Renegade

     I have always been looking for ways to think outside the box and to make do with what I'm given. That's pretty much the life story of the US Marine Corps, the smallest branch with the smallest budget given the toughest job. So, when it came to making up the next training plan for May 1st, I wanted to focus on our cycling skills. Unfortunately, New York City does not offer a lot of  bike routes that offer a large amount of mileage. I mean there are, but it'll involve a lot of intersections, turns, pot holes and wreckless drivers. Luckily, that training day would be the same day as the NYC 5 borough bike tour.
    A few of Team Zombie's members were already signed up as front end marshalls. It would be too late for the rest of the team to sign up. The event was sold out and I don't think any one of us wanted to pay its high registration fee. So we decided to ride bandit. Normally, I would condone illegal acts, but come on! You can't miss a great training opportunity when it presents itself. 

Renegades ready to jump into the pack

     We all met up around Astoria along the area in which the bike tour would have a rest station at Astoria park. Everyone was set and ready and hopped right into the flow of bicycles, thousands of them. We were headed south on 14th Street in Queens, headed towards Brooklyn. Cyclists owned the road and people along the side cheered on. It was a beautiful day in New York. No better way to experience the city than on a bike. You're not restricted to the confines of an automobile. Negotiating traffic is easier but you still must think safety.

Apex of the Gowanus BQE. Regrouping and enjoying the view

Zombies helping fellow cyclist fix a flat

Jeremy loving his fresh new ride

West bound Brooklyn Queens Expressway all to ourselves

    As we rode into Brooklyn, I noticed the road paint and saw how much of the road was a dedicated bike lane, some parts all green. We rode through Greenpoint, Williamsburgh and DUMBO before hopping on to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. Given the amount of traffic, road construction and highway closures in New York, it felt great to have a highway to yourself while riding a bike. I definitely felt privileged. Then came the uphill portion of the Gowanus. I said to a guy on a bike on my right "Now I know why there's always traffic here. It's a hard up hill and even the cars have trouble making it up the incline". He laughed as he slowly drifted behind. Probably conserved his energy from laughing to be used for getting up the hill.
    Our group was strung out thin as we got to the top of the hill. We decided to stop and wait for others and took a moment to take a glimpse at the massive amounts of bikers off in the distance. I was in awe. I imagined what life would be like if we only rode bikes instead of having automobiles. Team Zombie helped a cyclist fix a flat and we were off downhill to continue the rest of the route.
    We were going smooth and fast down the highway, an awesome joy ride. It would be cut short as the 3 lane highway merged into one lane. Ride organizers created a stop in which they would send off a small amount of riders at a time down the one lane. This created a stand still and a headache. Everyone dismounted as we moved up to the stop.

A congested highway. Awesome t-shirt!!

    We finished our ride at the foot of the Verrazano bridge. If we had crossed we'd get stuck in Staten Island with no way getting back and supposedly there's a checkpoint there to make sure all riders were registered tour riders. Being in western Brooklyn, you can't turn down a good opportunity to grab some chow and for Team Zombie, that is the moral builder.
    Finding a small Korean BBQ restaurant we parked our bikes on the sidewalk and caught lunch. Afterwards, some took the subway home and some of us rode our bikes back to Astoria. Great way to end the day.

Thumbs up from Vincent who also got a new ride

Verrazano Bridge in the background

    On a different note we are now about 3 days away from our biathlon. The team is ready. I don't know about the rest of team but I definitely feel a lot of excitement and my heart races as I think about it. The hard work we put in will definitely show come race day and I know for a fact everyone will be successful.

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".