Century Training - Week 2; Day 7

Week: 2

Day: 7

Ride: Pace
Route: Hilly

Scheduled Mileage: 11

Actual Mileage: 23.69

Average Speed: 10.7 mph*

Max Speed: 25.5 mph

*Includes city street speed average

Average BPM: 120
Max BPM: 163

Calories: 738

Random Notes to Self:

• Every cyclist has a "bitch" gear. 39/23 might be my mine. More about bitch gears later.

I worked at job #2 until 4am and grabbed about an hour and a half of sleep before I met my cycling coach near a Starbucks in Times Square. Eager to make the most of the time we have together on Sunday mornings before he begins his workday at R&A Cycles, he picked me up in Midtown and drove me back over the bridge to Brooklyn. In return, I bought our breakfast (twice): egg wraps and lattes before and after our ride.

My night at job #2 was bad. I'll never cease to be amazed and discouraged by how poorly people tip. I understand that cocktails in a Manhattan lounge are expensive. I don't enjoy paying $15 for a drink myself, but if I do plan to be somewhere that drinks are expensive, I also plan to tip appropriately. In New York City, 10-20% is customary for most services: dining, taxicabs, deliveries ... and cocktails. A two-dollar tip is fine in a cheap neighborhood bar or at a spot with Monday night football beer specials, but when I arduously make my way, in high heels, through a crowd of twitching, shaking and shuddering partygoers, balancing a tray with $70-worth of drinks, two dollars is not ok. But I guess everyone thought it was ok last night. And cheap crowds, of course, don't splurge on bottle service, where I can automatically tack on a 20% table-service charge. And they don't run one tab for a party of six or more (another place where I am authorized to include it with their bill). Most people want to pay-as-they-go in cash, and those people, generally don't know how - or don't employ the effort - to tip. I used that conversation to fuel adrenaline for my morning ride today.

I was only scheduled to do 11 miles, but under the expert instruction and supervision of my coach, we ended up riding an easy 20 in Prospect Park. We spent the first hour and a half with spinning and floating drills at 39/23 (or 46 gear inches). We weren't circling the park incredibly fast, but I was getting one hell of a workout. The overall goals of my coach were to learn to feel and wait for the road, develop muscle memory at 39/23, exercise a spin and float method of cycling, and strengthen my leg muscles using proper cycling technique. The last hour, we moved up to 39/21 (or 50 gear inches) with the same goals in mind.

The morning ended, of course, with my routine stop at R&A Cycles. The water bottle cages I've been waiting for hadn't arrived yet (they admittedly had forgotten to place the order last week), but I still walked out with two new acquisitions: a set of base layer shirts for cold and warm weather.

And now, sleep. I wanted to get this blog post in this afternoon because once I lay down, I won't be back up until its time to go to the gym tomorrow morning. Good night.

Total Miles Cycled in Week 2: 105.34