Just a ride

Took an afternoon ride to celebrate my semi-annual physical. Not that it went all that well, but it felt like an appropriate thing to do. I rode my "standard" road loop, which I haven't ridden since June. Through Altamont, up the hill, through Thatcher, back down, and home along Swift road. I had good times, but felt like I was bonking at the end - guess it was the heat.
The most exciting thing along the way was that Beaver Dam road has been freshly paved. I thought I would add a climb in as an extra session, but I wasn't up for it. I .2 mile climb at 4 MPH, and I didn't feel much like doing more.
31.03 miles in 1:53:45
Altamont: 29:57
Corner of Thatcher park road: 1:00:03

Short ride

Nothing special. I rode home from the Car Dealership. It's a short ride, so I really pushed it. I had my average up over 20 mph with 3 miles to go home and then hit Grant Hill on Grant Hill Road and dropped it back down under 19. God I suck at climbing. I actually felt good on this climb, never dropping
11.77 in 37:44

Masters of the Mountains 2 pictures

Pictures taken by photographers at the Masters of the Mountains have been published through Hunter Mountain. I hunted through them and found all the pictures of me and made a photo album.

Road ride

I hooked up with Joe for a midday road ride. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, and I'm very glad to have done that instead of racing today. I rode out from my house and met Joe on King's road. We biked back past his house, up Balltown road and then east on River road. What a pretty ride.
Joe was moving on his fully geared up tri bike with aero bars and ridiculously fast wheels. It was all I could do to keep up while drafting off of him into a strong headwind. We were going 25 mph on a fairly flat road for about 10 minutes and that was all I had in me. At least I had that! I'm pretty sure I would not have been able to do that earlier this summer.

Thatcher park expanding

I read today that New York State has purchased 188 acres to add to Thatcher park. It's the "High Point" section that is the highest point in the park, and in which I rode last night. Jason at EMS announced that he has permission from the park and wants to try and build some trails there. Excellent. Now we won't have to climb straight up a dirt road in order to get to the peak.
I know as a mountain biker I should be more involved in access issues and trail building, but who has the time?

Thatcher Park Ironhorse Demo

Tonight the folks at EMS arranged to have a demo of Ironhorse mountain bikes available. I showed up early and hooked with Ed for a quick pre-ride. We rode up the hill, around the loop by Beaver Dam and back just in time for Ironhorse to have run out of bikes. The rep offered to let me use his, which was an Ironhorse Azure geared for speed. I really liked it. It didn't act like or weigh as much as a full suspension bike. He had a carbon suspension fork, carbon handlebars, 1.8" tires and some other goodies on it to make it light.
I would love to buy one, currently on sale through Performance Bikes, plus 20% off with a coupon I could get one for $1030.00. Seems like a steal, but there are a few other priorities firts:
- Replace my wedding ring which I lost 2 years ago :-(
- Family vacation
- New windows for the house
- Landscaping for the backyard.

So, yeah, I guess I'll just be patching together my $450 Tassajara for a few more years.
Anyway, the ride. I headed out with an EMS groupride mostly filled with young kids on downhill bikes. It was slow, but Lego Andy and Veggie Girl were there to chat with so it was okay. Rode 'til dark then went out for beer & pizza after. Good times...

Darkhorse 40 results

Darkhorse cycles posted the results today (whoa, they're fast). The winner in my category was only 19 minutes off of the fastest overall time of 2:50:04. The first finisher was an expert in the 40-49 age group. Unbeleivable.
My final time was 4:02:12, and I placed 24th out of 29 with 2 DNFs. I was 3:01 behind the next finisher in my age/category. If I had raced beginner, I would have placed 6th out of 15. Wow. I guess I just have to keep riding...

40

I just got back from Darkhorse 40. What a blast. Here are some highlights while I go mow the lawn :-)
- I was stunned to have finished in 4:05
- The overall winner finished in 2:50
- I think I was the dirtiest racer at the finish line
- I navigated a steep, technical climb with 1/2 mile to go while another rider in my category got stopped on the same climb
- A bee slammed into my face full speed in the same place on both laps
- My bottom bracket and left pedal have had their final journey with me. They're both toast
- I had a horrible face plant fall on a downhill with 7 miles to go
- I have blisters on my hands

I'll give a more thorough report once the lawn is mowed. Thanks for reading.

Cursed?

I went out for a ride with Joe this morning, eager to get my legs going after a week's rest. I didn't plan to rest, and in fact have done very little this week, but it felt great to get back out on the road. On my way out the door I checked my email and learned that my carpool partner for tomorrow's dressers 40 crashed last night and lacerated his liver. Yes, I said lacerated his liver <gross>.
I pull into the parking lot at SCCC, later than I wanted to because I wanted to write down the hospital info so I could go visit Doug and his lacerated liver, and hook up the pump to my back tire to top it off. It promptly gives a "pop," and deflates. I call Joe to leave a message that I'll be late, then attend to my tire. I finally hit the road at 10:05, 5 minutes after I was supposed to meet Joe some 4 miles away.
We haven't seen each other in a while so we chat for a bit, and I mention Doug. He says, "Hey, weren't you supposed to do the Xterra race at Grafton tomorrow?"
"Yes," I say, but the guy I was supposed to ride with broke his finger."
At some point we begin talking about my two weeks in Connecticut, and I mention that one guy who was supposed to ride with me broke his foot and couldn't ride. At this point, Joe is sweating, and not because of the heat. He's wondering when it's going to be his turn to have an injury.
So after a great ride with Joe (39 miles in 1:53), I head off to the hospital to visit Doug. He looks awful, is very weak, and has obviously suffered a major injury. He will certainly recover, but as of my visit at 2:30 this afternoon is in pain, and really needs to recover. Doug is expecting Jen, aka "Veggie Girl," at 5:00, so I head out a 5:05 figuring she will show up any minute. I head out the front door and to my car and there are 4 ambulances, a fire truck and a police car about 1 block up. I think, Hmmm, I hope that's not Jen. Well, to make a long story short it is Jen. She got blindsided by an ambulance. She was trying to turn left off of New Scotland Road and didn't see the ambulance speeding along and passing her on the left. Boom!
So I stuck around to make sure she was alright. She's fine. I finally escorted her up to Doug's room at around 8:40. She had a ride home, so I took off to go home, had some dinner, and now it's 11:00 and I'm going to bed.
Wish me luck in the Darkhorse 40! Or better yet, hope for everyone else's sake that I'm not really cursed.
More tomorrow...