Beignets & Shirtless Selfies' (New Orleans Day 2)

Who would've thought my first time on a bike since breaking my collarbone would be on a fixie with no brakes in New Orleans?

Since my hammy was bugging me (see #BeBright) I decided to borrow Zach's bike that he keeps in the Run Happy Island trailer and go for a ride!  Zach's bike is a fixed-gear with no brakes and having not ridden a fixed-gear since my days at the San Diego Velodrome I knew I was in for an adventure!

For those unfamiliar with what a fixed-gear or fixie is, it is a bike where the drive-train is all connected and onto a single-gear.  This means that as long as the wheel goes around, so will the crank, and vice-versa.  It is impossible to coast on a fixed-gear bike.  Fixed-gear bikes were the earliest and still are the simplest form of a bicycle.

I decided to head toward the Mississippi and locate the trail I had scouted out via Google Maps the previous day.  Didn't take me too long to find it and it didn't disappoint!

Trail (paved) Left, Mississippi River Right.

It was GREAT to be riding again!  I always forget how much I love cycling and bikes.  And the smoothly-paved, minimally populated Mississippi River Trail was PERFECT for getting reaccustomed to riding a fixed-gear!  My intention was to actually ride all the way to the French Quarter (about 15 miles) and visit a local bike shop to purchase some tubes, but it turned out the MRT is an ongoing project and dead-ended after 6 miles.  Still awesome :)

On my way back I found something distinctly New Orleans though, a float graveyard!  Or at least that's my best guess as to what it was....

Floats upon floats!

Teapot float!

Obligatory Selfie' Fixie Picture ~

Zach's Whip'.  Did 15 miles on that bad boy!

And this...

Don't Ask Don't Tell?

After my ride I met up with Shannon (Zach was still sick) who was returning from scouting the event spot for this weekend and we tracked down some beignets at Cafe' Du Monde!  

On my god...

"You've either just snorted a mound of cocaine or ate a beignet!"

In the perfect world every fixed-gear, shirtless bike ride would end with beignets....  Tomorrow is another free day plus #TimedMileTuesday!  I'm resting tonight and taking an ice bath in prep for my mile and afterwards I'm excited to do some more exploring on Zach's bike :) 

Life is good right now, aggravated hammy or not and I'm really excited for tomorrow and what the future holds in general :) positivity builds upon itself so #StayPositive!

#RunHappy