jay winter challenge

the cold air hasn't had me too fired-up to ride outside the past cpl wks, but slowly working my way back onto the pain machine and getting the commute time in when in boston, but it's just not enough, need those 3-4hr rides. talking about pain, i need a new saddle for the indoor, the boys keep falling asleep which can't be good for, you know... so, that being said, the studded tires are going on the steel deluxe for some spinning on the snow and ice covered dirt roads in and around the valley. hopefully i can some decent base in my legs before the pre-season has passed me by...

after a few email conversations with my favorite french canadian, it looks like the first race of the season will be a lot sooner than i thought. i've been resisting the urge to race the freeze-your-ass-of epic that is the jay winter challenge, but dan's offer to let me ride his brand-new Pugsley made-up my mind. with an offer like that, how could i refuse!? it's on like donkey kong! now i just have to convince andy and thom to roll... oh yeah, thom will be in Cali, doing his base. cheater! (that's just me being insanely jealous)... just need to find andy a bike to race on while his Igleheart is in paint... can't wait to see the new paint job! which has me thinking 'bout painting the steel deluxe for this season, it got wicked beat-up last yr, i just can't seem to stay on two wheels... and plain green was so '06... what color to go with for '07? big decisions...

cookies

Makes sense to me... it's worth a click:

-9

-9 and counting. bought one of those high-class thermometers for outside, there she sat, crowded between long, slender models, some 2' long, others sporting barmometer sidekicks. to the right a wall of 12" rounders, resplendent in scenes of nature, men hunting, dog hunting, hunting. hidden squarely away she sat, shy, only 4" wide, nothing fancy, a beauty for $3.79.

got-out for a run w/bronte, the wind chill on my face when running was too much. i stopped at the top of a short xc ski run which links into the waitsfield common, then down a paved descent to a dirt road back around to the house. not sure how long the loop is, not much, many a mile and a half at most... i'm pretty excited to make a bunch more loops, singletrack, dirt, paved, up, down, out the door. some for running, some for riding the wide tires and the skinnies, others for family walks and time with the b-dog, which was today. she was built for this. we can only mtb togther when it's 30 or below, otherwise she's too hot to perform, had a good rip on wed night minus a bloodied eye, but once past zero i have a hard time getting on the mtb, but the b-dog is on fire! just ripping, full-out, that dog was meant to live in places where -9 is nothing, where being the friendliness, most snuggly dog is out of necessity, 3 dog night man, but back to the mtb, with conditions firming-up, i'm feeling a trip to newport for the jay winter mtb is in order. was going to do support, but this ride is calling my name. they all do. such a ride slut. could just be the wine talking.

crazies

a co-worker asked me how i ride to work w/all the crazies on the road. i explained that some days it's crazy and that's fine, you ride defensively, never race a car or other cyclist, think about what every car or pedestrian MIGHT do - and all is well. but some days, the crazies go lunatic. today was one of those days.

sunny, not terribly cold (20F), but for some reason traffic was snarled and that got folks all worked-up (usually traffic goes lunatic in bad weather as more folks drive to avoid walking to the trains). in boston, it's totally normal for a cpl cars to slide through a light after it turns red, it's part of traffic flow, but running a red light in the middle of the cycle is well, you know, illegal. two cars ran a red and almost took me out today - f'ing lunacy! what are these people thinking? traffic is so stagnant, so one guy just slips across through a red light, almost over me, and into the flow!? what the hell... to add to the lunacy, pedastrians jumped into the mix, walking off curbs at random points due to the molasses-like conditions of traffic is pretty normal, but today it was at lunacy level - hitting a pedestrian, jay-walker or not, never ends well... but, these lunacy days aren't uncommon, so normal that i rarely mention them, no need to get folks who read this (i.e., my family) worried... but this move to Vermont had me thinking this morning about not having to deal with it anymore (minus the days i'm working in boston each month) and i feel a little safer already.

one big drawback to the VT thing is that is was a nice crisp 20 in Boston today, perfect for the bike commute, but was -2 in Waitsfield, that's a big difference! the indoor trainer and i will be getting seriously re-aquainted soon. past cpl wknds in VT i haven't really ridden, been back out on the snow, remembering why i love winter so much. it's been 2yrs since i've been on the snow, and while the skiing is taking away from base training on the bike, it's a good break. instead of going into the first race of the year in condition i'll take my licks and ride into shape... living 6miles from one of the best ski mtns in new england is tough, but someone has to do it.

