liquidjill

What an amazing, amazing day, and what a perfect start to spring!

I started the day at a delicious market 2 blocks from my apartment. I would have made breakfast but I was in such a hurry to get on the train and start my journey I decided to pick up a sandwich and eat on the train.

Don’t you love the name?

It turned out to be a perfectly delicious and well-timed idea. The train came within a few moments of me getting to the platform and I was on my way to queens! I did have enough time to snap a picture of this really ridiculous billboard I found.

What in the world has Photoshop done to this poor child’s head? Bizarre.

My travels took me on two trains (the A and J) and 2 boroughs. After over an hour of transit (which was tough since it was nearing 70 degrees out at this point and sunny and amazing) I finally arrived at ADT bikes.

Russell, who has been there for me from the very start of this bike buying business was there and continued to be incredibly helpful.

If you happen to live anywhere nearby this was by far the best bike shop experience I’ve had in New York.

We outfitted the bike with a seat wedge (mine was stolen last year – it was so nice to move everything back out of the ziplock!), a water bottle and cage and a Velcro attachment for my pump.

Here’s a pic from the store in the midst of the outfitting.

Then, what was probably the most exciting moment of my year so far finally took place.

I hopped on my bike and rode it home in the sun!

It’s difficult to explain how much joy I get from riding a bike, all I can say is my ride home took about an hour and the only thing that hurt was my face from smiling so hard the entire time.

I made a quick stop at the farmers market on my way, picked up some delicious cheese and snapped a few pics of Fort Greene Park in these early stages of spring.

When I got home I couldn’t help but take more pics of the bike.

And in it’s new home.

While I was admiring the new addition to my family of bikes the gorgeous Shosh and Alex stopped by! It’s always so nice to share a day this fantastic with friends. Plus the two of them are made of awesome. Don’t you think?

Alex had to run to work so Shosh and I decided to go on an afternoon bike ride. Shocker right?

She rode my old GT and I busted out my track bike. The new Trek will get some long distance action tomorrow on a daylong ride with Wendy but for knocking around Prospect Park I was feeling the fixie.
Can you believe this was Shosh’s first time on a road bike? She kicked so much butt it was amazing.

At the park it seemed everyone felt the intoxication of this crazy warm beautiful first day of spring. Laughter and kids abounded and live music just added to the mix.

At the park we met another friend/cyclist Greg.

We all rode a bunch of loops together chatting and laughing and having a blast. The only thing better than a bike ride is a bike ride with some friends.

When we got home Shosh and I threw together some whole-wheat pita veggie sammiches with roasted red pepper hummus, zucchini, yellow squash, red peppers, melted cheese from the farmers market, some fresh spinach and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Sorry, no pics cause we ate them almost before I could finish making them! Biking makes hungry!

Tonight I’m planning an early night since my big ride starts pretty early tomorrow. So exciting!!! I’m going to try and get some pics of me actually on the new bike tomorrow if I can!

Happy Spring everyone!

It’s sunny, it’s beautiful, it’s warm and I am picking up my brand new bike today!!

(note the high of 73!!!)

I have to head all the way to Queens to get it, but it’s totally worth the schlep and I plan to have the wind in my hair by 1pm at the latest! No more hot yoga on a sunny Saturday for me!

Have an amazing day! I am off to sow in the spoils of early spring!

Yesterday was a torrential, soggy, windy mess and I decided it was best to postpone picking up my new bike until next week.

The winds were whipping at 40+ mph and broken umbrellas littered the streets of the city.  It was all I could do to head to midtown and exchange a bag I had picked up a few weeks ago. In my effort to cut down on the weight and number of things I carry on a daily basis I had selected a really tiny bag and after around a week of deliberating I decided it just wasn’t going to work. When you take a train into work and could be gone for 15 hours without any easy opportunity to run back home it’s important to be able to carry stuff around.

Stuff like a water bottle for example, which comes in awfully handy if a train screeches to a halt and stays there for almost an hour, underground, in semi darkness. This is exactly what happened on my way home from the city yesterday. I was so thankful for my water and my music and for “Water for Elephants” the book I’m reading on my iPhone. I was also happy I had a seat on the train, as it really would have sucked to be standing that whole time.

Anyway, I managed to find a new bag I that I love, check it out:

Doesn’t it look cozy on my big brown comfy chair?

It has tons of room, lots of cute pockets and it’s brown so it’ll match all kinds of stuff that the black bag does not.

It’s no new bike, but it is useful and it was purchased with a gift certificate from my mom, so I’ll think of her each time I use it.

