Training camp

I'm not complaining, but having Elliot around has made it tough to get in many miles on the fleet of bikes. Last week, I had a work-related conference to attend, Enterprise 2.0. (Excellent write-up here.) I spent way too much time figuring out the best way to get to the hotel, the Westin Boston Waterfront. All options were bad: driving, driving to Alewife/T/walk 1 mile, driving to Wilmington/commuter rail/T/T/walk 1 mile, get dropped off at bus stop/bus to Alewife/T/walk 1 mile. All were 90 minutes+. So, I decided to ride. Ed got my Redline ready for action and gave me a great route.

Here she is, many years ago in San Diego:




I went through the backroads of my town to Horn Pond (where I rode on the bike path), then on to the Mystic Valley Parkway where I learned to sprint when I was in grad school, then past a couple of places where I used to live in Medford and into Cambridge, over the Charles River by the Museum of Science, around Boston Garden, onto Congress Street past Faneuil Hall, on to Summer Street over the Fort Point Channel.

Getting back to the title: I ride so infrequently now that 4 days of 2x18-mile rides is a "training camp" these days.

I really enjoyed the ride, though it hurt to get up early enough to feed Elliot and then ride in, as I was pretty slow with the backpack and then needed to get cleaned up at the hotel. The bellhops all got to know me, as the hotel suggested that I keep my bike in the bell closet. :)

On the first day, I randomly saw Rachel walking around with her baby on my way home. We had a nice chat.

After the second day, I put a bell on my bike because of a few close calls with drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. It really worked well on days 3 and 4.

If I go to the conference again next year, I am pretty sure I will ride again. Training camp paid off: I went on the NEBC women's ride earlier this week and was not last up Strawberry Hill or Page Hill (I should also note that I was not in the fastest group). So, progress!