Easy Offseason Spin

After an 18-month season of training, three recent tours (New Zealand, Mass., and Finger Lakes), plus the fast Century ride on Long Island, I'm settling into the offseason. Between now and when the New York roads thaw out in early March, I'm going to be content to lose some weight (dropping from 189 down to 170 pounds, hopefully), getting my knee fixed (seeing the orthopedic surgeon next week), doing some easy spinning on the bike, runs in Central Park and maybe some offseason weight work.

Today's ride was bliss. I took off just before dawn, riding across Manhattan on 55th Street.

From 38th Street, I took the NY Waterway Ferry to Port Imperial in New Jersey.

Manhattan was stunning in the early morning fog.

And the ferry was empty as I did a reverse commute.

[image unavailable: Port_imperial - image missing from source archive]

There were crowds of people waiting to board the ferry as we docked in New Jersey to make their way across the Hudson to work.

[embedded widget removed: MotionBased Activity Viewport]

My original plan was to continue up the west bank of the Hudson to Bear Mountain and take the train back from Garrison, but the morning was steamy, I was in offseason mode and so I headed back across the George Washington Bridge, rode through Harlem, did two loops of Central Park and made it back home in time to get in a full day of work.

A slow 23 miles in a bit less than two hours.