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It’s always the same at the beginning. You feel like you’re the perfect match. You’re excited at the possibilities of what you can accomplish with each other. You spend as much time as you can together, going everywhere and exploring new places together. You are inseparable and life is grand.

Even the places you’ve already been to suddenly have a new feel to them. You start to notice the beauty of the world all around you. Every little adventure you go on leaves you with a high that you can’t explain. It’s as if life couldn’t get any better.

But then one day something happens. Something changes and doubt sets in. You start to lose confidence and feel unstable. Try as you might, you can’t figure out where the problem is. You make adjustments but nothing seems to help. Maybe you even explain it to somebody else, but they take a look but can’t figure it out either.

Eventually you have to give in to the fact that you can’t fix the problem and you need to spend some time apart. Perhaps somebody else can sort out the issue that is beyond your understanding. Suddenly you find yourself sitting at home, twiddling your thumbs and daydreaming of your time together, fantasizing about where you could go right now and have an amazing time. If only you were still together…

Sigh.

Fortunately when you buy a bike at Danny’s Cycles they give you a free tune-up! That means they can take a look at why gears keep switching on me, especially when I’m going up hill in low gear, causing me to lose my balance and having to bail. It gets pretty frustrating!

That’s what happened to me several times during my ride in Mianus River Park in Stamford, Connecticut on Sunday. At the last minute somebody from the Stamford Bicycle Group put together a beginner ride at 10am. I hadn’t worn myself out from my ride on the Bronx River Trailway, so I most definitely wanted to go.

I made the 40 minute trip to the park listening to a bunch of 80′s songs I had bought from iTunes the night before. Stuff like Tears for Fears, Simple Minds, Ta’Pau, Crowded House, Flock of Seagulls, Squeeze, etc. It’s suggested that mountain biking is something you shouldn’t do alone, so I’ve discovered that I’m excited at the idea of driving an hour to go riding with somebody on actual dirty trails.

I was the only other person to show up to the meetup besides the guy running it. I’m always worried that I’m going to be bumming out other people’s rides because I’m still a beginner and shy about doing anything that feels uncomfortable or difficult. After my skateboarding incident I just want to take it slow, if only to delay any injury I may suffer. I want to enjoy myself for a bit first! Fortunately John (the ride leader) was patient and helpful.

The park is really beautiful and seems to be covered with trails of varying levels of difficulty. This is the third time I’ve been out on actual dirty trails and the third time they’ve been a muddy mess. I can only hope this will make dry trails seem like cake.

About midway through our ride my chain/back gear really started acting up. I’ve been having a problem where the deraullier seems to need to reset itself, right when I’m doing some important pedaling. last week it kept knocking off the plastic chain guard in the back which eventually broke and I just removed. I think that resorted in the chain now completely coming off the biggest gear in the back and rubbing against my spokes.

John took a look and made a few adjustments which seemed to help for a bit but eventually I realized I was just going to have to bring it in for my free tune-up. I decided to do it that day in the hopes of getting my bike back before the upcoming 3 day weekend.

But boy did I sweat on this ride! I feel like this was my first real ride. At the Fat Tire Festival and the clinic I went to we stopped a lot so it wasn’t one long intense ride. I’m sure for John Sunday’s ride was cake but for me it was a nice step up from what I’ve been doing. I had to bail on some things but was also able to take on some difficult stuff. We rode for about an hour and a half. I’m so glad I got that CamelBak!

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera on the ride so I wasn’t able to take any pictures of the trails, the river or the big red barn we met at. Definitely a very scenic ride that’s worth the trip.

I think this week’s biking purchase will be a new helmet as I am using the one I got for skateboarding which is all black and has very little ventilation. It’s also not very aerodynamic so I look like a big mushroom head in it. I’m also thinking of replacing my big front gear with a “bash ring”. This is a metal disc that doesn’t jut out like the big gear (making getting over logs easier) and helps protect your middle front gear.

