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!!)