Profiling

Just a quick spin out in Scotia this afternoon with Sophie.

In other news. The profile for the Stoopid 50 is up.  My ride on Sunday toook me from mile 18 to mile 38 and then mile 11 to 18, which doesn’t sound that long!  Musta been the heat.

Rest Day

Monday was a day of rest.  Too hot and too much real life to take the day to go riding.  After working all day my brain was mush and I needed something brainless to do for a bit so I entered the course for the Adirondack 600K.

Day 1: start to control 4

Day : control 4 to control 6

Day 2

The course is 400 K with 13,500 ft of climbing on Saturday and 200K with 6000 ft of climbing on Sunday.  It looks like we will hit Uncommon Grounds in Saratoga too early for a stop on Saturyday morning, so we will have to content ourselves with visits on Friday and Sunday.  But barring that disappointment, this course looks awesome.  The climbs are long which should be good for maintaining rhythm on the ride, and lots of the course will be rolling along the lakes in the Adirondack Park.

Stoopid hot

When I looked at the thermometer yesterday afternoon it read 93 degrees.  Whether or not that is accurate is inconsequential: it was really, really hot!

A couple of local favorites were heading out to test the Stoopid 50 course.  I needed to get out a little earlier, so I loaded up Sophie and headed out to Greenwood Furnace to see if I could make a shorter loop of the course and still make it home to get some work done in the afternoon.  We started at 9:45 and it was already warm.  We headed up Spencer trail out of Greenwood.  Immediately I was thankful for my trip to the shop Saturday to put a 19 tooth cog in the back and to replace the trigger for the poploc on my fork.  With a stiff front end and a short gear I was able to power up the opening climb and clean the better part of Sassafras (I did dab on the wet roots).  From there the course turned off of familiar terrain and down Bigelow and Pigpile;  I’d done these trails in the past but not for a while.  They featured great rocks and a smooth flow,  Pigpile is definitely a place to make up or loose big as a smooth line through the fast rocks is definitely possible, but a lazy line will have you fixing flats all the way down.  From there the course headed up through the rollers of (the poorly named) Flat Road Trail and back onto the familiar territory of the Lewistown Contingent.  Out of the cool dampness of th LC I popped back out Cooper’s Gap road where the temperature had climbed up to uncomfortable levels.  With a little hesitation I started up the Long Cut Trail, the only trail of the day that I’d never seen and had to take entirely on faith.  I’d heard good things and was not disappointed!  This trail is turny, looping back on itself many times and more than once making me stop to worry about getting lost.  It climbed up to the ridge top at a causal grade that was very singlespeed friendly and dumped me out at the end of Beautiful Trail.   Down Beautiful and back to Cooper’s Gap to Kettle and left on Skittaka.  Again, I’d only tried this one once before and I ultimately got caught up in the swoopy, fast descent and missed the intended right turn and got dropped out on Cooper’s Gap again.  Rather than backtrack, I headed back out Flat Road to pick up the course again at Sassafras.  Sophie was dragging along the road section and I had to sacrifice most of my remaining water and half of my last Cliff bar to coax her along.  She got a rest from the pedaling pace as we turned up the hike-a-bike at Sassafras.  For those of you who know this as a descent in the 101, it is MUCH longer going up!  Ultimately, it is a necessary evil, and the trails that it allows the course to access are well worth it, but damn I hope its not that hot on race day.  At the top I remounted and rode out Sassafras in the reverse direction from the 101 route, which I’ve always thought was the smoother direction. Back on the road I soft pedaled to Telephone to keep from working Sophie too hard and decided to take the straight line down rather than take the longer loop down Wallace trail.

It took me a little over 4 hours to do 35-40 miles of the course, including the hike-a-bike.  That was at a leisurely, Sunday afternoon pace AND I had to go slow on the road sections and descents to keep Sophie in sight. So I’m guessing that a 4.5 hour finishing time is pretty realistic.  The trails are great, there is a minimum of overlap with the 101 course, and where there is, it is at least on a trail you want to ride more than once a year.   I was really happy to be running a shorter gear than on the 101, so be prepared to do plenty of grunting uphill.  The heat had me near delirious as I drove away and I had to make an emergency stop at Doan’s Bones on the way back or I fear I’d not have made it.  And I still wasn’t feeling myself until I did a little triage at Meyer Dairy as well.

