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The Empire State building changes it lights nearly every night to commemorate some person or anniversary. While the Olympics has been on they had different lights on each side of the building representing countries flags.

We can see the east and south sides from our window but this photo from Twitter shows it in better detail.

© @isardsorensen

On Saturday the city had the second of three Saturdays in August where they hold Summer Streets and they close Park Avenue to regular traffic all the way from 72nd Street right down to near the Brooklyn Bridge.

On my newly acquired bike I set off over the Manhattan Bridge and managed to navigate my way down near the bottom onto the closed road. I've done it once before when I was here for summer and although it's definitely better if you take your time and take in the sights you don't normally get to see from the road, on this occasion I had to get up to Central Park before the road re-opened at 1pm.

I was later in leaving as that morning we finally got cable tv installed in our flat!

You have to keep your wits about you as the streets are full of people walking, running, skateboarding, roller blading, all ages biking and the usual unicycle sighting. Plus the usual idiot on a bike trying to race through the whole thing at speed.

© http://www.particularityblog.com

After a bit of a break and then another lap of Central Park, I headed over to the Westside Greenway.

The inaugural NYC Ironman triathlon was taking place. It started at 7am so around 3pm the winner was heading towards the finish. Most of it took place over the Hudson in upstate NY into the Palisades before they ran the mile long George Washington Bridge back into Manhattan.

I guess it's a big event with qualification for the Kona event available but I was still surprised to see the finish setup, complete with large finish spectator gantry and helicopter tv footage beamed onto a big screen.

I finished the day with a cycle back down the Westside and stopped for a couple of pics at the USS Intrepid. The Space Shuttle that was carried to NY a few weeks ago is now stationed under a bubble canopy on the deck.

After all that, I was out in the sun for five hours total. Just over three and a half hours cycling for about 40 Miles. Sunburnt arms and totally shattered! Too much sun.

You're getting hotter... you're getting cold

On Wednesday around 11am I went for a run around the nearby Prospect Park.

I ran about 15mins, felt okay... in the shade of the trail, but when I came out down the far side of the park and had to do more out in the open I really started to feel the heat.

I could feel that these were the hottest conditions I've run in! My heart rate monitor really gives you an idea of how hard you are exercising compared to normal... as if I didn't know. But the numbers were extraordinarily high.

Normally I could cruise (jog) along at 150bpm but when I was forced into walking every three minutes, and after each stop at the water fountains my HR was sitting at 155. When I started to run again, despite trying to go slow now, it jumped right up into the high 180's!

So I ended up jog/walking the last 30 mins of the run. Even funnier was stretching my calves outside the house (134bpm), walking up the three flights of stairs (165bpm), then coming inside and trying to untie my shoes (191bpm). A delayed reaction to the stair climb plus the heat inside the kitchen.

Unknown to me it was nearly 100 degrees outside! Although I must be acclimatising somewhat, as I've found myself thinking at times "It's okay, it's just 75º".

Then at the back of 4pm the sky darkened and all hell broke loose. Thunder, lightning and torrential rain. The weather website made for a funny picture.

So basically it dropped 17º but was still 20º!

Then because of the storm the next day was a lot cooler. Indeed, I read that the high temperature in Central Park was 76º which was the first time since June 26th it hadn't hit at least 80ºF.

Then on Friday, the most complete polar opposite in one persons body reaction to weather happened.

I finally bought a new bike! Tracked down the one I was after away up on West 81st street in Manhattan. I paid for it, was just away to leave and the sky just opened and started more rain of biblical proportions. To be fair it had been darkening with a chance of rain but c'mon!!

Once I realised it wasn't going to stop I just went for it.

I've never (at least not for along time) felt so cold on a bike. By the time I was halfway down Manhattan I was shivering.

I've also never seen Central Park, the Manhattan Bridge or Brooklyn Bridge park so quiet!

The prescription insert in my Adidas eyewear started misting up too. Of course by this time the glasses themselves were covered in water and I couldn't see out of them anyway! So I took them off and cycled a few blocks without being able to see, oh yes. At nearly 4pm on a Friday of course it was practically rush hour traffic too.

After I deemed that too dangerous I stopped and thankfully found putting the cap that I had with me on under the cycle helmet and then putting back on my regular glasses was alright to continue.

Took me 1 hour 40 mins to get home and then ring all the water out of my t-shirt, socks, etc and empty my shoes out.

Of course, you can't just chuck your stuff in the washing machine either. And because it was Friday, the washing is now held over to Monday as the weekend is apparently far too busy a time to go to the laundrette unless you get there by 8am.

Other than that excitement, my final resident paperwork is posted and I have been job searching in the hope I have something lined up by the time I am actually allowed to sign up for work somewhere.

We also went to see a gig on Tuesday, Delta Rae. Not 100% my cup of tea, but amazing voices and a couple of really good songs including a brilliant Fleetwood Mac cover version (The Chain). Read Heather's music blog for a gig report.

I only mention them in case they go on to be massive and I want it noted we seen them before they were big.