2014 wrap: ending on festive note

The opening line of the song New Year’s Day by U2 is “All is quiet on New Year’s Day”. In a similar sense, the week between Christmas and New Years has always had a special quiet, contemplative feel to me. Children are out of school, many adults have time off from work, and friends and family gather to eat, drink, be merry, and reflect upon another year passed. In that spirit, I’m going to take a second to reflect on the year that was, and my view from the in the saddle in 2014.

While I never quite hit the same zenith of fitness that I hit in 2013, I did set some new PRs, got a few Strava KOMs, did some truly epic rides – notably, the 125 mile Ride Studio Café’s Pioneer ride in June, which stands out as probably 2014’s best ride. Wednesday Morning Worlds, the famous (infamous?) weekly throw down open to any who dare show up at 6am every Wednesday at RSC, continually proved to be the highlight of the week. There’s nothing quite like arriving to work at 9 am on an endorphin high, already having ridden 55 miles at a race pace. The weekly Saturday rides out to Harvard, Mass, too felt like a race in July and August, sometimes averaging over 21 mph. As usual, the KIT Super Saturdays in March were totally fun while also totally draining, and provided the perfect base miles to burn off the winter flab and prepare for the relentless lung-searing throwdowns that the summer of ’14 had in store.

You may have noticed a common thread running through the above rides – Ride Studio Cafe. They created, hosted, publicized, supported, and in some cases, all of the above, every one of the aforementioned rides. In the case of the Pioneer ride, complete with a perfect après-ride party. It’s easy to take things in life for granted, and forget that there was once a time before they existed. I’d been riding about ten years before RSC opened. In that time I’d made a grand total of maybe 4-5 riding friends. The vast majority of my rides were solo. While a long solo road ride can, at times, be just what the doctor ordered, the enjoyment level tends to quickly wane. Before RSC, there just really wasn't a place to hang out and meet fellow cycling-obsessed people.  Thanks completely to Ride Studio Cafe, I have many riding companions now, am a member of a team, and have a seemingly endless number of group rides to choose from at any time of the year.  This has added immensely to my enjoyment of cycling, and made me love the sport all the more.  The number of epic experiences I've had on the bike, or all the friends I've made directly as a result of Ride Studio would be impossible to comprehensively list here. Suffice to say I've had scores of unforgettable adventures, met countless new friends, and increased my riding level beyond what I ever imagined possible. One of the best things about RSC is, though, at the end of every ride, I have a place to hang out where it  feels like ‘everybody knows your name’.
A speedbump in 2014 was me coming down with pneumonia in October. This threw a wrench into my plan for a pan-New England cyclocross campaign. In the course of three nearly ride-less weeks, my fitness went from race-ready to ready for winter. So with it, obviously my mileage and hours for October were down the drain. I gained weight. I was far off from reaching my self-imposed goal of at least coming close to the 392 hours of riding I did in 2013.  Things didn't look good for the two months left in 2014, riding-wise.

A word about weight gain: many accept it as an unavoidable consequence of the indulgences of the holidays and the cycling off-season. Well, my rugged RSC compatriots and I do not accept defeat to the gastric onslaught quite so easily. I know of some people who have lost weight in the holiday week, myself included. Rather unsurprisingly, as it turns out, when you aim to amass 500 kilometers of riding in harsh New England conditions in the course of one week, you tend to burn off some excess holiday 'cheer'.

Despite riding slightly more hours last year than this year, in 2013 I did not complete the Rapha Festive 500. I came in somewhere around 250k, a fact which as stuck in my craw ever since. The conditions last year were tough; which is to say, much more seasonable. In typical New England fashion, the only thing one can predict accurately regarding the weather is that it will be unpredictable. This year the Festive 500 kicked off this year on an inauspicious note with freezing rain on Christmas Eve, a ride which I deftly missed – major kudos to those who braved the elements.

I embarked on my Festive 500 on Christmas Day, with a solo 30 mile ride around the Arlington/Winchester/Woburn area. This was but a mere appetizer for what was to come. The next day, Friday, was the trek to Essex, Mass. Going into it, I knew the mileage for me would likely be over 90, making it the longest ride I’d done in quite a while. After getting in a few bonus miles before the start with Art, I headed off due North with Henry’s group. Essex or bust. Despite having been riding on the North Shore for over a decade, there were numerous backroads, in some cases, unpaved, on this route that I’d never had the pleasure of riding before. Some really beautiful quiet byways trough Ipswich’s Willowdale Estate park, as well as a pot-hole-strewn dirt road which twisted by a lake, through woods, past a dump, and eventually brought us to the center of quaint Manchester By the Sea. Upon reaching Essex and quickly chugging a hot coffee and half a tuna sandwich, we remounted the bikes, this time pointing away from the coast. Suddenly we realized the previous three hours we’d had a tailwind, and for the next 40 or so miles, it looked like we’d have to repay this debt. And we did. I split off with the group in Lynnfield to go straight home, rather than back to Lexington first. I was happy to arrive back after 95 miles still having energy left in the tank, and feeling pretty good overall.

The next day I did a solo ride out through Newton/Needham, West Roxbury, and back through Boston to Somerville, tallying about 30 miles. Sunday, despite a chilly rain, I managed to sneak in another 77 miles, and with the help of Jonathan, as well as Katie, Shane, Jenny, Ben, and others, completed the 5th ‘lobe’ of the Snowflake Century. Sunday was kind of a special ride. I elected to start-out later in the day, thus missing the start of the Snowflake Century ride, as well as the planned KIT ride, with the hope of missing the heaviest period of rain. To this end, I was mostly successful, though I quickly realized getting the 70 miles in that I had planned would be a bit tougher solo. Through the magic of taking a highly circuitous way home, I was able to hit my 70 mile goal for the day, and then some. I can't remember the last time I did back-to-back four-plus hour rides, let alone in December; I'm pretty sure probably never.

Monday I did the RSC ride out to Harold Parker in North Reading and back. The 50 degree temps that smiled upon us the previous three days had sadly flown south for the winter, but the bright sun and comradery of a good sized group of about 15 riders warmed everyone up. Despite a few kickers in the form of Myopia Hill and Johnson Road in Winchester, I was able to roll into the Café feeling strong and not too drained. Total mileage tally for Monday: 71.

This brings us to today, December 31st, the last day of 2014. Total Festive 500 kilometer count at this moment: 493.  Total mileage for the year: 6,405.  I’ve 7 kilometers left to hit 500k. I’m about to to go out for a nice, slow, relaxing ride.  It’s going to feel great to achieve Festive 500 challenge. I've never been anywhere near this fit in late December before, and it's all because of RSC and the Festive 500.

Thank you to Ride Studio for hosting the all the awesome rides this year, including the Festive 500, and donating thousands of dollars to Mass Bike, NEMBA, and Lexington Nature Trust. Here’s to a 2015 with even more epic crazy long days in the saddle, more friendships, more high-fives, and yes, of course, more KOMs!

Addicted

The fact that rides like this can exist is what keeps me going. I love riding, but like any love, sometimes it sucks. Sometimes you just want to quit it forever and do something else. It's almost impossible to reconcile how unappealing riding can seem when I'm deep in a burned-out period with how amazing a good ride can make me feel.

Wesley Willis -- rest in peace -- was a schizophrenic who enjoyed taking bus rides; but he never knew if a ride was going to be a 'hell ride' or a 'harmony joy ride'.

