Brandon texted me this afternoon and said he was riding at Mansfield Hollow tonight. In the last four days I've done 4 rides and two trail building sessions, so I was pretty beat. I figured it was a night ride so it would be pretty mellow, though I haven't ridden with Brandon in a while, we've always been pretty well matched.
I didn't realize he was planning on a longish ride at a pretty good pace. We ended up doing 16 miles in just under 2 hours, that's a long ride and that pace is pretty high (although Mansfield is fairly flat). I'll admit by about mile 12 my legs were DEAD. Climbing that doubletrack was painful.
Brandon has that SS riding nailed. He was cranking the whole ride. It's always great to ride with someone who's on their game.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Full on weekend
We had beautiful weather this weekend. I rode with the Sunday group on Friday night at Hale. Great time, Hale is a mountain bike paradise - lots of hills and technical bits, A good crew and we kept a good pace throughout.
As we have cleaned up the garage I've been thinking about building a workbench. I was looking around and realized I had saved all the wood from the kids old playset. I looked through the wood and pulled out what I thought would work and I just started cutting stuff and within a few hours I had it pretty much done. I had one piece in the garage that didn't have any patina on it that I used for front two legs (kind of wish I didn't do that), but the rest of it has a nice weathered look. Its sturdy and fits perfectly in the space I had. Pretty happy with how it came out.
I have a lot more work to do around the house (there's always something) but it was such a stellar day I went out for a ride at Crandalls. I really tried to take it easy, which is not easy for me apparently, I had to keep telling myself to cut it back. I had the tunes running, so my phone ran out of battery before I was done (that's the straight line back
Sunday I went on the regular Sunday morning ride at the Snip, it was good, but there was a lot of stopping due to various issues, I had to be back, so one of the faster riders was nice enough to lead me out without any waiting while the other guys took their time. Some really great trails out there with serious technical sections and no shortage of climbing. We came across three ground bees nests, luckily only two of us got stung, unfortunately I was one of the two. No big deal, I'm not allergic or anything.
Sunday afternoon we did a little trail work to add some trails at a riding spot nearby. I can't wait for it to be done, should be just a few more sessions.
Quite a full weekend, its Sunday night and I'm beat!
As we have cleaned up the garage I've been thinking about building a workbench. I was looking around and realized I had saved all the wood from the kids old playset. I looked through the wood and pulled out what I thought would work and I just started cutting stuff and within a few hours I had it pretty much done. I had one piece in the garage that didn't have any patina on it that I used for front two legs (kind of wish I didn't do that), but the rest of it has a nice weathered look. Its sturdy and fits perfectly in the space I had. Pretty happy with how it came out.
I have a lot more work to do around the house (there's always something) but it was such a stellar day I went out for a ride at Crandalls. I really tried to take it easy, which is not easy for me apparently, I had to keep telling myself to cut it back. I had the tunes running, so my phone ran out of battery before I was done (that's the straight line back
Sunday I went on the regular Sunday morning ride at the Snip, it was good, but there was a lot of stopping due to various issues, I had to be back, so one of the faster riders was nice enough to lead me out without any waiting while the other guys took their time. Some really great trails out there with serious technical sections and no shortage of climbing. We came across three ground bees nests, luckily only two of us got stung, unfortunately I was one of the two. No big deal, I'm not allergic or anything.
Sunday afternoon we did a little trail work to add some trails at a riding spot nearby. I can't wait for it to be done, should be just a few more sessions.
Quite a full weekend, its Sunday night and I'm beat!
Monday, September 2, 2013
Sunday road ride
It absolutely poured on Saturday night for a long time. I decided on a road ride rather than deal with the slippery, possibly muddy trails. With the right trail selection I'm sure the woods would have been fine, but I went for the road anyway. My shoulder is feeling slightly better, and I figured a road ride would be easier on it than the mountain bike.
Its been a while since I've done a serious road ride. I put together a ride that looped from Coventry back through Tolland and over to Ellington. It was a good 40 mile route with a fair amount of climbing. I'll admit that as I was riding I considered taking the easy way a few times, but I just kept turning for the hills.
There are roads in both Tolland and Ellington called "Crystal Ridge" a friend told me that the one in Ellington is a good descent and, despite the fact that they are not connected on the map, you can walk from one road to the other. I got to the end of the Tolland road and the Ellington one is right there, but to get to it you have to walk on two people's lawns. I hated doing that but as I was standing there contemplating what to do a loud clap of thunder came from the clouds overhead. Since going across gap was a quicker way home, I just did it. When I got to the second lawn there was a clear path across that lawn, so I guess this is something people do.
Just as I got to the second cul-de-sac the clouds opened up and it started pouring. The descent was not a lot of fun as the faster I went, the worse the rain hurt. I just endured the pain and got to the bottom, the rain only lasted about 20 minutes, but it was raining hard and I got soaked to the bone. It was the nice warm rain, so no big deal (except for that one high speed descent).
All in all, a good time on the road bike.
Its been a while since I've done a serious road ride. I put together a ride that looped from Coventry back through Tolland and over to Ellington. It was a good 40 mile route with a fair amount of climbing. I'll admit that as I was riding I considered taking the easy way a few times, but I just kept turning for the hills.
There are roads in both Tolland and Ellington called "Crystal Ridge" a friend told me that the one in Ellington is a good descent and, despite the fact that they are not connected on the map, you can walk from one road to the other. I got to the end of the Tolland road and the Ellington one is right there, but to get to it you have to walk on two people's lawns. I hated doing that but as I was standing there contemplating what to do a loud clap of thunder came from the clouds overhead. Since going across gap was a quicker way home, I just did it. When I got to the second lawn there was a clear path across that lawn, so I guess this is something people do.
Just as I got to the second cul-de-sac the clouds opened up and it started pouring. The descent was not a lot of fun as the faster I went, the worse the rain hurt. I just endured the pain and got to the bottom, the rain only lasted about 20 minutes, but it was raining hard and I got soaked to the bone. It was the nice warm rain, so no big deal (except for that one high speed descent).
All in all, a good time on the road bike.
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