Spring Cycling

This is a post I have been writing for a long time. It's grown into an epic bloody novel.

It is the story of how and why I have been spending most of my free time for the last few months.

So the story begins... Andrew got into road cycling pretty seriously since he has been in NY.
Traditionally we were always more mountain bikers and made fun of those dorks in tight lycra.
Well there isn't much good mountain biking around the city so I guess he decided to adapt at some point. Road cycling is all there is here really.

I remember last summer his Saturday mornings being monopolized by riding in some club rides. He raved about being able to get out of the city and see some great scenery, doing over 100 miles on some ride. He was becoming a pretty serious about road cycling, and constantly telling me to buy a bike and get out with him. I was hesitant to a) drop the money on a bike not knowing how long I would be here, b) not knowing how much I would enjoy it and c) not knowing how my then still healing knee would stand up to the punishment.

Before I busted my knee he dragged me out on a few short rides, but I was limited due to my fitness and riding a heave steel mountain bike while he was on a road bike. I struggled and he poked fun.

A few months ago he spent a considerable sum and bought a new second-hand bike of ebay. This freed up his old bike. But it was really still to cold to ride.

So one day he shoves his laptop in front of me and says "here, finishing filling this out, you can use my old bike -- no excuses now". He had started to sign me up for the New York Cycling Club Special Interest Group (SIG) - this was what he had done last year.

I didn't really have much of an idea about what it was at that point just signed up.

Reading a bit more about it, it was a series of organised rides in early spring to get people fit for the summer and to teach skills and routes.

There are three grades: A, B and C. He started the signup for B for me. The first part of the B-SIG is a test ride around Central Park - 4 laps 24 miles - they get an idea of what class of rider your are based on your time.

They tell you to not push hard on the classification ride. You don't want to be spent at mile 24... we will be doing 100 mile rides by the end of the SIG. They take into account that we are all in "winter shape" and will improve as we get some exercise. So I went and did my laps and took it pretty easy, especially on the last lap.

My time put me on the cusp of A and B. Not having been on a serious ride and not knowing how my knee would stand up I was happy to stay in B -- the fastest B category B-18. The 18 means we are meant to average 18 mph on the flats.

Andrew lent me pretty much everything I needed except shoes. So the day before the first ride out in the real world, I bought some cycling shoes so that I could clip into the pedals.

Sure enough clip in pedals are the sort of thing you need a little time to get used to. On the first ride of the SIG I fell over twice at traffic lights because I forgot about them or didn't clip out quickly enough. How ebarrassing. I was thinking I was definitely a B rider after that.

On that ride was also a pretty decent hill. I think they sneakily include a tough hill on the first ride so that they can really work out who is too strong or too weak for the group and shuffle them into the appropriate group. On the hill the group leaders say "go at your own pace". So 3 of us attacked the hill and beat the strongest leader to the top. Of the three of us, the other 2 guys were bumped up to A-SIG and I never saw them again after that ride. For some reason they didn't bump me -- I'm guessing the falls didn't help.

After my knee surgery my left quad and leg in general had atrophied quite a bit. And during winter it was hard to get much exercise. So once the riding program begun my fitness and strength really progressed quite rapidly. I quickely became easily the strongest rider in my group and I think they regretted not bumping me to the A group. I also discovered that being light but strong makes one especially suited to climbing hills. Which tends to attract the ire of those who are not and are forced to try to keep up all day. The down side is also that I can't go as fast as the big guys downhill and that a strong head wind really affects me. But it was good to ride knowing that no one in the group could beat me or push me hard enough to blow up.

Pretty soon the leaders worked this out and would often get me to "pull" at the front of the group. Saves them energy.

Early in March the weather is still pretty cold in NY. So working out what to wear was a challenge. Trying not to freeze hands and toes when stopped, and not cook when at 100% going up a hill.

Getting out to see NJ and NY during spring was great. Lots of green grass, greening trees, old houses, mansions... Andrew was right, great scenery.



