VT to FL

Been a while since the last post (as usual these days). 10 days ago a surprise powder storm hit, chores had me indoors sunday until a call from mikey-j pulled me out to the mtn. conditions weren't epic, they were legendary. mike and i couldn't do anything but smile and giggle like kids. what's there to say when you're in untracked knee to waist deep powder, racing down singletrack glade runs barely as wide as your shoulders!? too bad i only got 2hrs in on sunday, but 2hrs is better than none. saturday didn't suck either, rolled with a bigger crew, here's Sarah getting into some singletrack:


also squeezed-in some rides. temps in the teens aren't so bad with views like this:
this one's for Wraith. keep seeing this truck on the warren mtn rd:

this is a post of extremes, left waitsfield last wed, temps in the single digits, a day later was chilling in key west while our friends frank and erin got hitched! congrats to those two.
get my base in florida every spring, hanging with my nieces on the east coast, then jenn's mom on the west. thankful for the change of coasts as there aren't too many routes, but the weather is perfect and the oceanfront riding scenic. spotted an osprey, alligator, sand crane, heron, pelican and a pack of turtles all in the same ride... the steady 20mph winds simulate hills, but have to focus on keeping the tempo smooth and steady. maybe it's a good thing there aren't any hills here, the heart rate stays locked in each gear choice and doing intervals is as simple as shifting down a cpl gears. 3 more days of riding, then 24hrs of debauchery with the old school crew before heading home. nothing like finishing-off a 20hr wk with 20hrs of beer swilling with guys i've known for almost 20yrs. part of me thinks i should be riding more, shooting for an unprecedented 30hr week, but i'm in a different place with the riding this yr. trying to end each ride with burning legs, but still hungry for more. threw-out the computer, the heart rate monitor, the training plan. this yr is about spending time with my daughter and riding when and how i want. what's crazy is that even though i missed many days this winter, i feel stronger than ever. have no idea how this will translate into power and fitness, but sure am having fun when sitting on the saddle - can't wait to ditch the mtb w/studs and the road bike and get my MTB ON!!!

no jacket!

last week i had to get out there, get those hours no matter what. mother nature cooperated with single digit temps and murderous winds. f it. my blood's so damn thick at thick at this point i could ride in the arctic with a bikini on. hit my goal hrs last week, forced myself to take yesterday off and am feeling really good about things. all the months of "rest" taken from the bike while moving our shit to vermont has paid-off huge, not in fitness, but in desire - the urge to ride is overwhelming.

put-in most of the planned hrs during the wk, so the wknd was all about cruising. headed-out saturday on the road bike down a dirt (ice and snow) covered road. a few miles into it, feeling good, found myself going 35-40 down an ice-covered hill and that little voice piped-up and reminded me that there was very little friction between the tires and the road, tapped the brakes and down i went, sliding sideways, still clipped in, got a 100 yards before coming to a stop. was kinda fun, but knew the next one wouldn't go as well and headed for some pavement. en route, a flock of the most perfect sheep i've ever seen stood in the way. 20-30 pink-nosed sheep with perfectly groomed coats stood in the road, catching some early morning rays. pushed through and onto the east warren rd where a stiff headwind greeted me cooly, but the best thing about a strong headwind on a loop ride is the ride home - and it was the ballz! pushing all the gear i had, flying-up the 15miles of rt100 in less than 30mins, good times.

55 degrees this morning, first time in a cpl months i rode without a jacket, insulated pants, booties, gore socks, full head/face mask, blah, blah, blah - you know, so much gear that you spend more time getting dressed and undressed than riding. it was great - had me up sprinting and jamming on it, kinda a celebration ride i guess.

looks like i've got a lot of catching-up to do after reading Harlan's most recent post - double century's this past wknd for that guy - no secret why he's fast. you get out what you put in, mix-in some talent and BAM! you the man. you the man Harlan.

looking to the 100miler season opener in TN, just need to pull the trigga on a plane ticket. i have no idea how the fitness will shape-up six weeks from now - hoping to suck-up the drive to CT for the Root66 season opener the first wknd of April to get an idea of where i am, but it's hard to justify 4hrs of driving each way for a 2hr race - when i could just stay home and put-in a nice 6 hr ride and still have time to drink beer...

