Mountain Bike Church #1

In case anyone was wonderin' about that early November('04)  Sunday in Wompatuck State Park:

The first* official 'Mountain Bike Church' was a wheelie uplifting experience. With 3 inches or so of combination of Virgin light powder/crunchy popcorn snow (depending on what part of the Wompy microclimate you were in), riding was a Joy. We rode over the technical stuff-well, it was like, walking on water, although much drier. The Sermon was performed by the crackling of the tree branches and the sound of icicles melting in the warming sunlight. I must admit the 8 o'clock 'mass' was a solo ride, which was fine with me because I had no idea what riding would be like and gave me a chance to scout it out and prepare for the First Gathering. And I assured myself that I was not alone...

The 10 o'clock started out with myself and three Wise People, 'Jessica', 'Ben', and 'Ed'. All brand new to Wompy, I think they too were ready for the 'baptism' about to commence, as they all arrived with big smiles and pleasant conversation. We had steaming dixie cups of freshly-brewed tailgate Brazilian espresso and Jessica's freshly baked sweet 'Wonder Scones', then proceeded to explore the 'left' side of the 'Cathedral'. We rode for an hour and a half with hardly more than a coupla goofy falls, and no mechanicals, save for the fact that my front derailleur was frozen stuck in the granny the whole time. Didn't make much difference since we averaged 5.0 and wasn't worth trying to go faster. Riding in the snow requires us to really pay attention to everything that's around us and gives us a chance to Reflect as well as work on our balance and technical skills. Studded tires were not at all necessary and would have been a Burden. The only sketchy stuff were the Bridges which were icy underneath the snow. The only sin was we couldn't ride all day……………

Now for the Cranxology:

Grease all where your chain will flow,

Lube all where dirt may go

Clean all including the seatpost

Ride all day till you're ass is toast………

Amen.

*All this doesn't mean that we 'invented' the church that day.....the MountainBikeChurch ideal has existed for many centuries.......only recently has the icon of knobby-tired bike come rolling along to confirm our ideals and to quantify our passions for speed, distance, ride time, and to get us out to breath the fresh air and to share all of that with our fellow riders......   

Chain Stretch Part One

After many total drivetrain replacements, I have come to the resolution that I WILL replace my chain every 3 months, or less.The chain is what causes all the cogs to wear. There's a whole set of technical jargon to explain why this happens, and the purists would refute what I am about to proclaim, but here goes--'the chain stretches', and no longer matches the teeth perfectly after a certain 'X' amount of time--kind of like when you buy a new car and drive it off the lot--its not new anymore. So prolonging the time between chain changes(say that 3 times fast) only naturally puts undue wear on the softer cassette and chainring metals. Of course the  bigger chainrings last longer because there bigger, but the granny I usually replace every coupla chains anyways. My formula goes like this:

Every three chains, one new cassette

Every four chains(or one year), new middle ring and one new granny

Every time I forget to do any of this, one new of everything, every year, except big ring. (I think I've replaced 3 in 20 years, and not because they wore out, just that a new one looks cool, for awhile......) Will all this save money? Maybe not.. But your drivetrain WILL run smoother if you use the formula! AND use Phil's Tenacious oil. 

Just my two Abe Lincolns. You can take them to the bank.

 

Yep! It's cold again!

The toys ride went off as usual bringing so many people outta the woodwork. It's always good to see all those smiley red-faced helmet-heads chattin' it  up at the BH VC pre-and post ride.......

the cold

it numbs my toes

it brings me in to the warm gathered room

of friends old and new noshing and enjoying

the company and a warm beverage and a glimpse of 'santa'

it brings me in to duct-tape my shoes

insert chemical toe warmers

it brings me outside to warmup the lycra carefully, by the bonfire

to meet my friends before the ride

it gets me back on the bike

onto the trail

with friends old and new bouncing down, climbing up,

trying old dreaded technical sections and making them

speeding, drag-racing, clipping in and out

it gets my lungs burning, my nose dripping and freezing and falling off

it gets my adrenaline up, my fears down

it numbs my toes

it brings me back to that warm gathered room

full with friends old and new

back to the bonfire with warm beverage in hand

and makes me forget about

the cold

Thanks to all who came and donated and/or braved the coldest day of the year(so far)!!

Happy Holidays and don't let the cold keep you inside...........

