Cross-training. I've been mostly putting time on the bike trainer, set up in the cool basement with a fan clipped to a microphone stand right in front of me; set the resistance on the trainer, put on a mix CD, start a stopwatch, and climb through the gears, going up one every five minutes for 40-60 minutes, figuring it so that ten minutes are spent in the highest gear before dropping down to lower gears to finish off.

But today I hit the road for the first time in two weeks, finally going beyond "Exit 2" up 9W (it's Exit 2 off the Palisades Parkway), crossing the border into Upstate New York. I don't know how my brother used to go on 70 mile rides when he was in high school. That means 35 miles out and back. I'd have to look at a map to see where he got those 35 miles, not that I'd even try going that kind of distance. Friggin' nuts. I totalled 37 miles today, going 17 miles up 9W and turning back at the New York State Thruway, right before Nyack, NY - which is the extent of my geographical knowledge of the area. I recall spending a July 4th during high school years with my brother's friends at Carl Sapphire's riparian vacation house in Nyack, getting drunk (and asthma) on wine coolers and shooting off fireworks. Weird. It's a totally isolated memory.

For such a heavily cycled corridor, 9W still isn't particularly bike friendly. Or maybe I've just been spoiled at the breadth cyclists are given in the Bay Area. There just isn't that much room out here. And for all the wildlife, cyclists should name the 9W corridor the Tour de Roadkill. It's distressing constantly trying to not ride over flattened animals. Poor things. Although I don't think anything will get as gross as when I accidentally ran over a freshly killed squirrel in Pleasant Hill (Bay Area) and upon getting to the BART station, finding bits of squirrel gut clinging to my brake cables. Bleah.

Another difference between here and the Bay Area is that I averaged 17.1 mph over 37 miles. In the Bay Area, my average averages were in the 15 mph range because of the landscape. It was a climber's paradise of sorts. 9W is a rolleurs paradise, and there is hardly a climb in the area worth calling a climb.