Alas, I won’t get to race the 50 as I’ll be up in the Adirondacks doing the 600K brevet, but I’ll be jealously thinking of everyone on the trail as I am churning through the 360 mile death march.

Black Magic

I woke up yesterday in a complete haze.  A conference at work had me completely off schedule, so I wasn’t sure what day it was.  The long weekend had many of the boys away traveling or racing, so there had been no plans made for the weekend ride.  After doing a spot check: hungover, NO, my own bed, YES, Saturday, YES, I realized that I had no particular plans and would have to rely entirely on self motivation to get out of bed and ride my bike.

After breakfast with Sophie I rolled out the Madone, marveling at how much lighter it is than my brevet bike, and headed down to the shop for the 9AM start to see if I was riding alone.  A group had already gone out an 8 to do RB Winter so it was looking like a solo ride, but Mikey and AccuJoe showed up and we headed out to do Magic Mo.  We opted for a slightly reduced version of the climbing classic, heading out through Milesburg rather than all the way out to Yarnell.  I was looking to get a few short climbing efforts in to make up for all these long endurance miles we’ve been putting in.  This ride keeps them coming fast and furious with just enough time to recover in between each climb before the next one starts.  Joe was feeling spunky and helped me push the pace on the start of each climb which helped me to find the motivation to keep the intensity up through to the tops.

We hit the spring at the top of Rattlesnake just as the heat was becoming a factor and paused to dunk our heads and fill bottles before heading through the rollers and down to Julian.  The ride did what it should; we were back home at 1PM with a solid 60 climbing miles in the legs.  After lunch and an espresso I hid away for the hot portion of the day, working and listening to the whir of the air conditioner as the mercury climbed high enough to trigger the thermostat for the first time this year.

Speed Ride

I rolled out to the speed ride half expecting no one and anticipating the death of the ride. I had to make a quick stop by Billy’s as I have still not rectified the presta valve grommet that is stuck in my pump from last week. There I ran into Strauber and we rolled out together. Cresting the rise, I saw first one, then two helmets and got my hopes up that we would have a real group. Mikey and CJ were waiting and we were soon joined by Chris, Justin, and Tig on his time trial bike. Tig was only stopping by to be polite on his way to do an interval workout, Strauber was already planning on only doing the reduced loop, and Justin had “been doing intervals since 3:30, so [he wouldn't] be working that hard”. Nevertheless we started rolling out and had a made a good pace down 45. Within a few miles it was down to 4: me, Strauber, Chris, and Justin. With such a small group we really only pushed it to the bridge sprint on Marengo and rolled straight at Dry Hollow Rd. since Strauber and Chris had 3 day race weekends coming up and I was feeling Saturday’s foolishness in my legs. We rolled easy to 550 and had picked up the pace by the Way Fruit Farm. Through Stormstown I had to stop and adjust my rear wheel, which was rubbing under strain, and the other 3 went ahead. When I was straightened out I put my head down to try and catch the three, which I could barely see in the distance had slit up into two and one. I caught and passed Justin at Cemetery Hill and pushed on hoping to catch the other two before 322. Thankfully, Strauber waited up after the crossing and we regrouped as 3 for the roll down 550. Coming into the final sprint, Strauber and I rode abreast, loooked at each other, and both took off in our 15s, which must have looked a comical sprint. He was able to get his legs going faster than me and took it handily, while I rolled easy over the line.

The speed ride with 3-4 guys is a struggle and we were all feeling it as we rode the victory lap through town. It will be a hard sell to keep that ride going through the summer with low attendance. So those of you who have been delinquent should make an effort to keep the longest running, non-denominational group ride in town going.  It needen’t always be an all out hammer-fest, but in order for there to be a slower group to ride with when it splinters, there needs to be riders to fall back on.  And even those of us that want to go fast, will benefit from a larger group to ride with, we can go out and do intervals on our own (though they pretty much suck) the one thing you can’t do on your own is work on fast riding in a pack.