Blue Hills Mountainbike ride and Toys Drive 10 am-1 pm Sunday, Dec 2

It's that time of year again!!
Join DCR, TrailWatch, and SEMASS NEMBA in our annual  Toys Drive. It's
a great way to share with the local community and help a child in need 
of some holiday excitement!
Of course the seasonal (warm)refreshments and confections will be on
hand, as well as a toasty bonfire courtesy the DCR rangers, and plenty
of riding to do. We'll even put together a kids ride if you bring 
'em....rumour has it that Santa will be making an appearance....... 

DCR also has a group hike planned at 1 pm for all ages/levels.
We'll plan on a couple of social group rides starting out at 10:30, so
layer up and come out for the festivities!
Please bring an unwrapped toy/gift for a child (any age, but gifts for older, 11-16 year olds, are needed also) to the Houghton's Pond Visitor Center, and we'll start there. 
If you can't ride, you can still drop off a gift from 10-1....
All donated  toys are delivered to InterFaith Social Services in Quincy, and are distributed over  the holidays to families in need.

Meet at the Houghton's Pond Visitor Center( the one behind the playground with the nice roof...).

For info call DCR 617-698-1802.

SteveC

Turkey Club

Well we all hadda really cool ride Thursday.......four riding buddies from the good ol' 'Link' days and two outastaters who came all the way from Albany and York County PA, just to ride with us......really slippery leaves, roots, waterbars, rocks, MAJOR climbing (my glutes were sore for acoupla days!)....of course we had 'racer boy' Paul C. pushin us through our 12-mile slog........

We all made it back  in time to enjoy slothing about the house with our families and 'giving thanks' that we all made it back in one piece despite acoupla spectacular endoes......

In attendance were:

Sean F

Bill D

Paul C

Dana S

Joe from York

the Albanian

and Me

It was an amazing 52 F, usually T-Day is really cold and/or snowing.......

(Today is November 27th, and it's 62F ! Who says the globe ain't getting warmer? I'll leave that depressing rant for another day........anyways, gotta go ride!) 

Like a Virgin

New trail--that's something we don't hear much around here. It's usually enough to take care of what we've got anyways, and nothing excites the local managers less than the mention of cutting a new trail. This, despite the NEED to re-route many poorly-designed turn-of-the-century trails, is the unfortunate dilemma we are in here now in New England. Sure, there are some very upbeat land managers that embrace and instigate progress, even to the point of giving carte blanche to us mountainbike types, 'cause they know that we're the ones who will take care and nurture their established trails and thoughtfully design new ones. And there are even more LM's in between, who are just either on the fence about two-wheel use, some who are still realizing how much we can contribute to their park, some who are completely still in the dark ages, some who just don't have the time or resources to pay attention, even others who actually ride a mountainbike......... The list is endless, and I'm sure some psychologist could pare it down to three different types of land managers, but  we all know that the best kind om LM is one who we can work with.....
So, when we see the need for a new connector, go-round, switchback, or other cool new feature, and we ask, AND get the go-ahead, that's EXCEPTIONAL! When we're done doing the Papelbon dance, we get down and dirty with the LM and make a plan. The work has to make sense, and follow guidelines and directives set by the LM. Usually it helps to roundup a crew of hard-working volunteers. A nice sunday morning(church!) session in the spring or fall, with incentives like free lunch/coffee, etc, is a good way to getem out. Of course they(we) would all rather be out on the trail riding, but when there's work to do, ESPECIALLY cutting a new trail, that's a good enough incentive......

Anyways, we did get to cut a new connector on our last trail work day at Wompy.  Not a long one, but still, a NEW trail!

Soft, loamy, pineneedley, hardly defined save for some ribbon and some vague signs of human intervention.......

Now that the work is done, our job now is to ride it!

