Training Log Archive: PG

Easy ride in the hills to the east. There was a steady breeze out of the north, so I picked a route where most of the time when I was going north I was on dirt roads in the woods and either climbing or descending, so the wind was minimal. A very pleasant outing.

Quads hurt, of course. I worked hard yesterday. But they'll get themselves back together in a day or two. And other body parts seemed fine.

Up to Middlebury VT for the Kelly Brush ride, 4th year I've done this. Went up Friday afternoon, dinner and a place to stay in Burlington with relatives. Then the ride this morning and back home later in the day. Very fun trip.

Did the 50-mile option again. With Gail along to do the 20-mile, it just works out a lot better than me doing the 100, and it gives a good excuse too.

Had pretty good legs today. Didn't think that was going to be the case as the first couple ups seemed hard, legs hurt, but then they started behaving themselves, or maybe I just started working harder. But I surprised myself by sometimes pushing a gear bigger than expected, especially the section from 19 to 29, gently rolling and straight into the wind. But the weather was cool, upper 50s, and I'm sure that helped.

And my cousin Kelly, the poster girl for the ride (and a smart and really hard-working woman) -- she was doing the 20-mile in her handcycle -- well, going around one corner at a good rate of speed, she swerved a little to avoid a pothole, and then a little more to avoid a car that suddenly appeared, and she ended up in the ditch. No harm done other than a scratch or two, and once she been hauled back on the road, the course got finished. And then her hosting duties with the 800+ riders that showed up. The event raised over 500K to go for helping people with spinal cord injuries get adaptive sports equipment to allow them more of a normal life. Pretty cool.

To the bike shop in Hadley and back. Just about dead flat.

Took some effort to get out the door, but then the ride was fine. And fit a common pattern, easy for the first few milers and then harder efforts on all the little ups but not really on the flats. Gives a nice variety.

Easy ride in the flats across the river. Felt lucky to get out, was expecting rain all day, but got enough of a break to even have mostly dry roads.

South of town, mostly flat. Figured I best get out this morning before the rains came. Breezy from the south, low 70s, humid, sweating a lot.

Another ride NW of Brattleboro, all new roads to me.

I had decided, after last week's focus on hill climbs, that I needed to focus a little more on going downhill, so I laid out a route that seemed an appropriate distance (30-35 miles) and that had as much downhill as possible, also avoided main roads, also tried to avoid roads that might dead-end on me. Took a bunch of fiddling until I was happy with it, then printed out the cue sheet and off I went.

Lovely day, not hot, though still a little warmer than I cared for, ten degrees cooler would have been much better. The route turned out to be great -- about 90% dirt, only one mile on a main road (route 9) and that had a sufficient shoulder, and a very healthy supply of downhills.

Gave me a chance to practice my downhill skills, and they can be summed up by my guiding principle -- don't be stupid. When you going down 8 or 10% (or a good bit more) grades on dirt, pretty much one-lane dirt, there may not be many cars but all it takes is one that surprises you to really spoil your day. So on the brakes pretty much all the time, find the speed that's starting to make you nervous and then back off a couple of mph. On some hills 10-15 mph was all that felt safe. So be it.

At some point I was taking a breather from the downhills (ie. going uphill), and there was a woman coming the other way, walking her bike down. I asked if her bike was OK. It was, but she'd had a concussion a couple of weeks ago and wasn't taking any chances. I kept that -- not taking any chances -- in mind the rest of the way.

Legs were fried by the time I was done. Downhills are hard.

C • hard 3