Much in the same way, when first heading out of the driveway, I never know what kind of ride it's going to be. I can do everything right -- be fully rested, eat perfectly, be in top form, and yet go out and ride like crap and feel like crap. Just as easily, I can go out for a ride on seemingly stale legs, tired, and set new PBs and have an amazing ride. I just don't get it, and I don't think I ever will. The body -- and the mind -- is a mysterious thing.

Tonight's ride was nothing special; a 45 mile road ride on a loop I've probably ridden literally a hundred times. At first the legs definitely felt a bit dead from mountain biking last night, but came around after about half an hour and I started feeling great...

You may have noticed I haven't updated this blog as much as I did last season. I'll be honest: my inspiration and motivation this year has been sporadic. Along with it, my fitness has also been lagging behind the curve compared to the last couple seasons; which I blame on complete and utter avoidance of the trainer over the winter coupled with a brutally hard winter to actually ride outside. Part of the reason I wanted to write this was just to remind myself of how I feel right now: on top of the freaking world. Pure adrenaline. The concept of post-exercise endorphin release gets thrown-around a lot, but holy God - it really does exist and this, right now, is endorphin overdrive. I've never taken any drug that made me feel as good as I do right now, and I'd tend to be of the opinion that one doesn't exist. I'm an addict. On tonight's ride I felt no pain. I attacked every rise, fought with the headwind the whole way, and loved it. The last 2 miles of the ride my average speed was about 33, drafting off a car, averaging around 400 watts. There is no better feeling than the excitement and adrenaline of the sensation of speed from your own power.

The occasional good race result or even a podium is great, but really, when you get down to it, rides like tonight's are really why I train, and why I love bike riding.

The Hell of the West

Bike racers are a tough breed. We like to pride ourselves on being able to withstand more pain than the average person, persevere though hellish conditions, and survive – and thrive – in the most bleak of circumstances. All of these traits were tested to the max at the 2011 Quabbin road race this year.

The forecast called for light rain and temps in the 50s. While sucky, this wouldn’t have been anything I haven’t had to deal with before. Upon arrival the car read 38 degrees, and it was a steady rain, with….snow on the ground. I had definitely jinxed Doug and I by saying, “well, at least it’s not snow!” on the drive in. Are you F_ing kidding me!?! Was all I could say and think upon getting out of the car and heading to the registration tent.

What followed was the worst time I've ever spent on a bike, and possibly the worst time I've ever spent anywhere, doing anything, ever. The first 3 miles of the race are all downhill, and by the time the group actually started to pedal, as we made the turn onto Route 9, I was already completely soaked and freezing. Already there was talk in the peloton of 'screw this', and 'this sucks, I don't think I'm going to finish'. Due to me having zero warm up, it being 38 degrees and me being completely drenched, I was anything but warmed-up, and I was promptly dropped on the first major climb. I tried as hard as I could to rejoin, and was about 50 meters from jumping back on, when apparently the lead motorcycle took half of the pack through an intersection, when they were supposed to actually take a right. I followed thruogh the intersection, too, until a guy in a Mini Cooper, who had previously been yelling at me encouraging me to get me back into the pack, yelled at me that I had missed the turn. "But I saw them go straight!" I yelled back, in my highly oxygen-deprived state, "He's taking them the wrong way!" he shot back. Great, so now, fewer than 10 miles into the race, I'm soaked, the Cat 4 men have been effectively split in two, I have no hope of rejoining, and I have about 55 miles to look forward to riding on my own. After a few miles I began passing rider after rider going the other direction, who had apparently had enough of the abysmal conditions and decided to ride back to the parking lot. While I was cold and wet, I wasn't completely miserable yet, and I loathe the thought of seeing a DNF next to my name, so I pressed on. Looking back, I kinda wish I hadn't.

The next 3 hours were miserable. Completely and utterly miserable. Everything gradually and consistently got worse. The rain never let up, it never warmed up, and a head wind began kicking up. I rode alone for a long time, until the Masters category came up behind me. I rode with them for 10-15 miles, until some asshole gave me a hard time about riding with them because I was a Cat 4. Seriously buddy? Am I negatively affecting you by riding in your group? This is why roadies have a reputation as assholes. At this point, my morale went from .01 to zero and I gradually fell off the back and was alone once more. At this point things got really, really bad.

First I couldn't feel my hands, then my hands just plain wouldn't work. No amount of taking them off the bars and shaking them or flexing them did anything. Completely numb. I lost all coordination and strength. It was all I could muster to spin out 200 watts in the middle ring. My hands became so ineffectual I couldn't shift; I couldn't squeeze my water bottle for a drink. Descents were terrifying because of the sheer coldness, and because I had almost no ability to grasp and squeeze the brake lever. The last 15 miles were the longest of my life. I literally was staring at my Powertap, watching the distance tick down. I thought of how beautiful the scenery and roads would be on a nice day, when I wasn't teetering on the brink of hypothermia.

On numerous occasions during this time I had blurred and double vision. I should have pulled the plug and given up, and I probably would have, if the opportunity presented itself. Doug, a much wiser man than me, who was racing with the 5s, was offered the chance to hop in a team van around mile 45 and gladly accepted. Don't know what happened, but I never saw that van!

To add insult to injury, the last 5k of the race are uphill. Felt like forever, but I ground up slowly but surely, and finished. Somehow. At this point my body was deeply in survival mode. I had trouble pushing the unlock button on my car keys. It took me about 40 minutes to change, as I lacked the dexterity to button my pants, and even putting on socks was a challenge. Even now, Monday night, my fingertips are still somewhat numb. Hopefully this will fade with time.

If ever presented with race conditions like we experienced on Saturday, Doug and I agreed we will gladly take a DNS like many others did. This was just pure unadulterated torture.

Over The Hill

Well, not quite in age -- though I ain't getting any younger. More like, over the hill in terms of fitness for the year; it's all downhill from here (or more like a month ago now).

Beginning in January, you start training, first riding long boring rides just to get a baseline fitness, then gradually throwing in some intervals and building intensity. Before you know it, summer rolls around and you're in damn good shape. Setting new records for power. Granted, this was the first year I was training with power, but still, seeing the improvement trend throughout the year was encouraging.

Looking back I'd say I peaked somewhere around mid-to-late August. Towards the end of August I was doing 10-14 hour weeks.

Yeah, that's not happening anymore.

This week as of this morning I've ridden a grand total of 2 hours. 2 stinking hours. Two one hour rides. The week prior was actually respectable and I did about 7-8 hours, and felt like I had some decent fitness. It's both shocking and depressing how quickly fitness fades. On my quick 20 mile ride on the road bike yesterday, while trying not to get blown off the bike completely from the 40+ MPH wind gusts, I realized that I had lost a chuck of fitness. I felt like crap, and was struggling to hold 250 watts. Just one week of reduced riding (or a couple in this case), and you've lost 30 watts off your FTP, and your resting heart rate is 15 bpm higher. It's nuts. All that hard work, all the pain you suffered through on hill repeats, the drudgery of 5 hour rides. All the fruit of that effort can just silently disappear through the comfort and quiet of inactivity.

But the thing is, it's necessary. I needed a break. Though with the daylight hours waning, it does definitely become more and more challenging to get-in rides during the week with an 8-5 office job, I have lights -- it can be done. I'm not using the season as an excuse. It's more just a mental thing: after working your ass off for months and months on the bike -- and while I do it because I enjoy it, you still can get sick of things you love -- one needs a break: both mentally and physically. So I suppose in the long-run a few lazy-ish weeks won't kill me. Actually it's probably a good thing. But man, it's humbling to go for that first ride after 3-4 days off and feel like you've lost a huge amount of strength. It kinda sucks.

