Tuesday, I dropped back by the piece that Os Gemeos are working on. This time, I was able to chat with Gustavo (above) for a while in Portuguese. I can’t tel you how great it was to chat with a Brazilian that has a proper Paulista accent (not to mention that it was cool to chat with him regardless dialect). He said that they are going to try to wrap this piece up by the end of the week. So, I’ll be back by there, probably tomorrow to shoot the finished product. The image below shows the progress, as of Tuesday afternoon (Moody Blues, anyone?).

I’m still not feeling 100%, but I can’t really take much more of a break from running, and expect to stay sane. If it isn’t raining tonight, I plan to resume with the training sched.. I’m a bit nervous, after taking a full week off. Thankfully my long run, slated for Saturday is only 14 miles. I will have a week to get back into the groove (Madonna, anyone?), before my 20 mile run next weekend.

The part that I’m really looking forward to, about the next two long runs, is that Summer Streets is currently in full effect. So, instead of doing my usual out-and-back down the Hudson River path, I can do Park Avenue, instead. Should be a blast, and a much welcomed change of scenery.

But, the biggest thing on my mind/load off of my mind, is that all of the nerd-stuff that I have been chipping away at for the last week and a half is finally resolved. Everything is now back in a relatively maintenance free stasis (fingers-crossed). I feel like I can finally get back to real life, and it isn’t a day too soon, because I am super behind on EVERYTHING.

Yesterday was the final weekend of 2009 Summer Streets. It just happened to coincide with the weekend that my dad and youngest brother were in town for the tour-de-revo-war ’09. It wasn’t the best of weather, in fact Hurricane Bill threw a pretty nasty burst at us the previous night, taking out 500 trees, in the City’s parks. In the photo above (taken by my brother Pete) part of a cordoned off downed tree can actually be seen in the back ground, as we rode/skated through Riverside Park.

Skating through Grand Central Station from Jacob Breinholt on Vimeo.

We were not deterred by the rain though. It had actually stopped raining, for the most part, by the time that we left for Park Ave. My dad and brother were on bikes. My friend Col, decided to tackle the 20+ mile route with me, on a longboard. It was a really good ride, even though my bearings have since, completely seized up.

After we went all of the way down Park Ave. (and Lafayette) to the Brooklyn Bridge, and back to CP. We met up with Reagan and Col’s family at Bro. Jimmy’s for some barbecue. It was delicious.

Here for the rest of the photos.

Here for another short vid.

The plan was to get up super early and go on this epic ride today, for Summer Streets. I had mentioned the plan to our friend Col, the night before. So embarrassingly enough, Reagan and I were still in bed, trying to decide whether or not to go, when Col called and was like “where are you guys?” That, apparently was we all of the motivation that we needed. We hurried to throw on some clothes, round up some other friends and headed out the door. Col had already made his way downtown a bit, so we picked up our friends Jared and Debi on the way down to 72nd Street. After some minor confusion, we met up with Col at the 125th Street Piers. We had an awesome relaxing ride all the way down to the Brooklyn Bridge. It wasn’t really crowded, either. The weather was the most amazing thing ever. It almost felt like fall, this morning. Cool and breezy.

We took a little breather at City Hall before heading over to Battery Park City for some lunch.

As we were sitting down for lunch (on a patio near the Hudson), we saw some police boats speeding up river, but didn’t think much of it. We decided to head back up the Hudson River Path, on the way home, since Park Ave. was only blocked off until 1. Around 14th street, we started encountering massive gatherings of fire trucks and police cars. At first, I thought it may have been some sort of drill or exercise, until I started seeing all of the camera. When CNN shows up, it is pretty safe to assume that something major is going on. That whole section of the West Side Hwy. was blocked off, going south bound and completely littered with emergency vehicles. When we came up on the 30th Street Heliport, the only helicopters there were all NYPD, and they all had their rotors going. Looking out into the Hudson, there was a pretty tight gathering of Police and fire boats. At that point, I thought that maybe one of ferry’s had capsized.

This is where we finally stopped and asked some cops what was going on. They told us that there had been a mid-air collision between two aircraft. I didn’t stop to take any photos, because it was pure chaos. As we made our way farther up the path though, I did stop and snap a few. But, it wasn’t of any crashes. Just old subway cars loaded on a barge.

We had an awesome morning, and a really great ride. Reagan has really been a champ about these 25+ mile bike rides that I keep dragging her on, weekend after weekend. I feel bad for the people who crashed.

Here are the rest of the Photos from our ride.

First of all, Bloomberg’s Summer Streets are back, starting next weekend. I’m pretty pumped about that.

We had so much fun last year. I was able to ride Park Avenue, all three weekends. We are going to be camping on the 15th, this year, so we will be missing that weekend for sure, but I think that we are going to try to take full advantage on the 8th and the 22nd. Here are some links to photos from last year. From 8-23-08, and from 8-16-08.

Saturday morning, I went for a run from our house to the piers at 125. My knee was hurting from the outset. Reagan rode her bike down and met me there. The initial plan was for me to keep going, down into the 70′s and try to get in 12 miles or so. Because of my knee issues, it didn’t exactly work out that way. I hung out with Reagan for a bit, tried to stretch out my ITB, then ran home. So I ended up having 2 quick 3 mi. runs. Lame. I decided that it is bad enough I’m going to go to the doctor this week and see what is going on with my stupid knee. It’s getting ridiculous.

Yesterday, the rain was back monsoon style. So we opted out of seeing Coldplay last night. I was able to get caught up on a couple of weeks worth of sleep though. Something about hearing the rain hitting the window ledge.

Piper is doing extremely well these days. Yesterday, she had a great visit with some of her friends, and Reagan wrote all about it.