Away

I'm going on vacation for a week. No bike, no hills, too much sun.

Air conditioning, good food, family and relaxation are good for you too, though. Talk to you in a week.

Group ride

I finally got a night to ride and hooked up with a group ride at Schenectady County Community College.  I went out with the 'fast' group with some trepidation, but was happy I did.  We rode out route 5S, then turned left and headed for the hills.  I heard someone say we climbed 1000' but it didn't feel like that much.  I got dropped right away on the first climb, and finally caught up with the group as the waited for us.  I saw Art from spin class.  He and I and one other rider worked up one hill together, then down a huge, fast descent.  Naturally, we missed the turn, so had climb back up a bit to get back to a secondary road that brought as back to the route.

On one descent I hit a new personal land speed record of 49.8 MPH.  Felt pretty good, but some idiot put a stop sign right at the fast part of the road.

I bought a new tire to replace the cracked one just before the ride.  I tried to forget that I was riding on a new tire that someone else had installed.  I'm annoyed at having been outclimbed so badly.  I guess that's the thing I'll be working on. 

5 weeks to MOTM #2 with 700' of climbing per lap!

39.6 miles

2:25

 

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Changes

It was a day of changes. I had my stitches removed, worked for a bit in the morning and then rode my road bike in the afternoon. I had planned to repeat the hilly loop I did yesterday, but 3.5 miles into the ride I got a flat on my front tire. While changing it, I couldn't help but notice that my front tire was quite noticably splitting on one side. That made the thought of a 45 mph descent down route 85 seem unwise, so I changed my plans and kept to the flats at the foot of the escarpment. Each little downhill left me nervous, but I made it through without another flat. Staying on the flats let me focus on cadence, but left me a little sore from never changing position to standing.

I also found a nice little ride from Altamont back home. Get to Altamont and follow the signs for 146, which will take you right at some point. Turn right at the stop sign. This road goes slightly downhill for 1-2 miles, then intersects with Becket Road, which is also slightly hilly. Both are comfortable, even back roads with few cars. I even rode for a mile or so with an antique car on my tail.

I hope to get the mountain bike out on a trail somewhere tomorrow. I need to clean and lube some cable housing first, though.

20.6 miles

1:10

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Proud Dad!

My son came home today with a President's council on physical fitness award* which was awarded him by his school for running a mile in 7:52, the best in his class.  He's quite a kid.  I asked him once why he thought he was so fast, and he said it's because his legs are so long.  He's the smallest boy in his class (which in 2nd grade means you're the smallest kid).  I think he's got a tremendous competitive streak and I know he works hard.  Wow, I'm so proud.

 

* this is in no way an endorsement of the person we are all curretnly forced to call 'President' for another 2 and a half years.

 

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Nice ride!

I debated on riding today or not since I am giving blood this afternoon. So far, I am glad I went. The temperature was just right, there was no traffic (except for one very large dog) and it made me feel great after the disasterous ride on Saturday. I took the most direct route from my house to the Thatcher park climb, and began by climbing up route 85 from New Scotland. The first half of the climb went really well. I was following Joe's advice and staying seated for 2 minutes, then standing for 1 minute. Just after the turn onto Thatcher Park road, I turned off onto Indian Ledge Road and climbed that. Indian Ledge added another 200' to the 400' I had already climbed. I fortunately took the first left onto Wolf Hill Road, because if I hadn't, the next turn back to 443 was 3-4 miles down the road. I hooked back up with route 85, which is an incredibly fun descent. Funny how some of the short climbs on the way back were a piece of cake averaging 18 MPH, but some were nigh impossible, and it was all I could do was get up it at 6-8 MPH. I guess it's a matter of energy level or something.

Stats:
18.81
1:09.11 - includes stopping for pictures and to say hi to my son as I passed his school.
600' climb in 2.5 miles took about 14 min

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=522883

Riding attempt

Tried to ride this afternoon in the extreme heat (90 degrees and wicked humid). From the start I felt like I had already been riding for 3 hours, all of it uphill. I hoped that the "the hardest part of every ride is the first 20 minutes" rule would apply, but other than an easy flat section that was pretty painless, it seemed like the whole ride was the hardest part. I rode the loop at the wildlife preserve just South of Thatcher Park starting at Ryan Road. I rode the loop once, yelping for bears all the while, then rode the loop to the steep downhill that heads back to the park. Altogether I guess I rode 6-8 miles.
After that I rode 6 miles round trip to Nichol's Market with my son so he could get a snack he has been dying for. Easy ride on the mountain bike.
Anyone have any advice for riding two days in a row without the 2nd day feeling like you can hardly move your legs?
Looks like the rain is coming back starting tomorrow :-(

Riding

I took a road ride with Joe today. Great day for riding despite the rain early on. I'm sore from dancing on Wednesday night, and my face doesn't look great, but the ride was a good one nonetheless. Joe wanted to go for two hours, so I got him to come here and we did my standard route, but continued straight on 157, turning on Knox Cave Road. What a beutiful, fantastic road. It adds some climbing, but some great twisty drops, too. Very nice. We came out on Thatcher Park road all the way down where it meets route 443. That's a pretty good spot, but there is a huge hill to climb. So, yeah, I felt good enough to put in my fastest average time yet. I did draft for a couple of sections, but feel like I did it on my own for the most part.
I found that on downhills without pedaling I was going a bit faster than Joe . This made me feel good about it until I realized that it's probably gravity pulling harder on my body than it does on Joe's. Oh well.
Downtown Altamont: 28:45
Total miles 36.1
Time: 2:06

You should see the other guy...

