Slipped on Black ice 4 minutes into my ride

The weather looked good today and based on weather.com, temperatures did not go below 32F overnight. The prospect of riding outside gave me extra motivation. It's been a while since my last ride, and 32F did not sound too bad. Last time I went, the temps dropped to a chilling 23F, which made it even colder with the windshield (probably in the lower 10s). 

It didn't take long for mother nature to bring me back to a rough reality. 4:09 minutes to be exact. I noticed the roads were a bit shiny, but thought that it was because I was riding in between buildings, and made sure I'd slowed down. I made that right turn to leave Jersey City and enter Hoboken, and before I even had a chance to correct my trajectory, my front wheel caught a patch of black ice and slipped off. I was down in no time, landing hard on my right hip. Shaken up but glad that there was no car nowhere near me, I picked up the bike, checked to make sure it did not suffer any damage, and collected myself. 

..and the pain kicked in right away. I decided to call it and head home. In other instances, I would have probably insisted, but it wouldn't have made sense. I started to feel a sharp pain on my hip. the range of motion became more and more limited. Time to go home, get breakfast, and relax for the morning. 

I will swap today's training (2hour-ride and 30min tempo run) with tomorrow's (90min run and 1hour swim), will take a nap, and try to shrug it off. 

That's another crash I have to deal with, and the confidence level is at its lowest. It's going to be tough to get back on open roads now as I will question everything, but I'll eventually will get back into it. Just not the best right now! 

Fine tune-up thanks to Chris at Hilltop Bicycle

You spend so much money and time on your machine that when it comes to finding a bike shop to tune up your bike, you start questioning their competences...Do they know what they are doing?

Hilltop Bicycle surely does know what they are doing. Chris took care of my bike like it was his, cleaning it up and looking at details I wouldn't have caught myself. I had issues with my powermeter, and could not resolve it. It took him about 15 minutes to figure it all out. He went the extra mile and checked every details, every aspects of the bike, tighten the fork, cleaned up the cassette, tighten the breaks and greased up parts that needed to be....all in 1 1/2 hours!

The cassette and chains need to be replaced. We'll take care of it at the end of the month when he fits me on the bike. I'll never bring my bike anywhere else in the tri-state area because I know how well he will take care of my bike!

For those who are looking for a great bike shop, check out Hilltop Bicycle's website.
They are hands-on the best bike mechanics around and charge less than bike shops in the city. They also sell the best bikes in the market with Specialized, Cannondale, Scott, Giant, Focus...

If you want to stop by, they have 2 convenient locations, roughly a 30-minute drive from NYC:

Summit, NJ
314 Springfield Ave, Summit, NJ 07901
(906) 219-4622

Cranford, NJ
30 Eastman Street, Cranford, NJ 07016
(908) 967-6072

Brisk 3-hr ride in 23 degree Fahrenheit weather

Nothing beats biking outside. The monotony of riding on the trainer took its tall so Carsten and I decided that it was nice enough outside to go for a long 3-hour ride. We rode 56 miles, averaging 19 mph, which is fast for a winter ride, way too fast.

My toes got really cold at some point, and making it back home wasn't the most pleasant, but overall it was a fun ride. 

Some stats from my ride:

Time: 2:56

Avg. Wattage: 218

Avg. Heart Rate: 138

Avg. cadence: 84 (a bit slow, ideally I prefer to have it between 85-95)

Elevation gain: 2,287 feet (it is flat around here)

Distance: 56.33 miles

Avg. pace: 19.2pmh

Follow me on Strava @ Kevin P.