On one particular weekend the ride was moved to Sunday due to bad weather. None of our group leaders could make it that day, so they said we would have to join other groups. When I told Andrew about this over a couple of beers on Saturday night, he suggested that I join his A group instead. I was apprehensive and said that I thought they may drop me off the back, since I know they sustain quite a high pace. He assured me that if I did he would put me on a train home or ride home with me and that I should try and see.

So we meet at 7am the next morning, 2 hours earlier than I'm used to. It's freezing cold. There is a strong breeze from the NW -- the direction we were heading. Only one other rider shows up - the ride leader. And he wanted to be home by midday. This is bad. Less people means less stops, a faster pace. The leader is in a hurry. So we take off and these guys are fast. But that is not bad. The strong head wind had me pushing hard just to stay with them. Being a serious A ride, they take no stops until brunch more than 2 hours and 40 miles later. That is real problem for me. I'm used to the recovery time at stops and more importantly eating and drinking then. I need to eat a lot on a ride to stop my blood sugar crashing.

By brunch time with nothing to eat... I found out what it was like to be blown up... or bonking as they say. My quads were full of lactic acid. I had nothing left.

Andrew stuck with me as we let the other guy go, while we limped home at my broken pace.

It was a humbling experience to say the least, and I learned a lot about my body chemistry. I needed to learn to eat and drink on the bike to keep up with these guys.

Since then the organised Special Interest Group has finished, including a graduation celebration. It was pub dinner and we get presented with a certificate if we were notable a little blurb from our group leaders in front of the all the B riders in the club (~60 people). Our leaders were great and present us all with little presents, mostly aiming on the funny side. I got awarded a house brick as was told that I was only allowed back on rides if I brought it with me.



After the SIG has been rides pretty much every weekend out of the city, mainly with the same group, including some century rides.

The most recent was the North Fork Century

At some point it became apparent that Andrew & Robyn would be heading back to Australia. So I would need my own bike if I was to stay on and keep riding. The other consideration was to buy a good bike here, probably cheaper than for what I could get one in Aus and take it home with me if I wanted to keep riding.

So with Andrew as my bike guru I shopped ebay for a few weeks and picked up a near new all carbon-fiber framed road/race bike.



This weekend will be my first long ride on it, hopefully a century weather permitting, Long Island Harbours Ride

NY happenings

Have been hanging out with a different crowd this past month.

Our Pommy/Aussie mate Marc has been back in Oz. Missing the bastard.
Andrew & Robyn are stuck in the same old groove.
Jean is in town. Great to catch up. She feels like family.
Angus one of the lads from the M5 office has been in town. Good to show him around.
A new girl, nothing serious, and her group of friends -- a bunch of native New Yorkers.

They organised a scavenger hunt for her birthday all around the East Village which was fun to go on. Also managed some recent trips to the Cloisters Museum and the Brooklyn Museum.

Angus enjoys a good beer, so showing him the bars and breweries has been fun. Some new discoveries and some old favourites.

For valentines day we went to some random singles gig in Brooklyn. It turned out to be in this out-of-the-way dingy little dive bar, I wasn't really sure what to expect. The whole place smelled like fried chicken for some reason. It filled with white boy hipsters at first. Think a bunch of poser guys that look like Courtney from the Dandy Worhols. Then bands were rock/punk and not too bad. Pretty tame crowd for the style of music.

Winter drags on. Some days it get up above about 5°C and if it's not breezy I'm pretty quick to get out for a ride.

Andrew pushed me into signing up for a cycling club which will start up in a couple of weeks. I have to qualify next weekend buy making it around Central Park 4 times (about 24 miles all up) within a certain time. Rides run every saturday morning. I will use his old roadbike which is pretty decent. Andrew will be in a different group so I won't be riding with him. Hope it warms up a bit in the meantime. Need to get some gear too. Looking forward to it. Should get to get out of the city more often, meet some new people and get back some fitness.

Marc has been keen to do some more trips out of the city when he gets back: Boston, DC maybe.
Also go see an ice hockey game live before the season ends.

Going to a Make event this week. Might show off the brewbot if anyone is interested.

Work has been a bit hectic lately. Some of the software Andrew and I are responsible has been falling over at times, so the onus is on us to fix it. Still the company has bought into our architecture and vision.

