Saturday, April 16, 2011
Saturday's Ride: The Short Version
Well, we can cross "riding 41 miles when it's 39 degrees out with a 17 mile-an-hour headwind" off of our bucket lists. You can find Naomi standing under a hot shower until Tuesday, and Meredith will be buried under her comforter with Chuck Bass the cat until further notice.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Hills and Chills
you guys, it's not easy to come up with these clever titles. we just make it look easy.
anyway! this past weekend we were again in hilly, hole-y westchester, where we took on a "challenging" 38 miles. we were initially optimistic because the "big" hill from the ride in westchester two weeks ago was not included on this particular ride. false hope. little did we know that this ride included (a quick survey indicates that both of us lost track of how many, so we'll just say) a lot of long, long hills. the kind of hills where you get to the "top" only to see that the road continues sloping upward for at least another half mile. there are not words to express how demoralizing that is. and when you're already in your bike's easiest gear, even the toughest of us have been known to let out a cry of frustration. for the record, naomi is not near the toughest of us, and let out more than a cry of frustration. meredith let out some colorful language as well, but we won't assault your delicate eyes, dear readers.
speaking of hills, and colorful language, naomi's ride was interrupted by technical difficulties. just when she stops falling off the bike because of her own ineptitude, the bike took it upon herself (yes, we named our bikes, more on that later) to start creating its own problems. as you might recall, this was the week that naomi was moving up into the not-scared-shitless group. she was feeling confident, attacking the first hill with gusto. well, not gusto, but at least not terror. things were going great, she even managed to pass a few people, when she made the ill-fated attempt to switch into an easier gear as the hill got harder. suddenly, it became incredibly easy to pedal, but impossible to go anywhere. her bike literally stopped moving as the chain slipped off the derailleur (the rear gear ring--check out our bike lingo!). drawing on her newfound not-falling-over skills, naomi was able to wrench her foot free and pull over. after attempting to realign the chain to the bike, she realized it was a lost cause and walked her bike the rest of the way up the hills as sympathetic but not-sympathetic-enough-to-stop (and believe us, if the roles were reversed, naomi would not have stopped either) riders sailed by. luckily at the top, one of our trusty mentors also pulled over to see what he could do. not much, as it turned out, as he struggled for 20 minutes with a pocket knife and various screws and cables trying to fix what was a problem with the gears and not the chain. just as naomi was about to suggest she call a cab and head back, salvation appeared in the form of head coach harlan, who produced a multitool and substantial knowledge about such problems. naomi's ride, to her sort of dismay, was not over yet. however, she was now half an hour behind even the slowest of riders, and proceeded to follow mentor and coach in a full-out sprint to catch up to any other group. much to her surprise, she was able to catch up with some people, and reached the halfway point absolutely drenched in sweat. quite a feat in 50 degree weather (the sweating, not the catching up. they might have been riding tricycles). the return ride was less eventful but featured the aforementioned hills, which, after a full-out sprint, were difficult. to say the least.
we did hear that this ride is similar to tahoe in that the hills are long but not excessively steep (well, maybe not to you, coaches, and mentors and other experts...). if we can practice using our downhill momentum to get us up (or even partway up!) the next hill, we should be golden. or, in our case, at least not wheezing.
what else: oh, bike names! naomi's friend (and long-time supporter), lindsey harrison told her that she needed to name her bike. with little hesitation, naomi decided on rosalita (rosie for short) after the bruce springsteen song (of course). this is particularly fitting as 1) the bike has some rose coloring (the only pink thing naomi owns), 2) naomi spends most of her time trying to make rosie love her and 3) naomi's only here for fun!
meredith, on the other hand, has been searching since day 1 for the perfect name. long-time supporter anthony wehrs was much less helpful in suggesting names (although meredith does acknowledge their, uh, humor). so now she's turning to you. please help her name her bike! email suggestions to meredith.uhl@gmail.com and she'll pick a top 5 for you to vote on (this contest will also be open on facebook). a picture of her bike, for inspiration, can be found here.