Last night I got together with a couple of friends and had a little dinner party. We had steak, potatoes and veggies cooked to delicious perfection by my friends Alex and Shosh. We followed it up with a  pretty terrific dessert too. I brought an assortment of goodies and some semi-sweet chocolate which we melted down and, well, take a look:

Now it certainly wasn’t the most healthy of desserts, but it was delicious. Sharing it with good friends made it that much better as well!

Early today I met my friend Amoy for a delicious brunch at Piquant in Park Slope. I decided on the sweet potato tamale with pulled pork in green chile sauce with honey roasted pumpkin seeds.

So yum! I’ll be hitting the gym every day this week I think, but this was so worth it. I need to learn how to cook pork at some point in my adult life. I spent so many years as a vegetarian I still find myself cooking mostly without meat. I would love to learn to recreate this dish though.

I spent the afternoon cleaning the apartment and cooking up some quinoa for this weeks lunches. I’ll also be tossing some overnight oats on the stove before I head to bed.

Work is really turning around these days and I’m finding myself looking forward to Mondays again. I love this as it has been too long and I would always rather it be this way.

The new plan is to pick up the new bike on Saturday. It looks like it’ll be nice weather so hopefully I’ll get a nice long ride in as well.

Off to do a little serious writing now, have a happy Sunday evening!

Today I’m supposed to go pick up my brand new beautiful road bike. It’s at the shop, ready and waiting for me and has been for days. I have everything I need go grab it – the nice already broken in seat off my old bike and the awesome clipless pedals. All extracted, bagged up and ready to roll but alas the weather is dreadful!

I mean, rain, rain, rain. It’s the kind that’s been around for days and will continue to linger for many more. Basically, if I go get my bike today its maiden journey will be by train, which would be a total bummer. But, the weather looks to improve around Wednesday and it would be incredibly cool to have the bike here and ready to ride if say, next Saturday morning looks good. Which at this point it kinda does.

So at this point it looks like I’m going to schlep over and pick up the bike and both it and I will ride home together on the J.

I’m headed off to the gym to run a few miles and think this over. Gah.

You want to know a sad sight? A box full of microwave single serve popcorn when you just blew up the darned microwave.

What a bummer.

Alanis Morrisette might call it ironic, but I think it’s just bad freakin luck. Ah well.

As you may have guessed it has been an action packed fun filled couple of days with lots of friends, lots of outings and a particularly memorable movie night featuring the new Alice in Wonderland. Well, I suppose you might not have guess ALL that, but seriously, good times. If you were wondering how the movie was I’d have to go with a strong “ok”. Definitely not necessary to plunk 20 bucks on the 3D IMAX version, even though it was by my beloved Tim Burton. In other words, mosey, but definitely don’t run.

Tonight my train, which usually takes about 20 minutes, took well over an hour to get me home. So frustrating as I watched the time tick by and realized I would miss my spin class. Strangly though, work’s been super stressful and by the time I got home the only class option for me was yoga, which turned out to be exactly what I needed to relax and unwind. Isn’t funny how things work out like that?

With such a late class, I wound up eating dinner at 10:30 which consisted of me scarfing a black bean burger with some hummus and sprouts just about as fast as I could inhale it. I was also able to cook up a quick batch of granola so I have something to put in my yogurt. Tomorrow I’m going to get back to the meal cooking thing for lunches the rest of the week. Dining out is delicious, but crazy expensive in the city. Note: today’s sushi lunch was made of yum and I am not complaining.
Time to wind down, read some more of the incredibly addictive “The Help” and get my butt to bed.

Only 4 more days until I pick up my new bike!!

I’m starting my day out healthy this morning with some “kind of baked” oatmeal. I say “kind of,” because I’m starting with overnight oats, which are technically already cooked. I just happen to have, ahem,  blown up the microwave last week (shhh) so I’m back to heating everything the old fashioned way again, which I think I prefer anyway. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself!

So what I did was toss some cold cooked overnight oats in a small baking dish with some almond butter, flax seed, soy milk, a small hand full of currants, some cinnamon and a little bit of honey on top. I would have added a banana but I’m out!
The mission this week is to make all my meals at home and purchase nothing but some veggies. I need to use some of this random food that’s been accumulating in my fridge. I always feel so guilty throwing it out.

Today it is finally going to be a beautiful day in NYC. I have hot yoga at noon but my plan is to hustle a shower, hop on my bike and take my first pre-spring outdoor ride! I don’t know how far I’ll get as it’s only 40 degrees out there, but even if it’s too cold for riding I’ll grab the camera and go for a really long walk. I’d like to get some pictures up of my beautiful neighborhood, and document the unfurling of spring.

Tonight I’m headed into the city for some more adventure with friends. My goal is to find some place with really good live music tonight, as I’m so ready to get my dance on.

