Memorial Day Weekend - 2006
Memorial Day Weekend (MDW) started out with a quick Friday evening ride over the Brooklyn Bridge for an appointment in the city. I hadn’t worked out on Friday, so by traveling to the city on bike, I was able to improve my fitness, commute and take care of business all at the same time. I was a little worried that such a late ride would tire myself out for the 100 miler I had planned in Harriman with Todd and Walter (of the injured meniscus). I needn’t have worried though as I didn’t have a problem knocking off this ride on Saturday. I was more relieved than happy that I was able to do a strong 100 miles. I feared that my bike fitness had completely left me. However, the only thing that left me that day were my companions as they were too tired (Todd) or too injured (Walter) to complete all of the loops with me. I did the last 14 miles on my own, which may have been the most satisfying. I did it in good time, without the urge to keep up with anyone.
When I returned home, I looked at my training log from exactly one year ago and I was then happy to see that I appear to have about the same level of fitness between the two years. Just like this past Saturday, a year ago I did a 100 mile ride in Harriman State Park. My seven trips around the loop were very similar in both time and HR. The following chart is a comparison.
I may even be a little stronger. I saw that on the Sunday of last Memorial Day weekend, I only managed a 15 mile run, whereas this year I did a 20 mile run. It wasn’t my fastest training run, but the most important thing was its completion. I must not be in as bad of shape as I feared. Later on Sunday I took my children to my brother’s, where we spent time at his pool club. Afterwards, my brother got me to build a movable basketball hoop, the kind you find in many driveways. I was exhausted at this point, but I had to do it otherwise he would never leave me alone until I did it. It was completely dark outside by the time I finished.
For Monday, I also repeated my year ago workout by heading down to Coney Island for a swim. This workout was almost aborted, since my partner for the swim Robert had already left his house for a run, since he hadn’t heard from me earlier. When I called his house, his wife answered the phone and told me he went out running. I decided that my only course of action was to grab my bike and try to find him in the park and talk him into going.
Fortunately I found him quickly and talked him into going for the swim. At the end of it he was very glad that I went after him. The water was so still and clear that it had the appearance of green tinted glass. It made for a quite pleasant swim.
To round out the weekend I took my family to Floyd Bennett Field for a bike ride in the afternoon. Unfortunately it was very windy, so the kids weren’t enjoying tooling around the abandoned runways. Actually, I think they couldn’t focus on bike riding since I told them that they could sit in my lap and drive our car for a while. The end result was a lot of complaining about riding their bikes, when a much more exciting experience awaited them. The place is wide open for miles around so I had no fear of letting them steer the car. As far as I am concerned, it is my god given right as an American to let my small children steer the car while it was moving. My father did that with me, and I was going to do it with my kids. Afterwards, we drove over to the bay where my kids played in the salt marches.
It was a long and fulfilling weekend.
When I returned home, I looked at my training log from exactly one year ago and I was then happy to see that I appear to have about the same level of fitness between the two years. Just like this past Saturday, a year ago I did a 100 mile ride in Harriman State Park. My seven trips around the loop were very similar in both time and HR. The following chart is a comparison.
I may even be a little stronger. I saw that on the Sunday of last Memorial Day weekend, I only managed a 15 mile run, whereas this year I did a 20 mile run. It wasn’t my fastest training run, but the most important thing was its completion. I must not be in as bad of shape as I feared. Later on Sunday I took my children to my brother’s, where we spent time at his pool club. Afterwards, my brother got me to build a movable basketball hoop, the kind you find in many driveways. I was exhausted at this point, but I had to do it otherwise he would never leave me alone until I did it. It was completely dark outside by the time I finished.
For Monday, I also repeated my year ago workout by heading down to Coney Island for a swim. This workout was almost aborted, since my partner for the swim Robert had already left his house for a run, since he hadn’t heard from me earlier. When I called his house, his wife answered the phone and told me he went out running. I decided that my only course of action was to grab my bike and try to find him in the park and talk him into going.
Fortunately I found him quickly and talked him into going for the swim. At the end of it he was very glad that I went after him. The water was so still and clear that it had the appearance of green tinted glass. It made for a quite pleasant swim.
To round out the weekend I took my family to Floyd Bennett Field for a bike ride in the afternoon. Unfortunately it was very windy, so the kids weren’t enjoying tooling around the abandoned runways. Actually, I think they couldn’t focus on bike riding since I told them that they could sit in my lap and drive our car for a while. The end result was a lot of complaining about riding their bikes, when a much more exciting experience awaited them. The place is wide open for miles around so I had no fear of letting them steer the car. As far as I am concerned, it is my god given right as an American to let my small children steer the car while it was moving. My father did that with me, and I was going to do it with my kids. Afterwards, we drove over to the bay where my kids played in the salt marches.
It was a long and fulfilling weekend.
posted by Rebel at 3:24 PM
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