Mount up and move out

Sunday's bike route

 This Sunday was the first group ride for Team Zombie. A cold 30 degree morning made us layer up with different layers. For all of us, it would be the first ride of the year. Team member Same Evans just picked up his bike from the shop after a tune up the day prior. He made sure his bike was ready for what this year would bring. Ready for the ride, four of us loaded up into Eddie Garces Honda Ridgeline and proceeded to Washington Heights.

Surprisingly, there was no traffic on the Cross Bronx Expressway. Everything was looking up and we quickly found parking 2 blocks away from the bike entrance ramp of the bridge. Tires were inflated, extra layers were added on, minor adjustments were made, and off we went.

Sam Evans (middle) Frank Garces (top) Joseph Zoleta (left)

Loaded

As for me, the beginning was a challenge. Getting used to using clipped pedals was difficult. Learning to use them back then was hard enough so clipping on to the pedals was hard to start especially uphill. Eventually, it would be "a lot like riding a bike". You never really forget how to do it.

Minor tweeks while on the bridge

Traffic on the GWB

We would meet with Team member Bud Pusposuharto half way on the bridge. Bud lives in New Jersey. He parked on the other side and would be our guide on this ride. He was more familiar with the route than all of us put together.

Eddie Garces (Left) Joseph Zoleta (right)

The bridge was windy and freezing. Snots were flying as we were riding across. The rendezvous with Bud went off without a hitch. We would ride up Route 9W headed north. Our turn around point would be a Japanese restaurant on the west side of the road called Kiku Alpine Restaurant.  We broke off the rust of our bikes and on our bike riding skills. Four of us had road bikes. Bikes that were built for rides like this. Lightweight, high speed, and low drag bikes that make pedaling the open asphalt road feel like riding on butter. Unfortunately for team member Jane Zoleta, she was riding her sister's hybrid style bike. She would have a hard time on hills but kept up well with our sad looking "peloton".

The ride back was easier with an average speed of 12mph according to one of our GPS devices. Before we knew it, we were back at the bridge. I would say it was a successful first ride. Today we rode for approximately 20 miles. Hopefully, more of our team members would join us soon for the next training event.

L to R; Jane Zoleta, Joseph Zoleta, Bud Pusposuharto, Sam Evans, Eddie Garces

The next, training event will take place this coming Sunday, April 3rd at Alley Pond Park. Here we will do our first brick workout. A brick workout is one trains in two skills in the same training session. For example, run then bike quickly after or vice versa. We will be covering half the distance of our biathlon. Time to get used to the feeling of doing three events. The muscles have to be trained. "The more we sweat in training, the less we bleed in battle".