Soul Coughing

    The legs are still a little tender after the weekend’s festivities.  Oddly, or perhaps not, they are not at all sore when I’m on the bike, its sitting at work, or climbing stairs that make them scream.  So when the work day ended yesterday I decided to stretch them out for a little soul ride with Sophie out in Rothrock.  I did a pretty standard loop: 3 bridges, Longberger, the ridge (and extensions),  gas line, Wort, lower Longberger.  The ride felt great, if not terribly fast until I hit the second half of Longberger where things just started falling apart.  Part bonk, part residual fatigue, I just couldn’t get my spin up to tackle the incessant rock gardens and I spent a lot of time walking my bike in frustration after having stubbed my front wheel on a trivial rock problem.  So it goes.  Back out on the road I was able to spin things up again and shake the frustration out before hitting the descent on Longberger, which sailed by blissfully and made me forget the pains of the Wort.

When we got home I was mentally fresh and physically tired.  And, characteristically, Sophie ran for the tennis ball and dropped it at my feet wondering why I didn’t want to run straight back out to play some more.

Brevet Number 3: part 2

Out of control 1 we headed into a series of rollers for 50 miles that took us North to the Potomac River. The sun was out and the skies were full of fluffy clouds. Racing sailboats as a kid I’d learned that cumulus clouds heralded wind, and though we were happy they carried no rain, these clouds brought their own special misery as we turned west along the Potomac, dead into a 20 mile per hour headwind. Heads down we slogged it out until the river crossing at Hancock, MD and the third control of the day.

From there the course turned northeast and the terrain got lumpier as we headed north towards Shippensburg. This was also the most remote section of the course, with little or no services. We took a break at mile 120 ahead of the second major climb and a 50 mile stretch with no stores. After refueling with 5 dollar hoagies that none of us could finish, we headed up and over the climb and into another long section of rolling, exposed farmland that left us at the mercy of the wind. After 40 miles of fighting the wind we were running low on energy and morale and water. Billy made a quick move when we passed a yard sale and we all turned in to the driveway and were greeted by two ladies drinking beers on the porch. Billy asked for water and when they got up to fetch us the hose I jokingly asked if I could have one of their beers as well. They took me at my word and turned on the hose, brought out jugs of water and gatorade, ice cubes, and a 12 pack of Moslon Canadian. Joe managed to convince them to take 5 dollars for two of the beers and we passed them around the group savoring the effervescent tingle against the backs of our dry throats. Re-invigorated we thanked them and headed on.

At mile 175 the course turned up again ahead of the 4th control. The approach took us along a beautiful creek road lined with nicely appointed log cabins. As we were commenting on the quaint style, we saw one cabin with a row of bikes outside: the 4th control. I lagged behind as the boys headed in to get their cards stamped and I heard the voice inside say, “there’s food here, and hot food out back by the pool”. Though we’d been planning to hold diner until the brew-pub in Gettysburg, the smell of hot lasagne with chicken sausage was too much to bear and we settled in for dinner there by the pool. Recalling that a cold soak is good for recovery I rolled up my bibs and headed into the pool for a soak while I ate. The meal was perfect and we gorged ourselves on freshly baked cookies and brownies that, at the time, tasted better than anything that could be found on a 5 star menu. Big thanks to Ray and Denise Skinner for putting that on!

After the soak, my legs felt better than they had all day as we headed out of the control onto the double climbs through the Michaux State Forest on the road down to Gettysburg. Everyone was feeling sprightly after a bit of food and rest and the initial climbing pace was strong with Billy and El Cacapon even contesting an uphill town line sprint. We hit the top of the course a little before 7 and began a long rolling descent into Gettysburg as the sun was setting. As the sun was setting the course turned into Gettysburg National Monument and we rode past the memorials as the sun was hitting the horizon, casting a serene and powerful light over what already felt like powerfully somber ground.

As we rolled into town we noticed a surprising number of well dressed people. One of Gettysburg’s finest at the 7-eleven informed us that it was both prom night AND graduation night at the college. To our comment that it provided for some nice scenery, he replied “The best thing about this town . . . is the chicks! Most of them are pretty hot, and the others, well, sort of. I mean, after a few beers, I’ve done worse!” To protect and serve!

