Hi there fall!

Well wasn’t this weekend just the perfect fall weather. Crisp beautiful air and blue skies made my weekend quite enjoyable. OH YA and the 60 mile bike ride I embarked on was definitely the highlight (minus the hour of extreme ass discomfort).

Rewind. Friday I went to my favorite spin class at Equinox. We warmed up for 17 minutes then did a 25 minute hill alternating resistance and rpms. Intense. Then I met old roomie Alex at Madison Square park to enjoy the last day of the food festival. Far too much to choose from and since Calexico is always there and ran out of most meat we “settled” on Roberta’s pizza and a nutella and banana crepe. mmm I got the Bee Sting- spicy sopressata, honey, chili flakes.

I LOVE outdoor food festivals

the best

yes please

Oh ya and we drank delicious octoberfest beer.

Went to bed slightly early and got up slightly early for my longish bike ride. I was just planning on biking central park until my friend asked if he could join and suggested going further north. I thought we’d just ride over the GW bridge and around Jersey a bit then head home. BUT it has also been my dream this season to make it to the much talked about Nyack, NY, so my longish bike ride turned into a 60 mile really freaking long bike ride. Nyack is where ALL the bikers go and since I am now the proud owner of a pretty sweet bike (blueberry sunshine)

I believe you've met.

I decided that I want to go where all the bikers go. (They really just go here to chillout and eat breakfast/lunch… not that exciting but the accomplishment of getting there is what is VERY exciting).

We biked up the west side highway to the George Washington bridge. It is absolutely beautiful up in the 160s 170s along the water. Look! So pretty.

I do love trees.

Then we crossed the GW which is awesome in itself and when you enter Jersey if you bike left and down this huge hill (don’t worry you go RIGHT back up it on the other side) you enter the most majestic path. I honestly felt like I was in some fantasy movie. I wish taking pictures while biking was not dangerous because I would have totally documented this entire ride. This scenic route is open to cars as well but only FIVE cars passed us over a span of an hour. This hour involved rollings hills some hard some easier THEN the hill of all hills. I actually thought I was going to die and made a mental note to make an appointment with my doctor to see if I have asthma and need an inhaler. I sadly had to take two breaks on this massive hill and I was speechlessly (is this a word?) impressed when people passed me at a much faster speed. When I got to the top my friend was just there with the hugest grin and acknowledged that I “made it”. He also told me that he wanted to keep that one a surprise because you only experience the shock of that hill once. It’s the type of hill that has no end… you think you are at the top then you make a turn and it keeps going and now I will always know about that hill and either dread it or get excited about conquering it. Let’s hope the latter. When we reached the top we merged onto a highway type road with luckily a massive shoulder for bikers. We finally made it to Piermont, where we easily could have stopped and eaten lunch but I had this itch to get to Nyack, the place I’ve heard of for months. After a massive downhill that I couldn’t let go of because I knew we’d have to go up it on the way back and 3 hours later, we made it to Nyack.  Egg, bacon, cheese on a bagel with iced coffee and a scone? Yep!

Not sure why I grabbed 50 peppers. Anyway I had to actually mentally prepare myself to get back. I contemplated sleeping in Nyack… seriously! My body was tiiiiired and I was dreading that hill. But after we ate I hopped back on and started the ride back. I had to say to myself out loud “you can do this. seriously you can do this amanda. do NOT stop you can make it up this hill. DO THIS” It worked because I stuck with a solid pace and made it up the hill. And this is when my ass just DIED in complete pain and discomfort. I have honestly never in my life felt body discomfort like this! Sadly the rest of the ride just sucked. I wanted to cry then reminded myself to not be a wuss and I can handle this. We rode back on Riverside Drive which was beautiful but unfortunately hilly and I was ecstatic to hop over to the west side highway and start counting down blocks. At around 23rd street I got a cramp in my inner thigh, unpleasant. The second I hit west 12th I hopped off and walked my bike home.

Can I sit down on a hard surface? Nope. But that ride was one of coolest, prettiest, most challenging things I’ve ever done and reminded me WHY I bought a bike in the first place.

I magically stayed awake while cheering for USC vs. Notre Dame (USC won and it was kind of an awesome game).

Today I ran some errands… bought a cute little backpack for biking and hiking, got a bagel with cream cheese and lox from my old favorite 71 Irving, then went to the New Amsterdam Market with Alex in the Seaport, did damage at Gap, stretched it out at yoga at Kula Yoga Project, and video chatted with my Argentina travel buddy to book more stuff. Yes we leave Friday and just booked the majority of our trip today.

Food festival + free samples? my favorite.

adorable

Great weekend. I do love most of my weekends in the city but I loved the weather this weekend and the crazy 60 mile biking accomplishment. Now I need to actually pack and get ready to travel for 2 weeks!!!