Wednedsday night River Road

As the shadows lengthened early this evening, I clipped in and rode down to the West Side Greenway headed for the GWB and Palisades Park for an evening ride. I noticed that the connecting section of Greenway at 84th st. is looking pretty good but the gates are still closed; hopefully, this summer it will open at last. As I spun up the hill from the path by the river's edge to the promenade in Riverside Park, someone passed me. I took this as a sign that I was going too slow, not pushing hard enough -- so I up-shifted one gear and pushed myself for as fast a standing climb as I could manage under conditions (it's not just the slope, it's the pedestrians in both directions and the occasional oncoming cyclist). I continued pushing fast and hard up on the promenade and couldn't quite close the gap completely. I lost track of the faster cyclist while dodging pedestrians.

Back down on the Greenway at 96th St., I shifted to my 3rd (biggest) chain ring and and pretty small gear. I know I was doing about 20 mph for a while. The hill up to the hill to Riverside Drive was tough. I remember glancing down and seeing about 11% there but Training Center claims only 9%; similarly, I thought the steep section of the switchback was 18% but TC says 11%.

The ride from Edgewater down was lovely. The climb up to Alpine was great, I pushed as hard as I could -- even standing for some sections, which I seem to have improved at somewhat. It's been a busy stressful time at work and this sure helped blow off steam.