A tale of two bikes

So pretty!

Now that Amanda and I have stuffed ourselves up to our eyeballs with food, we figured that some sort of aerobic activity might be in order.  After two short, but high intensity trail runs near our parent's home, a nice fall ride sounds like just the thing.

We both have had rather fraught relationships with our bikes, myself more than my sister.  For some reason, swimmers always seem to struggle with the bike the most.  Perhaps it is because so many of us have bird legs (myself included) and a mediocre sense of balance.  After many years with my trusty Scott road bike, one race spill included, I took the plunge and purchased a beeeeaaautiful Cervelo P2 two months ago with this IronMan in mind.  I am 100% certain I am not using to its full potential yet, but I'll get there.  I rode it in a late season Olympic and Sprint race in September, but now the real bonding time shall begin!

Upon the purchase of this new bike, the Scott was thusly shipped to my parent's home where I can go on rides with my sister whenever I am home visiting.  In my current food induced coma, I realized that it is still sitting it its box this morning, so off we go to get it reassembled and to purchase shoes and a helmet, both of which I neglected to send back down from NYC, oops.

When I first started triathlon, it took me a full season to really warm up to my road bike.  First it was getting used to clips, then it was figuring out how to have a bike in New York City without feeling like you are going to die via bus, taxi cab or clueless pedestrian tourist 99.9% of the time.    Everytime I would bike out to the West Side Highway Greenway, I would be so frizzled from the 2 mile city-ride across town that my hands and wrists would be sore!   A bike messenger (those guys are ballsy to the point of insanity) once took pity on me and helped me navigate through a traffic jam, no doubt after noticing the frightened expression on my face and seeing me sweaty with fear on an otherwise chilly day!

Thankfully, after moving to Brooklyn, I am now very close to Prospect Park (no cars, hooray!) and also procured a coveted bike locker at the New York Athletic Club upon joining the tri club, which gives me easy access to Central Park as well as reasonably safe passage to 9W. 

I still don't feel confident, comfortable, or even safe riding in aero in Central Park yet.  Perhaps if I go at 4 a.m. when there are no cabs, pedi cabs, horses, or careless pedestrians....guess that's the price I pay to live in that fair city.  I'll be seeing a lot of 9W in the coming months for long rides! Glad I get down to DC often enough to mix it up on the W&O trail.