I love the way the city feels right now. People are just starting to crack open their doors and peek apprehensively outside. New York does quite a bit of hibernating in the winter and it’s always amazing to watch as people finally emerge, check the sky and bathe their faces in the sun a little.

Only 8 more days until one of my favorite heralders of the season, daylight savings!

One of my favorite things about cycling, running, yoga and being active in general is meeting other people that also feel passionate about such things. I mean it’s one thing to ride a bike to the beach on a warm summer weekend morning, but it is exponentially better to do it with some friends. The pic is of my (now old GT) bike and my amazing friend Wendy’s Jamis on a beautiful day last summer.

I’m so excited to be a participant in the Napa Echelon Gran Fondo in May, and an awesome side benefit has been joining a team for the ride and getting an opportunity to connect with other passionate cyclists. A lot of people look at cycling as a solo sport and though, like running it can be done alone, it gets so much more interesting when you add a team, or better yet 20 teams into the mix.

People ask me how I can sit and watch the Tour De France for hours and hours every summer – but to me it’s fascinating. Everything from the technical aspects of drafting to the biological art of eating on the bike, to the social aspects of community amongst riders appeals to me. So many factors uniting to create a complex and consistently interesting sport! How could it not be fun to watch, I wonder?

Why are some people better climbers? How important is cadence? Double or triple chain ring? All of these are questions with so many different answers, or answers that evolve with the level of ones riding. Meeting others that think about and ask these kinds of questions is refreshing and wonderful. All of it makes me so psyched for my new bike and for the spring.

So, although spin classes are still currently in the rotation, it won’t be long now before I roll down the familiar Ocean Parkway, past Coney Island and onward to the beach with some dear friends. And not long after that, a flight to the west coast and a first time ever ride through Napa. So much to look forward to, come on out and join me for a ride.

Today I’ve got some really awesome news and some not so awesome news.

First off, the awesome:

I found my new bike!! Beautiful huh? I searched far and wide and for quite some time, but it was only with the help of friends that I found exactly what I was looking for.

It’s a Trek 2.1 WSD (Woman’s Specific Design). This means that with any luck the lower back pain that I often get on longer rides should vastly improve. That’s pretty rad news all around especially since my back really started to bother me towards the end of last season. The old GT has a super long top tube (touring geometry) and I had to lean pretty far forward even in my tallest stance. Not ideal after 3 or 4 hours on the bike let me tell ya.

The new Trek is also black, which is exactly the color I was looking for, but afraid to even say and jinx it. To be honest I’d have taken any color as long as the bike was a good fit, lightweight and sporting decent components.

I don’t actually have the bike for another week or so (it’s being shipped from California), but I’m so excited to get it on the road and start some serious Century training! Spin class is fun, but it’s a very pale comparison to the real thing.

On the not so great note – my snowboarding plans fell through so I’ll be spending another weekend right here in the city. I figure I’ll do a little yoga and maybe have some local adventures with friends. There’s also a bus to a small local slope I might hop on, who knows? I’m going make the best of it and create a beautiful weekend, wherever I wind up.

I’m off to do a little stretching since spin class tonight was once again intense. Have a happy Monday!

P.S. I’m reading The Time Travelers Wife which I heard was kind of a lousy movie. Well, the book is amazing – run don’t walk – I’m completely smitten.

So I seem to have gotten real busy living all of a sudden. This is not a bad thing!

Between the usual yoga and spin classes 3-4 times a week, and now regular outings on the town with friends I find fewer and fewer evenings are spent relaxing at home.  I’m enjoying the social time but again, balance is necessary and I really think it’s important that I write every day.

I had the most amazing night last night though! In the past 24 hours we’ve gotten nearly 17 inches of snow, which is A LOT no matter where you live I think. The roads are pretty clear now, but the schools closed today and I worked from home.

Anyway, last night, just as this mess was at its peak I was chilling with 3 good friends in midtown at a Broadway show! It was a total surprise, and free due to my friend Amoy’s amazing connections. The play was a new one called Mr. and Mrs. Fitch and it was wonderful.

I think the highlight of the night was that we also got tickets to the reception afterward which featured wine, snacks and a Q&A session with the playwright and the star, none other than John Lithgow. I have to admit I was a little star struck, as he has always been a favorite actor to me. He was as articulate and delightful in person as I had imagined him and it was a true pleasure to get to thank him personally for the show and shake his hand.

Also, to share that experience with some of my favorite ladies made it that much more unforgettable. I was a little too shy to get a picture with him but Amoy was more than willing to get him to sign my playbill. Take a look!

I am probably way too excited by this.

Though I may not be writing as much, its only because I’m soaking up all these amazing opportunities this city has to offer. I mean where else could I hope to have a random Thursday evening like that? Seriously.