NYE Ride!
I told you I only ride on major holidays!
I was able to squeeze in one final ride for 2021 on NYE! I was off from work and the weather was pretty favorable for December so I wanted to try out my first long(er) ride, post-COVID. I planned a route south so that I could ride the boardwalk along the beach in the Rockaways and was out of my apartment and in the saddle by 10 AM.
It has been a little while since I took this route so I forgot how nice and quiet some parts of it can be! I especially loved my encounter with this horse in Fort Tilden, right before I hit the boardwalk.
Beautiful bay that I saw hanging out in a pasture along my bike path.
There was a sign warning that the horse might bite. He did. But I lived to tell the tale! I used to ride horses so it was nice little surprise to pass this guy on my bike ride.
From there, I rode along the beach on the boardwalk. It was fairly empty compared to the last time I rode it (early last summer) and I people watched since there were kayakers, surfers and people doing their own informal polar plunge.
I started my ride back home, riding through the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. I don’t always love riding this section, even though there is a bike lane; there is always a lot of debris scattered and my paranoia about getting a flat escalates. As I got to the end of the refuge, I took a snack break before crossing over the Cross Bay North Channel Bridge.
My ride back along the Jamaica Bay Greenway was relatively uneventful until I got towards the end of it, right before riding North through Sheepshead Bay. I had about 11 miles to go but suddenly, my legs felt like jelly and I was really questioning if I’d be able to finish the ride. I had been pretty good about fueling during the trip but I think this ride was a challenge for my body as I’m still recovering from COVID.
There were moments where I was certainly riding slower than I wanted to but I tried to take the time to remind myself of a few things: I’m still recovering from being sick, I haven’t ridden in a while, and also, WHO CARES HOW FAST I’M GOING? I am doing this for me and not to impress anyone. I used the music blasting from my speaker as motivation for the ride back home. I definitely didn’t enjoy the last portion, which is the uphill section of Bedford Ave, south of Eastern Parkway, but I made it home and then rang in the New Year by sitting on my couch.
Hopefully I’ll post soon about a ride done in 2022!