Treasure Valley Rally Race Report

I gave up caffeine for a week leading up to the race. My first glorious iced coffee was the morning of the race. It sparkled in the late August morning sunlight like a beautiful harbinger of great things to come in the day. Or not exactly...

Let’s start off with all that went well – the positives:

-Beautiful, perfect weather.

-Didn’t get lost; had a nice relaxing drive through some very picturesque areas of Mass

-Got new full-fingered gloves, which worked awesome. Much less beat-up hands after the race, and felt like I had much better control on the gnarly downhills.

-Nice people, great vibe at the event.

-Didn’t get hurt - no small feat considering the insane difficulty level of the course.

OK so I’ve gotten all the positives out – I don’t want this post to sound whiny or overly negative which it could easily dissolve into, so I thought I’d just put that stuff up there. Having said all that, let me just get this out – you may want to cover your children's ears – F*CK!

OK, now I feel better. I told myself going into this year’s TVR that I would not ‘lose it’ and swear and throw my bike into the woods in a fit of rage like a crazy person as I did last year after my second flat on the first lap (Brian Mcinnis can attest to this; he happened to ride past me as I was mid-bike toss). So this year when about 1/4 of a mile into the race my bike started shifting all funny I remained calm. When it continued to shift funny, and started skipping and got worse, I remained calm (think Seinfeld...Frank Costanza's SERENITY NOW!). When I stood up to pedal over a steep rise and my chain snapped, I...remained calm(ish), despite being in my head, irate.

I never a chain tool with me on races. I've never broken a chain in a race. This chain had all of 2 rides on it. It worked perfectly last time I rode the bike - I have no idea why it broke. Luckily Ernie from the MTB Mind team tossed me his chain tool and I quickly fixed it and was on my way....yeah right.

See the thing is, trying to work a chain tool in 90 degree heat as the entire race field passes you one by one, as you're being swarmed by SUPER LOUD AND HUGE mosquitos and your heart rate is about 180 is...challenging. As you can see here my first lap was....a bit slower than my second. Once I finally got it together and working again, everyone had passed me. And I don't just mean the entire expert field, I mean everyone. All the Experts, Sports, and Novices -- hell even the tandem people had passed me.

Once I got back warmed up and into the flow or riding I actually felt pretty good, and cleaned a lot of the rock gardens. The Novices I was passing kept asking me if I were an Elite rider, thanking I was lapping them. I had to explain no - not elite, just really really far back Expert. My only goal was not to get lapped by the Elite field, which somehow (still not quite sure how), I managed to do. On the second lap every few minutes I'd swear I heard Kevin Hines coming up behind me at a high rate of speed. Turns out he DNF'd - not sure what happened, but looking at the lap times it looks like he definitely one of the fastest lap times of all the Elites before his mechanical.

In closing, to do: practice fixing chains in a more expedient fashion. Maybe ride up a big hill at full gas to get really out of breath, then pull over to the side of the road and break my chain and try to get back together in less than a couple minutes. Even better, do it next to a pool of standing water so freakishly large mosquitoes will swarm me as I work. It could be like mechanic skill-building intervals!

The Amazing Bike Race

Last week I was lucky enough to participate in what may have been the most fun bike race of the year. I just happened to attend the Saturday morning NEBC ride (had fun, learned some new roads, got dropped, but we'll not get into that). After the ride Tim Dodd asked me if I was planning on doing the Amazing Race the next day, and that he and John were looking for a team mate.

This was the first I'd heard of the race, but since it was obviously local and sounded like an awesome idea I said immediately said, hell yeah! (I don't think I actually said that).

All I knew was to be at the parking lot next to Cycle Loft around 9:30 on Sunday morning, and bring a cross bike. Of course, since I don't currently have a cross bike, I brought my mountain bike. Luckily, Kurt from Cycle Loft was gracious enough to loan my his brand new Gary Fisher Presidio. I say luckily because even though about 20 miles of the course were off-road, about 40 miles were on road, and riding a mountain bike would have sucked. Big shout-out to Kurt and Cycle Loft for hooking me up for the day.

The race was 62 miles - starting and ending at Cycle Loft - and more than just a straightforward test of fitness, the race had a couple of non-riding challenges along the way -- also the ever-present challenge of not getting lost. Before we could leave the parking lot we were tasked with arranging the past winners of the Tour de France back through 1990. Child's play! John, Tim and myself were the first team to get it right and started off with the lead. After some awesome trail riding in the Bedford/Concord area we came upon the first challenge, which was our choice of each teammate having to ride a slalom course around cones while balancing an egg on a spoon, or a crossword. We chose the egg balance, and each of us was able to do it successfully on our first turn. Again, we were first team off! The course continued all over the place, leading through Lexington, Bedford, Concord, Billerica (I think?), Wilmington (where all teams had a mandatory 10 min stop to refuel at a convenience store), North Andover, North Reading, Wakefield, Stoneham, Woburn, and of course Burlington. One of the coolest sections of the race was a area of trails in the Ballardvale section of Andover, where we actually had to ride down along the MBTA commuter rail tracks for a section before we ducked into some really swoopy fast up/down singletrack, which was made even more awesome-er by the freight train that we just missed while riding down the tracks and wound up thundering along right next to us.

The third challenge was at Harold Parker state forest in North Andover, about 40 miles in. We had our druthers of each having to eat 15 marshmallows or doing a word search. Again, we showed our utter disdain for anything cerebrally-intensive and opted to cram 15 while puffballs of high fructose corn syrup down our gullets. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. I don't think it will be replacing granola bars and PB & J for mid-ride snacks anytime soon, though.

The next 20 miles were all road home, though North Reading Wakefield and Woburn, back to Cycle Loft. We worked really well as a team, each taking turns blocking the horrendous head-wind the final miles.

In the end we were the first team to cross the line. Total time, about 4:45; total ride time: 4:20-ish. We each won a pair of sweet Michelin cyclocross tires (now I have to buy a cross bike!), and best part - they even had a meal ready for us! Pulled pork sandwiches with all the Harpoon we could drink. A+ post-ride food.

In summary, everyone reading this should do this race next year! This being the first year, attendance was a bit lacking, but everyone agreed it was a great event, and the modest entry fees went to help to support a PMC (PanMass Challenge) team.

A huge thank you goes out to Michael and Kurt for all the work they put into organizing the race -- just the task of marking 62 miles of road and trails must've been daunting! Epic ride, for sure.


*photo credit to Michelle

Eating Other's Dust - Hodges Dam Race Report

I never quite understood the phrase 'eat my dust' as acutely as I did after finishing this race. Hodges Dam had driest conditions I think I've ever seen in a race - the complete opposite of just about every race I did last year.

It was also probably the most well-rested race I’ve done so far this year. I did absolutely zero riding in the three days leading up to it. While this made for well-rested legs, there’s always the chance/likelihood it can cause stale legs. For some reason, I knew I had enough training in my legs that a total rest away from the bike for a few days were what they needed, and that staleness probably wouldn’t be much of an issue. I contemplated ggoing out for an easy ride with some short sprints thrown-in on Saturday the day before the race, but just wasn’t feelin’. It. Being in a post-all-day-spent-drinking-haze from the day before at Dickie’s cabin in NY probably contributed to not feelin’ it.

