Press F5

9:30 to 6. Out of the house by 9:10. Same subway, same walk through the station. Same desk, same snack times, same type of lunch; read, analyze, write, repeat for next report. Head home, same train (same car sometimes even, so I'm close to the exit at my station). Tuesday morning, ride 3 laps of Central Park. Thursday evening, ride 3 laps of Central Park. Saturday and Sunday, if I was lucky, 3 laps of Central Park. Maybe race on the weekend. The daily grind shouldn't extend to my rides, or anyone's rides should it? Riding was feeling like work: it's almost more stressful than work trying to not hit anyone (you could never know until you ride NYC). After a over a month of doing the same 10k lap--with a couple of exceptions--I was more than ready for a change of scenery. Particularly after discovering so much more of Fife this past academic year. I drove out to the beach community where some of my favorite roads are. Its largely flat, like everywhere else on the Eastern Seaboard of the US, but there are some stiff rollers. The mostly quiet roads twist through woods and along bays or run flat, long, and straight (itd be a perfect road for a TT) along beaches. Weather was more sweltering than I expected, but still not like riding in the city itself where the building radiate extra heat. A couple of nasty bumps led to some handlebar slip--now I know why the PROs run aluminum cockpits at P-R and the RVV--but on the bright side a bike shop that usually nickels and dimes riders fixed it for me for free, even checking the tightness with a torque wrench. Anyways, back to the rollout; unfortunately, winds and false flats kept my legs churning away constantly. I headed towards the hills  but at the top of each hill I was greeted with a fast(ish), fun, flowing descent. Since there is little elevation gain they don't last terribly long and only a few could even be considered in the running for the term "technical." What they are is ego-boosting: just hard enough so you have to pay attention and steer the bike, but nowhere near dangerous or difficult enough to be worried about the risks. I must say, they are also a perfect fit for my race bike, which is not nimble enough for a crit but she loves swooping curves on descents and happily rails through them. My garmin (or my spotty mapping abilities) led me astray only a couple times and up interesting roads both times. All in all a refreshing, head-clearing ride and a necessary change of pace to the grind. I hate to rub things in, but written on a blackberry on the beach, with an ice cold beer next to my chair. Maybe, just maybe, prepared to hit the routine again. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be headed up the Hudson River. Stay tuned. And sorry for the lack of pictures, I forgot the camera, there will be plenty come August.