3 posts in as many days. all this early morning time at home has me becoming a blogslut. beware uncaffinated postings.
can't stop planning rides up and down the local mtn gaps. plenty of smaller, kick you in the jimmy hills, but the gaps represent a challenge. as i crest and head down the long descent, wonder if so much downhill riding "counts" as training time? i'm just sitting there hanging-out.
yesterday had a plan to bag a cpl gaps. can snag the two closest ones, ride 60% of it on dirt and be home in 2hrs or so - pretty sweet deal until the mtb trails dry-out. as i left the driveway, my screaming legs told me to make different plans, so we headed-down one of my favorite flattish roads, where sheep graze in whatever lane they like:
and down towards rt 100. the ride up and down through Granville Gulf is quiet and scenic. rock walls rising-up through stands of pine, ferns littering the forest floor as the snows melt, the mad river flowing to the north, and the white river flowing to the south to keep me company. variations of this ride have become a rest-day favorite. with the snowpack melting, Moss Glen Falls were a roaring:
was thinking about how great of a swimming hole this would be in summer, when i saw this sign:
as i was uploading the waterfall video, found this one of mikey-j from 2 months ago i forgot to post. holy crap "we" had a lot of powder days this yr!
i apologize for the really boring race report below. wasn't emotionally committed to that one, was kinda just out riding my bike, you know? not saying i wasn't giving 'er my all, it was just a different experience than i've had before. with goals set low, it was easy to be mellow mentally, while also being ready psyically - normally those two things are tied closer together. what i really wish the below race report was, is pictures of all the amazing bikes we had stashed on the front porch of the cabin. Harlan's new IF Ti 29'er, which he built on thursfri, working until pretty late friday night - that guy was cool as a cucumber, i'd been freaking-out! Elk's fully rigid IF Deluxe SS w/rim brakes, which may or may not be the bike he won the SS class on a cpl yrs ago at the 101, see, these are the questions i NEED to ask! My trusty steed, the IF Steel Deluxe with more scratches than paint. Andy's steel Igleheart - a bike he shattered last yr and was carefully rebuilt by Igleheart in the off season. Namrita's Kona purple unit SS 29'er - a bad-ass bike! Harvey's Ti IF Deluxe w/all the bells and whistles - light-as, but light don't make it go, that's the legs and lungs. and finally, eddie's Kona, the only bike i didn't fully inspect. with it's silver non-paint paint job, it certainly looked the ballz from afar. nam's got some good photos up on her blog... 6 bikes, 5 forks, 0 shocks. i wimped-out on going fully rigid, hadn't ridden my mtbike all winter and was skeered. think i'll bust it out for the mohican. snow is almost melted here in northern vt... 2 more wks and we'll be riding trails i reckon. TWO MORE WEEKS!?
finally back in vermont. had to work in boston before heading to the cohutta, then straight back to boston for work. waking-up this morning in vermont, seeing little miss s for first time in a wk, was better than any race. who knew coming home would trump the endurance race finisher's buzz?
rode thursday afternoon with andy and my dad at blanket's creek outside atlanta. by weird coincidence, mr eatough was getting his spin on there as well. was great to get-out with my pops, his 3rd time out on a mtb. fun, swooping trails, great place for jeff sr to nail some skills. was super impressed w/how aggressive he rode, speeding-up to clear obstacles w/momentum, good stuff. dinner w/my mom, then north through redneck country to the cabin. searched for beer at the "rebel's pantry" - confederate flags aren't going out of style in northern georgia, that's fer sure. kinda bums me out that these folks hold onto their "culture" of racism and bigotry so proudly. 'nough said there.
great pre-ride of the singletrack at the race site on friday. perfect weather, sunny, 70's, couldn't have been in a better mood or with better folks. the plan was to leave enough gas in the tank on saturday to ride the final 10miles of singletrack with vigor, to really enjoy it. plans are great, aren't they?
didn't bring any nutrition/fuel with me to the race, was in this total "this is for training" mindset, which completely fled the scene when arriving at the whitewater center on friday. borrowed tons of stuff from my teammate harvey (huge props!), and hoped for bananas and pb&j's at the aid stations.
spent friday night w/harlan, elk, eddie & namrita, andy, and harvey at a sweet cabin harvey snagged for the 2nd year in a row. good peoples. harvey brought some tasty beers (sweetwater 420 extra pale ale) that i sampled more than a cpl times that night.