Race day arrived and despite being physically well-rested, mentally I was in a bit of a fog. It was a 3 coffee morning; two hot cups at home and a large Cumberland Farms iced coffee was slugged down during my warm-up in Oxford. Due to some 11th hour heroics by Nate, I was able to get my bike in order to race. After putting on a new cassette and chain, turns out my chainrings were also fried. And of course, no shop in the greater Boston area stocks M960 XTR chainrings. Luckily Nate had a spare brand-new SLX crankset hanging around that he sold me for about what the cost of two new XTR rings would have been. Yeah, it's SLX not XTR and about 100 grams heavier, but who really cares.
I got somewhat of a warm-up in, but not much -- maybe about 10 min. I've learned that I really need at least 20-25 min of moderate pace riding before I start to feel good and can ride hard. Despite the lackluster warm up, at the start I took off really well. I knew from the first pedal stroke in my warm up that my legs were having a good day and I felt probably the freshest I had in a long time. I passed many riders on the dirt road leading up the hill about a half mile or so into the woods. I was second place going into the singletrack, and proceeded to hold this for another 1-2 minutes before redlining, and realizing, OH YEAH, THE LAST 5 MINUTES I'VE BEEN 75% ANAEROBIC!

It was at this point that I was quickly passed by a group of about 3-4 fast riders, including Jeff Langfried. I knew I had gone out too hard and was going to have to ease-up on the pace in order to get into a maintainable tempo, but at the same time I tried to say on the lead train of riders, but as fate would have it, I wound up getting a branch stuck in my rear wheel somehow and was forced to stop for about 5 seconds to get it out. At that point they had a gap that I was never able to close. I went from being psyched that I was riding on the front of the race to pissed-off/disheartened that I was in no-man's land so quickly and cut-back a bit on my pace to recover from what was a un-warmed-up and unmaintainable initial pace. Going into the second lap I could just barely see the lead guys about 30 seconds up going up the fireroad after the start/finish line, but knew with the pace they were riding, it would be unlikely I was going to be able to jump on.

From 2nd lap on out (4 laps total), I was able to settle into a nice groove, and finally started passing people. I guess I must've just had a bit more gas left in the tank than some of the other 19-29 Cat 1s because I passed about 3 guys in the final miles. This was the dustiest race I've ever done; by the end I'd felt like I had about 2 pounds of dirt in my lungs and kept coughing. Riding ride behind someone was blinding at times because of how dry the dirt was. Still, I'd rather these problems than all the issues that come with a mudfest. End result: 4th out of 12, and since 3rd place (Matt Mooradian) isn't from MA, I was 3rd place for the 19-29 Cat 1 MA MTB Championship. (picture of my tiny little USAC medal forthcoming). Jeff Langfried got 1st, a solid 5 min faster than me. Next race is the Root66 Norcross Scurry, which is tomorrow - this'll be my first time doing it, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm a big fan of Saturday races. TODO for next race: get in a good warm-up.

I'd Like to Thank the Arlington Fire Department

...for use of their hose. As I mentioned before, this summer I've gotten in the habit of doing the weekly NEBC Wednesday night hillclimb ride out of Cycle Loft. It's a great training ride, and some really fast guys (and girls) often show up. I consistently underestimate how much water I'm going to go through for what is usually only a 20 mile or so ride. At the top of the third main climb of the ride in Arlington Heights, there is a small little fire station with a hose out front, which I almost always have to stop at to refill my bottle, while the rest of the group spins around recovering from the climb. There is simply nothing better than cool water on a 90 degree humid July evening, after riding up hills at 180 bpm. (And yes, I did ask a firefighter the first time I made use of their water if it was cool.) So thank you Arlington FD, for the superbly-placed drinking water.

I've been hitting the hillclimb ride most Wednesdays this year, and loving the torture -- it's definitely made me stronger. Yesterday, probably due to a scary-looking radar, it was only myself and Tom (the tandem guy) and Don (from IF), but we still had a great ride. The weather ended up clearing up and it never even rained a drop. After setting some new 2 and 3 minute power records on me second and third time doing the ride back in May and early June, my power numbers have plateaued. In fact, other than beating my previous 30 second PB last week, even after taking a few rest days here and there, I haven't set any PBs since June, which is kinda discouraging - I still think the hillclimb ride is A+ training, though. I don't think there's any ride or race in which I get as out of breath as I do powering-up those Arlington and Winchester climbs at full gas.

Oh, I guess I raced this weekend, too -- might as well talk a bit about that. I've raced Harding Hill every year since '07. In '07, I was just plain ol' out of shape; riding probably about 1/10 as much as I do now, and had just gotten my Trek Fuel and wasn't used to it. I finished towards the back of the back in SPORT(!). In '08 I was riding much faster and Harding Hill was actually my first race as an Expert. I got my ass handed to me; I believe I was last for Senior I Experts. Last year, '09, I had a new bike (my Giant), and was in good shape, but the course was super muddy from the incredibly rainy summer we had, and I'm not the best rider through mud bogs. I was towards the back of the back Expert; 9 min off of first place.


In the video below, Nate Ross talks about how Harding Hill went for him; it just happened to be his first EFTA race as an Expert.



And Nathaniel Williams talks about his first race in the EFTA Elite category:



This year I got 8th out of 12 Senior IIs, which doesn't sound that great, but I was, overall, pleased with my race. I felt great, and had fun (as opposed to the last race); and I beat Brian McInnis by a minute! Finally! Last year at Harding Hill he beat me by four minutes. He was obviously having a bad day this year, so I don't take too much delight in it, but it was nice to finally beat him, after having so many races where he beat my by a minute or two. On the last lap, my chain started skipping, so it's definitely time for a new drivetrain. I was still able to ride fairly hard, but I wasn't able to stand out of the saddle and hammer, so it likely cost me a min or two. My plan was to start slow, since there was no hole-shot; quite the opposite, in fact: about 2-3 miles of double track before any single track at all. I focused on racing smart, riding someones wheel whenever I could, and riding at a pace which would let me finish strong. I think if anything, I may have paced myself too easily, thinking that the climb at the half way point in the lap was worse than it was (I remember it being hellish in '07 & '08); but it really didn't seem that bad this time around, so I may have actually saved a bit too much in the tank. For whatever reason, I find that I always ride hard and pass people on the climbs, then tend to go too easy on the flats, thinking that I can't make up as much time, which, in a MTB race, really isn't the case. Anyway, though my finish was so-so, I had a lot of fun, and was faster than last year, and that's what really matters, right?

I'm up to 6th place in the overall standing for the NECS EFTA points. We'll see if I can get into top 3. Next race is the Maine Sport Runoff on August 1st.

Domnarski Farm, The Pinnacle, and Putney

Again, my tendency to procrastinate has caught-up with me. There's been three races with no race reports! Let's get right into it.

Domnarski Farm:

My first year doing this race, and I didn't know quite what to expect. I almost did the EFTA Big Ring Rumpus over it, but did this instead because, A, my big ring is destroyed, and B, I missed the pre-reg cutoff. I'm glad fate had me wind up doing Domnarski Farm, as this race is the real deal. Around 1500' of climbing per lap; two 10 mile laps. The race is put-on by Matt Domnarski, an awesome dude who lets people show up and park and race on a lot of what is his property. I almost didn't do the race; the weather the day of the race was very 'iffy' - overcast and sprinkly. I was 100% glad I did it. As it turned out, it didn't rain once the whole race, though the course was quite slick from the rain the day before, but I'd definitely seen muddier.