oh yeah, after a cpl missed opportunities, finally got-out for a night ride w/andy and thom on wednesday. light dusting of snow adding to the ambiance, then plenty of Narragansetts and bbq at redbones after adding to our smack-talking. one good thing about continuing to work in boston a cpl days/every other wk is riding with these guys.

dump!

the wknd started-out great with an unexpected dump on friday. they said 2", we got a foot. sweet! was so stoked i headed-out with the headlamp after jenn and seneca hit the sheets for some late-night skiing on our road, then hit a short, xc ski trail for a cpl runs w/bronte. knee-high powdah is good for the soul.

saturday, cold, windy, but hit-up mt ellen with a-train and mikey-j, we couldn't resist the call of the powdah. was running a bit late and managed to drive the car off our driveway, no first tracks for us! managed to hit the mtn by 10-1030. by noon, the lifts were on wind hold, but our feet weren't! hiked-up and had a nice run, then got a cpl more good ones when the lower lifts started spinnin' again.

sunday was just as cold, but the ample sun and lower winds made it bearable, got a cpl good runs in before deciding to hit the woods, minus my riding partner - dr mike. dr mike waited and waited, where did jeff go he wondered as i lay somewhere in the woods, way off where i expected to be, jacket torn and arm all banged-up from a nasty encounter with a hidden branch... ended-up boot hiking for a while before making it back to the groomers... then realized i could have gone the opposite way and saved a bunch of time, but was too freaked to be thinking straight. thoughts of a night alone in the woods haunting me, bear food! never ski the trees alone! at least not new england trees with 20" of base. nasty. had to sit the rest of the day out, arm sore and ego busted-up... but glad i learned some lessons this wknd w/o hurting myself too bad - or my property - as that car thing could've been a lot worse.

amazing the turn-around at the mtn - from green slopes and temps in the 50's two wks ago to 100% open and a summit temp of -10 or something yesterday. winter's back!

tele!

acquired a uhaul last week (aka, 16' of pain), have no idea how i'd have loaded that truck w/o mr sanidas, that's a real good friend there! once in vermont (w/huge props to mike for helping unload the uhaul!), snow covering the ground, the promise of a big storm en route, we were pretty pysched... by friday morning rains had washed the snow away (again!), but we stayed optimistic... saturday, with things dry and cool, i headed-out on the road bike, down my dirt road and out onto the rolling east warren road, towering views of mt ellen, lincoln peak, mad river glen on one side, the northfield range rising-up on the other. farms mingled with small homes mingled w/houses larger than any family i know requiring. few cars passed, the road was mine for the moment, my smile growing broader and broader as i realized this isn't a vacation, this is my home.

blue skies began to open up and the temperature plummeted, 2 layers and a wind vest simply wasn't enough, i went to take a drink and both my bottles were frozen solid. soon after my rear derailuer cable snapped, stopping to rip the line clear and get it rolling singlespeed wasn't helping! i cruised into FitWerx shivering and was impressed with the level of service i received. Ian (co-owner) and 2 other mechs were on it, cable fixed, out the door in 10mins for $9.90 - considering i had $10 in my pocket, i thought it was pretty magical and spun for another 10miles or so to make the most of their kindness before heading home a frozen block, happy for the lack of snow, but looking fwd to get-out on my new-t0-me tele set-up.

the wknd snow storm never really developed, but i did get-out for most of a day on the tele's with Mike and Allison. Mike's a superb skier and Allison's form is about as perfect as it can get. She focuses very hard on doing it right all the time, something you have to appreciate - and learn from. they gave me a series of tips, i made a complete fool of myself, rolling down the mtn with these strange long sticks attached to my feet, ski poles poking my eyes out. by lunch i could stop w/o falling everytime, "ate" two glasses of porter to loosen-up and was getting from edge to edge for a cpl more runs before calling it a day. pretty stoked. headed-out today on the snowboard (even though i said i wouldn't) and was bored silly. this time i mean it, it's all tele from here on out!

