Training Log Archive: cmorse

Ride on the rail trail in NoHo w/ Ellen. Would have liked to ride longer, but had to get back to CT to get kids off the bus....

Van broke down yesterday, so I left the car home for Ellen and took the bike. Early am commute leaving before 5am. Chilly enough for jacket, fog in places, moonlight cutting through clouds in others.

AOWN - possum, couple of cats and a whole lot of unidentified eyes staring out at me from the underbrush. Coyotes howling in the distance as well. Made for a pretty surreal ride. Sky just beginning to lighten as I got to campus. New lights working very well.

pm commute home - very warm, forgot to carry water.

Planned on a longer run today, but it was warmer than forecast and when I got there in midafternoon I just didn't feel like a longer run. (Hadn't eaten or drink anything in 8 hours, which may have added to my lethargy).

Anyway, did a non-map terrain run at sprint effort, sticking to fairly white woods. Legs achy afterwards, probably due to running while dehydrated.

Ride on the trails with Hayden - mostly paved, a bit of rough loose ballast north of Copper Hill Road, then back to paved on up to quarry. Loose traprock beyond that so we opted to turn around. Nice overcast morning for an easy ride...

Very muggy - glasses fogging before even leaving. Easy pace run, distance measured with GPS but feels farther than 6.2 Perhaps I need to measure the sampler, again perhaps the 6.1 I measured in gmap is off....

10 weeks to US Champs... Anyone driving down from New England fancy sharing ride and/or accomodations??

C • US Champs 2

found a photo of me on Pan Mass crossing Orleans Marsh. If memory serves, that would have been about 15 minutes before the spokes let loose.

See my log entry

to/from shelter falls, calf muscles complaining on the way out - might be Rosstopheritis

Same route as Monday, not as brisk, but felt like a better overall pace. Still winded at the end. Less time trying to relocate the trail by Rt44 (blazed on trees, but indiscernable on the ground - I went off route a few times on Monday)

to/from Shelter Falls

Felt very brisk for first 12-15 minutes, then felt 'forced', but pushed as best I could anyway, then hard the last 5 minutes. A good outing. The cooldown was pretty lame though - I was spent...

A little trainer riding while adjusting my seat and watching Hayden ride his bike in the driveway...

No one to run with at forest this AM, so tried a new combination of trails CW around the mountain. I've run all of these trails many times before, but never in this combo and generally in the other direction. A very nice run with only a couple hesitations to look over my shoulder to make sure I was turning on the correct vague trail. A rather brisk pace overall - the legs felt great but the breathing was a little rough on the short climbs.

Up the road from parking, picking up the base trail where it branches L off road, around base to Hemlock (1/2 marathon) outbound to Webster at third waterstop, then up and over to first water stop, half marathon back inbound, then picking up portion of moonlight to west, wrapping around and taking the cutoff to pick up the base trail back to parking area.

Calves a little tight after showering, but felt good while running.

Distance/climb is an estimate from topo. GPS is having issues so is currently out of commission.

GPS is back in operating mode. After no success with hard resets and updating to the latest software I checked a few things in diagnostics. Found that the unit software had been updated to the new version but that the chip firmware version was 0.00. ???? Checked Garmin's service website and noted that in addition to having the interface and unit software updates one could also download new firmware. That did the trick. Not sure why the firmware vanished - no drops bumps etc - but gone it was. I note this here in case any others run into similar situation.

Symptoms - unit appeared to be operating fine but wasn't locating any satellites although screen indicated it was trying to.

Update 21AUG07 - I now think the GPS firmware might have gotten whacked during my run at work. I had the GPS tucked into my running pack along with my office keys - including an RFID Key FOB to the greenhouse. I'm wondering whether the magnetic field from the FOB may have trashed something in the firmware memory to cause it to be unloadable.. I'll run with the keys elsewhere from now on...

Lunch time run out bike path, then hard run on trails at Shelter Falls. Back via N Eagleville.

Evening ride with Hayden on rail trail - estimated distance and time.

Early morning run w/ Ginny. Not many people at the forest. Nice and cool this AM. Legs felt fine, cardio needs some work

Family Hike up the Falling Waters Trail in Franconia Notch as far as Cloudland Falls, then return

Amazingly enough, the legs feel fine, perhaps even great!! No residual soreness or anything. Only damage appears to be some sunburn on my upper chest where the zip shirt was open on Saturday. All the rest of my bikers tanned areas did just fine with no sunscreen - guess I just bared a little more chest this time around than I'm used to.

up at 4:15, pulled everything together and headed for food tent - had a couple danish, couple bacon/egg muffins and a couple yogurt smoothies. No mass start today, you could leave anytime after 5am. So I turned on the lights and rolled out the front gate after a couple other folks right at 5am.

Nice thing about leaving early is that there were no crowds going over the Bourne bridge, then onto the canal path heading north. Daybreak just showing on the horizon as we turned eastward - very fine....

