After flight ride

I just got back from week 4 of 8 weeks of straight travel. I wouldn't say that the exhaustion accumulates, but I was pretty beat. I guess just the regular, post work trip beat. I got off the plane to 48 degree weather and I decided I'd take a quick spin on the road bike when I got home. The temps are dropping and it got pretty windy as I rode - I almost got blown off my bike at one point, that's the first time that's ever happened. I barely saved myself from getting knocked over, kind of strange.

 I almost didn't go figuring I wasn't going to be able to really hammer out anything with my trip hangover. I realized about 100 yards into the ride that I don't have to hammer out a ride every time, hell I don't have to hammer out a ride ever if I don't want to. It was a really nice ride, I just kind of pedaled along at a mellow pace, enjoying being outside after 3 days of conference rooms, hotels, too much beer and too much food. I could use another ride.

Grayville today

Awesome ride today at Grayville, that place is great. Good to ride with others who pushed the pace a bit. Conditions were great and the weather was perfect with the right clothes.

Winter ride

I had a great ride at Crandalls today - nice thin coating of snow. I brought the hardtail with studs on, I really didn't need the studs for the trail riding. I didn't have a lot of time, but I had a nice two hour crank around there - really appreciated the trails there - a lot of fun stuff. I took the opportunity to ride out on Crandalls 2 and also do a little stream riding - its not often when a running stream has enough ice on it to ride down it. Good stuff.

I'm conflicted for tomorrow's ride - there's a NEMBA thing at noon - it would be great to get together with those guys and share a ride, some other friends are riding at Middlesex (I LOVE riding there) at 9:00. I hate sitting around all morning waiting for a ride. Hmmm.

Snow ride...Case

Got out early today for a ride at Case. Honestly I had pretty low expectations for conditions expecting to be plowing through mashed potatoes all ride. We were pleasantly surprised - probably 99% of the ride was on either compacted snow or open dirt, one spot of mud in the entire ride. The other 1% was nasty, loose, thigh busting snow. There was just one section that was truly painful, but even that, I'm on my bike, how bad could it be? As we rode things got loose, so glad we had the first couple of hours to get some miles in while it was still frozen. The down hills were so much fun, like skiing - I do wish I put on a more aggressive front tire though, the one on there was sliding out pretty good. There would be no KOMs on this day though.

Ice and road ride

I tried out my home made studded tires on the pond near our house yesterday, they worked out pretty well. Its been a few years since I've ridden my old ones, but I think they worked slightly better than these. No worries though. I felt perfectly safe riding on the pond, I could easily slide the back end around in a controlled fashion and stop at will without anything sliding out from under me.

Today was really windy, but not all that cold so I took a spin on the road bike. It was a good, if mellow paced ride. Good enough for a chill Saturday ride - I'll look for some kind of hammer ride tomorrow, hopefully in the woods.

Night ride

I got out for a night ride the other night. It was a great night out. Conditions were amazingly good. I haven't been night riding much this year.

Sometimes when I ride my legs disappear beneath me, I'm flying through the woods and its just me and the bike as one. Its really hard to describe, but there were sections the other night where everything was perfect, no pain, no effort, just speed and leaning with no thinking, true bliss.

Lunch time crank

One the benefits of working from home is that my bike is right there and on the rare occasion when good weather and a real lunch break align I can jump on the road bike and crank out a loop. Today I got lucky with 50 degree temps (though very windy) and an hour between calls.

I did a quick 10 or so mile loop over to the Snip and back, good stuff. I was thinking about wind as it played a major role in today's ride - since I don't have a moveable sail it is only advantageous for about 30-45 degrees out of the full 360. That's why when its windy it always feels like its a head wind - its only helping 12.5% of the time - at best.

Unfortunately it looks like Strava ate my loop, so you'll just have to trust me that it was a 20 mph average HA!

After riding with those other guys yesterday I can see that I ride in too hard of a gear most of the time. I tried to ride in easier gears today and it definitely helped, if you can keep the cadence up, you can definitely go faster by spinning in a lower gear. Now I have to build up my endurance so I can spin for longer periods of time.