I'll never grow up

JRA the other day on some nice rolly, pine-needley trails that phantom wrist pain came back. No swelling, just a spot of pain near the base of my thumb-bone, that stops me from whatever I'm doing to say OW! I think it's basically good ol wear 'n tear on the old bones. Or, more likely, growing pains. I'll never grow up.
Anyways, I bought a new brace to at least wear at night. Last time I went to the doc, he said wearing it at night helps alot, as the problem could stem from sleeping on my wrist every night. So I'll try that, and stay off the mountain bike for a few days.....I tried riding last night and I cant grip properly without intense pain. I'll ride the road bike for now. And maybe I gotta rethink my position on the bike, again. Every few years I change it slightly, to alleviate some pain or another.....The Old Coot and CP have these 'Mary' bars that sweep back radically so that your hands are resting more naturally in front of you. More like the angle at which I hold my chef's knife, or a roto-tiller. It could be the shock needs another air adjustment.
Either way, it's break time for a few days or a week. I really don't want to miss fall riding, as it's really the best time of year to ride. Kids are back in school, and the weather is great. Not cold enough to take me off the bike yet, usually not til December. In fact right now it's been 80-90F all week.
Enough whining for now.

Summer's over(almost)

I think I've said it before, but summer is not really my season. Although I got a few really nice rides with friends, alot of kiddie rides, and managed the time to maintain my bike, summer is hard to keep the rhythm of a regular workout. That said, I don't feel like I've lost fitness. And I've spent more really good days with my kids, and that's more important than anything.
September's a few days away, and when school is back in session I'll resume my Wed am ride, and at least one other morning during the week.
The Landmine Classic and NembaFest are less than two weeks away, and we just had a great trail work day at Wompy to ensure that the trails were ready.....
It's still freakin' HOT! So it's not over, yet........

Today's Doubleheader

It's freakin'hot! So to the beat the heat, I started my Blue Hills ride at 7 am. Early by most standards, but a necessity for some of us......
Up Coon Hollow, down the access road. Up the ski-slope , down the access road 1/2 way, to just above the Wolcott to Border trail for a nice long cruising down.
Didnt do much of the South side , riding alone to me is boring.  A church needs a congregation....Although I did bump into my friends from Dave's Bike Infirmary who were bouncing down Coon Hollow.......
An hour and a half was more than enough of that.
So I figured since I have all morning to kill--wife & kids are gone for two days--what  better way to celebrate this newfound freedom than to continue riding. I found myself on the highway heading for Wompy, where I knew there was a group ride in session, and 'maybe' I'd find them. No sooner did I pull in that a new aquaintance of mine arrived to ride solo, a fairly new rider, so we teamed up and I showed him some of the finer Wompy trails on the left side.
Another hour and a half of swimming through the hot humid air--actually not bad compared to driving in the shite--we were cooked.
Don't really know wht tha point of this post was, and it's to freakin hot to sit here and type while I could be relaxing in the kiddie pool, so that's it!

Free-Riding at its purest..........

While on a week away from work with the wife and kids in Vermont, I made the point of looking up some of my good friends at a local valley town bike shop and get out on their weekly Thursday evening ride......
I've been visiting this group once a year, in July, for the last 3 years. Always a great bunch, they host an early Sunday morning 'church' ride as well as the Thursday ride. They are a great eclectic mix of people from the bike shop owner and his wife and dogs, artists, dairy farmers, musicians, Disney animation specialists, carpenters, mechanics, etc. The one thing they all have in common is the intimate network of trails that are either cutback or re-created every year (as one rider said, "ride them or lose them, as they will become overgrown in one season") combined with old jeep roads, logging trails, and shhhhh....some NF trails thrown into the mix that just cant be left to rot.
The other thing that most of these riders have in common are their over-40 pound riding machines......Stinkies, Dawgs, Bullits, with the occasional Rocky Mountain and much less occasional Sinister (overheard as "InyerSister") and Kona hardtails, all the bikes are hardcore, with longtravel forkage and the stickiest and tackiest and fattest of the fat tires available.
We got all 12 bikes in the back of a pickup quite nicely I must say, all upside-down, so all that was seen was this great mass of fat tires sticking out of the truck bed. And myself and a young rider behind the last one to hold them in place. We had driven uphill for about 3 miles already, and There I was with my lightweight custom steel hardtail rig, spinning uphill on a fairly steep jeep road for another two miles.......of course, I was the first one to the top, waiting for the burly rigs to make it up. All gathered for a breath and/or puff of the 'poetry weed' and to savor the valley views from the ridge........followed by the descent.
Now when you're at the top of a Vermont mountain range there really is only one way to get back home. Not wanting to follow the exact fall line for obvious reasons, these guys have cut some of the sickest, sweetest, steepest singletrack I've ever ridden. In fact some of it I couldn't ride. It was then that realized why they were all riding these 45lb moto-styled steeds. They were built for this.....these guys were flying! They assigned one of their slower guys to stick with me(as they always do with 'flatlanders')--it was fast getting dark, as the sun began to disappear behind the mountains.......
we got back just in time--my old peepers arent what they used to be at night, and I could hardly see the trail in front of me.....

