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
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Hills and Holes -- Training Ride 3/26
Sorry for the delay in updating from this weekend's training ride -- Naomi was out of town, fulfilling bridesmaidly duties at a bachelorette party, and Meredith has spent much of the week too incapacitated by food poisoning to give an effective retelling.
We were back in Westchester this weekend, for a 38 mile ride that promised the steepest hill we'd encounter throughout our entire training regimen. Gulp. The 30-degree weather seemed to have deterred many riders, as turnout was fairly low. However much we always prefer to see a strong team turnout, there is no denying that riding with a smaller group can be more fun!
Meredith set off with a group of 6 riders, who had the roads largely to themselves for the entire ride. The conditions hadn't improved much since the last ride, and we were constantly calling out and trying to navigate around holes. The small-ish size of our group enabled some more hands-on coaching. Meredith has been experimenting with gear shifting, but is never quite sure when she is in the "correct" gear. She received a good amount of feedback from the head coach, and now feels a little more confident about what she is doing. The group also practiced riding in a paceline. For the uninitiated, a paceline is a simultaneously exhilarating and nervewracking (for a newbie at least) way of riding as a team to increase speed. You ride in a line, with your tire several inches from the tire of the bike in front of you, with your eyes at the level of the hips of the rider in front of you. The idea is that you are able to go faster with less effort, because the rider at the very front of the line creates a draft, which reduces wind resistance for the rear riders. In order to keep things equitable, the riders take turns at the front, with the old leader pulling off to the side and slowing to drop to the back as a new leader moves forward. A bit nerve-wracking for someone who has only been road cycling for a month and a half, but also very fun!
The Big Hill, all the way in Greenwich, CT, was a bit fear-inspiring, plus looooooong! It was the first time Meredith has ever been tempted to get off and walk in order to make the pain in her quads stop. But she stuck with it and was the first of her group to make it to the top! Once again, all those Spinning classes with high resistance paid off! There were two other thigh-busting hills on the course, which were all vanquished after a good deal of panting one's way to the top, but the most fun part of the ride were the rolling hills at the middle and towards the end of the ride. With 6 riders who have been riding together for most of the training rides, it was pretty easy to just relax and let loose on these rolling hills, and slingshot through the backroads of Westchester County and Connecticut at 30+mph. Fun, and definitely one of the things that makes a person feel like they're getting more comfortable on a bike!
This Saturday, we are back in New Jersey for a 36 mile ride. We're continuing to add mileage to each of our two routes, at a more gradual pace -- our last ride that started in Jersey was 34 miles. This one also takes us on a slightly different route to our destination in Nyack -- we are in quite a bit of suspense about how this one will differ from the route we've used the previous two times!
As always, we are grateful for our generous donees. We wanted to take this moment to remind you that our ride is approaching, and we still have some ways to go on our goals. Please click the links on the left side of the page to support this worthy cause. Thank you, and till next week!
xo,
Meredith and Naomi
We were back in Westchester this weekend, for a 38 mile ride that promised the steepest hill we'd encounter throughout our entire training regimen. Gulp. The 30-degree weather seemed to have deterred many riders, as turnout was fairly low. However much we always prefer to see a strong team turnout, there is no denying that riding with a smaller group can be more fun!
Meredith set off with a group of 6 riders, who had the roads largely to themselves for the entire ride. The conditions hadn't improved much since the last ride, and we were constantly calling out and trying to navigate around holes. The small-ish size of our group enabled some more hands-on coaching. Meredith has been experimenting with gear shifting, but is never quite sure when she is in the "correct" gear. She received a good amount of feedback from the head coach, and now feels a little more confident about what she is doing. The group also practiced riding in a paceline. For the uninitiated, a paceline is a simultaneously exhilarating and nervewracking (for a newbie at least) way of riding as a team to increase speed. You ride in a line, with your tire several inches from the tire of the bike in front of you, with your eyes at the level of the hips of the rider in front of you. The idea is that you are able to go faster with less effort, because the rider at the very front of the line creates a draft, which reduces wind resistance for the rear riders. In order to keep things equitable, the riders take turns at the front, with the old leader pulling off to the side and slowing to drop to the back as a new leader moves forward. A bit nerve-wracking for someone who has only been road cycling for a month and a half, but also very fun!
The Big Hill, all the way in Greenwich, CT, was a bit fear-inspiring, plus looooooong! It was the first time Meredith has ever been tempted to get off and walk in order to make the pain in her quads stop. But she stuck with it and was the first of her group to make it to the top! Once again, all those Spinning classes with high resistance paid off! There were two other thigh-busting hills on the course, which were all vanquished after a good deal of panting one's way to the top, but the most fun part of the ride were the rolling hills at the middle and towards the end of the ride. With 6 riders who have been riding together for most of the training rides, it was pretty easy to just relax and let loose on these rolling hills, and slingshot through the backroads of Westchester County and Connecticut at 30+mph. Fun, and definitely one of the things that makes a person feel like they're getting more comfortable on a bike!
