never quite enough ...

the past cpl wks have been great riding. little rain early this wk didn't put too much of a damper on things, needed to dry-out from the big wknd with my old school friends anyway. as usual, the big hrs haven't come through quite as planned. 15hr wks turn into 12, but it's hard to complain when you're busy w/trying to make a buck, the kiddo, and school - and still finding time to ride. this wk i was hoping for 20hrs, which is about as many as i can possibly squeeze into a wk and not fail life, but it's looking rough. picking finals wk (for UVM) for doing a 20 wasn't the best choice, but as an old boss used to say, "you get the most done when you're the busiest." yup. and i'm counting on getting a lot of the hrs this wknd on a massive Gap Attack! maybe the 20 will happen, especially if i'm especially slow doing that massive ride.

cpl stubborn patches of snow still left in my yard, just melt already!


decided this yr, now that we live in VT and do all sorts of tough-guy chores like splitting this massive stack of logs for the wood stove, the gym is no longer necessary. old school. anyone for a caber toss?

Lincoln Gap is open! Kinda.

The weather here has been incredible since last Wednesday - 70's, plenty of sun w/low relative humidity. Last night at dinner Jenn looks me over and says, "hey, you're tan!" since i've been sneaking-out during the day to ride instead of painting the house, i've been trying to hide my non-pasty whiteness. oh well, the non-painted house was a giveaway on my whereabouts anyway!

since my bike broke during the Inferno i couldn't do the planned century ride home to VT last Sunday, so instead have been getting as much time each day as possible w/o blowing-off responsibilities. right now that means 2-3 hours per day at mostly moderate tempos. On Tuesday, decided to hit-up one of my favorite rides up App and Lincoln Gaps. Lincoln is the ass-kicker of the Gaps, 20% grades, heart beating so loudly in your ears for the last pitches it seems that it's gonna blast out of your chest and lay beating on the warm pavement. I digress, once over App, turned onto Lincoln Rd which informed me "ROAD CLOSED TO WARREN." Hmmm... Road closed to cars, not to bikes, right!? Not sure what river runs along Lincoln Rd, but it is a beautiful ride, one of the nicest stretches on the East Coast, too bad it's only 4-5m long... Pass two more signs that tell me ROAD CLOSED TO WARREN and begin to get a bit nervous. my time is tight, i certainly don't have time to go all the way around on App or Middlebury Gap, it's Lincoln or nothing!

I turn onto Lincoln Gap and begin the climb. the dirt and gravel is soft, have to stay seated and avoid the sticks and such that haven't been cleaned-off the road yet... around every turn i look for snow, hoping not to see it... after the agonizing final pitches, i reach the top and as soon as I crest the South face, see the knee-deep snowpack on the North side of the Gap. Oh well, knew there was a reason for the closing. time is tight so i jump-off and begin to run the snow. it's fun at first until i get out of control and totally wipe-out on the steep descent, sliding for 50-100 ft, desperately holding onto the bike so i don't lose it over an embankment. within 5-10mins of scrambling, a ribbon of pavement is open on the side of the road w/a cpl snow patches to blast through. 10mins after that i'm back on Rt 100 in Warren, smiling from the screaming descent and stoked to probably be the first person to ride Lincoln Gap in 2008. but that's hard to say - there are a lot of bike freaks up this way!

Tuckerman's! Inferno Race Report

Tuckerman's Ravine






brie takin' a swig from the team btl. justin rockin' the mullet, sean on right


team x-ray
sean, alan, brie, justin, myself, plus erika, aspen, and tyne - and we had a solid posse for the inferno. i'll skip the how-do-you do's and get to the race.

dropped alan off at 630a saturday for the 7a start on a nice, sunny cold-ass morning. he jumped-out for his warm-up and i was off in search of bagels and coffee. an hour later i was riding to the kayak take-out in a cpl layers, trying to warm-up the legs. i felt great minus a desperate yearning for starbucks or equally strong java. if you got the addiction, always bring them beans!! the local convenient store was not packing the heat. back to the race, so i'm heading to the kayak take-out and see alan humming along in the lead of the 8 mile running leg, 3-4 guys close behind. he looked intense, was spending a bit of time in the cave.