Get Mellow, Will ya?

So I joined the Old Coot again for one of his 'Monday Mellow' rides yesterday. Now while Bill's rides aren't exactly hammerfests, and ABSOLUTELY nobody ever gets left behind, and we do get to stop and chat while slower folks catch up, then we wait for them to catch their breath, the OC rarely stops pedalling. And he rides EVERYTHING. Did I mention he's 60-sumthing? More on him later, too much to write........
The ride was especially funny with that dude (will leave nameless) yelling at everyone " LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU'RE GONNA STOP LIKE THAT! OH SHIT! OH SHIT! " as he practically runs over the girl in front........
Never seen anything quite like that. It was kind of like Adrian Monk on steroids riding a bike, or something like that....

OK slap me upside the head.......

I've been riding the road bike more......but I have excuses.
1) less time to prepare and cleanup from offroad rides (kids are home for summer)
2) I know alot of other people are in the same boat
3) Neck pain. Saw my chiro yesterday. Feeling alittle bulge above the normal bony one at the back of my neck, which pops out time to time depending on my postion and what I'm doing. Was thinking the worst, (OMG it's a herniated disc!), but chiro says no, it's just one more of my many bulging muscles, and in need of adjustment. Well that's what he does for a living, so why not say that? But he (and his massage-therapist wife)has taken good care of me and my family for many years, so I trust him. So I'll ho a couple more times, get a coupla massages, then we're off on vacation anyways.
4) I'm still waiting for my rear CM Enduro to come back from a Mavic rebuild, but my friend Eric gave me his old CM ceramics that are in fine shape, so that's not really an excuse.
I have of course been able to ride with the kids more, so I take out the Teddie for that......
A ride's a ride, anyways. As long as there's not too many cars involved.

My season's over

Her we are it's summer again. Even though it's the last week of school, the kids are home due to a teacher strike(really bad timing on their part...and there's no end in sight....) which makes it hard to get a ride in even to work.
Soooo, I'm still on the road bike kick. This morning I got up early enough to get a 40min ride before the wife was off to work. 6:30 am is really not too bad on the streets of Quincy. It's obvious which way the traffic 's flowing, so I mainly go the opposite way....but I am finding that I am really terrified of cars(and pavement in general).....
My Ted is still on the stand, waiting till I can take it to a friend's house and borrow their derailleur-hanger tool. Shifting is not right, even though I replaced the rear der., chain, and cassette, all at once, basically. The chain first, of course, which didn't like the old cassette, so next the cassette, and it was good for a coupla rides, till I wacked the derailleur on 'something'....all I know is that I remember that whatever it was, it hit hard enough to cause me to think, 'oops!, hanger's bent again'..
Weird, I just can't place that moment. Only I know that it happened.
Anyways, I still used that for an excuse to orderup a new SRAM X-7 from Dave's and install it correctly, only to find that shifting still sucks.....
So that's why I'm riding the road bike. Besides the fact that it does feel good, to get a 40-70 min ride in and not even have to check for ticks, nevermind shower, and then get on with the day......
Of course all this road bike blah blah is only basic maintenance, to keep the legs and heart in shape for my next mountain bike ride. I'd never go 'that way', after all this IS mountain bike church!
I'm hoping to get a few good Sundays to shoot up to Maine, NH, or VT to ride with buddies there. And there's always our Killington/Rochester VT vacation to go exploring the Green Mountains........
Anyways, I'm hard-pressed to find an open spot on the calendar to ride with my friends on the trail. Summer does that. The good thing is, that I do have more time to ride with the kids. They're still not totally into the trail thing, though I think my daughter really likes it. I'm really afraid to push her, I don't wanna break her.....after all she's a ballerina, pianist, violinist, trumpeter, soccer player, and scholar even before she has time to ride. But it's in her blood.
Stephen just figured out how to use his plastic '1080' skate ramp to get air with his 16" bmx bike, and really gets a charge out of it....he also owns 2 20" mountain bikes and a 24" Gary Fisher with a front shock.....but he just loves that little racer....it's all about control...and when his little friends are being taken down by their 50-pound Target bikes with gyros and huge-ass pegs 'cause they can't keep em upright, Stephen just keeps on spinnin'!...
So that's my intro to summer. Less trail riding with my friends, more quality time with the kids....but still time for an early Sunday ride or roadtrip to somewhere for an all day epic.....Just like Maine's license motto--'The Way Life Should Be'.

