sitting here fighting it.. wishing someone would come around the corner with a violin because at least that would be really really funny!

I am fully aware that there are bigger issues out there and this is seemingly insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but either way, I'd just rather not have to deal with things like this. But I suppose, such is life... and you just have to keep rollin' on.

So, if anyone out there really wants to make me happy this birthday ...just send me a new left leg so I can just forget about dumping all this money into fixing a mysterious problem and can just get back out there on the road! I miss running! ...But yes, I will "make lemonade" with the 500 lemons I've been dealt... and I'll get on a cycling/swimming schedule, but it's just been difficult to do with everything that's been going on.

Tonight: A pool workout.. . YES, it's can be a "Wet and Wild Wednesday" today .. and then celebratory birthday drinks and some sweet potato fries at pommes frites!

Happiness IS a New Bike!!

I just came across this blog post from Runner's World. Yes, maybe directing my focus towards the purchase of my new set of wheels will be the route of my new found happiness. With the little running I'm actually able to do, I think I need to join fellow blogger "Gotta Run" and "Saddle up"! :)


Coach Cane has been helping me search for a new bike within my budget, but with all my running around of late (and, ironically, the lack there of "actual running"), I've put off actively searching through eBay like I should have been doing for the past four weeks. You know that dumb saying your mom used to annoy you with is really true, "when it rains it pours!". I can just hear the sound of mom's voice and her following up by telling me that I just put too much on my plate! ... what can I say, I have a big appetite! I've just been overwhelmed with life and have felt like I can't get it together. geesh! Seriously, I'm way to stubborn to not to keep ploughing through, but if it's not one thing it seems to be another. I'll eventually get it all under wraps.. and especially now that I have all this time that I'm not running.

The pool workouts are getting a bit monotonous and the hammy doesn't hurt when I'm cycling so I think that's the right direction for me. Okay, off to spin!

Also, my doctor's appt is set for this coming Monday. Fingers crossed!