Beer intervals…

Apologies for the delay – I was in NYC teaching last week and hardly had time to take a breath, much less post… Will post more about my trip soon, but wanted to get this out since I started writing it before I left…

I’ve really been enjoying training on my bike, though the distances I’m going at this point are starting to feel long. For my short rides during the week I shoot for 15-20 miles and my long rides on the weekends are somewhere between 25-50 miles. The rides actually don’t feel long in terms of the biking, but I get hungry and have to go to the bathroom during the 1.5-3 hours I’m spending on the bike. Enter beer intervals, the clear answer to all of these problems. Though none of the training manuals or calendars I’ve looked at recommend beer in the middle of a ride, I think it’s a lovely way to break up a longer ride. Pick a bar that’s about half the intended distance from home, pick a beer that’s not too alcoholic and pair it with a salty snack (to replenish electrolytes, of course), and then bike home!

Alicia and I biked to Sidetrack in Ypsilanti’s Depot Town on Thursday evening (a week and a half ago now). We both had the Dark Horse Raspberry Ale, which was delicious, and shared some chips and salsa before biking home.

The following day we headed down to the Ann Arbor Green Fair/Bike Fest. After we’d browsed the bikes (including running into some friends from Common Cycle, an amazing new non-profit bike coop in Ann Arbor), we headed over to ABC, where I tried their take on Raspberry Wheat, which was delicious.

After coming back from New York, I was a little rusty on the bike, but not so out of shape that the promise of ice cream couldn’t motivate me. A variation on the beer interval, the ice cream interval, is also a favorite training technique of mine, and today we drove out to Chelsea and did a nice loop through the rolling hills around there. We stopped in Waterloo (not to be confused with the one in Belgium, or the one in Iowa) and had some delicious ice cream before heading home. I must say, the placement of this stop just about 18 miles in to a 26 mile ride was great; riding more than halfway before you stop and have a snack is a lovely arrangement.

**Photos courtesy of my phone... Apologies for the slight graininess/odd color balance.**