One pet peeve.....

OK I was riding my road bike the other day, as I very seldomly do, but lately have had the inclination to 'get back into it'--funny because I was never 'into it'.......
But anyways I do have that nice Specialized 'Epic' carbon fiber-framed beauty that I do enjoy taking for a good workout especially those times when:
1) the trails are too wet
2) my mountainbike is up on the stand waiting for parts, or needs a major cleaning before I dare ride it again
3) I just wanna keep up some level of fitness and only have one hour(a one hour mountainbike ride needs at least one more hour just for preparation, maintenence, and cleanup/tick checking, etc)--this I can do right from my house, no driving to the trailhead.

So I was riding my road bike through the Blue Hills the other day. I came upon a Columbiano who no hablas ingles. Yo pregunto Que Pasa? He point to front tire of he nice aluminio K2 and I see that it is flat. So I stop completely and of course I offer my only tube. I quickly realize that he no comprendo taking the wheel off the bike. Now this guy is in full 'team' regalia and should know what the hell he's doing.
So I proceed to remove the offending tube and replace it with mine. He offers me 3 dollars, and I tell him best I can, that I'm just gonna take his (newer than mine)tube home and fix it and put it back in my seatpack. Muchas Gracias he say and we shake hands a few times and he tells me the Colombian restaurant where he works and I say yeah I'll come checkitout sometime, etc......all in my broken spanglish and his no speaky eengleesh......After I was back underway I realized that I never checked the tire for the offending particle, so he probably didn't make it far--).
What I no comprendo is how anyone who's out there obviously riding regularly not have the proper tools and parts and knowhow to fix the most basic of all repairs--a flat tire?

Blue Hills Mountain Bike Day(click for pics)

OK it's been a few weeks since my favoritest event of the year--Blue Hills Mountain Bike Day. I need to report before too long or my memory will fade to 'it was a good time'.........
Well the day started out by raining all night--I could hardly sleep, for one because I always have a hard time sleeping when I have a big event early the next day, and also I just don't sleep well when it's raining. I think the latter is because rain sometimes puts a 'damper' on a planned ride--not always though.
As of 5 am it was still raining, and I got maybe four hours sleep( bed at 1 am) but I was determined to make the day happen either way. After a good breakfast(I already forget what it was, but probly eggs and toast and coffee) I loaded ALL the bikes and gear--The wife, kids and mine on and in the car and trucked over there. To be fair it was really just an incessant drizzle, not really raining, but the radio/tv/internet could not tell me what really the day would be like.
I met Mr Boles and he handed me some yellow arrows and I set out to pre-ride the int/advanced side. Of course anybody in their right mind had decided to pull the covers up over their head and stay in for the day, so I proceeded to do my duty. Fortunately, the arrows we had put up before the 3 days of torrential rains started were amazingly still up and not all curled over from all the moisture.......so I had a fairly consistent ride with only a few stops to add an arrow or three.
I got back and things were starting to swing--tents were going up, Joe Sloane was there with the coffee and donuts, ( Joe is the tireless soul who has organized this event almost singlehandedly for 12 years!), volunteers were actually showing up, and everyone was smiling in the mist!
By opening time, 10 am, all the vendors were ready to show their stuff, and riders were starting to 'trickle' in....... I was fairly drenched, and proceeded to hang out and chat with my friends at NEMBA and make the rounds with the vendors. It was probably 58 degrees, and even with two layers of everything, was kinda chilly.
The sun did try to show a coupla times.....
Anyways, wife showed up with the kids as planned and they rode circles through and around the venue, mostly on the obstacle course, which was soaked, and the plywood teeter-totter and ramps were slick. They had no trouble though, being the experienced riders that they are........
I took Isabella for a ride around Houghton's Pond--just happened that the heavens opened up and we got even more thoroughly drenched--but we had a great ride together.
back at the roundup, I needed to focus on getting the scheduled rides going. Having plenty of ride leaders, this was easy, and more and more riders showed up despite the weather....
A few rides went out, and it seemed that the vendors were bored, but as the day progressed more people showed up and made it worth their while(I hope).......
Quadcycles' with their pro trials rider doing a coupla shows for the crowd, pumped up the scene......
My turn came to lead my 'Buck Hill Leisure Ride', and I had I think 12 of us! A dad and his 6yo son peeled off after a few miles(that's REALLY tenacious of a 6 yo to even hang on that long!), and I introduced the group to the climb. Buck Hill is one of those loose rolly rock drainage ditch type of trails. Really shouldnt even be a trail, but it's our only legal way up and down. Once we were at the top, we enjoyed the 'top o the world' view only available at Buck Hill. We took our break up there to enjoy the view, and most were smiling again(read:done cursing me) by the time we set on going back down.....
The rest of the day:
Trials Show again
Bike Limbo(didn't win)
Raffle(didn't win)
Talking with friends and sponsors
Final count waas t least 300 riders, despite the rain and miserable drizzle!!
Bike ride again with Stephen at home, before I got into dry clothes and took a nap.

