Category: Biking

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No Sleep ’til Brooklyn part deux

This was my first bike ride since returning home from Oslo. I have been getting over a cold for the past week or so. I think my body has been rebelling against the NYC air quality and humidity. I had trouble getting to sleep because my legendary insomnia was in full effect as a result of the new job. Since I was wide awake I decided to go for a little late night ride. I was still missing Oslo but I felt pretty good all things considered.

I had forgotten how much I love NYC at night. I stopped biking in the city more than a year ago after being Continue reading “No Sleep ’til Brooklyn part deux”

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Really dumb stuff I did over my summer vacation

Bicycling in Norway is very different from the riding that I familiar with in NYC. The bike routes in Oslo are particularly spectacular. You can go from the suburbs to the city and then to the country within the space of an hour. The trails are rarely flat because much of the Norwegian terrain is made up of hills. So you generally find yourself struggling up steep hills or flying down sharp mountain trails. With that said, I decided to go for a fairly challenging and long bike ride this afternoon.

I had recently purchased a ContourROAM Hands-free HD Camcorder to record my travels and document my bike rides throughout Scandinavia. For my first long ride I thought it would be best to select a Continue reading “Really dumb stuff I did over my summer vacation”

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2013 Five Boro Bike Tour

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Today was an excellent day for our annual Five Boro Bike tour family outing. The wife and I have done this every year together for a least the last ten years. My son started riding with us in 2010. This was his fourth trip with us. This year was very different because this was the first major public event since the bombing of the Boston Marathon a few weeks back.

The police presence was overwhelming. There were numerous checkpoints throughout the course. I even spotted a few police snipers Continue reading “2013 Five Boro Bike Tour”

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Weekend in Sweden

Last weekend I went with the family to Sweden for a retreat with some of our scandinavian peeps. This was the first of a soon to be annual event held at the Björneröds Ridcenter. The wife and kids have been going to horseback riding camp at Björneröds for a few years now and this was a good time for us to socialize with good friends.

And to top it off, my crazy wife was covered in a local Swedish newspaper for participating in an annual swimming race across the Fjords. The water she swam in was freezing too. We were having a mini triathlon with some friends that weekend and with the exception of one other person, my wife was the only one of us to opt in for the swimming part of the competition. I on the other hand stuck to the biking portion of the competition because black people don’t like participating in freezing ass water sports.

 

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Rain, rain, go away!

The 5 Boro Bike Tour 09When the alarm went off this morning at 6:30am I almost cried. Sunday is usually the one day of the week that I am able to sleep in late. The kids were spending the weekend at Grandma’s house so it was the perfect type of Sunday to just lay in bed and watch TV. However, as we did almost every year, Ski and I had signed up to ride in the annual Five Boro Bike Tour a few months back, and today was the event.

I always enjoy this event but this year the weather was predicted to be cold and rainy for the entire day. Plus my body was still sore from the previous day when I accidentally caught an elbow to my eyebrow while grappling in Krav Maga class. So considering those factors, the last thing that I really wanted to do was ride 50 miles in the rain and cold. But with the kids and our busy schedules, it is rare that Ski and I get a whole day just to do something together on our own. So I manned up and dragged my behind out of bed to spend time with my wife.

Despite the rain and cold, I have to admit that the ride was fun. The course took us all over the city. We started in lower Manhattan and dipped all to briefly into the Bronx (i swear the Bronx gets shown no love in these events). From there we headed over a bridge back into Manhattan and down the East River Drive (even in the rain the ride down the East River Drive is always an experience). The we headed over the 59th Street Bridge into Queens then on to the BQE into Brooklyn. The final leg of the tour carried us over the Verrazzano Bridge and into Staten Island.

At the end we were wet and tired and cold. But I had a great time with my girl.