The Esplanade... Finally!

Day 21 – 3/4/09

The Esplanade, for all of you people that don’t know, is a walkway that fallows the Boston side of the Charles River. It is one of the most beautiful places in Boston. There is so much life that is along that path. There are runners and walkers, people rollerblading, and bikers. The City is on one side and the water is on the other. Today was a great day for biking in general because it was sunny and warm (finally!) So I set out towards the esplanade and ended up biking all the way to the science museum and back. It was a smooth ride where I got to see lots of people and I also was able to do some training sprints and pace work. I would take a section of the path and try and go as fast as I could from one end to the other so I could work different parts of my leg muscles. Nothing bad happened on the trip it just was a pleasant ride with pleasant weather.

As far as news for the near future I have picked up another bike that I am going to be training on till I get my tour bike. It is a mountain bike (GT Talera all terrain). Will Lubelski who is a roommate of my friend Devon is letting me barrow it for the moment. It has two side saddlebags and rides very very well. I took a 2 min ride on it and one thing that I noticed was how far over the front tire the handlebars were. It affected my riding allot (in a good way). I really am thankful that all these people are being so helpful to me. It really is nice to have support for something that is a really big challenge. I am going to be taking the other bike that my friend Becca so greatfully let me use and (with Becca’s permission) I will be handing it off to my friend Jesse Rizuko who will be starting to bike with me.

Another event that is coming up on Saturday March 14th is a bike ride with Mass Bike (www.massbike.org/) it is going to be a fun ride where we will start at the Boston Common and go to Petsi Pie in Somerville (www.petsipies.com/). If anybody would like to come, click HERE and contact Shane at shane@massbike.org. Please join a couple of my other friends and myself on a new pie adventure (I say new because I have gone on other pie adventures if you look at my previous posts).

TOTAL DISTANCE FOR DAY (TDD) : 10.61 miles
TOTAL TIME FOR THE DAY (TTD) : 60 min

TOTAL TIME TRAINING: 21 hrs 50 min
TOTAL DISTANCE TRAVELED: 157.19 Miles

My Local Bike Shop

Day 20 - 3/3/09

Have you ever felt a feeling of completeness? Something felt when you find your one true love, a really good friend, your perfect house. A sense of everything is right in the world. Well I experienced that feeling when I stepped into Harris Cyclery and had an hour and a half talk with A.J. I have found my local bike shop! Harris Cyclery (1353 Washington St. (Route 16) West Newton, MA 02465)

My trip to the store was not going to be a very long one, it was about 5 miles away but what I didn’t realize was the route that I chose was strait up a lovely little hill called Mt. Ida. The roads went from fairly flat to 50-degree incline (or something like that). Needless to say I was huffing and puffing (this time there was no glue ☺). I reached the top of the hill and realized that I could have easily just took the next road over and it would have taken me conveniently around this bump in my trip…oh well, what goes up must come down, and I flew down the other side of Mt. Ida like it was my job.

Arriving at Harris Cyclery was nice. I walked in and the shop was covered with bikes… they all looked beautiful and I wanted to ride them all. The bikes went from reclining bikes that you lay down on and the pedals are in front of you to high performance race bikes to Bike Fridays. There were two people in the back working on bikes and there was one guy at the register. Not 30 seconds into my exploring the shop I hear a voice “hey man, can I help you out” (not exact quote, I hope he wont sew). It was my soon to be bike mentor A.J. (that’s right A.J. our relationship has jump to the next level… intimidated yet?) I told him that I have this crazy idea where I plan on getting on a bike and peddling that machine 3,700 miles to San Diego for 2 months and I need as much information as I can get. After him telling me that I am some kind of crazy (thank you) he proceeds to tell me all about bicycles. From the frame building to the handlebars to the shorts that you need to wear but don’t want to be caught in at a bar. He showed me the shops tour bikes that were in my budget. They were the Jamis Aurora Touring bike and the Surly Long Haul Trucker. There were others that he showed me, such as the Bike Friday (the Folding Bikes) and the Waterford but those were either not my taste or way out of my price range (although I really do want a Bike Friday when I am able to afford another bike). I took notes on everything he said and became more and more excited with every new bit of information I received. I was a student again and this class is my favorite. A.J. and I exchanged information and Not only am I going to be buying a bike from this place but A.J. suggested that I could get some training on bike maintenance from him also…this was exactly what I wanted.