Wow! Spring was short, it's almost summer.....

Last I noticed it was cold and rainy. Now it's getting into hot season again. I can't win. It seems that all I do is complain about the weather..no that's not true, we've had some real beauties, even this year. Today was one of them. Following a few real hot days(almost 100F on Friday) this morning was relatively cool, sunny, and not humid. Stephen and I went to Ames Nowell State Park first thing to (again)do our part along the trail. Just walking, this time. Malcolm, Dane, the Outreach guy from REI, and the new park super, John Singleton, were there to direct the group and get us pumped to get it done. Dane gave out some sweet new 'get dirty' T's and other schwag, and provided us with jo and donuts......
Stephen being the 8yo that he is brought his pondnet and critter-catching box(I did happen to mention to him that the park we were going to had a pond--one sure way to get him out of the house in a hurry..) So in between frog/turtle/snake/gosling sightings, we did manage to get some face-slappers trimmed back, some trash off the trail, and we pulled a perfectly good umbrella stroller out of the pond.
And it was a great morning to be ouside, even though S2 had to miss church, Mountain Bike Church was in session. Even without our bikes.

Back on Trail

Well after all that riding last week, I took acoupla days off to concentrate on yard work, laundry, bike maintenance(of course)....
Then the rain came back.
Determined to getta ride in between the raindrops, and because I already had the morning pass, I got to Wompy about 8, and met a friend for a ride. It hadn't really rained all night, but the place was WET. I forgot how much precipitation we have gotten lately......there were BIG puddles in places there that are NEVER wet......
Lots of deadfall needing to be chainsawed outta the way, LOTS of 'derailleur-breakers' (magnetic 1-2 foot sticks that seem to aim for that precious gizmo)lying on the trail......
But of course, it was a great morning for a 2-hour ride. The rest of the day, however, I spent lying around miserably complainiing of sinusitis and actually felt feverish and went to bed early. 'Allergies' everyone says..........I suppose I mainlined more than my share of pollen j.ust r.iding a.long......
The SUN just came out. thinking of a ride, but my day's toast. Gotta go sort laundry......(and wash my bike!)

OK it WAS a long winter now it's over

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post......you can't either. Anyways, the Blue Hills opened two weeks ago, the sun's been out for over a week now, the early-season aches and pains are gone, I replaced that ugly big red tire on my front wheel with my (current)favorite, the Hutchinson Scorpion Tubeless 2.3UST. I just happened to have 2 of them, so I replaced my (former) favorite rear tire the Michy XCR AT 2.0 UST with the newer of the two. I'm likin' it! fairly low psi, @ 25-30 haven't exactly dialed it yet. But the bike is right where I want it this year. Really don't need to upgrade or replace any parts except the front derailleur which all the pivots are rattlin' but it still works. 'nuff said.
Now being the end of April, Blue Hills Mountain Bike Day is right upon us, in three weeks! Winter was long! I gotta get in shape! I spent almost 4 months of my life either not exercising at all, or very little.
My excuses as follows:
December: Holidays!
January and February: my littlest toe hurts when I ride in temps less than 40F
March: I had full-blown pneumonia and high fever that left me in bed for a week. My son had the same as soon as I was up again, my daughter had strep, and wife had sinus infections...
This week, however I got four days of riding in a row, and am feeling pretty good about that. No, I didn't forget how to ride a bike. But in the thick of it all, I really thought I might. Winter WAS depressing, but now it's over. Time to RIDE!