first wknd in VT

left last thursday with a carload of essentials. tele skis, snowboard, poles, hiking boots, hats, gloves, 2 bikes, cpl extra wheels, air mattress, 12 pack of beer. crap, forgot the baby. kidding.

our first wknd was surreal. temps soared into the low 60's, breaking every record on the books. then the rains came. and came. not sure how much fell, but the Mad River was a ragin'! got-out for a short ride on friday afternoon, was in short sleeves, would hit a cool patch of air, freeze, then hit a warm patch. was kinda like swimming in a lake in early summer. you find a warm spot (and i'm not talking about one you create by peeing), but it passes by way too quickly and soon your nipples are harder than a diamond-tip something or other. that being said, my lawn was green and it felt like Spring, perfect opportunity to survey our 1.2 acres of bliss and clean-up the property.

sunday morning our new neighbors popped-by, super nice folks, a btl of maple syrup in hand. apparently they tap the stand of maple trees from below our house up the hill aways - old school style - with buckets and taps, none of this plastic hosing crap. the cpl-few nice maples on our property are part of their sugarbush and we're more than happy to have them work our trees for a bit of syrup!

after meeting the neighbors, i hit-up Mt Ellen with Mike for a cpl runs on some real new england hard pack, and by that i mean rock hard. my brain was telling my legs to turn, but my legs refused. down. and again. down. and again. mike tore it up, but that's expected, that dude rips! next wknd it's all tele for me. the snowboard is getting hung-up. period. time to learn something new. while i was on the hill, jenn and sarah went for a walk and quickly found some nice trails a few hundred feet from our door which they explored with the zeal i'd expect.

work has been good this week, getting stuff done, but i can't wait to get back to VT! to make it feel more like home i snagged one of those wheels-about-to-fall-off Uhaul trucks to drag a bunch of our crap up there this wknd (like our cooking gear, what's life w/o good food!?)

what's crazy is we get DSL on our dirt road in backwoods Vermont and it's faster than anything you could get in Boston - and was hooked-up in less than 2 days! Vermont is pushing hard to become the most wired state in the country - and it shows. more on that later...

vermont

haven't been bloggin' much recently, insanely busy, then this whole holiday thing, but it was nice to take a break. mostly. jenn's slammed w/work, i with ... whatever it is that i do.... the good news is that jenn, seneca, bronte and i are now vermonters. mostly. got a ski pass, a waitsfield VT PO box, a place to sleep, and a few friends to kick around with, what else do ya' need!?

started '07 with a ride on the trainer, the 2wks of rest over. it was tough to crawl onto the pain machine, but once spinning plans began to formulate... where to start '07? back at the Cohutta 100? andy and i swore we wouldn't make the drive again, but it can be t0ugh to stick to such a promise when jonsin' for an epic, only this yr it's 3hrs farther away considering i'm starting from Northern Vermont. 19hr drive to race for 8hrs? that seriously breaks the 1hr of driving for 1hr of racing rule...

goals for '07? part of me wants to chase the ultra 100 series, but so much driving. with a baby in the house, i don't know if i want to be away that much - or if it's fair to Jenn. at a certain point you gotta ask yerself if you're being a selfish dingleberry or chasing a dream. could stick to New England and hammer-out the Root 66 or EFTA series, hit-up the "classics" - Jay, VT50. Utica Dan is training like a madman to be prepared for a season of ultra-running, Jay and VT are on his schedule, will be fun to have him around for a cpl epics, have to do Jay and VT50 for that reason alone.

finding the time to spin with a baby is a whole new challenge. but, luckily i married a really solid chiquita who supports the insanity that is my riding addiction, so while i won't be able to add hours compared to 2006, i'm at least hoping to meet those hours. will it be enough to meet a dream goal - like winning a ultra? who knows, but it'll sure be fun to try.

see you on the Gaps.

shrinkage

"A huge portion of ice broke off from Canada’s Ellesmere Island last year, but it was not until this year that scientists, using satellite photos, realized the full dimension of the catastrophe.

Ellesmere Island, lying in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the most northerly of the Canadian Arctic islands. It comprises an area of 196,235 km² (75,767 square miles), making it the world's tenth largest island and Canada's third largest island.