After my stay at the bike shop I left in a daze and a Boston Bike map (which shows all the routes that are safe for bikers) my mind was full of information and I was re energized about my trip. I started biking back to my place (the not so hilly way) and decided to stop at this wonderful pizza shop called SWEET TOMATOES (1279 Washington St. W. Newton, MA 0465). It is a great little place on the corner of a block. It was a clean modern hangout with great pizza ranging from traditional to a white three cheese pizza (which was fantastic). I got my two slices and took my time to study my new map and see what adventures await me. I was complete. My stomach was being filled, I have taken another step in my bike adventure and the day was beautiful. I wouldn’t say that I could die now but my mind was clear and everything was right with the world (and still is).

Note about Pictures. they are coming I have lost my cord to connect my camera to my computer...so they are coming.

TOTAL DISTANCE FOR DAY (TDD) : 12 miles
TOTAL TIME FOR THE DAY (TTD) : 90 min

TOTAL TIME TRAINING: 20 hrs 50 min
TOTAL DISTANCE TRAVELED: 146.58 Miles

New Cards, New Cameras, New Bike!

Day 19(2) – 2/24/09 + 2/25/09

The weather was great then the one-day I was able to actually go biking snowfalls like that’s its job. Well I have to say it does make me sad that getting on my bike is dangerous, but I can’t be too sad because these last couple of days have been very productive for the planning stages of my trip. I have received my business cards so it is easier to tell people about my blog (www.vistaprint.com) and I have received some funding to buy a new bike! This trip is really coming around. I have been looking at bikes of all different brands. The ones that have peeked my interest so far has been Fuji bikes (www.fujibikes.com), and Bike Fridays (www.bikefriday.com) and there are many more that I haven’t checked out yet. The fuji bike is probably no what I am going to go with, I just like the look and the name but I think fuji focuses on race bikes more and I don’t need a race bike. Bike Fridays are a very interesting type of bike. I was told about them by my mom (Kathy) because when she biked across the country for her 50th (that’s right she did it!), one of the women that she was riding with is now continuing to bike all around the world using a Bike Friday. It is a folding bike that has a high amount of gears so it can counteract the size of the wheels and then the case that the bike folds up into, after getting off the plan in, I don’t know…New Zealand, you can just use it as a trailer to store your travel goods. This bike really interests me, it’s the right price $999, it is specifically designed for what I want to do, it would be very useful in the future after my trip across the country, but there is just something that bothers me about the size of the wheels. I feel as though no matter how many gears you add, the amount of energy you exert will still be greater than if you had larger wheels. I could be wrong but it just doesn’t feel right. I looked at some reviews and they said that the bike is fantastic and the only down side is that when going up hills the speed is slower and also the amount of shock that gets absorbed by the wheels is significantly less than a larger wheel type. There is a bike shop not far away from my apartment called Harris Cyclery (www.HarrisCyclery.com) this shop has several Bike Fridays so I was going to go check it out and see what I’m missing out on. I am going to continue to keep looking and researching for the best bike for me and then I will get it…ride it, and well obsess over it.

So along with this exiting news of finances for my bike I have been doing some research on cameras and storage devices. I went to Boston camera (which is a rental place) and asked around about lipstick camera…which are called that because they look like a tube of lipstick….I was told to check out Rule (S/P) in Watertown because they could definitely advise me on more details about what I am going to want to get the picture that I want. I plan on having 3 cameras. I would have one lipstick on my bike, one in my parents RV (to capture their day to day activity), and one HD camera that I can use to capture locations that I stop at. I would store these to a hard drive and upload them to a server so Cody my friend/producer can start editing the footage together so we can release the documentary in sections as I travel. This style of creation will allow for people to interact with me through the Internet and in person and be directly involved in the documentary and my trip.

I keep looking outside while I am writing this and saying to my self I can get on my bike in that amazing wind and small pellets of snow…. I probably shouldn’t though. Well I will just continue to plan my trip and keep you all up to date on my next adventures.

P.S. There is a Facebook fan page names “Against the Wind” please join it and help support me and the documentary. Thank you all.

TOTAL DISTANCE FOR DAY (TDD) : 5 miles
TOTAL TIME FOR THE DAY (TTD) : 25 min

TOTAL TIME TRAINING: 19 hrs 20 min
TOTAL DISTANCE TRAVELED: 134.58 Miles