Nice day for a ride, eh?

January has been a rollercoaster month, temperature-wise.....Right now, it's 3 degrees above zero F. And yes, back in the day, maybe even last year, and maybe even again this year, I've been known to ride at similar temps. But today, I'll be happy just to warm my toes by the fire, until I'm good and ready to (maybe) workout on my trainer in the (chilly but not frigid) basement, or more likely, go to the Y on my trial one-month membership, and do the treadmill and some stretching....
I did manage to get one good twice-around the Creek on Monday, when it was 22 degrees warmer. Felt great to be outside breathing, the only buzzkill was when I was heading back onto the trail from 3A at the Creek crossing, I'm blinded by the lily-white ass of some geezer bent over right next to the trail pinching a loaf. I just had to laugh out loud as I churned by. That's not someone I want to stop to chat with....
I wish I had my digital camera, I woulda popped one and left it right here for you'all to admire. He woulda flipped, as I think he's a regular Quincy polititian or wannabee. But I don't need to be causin any feeble-assed heartattacks . Like I said, he was a geezer...
Either way, the fire's over there, and my toes arent getting any warmer under the desk.

brrrrr.....

Well 14 days since my last post praising the sixTY degree weather, and now it's sixTEEN degrees and in no way inspiring me to ride outside but I did manage to walk a mile up through the park and back. It's always cool to see the trails we ride OFF the bike. We hear and see things we normally wouldn't. We bust out muscles that we should use once in awhile. We see the trail from a different angle, other trail users look at us and respond differently(some just ignore), and I actually get lost easier, missing that last turn that I would've made on my bike. I guess that's because I'm not constantly scanning far ahead as when I'm at cruising speed. I can get a downright saunter going and just enjoy the quiet non-mechanical time outside.
During the cold months of January and February, my nice carbon-fiber road bike sets upon the windtrainer calling my name. It's a good way to keep up (and actually improve after the holiday feeding frenzy) fitness so I'm feeling good about myself and ready to impress my friends in the spring as I drag them up Wolcott path for a warmup, and do Buck Hill repeats.........
Once on the trainer( it takes some motivation to actually get on it), I generally do 50 minutes, with gearing and rpm intervals every 5 minutes, and the time goes by quickly. I turn on the tv crank up some tunes anything to keep motivated and forgett about the monotony of going nowhere. I use a hrm to keep track of my heart's highs and lows. My theory also is to keep the heart rate changing, within the zones of course. Just like any other muscle, it needs diversity, cross-training, if you will.....
Enough talk anout it, now it's time to go do it.

My friend and I meet again....

Well it's the 4th of January and 60 degrees. I opt for a ride at Wompatuck, since I've been on the trainer a couple times this week, and the weather seems to just get better every day.....
I did my regular eclectic tour of the park, and thought I'd keep an eye out for my grouse friend. In the exact place we last met(last blog entry)she was nowhere to be found. As I continued on, down a paved section, then back onto a trail(about 5oo feet later), I hear something out of the corner of my eye(is that possible?).....a rustling of leaves....mind you I'm super-receptive at this point, since I'm still thinking I may see her again.....and there she is, CHASING me down the trail. I stop and put the bike down, she chirps, looks right at me, as if she's a cat wanting to play, or to eat.....
Then she jumps on my bike, and follows every move I make as I rummage through my camelbak looking for some dried cranberries even though I know I finished the trail mix last time, on the way home....
So I talk, she chirps, I talk......this goes on for a few minutes.,....I found the camera that I made sure to pack, discovering that I DID have another camera that was in there last time...no big deal, anyways.... So I just started shooting, getting all the angles......
Knowing that I couldn't be there all day, I hopped back on the bike, and she started chasing me again!! And closely, to the point that I had to make sure not to hit her with a pedalstroke, or with my rear tire....She chased for about 100 feet, and when I got up some speed she lost interest and stopped.
Just another day in the woods.....