spent part of the wknd learning how to tap our Maple trees. sugaring is a pretty simple process, just very time consuming. tap tree. sap goes into bucket. bucket goes into big pan with fire underneath. syrup is left. not something i'd do on my own by any means, but my neighbor built-up a sugar sack with the help of some friends, enjoys collecting the sap, and has a good system going - and i've got plenty of excuses to stand around at night drinking beer watching the sap boil-down into syrup. in a few wks we'll be eating pancakes with syrup from our own trees.

tapping the trees:

Seneca and I scoping-out conditions on our local mtb trail:

future cyclist?

too soon

as in, it was way too soon to say "i'm back in action." friday morning i awoke to the most horrific chest cold i've had in many yrs. small breaths result in painful hacking, intense sinus pressure, had to bail from the planned ride and hunker-down. pretty damned bummed. finally got on a roll, was looking at a solid week of spinning and BAM! down. with only 7wks till the cohutta, i am not pleased with this cold, which feels more like friggin' pneumonia. thursday's ride was perfect, but the spin up Bragg Hill Rd on the studs was intense, had me sweating like crazy, then caught a nasty chill on a long descent that i couldn't shake for the rest of the ride. crap. who knew a chill could really result in getting sick!? i seriously thought that was an old wive's tale.

saturday, 12" of fresh snow at the house was too irresistible and hit Mt Ellen with the crew yesterday, me hacking and coughing the entire day as we hit-up glade runs i'd never seen or heard of. steep, narrow, then opening-up into stretches of powder where you'd get 5 or 40 good untracked powder turns in. what a day! the chest cold had me a little sluggish (bounced off a cpl trees, focus danielson!) and didn't complain about an hr stop for lunch or a 3p exit for a cpl refreshments. it was all i had, everytime the heart rate got up i'd feel dizzy - and today am feeling it. but, rest is a slow death and i see a cpl hr "easy" ride on the Steel Deluxe in my future, hacking cough and all. best way to kick a cold is to convince yourself you're not sick - or maybe that's a good way to get pneumonia? that aside, need to get-out on the teles, holy crap that's a lot of work. on the board i just float and bounce, but the teles are all work. need to stop being a Sally, then maybe i won't feel guilty about not biking on epic powder days.

Since I don't have any pics of us riding/skiing yesterday, here's one of John Egan (yeah, he can't ski!) rippin' it up at the Bush:

back in action

the 2-3wk riding hiatus is ovah. finding time with a new baby is hard, but totally doable w/a cool wife - and some creative scheduling (i have yet to ride at 4am like rick does, that's just crazy). the move to VT is what got me, just couldn't do it all... but last Sunday i was done with it - awoke to a bluebird day and spun for 90mins before unloading the uhaul (with a lot of help from friends, friends are cool). it wasn't a long ride, more symbolic than anything else, had to make a point of riding everyday no matter what.

back in boston for work this past wk, the bike commute from dr mike's is over an hr each way, then a great ride back here in Waitsfield yesterday. living in the Mad River valley leaves little options for climbing - as in, if you aren't going up, you're going down. been spinning on the Steel Deluxe w/a rigid fork and studded tires, kinda slow going on melting dirt roads, but that's what this time of yr (well, 2months behind this yr) is all about in my self-created training plan - strength.

heading to FL in a few wks for family time - looking fwd to long rides on the road bike - i appreciate the beast of burden so much more after going so slowly all winter on the commuter or w/the studs on... FL is the perfect for base, just settle into a rhythm and pedal for hrs. it works great for Harvey, that guy is an animal - huge shout out to him for 2nd place to Harlan (another big shout out) at the 12hrs of Razorback. seeing those guys crush that race had me freaking-out that i hadn't even begun base this yr, but so be it. now i am and hopefully in 7wks, i'll at least be able to finish respectably at the Cohutta 100. it won't be simply for base miles, but it will be too early to really crush it. can't fake the effort of a race, it'll be good to open-up the engine even if my ego has to take a beating when i finish farther back than i like. only a turd would skip a race 'cause they aren't 100%.