Into the first water stop around 20m at 6:30 or so - quick gatorade, some motrin (knee a tad sore) and a fruit cocktail. Then on down the road toward P-town. Made good time (for me) but being passed by a lot of fast moving pacelines that obviously started after me. Strolled into Nickerson SP at around 8am (about 40m mark).

Left Nickerson on the Cape Cod Rail Trail and within a couple miles witnessed a truly amazing sight. I got passed by a guy riding a regular upright bike with only one leg. No prosthetic, absolutely nothing below the hip on the right side. And this guy was hauling... Absolutely inspiring.....


Further on up the rail trail in Wellfleet my woes for the day kicked in. I heard that familiar ping that signaled another spoke had let go. I pulled to the side to inspect the wheel to find two more spokes gone. All on the same side of the wheel - seriously out of true and unrideable. Walked about a mile out on the trail to the parking area expecting to find a roving service truck. Nada...

As they say, relentless forward progress. So started walking the bike along the route hoping for a roving truck. After about 10 minutes, realized I could make better time jogging the bike - heck its only a marathon to the finish from here!!. Of course now we were climbing the hill (yes the cape has hills) up to Wellfleet by the Sea. Full sun too.... After cresting the hill I finally saw a service truck, but alas no 26 inche spokes. With only a couple miles to the next water stop I opted to keep jogging rather than accept a ride. It was a shame not to be able to ride the gorgeous twisting descent off the hill, but thems the breaks.. About a half mile from the waterstop, who do I see coming up the road? Ryan from CycleLoft.... I flag him down and ask him if he's got 26 inch spokes. Indeed he does and pulls over and fixes my wheel up pronto (ok 20 minutes or so) and also still has that other coke in the cooler (double bonus!!).



Back on the road and having rested and imbibed while Ryan worked on the wheel, I rolled right through the water stop and pointed that sucker for Provincetown.

A lot of the final stretch was on Rt 6 so it was pretty boring and uneventful but a couple folks along the way offered ice cold gatorades (which I of course accepted). Came across the hill and saw the Pilgrim monument in the distance - the end is in sight!! Of course the route goes out by Race Point (more hills) before finishing, but I knew I would make it and rolled across the line at 12:34pm. Rolled my bike onto the appropriate tractor trailer truck going back to Sturbridge, retrieved my bag (clean clothes) and proceeded to join an even bigger and better party at the Provincetown Inn. So large in fact that only registered riders and volunteers were allowed past security. But a fair portion of the riders opt to finish at the 'Family Finish' elsewhere in P-town where there is ample space to meet family and friends.

A couple hours later was on the bus back to Sturbridge....

A heartfelt thanks to all of you who sponsored me on my ride to raise funds to fight cancer. As hard as the ride itself was, it was nothing compared to the pain and suffering endured by those stricked with this disease. Fund raising efforts run until October 1st by which point this event should surpass 28 million dollars to fund research in the fight against cancer. Thank you, Thank you , Thank you.....

C • Excellent! 1

a 4 mile jog with the bike in the middle of the ride. See narrative for bike.

I may add some additional notes and links to photos when they start to get posted.. for now I'm off to NH for a few days rest with the family...

Bents encountered on Pan Mass:
Ryan Vanguard and Duplex (tandem), Double Vision (tandem), Bacchetta Giro & Strada, Lightning P38 w/ tailbox, couple of Easy Racers (gold rush and another unidentified model) and a Greenspeed GTO trike.

Pan Mass Challenge - 192mi, 2-day, Sturbridge to Provincetown Ride to benefit Dana Farber Cancer Institute

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Up at 4:15, sent the luggage over with the Goodrow's and set up the lights on the bike for the ride over to SHH in the dark. Really nice cool morning. Got down onto Rt 20 and picked up a small group of riders heading for the start.

Met my luggage at SHH and ensured it got loaded onto the correct truck (different trucks depending upon your sleeping accomodations) and then went inside for breakfast. Despite there being 5000 bike riders stood in line less than a minute - went outside to eat rather than eating indoors.

As the sky was getting light, the start went off promptly at 6am. Fast riders first, followed by steady riders, then the scenic riders. Not being comfortable riding in a group, I opted to go out at the end and thus did not roll out of the parking lot until about 6:20 or so. They close Rt 20 eastbound for the first 4-5 miles so it was a pretty cool sight to see an endless column of riders stretching off into the dawn. Nice riding temps, but even at 6am it was obvious that it was going to be a very, very hot day...