The gun goes off and exactly what I knew was going to happen, happened: pile up as soon as we hit the climb (about 100 yards from the start line); so I get off and run, pass a decent amount of riders, then hop back on and begin the 15 or so minute climb, wildly in oxygen debt, totally out of breath the whole way. After about 5 minutes a lot of the guys I passed running passed me - I was already at the limit and there was nothing I could do to try to grab their wheel. Turns out I paced myself pretty well, because I caught and passed just about all of those guys half way through the first lap, on the brutal powerline climb. This was a huge morale boost, as I thought I was destined to dangle off the back for the rest of the race; instead I was moving up and in 3rd place! I actually caught up to Matt Mooradian at the highest point on the course: the top of $10 pass)the hardest, steepest uphill of the entire course (which I cleared on the first lap). Matt asked me if I was in his group, which I was, and he quickly took off down the descent, narrowly missing the 'tree of death (I almost found out the hard way why they named it that). Matt proved to be a better descender than me, and I lost sight of him halfway down, and never saw him again.

Second lap I was riding by myself 70% of the time, and started to get tired about half way through; I had my only 'crash' of the race, which was just a stupid slide-out in a corner because I was getting tired. I was able to hold onto my position, though, and only got passed by one 35+ rider, and passed one rider in my group on the final descent (apparently because he had lost his middle ring! Did I mention this was a brutal course!?). I sprinted over the line and felt absolutely shelled; destroyed, but psyched. At the time I thought I had gotten 2nd, but after washing up a bit and waiting what seemed like for forever for the results, I saw I had gotten 3rd, which is still my best result this year and I was pleased with. $25 in prize money was a nice surprise. I think my first lap may have been right around the magic one-hour mark, as Matt mentioned his first lap was :59 flat, and I was, I'd estimate, about a minute or so behind him. I thought the race officials were recording lap times..oh well. Next time I'll be sure to time my laps to get the extra $10 any sub-one hour laps got you!

The Pinnacle

One of my favorite MTB races, and a true New England classic, is The Pinnacle, held every June in Newport, NH, right outside of Lake Sunapee. The weather and the trails were almost exactly the same as last year; overcast, cool, and muddy. They changed the course this year to add a bit more climbing and added about 2 miles per lap; I really liked it. Unfortunately slick root-laden downhills freak me out, and I tend to not take as many chances as some others. I definitely lost time on the downhill; at least two times I was able to ride the wheels of guys on the way up, only to completely lose them on the way down. Note to self: work on descending. I got 6th out of 12; overall mid-pack expert. Only 3 minutes or so behind first, though, which was definitely closer than last year. Considering how gingerly I went downhill, I was OK with my result.

Putney

I went, and I sucked. Any other questions?

If Domnarnski Farm was the toughest MTB race I've done, this had to have been the second. It was the first race this year where I seriously considered quitting and was really hoping for a flat (which is what unfortunately happened to my friend Nathaniel Williams, who rode up with me) or mechanical. I felt like crap; out of breath the whole time and making no power.

The course itself was really tough because of all the climbing, but some really fast downhill sections kept it interesting. I almost killed myself on the first lap in this once place where I had been warned before the race by Jeff Langfried that it was super hairy, and yet, even with this forewarning, I still almost superman-ed straight into a tree. It's hard to describe, but there was basically a really fast downhill, with a few rollers, then a very abrupt off-camber left turn with a tree front and center if you missed the turn. I carried way too much speed into the corner and came within an inch of my life, but somehow hung on and didn't get to get up-close and personal with the big oak tree. I think multiple expletives were uttered right after, mostly due to the sheer shock that I was somehow still on my bike. Subsequent laps I rode like a small child (as Adam Craig would say) around this section.

Oh, did I mention that Tom Sampson had a mechanical involving his cassette after the first lap and had to spend 5-10 minutes getting it fixed and still managed to pass me half a lap later like I was standing still? Yeah. Me: huffing and puffing, about to die, on the long mid-lap climb; Tom: Sunday ride in the park, passing me at about 150% my speed, not out of breath at all. Humbling, to say the least.

The only real positive I took away from this race was that I finished it, and that I was able to ride on a train comprised of of Jacob Harris and Tom Boobar for about 70% of lap 2. They finally dropped me in the single track when I made a small error due to fatigue. They seemingly instantly put 20 seconds into me, then they were gone, but it was encouraging because I know if I had been having a more fresh day, I could've hung with them. They finished 8 minutes faster than me. I lost tons of time on lap 4, as I was just totally and utterly out of gas. Mike Broderick passed me like I wasn't moving. He was riding a hardtail and I couldn't even begin to hang with him on the high speed downhill. Again, humbling.

Training has been going well; I took a few days off after Putney, as I was absolutely mentally and physically shelled. I've been trying to do the NEBC Hill ride every Wednesday night; it's short, but brutal. I consistently hit my highest heart rates of any rides on it, so it's just a top-end work out, but it's great because there's always serious competition to get to the top of the hills first. I really feel like it's helped my VO2 Max type power; the 3-5 minute stuff.

Well hopefully the next update won't be 2 months away. The next race is Harding Hill this weekend, a race that I have never done well at, and I don't particularly enjoy, but I keep coming back to do. I may be insane.

Glocester Grind

Now I may not be the most experienced bike racer out there, but one thing I have learned is that typically you don't want to drink margaritas and stay out 'til 3 AM the night before a race. However, knowing something and acting accordingly are two different things.

On the plus side, this immature behavior does add some great excuses to the already stellar cache I had this week. The pre-existing to the night-before-the-race-shenanigans excuses were: I had a cold this week which just started to clear up Saturday; I only rode 3 days; I decided the morning of that I was racing; my bike’s front brake decided it didn’t want to work; and I had a slow leak with left me with just enough air to get across the finish line. Whew, I think that’s everything. Oh, and, does, ‘I didn’t have a 29er’ count as a valid excuse?

Seriously though, I had a lot of fun in this race. The weather was perfect for a change, and after a week of half-ass wussy riding, I was more than ready to go deep into the pain zone. Glocester is a bike-handlers’ course, make no mistake about it. While I consider myself a proficient bike handler, I’ll be the first to say there’s some guys way more talented than I at riding in the really rough stuff. That, coupled with the fact that there’s basically no climbing, makes this race not really one I’ll probably ever get a really good result at. I’ve never been especially good at rock gardens, and man-alive does Glocester have rock gardens -- huge, dangerous, muddy, long sections of rock gardens. After attempting to ride some of the more outrageous ones on the first lap, I realized that it was faster or just as fast to just jump off the bike and run. Due to not really having any warm-up, the first lap I was huffing and puffing and had no chance of jumping on the leaders. I don’t know for sure, but I’m fairly confident my second lap was my fastest; I was able to follow the wheel of a couple good riders which on this course made a huge difference; plus after having one go-around I knew what was coming better. Third lap I started to run a bit low on gas and sure enough, and I noticed my rear tire was getting soft. Perfect. I just hoped and prayed it held together enough to make it the next few miles to the finish, and focused on keeping as much weight off of it as possible. Luckily I was able to finish on it. Oh, the finish – yeah, that’s another thing….because I was so smoked by the end, I forgot the sharp LEFT up the hill to go to the finish line. So I stopped, and casually rode for a few seconds before I realized this and then nailed it up the hill to the line. Definitely lost probably close to a minute because of that – oh well. I was good enough for a time of 1:34:56 and 7th out of I believe 10 Senior II riders - overall mid-pack for the Experts.

I also did the Sterling Road Race last weekend in the rain, which was a really fun course – rolling hills, and one steep short hill right at the finish/start line. I was at the front most of the race, but of course I wasn’t there at the deciding time, right at the start of the final lap after the hill, 3 riders attacked when everyone was recovering and got a gap. I missed this happening because I wasn’t on the front, and when I went back to the front had no idea there was a break. No one seemed to be in the mood to really chase them, so by the time we came to the finish they had put a minute into the peloton. I was third in the group sprint up the hill for the finish, passing a lot of guys, so I’m OK with 7th out of 30.

