Training Log Archive: PG

In the hills to the east again, same first few miles to get some climbing out of the way, then some different stuff. All fine.

Warm and humid, dew point over 70 for the first time this year, or at least first time that I've noticed. Legs were dead when I got on the bike, felt like I'd never make it up the first hill, but before long they felt OK. Probably helps to have not been in a hurry.

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Walking on a dirt road in West Deerfield this morning, heard some noises off to my left and there was a bear, ambling along (as was I), though it has its nose pretty close to the ground, which I certainly did not.

I stopped and looked around for any signs of cubs, but nothing. By then I'd lost sight of the bear, but then it popped out on the road about 50 yards ahead of me. Hmm. It looked at me, I looked at it. It seemed appropriate to use the standard ice-breaking phrase in such circumstances, so I yelled at it, "Get out of here."

It looked at me some more. I wasn't sure it had heard me properly, so once again, "Get out of here."

This time it trotted down the road maybe 20 yards, then stopped and looked back at me. Then another 20 yards, stopped and looked back again. And then took off down the road and eventually out of sight at a much higher rate of speed.

Because it was so successful, and because this is what you do nowadays, first thing tomorrow morning I'll be filing to trademark the phrase, both the full version and the acronym (GOOH). I expect it won't be long before the royalties start coming in.

C • What is this? 3

Old Deerfield - River Road loop late in the afternoon. Nice ride, moderate effort, just about as intended. Muggy but no rain.

In the hills to the east. Mostly dirt roads, maybe 3-4 miles paved and 2-3 miles woods roads, the latter in the Quabbin watershed and pretty flat.

Excellent route, trying to string together as much interesting stuff as possible. Went for a while on the woods roads not being sure if I was at all where I thought I was. About the time I convinced myself that I was quite different than the planned route, I came out right where I was supposed to. Might have been a good idea to take a longer look at the map before I left. Trying to resurrect memories from being in the area 30 years ago was obviously not too successful.

Definitely worth repeating, plus a number of options out in that direction for further exploration.

Leisurely ride on the flats, seemed to suit me just about right.

So I did this 30-mile ride a week and a half ago to benefit the Vermont Land Trust, and they had a 60-mile version that seemed too much for me.

But I told my friend Walter about it (a veteran of many D2R2s while I am a veteran of exactly none), and he was keen, and I figured it would be a good adventure, and so it was on, just waiting for a day with acceptable weather. It was certainly fine weather today, bright sunshine all day and much cooler than the last couple of days, but I would not have objected at all if had 10-15 degrees cooler, especially in the afternoon when it was in the low 80s. I just don't do well in warm weather.

But the company was excellent, the route was fine. We added our own modifications -- some intentionally, like a start/finish closer to home, and excursions to Jacksonville and West Brattleboro for more fluids, and some unintentionally, in a couple of places expected roads didn't seem to exist -- and even opted not to take a couple of shortcuts towards the end, the thought being, we started this, we might as well finish.

All back roads, mostly dirt, which were sometimes less friendly than expected because the late spring road grading operations were going on and in a lot of places the road surfaces were soft and choppy. And then there were three proper mountain bike sections, two on the planned route, the other taken when we missed a turn -- by the time it was clear we must have missed the turn we had gone far enough to consider plan B, which was a road marked on the map with the minimum line width. It started out OK, but quickly turned to a woods road, and then quickly got worse, just barely ridable and only because it was going downhill. We went for a while wondering if we were going to have to haul the bikes back up the hill, but then we popped out of the forest just where we hoped. More fine adventure!

And a really good day. But boy were there some hills. And I am really tired now...

C • Making up for a short day y... 3

Way too hot to do this at mid-day, plus I'd already been on my feet for 3+ hours.

In the January Hills above Amherst. Jeep road got progressively rockier and not all that pleasant. Made it up to the height of land along the power line, decided that was enough, headed back, tried what turned out to be a parallel woods road that skipped the worst of the rocks.

Had more in mind, but it wasn't to be.

Came across this guy. Don't know what kind it is (was) --

C • Snake 6