The Ellesmere ice shelf reduced by 90 percent in the twentieth century due to global warming, leaving the separate Alfred Ernest, Ayles, Milne, Ward Hunt, and Markham Ice Shelves.

Now, satellite images are showing that a massive rupture in the Ayles Ice shelf (which was one of six major ice shelves in Canada) led to the forming of a natural icy island, which actually floats in the Arctic Ocean.

The Ayles Ice Shelf was approximately 41 square miles in size, and was located approximately 500 miles south of the North Pole, off the northern coast of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut.

The scientists discovered that AIS broke clear 16 months ago from the coast of Ellesmere Island, and within an hour of breaking free, the shelf had formed as a new ice island, leaving a trail of icy boulders floating in its wake.

Warwick Vincent of Laval University, who studies Arctic conditions, traveled to the newly formed ice island and could not believe what he saw.

“This is a dramatic and disturbing event. It shows that we are losing remarkable features of the Canadian North that have been in place for many thousands of years,” Vincent said. “We are crossing climate thresholds, and these may signal the onset of accelerated change ahead.”

“It is consistent with climate change,” Vincent said, adding that the remaining ice shelves are 90 percent smaller than when they were discovered in 1906. “We aren’t able to connect all of the dots … but unusually warm temperatures definitely played a major role.”

Luke Copland, assistant professor at the University of Ottawa's geography department, said: "The Arctic is all frozen up for the winter and [the floe] it's stuck in the sea ice about 50 km (30 miles) off the coast. The risk is that next summer, as that sea ice melts, this large ice island can then move itself around off the coast and one potential path for it is to make its way westward toward the Beaufort Sea, and the Beaufort Sea is where there is lots of oil and gas exploration, oil rigs and shipping."

The ice chunk is now 19 square miles in size. Initially, it was larger than Manhattan which only has about 24 sq. miles. It is basically a floating ice island. Only five Canadian ice shelves remain connected to land.

Copland said the break was likely due to a combination of low accumulations of sea ice around the mass's edges as high winds blew it away, as well as one of the Arctic's warmest temperatures on record. The region was 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees F) above average in the summer of 2005, he said, according to Reuters.

"It's hard to tie one event to climate change, but when you look at the longer-term trend, the bigger picture, we've lost a lot of ice shelves on northern Ellesmere in the past century and this is that continuing," he said. "And this is the biggest one in the last 25 years."

Previous studies have shown that the Arctic water fails to freeze back in winter, a natural process that has been going on for millennia. According to scientists, 2006 is the second year in a row when the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean didn't manage to reach its normal winter size, thus leading to an overall shrinking. Climate experts say that this is due to rapid global climate change and will cause a serious expansion of open water in the upcoming summer."

it's getting hot in here

from weather.com:

RECORD EVENT REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA 600 AM EST MON JAN 01 2007

...WARMEST FINISH OF ANY YEAR IN BOSTON...

...WARMEST DECEMBER AND WARMEST NOVEMBER-DECEMBER COMBINATION RECORDED AT BOSTON/S LOGAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT...

THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR DECEMBER 2006 WAS 41.1 DEGREES IN BOSTON. THIS BEATS THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 40.7 DEGREES SET IN 1990. THE NORMAL DECEMBER MONTHLY AVERAGE TEMPERATURE IS 34.8 DEGREES WITH A DECEMBER 2006 DEPARTURE OF +6.3 DEGREES.

IN ADDITION...THE COMBINED AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 2006 WAS APPROXIMATELY 45.1 DEGREES. THIS BEATS THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 44.6 DEGREES SET DURING THE COMBINED MONTHS OF NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 1990.

THERE WERE 19 CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITH ABOVE NORMAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURES FROM DECEMBER 10TH THROUGH DECEMBER 28TH AND 24 DAYS ABOVE NORMAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURES IN DECEMBER 2006.

OFFICIAL RECORDS HAVE BEEN KEPT SINCE 1872.

at a certain point a duck that looks like a duck and quacks like a duck is a platypus, or in this case, a duck. too tired to make sense right now. happy 2007. other than the above piece of news, it's shaping-up to be a really great year.