As always I keep getting asked about when I'm coming home. No fixed plans. If I get the sack tomorrow because of this bloody economic catastrophe then I would probably convert my Visa, buy a motorbike, travel the USA couch surfing and camping for a few months before coming home.

Otherwise I might do the same anyway later in the year when the weather is better.

Holidays are overrated

At the prodding of a few, here is the first 2009 blog post.

Nothing hugley interesting going on just lots of little observations.

The snow didn't really last, so no white christmas for me. Although I did have the joy of walking to work one gusty morning when it was -11°C, probably the coldest I think I have ever seen.

Having said that it is amazing how quick I have acclimatised. It hits 6°C and it feels warm, I get the bike out and go for a ride.

I think there is a lot to be said for being a Queenslander and having a summer Christmas and New Years. I have found the holiday period pretty dull and a bit claustrophobic really. Too cold and crowded to do much that interests me.

On boxing day I made a pilgrimage down to the Aussie bar in SoHo to drink some Coopers and watch what seems like the only good day of cricket Australia have played all season.

Boxing day sales don't seem like what we see in Aus. I think all the madness here happens at the thanksgiving sales.

Christmas trees are sold on the street in the lead up to Christmas, and then quickly turfed back onto the street in piles. To be collected by who I don't know since there seem to be a lot around. Being nice and cool it seems that the trees last much better and don't drop as many needles as I seem to remember of a summer christmas. No surprises there, and I guess they are probably a different species to Aussie conifers and probably have been bred for that quality.

The salting of the roads and footpaths to prevent icing seems to get out of hand at times. I saw a car completely encrusted all over with salt crystals. Can't see them lasting too long. I could just see me not driving for 6 months of the year if I had the Monster Truck here.

With the recent boredom of a winter, I have been looking at it being a good time to move on. Not go home just yet, but find something more exciting and more my scene. That can wait for another post.

Meanwhile A&R's bundle of pee and poop continues to amuse and confuse. She is quite a resilient little creature and despite what it seems in the photos, Bales is usually not too happy to share the attention.

Winter wonderland

Well it's all new to me.

18°C one day, snowing the next.

Yesterday a nice snow storm coated the city. At about 10am the nice big slow falling flakes began.

By the time we left to go play after lunch it was a whiteout. The city is transformed. The place is much quiter.

I couldn't resist a ride up along the Hudson. Riding in the snow & ice required some sharp reflexes.








Later it started to sleet and then finally rain which wrecked all the snow. With the rain and thousands of feet stomping around the place turns into ice slush. Getting around is interesting. Big puddles of ice slush form at every street corner. If you don't have the right shoes, and a bad knee then jumping the puddles is interesting. Before you know it your feet are wet unless you have the right shoes. Gumboots are a fashionable as well as practical item. More important is grip. The wrong shoes and the wrong leap over an ice puddle and the result is not pretty. Luckily I learned this through observation rather than direct experience.

So within hours I had a new pair of mostly water proof hiking boots so I could stomp through the ice puddles like everyone else.

Little miss was meant to arrive via 2 hour flight from out west last night. The weather meant flight delays of hours, planes stuck sitting on runways waiting for a gate, and I had mental images of a little frozen corpse showing up.

Fortunately she made it just fine. Quite the cutie, and a great personality too.



She has no name yet. The current candidates are Mia and Laura, neither of which I like or think suit her.

And she seems to be the stereotypical pissy puppy... peeing on the carpet every few minutes. Toilet training in the snow & ice is interesting.

Cold, thirty, still employed

A lot seems to have happened in my last rotation around the sun. A new milestone, Dirty 30 as Shelley calls it. In typical fashion a pretty low key celebration at some local beer bars.

I'm still wrapping my head around the weather here. A few weeks ago it was still getting to 18 degrees during the day. Tonight it is -6C outside with a fairly strong breeze.

I'm just not used to thinking about the cold. Not used to having to put on gloves just to go outside.

I've gotten into the habit of cycling home from Andrew & Robyn's a bit before midnight if I go over for dinner. Well without gloves there is more urgency and it turns into a lively 20 block sprint that ends in numb hands and burning lungs.