The first leg (20.5m) went pretty well. The first 45 miles or so were advertised as hilly but nothing really severe - I have worse hills on my commute route so it rolled along pretty good. The thing that struck me most on the first (and subsequent) stretches is how the whole route is like a party - kind of like Manchester Road Race spread out over 192 miles. People cheering you on all along the way - live music, encouragement. With your first name clearly visible on your bike tag as well as on the back of the seat a lot of people would cheer you on by name and as I only knew two other people in this massive crowd that was pretty cool. Roughly 90 minutes to the first waterstop where I spent perhaps 10 minutes (moreso as I was kind of getting my bearings trying to figure out where to refill bottles etc before finally realizing that there were people working the crowd with bottles and food in addition to the various tents. )

2nd leg to waterstop in Franklin (43.5m) was more rolling hills and just enjoying the ride and cameraderie of everyone involved. I was definitely starting to get warm though and was beginning to dread the afternoon with some doubts about being able to get to Bourne without my usual hot weather ailments. But rolling good for now.... In and out of waterstop fairly quickly as I now had an idea of how things operated. Got what I needed and moved on down the road before the day got any hotter.

Things began to get interesting on the next leg to Dighton/Rehoboth (70.3m) and lunch. About 2/3 of the way into this leg I heard the distinct ping of a snapping spoke coming from my rear wheel. Pulled over and gave it a look - sure enough a drive side spoke had gone however the wheel was still fairly true so I moved on down the road (an advantage of disk brakes is that minor wheel alignment issues are not a major problem.) Got to Dighton and rolled into the mechanical area. (Each waterstop had a number of tents where local bike mechanics volunteered their services for bike repairs - this in addition to roving mechanics out on the road). They popped the wheel off and indicated it would be a few minutes and I should go grab some lunch while they worked on it. So I did. They hadn't started it when I got back so after a little nagging I got them to get started on it - they stripped the wheel down removing the brake disk, cassette, tube/tire etc only to then announce that their fully stocked service area didn't actually have any 26" mountain bike spokes (standard size, nothing funky about them). So they pulled the spoke/nipple and reassembled the wheel without the spoke and trued it up. Got it back on the bike and then I went over to refill my bottles with cold water (it was really hot by now) and just before I got to pull out checked the tires to find the rear was now flat. Damn.... Take it off again and put the spare tube in... Finally got back on the road after a 2 hour stop and its now really, really hot out. As least at this point the cheering fans along the roads are now showering riders with hoses and handing out cold cups of water (most of which went over the head).

On toward Lakeville (84.7m) in the heat of the day - no sign of any storms (darn). My stomach now beginning to do its usual game and shutting down - water/Gatorade going in slowly and reluctantly. At one point along this stretch I pulled over in the shade and proceeded to dump the contents of one hot water bottle over my head to cool off. One of the roving mechanics (Ryan from CycleLoft) pulled over to make sure I was ok and I explained my woes and how when my stomach gets funky in hot weather the only real thing that settles it is a good cold Coca-cola. Ryan says he'll go try to find me something and I head on down the road. Not 5 minutes later Ryan pulls up and waves me over and we sit under a tree while I consume that Coke. Also held that nice cold can up to my neck to cool my blood and lower the core temp. Hated to move on, but move on I must. But before he left Ryan told me he had more Cokes on ice in the truck so if I needed another to have someone radio my location to him and he'd come to my rescue again - didn't have to, but nice to know he was out there...

On to the 101m waterstop - slowly but surely turning the cranks over. Some ice for the neck, a few cold gatorades and a few minutes in the mist tent but not too far to go so rolled back out the door fairly quickly.

Rolled into the Mass Maritime Academy at 4:54 - one big party going on... first parked my bike, grabbed my bag then headed for the shower truck (ahhhh), dropped my stuff off in a PMC supplied tent then off for the food - 8 hours of continuous, no waiting, free food of all sorts. Free Brighams ice cream (I had three), free Beer (I passed) and free deep tissue massage (ok, there was a line there and I opted for more food instead). Fully satiated, I wandered back to the tent, laid out my blanket on the grass and snoozed for a bit. Then got up and went back to the food tent and had yet another hamburger, two more slices of pizza and some salad - and a few cans of Orange Dry soda. Stopped by the medical tent on the way back to the tent to check my body weight - up 2 pounds over the start!! A good sign...

Then back to the tent again to doze off to the sound of the giant wind turbine whooshing overhead....

Tough going during the afternoon, but after showering, eating numerous times and cooling down the final consensus is that it was a very fine day indeed. We'll see how we feel in the morning....

Got into Sturbridge about 3pm, went over to the Sturbridge Host Hotel and registered, toured the expo and had an excellent pasta dinner. The Pan Mass has an extraordinarily smooth operation to cater to the needs of the 5000 or so riders. Very impressed.

Got back to the Goodrow's house (about 2km from the start) around 6 and prepped the bike making sure everything I wanted on the ride was with me and the rest shipped to Bourne on the truck. Rode around the neighborhood for a bit to make sure everything was in working order. Then a good nights sleep.

Busy week at work with conference - in to work by 6am, home well after the kids bedtimes every night. At least I should get a good nights sleep tonight. Off to Sturbridge tomorrow afternoon...