Training Log Archive: PG

With Phil. My choice of route as long as it was paved and not too hilly and started no more than 30-40 minutes from Northampton and took us 2-3 hours. So with the miracle of RidewithGPS (for the route, mileage, climb, gradients, etc.) and Google street view to make sure the roads were paved, it only took a few minutes to design a route that was mostly south of the Holyoke Range and about 50% on roads I hadn't ridden on.

And it turned out just fine.

Phil is stronger than I am, plus he has a featherweight road bike, plus he likes to get competitive. The only factors in my favor were having no shame about latching on to his wheel, and, might as well say it, he's getting old.

When he seemed to be feeling a bit too energetic I didn't hesitate to use plan A (draft), knowing that plan B was always available in case he tried to bust me -- he didn't know where we were going. So it was a pretty good balance. And I certainly enjoyed it.

It was warm, and I had no ambitions other than to do a short loop with the expenditure of as little energy as possible.

Mostly successful. :-)

I wanted to revisit a few spots from Saturday's D2R2 ride, and this seemed like a good day to do it -- temps in the 70s and much lower humidity, and if I wasn't recovered from Saturday, well, I probably never would be. And the fact that there was a brisk breeze from the NW didn't really matter, what with all the hills, the woods, the narrow roads.

Drove up to Colrain and then a little further. First on the agenda was another go at Stark Mt. Road, what had felt like the hardest hill on Saturday, pretty steep, dirt, and with 75 miles already in the legs. Saturday it took me 20:36, next to slowest time of the roughly 70 folks who put times on Strava. Today, with only 0.5 miles already in my legs, and perfect weather, it was 14:37.

Certainly better, as one would hope. Also certainly more painful (physically, Saturday was more painful psychologically). And still real slow, best were taking about 9 minutes. But I ignore that. I was up, I could relax, just 3,500' of climbing still to go. :-)

A couple of miles later I picked up Saturday's course at an earlier spot, now heading the opposite direction. Time to revisit the mudhole, and the bit of jeep track in its vicinity. This time I was going down the track, and it certainly was drier, no stream flowing down the middle. First 100 yards was fine, then it got steeper and much rockier, maybe a couple hundred more yards. Made it down, but I could see why I'd struggled coming up. And then around a sharp corner and there was the mudhole, looking now like a small version of what I had remembered. Which it was, water probably a foot lower, and even now no room to ride around either side. Not wanting to have another go at it -- the odds of getting through seemed very low -- I happily dragged my bike through the trees and moved on.



Some more miles and a bunch more hills, now well into Vermont. Then the other jeep track I wanted to revisit. This one Saturday had been downhill, somewhat steep, somewhat rocky, very wet. Also short, only a couple hundred yards. I'd made it down, but remember bouncing all over the place and having to avoid a bunch of mud. Certainly drier today, less mud, still lots of rocks. But I zipped right up, picked a good line and got the power up just when I needed to. If I hadn't still had a long ways to go, I might have turned around and done it again.

Then a few more miles and a few more hills and I was back at Saturday's lunch spot. Nothing there now, of course, just a quiet spot along the edge of a field.

What was left, back to my car, 9 miles, was the way the short version of the mystery ride had gone Saturday. Oh was that nice. Three miles down. Three miles rolling. Three miles seriously down. And a hundred yards flat to the car.

Why didn't I do the short version?

Another corn ride.

Corn ride again, nice and flat.

No ambitions again, partly because I'd been on my feet all morning tromping around the NW side of Quabbin and so was feeling rather tired when ride time came. But the legs actually felt like they had some life in them. :-)

Needed a bit of maintenance today. Not me, I just needed more rest, but the bike.

Saturday after my long ride I tossed the bike in the back of the car and didn't look at it again until midday Sunday. When I did, well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it hadn't somehow cleaned itself. So I spent about an hour removing the worst of the mud and grime and gunk, feeling quite pleased with myself. The only hiccup was I also found that the rear tire was flat. Well, not totally flat, but getting there. The same tire that flatted a couple of weeks ago, that I'd fixed, that I'd ridden on several times, and that, obviously, I'd been out for 10 hours on the day before.

Seems like I finished yesterday's ride none too soon.

So I finished cleaning the bike, best as I could, and adjusted the gears a little, and then pumped the rear tire back up, thought what the hell, and went out for my corn ride. Tire seemed OK. But this morning it was definitely flattish, maybe even more so.

So off to the bike shop after lunch. Sprung for two new tires, figured 6,700 miles was enough for them to be retired. Plus a new tube. Plus, it turned out, the brake pads were just about at the end of their useful life, so new sets of them both front and rear. All fixed quite quickly while I watched how things were done.

And also with me feeling glad that I had cleaned the bike enough to be presentable enough to take it in for repairs, sort of the way I gather some folks who have someone clean their living quarters feel the need to do a bit of pre-cleaning, just so things don't look too bad.

That done, back home, still time for a ride so why not. Flat (the route, not the tire) again, easy pace again. Will keep that up until some life returns to this old body.

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Spent a good bit of the morning out with my binoculars (which have gotten almost no use this summer except for the week we went to Costa Rica). Wasn't expecting much, always the best way to start out, so quite surprised to see a good assortment of winged creatures, including a collection of young Wood Ducks, a Northern Harrier, a Green Heron, and a group of Solitary Sandpipers. Nothing rare, but all a pleasure, especially when they pose well for the camera.