To be dramatic, I had surgery this morning to remove some cancerous cells from my face.
To play down the drama, the "surgery" took about 20 minutes and a local anesthetic and the "cancer" were just Basal Cell Carcinoma, which are harmless 99.44% of the time. Still, I get some cool stitches, don't you think?
According to my buddy who's in med school, something like 70% of new cancers reported each year are Carcinomas like this. They are caused by being an idiot and refusing to use sunscreen when you are a teenager.
According to the Doc who removed the cells, I waited too long to do something about these and need to be more careful. Will do.

Biking home

Yesterday's bike home was pretty straightforward. I'm continue to measure my strength & fitness by which gears I use when climbing. From that standpoint this was a good ride. I never dropped below the 4th gear in the back except when I was stuck in traffic or at a red light. I did discover the beuty of Madison Avenue, which is a much better route than New Scotland road. For one thing, the pavement looks like it's been worked on sometime this millenium. For another, there are two lanes for cars so they have room to zip on past.
No wind today, so I think that helped my time.
Stay tuned for pictures. I'm having surgery tomorrow.
Distance: 29.61
Time: 1:32.20

Commuting

Rode to work. I tried turning off of New Scotland road onto side streets. I don't know if it was any better. The one way streets are okay, but not well paved. I think Madison Ave might be the way to go. I felt good up until I hit the bike path, and then was not able to average more than 14-15 mph through that section. I felt really good on the climb at the end. I stood through the whole climb, and climbed it all in the 4th ring in the back. 25.27 miles in 1:36

Masters of the mountains 1

June 11, 2006. Placed 13th in a field of 20 in the Masters of the Mountains race at the Winter Clove in at Round Top. I wish I could do better. I was 30 minutes off of first place. Ugh. I did meet my goals, though, so I am happy. I just can't beleive how much faster people are than I am.
I passed one guy in my class (Brett?) about 300 yards before the finish line, and another guy from my class (Django) sprinted to catch me at the end, but I sprinted and beat him by a nose. In the standings, they gave me a 10 second lead over him. I stayed after and watched Terry, Brynna and Doug. Brynna was on the tail of another woman in her class for the first 3 laps, but when I last saw her she was about 18 seconds back. I also saw a pro rider who asked how far ahead the guy in first was, I told him about 90 seconds but didin't bother to tell him that the guy had done the climb he was riding in his middle ring and not the granny gear :-).
Course description: It started on a short but steep and soft (pine needles) uphill that separated the pack. Then around a turn, on the road and then back into the woods for a short, steep drop followed by a long climb, including a section along a small ridge line. Beutiful, but a little scary. After the climb, the reward is a fast, rocky descent with only a few turns, which bottomed out at a stream with a tough little bump to get back out. I pre-rode it and figured out to just hit it fast and be in the granny gear on the approach. It worked great, and I climbed it every time except the last time when I was too tired to do much of anything. Coming out of the stream was the long, hard slog. It was a long uphill that just kept getting muddier the more you went. Finally, the mud would get so thick you just had to get off and haul your bike for about 200 yards. On the first lap and the preride you could ride this section, but by the time I hit the second it was impassable. I went and watched the pros ride it and they were walking it, too. Not much of a reward for this section. A short drop and then a climb back out to the road and to the "8th hole" which was an impossibly steep climb. Well, not impossible. I'm disappointed I didn't ride it. On the preride I made it past the root only to hit a rock and slip out. I should have been able to climb it. After that there was a nice long double-track descent with a couple of turns, but not much technical about it.
Thanks to Doug for the photo!

Training ride

I rode my standard loop with strong winds. Strong enough that on the back stretch, I hit a top speed of 46.5 mph on a fairly level section with one brief downhill. I also rode most of the Thatcher Park Road at 20+ MPH with a strong tailwind. The headwind at the end, after the downhill on route 85 really slowed me down, as did the headwind at the beginning. I was slower getting to Altamont, but felt better on the climb and finished it faster than last time by a few minutes. I was able to stand out of the saddle longer and with more strength. 29.36 miles in 1:51.
Altamont: 36 minutes
Corner: 1:07

Caught a group ride

Aiden and I rode bikes to the baseball field only to find the game was cancelled. On the ride back I saw a group at Guilderland High getting ready to go out and ride. I brought Aiden home then headed out with them. I saw Jen Harvey on her new road bike and enjoyed a good, but short, ride. It was nice to be riding in a pack. 19.27 miles in 1:10.

Gibbs farm

Rode at Gibbs farm. I showed up early and did a lap. It was wet, but not as wet as I was riding. I did ride up the climb I never make it up, but wasn't getting much done. I guess I need to mountain bike more. After that lap I led a group out on a ride. There was one guy who was pretty good, and another who was on more of a commuter bike than a mountain bike. Chris led a group that included a 10 year old kid getting ready for a race. They were quite slow. I hung out for quite a while afterward. So, 2 laps at Gibbs farm in 2 and a half hours. Not my fastest time :-)