this weekend, in very exciting fundraising news, we are guest bartending at overlook, to raise money for our rides (along with fellow participant amanda aycock)! so if you like drinking, watching possibly inept bartenders, fighting cancer, or us, please come out between 10 PM and 1 AM. here is the link to the facebook event if you want more information: we pour. you drink. cancer loses. everybody wins.
as always, thanks for your support! give us money!
xoxo,
meredith and naomi
anyway! this past weekend we were again in hilly, hole-y westchester, where we took on a "challenging" 38 miles. we were initially optimistic because the "big" hill from the ride in westchester two weeks ago was not included on this particular ride. false hope. little did we know that this ride included (a quick survey indicates that both of us lost track of how many, so we'll just say) a lot of long, long hills. the kind of hills where you get to the "top" only to see that the road continues sloping upward for at least another half mile. there are not words to express how demoralizing that is. and when you're already in your bike's easiest gear, even the toughest of us have been known to let out a cry of frustration. for the record, naomi is not near the toughest of us, and let out more than a cry of frustration. meredith let out some colorful language as well, but we won't assault your delicate eyes, dear readers.
speaking of hills, and colorful language, naomi's ride was interrupted by technical difficulties. just when she stops falling off the bike because of her own ineptitude, the bike took it upon herself (yes, we named our bikes, more on that later) to start creating its own problems. as you might recall, this was the week that naomi was moving up into the not-scared-shitless group. she was feeling confident, attacking the first hill with gusto. well, not gusto, but at least not terror. things were going great, she even managed to pass a few people, when she made the ill-fated attempt to switch into an easier gear as the hill got harder. suddenly, it became incredibly easy to pedal, but impossible to go anywhere. her bike literally stopped moving as the chain slipped off the derailleur (the rear gear ring--check out our bike lingo!). drawing on her newfound not-falling-over skills, naomi was able to wrench her foot free and pull over. after attempting to realign the chain to the bike, she realized it was a lost cause and walked her bike the rest of the way up the hills as sympathetic but not-sympathetic-enough-to-stop (and believe us, if the roles were reversed, naomi would not have stopped either) riders sailed by. luckily at the top, one of our trusty mentors also pulled over to see what he could do. not much, as it turned out, as he struggled for 20 minutes with a pocket knife and various screws and cables trying to fix what was a problem with the gears and not the chain. just as naomi was about to suggest she call a cab and head back, salvation appeared in the form of head coach harlan, who produced a multitool and substantial knowledge about such problems. naomi's ride, to her sort of dismay, was not over yet. however, she was now half an hour behind even the slowest of riders, and proceeded to follow mentor and coach in a full-out sprint to catch up to any other group. much to her surprise, she was able to catch up with some people, and reached the halfway point absolutely drenched in sweat. quite a feat in 50 degree weather (the sweating, not the catching up. they might have been riding tricycles). the return ride was less eventful but featured the aforementioned hills, which, after a full-out sprint, were difficult. to say the least.
we did hear that this ride is similar to tahoe in that the hills are long but not excessively steep (well, maybe not to you, coaches, and mentors and other experts...). if we can practice using our downhill momentum to get us up (or even partway up!) the next hill, we should be golden. or, in our case, at least not wheezing.
what else: oh, bike names! naomi's friend (and long-time supporter), lindsey harrison told her that she needed to name her bike. with little hesitation, naomi decided on rosalita (rosie for short) after the bruce springsteen song (of course). this is particularly fitting as 1) the bike has some rose coloring (the only pink thing naomi owns), 2) naomi spends most of her time trying to make rosie love her and 3) naomi's only here for fun!
meredith, on the other hand, has been searching since day 1 for the perfect name. long-time supporter anthony wehrs was much less helpful in suggesting names (although meredith does acknowledge their, uh, humor). so now she's turning to you. please help her name her bike! email suggestions to meredith.uhl@gmail.com and she'll pick a top 5 for you to vote on (this contest will also be open on facebook). a picture of her bike, for inspiration, can be found here.
this weekend, in very exciting fundraising news, we are guest bartending at overlook, to raise money for our rides (along with fellow participant amanda aycock)! so if you like drinking, watching possibly inept bartenders, fighting cancer, or us, please come out between 10 PM and 1 AM. here is the link to the facebook event if you want more information: we pour. you drink. cancer loses. everybody wins.