This Saturday, we are back in New Jersey for a 36 mile ride. We're continuing to add mileage to each of our two routes, at a more gradual pace -- our last ride that started in Jersey was 34 miles. This one also takes us on a slightly different route to our destination in Nyack -- we are in quite a bit of suspense about how this one will differ from the route we've used the previous two times!
As always, we are grateful for our generous donees. We wanted to take this moment to remind you that our ride is approaching, and we still have some ways to go on our goals. Please click the links on the left side of the page to support this worthy cause. Thank you, and till next week!
xo,
Meredith and Naomi
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
"I guess we should have had the pothole talk last weekend..."
...thus began our pre-ride talk, in which we learned there is a proper way to "probably not crash" when riding over (through?) the many potholes this lovely east coast winter has burdened us with. speaking of winter, it's supposed to snow again tomorrow. so that should be excellent for outdoor training and being able to ride without fear of losing a toe or a foot to frostbite. don't believe us? look at how many layers are visible in this picture. meredith informs me that she had to buy her jacket a size larger than normal to accommodate the many underthings she is wearing to stay warm:
dont' be deceived by the bright sunlight...it's roughly 45 degrees out. at 11 AM. it didn't get any warmer.
in other news: pictures! this one was taken after the ride, and naomi is smiling so widely because for the first time in 3 weeks, she didn't fall once. not even when she tried to execute the advanced grab-water-bottle-from-frame-take-drink-and-replace move, which predictably ended with her water bottle landing on the side of the road and her having to unclip, stop, run back for it, and catch up with her group. baby steps.
meredith is smiling because a) she is debuting her extremely cool cycling glasses ("lance armstrong glasses"), b) she rode all the way to nyack and back and c) she's about 3/4 of the way through what was 60-mile ride. the first repetitive use stress injuries are starting to show up; meredith's knees are starting to feel the strain of riding the length of new jersey in a single day. naomi probably hasn't ridden far enough in one day to merit any kind of stress injury, and her skinned knees will do for now.
also: inflating your tires is apparently an idiot-proof activity, as meredith's pump didn't even come with instructions. naomi spent half an hour on her floor this morning, attempting to use her father's pump, which also did not come with instructions. it's not idiot-proof, as neither of us could figure it out without turning to the internet, of course, which helpfully contains short videos on inflating your tires. meredith mastered it, and naomi hopes to soon.
here's another picture from after the ride for those of you who are still reading:
naomi banned the before picture from ever seeing the light of the internet, because two toolish helmets in one picture was just too much. meredith bravely agreed to let hers appear this week; meredith also apparently forgets that she's even wearing a helmet after a long ride and continued to wear it until she decided it would be better used as a purse to hold her gloves and wallet. not just a pretty face, people.
that's all for now; stay tuned for the second entry of this week's blog, subject TBD.
oh, and please give us money. the links are right at the top. it's for a really good cause.
thanks!
--meredith and naomi
in other news: pictures! this one was taken after the ride, and naomi is smiling so widely because for the first time in 3 weeks, she didn't fall once. not even when she tried to execute the advanced grab-water-bottle-from-frame-take-drink-and-replace move, which predictably ended with her water bottle landing on the side of the road and her having to unclip, stop, run back for it, and catch up with her group. baby steps.
meredith is smiling because a) she is debuting her extremely cool cycling glasses ("lance armstrong glasses"), b) she rode all the way to nyack and back and c) she's about 3/4 of the way through what was 60-mile ride. the first repetitive use stress injuries are starting to show up; meredith's knees are starting to feel the strain of riding the length of new jersey in a single day. naomi probably hasn't ridden far enough in one day to merit any kind of stress injury, and her skinned knees will do for now.
also: inflating your tires is apparently an idiot-proof activity, as meredith's pump didn't even come with instructions. naomi spent half an hour on her floor this morning, attempting to use her father's pump, which also did not come with instructions. it's not idiot-proof, as neither of us could figure it out without turning to the internet, of course, which helpfully contains short videos on inflating your tires. meredith mastered it, and naomi hopes to soon.
here's another picture from after the ride for those of you who are still reading:
naomi banned the before picture from ever seeing the light of the internet, because two toolish helmets in one picture was just too much. meredith bravely agreed to let hers appear this week; meredith also apparently forgets that she's even wearing a helmet after a long ride and continued to wear it until she decided it would be better used as a purse to hold her gloves and wallet. not just a pretty face, people.
that's all for now; stay tuned for the second entry of this week's blog, subject TBD.
oh, and please give us money. the links are right at the top. it's for a really good cause.
thanks!