20mins later i'm stretching a bit and chat for a minute w/ steve piotrow, the cyclist alan mentioned would be on me like white on ... a white rhino? moments later, team EMS rolls through in first, then 60-90secs? later steve roars-off in 2nd. sean tags me into the mix 20-3osecs back from steve after a strong 6 mile kayak.

steve rides super smooth and my early attempts to close the gap were crushed on the first good climb. once on rt 16 i settled down, focused on the cadence, and enjoyed a borrowed gu. steve had opened the gap to 90secs or so and i really needed to focus; smooth-out my mashing and let the legs open-up.

with 5m? to go, the legs were definitely feeling better, stronger, and someone told me i was closing the gap. it was time to dig, i stood, went for the big ring, and the chain dropped-off the top - a regular occurrence on my 5yr-old training bike. in training, dropping the chain is no big deal, in a TT it's a bit different. a cpl heavy pedal strokes later and i'm on the side of the road with the front derailleur's chain guide stuck in the rear derailleur. disaster! been racing long enough to know that there's no need to panic. assessed the situation, couldn't rip the chain guide off w/o breaking the chain, so managed to get the guide back onto the bolt, but the clip broke off that kept it attached. who knows how much time elapsed, time seems to stop when these things happen. 3mins? 5mins? i was totally losing this race for us!! instead of pulling us into 2nd, i'm dropping us into the abyss.

a cpl guys pulled-over and asked if i needed help, i decline, ride 1/2 mile and the guide falls off and i'm back to fixing. they pulled-up again, this time w/duct tape. a cpl pieces later, many thanks, and i'm off, now in fourth place and really chasing, spinning like mad w/only the little ring in front to use. those two guys were the shit, thanks!! the last 3 miles went-by in what felt like seconds, was really fired-up now, mucho adrenaline had me hammering like a mad-man, needed 4-5 miles more of climbing to make the most of it! i tagged justin and he was off like a shot up the hiking/running/scrambling leg to the bottom of Tuckerman's where Brie was waiting to hike the bowl and ski the gates to the finish.

i tell a fellow racer what happened to my derailleur, a judge overhears and tells me we're disqualified for accepting outside assistance. i'm no cheater and agree that if thems the rules, thems the rules. i begin looking for my car which justin had stashed earlier and bump into alan, sean, and erika and tell them we're dq'd... everyone was so stoked. kidding.

turns-out we weren't dq'd, but honestly, i wasn't very upset, it was waaay too nice a day to get worked-up. the sun was so warm, clear blue skies, no wind. alan and i find the car, get changed and soon are hiking-up Tuck's in shorts, snowboard strapped on, a 12-pack in the pack for a little team celebration. justin pulled-off a monster hike and Brie rocked the ski, bringing us back into 3rd place. After the race Brie and Tyne hiked to the summit for a run, while i managed to get a 3/4 run in while looking for everyone, sporting shorts, a tank top, and a can of PBR. alan ended-up getting delayed by some doggie day-care, but eventually we all found each other in the bowl for a celebratory shot, big grins, and smiles. to top it off, the shelbourne ski trail was ridable to pinkham notch! pretty damn sweet day.

spring corn

70, sunny, snowpack fleeing fast in the valley, but still plenty to be had up on the mtn. got-out for a cpl hours of spring skiing yesterday and conditions were incredible! so soft, could blast into bumps and get the occasional face-shot, the whole mtn open, some grassy knolls here and there, but no complaints, great conditions.