The light started to fade as we headed out of town and we did our last 20 miles in the dark. A navigational mishap at the very end of the ride added an extra 3 miles to the trip, but we still managed to get back to the hotel at 10:30 after 18.5 hours out, and 15.5 hours of pedaling, giving us an average speed of 16.4 mph. After the check-in we quickly scrapped any thoughts of returning home in favor of hot showers and a trip to Brewer’s Alley. The beer was great, but the bar was packed with college kids and we were desperate for food. We asked around and were sadly informed that Denny’s and IHOP were our only options for late night food in Frederick. In disbelief, we headed out in search of a dinner but were continually disappointed as everywhere seemed to be closing their doors as we pulled up. Finally, at 12:30 we swallowed our pride and went into Denny’s. The clientele consisted of wayward prom-goers, overweight drunks, and one police officer. The 6 of us squeezed into a booth and subjected ourselves to a horrid meal while fighting off sleep (Billy and AccuJoe managed to catch some Z’s in between ordering and service). Not at all satisfied, we headed back to the hotel for a well earned rest before heading home on Sunday morning. Thankfully, Frederick redeemed itself by providing us with a great dinner breakfast on the way out of town.

In all, the ride was great. Nicely organized with the wonderful surprise meal. Everyone rode well; Joe gets the rockstar award for rocking out all day long, never missing a turn at the front and moving forward every time the course turned up.

After we got home I managed to get out for a quick hour on the fixie to try and spin the drive out, but my legs wanted nothing do to with it. It was more of a mental workout than a physical one trying to keep my legs turning.

It looks like we will try the next brevet in the Adirondacks. June 9-10th. 600 K of beautiful, if not entirely flat, terrain! More to come as the plans for that misadventure solidify!

Brevet Number 3: Part 1

Three down, two to go. The brevet weekend had an auspicious start as I found myself in a fender-bender in the parking lot while making a quick run for Mr. Brown coffee at the Asian market. I managed to back into an incoming car after mistakenly pulling into the handicapped spot. Thankfully the only damages were cosmetic, though we’ll see how my insurance company responds. After shaking that off I headed over to AccuJoe’s to drop off my bike and travel box and headed home to pack up the last few things I hadn’t gotten to while waiting for the police to file an accident report.

After finishing up my packing and playing a few rounds of catch with Sophie in the yard, the boys arrived and we were off in surprisingly good time: planned departure, 4 PM, actual 4:45! We then headed down to El Campesino for a little fueling; the sentiment at the table was unanimous: Burrito Campesino and Dos Equis. Once we pushed ourselves away from the table, we loaded back up and headed down to Frederick, where Richie Rich was already waiting for us in the parking lot. As we unloaded the truck and set up for the morning, we got to see all of the bike modifications to the bikes for the first big event. I had spent the early afternoon in the shop getting a rack on the back of the Lemond. With a little finesse, and a lot of small spare parts, Jim and I managed to mount a rack that appeared designed for 26″ wheels onto my bike. I also went with a 4 inch section of aluminum bar mounted forward on the handle bar that would hold my lights and cue sheet while freeing up space on my handle bar for, well, my hands.

El Cacapon had gone with the most Gucci upgrade and had a new Carradice bag for his Trek. AccuJoe had approached the saddle bag issue by mounting a handlebar bag to a shortened bar and stem attached to his seatpost. When all the packing was done, Richie again took the cake with the lightest bike by several pounds. While the rest of us were groaning to lift our 30+ pound bikes Richie’s Giant TCR advanced

was minimally laded and light enough to instill powerful jealousy in the rest of us.

Once the bikes were set up, and the bags packed, we made an attempt to turn in early ahead of our impending 4 AM rollout. The lights were out somewhere around 11, giving us 4 hours at best before the alarms went off and ripped us from our slumbers.

Saturday began soon after we closed the book on Friday and we slowly got up around 3 AM to get registered and checked in. We struggled to dress for the day as the morning temps were in the mid 40’s and AccuJoe had promised us rain during the day; but each extra clothes item was more weight to haul across a course that would take us through 4 states over 250 miles. At 4 AM we found ourselves outside, in the dark parking lot, waiting for El Cacapon to finish up his morning preparations while, unbeknownst to us, the brevet took off without us. When we rolled up to the check-in, several minutes later they said we’d missed them and we took off down the road hoping to catch the main group and share the burden for a while. Within half an hour, we were picking off riders on our race to the lead group. After catching a first, and then second large group, Mikey got a flat and we watched them all roll past again as we changed his tube in the dark.