Hopefully the 4th of July weekend will be filled with lots of mountain biking!

After a failed attempt at trying to put together a beginner’s trail ride at Blue Mountain Reservation, I decided to take a ride on the Bronx River Trailway. When I was younger my dad would take us out on the trail starting from the Kensico Dam in Valhalla where I grew up. I probably haven’t ridden on the trail in about 20 years. Other than few extra connecting paths it seems not much has changed in all that time. I made it all the way down to Scarsdale but couldn’t figure out how to get to the next section of the trail. I looked around for a bit but eventually gave up and decided to head back.

On the way down I noticed a large turtle slowly slogging through the wet puddles of grass along the trail. I decided to stop and get him on tape (SD card) since I had never seen one so big before.

I also recorded a little video of the turtle walking.

A female runner stopped to watch as well and we talked a little bit. She said she was from Germany and didn’t think they have wild turtles there. We both agreed that his spiky tail was pretty cool. I realized later that I should’ve asked her for her email address since she seemed to want a picture of the turtle. Maybe in her search for turtle pictures she’ll come across my blog…

Today’s ride was also a test of my new CamelBak Hydration Pack which is very cool – literally! For those of you who don’t know (I didn’t) a CamelBak is a little back pack that has a pouch for water inside and a tube with a mouthpiece coming out of it. This allows you to easily drink water while you’re riding without having to reach down and pull a water bottle out (which can also be your backup/additional water supply). It also has pockets that you can put a bunch of stuff in like a mini-pump, multi-tool, snacks, etc. I filled it up with water last night and left the removable pouch in the fridge to keep it cool. After my 1.5 hour ride today the water was still nice and cold. Definitely a great purchase!

I’m glad I didn’t wear myself out today because somebody ended up organizing a beginners ride at Mianus River Park in Connecticut tomorrow. One of the guys from my Dungeons & Dragons campaign might be joining us so it should hopefully be a nice ride. I am also hoping the upcoming holiday weekend provides a number of biking opportunities.

In other semi-related news, this past week was the last days of my friend Seth‘s time at Time. We joke around a lot but I can honestly say he has helped me become a better developer and person during our time working together. He is in the process of scoping out mountain bikes on eBay and if he ends up getting one I may have to make a trip up to Massachusetts one weekend to do some riding with him.

Today I attended the 2009 Fat Tire Festival up at Blue Mountain Park, hosted by the Westchester Mountain Bike Association.

It started at 10am, but I didn’t get there until about 11:30am. The drive up was rain-filled but by the time I got to Peekskill the clouds were parting and the sun was shining through. As soon as I got into the parking area I saw tons of cars and lots of riders. I parked, got my bike out, strapped on my helmet and headed up to the festival area. There were a bunch of tents, most of them for bike store’s or bike manufacturers. After a bike limbo contest (mostfly for kids it seemed) they announced there were going to be various rides going out. I decided to join the beginner ride, lead by a rider from Trail Masters Touring and met up with the group at the tail end of a quick clinic.

Apparently when you’re going down hill you should be leaning back with your butt just above your tire and using both breaks. When going up steep hills you should be in a low gear, leaning forward with your elbows in. We only tried them once or twice but I tried to keep both techniques in mind when we were out on the trail.

We headed into the woods and took on a number of inclines and declines. The trails were very muddy in many spots due to all the rain, so that made traversing them a bit header than it normally would be. With so many people in the group it became difficult to get up hills, especially when the person in front of you had to bail half way up. We eventually learned to give some space between people.

About midway through the ride one of the riders cut herself on her ankle. She ignored it at first but then I think the blood started to get to her. While we were stopped she decided to sit down but then the sight of the blood really started to get to her, eventually causing her to pass out. Fortunately there was a nurse in the group of riders and after a few minutes and some Gatorade the woman was feeling better. To be safe, the trail leader got some drivers to come drive her pack to the festival.