First group road ride

I joined a road ride today with 9 other hearty souls. Its really the first time I've ridden in a group on the road. I've done solo rides many times, but joining a group is a different deal entirely. The weather was not good, it was misting and foggy for most of the ride, but the temps were good and it really didn't factor in too much. It was pretty fun. The pace was manageable - and was less of an issue due to the mixed pace in the group - we had to wait at intersections pretty often. Road biking requires a lot more consistency than mountain biking. In mountain biking you definitely have to exert a lot more, but its for short periods of time, in road biking you are not pushing as hard, but its sustained pretty much for the whole ride. Good times.

Road in the fog

Between work travel and the stinky weather I haven't been getting out as much as I would like to. I managed to sneak in a 45 minute ride yesterday


Not a great ride, but it was a good reminder of how quickly your fitness level declines. I'm heading out on the road with a group today (how great is it to have friends who will ride in crappy conditions?). I think I'm going to have to consider inside alternatives to riding my bike - especially when I travel, riding once a week is just not enough.

I am just about done making some studded 29er tires. One of them is holding air perfectly the other (front) just doesn't want to seal. I'll keep pumping it up, I can see where its leaking - it will seal eventually. I was trying to get the bead to seat on the back tire yesterday, using the air compressor, it finally took air and I could hear the bead popping as it seated against the rim. I went for "just a little more air", which was just a little too much and the bead popped off the rim. Popped is probably not the right term, more like blew up. It sounded like a gunshot in the garage, Dawn came running out wondering what was going on. I figured that tire was toast, but after getting it back on the rim, it aired right up and is now holding air fine.

A good ice ride is one of those times when you feel like you're getting away with something you shouldn't be doing. Based on the warm temps over the next few days I highly doubt there will be an opportunity to use them anytime soon - but maybe I'll get a pond ride in next weekend.

We saw Emily run in the 400 yesterday, she looked great - it really looks like she's getting the hang of the distance. Back in high school I told her this was the distance she should be running, but I know its a hard one - basically sprinting for as long as you can. Its really great to see her make progress with running.

Last ski for now

I skied up at Bigelow Hollow yesterday. I actually think there is more snow here at home than there is up there. It was a decent ski, but parts were rough with heavy, melting snow and light coverage in spots. It was definitely a good workout, but the downs were not all that fun (which is probably half the reason I like BC skiing). Turning took all my effort plus with my skis diving into the heavy snow, I was relegated to side slipping a lot of the steeper hills.

I had a critical decision to make at the halfway point - either cross Breakneck Pond over the ice, or go around and wade through a wide stream. I had seen some ice fisherman out on other lakes on the way up so I opted for the ice route. It was kind of cool - I just poled my way across without moving my skis, it was a pretty efficient way to travel. About half way across I turned into a patch of snow thinking it would be a good place to give my arms a rest from all that poling. What I didn't know was that under the snow was 3" of slush and water - quite scary to hit that stuff way out in the middle. At times I was up to my ankles in slush/water, not a pleasant experience. I rushed through it as quickly as I could, it definitely added some adrenaline to the otherwise peaceful crossing.

Off to see Em this morning, excited to spend some time with her.

More fun in the snow

We had a crew of five or so lined up to ski at Case last night. It was a cold day and colder night, one by one they opted out until it was just me and Arch. Its great to have someone else committed to going - its so easy to drop out if you're doing something solo.

We dropped a car at Case Pond Lot and drove up to Birch Mountain Road. The first part of the trip was all down hill, which was a treat, but we did have to pay the piper - quite a bit of climbing on the way. All in all 3 hours of fun in the woods. I think the XC skiing days are numbered for now - the temps are rising. We'll have to hope for a thaw and freeze so we can get back on the bikes.

I gotta make some studded tires for the 29er, I think this coming week will be prime ice riding.

XC Ski

With that snow on Sunday it looks like our XC Ski season is ON. Dawn and I went to Case today and skied for a couple of hours - nothing crazy, but the conditions were pretty good. There's a good 3" hard snow underneath the foot we got Sunday. Game on! I love XC skiing in the woods - really a blast and a good workout.