Training Log Archive: PG

Northfield, Warwick, Wendell loop. Low 60s, S 5-10, sunny. Good energy again, what's going on here? Not that I'm complaining... :-)

On the climb up to Warwick there were a couple of sections with some serious potholes. In one of those sections a car passed me and just as it went by I became aware of the fact that one of the hubcaps on the driver's side had gone rogue. The hubcap was moving nicely, angling a bit to the left, and very gradually slowing down as it had no propulsion of its own. It eventually came to rest in a bunch of smallish trees.

The car had pulled over a couple hundred yards farther along the road, and the guy had gotten out to take a quick look, then gotten back in. Just then I pulled up. I told him I'd seen where the hubcap stopped, if he wanted to go back and get it. Gave him good instructions, and then was on my way, still more of the hill to do.

A couple of minutes later the car came by and he gave a friendly wave.

Nice to be able to do a good deed, even if it was really insignificant.

C • Nice... and well under the ... 2

Mid 60s, NW 10 mph, sunny. Up along the east side of the river, back through Old Deerfield. Good hard effort, quickest pace in some time. Rather pleasing. :-)

Low 70s, S 15 mph. Tried what I often do in such circumstances (ie. windy), to pick a route that gives you some shelter (hills, woods) when going upwind and has you out in the open when going downwind. I guess it helps a little, though perhaps mostly with morale.

Got around OK. It certainly helps when going upwind to get your back more horizontal (though it's still a long ways from actually horizontal). Drop the shoulders a few more inches and you can just feel it getting easier to pedal. Would be even easier if you could just keep your head down, but that's not such a good idea, so the neck muscles get a workout. But they don't seem to mind. I think the birding has already toughened them up.

This being the 5th month, the (very flexible) target for the month is 500 miles. Ahead of schedule so far.

A fine adventure with Walter, a chance to explore a woods road in the Montague hills that I'd never been on, and he seemed game. On the map, it's shown a a straightforward connect between the upper end of Dry Hill Road and the Ruggles Pond area of Wendell State Forest and East Chestnut Hill Road.

So we pedaled up the paved part at a conversational pace, and then kept going. I expected it to be about a mile and a half to two miles until we hit pavement again. Turned out it was between two and a half and three, no big deal, except it took us the better part of an hour.

The first couple hundred yards were fine. Then it headed uphill steadily and got real muddy. Then also rocky. Then also bad erosion, really bad, like the "road" was a gully 3 or 4 feet deep. So we'd alternate little sections we could ride with lots of hike-a-bike.

Got to an intersection. Seemed like straight ahead was probably the way to go, but it was more unappealing stuff, rocky and wet erosion gully. To the right it looked much nicer, and there were fresh yellow blazes. To the right we went.

It was better, but not great, though we certainly were making better time. The problem was, we seemed to be going in the wrong direction, like south instead of east. But before long that resolved itself, the trail turned left. It also headed seriously uphill. It also pretty much disappeared.

There were still yellow blazes. Some work had been done to clear a trail, now very narrow. But a lot still needed to be done. So it was a long hike-a-bike up a long hill. And when it was flat enough to ride again, it seemed like every 50 yards there was another log across the trail, off the bike, over the log, on again, keep repeating.

But morale was good. It was a beautiful day. We busted neither ourselves nor our bikes, though there was ample opportunity. And eventually we got to the top of Dry Hill. Took a left on the Robert Frost trail there, down it (rather jarring, lots of little rocks, no suspension on the bike), and pretty soon we were back on the woods road we were supposed to be on. And the rest of the ride was easy.

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While writing the last paragraph, it occurred to me that Phil had recently done an assault on Dry Hill as part of his series of climbing the major peaks in the local area. Though it seems he tends to prefer easier approaches.... :-)

C • dry hill 2

Another perfect day. Flat except for the few little ups heading south along the base of the Whately hills. Put out a steady effort.

Shutesbury and Lake Wyola, a route I've done from time to time over the years, and I thought it might be interesting to revisit, see how (bad) the climb up to Shutesbury felt. It's not at all steep, average maybe 4%, but it goes on for 4 miles. The first minute or two are steep, and I did that and then I went to shift up a couple of gears and my body said Nope, and I figured it was going to be a long slow slog. But after a couple of minutes the body stopped complaining and the rest of the climb went pretty smoothly. You never know.

Beautiful day, about 70, low humidity, just a light breeze from the NW. Could feel it helping a little on the climb, and then hurting on the long downhill.

Good effort all the way around, and pleased with it, although I made the mistake when I got home and looked up how long the loop took about 10 years ago. About 1:30. Oh well, at least I'm still out there.