It was at this point that I realized that the “sweeper” on our ride was somebody I knew from West Lake High School (my high school’s “competing” school). Unfortunately his chain broke when he went to retrieve the EMT for the woman, so he had to head back before we finished.

For the second half of the trek we took on some single track trails. These were skinnier (duh) and more winding. We traversed a few logs along the way as well. At some point I did something and almost fell but was able to save myself at the last moment. The guy behind me said, “Nice catch!” but I was just glad I didn’t make a fool of myself. That was one nice thing about the beginner ride though, there were plenty of people that were just as clueless/inexperienced as me. By the end of the ride my bike was fairly muddy, but it felt great to finally really break it in.

Once we got back I got some lunch and decided to track down the guy from West Lake. One lesson I learned during the ride in the woods is that it’s not really something you want to do alone, so I figured it would be good to make some friends in the biking world. The guy turned out to be Bill Winters who is apparently an accomplished cinematographer! Now I know why he was curious about what I was shooting with my camcorder. We talked a bit about biking and I explained my skatebord to mountain bike transition. I hooked up with him on Facebook, so hopefully we can get together for some rides.

I wanted to head out on another beginner’s ride but it was almost 3 at this point and I wanted to go see Will at his fiance’s birthday party, especially since we haven’t seen each other in almost two months and he’s an avid biker (but racing).

If there’s an opening, I’ll hopefully be attending a clinic next Saturday run by Trail Masters Touring. If there aren’t any openings I might head up to the Sterwart State Forest Bike Tour instead.

On Saturday I embarked on my first bike ride in a long time. Probably 10 years or so.

After a quick hair cut in the morning, I head over to Danny’s Cycles to get a few more items: shoes, socks, sunglasses, a pump and a seat pack. I also bought some electrolyte snack to try out.

I then headed over to the Tarrytown Reservoir where the North County Trailway starts. I felt a little silly in my gear at first, but soon realized most everybody else on the trail is wearing something similar.

The first part of the ride was great. It was along the Saw Mill River Parkway, but set back enough from the road that you couldn’t really hear the cars. There’s also plenty of shade – something I’m a big fan of. Between Briarcliff Manor and Millwood you have to spend some time on the shoulder of Route 100 which is a little bit of a drag. Cars are whizzing by and there was occasionally garbage or glass in the shoulder of the road.

Once you get to Millwood serenity returns and you’re once again away from the road and shaded by the canopy of trees. After passing through Millwood and Kitchawan you get to cross a bridge on the New Croton Reservoir. The wooden planks of the bridge were “squishy” as I rode across them, like they were full of water and ready to break!

This is where I stopped to take a little break and enjoy the scenery.

After my break I continued north into Yorktown Heights. Along the way I came across a large tree that fell across the path. A cop was there helping people get their bikes over the tree and probably waiting for a chainsaw. I also rode past a skatepark but there was only a young, lone skater there so I didn’t bother to stop.

By now I was pretty hungy so I stopped at the first place I saw in Yorktown Heights – some deli that is apparently home to the “Wacky Sandwhich”. I settled for my own wacky sandwhich and got salami on a cinnamon raisin bagel. I also got some fresh water and a snack for the ride back.

The last few miles were a little grueling, but I managed to get back to my car without passing out. from Eastview to Yorktown Heights I believe I covered around 35 miles, give or take a few. 95% of the trailway is flat, so it’s not like I was going up any enormous hills, but considering it was my first time out on a bike in a long time, I’m proud of the distance I covered. I do think I will take it a little easier next time though – I was pretty wiped the day after!

One thing I learned is that I definitely need to get some biking shorts. By the time I was heading back, my butt was feeling pretty sore and unhappy from all the pedaling/movement. Next week I’ll be making another stop at the bike shop to pick up some shorts before I head out on the trail.

Perhaps next weekend I’ll try the South County Trailway!