Massasoit Lung Opener - man, it’s been too long since I updated this! This race in a word: awesome. Seriously, this was like, the best race ever - a total blast. Probably my favorite race course ever, and perfect weather to boot. I had a crash on the first lap on a downhill because there was a sharp turn with a tree right there, and of course, my front brake decided it didn’t want to work. I was at the lead group until the crash, then it was just a matter of trying to get my mojo back – which I gradually did. Believe it or not, I think one of the things I need to work on most is going down the hills...some guys just blow past me on technical downhills – the same guys I drop going up.

But anyway, lots of great riding lately; including the Fells opening day/Trek demo day event with Gary Fisher - had a blast with Thom Parsons and his hammer ride. He took us on a bunch of trails I never even knew existed – pretty exciting stuff. Next week is EFTA NECS# 2 – the Weeping Willow at Willowdale Park in Ipswich. I'll start getting the excuses ready!

What a Long, Strange Trip it's Been

Springtime and the livin's easy. Hard to believe we made it through winter, but here we are. Getting some great riding in lately: did the loop up through Gloucester last weekend with Nate and Matt. I felt surprisingly good and was able to finish strong; this a first for me this early in the season to hammer for 60 miles and not bonk. Matt felt a bit sick by the time we got back, but nothing some off-brand Mylanta couldn't cure. I continue to love the Powertap. Before I had to just kinda guess if my fitness was improving, and by how much - now I can know exactly where I stand. As long as my numbers continue to go up, it keeps my motivated to keep training.

I'm officially a Cat 1 MTBer - it took over a week, but USA Cycling finally approved my upgrade so now I can race with the big boys. Because my upgrade was still pending, and I couldn't justify driving almost 3 hours to race 8 miles in the Cat 2 race, I skipped Hopbrook and made Winding trails yesterday my first race of the season. It was a blast! One of the most fun courses I've ever raced on (can you tell I'm becoming more of a roadie!?); really fast, NO rocks, a couple steep short hills but nothing too substantial, a few good downhills, and lots of tight twisty singletrack. I actually feel like my Anthem was designed for the course; the fast handling really helped. Because they kept us at the start line for about 10 minutes before actually starting, I (along with everyone else) pretty much lost whatever warm-up I had done, so the start was pretty tough. A few guys took off with an acceleration that I simply couldn't match and were not seen from a again. About 2 min in, a guy hit a log at an angle and went down right in front of me, but I was able to skirt around with no issues. Because the turnout was so big, the only time I was really riding by myself was the fourth lap, about the last half or so. This is also where I started to feel things in the 'engine room' shutting down...I think I didn't eat quite enough. My 3rd lap was probably my fastest, and I probably lost a couple minutes running out of gas and losing the train I was on...there were wide-open sections of fire-road with a decent headwind, so believe it or not, drafting actually came into play.

I got 5th, not bad overall, and a sign my fitness is pretty much where I thought it was. I definitely finished better than I did at Hopbrook last year, where I was 11 min behind the winning time; this race, only ~4 minutes.

Next race, next week: the Massasoit Lung Opener in Taunton. I'm Looking forward to it.

Shorts Weather

Finally the weather has broken, and all of a sudden it's not winter any more! Of course, after the one-two punch we just endured in this area, the trails are strewn with sticks and water-laden (and pretty much unridable until they dry), and the roads are riddled with potholes. On the plus side, it's been almost 70 degrees the last few days, and supposed to stay like that through the weekend. The transition from winter's deep freeze, and riding across frozen lakes, to riding in shorts happened so quickly it feels very surreal. Speaking of winter, it was actually a pretty not-bad one, as Massachusetts winters go. I stayed in shape, and did a solid amount of base miles.

I now am the proud owner of a SL+ PowerTap; I have ridden ~500 miles since January 3rd on my road bike; probably about 300 between my three mountain bikes -- that’s a solid base, and definitely the most winter riding I’ve done to date; and, as a corollary as having the PowerTap, I am now keeping a training journal, and able to see exactly how much – or how little – progress I'm making.


I love having a power meter – so far my feeling is that it’s been worth every penny. For instance, now I know that my average heart rate on the Boxford loop is 15 bpm lower than it was in January, while making about 10 watts more. That is progress! I also find having the it makes trainer riding a lot more bearable; breaking it down into intervals and blocks help the time to go by faster than just hopping on and spinning with no data for an hour or an hour and a half at a time.

Very solid 8 hour week last week, including two night road rides, a 3 hour endurance ride up to Ipswich on Saturday, and awesome ride – the first of the season -- through Breakheart. The recent storm had definitely left its mark on the trails; tons of down branches and even some massive trees blocking the way. Matt and I cleared what we could but there are two huge trees that are going to have to be left up to the DRC to take care of…I’m not holding my breath!

Some random blurbs:

-To do, as in, this week: apply for USAC license for ’10, and Cat 1 upgrade.
-I Still want to find a new road bike for this season. Keep searching for the right one to come along…right now the main contender is still a Cervelo R3-SL, but I’d also consider a Madone if the right deal came along.

I’ve also decided I’m going to go with a Raxter trailer hitch rack for the SI. As much as I cringe at the thought of adding ~50 lbs to my car, it’s far better than the alternative of a roof rack, and after considerable research, I definitely think Raxter has the best design as far as hitch racks go.


More to come as the season gets under way. First race on Mar 28th! Although, I guess technically the first race of the season was the tricycle race at the EFTA banquet last month, which I lost by a hair!

Ciao '09!

All of a sudden, I haven't ridden in over a week. What the hell? Oh, right - it's December. I had ideas for a grandiose super-update, but the words just aren't coming. It's surprisingly difficult to think of goals for riding, or anything riding-related when there's a foot of snow outside and I haven't even looked at a bicycle in a week. Suffice to say, since my last update in October, I've logged some decent miles, but nothing truly epic (hence the lack of update). My last ride was a week ago from Friday, in the the Fells. It was..cold. Very cold. About 15 degrees. The great thing about it being that cold is that no one else goes out; I had zero hiker run-ins on the ride, something which I can't say about my previous foray into holier-than-thou place known as Middlesex Fells.

Goals for 2010:
-Upgrade to Cat 1 for MTB
-Do more Root 66 races
-Do a (preferably many) road race.
-Do a (preferably many) cross race.
-Get a new road bike.
-Get a powermeter that actually works, and use it to do structured intervals.

That's it for now...I'm sure I'll think of more. Did I mention there's a foot of snow outside? Time to buy a (better) trainer.

Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground

Motivation to ride...slipping. Fitness...also slipping. It's not that I don't still want to ride, it's just that, after coming home from work, and it being dark before I can even collect my thoughts, it means every ride would have to be a night ride. I like night rides, but not as much as rides during the day. I’m usually only good for one night ride a week. It’ s just a lot of effort, and not as much fun. It doesn’t help that the past few nights it’s been down in the lower 30s. Like last night, for instance, I had every good intention of bucking the trend and strapping on the lights to hit up the trails, but when it came down to it, baked mac n cheese and watching House seemed like a better time.

My only real riding the past couple weeks have been on the weekends. Last Saturday I banged out a solid 75 miles on the road, going up to Newbury/Rowley and back through Georgetown/Boxford area. Atrocious headwind the whole way (somehow, despite it being a loop), and pretty chilly temps. Still felt good to get out, though. Weekend before last was a big one; 50-ish chilly, windy, (somewhat-hung-over) road miles up through Boxford, Breakheart (“full bitch”, or full loop for those unaccustomed do Team BH parlance), then a epic doubleheader on Monday, since I took Columbus Day off from work. First Matt and I hit up the Fells, then I rode home, crammed down a couple sandwiches, and headed up to Harold Parker with Nate. He showed me some an awesome new trail that someone (I’m guessing NEMBA?) had obviously built for mountain bikers and obviously put a lot of thought and effort into. Thank you, whoever is responsible for it! It is awesome, sweet berms, nice sheer drop off to the side at one point, and a super fun pump track - which I need to get better at riding ( I was never really a BMXer). In all, on Monday I’d estimate I probably put down 35-40 miles of trail riding, a solid day.

This may come as a shock to some of you, but I’m on the fence! I’m on the fence about getting into cross racing, but something that may have just pushed me off was coming across a sweet Independent Fabrications Planet Cross for sale in my size on Craigslist. If I can grab it, I will be off to the races. It looked like too good of a deal not to jump on, so I did. I’m hoping the seller gets back to me soon! I figure I’ll try a cross race or two…just having some kind of racing going on will help boost my recently flagging motivation to keep my fitness.

It’s tough staying fit when the daylight starts waning – I like Oktoberfest beer too much!

Fort Rock Revenge

To be honest, upon awakening to the sound of heavy rain at 7AM, my motivation to race was probably the lowest it’s ever been the whole summer, but with it being the last race at Fort Rock (the end of a 14 year era), and it being the last EFTA race of the season, I knew I had to do it. Having Nate to go up with also didn’t hurt. We got our free McDonald's coffees (which only meant we had to wait in the slowest drive-thru line ever for about 20 minutes), and headed up Route 95 through the chilly rainy morning towards Exeter. As I finished my coffee on the way up, I start to get excited about racing. The weather up north was actually not as bad; by the time we got to Exeter it wasn’t raining at all.

Turnout was a bit disappointing, but then I was reminded that the Vermont 50 was also being held today. Riding 50 miles on muddy trails in the pouring rain…jeeze, for once I’m actually glad I didn’t attempt the VT 50. My goal for this race was to clinch the EFTA title for Senior 1 Expert, which I was already pretty sure I was going to do regardless of my finish in this race, and second, to try to beat Brian from JRA, who has consistently finished 1-3 minutes ahead of me in every EFTA race this season (and most of last year). I got a good warm up in, heading down to Exeter center and back on route 85, and was feeling good. The race had a fun, relaxed atmosphere, and I was in a good mood. My race number was 13 - what could possibly go wrong!? I let a bit of air out of the tires, to put them right around 25, put a bit of air in the SID, and then it was time to line up. I was disappointed to see I was the only Senior 1 expert, but there was a strong showing from the Vet 1 and Vet2 field, and a lot of those ‘old guys’ are fast! They announced it would only be 3 laps for Expert, and a 4 mile course, so a total of only 12 miles, as compared to last year’s 18 mile course.

The first lap I didn’t quite get a hole shot, but was probably 4 or 5 bikes back from the front, and going at a good pace, keeping sight of the leaders until the first technical section where, of course, it bunched up. From then out, I was riding right ton Brian McGinnis’ rear wheel, until about the half way point in the lap, where I snuck by and hit the gas hard to try to put some distance between us. It worked. After the first lap, and going into the second one, I couldn’t hear the wail of disc brakes, nor see any riders behind me. I kept a pretty good pace going, but could tell the course was getting more slippery. I actually was really enjoying the course; although it was wet, it really wasn’t that muddy (no mud bogs ala Harding Hill), and other than one hike-a-bike section, the course had pretty good flow. Although they never showed the lap times, I’m pretty sure my first lap was my fastest. I’m not sure if it wasn’t getting enough sleep the 3 days proceeding, or if maybe I should have had a bigger breakfast, but I felt myself start to lose my technical edge about half way through the second lap; I was getting ragged around the edges. I think part of it was that the course was getting slicker, which started to affect my confidence in riding over the roots and slick rock faces.

Going into lap 3, I passed Elite rider Chris Gagnon, who looked to be having a bad day, I relaxed the pace just a bit, and focused on trying to ride everything smoothly and not crash. In retrospect, I probably eased-off the pace a bit too much, as about three quarters of the way through lap 3, I heard someone coming up behind me quickly, and, low and behold, it was Brian. He passed me almost like I was standing still, and I tried to keep contact, but bobbled on a rocky section after a wet bridge, and he got a gap. I knew the race was just about over, so I tried as hard as I could to keep him in sight. As we came out of the woods onto the approximately ½ mile double track trail leading to the finish, he was about 50 yards ahead of me. I gave it all I had, and closed the gap somewhat, but in the end it wasn’t enough, and he beat me by 7 seconds.

I didn’t beat Brian, but it was the most close I’ve come all season! Back at the Gloucester Grind in May he beat me by 6 minutes, in an equally technical, approximately same length race.( http://www.efta.com/PDF/results/2009/2009%20grind.pdf ) Overall the final race at Fort Rock was a very fun race. I got first for Senior 1 Expert (only person in it! ), and clinched my second consecutive EFTA Expert Senior 1 title. Next year I’ll be a Senior II, and have some very stiff competition, I’m looking forward to it.

With the mountain bike race season officially over, it marks the beginning of Cyclocross season and night ride season. While I’m avidly into the later; I have yet to get into the former. I’ve been keeping my eyes out for a moderately-priced Cyclocross bike. I did a road ride up to Gloucester this past Sunday to watch the Gran Prix of Gloucester, it definitely looked like a lot of fun.

Great night road ride last week, too. Did the Boxford loop with Nate. Left around 6:30, and within 20 minutes, it was time for the lights. With the super bright Planet Bike LED taillight, and my trusty Jet Halogen, at no point did I feel unsafe, or question whether cars could see me. Those quiet, dark (no streetlights) roads in Boxford are awesome to cruise down in the stillness of night. It’s just you, the bubble of light ahead of you, and the moon. The night scenery silently and effortlessly flies by, and it is simply, beautiful.

All the riding from here until the first snow falls will be for fun. No more intervals, recovery rides, or staying in on the weekends to rest for a big race. It’s the season of night rides, arm warmers, and beer. Bring it on.

Mt Snow Race Report , or: I went to Vermont and All I got was this lousy speeding ticket

A fairly uneventful race at Mt Snow this past Sunday. The most eventful thing was a Vermont statie bagging me on the way up. Note: do not speed in Vermont! I was only speeding because I had missed the exit off of 91, and had to double back...shit. There goes my perfect driving record.

Anyway, it was a rather disappointing turnout (see picture), I guess all those people that said they were going to boycott this, the third race at Mt Snow, weren't kidding. Well it sucks to be them, because the conditions were perfect. No mud. Yes, that's right, I said no mud - at Mount Snow. In fact it was downright dusty.

Hopefully this will be my final race as a Cat 2, as I'm pretty sure USAC will approve my upgrade to 1 next season, but alas, the field wasn't very deep for this race; total of maybe 20 Cat 2's?

The number one thing about this race that will stick out in my head was how...eerie it was. The weather was perfect, but there was just that sense in the back of my head, that I won't be here again for a while, and that the season is - except for Fort Rock next week - basically over. It was eerie because, other than the few Cat 2 racers (the Cat 1 race was earlier in the day and they had since cleared out), the place was a ghost town. Last time I was at Mt Snow it was Nationals complete with the festival atmosphere, and that's how I remembered it. I was expecting a much bigger crowd, considering the epic turnout of Landmine last week.

The ghost-town-ness of the venue and the course made for a rather lonely race. From the gun I took off and was shocked...5 seconds into the race and every one was well behind me and except for one fellow sandbagger who took right off up the hill and was never seen again - in the end he beat me by about 2 min, giving me second place. Speaking of sandbagging, the cat 2 guys didn't take kindly to me asking if we could do 3 laps at the start line...only 2? I know, it's a tough course, but c'mon - I drove three hours here! At any rate, I was by myself 90% of the race, except for the near end of the first lap where a guy passed me like I was standing still on a really rough downhill section, then we rode together through the lap point, and I slowly put a gap into him going back up on the second lap. Once at the top, I could not see him, and hopped I had put enough time between us on the climb, as he was obviously a better descender ( and it didn't hurt he was riding a Ellsworth Truth, what is that, a 5" of travel?) Luckily I did put enough time into him, as despite my sucky descending, I finished about two min ahead of him.


The course was pretty damn good, I gotta say. The downhills were very challenging, I need practice at extreme downhilling like that, as we don't really have anything remotely similar in this neck of the woods. I felt pretty strong on the climb, but man, is it brutal. All that fire road at ~20% grade in spots is demoralizing to say the least. I definitely could have done a third lap, and I feel like it would have been faster than the previous two just from having a better idea of the lines on the downhill. Oh well, so it goes.

Fort Rock next week, and then the fat lady sings for the '09 MTB race season..

Mount Snow!

Mt Snow this weekend...I'm psyched. I missed the first two races this year there, so I'm glad they're doing a third (it seems like I'm the only person glad for them to be doing a third). My first race ever was at Mt Snow, and I have fond memories of the mud, rocks, and roots. Can't wait. Anyone want to carpool up with me?

Wampatuck Race Report

After my terrible luck at Treasure Valley (double flatted, threw bike into a tree at one point….in Team Breakheart we call that pulling a Kevin Scott), I was hoping I had gotten all my bad luck behind me. I really wanted to do well at Landmine because the last time I raced here was ’05, and I was a DNF due to…yes you guessed it, getting a flat and not having a spare. I needed to get my revenge on Wampatuck. Of course, in typical New England fashion we got 4.5 inches of rain the day before the race, and according to all the radar reports, it was centralized right over the Hingham area. So much for the prospect of this season’s first dry MTB race…

While going over the Anthem getting it ready for battle, I was having trouble getting my rear Crossmax SLR to seal up with my Maxxis Crossmark tubeless, but luckily I dropped by Nate’s house Saturday night and with some help from ‘Stan’, we were able to get it set up. Let me just say…THANK GOD I was running full tubeless for this race. It was so slippery, rooty, and rocky, that being able to run 25 psi saved my ass, no doubt. I saw multiple guys wipe out on the wooden bridges, -- they were indeed as slippery as ice…I know if I were running higher tire pressure that I would have had to with tubes I would have had nowhere near as much control over the slippery stuff.

Race day arrives and it’s dark and dreary looking as…well, as just about every race this whole season, and the entire month of June and July. Get to the venue with plenty of time, am amazed by the huge turn out, get a good warm-up in, and felt overall felt well-rested and ready to rock.

Due to USA Cycling’s vast bureaucracy and their rule against allowing one-day Cat 1 licenses, I had to race as a Cat 2 (I race in EFTA as a Expert), I plan to submit for an upgrade to Cat 1 for next season, but due to me only a couple USAC races this year, I didn’t have the results to submit for this season. So, call me a sandbagger if you want…

The gun goes off and I’m sitting in the big pack of about thirty Cat 2 19-29 year old riders, not a super fast start, not quite as fast as the Cat 1 starts, probably became there wasn’t really any hole shot. I start picking off guys in the first few minutes – that’s the thing with Cat 2, the fitness/bike handling skills are all-over the place, so you have some guys who will bobble the easiest sections, then some guys that are actually pretty quick. After about 15 minutes in I’ve passed about the whole field except for 3 guys. One really skinny dude keeps spinning his tire out on every root, and I keep trying to get around him but he’s not letting me…finally after 5 or so minutes of frustration I pass him on a downhill section, along with a woman rider who was walking. Now there is just me and one kid left, who doesn’t look that fast, but I quickly realize he is a decent rider. I initially underestimated him because he was wearing baggies, and using a camelback, but the thing was, he had crazy-good technical skills. Any technical downhill, mud bog, or rock garden, he would get a gap on me, but any time there was a pavement section (of which there were quite a few, or a climb (it was a pretty flat course, but there were a few mild climbs), I would gap him. The first time I passed him on a pavement section, I hammered really hard trying to make sure he couldn’t see me, and had left him out of my sights, so I was very shocked to hear him up behind me again about 20 minutes later in the midst of some technical singletrack. I knew it was him because he kept clearing his throat, like every 30 seconds. Weird, mildly annoying, but made it easy to know if he was nearby. And so we danced, passing slower Expert riders, tons of guys out there with flats or mechanicals, and pogo-ing back and forth, trading places. I was obvious ly the roadie, and he having top-notch tech skills, floated over all the rough stuff. I saw a few nasty crashes happen right in front of me; one guy endo-ed on at the bottom of a steep downhill into a mud bog; another guy was flying on a wooden bridge and slid out, with his head hitting one of the support pillars . It was an especially scary-looking crash; I said “Holy shit are you OK man?!” He got right up and said “Yeah thanks for asking”. Yikes, glad it wasn’t me. The slippery bridges were the number two complaint of the race that I heard from fellow racers, the number one complaint was the spare-in-spots arrowing of the extremely circuitous course. I stayed on course the whole time, though.

In the last 3 miles I finally put some good distance between me and throat-clearing dude. The last two miles (they did a great job with mile markers on the trees) were the longest….my handlebar started to slip in the stem, I felt the beginnings of a cramp in my left leg, and I feared the proverbial wheels were going to come off the cart and any minute I’d hear the throat-clearing guy behind me. Luckily I guess I had put enough time into him on the powerline climb, that even though the last few miles were basically all rock gardens (not my strong suit), I never saw him again. Coming up to the finish, I saw them carrying a rider out on a stretcher, and was forewarned to go extremely carefully on the last bridge. I did, and I made it across okay, but then proceeded to make a stupid mistake and slid out on some roots – my only actual wipe-out of the whole race, and it was within about 500 feet of the finish line, gotta love it. I got back on the bike and hammered over the big dirt berm, past the spectator area, and across the line. First place, nice!

So many things have to come together to have a good finish in a mountain bike race, and finally, they came together for me. The Anthem worked flawlessly (except for the handlebar moving right at the end of the race – I’ll need to pick up a 4 bolt stem), I was running the perfect tire and suspension air pressure, I was well-rested, and ate and hydrated right.

It was the first race this season where at no point did I hope for a mechanical to ‘end the suffering’, or ask myself, “why the HELL am I doing this!?” – I actually had fun.

Wampatuck is a great place to ride, this turnout this year was amazing, they said 400+ riders..it was one of the most well-organized bike race I’ve been to. The multiple feed stations were awesome, and although the course definitely could have been arrowed a bit better, I managed to stay on course. It was a pain to wait so long for results to be posted, but I don’ think anyone was expecting the turnout to be as huge as it was.

I think overall it bodes well for the future of our sport to see so many riders on a day when there were multiple other races being held (ESV Topsfield race, the EFTA Millstone Grind in VT). Congratulations go to Kevin Hines for scoring the Golden Bike. His time was freaking amazing…won by 7 minutes. Also, big props to GT Bikes for running such a cool promotion -- we need cheerleaders at races more often!