as always, thanks for your support! give us money!
xoxo,
meredith and naomi
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
So THIS is what it's like to ride when it's more than 40 degrees out
Yes, dear readers, the sun FINALLY came out for one of our training rides. of course, it immediately retreated, preventing us from going outside at all during the week, but we're staying positive. no one got frostbite this weekend! naomi only wore 3 layers instead of 5!
that's pretty much all the excitement that happened over this weekend's training ride up in Fort Lee. we essentially rode the same distance over a new route to nyack, which included a steep hill named churchill, for naomi, and a yet-to-be-named but similarly difficult hill for meredith. the advice given before this ride came, appropriately enough, from the hill's namesake ("when you're going through hell, keep going.") demoralizingly, one of the mentors mentioned in an offhand sort of way to naomi after the ride, "yeah...i guess that's a steep hill. for new jersey." and another mentor managed to ride up churchill shouting encouragements at naomi the whole time and upon reaching the top with her, instantly rode back down to help the next group of sweating, wheezing cyclists up the hill. naomi hopes he falls off his bike next time. just kidding!
meredith got some clarification on how steep the hills are supposed to be in tahoe: "nothing that crazy." naomi remains skeptical. meredith also took one for the team this week and escorted naomi to the entrance of the west side bike path after the ride to ensure that she did not get lost a la the last disaster. this included an impromptu trip through the central park boat basin restaurant, with our bikes, as suddenly sprung up in the middle of the bike path. meredith cannot talk and read street signs at the same time, but despite the detour, both of us made it home unscathed.
that's right, readers, no falls for naomi! one extremely close call at the ride's midpoint, in front of about 4 dozen professional-looking riders, but she managed to stay upright-ish.
next week, naomi has been told to ride with the "titanium" group, where she will most surely be the slowest (as opposed to the fastest person in the slow group). meredith has already graduated to the carbon group, where she is repeating to herself, "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger." p.s. meredith is already pretty strong.
today marks exactly 2 months until our ride; both of us are doing well in terms of fundraising but would like to do better so please help however you can!
we promise to post pictures from our ride in westchester this sunday--pray that the weather turns nice again!
thanks for reading!
xo,
meredith and naomi
that's pretty much all the excitement that happened over this weekend's training ride up in Fort Lee. we essentially rode the same distance over a new route to nyack, which included a steep hill named churchill, for naomi, and a yet-to-be-named but similarly difficult hill for meredith. the advice given before this ride came, appropriately enough, from the hill's namesake ("when you're going through hell, keep going.") demoralizingly, one of the mentors mentioned in an offhand sort of way to naomi after the ride, "yeah...i guess that's a steep hill. for new jersey." and another mentor managed to ride up churchill shouting encouragements at naomi the whole time and upon reaching the top with her, instantly rode back down to help the next group of sweating, wheezing cyclists up the hill. naomi hopes he falls off his bike next time. just kidding!
meredith got some clarification on how steep the hills are supposed to be in tahoe: "nothing that crazy." naomi remains skeptical. meredith also took one for the team this week and escorted naomi to the entrance of the west side bike path after the ride to ensure that she did not get lost a la the last disaster. this included an impromptu trip through the central park boat basin restaurant, with our bikes, as suddenly sprung up in the middle of the bike path. meredith cannot talk and read street signs at the same time, but despite the detour, both of us made it home unscathed.
that's right, readers, no falls for naomi! one extremely close call at the ride's midpoint, in front of about 4 dozen professional-looking riders, but she managed to stay upright-ish.
next week, naomi has been told to ride with the "titanium" group, where she will most surely be the slowest (as opposed to the fastest person in the slow group). meredith has already graduated to the carbon group, where she is repeating to herself, "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger." p.s. meredith is already pretty strong.
today marks exactly 2 months until our ride; both of us are doing well in terms of fundraising but would like to do better so please help however you can!
we promise to post pictures from our ride in westchester this sunday--pray that the weather turns nice again!
thanks for reading!
xo,
meredith and naomi
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