bumped into a neighbor in the parking lot, so spent the afternoon riding w/bill, an old-school snowboarder, been at it a lot longer than i - and he rides a hell of a lot better on equipment most would scoff at than i do on my new deck. he surfs the moguls and can turn-up the heat and let 'er rip, taking the high line across the bumps, or slow it down and mellow-out, surfin' the snow. i was freakin' a little that i was working the legs a bit much before saturday's Inferno bike sprint, so took Bill's advice to pace myself a bit and ended-up having a lot more fun cruising than charging. got some proper mentoring yesterday from a guy who knows a lot more than i do about balancing it out. "who needs a vacation?" [when you live here]. couldn't agree more. great last day on the hill! what a season! from the first powder storm in mid-nov, to short sleeves and sun in mid-april. as usual, was biking all march, so missed some good days, can't do it all, at least haven't figured-out how to yet. there's always next yr.

shorts

today was a real treat. mid-50's, partly sunny until 3 or 4p. expected cold rain for a planned long one, instead got to ride with shorts and a long sleeve. it's nice to be surprised. in a good way.

big melt

it's on. can finally see some of the yard poking-through the snowpack. been riding a bunch, can't complain at all, even with rain in the forecast for the entire wknd. rain = melt and that is good.

Mud Season, Sugarbush Adv Games, Epic Ride!

The best thing about mud season is that it means warm weather and ribbons of dirt aren't far off... warm temps early this wk are a bit of trickery, with nastiness (i.e, snow) in the forecast for the wknd. oh well. For now, i'll keep making the drive to andy's on the north shore of boston for some of the best dirt in NE. Thanks for planning a great ride Andy! I don't think i've ever been out with 11 people before, minus in more "official" events... It was great to spin, relax, and chit-chat for the first 6-7 hours, but after a long stop at a store we were really hoping was open, with the feet and hands frozen, a cool misty rain drifting over us on a downright cold wind, it was time to pick-up the pace and get our asses home! But, a cpl beaver dams and many miles of trail still awaited us... the group dynamic was shattered, but that is bound to happen on a 9hr ride. Met a cpl new folks, great riders, and got to see a lot of old friends. I didn't have much food on me and ended-up eating a ton of Larabars that Tal had for hands-on marketing purposes. those things are solid, no refined sugars, check 'em out. I'm sold. Thanks Tal.

But, before Sunday's epic could go-down I had to throw-down an 8m TT for the Sugarbush Adventure Games on team X-Ray. Our team was so friggin' stacked, it was silly. Alan busted-out the fastest run of the day, putting us into the lead right away. Sean, a freaky-fast make-class-V rapids look like ripples on a pond Kyaker, followed-up with the fastest trip down the Mad River, then handed-off to me, our not-so-fast endurance cyclist. I got my engine going as hard as it goes, drooling, head-down, trying to stay in some semblance of an aero-position for the first 5m of course where the road rolls through town. the final 3m were mostly climbing and by the final 1/2m, up through the parking lot of Mt Ellen, i was dry heaving, barely able to hear or speak. Good times and good enough to open our lead-up a little bit more. Eliah, a very talented cross country skier ripped the final leg of the race apart for Team X-Ray and we took the event by quite a sizable margin. For Sean, who'd been dying to win this event (with a team) for years, it was extra sweet. For me, it was a great way to open-up the engine early season.

As a team, we've got one more event on the calendar, a little longer/tougher one to boot - the Inferno! Justin, the overall solo winner of the Sugarbush Adv Games is jumping on-board for that and will be doing the hike-up to Tuck's, and another new teammate, his friend Brie, will be doing the ski down Tuckerman's. I'm optimistic about our chances for the win, but will have a bit of nerves as i'm probably the weakest link...

THEN, to finish-off the "wknd" right, on Monday, Andy, Skip, and I took a ~30m road ride. For me, an out-of-shape Vermonter, it was a total hammer-fest. Andy and Skip where chatting and i was at 100% effort. 3 great days of riding. Just need to stop typing this silly post, get my studying down and out the door for another great ride today before class!! see ya out there.

(the snow is friggin' persistant this yr!!)