Checkin and security lineups were relatively short, which was nice. Going through security, both the people before and after me were carrying laptops as well (little odd for Saturday flights I thought). The MacBook Air, like many Apple products before it, drew lots of attention. Pulling it out got the "wow, cool, is that the new one?", which progressed to "can I feel it, how much does it weigh, do you like using it, is it fast enough, what about no optical drive, yada yada.". This must be how Ferrari owners feel, and why they buy them in the first place - attention.
What can one do during an airport wait? I should have installed Civilization or Warcraft on my MacBook Air. Instead it was spent draining my blackberry batteries - 3 student phone interviews plus a half an hour with our architect. At least it's productive downtime.
Every now and then my heart rate picks up and my legs twitch. A skeptical doctor might read more into it, but I think it's more like a dog chasing squirrels in its dreams... subconsciously I'm chasing bike buddies up imaginary hills.
On the flight I managed to finish my recent book, Lone Survivor. The story is of a US Navy SEAL who makes it back, but the messages concern a lot more. The two most easily identified are that warfare is warfare and shouldn't be confused with politics, and secondly America sees right and wrong and chooses a side. American's are patriots on a much different scale than what we can muster.
Canada backs up that chosen side when it counts, but doesn't march itself out to take the heat in the same fashion. Popular opinion might have it that we'd rather keep two sides from shooting each other and work out the problems at hand.
"The Plan" to improve riding form
Guys like me have plans, lists, spreadsheets and the like around a lot. I actually don't keep a cycling plan in arithmetic detail, but I do know when it's time to trim down, ride longer, ride harder, or rest. I should arrive in time to put my bike together tonight. After that it's time to work towards my goals for Sunday-Tuesday, of which I'll have to do some degree of work, but it won't be much of the days.
1. Enjoy and find new experiences in the big apple!
2. Ride hard for 3 days. It's going to be cold and windy. New York 5 degrees C is that damp Atlantic cold. Not cycling weather? Forget that. I like cold, and I like headwind. I say bring it.
This is my chance to "build up" for the riding Spain will offer. I'm aiming for 3 days at 4.5 hours, and I've got fairly ambitious sets of intervals planned withing those hours to make them count. It's basically chasing imaginary Jon/Shawn/Craig up the hills at high watts, in between laying down the "normal Erik" tempo. We'll see what I can deliver before shutdown. My recollection from the past is that just being nearer to (at!) sea level means I'm going to be able to punish myself.
3. Pending successful completion of #2, the three days of conference (sedentary, but not exactly "rest") with calories galore should help me recover well for the weekend.
There's a few variables during the rest of the trip, but we'll cross that bridge once I see how the start turns out.
We circled for a half hour before landing, winds were terrible on the way in.
I'm thinking about doing a little walk for some grub tonight, but I'll put together the bike first. I might prefer waking up a little hungry for that first New York bagel tomorrow.
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