Its been a while since i've written. Since before Hurricane Irene, in fact. I went to Canada for two weeks just before the hurricane, on an island, so no biking there. (Although there are a lot of great roads, and a pretty good bike shop in Gananoque, Ontario, the nearest town, pop. 5000, and the biking bug seems to have taken hold there, with all sorts of people, large and small, old and young, dressing up in silly looking biking gear and perusing the empty, winding roads).
We came back from Canada a day early as Irene was imminent and we thought we should be home. We lost power for a week -- no fridge, no light, no water, so we left and stayed in Brooklyn for a week, then came back when school finally started, late, about a week after Labor Day.
I'd been itching to ride, the bike was still new and I'd spent more days away from it than on it, so I hoped on late one afternoon for a ride. Halfway out the driveway, flat tire. Too late to get it to the bike shop. So that night I repaired it myself, which brought back some memories (in high school i did some repair work), and then brought it to the shop to complain the next morning. The guy there examined it and said it was a "pinch flat" where the tube got caught between the rim and the tire. I had tried to pump up the tire earlier, and I think I deflated it too far first, and caused the flat. Dunno for sure.
Done some little rides, but doing more running as I am doing my first half marathon in two weeks, and I'm not at all ready. I ran 8 miles on Sunday, but it felt awful, I was real stiff that night, and I couldn't do much better that 9 and a half minute miles for the last 3. Yikes. My virtual training partner Ray George, on the other hand, is training in Brooklyn and recently placed 4th in his age group in a 10k in Brooklyn. Now I just need to figure out how to hide from him at the beginning of the race so he doesn't try to run with me.....
Today, did a somewhat hilly lap on the bike, around Stepstone Hill, for those interested:
9.25 miles
41 minutes
13.47 avg mph