--meredith and naomi
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Second Training Ride--Training Wheels Off!
Welcome back to the blog! We're going to try and update more frequently, because at least our moms are interested and following this.
So as you probably guessed from the title, our second training ride took place this past weekend. This ride was in North White Plains, and included a surprise tour of many southern Westchester towns. It also included some of the worst road conditions we have ever seen, with craters masquerading as potholes, and as Meredith pointed out, "a lot of holes. Like, actual holes." For those of you who don't know, road bikes are NOT built for handling those types of conditions. Road bikes like flat, smooth, well-paved, wide, well-marked roads. This ride was the opposite of that. Naomi's hands are still sore from gripping the brakes so hard.
There were also hills. A lot of them. Steep hills. Long hills. Some that were steep, and long. Supposedly this is good practice for Tahoe, which was described to us as "50 miles uphill, and 50 miles downhill." Well, it was described to Naomi as such. Meredith apparently just found that out this very second.
Regardless, we both survived. Meredith rode 27 miles in about 2 hours, which, for the uninitiated, is extremely fast. Naomi rode about 20 miles in I'm-not-going-to-say how many hours. This included only 2 crashes, which resulted in the attached picture:
Naomi will not be wearing skirts for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately, this is the only picture to survive from the day--Meredith does keep bringing her camera but weather conditions and the splitting of groups have not been conducive to documenting the rides. Maybe if we don't promise pictures from our next ride, you'll actually get some. Meredith is particularly excited about the premiere of her "super-sweet" clear-lens cycling glasses this morning, which if you're all lucky, you'll see in the not-promised but to come pictures.
This weekend's ride will be back up in not-so-beautiful Fort Lee NJ; we assume that we'll be riding farther than last time, so hopefully those spin classes will prove to be worth it. Pray for better weather for us so we can shed some of the 5 layers that have so far been necessary to bike in. Because cycling short are so sexy.
Thanks for reading (and a special welcome to new reader and longtime supporter, Lauren Nagin!)
xo,
Meredith and Naomi
So as you probably guessed from the title, our second training ride took place this past weekend. This ride was in North White Plains, and included a surprise tour of many southern Westchester towns. It also included some of the worst road conditions we have ever seen, with craters masquerading as potholes, and as Meredith pointed out, "a lot of holes. Like, actual holes." For those of you who don't know, road bikes are NOT built for handling those types of conditions. Road bikes like flat, smooth, well-paved, wide, well-marked roads. This ride was the opposite of that. Naomi's hands are still sore from gripping the brakes so hard.
There were also hills. A lot of them. Steep hills. Long hills. Some that were steep, and long. Supposedly this is good practice for Tahoe, which was described to us as "50 miles uphill, and 50 miles downhill." Well, it was described to Naomi as such. Meredith apparently just found that out this very second.
Regardless, we both survived. Meredith rode 27 miles in about 2 hours, which, for the uninitiated, is extremely fast. Naomi rode about 20 miles in I'm-not-going-to-say how many hours. This included only 2 crashes, which resulted in the attached picture:
Naomi will not be wearing skirts for the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately, this is the only picture to survive from the day--Meredith does keep bringing her camera but weather conditions and the splitting of groups have not been conducive to documenting the rides. Maybe if we don't promise pictures from our next ride, you'll actually get some. Meredith is particularly excited about the premiere of her "super-sweet" clear-lens cycling glasses this morning, which if you're all lucky, you'll see in the not-promised but to come pictures.
This weekend's ride will be back up in not-so-beautiful Fort Lee NJ; we assume that we'll be riding farther than last time, so hopefully those spin classes will prove to be worth it. Pray for better weather for us so we can shed some of the 5 layers that have so far been necessary to bike in. Because cycling short are so sexy.
Thanks for reading (and a special welcome to new reader and longtime supporter, Lauren Nagin!)
xo,
Meredith and Naomi
Monday, March 7, 2011
Report from the Front: Training Ride 1
Hey everyone,
Our first training ride took place this past Saturday--Fort Lee is not entirely beautiful at 6:30 AM in the rain. We awakened early and made the trek to our designated meeting point; Meredith bravely rode up while Naomi decided to try her luck on the subway. Unbeknownst to us, our coach had canceled the ride due to inclement weather at 7:15--after the time we were both well on our way to NJ. So we intrepidly trekked onward, determined that if we had woken up at 6 AM, suited up in our ridiculous cycling/inclement weather gear, figured out how to get across the GW bridge and basically dedicated our day to the training ride, we were going to train, dammit.
Upon arrival, several other Team members were also there. While we would like to believe they were similarly tough, it was probably that they hadn't received the cancellation email. Whatever. We were immediately treated to a flat-fixing clinic, in which everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, including the coach popping a new hole in the tire as he attempted to change it, even though it was never flat to begin with. Basically, we learned that if we ever get a flat, the way to fix it is to flag someone who knows what they are doing down.
