Sunday, May 6

Bear Mountain . . . Again

You know what the problem is with driving up to Bear Mountain to do hill repeats? After spending half an hour pedaling to the top, you freeze your ass off on the descent. Even with the leg warmers, athletic t-shirt, and long-sleeve jersey, those first few minutes heading back down are damn cold.

It’s also a problem when you’re heart rate’s pumped up to 170 and a pair of attractive young ladies pass you as if you were standing still. I first spotted them on the side of the road just past the traffic circle. They look dangerous, I thought. One had a green bike, one had a red bike, and they both had ponytails, but the one with the red bike, she was wearing what appeared to be either an extremely short denim skirt over her tights or a pair of extremely short denim jeans. When was the last time you saw someone wearing denim on a road bike climbing Bear Mountain? And rather than a saddle bag, she had something strapped around her waist and hanging just over her butt that resembled a miniature messenger bag. By far, they were two of the most fashion conscious cyclists upon which I have ever laid eyes. I heard them approaching as they rode up behind me and when I glanced over my shoulder (admittedly, I was wearing my outrageously loud day-glo yellow jersey today . . . of all the goddam days to wear that thing), the first one said hello. “Hi,” I said, attempting to get a handle on the second girl, the one riding the red bike (don’t ask me what bikes they were riding--obviously my attention was elsewhere), and whether or not she was wearing shorts or a skirt.

Unfortunately, that’s going to have to remain a mystery as she simply went by too fast for me to tell. I guess we’ll never know.

After three and a half climbs, I decided I had had enough. On my way out, just over the Bear Mountain Bridge, I stopped at the scenic overview to have a hot dog and snap off a few pics. I’m big on the pictures lately.



Two other things. This Saturday morning there’s a race in Prospect Park which I’m planning on trying, Category 5. If anyone’s interested, you can find info and register online at www.racelistings.com. Also, I’m planning on killing off some brain cells tonight when I watch Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Just thought you might want to know about that.

1 comment:

Giancarlo said...

Hey, I just read your post and some more recent ones on your blog and have to ask you, how feasible is it to ride from the city to bear mountain to do some climb repeats...what kind of day (hour-wise) are we looking at? I did the math based on mileage alone and it seems like it would end up being a 7 hour day or something like that...perhaps I am missing something?? because I inferred that you live in the city and you've obvioulsy done climb workouts at bear mountain so I am hoping you can provide some insight, thanks in advance.