Up and running again, we rolled on, trying to focus on maintaining an even pace, we started catching riders again, though nobody seemed to be formed in coherent groups. As the sun came up we were treated to clear blue skies and the first warming rays of the sun. The forecast had been for rain, so the warm sunshine felt particularly good. In the early light we rolled into the first control at 39.3 miles where we met up with several riders and started to strip down all of our reflective clothing.

Control 1-2 was a pleasant stroll through rolling country, with one little climb which was a welcome opportunity to spend some time out of the saddle. It was smooth running into the second control in Shepardstown at mile 74. When we pulled into the Shepardstown Sweet Shop to get our cards signed, we knew we’d have trouble keeping to our goal of short stops. This place was the bakery you always dream of running into on a ride, rows of fresh pastries, espresso, sunlight pouring through big windows and the warm, flirtatious smile of a barista drawing you in like a siren. We settled in for a round of panne au chocolate and espressos and spent a pleasant few minutes chatting with our wool jersey clad brethren. This, not surprisingly, was a popular rest spot for the riders and we got a chance to admire some of the many approaches to these rides as we looked over the stacks of bikes waiting for their riders to caffeinate. There was a Specialized Roubaix with deep-dish superlight wheels and aero bars, a lugged steel Rivendell with 650c wheels that had been bought stock, then cut and repainted by Bilenky and fitted with S+S couplers. On the scales of absurdity, one young kid named Ben was doing the whole ride on a Surly Crosscheck with knobby tires and carrying his gear in a messenger bag and an older dude came in, as we were leaving on a Rivendell with flat pedals, front and rear baskets, cotton pants, wool sweater, and Tevas!

That’s the first 75 miles, more to come later. Below are a few more pics from the early part of the event.

Speed Ride?

Late spring in a college town changes the pace of things. The kids move away, the town quiets down and regains the composure of a small rural town. The upside is that lines are shorter and restaurants and bars are quieter. The downside is that we have to look to the locals, who are usually still busy with their own lives, to maintain the energy in town. The rides the last few days have felt the departure of the students. Last night I headed down to the shop for the Tuesday night mountain bike race and was met by only two other riders. This was due in part the the departure of the ride organizer, Snacky-D, to Pittsburgh for bigger and better things, but also the lack of students who have maintained a surprising attendance at this event. The times I’ve done that ride in the past I’ve not seen much of those folks after the start, but it is motivating to know that you are not on course alone. So last night we were but 3 starting, and I finished my 4th lap alone. Josh dropped early after cutting his hand and I never saw the other guy so I struggled to push myself at pace around the course. The 80+ degree temperatures were not helping, but I managed to hold a decent effort over 4 laps before heading home.

Tonight, after an impressive job of moving (if I do say so myself) Nita into the hood, I sprinted home to get out for the speed ride. In my haste to get out I managed to rip the screwtop off my rear tube while inflating the tire and spent a precious few minutes deciding what to do with a full, but unstable rear tire, and a pump rendered useless because the of the offending screwtop lodged in the valve. Thankfully, I’ve been running 10 speed on the brevet bike and I made a quick switch to the touring wheel. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a quick fix for the pump and I was reduced to sacrificing a c02 cartridge to make the ride. Out at Whitehall and Nixon I found myself pedaling back an forth alone before 2 Penn State riders showed up. After the obligatory 15 minutes, I rolled out alone while the Penn State kids headed home. In lieu of the speedride I did the tour of stone valley. Pine Grove sucked as usual, but the legs found their rythym and I was able to zip across the top. On the way back, I was faced with the return climb, which though taller and loner, is a much more satisfying of a climb.

Back from the ride I quickly showered and headed over to Stev-0’s fro a joint birthday for Cecilia and Bella. As always, the gang was all there and conversation quickly turned to the upcoming ride on Satrday. I’m looking forward to a Saturday of suffering, followed by a Sunday of recovery.

Brevet route

The brevet route for this weekend’s 400 K is up on routeslip.  It may take a while to load, but its all there: 250 miles and nearly 15,000 feet of climbing!  Whoopie!