saturday started-out cool, arm warmers were enough. hit the first piece of swooping, super fun singletrack in 30th or so, wasn't worried about it, goals for the race were to finish in a faster time than the year before and not too far back from guys i'd like to be riding next to later in the season when the form comes around.
i guessed that my early season fitness would carry me to mile 70 or so and it'd be all guts from there on out - and that's pretty much how it worked-out. found myself in a group with some folks i'd met before and some i hadn't. some of us pulled more than others, with one not pulling at all - folks who don't do their share are cool? i digress. was riding too aggressively considering where i am fitness-wise - andy claims he was telling me to take it easy while i remember telling him to take it easy. cpl knuckleheads.
by mile 45 (aid 3), andy had fallen a minute back due to a wipe-out on a corner, nothing too serious, unlike thom's crash which was downright awful. being the uber tough guy he is, thom would go-on to take 2nd in the SS class with road rash from his face to his ankle and some bruised ribs to really make things feel good on the bike. back to mile 45, i took too long peeing and got dropped from the group. i was thinking the climbing was pretty much done until aid 4 at mile 60 and skipped getting water / HEED. i hadn't eaten anything besides Gu's and half a banana and aid 3 didn't have anything that looked good, so i pushed-on thinking it was downhill to aid 4 where i was planning to fuel-up. it was not downhill to aid 4! holy crap, felt like i climbed forever before finally cruising down to aid 4 where i stuffed my face and filled lonely water btls. you know you're in a tight spot when you pick-up your empty water bottle for the 10th time and shake and squeeze it until a single drop of moisture hits your tongue.
eddie o passed me at aid 4 (mile 60) riding strong. i mustered enough energy to get onto his wheel and we worked together through 7 miles of flats. as we came to the next climb, prosser appeared while eddie showed us that his hard early season training was in full effect by disappearing up the climb in about 2 nanoseconds. good to see that dude riding well. he'd end-up putting 20+ mins on me in those final 30miles and finish in a solid 15th place.
by this point i was pretty much in survival mode. i'd push a bit and feel the hot sweats come-on, the precursor to bonking, so would ease-up and ride best as i could, trying to conserve enough to have some fun on the final 10 miles of singletrack. prosser eventually ditched me - i don't remember much between miles 70-90 besides a cpl really nice views - poked my head out of the pain cave long enough to soak-up the sights.
upon reaching the singletrack, i was stoked to say the least, but as the climbing began, i just didn't have it. Harvey went roaring by with a 18-year-old kid in tow who'd fallen back early w/cramps. harvey would put 7 mins on me in those final miles! good finish for that guy. i was so damn beat, when harvey came-up on me, i just pulled over and let him by and ate some cliff blocks. i was cooked. done. toasted. i can't remember having to dig that deep for that long to finish a race.
stumbled across in 21st or 22nd, about 45mins faster than i rode the course the year before. not bad for my first race of the season, pretty stoked, actually. i expected to be a bit slower considering the abbreviated training, but dry conditions had the wheels rollin' quick - as did the fast pace up front.
the race was well run and the course well marked.
thom and i skipped his podium appearance as he needed to get back to boston asap. by 6p thom had scrubbed the gravel out of his face, hands, arms, legs and bum-bum - and we were heading north, driving all night, 18 hours worth, but that's another story...
arrived at andy's late last night with a bucket full of parts and a frame. that brutha did me a solid and we got 'er boxed-up, ready to fly by midnight. when totally f'd, with no time left, he's bailed me outta trouble at least half a dozen times. then a ride to the train and delivery of said bike box to the airport. i am a loser who has good friends.
no time to ride yesterday and today, but figure it's better to go into this one over-rested, too late to put-in the missing miles now! keep hearing of epic trails out my backdoor in vermont (still snow covered), i'll surely find those hours later this season, but for now, taking what i got, which is a slew of 2 and 3 hour rides in conditions better suited for skiing or sleeping-in. my wife likes to point-out that a winter beer belly is an advantage in endurance racing, like a giant fat battery. on that note, dedicating this race to Long Trail Ale, i wouldn't be in the shape i am without you.
this is gonna be a totally different race this yr. tons of fast folks. with a cpl seasons under my belt i find myself less nervous before an event and just stoked to be getting-out there to do something i truly love to do. life is different now that Little Miss S is with us, goals have changed, but the desire to do better than the yr before, train, and test myself are still there, just coming to the surface in a different way. if a day of training is missed due to family obligations, so be it. hand me another Long Trail.
