no time to blog

been way too busy to ride, much less blog recently. life changes a lot with a baby in the house, then add a move to Vermont, a rediculous amount of snow and arctic temps - and the riding really slows-up. on top of that, my legs refuse to throw themselves over the top tube of the indoor trainer. refuse.

got-out for a good one last monday, temps in the teens, ample sun, a light dusting of snow freshening-up the snowpacked dirt roads. headed-up the hill away from house and the Steel Deluxe was soon making fresh tracks past the local farms, up some more then down into a small gulley where cows stood munching hay, sheltered from the wind by a stand of pine. out of the gulley and down past an entrance to a trail i hadn't seen before, getting more and more stoked about the snow melting. sparcely populated hills rise from the Valley, quickly becoming mtns. can't wait to explore beyond the dirt roads.

by tuesday night the snow was falling, by thursday morning we had 3' or more in waitsfield, 5' at the summit of mt ellen. craziness. what to do in chest-deep powder? mtbike. was so windy and cold had to turn-back early and think about getting the proper gear on for the weather - like the snowboard! said before i was all tele this season, but that was a lie, been on the board, trying to get the flow back after a 2yr hiatus and this monster storm was just the ticket. looking for the fall line, keeping the weight forward, charging runs, feeling the flow. finally hit the g-spot of boarding on saturday w/mikey-j, his buddy, and dr mike. good stuff. the snow was so damn good it drew utica dan up with his clan, good times... until the flu hit us! but, that's another story, one best left untold. it ain't pretty. was good to be back in action today, in boston, nice balmy commute...

Jay Winter Challenge - A Race Report

The Jay Winter Challenge was a kick in the pants, but a good one. Fitness levels were better than expected, felt fine all day. Perfect weather for the occasion, temps crawling into the low 20's, mix of sun and clouds, no wind.

Started the race as expected, Brook's ski replacing the front wheel, a 2.1 studded tire in rear (a 2.3 would be better). Got-out near the front, andy right there, our skis helping us fly across a mile of frozen lake, things were looking great! then out onto pavement. salted and sanded. that's where our racing ended and an epic ride been. Brook (using a ski) rallied, got rollers he fabricated to fit onto his ski and worked his way back into the field while Andy and I were forced to walk/jog/ride when we could, while rider after rider cruised past us and disappeared up the road until we were way behind dead last. our desire to race was minimal at best and it became an epic ride. Andy busted-out the camera and we took our time, pushing it on the snowmobile trails, catching some riders, then back to DFL on the next section of pavement. Riding in the snow was like... riding in the snow! not an easy task, but a great way to get 4-5 hrs of base this time to year... check-out andy's movie of our day at his blog.

Brook's ski was awesome - and a ton of fun when descending, you could really carve into the snow - and push the biggest gear, really let it rip - those downhill sections made-up for all of it.

Huge props to Dan DesRoisers for putting-on a race like this, getting us out there in the dead of winter. He pulled together some nice schwag for the racers, plenty of aid stations, well organized event.

Even more props to Brook for lending us the skis - and Brook's friend JT for lending Andy a bike to ride. If you want to bike all year long, take a look at brook's site, these skis are wild: http://www.bikesonsnow.com

And finally, much thanks to Andy for driving way up here to ride this race and use the ski i convinced him was perfect for the event (which it was minus the 5miles of pavement).

Got too much going-on to write much more about this fun day of suffering, except that with 18" of fresh powder on the Jay Peak, which loomed over us for much of the race, we wondered many times why we were riding our bikes!

glass half-empty

last night's ride home ended-up being spectacular, shame on me for giving-up on it before getting-out there. took a longer, more circular route, caught the headwind for 4-5miles, then crosswind into a hero-sized tailwind. was great fun, mp3 player blasting, out of the saddle... and i was wrong about how fast i could ride the Lead Sled into the wind, more like 10mph, but the tailwind was so worth it - get-out of the saddle and the wind would throw me forward into the sprint. fun, fun.

can someone else ride my bike home?

10 degrees, headwind from the west at 27mph, gusting to something awful. almost dark outside, will be by the time i'm geared-up, wind chills of the artic variety, not really thrilled about throwing a leg over the top tube for the westward grind home. if i hadn't missed (well, i really wouldn't say i missed it) the wknd's planned 3hr indoor session, it'd be no contest, time to hop on the T for a comfy train ride home reading the metro... the winter commuter is heavy and slow - into a headwind like this i'll be lucky to push 14-15mph. man, got to get fired-up for this commute! writing this isn't helping, i'm just procrastinating... work is done for the day and i'm sitting here typing ... typing some emails now...

dan d is fired-up for the innagural jay winter mtb. he mentioned that the trails have really packed-down - is guessing conventional bikes should do fine in these conditions.. he'll be riding everyday leading-up to the race and posting updates on the race blog. i hope to join Dan and Brook for a mid-week ride, get some rubber on that snow, see if the Pugsley is right for me - and maybe Brook's Sike, looks pretty bad-ass for getting more outside pedaling in during the winter. or maybe the steel deluxe, need some time on the snow to decide.

i've wasted enough time. thoughts of the jay winter mtb have me fired-up enough (more like scared enough) to hammer-through this arctic headwind. just hope those gore-tex socks arrive this week! the feet are the week link...