Back to Rosh Tzipor “Bird’s Head”

It has been a while since I last rode at Rosh Tzipor which is located in Tel-Avivs’ Park Ha-Yarkon and a short 5K ride from home. The reason I have not been back there in a while is mainly due to Anat moving in with me and getting to train together on a trainer. Oh yes, the “trainer”, look it up under medieval torture machines.

This morning Anat joined her new coach and group of elite triathletes for a training run, am sure we will see a post about them some time in the near future. I meen a post or an ad in the paper with all their trophies, exactly the team where Anat belongs. Rather than riding alone in front of the TV Raanan suggested we train together in the park.

A short warm-up ride to the park and off we went on the loops that never end. One of the biggest problems of riding at Rosh Tzipor is that it is a 2km loop that after a while just gets you dizzy. Nonetheless we got started and it was magic. My last time there I was hating life. Going around the circle all I could hear were other riders zooming past me yelling “stay right”. Frustrating as all I could average were speeds of 26km/hr with top speeds of about 33km/hr. Not today! Today we were among the strongest riders in the park. Our avg. speed was about 32km/hr and at some point we reached 39km/hr against the wind. Raanan and I pulled each other around the course.  Each of us leading for about 3 laps and then switching. For those who don’t know, the idea of pulling is having one person fight the wind while the other coasts behind with little effort, then before the “puller” gets to tiered you switch. At one point when I was at the front I looked back and noticed that we were pulling about 5 other riders. That was a good inspiration to keep the speed going. Just as I was wearing down Raanan jumped to the front and kept us moving.

I really enjoyed to see how much we improved since we first started.

A little education:  Rosh Zipor Forest extends over an area of 500 dunam – the wild outback of Ganei Yehoshua (in the Yarkon Park).  From the air the forest with the confluence of bordering rivers, appears in the shape of a bird’s head, which gives the forest its name of Rosh Tzipor, “Bird’s Head Forest”.   KKL (Keren Kayemet Le-Israel) began planting the forest during the 1950s and continues to plant trees today.  The first plantings in the forest were eucalyptus trees and Indian rosewood but other varieties such as Vallonea oak, Atlantic terebinth, mastic tree, Judas tree, Spanish broom and oleander have recently been planted.  There are two circular paths two-kilometers long: one for cycling and the other for pedestrians and joggers.  The route is easily identified by signs.  Other signs posted along the way direct visitors to the various sites in the forest.  The forest includes sites of antient ruins of water mills dating back to the Roman period.

The yellow thumb nail indicates the eye of the bird… can’t you tell?