For the actual riding portion, the coach divided us into groups--I know what I'm doing and I'm not scared; I sort of know what I'm doing and I'm sort of not scared; I have ridden a bike before; and omigod what the hell am I doing and I'm really scared (official names are something like Titanium, Gold, Carbon and Helium). Meredith set off in the Titanium group, and Naomi was relegated to a parking lot to learn how to ride (well, mostly stop) with her feet clipped into the pedals.
Meredith reports that she rode out with about seven other riders who were all able to maintain a steady 17 mph pace and make it 30 miles round trip to Piermont, NY and back! In total, Meredith rode 51.16 miles on Saturday (3 years of spinning classes were not a waste of time!).
Naomi reports that the bruises on her knees are settling in nicely and wants to thank the nice woman who JUMPED out of her car to ask if she was alright after witnessing the spectacular fall Naomi took attempting to stop at a stop light that was also on a downhill as her foot was accidentally clipped in. She would also like to thank the random cyclist and his wife who took pity on her on Riverside Drive and rode with her for 20 minutes until they found an entrance to the West Side bike path. In total, it took Naomi 2.5 hours to ride about 20 miles. The coach assures her that things can only get better.
Fundraising update:
Meredith has nearly reached her March 16th goal of $1125; $245 is all she needs to meet it, so PLEASE give generously!
Naomi is thrilled to have raised $2200 and is extremely grateful for your support.
However both of us have a long way to go, so please give whatever you can before our ride!
At the top of the page are links to both of our fundraising sites; if you would prefer to send a check, please get in touch with either of us by email (meredith.uhl@gmail.com or nmages@gmail.com).
Thanks for your support so far--it means a lot to us and we promise to post pictures from our next ride on Sunday (the combination of rain and nerves on the first ride deterred any efforts to document it. But it happened!)
Thanks again,
Meredith and Naomi
Our first training ride took place this past Saturday--Fort Lee is not entirely beautiful at 6:30 AM in the rain. We awakened early and made the trek to our designated meeting point; Meredith bravely rode up while Naomi decided to try her luck on the subway. Unbeknownst to us, our coach had canceled the ride due to inclement weather at 7:15--after the time we were both well on our way to NJ. So we intrepidly trekked onward, determined that if we had woken up at 6 AM, suited up in our ridiculous cycling/inclement weather gear, figured out how to get across the GW bridge and basically dedicated our day to the training ride, we were going to train, dammit.
Upon arrival, several other Team members were also there. While we would like to believe they were similarly tough, it was probably that they hadn't received the cancellation email. Whatever. We were immediately treated to a flat-fixing clinic, in which everything that could go wrong, did go wrong, including the coach popping a new hole in the tire as he attempted to change it, even though it was never flat to begin with. Basically, we learned that if we ever get a flat, the way to fix it is to flag someone who knows what they are doing down.
For the actual riding portion, the coach divided us into groups--I know what I'm doing and I'm not scared; I sort of know what I'm doing and I'm sort of not scared; I have ridden a bike before; and omigod what the hell am I doing and I'm really scared (official names are something like Titanium, Gold, Carbon and Helium). Meredith set off in the Titanium group, and Naomi was relegated to a parking lot to learn how to ride (well, mostly stop) with her feet clipped into the pedals.
Meredith reports that she rode out with about seven other riders who were all able to maintain a steady 17 mph pace and make it 30 miles round trip to Piermont, NY and back! In total, Meredith rode 51.16 miles on Saturday (3 years of spinning classes were not a waste of time!).
Naomi reports that the bruises on her knees are settling in nicely and wants to thank the nice woman who JUMPED out of her car to ask if she was alright after witnessing the spectacular fall Naomi took attempting to stop at a stop light that was also on a downhill as her foot was accidentally clipped in. She would also like to thank the random cyclist and his wife who took pity on her on Riverside Drive and rode with her for 20 minutes until they found an entrance to the West Side bike path. In total, it took Naomi 2.5 hours to ride about 20 miles. The coach assures her that things can only get better.
Fundraising update:
Meredith has nearly reached her March 16th goal of $1125; $245 is all she needs to meet it, so PLEASE give generously!
Naomi is thrilled to have raised $2200 and is extremely grateful for your support.
However both of us have a long way to go, so please give whatever you can before our ride!
At the top of the page are links to both of our fundraising sites; if you would prefer to send a check, please get in touch with either of us by email (meredith.uhl@gmail.com or nmages@gmail.com).
Thanks for your support so far--it means a lot to us and we promise to post pictures from our next ride on Sunday (the combination of rain and nerves on the first ride deterred any efforts to document it. But it happened!)
Thanks again,
Meredith and Naomi
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