late season epic

andy and roger rolled-up early sat to tackle the Gaps, put the finishing touches on a long season of work and play, what some would call training.

saturday. wet, cool weather, wood stove burning all day, drive andy and roger down to hancock, no easy way home, especially not when climbing mtns all day. sweating, steaming hot, then freezing cold on the descents. they ride up the road in layers and layers of clothes as i stand in the rain with Seneca, steady at first, building to torrents throughout the day, but that's andy's story... rain was heavy enough for sean and whitney to go creeking!

sunday. my wkly hrs have been slim, little worried about cutting it... but my riding has been great fun the past 8wks, big speed, big power, no work. nothing beats late season... then your buddies roll-up for a late season beat-down, the kind of wknd bike freaks dream about. rain. sleet. snow. 20k of elevation. back to the ride. with jenn away at Kripalu got a huge favor from mike and sarah on sunday, seneca was in good hands, time for me to play, thanks guys. fast forward 5 hours, best part of the day - up a steep wall of mud and running water, roger pushes hard to the top, smiles and exclaims, "that was horrible!", smiles some more, laughs, says again, "i mean, horrible!", still laughing. that's one solid dude. those who enjoy and thrive from overcoming such obstacles are always worth meeting, knowing. those who laugh it off in true, honest, earnest enjoyment, are truly unique. am lucky to know more than a cpl folks like that now...

had to steal one pic from andy's blog. he got some great pics in terrible conditions! temps rose over 40 early in the day, then sunk to the 30's by 2-3p. anticipated rain showers came as sleet and snow. crazy way to train for la ruta! super-cool day of riding with a cpl great folks. thanks for rolling and keeping me company up here. was going crazy sitting on all this great dirt w/no one to ride it with!!!!

the views alone here aren't always great, it's how the sun and clouds, the elements, play with the the views that is remarkable. difficult to describe the beauty, taken in wide and deep doses it is hard to distill to a few words. here, a snow flurry blows our way, but never reaches us...

playing catch-up

the leaves have peaked, the mtns are showing a dusting of white, time on the bike has become of no importance. no races. no worries of miles on the drivetrain or hours in the legs and somehow i feel more invigorated than ever. after a season of making withdrawals from family time, it's been good to make some deposits, hopefully enough that by next may, when the goals have been set and the racing begun, it's with a happier heart than this past year. i tried to cram too much in, too many days away from home - and by the end of it, my legs were willing, but my heart knew the truth - and as i look back on the season, it's with missed opportunities to rage the local scene in lieu of the big ones many miles away... why travel for multiple days when i could travel and race 4 or 5 times locally? the goals for next season have begun to ferment, soon they will be a cheap wine.

one more year. that's what i'm thinking. it's not that i ride because i have to or should, i enjoy it, every minute - at least in retrospect. this is a hobby - a simple selfish pursuit of personal limitations. i presume that most people don't need to race. most people don't need to constantly test themselves and ask, "can i do this better?" they are confident enough to know that they can go faster, it's simply not necessary to find-out how fast... but not me. at the age of 32, my body still recovers well and quickly, it's not quite time to hang-up the testing, the questioning... maybe i'll do this forever...

as this time of year rolls around, the questions arise anew. why do i race? why do i want to train? i know it is for me and me alone, that no one cares beyond the moment of the outcome... it is for me and me alone. and that is the hardest part. her eyes. those big blue eyes demanding my time, my attention, the best of me, not the leftovers... but racing defines me. defines me beyond the ordinary hi's and hello's, "what do you do's?" ... one thing i like about vermont is few people ask you what you do for a living... i hate that. you meet someone for the first time and they ask you the dreaded, "so, what do you do for work?" question. they need to define you. meet me first. then a cpl more times. let's go for a ride or a ski. not because i want to sprint up or down a hill faster, but to simplify life. move. struggle. overcome. sprint. fly. scramble. do you laugh when you fall or curse? that's what defines you.



jonathon bruck photgraphy

KAHUNA!

very few times this yr have i ridden for fun, or with friends, too much training, not enough laughs. the kahuna was a well needed, hopefully well deserved, 30+mile tromp through some of the gnarliest, trickest, most bad-ass trails on the planet. well, that last statement is a stretch, let's just stick to New England. almost 80 mtnbike fanatics converged upon Beverly early saturday morning to embark on the quest. Cloudy skies blew-out and as we crested Red Rock to soak-in the view of the ocean across Cape Ann, there wasn't a guy or girl not smilin'... a huge thanks to the organizers of this ride! i could write a ton about this ride, but i don't got time! Andy's got some pics posted, thom took a bunch, maybe to be posted... enormous thanks to Daren Mourneau for letting me ride his pimped-out Wraith. His design, his bike, his way - it rocked - my first ride on a "big bike" ever - and it saved my ass again and again. usually i come home from one of these rides covered in blood, not this time! you point it and shoot the line. AWESOME!


thanks to Mikey-J for riding down to the north shore w/me - and conquering his first Kahuna on his trusty IFab Steel Deluxe.

a walk or two

vt50 pics

since i couldn't get an entry to the vt50, i rolled-down and handed btls to my good friends, andy and thom. greg had his own thing going, while Brad tromped through the woods via his sneakers, had to hit the road and missed his finish, sorry brad! here are the cpl pics that came-out mostly non-blurry. got myself a fancy camera and have no friggin' clue how to use it. need not stray from "Full Auto!" thom crushed it, 6th overall and 2nd in SS with andy hot on his heels, 3rd in SS, greg took the long way, went blind, was miraculously healed and came to the finish not long after. nice racin' fellas! i've tried very hard to stay mellow about not getting into the race, but i'm still very, very bummed, probably why posting these cpl sorry pics has taken so long - and maybe why 90% of the pics i took came-out so blurry you'd think i was drunk. maybe i was.