Sunday, December 12, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
shorts rides
So with this crazy weather we had a frost and cool weather up til a few days ago, it was misty for a day or so, and my last three rides have been in shorts and a T-shirt. The sun's back out in full force and the forecast today is 68-72 degrees! I had been getting used to pulling on the riding pants so going back to shorts initially made me feel naked again. I had to literally check myself to make sure I wasn't riding down the street in my underpants...
Happy Fall!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Always a good time!
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Saturday, October 9, 2010
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Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
in training
Still in training for the Big Hill, I rode to work three outof 5 days. The first two having been fairly standard--a few extra miles thrown in at each end of the workday--but the third was considerably longer. I had a couple of hours to play with, so after dropping he car off for service, I took the long way over to the Blue Hills, through Braintree and Randolph, and snaked my way through, attacking every hill with everything I had. It was getting hot mid-morning, and at one point I felt I might overheat, so I stopped and chugged some more water, and walked abit. It was amazingly peaceful in the woods, and walking reminded me of how quiet hiking is without the wind whistling by my ears... BUT that didn't last long, as soon as I saw the nice long downhill run approaching, I had to get back on...
With at least 20 miles gone I got to work with an hour to spare, so I partially drip-dried myself outside before clocking in a half-hour early.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Down Time
Notes to self: remove bar ends and lop off 1/2" from both ends of handlebar. Trim back the beach-rose so there's alittle more space between it and the light pole...Try to go faster next time.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Don't Jump!
One last thing to report before I crash. The gizmo in the pics is the most valuable piece of equipment so far. A Jump-Stop, made by N-Gear. I've been having trouble with the chain dropping on the inside. I'm running (stock)1x9 on my Redline D460. The chain is as tight as it can be....Originally I thought it was a design flaw i.e. bad chainline, because bike came stock with a little plastic hook(see pic in last post) that doesn't do a thing, and an outer bash guard . It's become apparent to me that the secondary purpose of a front derailleur is to keep the chain from falling off...I've finally come to realize that the chain popping off when coasting over bumpy terrain is an everyday occurrence--but not noticeable with the front derailleur hugging the chain/chainring interface. Think about it, you're bouncing through some rockgarden in your middle 'ring , you'll remember hearing that clank-a-clank going on down there....Or, better yet, in your granny, the same thing happens, but if your limiter screw's not quite right, your chain winds up on the bb shell. In which case, you start pedalling lightly , while gingerly shifting up until the chain engages again. This isn't possible with a single ring. You have to get off, finger it back on while manually rotating the crank and your friends sigh impatiently, wanting to get on with the ride...The Jump Stop will not only prevent the chain dropping off the inside on your 1x9er, it will eliminate chain drop from your granny. It's adjustable enough for either, it's cheap, and it works!
Had to sleep in...
I missed the 9am start time with the Old Coot and friends at his latest favorite riding spot Adams Farm, in Walpole. So I went for another off road ride this morning in search of hills. Riding solo doesn't really bring out the adrenaline but I needed to de-stress from the past week at work, and formulate some ways to economise on my energies to get through this week. The boss is off on vacation for the next 10 days, we're short-handed, and I'm out of my usual work patterns, having to second-guess my way through his responsibilities and improvise every bloody second. I'm on for at least 75 hours this week. So my stress level is skyrocketing even as I try to relax. