Another Week - Ending Sunday May 17

Started out with a Mothers Day ride on the Greenfield Ridge, followed with dinner and festivities at Steffi's. Good ride, even if I did forget my shoes, good group, and generally good times. Low key post-race-day ride. For some reason the computer didn't record the track, but probably 10 miles in an hour and a half or so.

Monday, I headed to Hawley for a work session. I worked on Moody Springs Rd and started up the climb to the spring (or the switchbacking dh as we usually ride it). Really rough in there!

Wednesday, I snuck out 2 rides. In the morning Tom, Nick (NCC), Liam and I did a nice figure 8 through Earles and Batchelor's. Did about 9 miles at a pretty quick pace Max HR 176 - average 137. In the evening, we did the usual Wednesday night Bikes Unlimited group ride, again in Wendell. The most common loop tonight starting on the XC heading to Carlton Dirth, down to the Hiatus, up the Escape, across Maple Leaf and Down the Nipmuck. At the top of Baker Rd, the group split with Matt and I taking the adventurous down the Hannah before returning on the fire-roads to HQ. Another nice 9 mile ride - Max 174, average 142.

Thursday evening I got in an hour or so in Hawley in the rain. Worked on the Divide Trail.

Friday, not much going on, packing for the Weekend etc.

Saturday - picked up Jeff at the Crew Race in Salisbury CT. We drove to Winsted and pre-rode the course, nasty conditions - like riding in a cloud. I kept having to stop and clear the glasses, hoping the conditions would improve before the Sunday Race.

Sunday - Winsted Woods Rt66 Race. Rained all night Saturday, making the course another mud bog - seems to be a pattern this year. Matt was again racing with the Pros while Jeff and I were both running Cat 2. Jeff promised to best my time for the day, though I don't think any of us believed it. Having watched the nasty bits during Matt's race, I planned to take it easy on lap 1 and let the field wipe themselves out in the muck. Seems that strategy worked pretty well, only missed first in the age group by a couple seconds as the lead rider crashed on the last DH before the line. I didn't have a clue I was that close till I saw him walking through the tree gap as I hit the last few rocks. Another 10 yards before the line and I would have had him! Sure is nice racing 50+. Great group of guys, most of them really nice on the course.

Thank-you

To all the folk who have donated time, sweat, gasoline and blood on restoring the trails at Dubuque - Thank-you. Matt, Jake and I spent a couple of hours enjoying our handiwork. They are riding delightfully. I'm guessing we've seen the results of over a thousand volunteer man/and women hours since the first of the year.

To you all - thank-you for giving unselfishly of your time and energy. We still have a few more miles to go, but the vast majority of the park is ready to go.

4/27 through 5/9 Lots of trail work and a bit more riding

Rides - Wednesday April 29 - I led the moderate pace weekly PV NEMBA ride out of Bikes-Unlimited in Greenfield. Tonight we met the group at Wendell State Forest and took 'the road less traveled'. I let the bunch around the pond loop, out to the Maple Leaf Trail and up the Bob-is-Fat Trail. From there, we darted a short distance down Baker Rd and took the fearsome left onto the Mormon Hollow Return Trail (only we rode in the out to not return from direction). This trail is relatively new, and for most of its existance it has been unrideable (or at least unenjoyable) for most riders. For some reason this winter was kind to it and it is riding like the gem we hoped it would be when we built it. It still proved quite the workout, so we opted to take the fireroads back to Park HQ after a short section of the Hannah Swarton's Remove.

Total Distance 6.45 - Climbing 1002 ft average HR 143 Max 181.

Monday May 4 - Matt and I returned to Wendell, he after Winding Trails on Sunday and me after the wining and dining of Parent's weekend with Jeff. We went down the M&M from Ruggles Pond, crossed the Mt Grace land and then took Jerusalem Rd all the way to the Mormon Hollow Return. Return we did, finding the trail climbed just as nicely as it descended on Wednesday. But that wasn't the end of things today. We dropped down Bob-is-Fat and wound through the swamp to the Nipmuck. One of the favorite trails in Wendell, some of the youngsters have deemed it necessary to build some 'wicked cool berms' on some of the corners. Problem is they haven't a clue what makes a berm work, nor how to make a good berm. All they ended up with was piles of mushy dirt just off the natural tread of the trail. Makes you wonder...

Back up Baker Rd, out to Moosetrax and down the Lookout Trail. Really nice day.


Total Distance 10.55 - Climbing 1937 ft average HR 157 Max 182

Wednesday May 6 - NEMBA BU Ride again, this time from Eaglebrook. A very large turnout that we managed to keep together except for one kid who was clearly over his head. We hit Mud-Mile to Blueberry, then the Road to Crystal Cave, Back up to the Friend's trail, Keets Rd out to the gate, The XC Trail to Eric's. Unamed to the XC Trail and out to the vertical climb up to the Pocumtuck Ridge. From there along the ridge to the Powerlines, down the lines and back on the road.

Total Distance 9.73 Climbing 1335 ft average HR 150 Max 189

Saturday - Race #3 - UMass Cycling Club's Orchard Assault. It was raining lightly, on a promised partly cloudy morning as I prepared to hit the line. The rain stopped just before the whistle blew as 30 some odd Cat 2s headed up the fireroad for the start-finish line. The course winds up and down a 200' hill on the Amherst campus. Plenty of Mud, plenty of downhills and plenty of climbing. This was an open race, so no age buffer in the finish positions - nice for the plethora of Collegiate As that don't have USA Cycling licenses and have to race as 2s - not so nice for 50+ guys. I managed 21st, about 20 minutes off the fastest.

Total Distance 9.76 Climbing 1911ft aver HR 173 Max 188

Interspersed with the riding, was another bunch of trail work days. Twice in Hawley both weeks, and once each week in Wendell - another 20+hours buffing our best Single Track. At this point Wendell is just about clean of the ice storm debris. Hawley is approaching 50-60%, but there was a session up there while I was racing at UMass, hopefully we get to 70-80% by next weekend. I will say, once we get finished up there, the riding will be world class - most of these trails have needed the face slappers and derailleur biters cleared for a long while. Everything we are hitting now is getting a hard rake and heavy lop in addition to the clearing of the ice storm devestation.

A couple of weeks this time

Life is sometimes like that. What's been going on - Riding a little, not as much as I should be. Trail work, lots - Wendell, Hawley - total for the past few weeks, close to 40 hours in the woods. Raking, sawing, lugging brush - you name it.

Rides at Earles with Matt, Greenfield Ridge with the Bikes Unlimited gang, at Greatbrook with the NEMBA Board, in Keene with Folks looking to form a chapter up there - on the roads around home.

Need to keep a better reconing.

WE 4-11 or 2 Races Bunches of Trail Work and some Training

Sunday started bright and early with a road trip back to Burlingame in Charlestown RI. It is about a 2 hour drive so Matt and I hit the road about 6:00 hoping to arrive in time for the TT start with some time to spare.

On arrival I set up the tent, met up with fellow coalitioners Kathy and Adam and discussed how much we liked the carbon rigs we are riding. I had never done a MTB Time Trial so didn't really know what to expect, other than riding as hard as possible from end to end. Well, that's really all there is to it. My only disappointment was that I had mounted up Kenda Small Blocks on advise from Matt - I won't do that again. Although he thinks they are 'Fun' I found them squirrelly and unpretictable which doesn't help much in a head sport like mountain biking. I resorted to dabbing and dismounting more than I would have hoped and only eaked out a 13th of 18 in my category - 71 of 110 overall kind of disappointing.

On the way home we hit up the Batch with Chris and Liam for a couple hours just to make sure we were tired before heading to the NCC party at the Northampton Brewery. That worked out just fine.

Monday Liam and I returned to Sugarloaf North for a resumption of cleaning out the deer runs we found and making them into finished usable trails - progressing nicely!

Tuesday I caught up on some other projects around the home office.

Wednesday Matt and I made our way to Earls Trails and put in a nice 12 miles with a couple thousand feet of climbing.

Thursday I spent the morning with GW working on cleaning out the ice damage on the bobcat trail at the DAR in Goshen all morning, and then met up with Bill Boles and PK for a pre-NEMBA EC meeting ride at Great Brook. Although there is no substantial elevation there, PK did a great job laying out some really fun ST in there. We rode for a bit more that 1:45 at a nice leisurly pace.

Friday - just a short spin since the first full length race is Saturday.

Saturday - the Bunny Hop Brook Dam Race. First race of the Root 66 season. A moderate rain with mixed in sleet and slush was falling from about 11:00 on. Matt and I arrived a little after 10:00 since the Cat 1s were scheduled to go off at 11:30. I set up the tent, then moved it over to where Art had set up his. The GT compound looked pretty snazzy for a while until the weather took over!

I had to leave to get Jeff and a couple of friends from Germany at school, so returned just in time to see Matt cooling down from his Cat 1 victory. Soon after Art rolled into the compound and I got ready for my 2:00 start. There would be over 100 Cat 2s starting and 96 would ultimately finish slogging through the mud for 11 miles. There was an uncharacteristally large over 50 class today with 15 of us lined up at the tail of the Cat 2 men's field. No glasses today since the rain would have made vision impossible rather than just blurry without them! I warned my peers that If I ran into them - it wasn't that I was being a jerk, only that I couldn't see. With that we were off.

Hop brook's course begins with a sprint around the North end of the lake and then a swing into the woods and up across a moderate side hill. All that sounds great, until you factor in the fact that there had already been the The Cat3s twice, the Pros 4 times, the Cat 1s 3 times and the whole Cat 2 field before we old guys got our chance at the hill. Slipping and sliding was the order of the day with lots of spinning, crashing and otherwise jovial experiences!

Following the uphill slog, is a descent of the same hillside into a sketchy brook crossing before winding up the road and across a field. 2 Years ago when I raced here, the field was impassible due to the mud. Although there was generally more mud today, the field wasn't too bad - you never know! After the field is a nice techy rocky climb which I cleared nicely on the tail of a local who knew the best line, I hated passing him on the next hill since the local knowledge would have come in handy elsewhere. Alas that was not to be. I began picking my way through the field - It is really a new experience for me - passing riders. Maybe it is the more rigourous early season training - maybe the superlight Zaskar, but I ended the day having passed nearly 20 riders from earlier age groups on my way to a 5th place finish in the age group - 61st of 98 Cat 2 finishers on the day - a personal best ever.

I really love this bike, and with the new tires (a Nevegal in Front and a Conti Spider in the rear) in place of the Small Blocks (and the stock Karma's), I was much more comfortable on the rocks and in the mud than last week at Burlingame.

Race Day Report - Preliminary

Well race number 1 is in the books, out of 110 racers I was 71st overall. Sport Men over 40 I was 13 of 18. My normal class is over 50 - not sure how many of us old guys were there.

All in all, I still felt sort of fast and the bike performed very well. With an average HR of 176 for the race, I'm not sure there's much more speed than that in the old engine.

We arrived at the Burlingame picnic area about 8:15 and I promptly got our numbers and set up the tent. Shortly after I arrived, Kathy and Adam showed up and we populated the tent with 2 small Marathons and my Extra Large Zaskar. The Zaskar sure looks big next to their bikes!




After we left, we stopped on the way home for a 2 hour scoot through Batchelor's Street. By the end of that ride, the hours of trail work came back to haunt my rotator cuff pretty badly and I gingerly picking my way down Missing Persons like an old man (or is that as an old man).

Week ending April 4 2009

Trail Work.
On Monday I went up to Wendell and cleared most of the first climb on the Robert Frost from the December Ice Devestation. On Tuesday I cleared some of the nice Single Track on Sugarloaf North the rest of the week worked with Liam in clearing out one trail that was little more than a deer run after years of neglect. It should be riding great as soon as the weather drys out a little more.

I did get in a nice training ride at Batchelor's Street with Matthew on Tuesday and several sessions at SLN before or after I McClouded, raked, sawed and lopped.

Spent a couple hours with Jason, Pete and yet another Matt scouting and raking in the Mt Grace Trust land adjacent to Wendell State Forest. We will be opening up about 2 miles of this ST and probably include it in the Nemba Adventure Series ride here this summer.

After the trail work, Matt and I got in a short lactic acid burn on the farm roads in prep for the Burlingame TT in the morning.