Brian, from IWearSpandex, recently emailed me to ask what my plans were for traveling to the TD 5 Boro Tour. We are planning on riding together and, knowing the size and scope of New York City, he was trying to set up our plan on how and where to meet. We are both excited and enthusiastic to be riding the Tour together with Patty Chang Anker, author of Some Nerve and professional Tour de Force. We just happened to be showing it in different ways. He is always organized and planning ahead. I am a professional procrastinator. I am lucky to be riding with such fun people though, let me introduce you to two of them.

Brian is amazing and you should really check out his site. He blogs about cycling, training for century rides, fitness and bio-hacks. He is a phenomenal source of information, not only for cycling but for fitness in general. He regularly blogs about his own training and fitness regimens as well as his adventures while riding century rides. I stumbled onto his blog and was instantly hooked. He even let me guest on it once. He is also an inspiration to me as someone who decided to tackle cycling when he wasn’t at his physical peak and he managed to not only survive but thrive. He is a great role model for me as I am trying to get to the thrive level. Actually, there are some rides where survive can be in questions, but knowing someone else made it is inspiring to me.

Patty is amazing. Her book, Some Nerve, is worth the read as you get a chance to see where she started out, what fueled her transformation and you get to accompany her on her journey. She is always so positive about everyone else and gives so much credit to her friends for helping her through the challenges of taking on her fears, but she sometimes downplays her own courage in tackling her fears. She tends to go to extremes in defeating her fears and that is what makes her so amazing. She was afraid to ride, so she decided to complete the 5 Boro Bike Tour. It took me a year to get up the courage to ride, she gave herself five months to learn to ride, buy a bike, learn to work on it if she had a mechanical, and learn to ride with 30,000 other riders. Along the way she also managed to put together team Some Nerve and organize 41 riders into a fun community that helps train and motivate each other so we are all ready. She also blogs regularly on her site Facing Forty Upside Down, as well as writing for a bunch of other sites. On top of all of that she has helped promote this little blog more than once as well as inspiring a post or two. Patty is a force of nature.

Brian’s email jolted me out of my routine that I had settled into lately. I had been so stressed about running a 5K race with my wife that I completely forgot that the 5 Boro Tour was the following weekend. I would feel impressed, but Brian is riding his first century of the year the weekend after the Tour. Yeah, I will be lucky to keep up with him for the first few miles! I had been focusing on my running…jogging. I had neglected my riding. I have been riding the trainer to keep some type of cycling going, but not enough. I tried to change that this weekend and promptly paid for neglecting my bike for the winter. I had a rear flat on Thursday, fixed it and bought a new tube as a spare. I woke up bright and early Saturday and tried to get ready to ride. Nothing was going right. I couldn’t find my arm and leg warmers, I couldn’t find the right bib shorts, I couldn’t even find my full finger gloves. I finally got dressed and grabbed my bike almost an hour late. I checked the tire pressure, filled the front and then blew the tube at the stem because it was dry-rotted. I admitted defeat, fixed the tire and mounted the bike to the trainer. I didn’t have time for a full out road ride, but I could put in two hours on the trainer. It was a start, but it was also a sign. It is time to take cycling as serious as I am taking running.

Brian and I will be in New York on Saturday at Bike Expo New York as patrons. I think it will be quite a while, if ever, that I would be anything else. Maybe one day. I haven’t gotten that much interest in a meet up for bloggers, but I know that Patty has an author event that evening. Check her site for information. I think I might go check that out. On Sunday we will all be riding with 38 other amazing people as part of Team Some Nerve helping Patty have a great time riding the 5 Boro Tour. Look for us in our bright yellow Some Nerve shirts and jerseys! Actually if I don’t manage to overfeed him the night before, look for Brian way out ahead of me. I will be along eventually.

Anyone else riding or planning on going to Bike Expo New York?