as usual, time was at a minimum, had to get what i could, cpl hrs friday, a few on saturday, had to go big with the hand dealt. headed-out on the planet cross, the dirt roads were slushy, slow going, could i push it through to my goal? those little doubts make you take the long way to the hill, deliberate before attacking. as i crested the top of the gap for the first time, it brought the same sense of fulfillment i get when finishing a race, a buzz you can carry around for a day or two, the buzz that gets me out on the bike to be ready for those moments, then plan bigger. as i sit here now, a foot of thick wet slush outside all i can think about is getting out there, riding and testing and learning and pushing and having fun.
everyone in the Valley with any common sense is skiing today. not i. gearing-up to ride 'cause i'm a completely f'ing bonehead. what's worse is that i'm all fired-up for it.
down south, north shore of boston way, Andy reports the trails are dry and temps nearing 50... was hoping to lay-down a solid 6hr ride tomorrow, the trails down south are calling me name... but life and responsibilities at home disagree. what to do, what to do...
hey, at least there's one sunny day in the forecast:
After 2wks away, finally made it home to Vermont last wed night, but had to fight a full-out winter storm to get there - winter just won't let go of northern vt with 5-6" more falling last night. Riding has been ... interesting.
Saturday was my first glimpse of the sugarbush adv games. Don't have time for a lengthy race report, short version: temps hovering around freezing, met some cool new folks, got to sprint on my bike for 30mins, then drink beer - it was a good day.
Sunday I'd hoped to get a 3-4hr spin, but not enough hrs in the day, had to settle for 2 hard hours and the legs responded as they usually do after a short hard effort the day before - they were magic! the golden legs are good for the soul. while my wkly hrs were a cpl behind where i'd like to be for the cohutta prep, i'm also really stoked i got as many hrs as i did with everything going-on. just need to adjust my mental state and accept that a 12hr wk isn't a bad thing, but something to be stoked about sometimes - and when on break like i was in florida the wk before last, make the most of it and get that big wk in.
all the constant melting/freezing had this 5-6m stretch of dirt road into sheet-ice with a light cover of powder to make it really interesting. only went down 6 times, figure it's good mtbike (balance) practice, considering i haven't mtb'd since fall: got shoe covers? a nice stream running along a climb is just ... nice:
enough of these silly posts about bad cadence, dolphin sightings and saddle sores. it's time to rock and roll. an old friend's band. they jam, oh yes, they do.
4.6 @ Harper's Ferry, Allston, MA - The WBCN Rock n' Roll Rumble 4.7 @ Pianos, New York, NY 4.28 @ PA's Lounge, Somerville, MA - w/ The Willowz
back in boston, dreary weather greeted the plane, temps in the low 40's, rain. my commuter's drivetrain is in shambles after a winter of salted roads, stole dr mike's and cruised-down from his crib in swampscott. he's got a real nice set-up going, single ring up front, light mtb wheels with narrow conti gatorskins, cpl lights in the front and rear, real comfy ride. it was definitely an adjustment riding through boston commuter traffic after spending 10 days chillin' in the florida sun. had to get my act together, stay focused and remember that folks here don't give ya' a break like they do down south.
the riding in florida can be terribly boring, even with the beautiful views and animal life sightings. most days i'd spot something new, on the last day it was a group of dolphins... definitely isn't boring commuting in boston, but, i'm looking forward to getting back home to vermont and riding some hills. the legs thanked me today for 10 days of "easy" base training, with a focus on smoothing-out my pedal stroke, but i've got a long way to go. when doing one-legged drills, it's jerky and unbalanced on the downstroke. i'm a masher and it ain't a good thing.
the sugarbush adventure games are this weekend, i'm rollin' the 10mile bike leg - no big thing - but a great excuse to sprint full-out for 30mins - it's hard to get that kind of effort alone - and it's time to start upping the tempo, getting ready for the season to come. 19 days till kick-off. the biggest downside to moving to vermont was losing the company of my good friend and training partner andy. can't wait for the roads to firm-up a bit and the gap rides to commence - those will lure that guy up to the north country!
and down towards rt 100. the ride up and down through Granville Gulf is quiet and scenic. rock walls rising-up through stands of pine, ferns littering the forest floor as the snows melt, the mad river flowing to the north, and the white river flowing to the south to keep me company. variations of this ride have become a rest-day favorite. with the snowpack melting, Moss Glen Falls were a roaring:
as i was uploading the waterfall video, found this one of mikey-j from 2 months ago i forgot to post. holy crap "we" had a lot of powder days this yr!