Yesterday morning I got up early and rode to central park and did a couple of laps. I was meant to meet up with Bales and A&R but missed them. I didn't check the temperature before I left but my eyes watered and nose ran a lot. Did not see another cyclist the whole way to the park, either on the bike path up the west side of Manhattan or on 69th street across to the park.

The reason it seems was that it was -2C outside that morning.

So this week I'm planning on investing in some goretex gloves and a down jacket.

Which it seems I am lucky to be able to do at the moment.

16 people were laid off from work this past Wednesday. Totalling about 40 in the last few months. Including a high school mate of mine, one of the 4 Aussies in the office.

The economic downturn is really scaring people at the board level. It sounds impossible to get investment let alone credit, so young growing companies are struggling.

This will be a tough time for NYC. I see on my way to work a few shops have closed already. I hear that Wall Street it becoming a has-been in the financial influence of the worlds market. The investment banks having to become commercial banks just to survive. Taking less risks, moving away from the swashbuckling culture. It will be interesting to see how that changes the city. 11% of the city works in finance bringing in 40% of the annual income.

The capital of capitalism having to deal with negative growth? Pay cuts, job losses. How with this affect the gentrification of the city? How will this affect the mood of the average grumpy New Yorker on the street?

The end of physio

My employer endorsed medical insurance company has decided in it's infinite corporate wisdom that it's profits are more important than my health and has decided not to pay for any more physiotherapy on my knee. Who would have thought that a profit driven entity would decide to end treatment as soon as possible?

My physio people agree that I need more treatment. But what is that worth to some bean counter?

Do I sound bitter?

So where am I at with the knee? It straightens to within a few degrees of my good knee. Similarly it will bend to within a few degrees of my good knee. Good progress.

A lot of the time at physio has been strengthening exercises. And I can obviously continue those on my own and definitely will. But what I think makes the most difference is the painful bit: the physical manipulation and forcing it to straighten or to bend. This is the part that is tougher to do on my own. There is only so much force one can exert in straightening one's own unwilling knee joint.

I plan to enlist the help of my friends. Shopping for a new unqualified physiotherapist. The job itself is not that complicated. And I'm sure some will enjoy inflicting the pain. So I must choose wisely.

But seriously it strikes me as completely absurd that it comes to this.

Now hopefully without sounding like a wanker, I earn more than double the average American wage.

And it comes down to this. Getting your mates to push on your knee in the right way just so you can hope to walk properly for the rest of your life. It's enough to make a bloke want to hope on a plane a go home.

And what hope does the average American have?

At least there is light at the end of the tunnel for me. I know I will be looked after when I go home. And in my older age. Having seen this system I will never complain about my taxes or paying the medicare levee.

The 47 million Americans without any health insurance?

A fair bit more than twice the entire population of Australia without any basic medical care.

The rest with this quality of medical care?

Poor souls is all I can think.

And the medicos who must have to time and time again provide limited or substandard care to people thanks to the whims of the medical insurance companies whose first priority is the share holders.

I guess we all hope that with a new government will come change. But I don't like the chances of reforming a multi billion dollar industry and all the lobbyist and kick backs that come with it.

Anyway, it was a sad day to have to say goodbye to the people that I had got to know and had cared for me over the last few months.

My mate Bales

A&R have been back in Australia for 3 weeks now. Of course with Andrew gone a lot more work falls on me, so not much life outside of that during this time.

It's no secret that Bailey dog is a pretty big deal around these parts. He would have to be one of the most photographed dogs in history. Robyn has gigabytes of photos of him.

Anyway, with the aus trip Bales has been "sent out to the farm" to be looked after. The business that looks after these mutts posts photos for the owners to check up on them. And Bales is never one to miss out on the opportunity to strike a pose and look pretty.










Now Bales is a pretty energetic dog. With personality. So it's no surprise that there are so many photos of him. And so many of them look like he is nearly at warp speed and barely touching the ground. There are some great action shots, these people clearly enjoy what they do.











It seems he is also quite popular with the other inmates:





He is home tomorrow and I take delivery of him before the weary travelers return a few hours later. He is going to go berko. I can't wait.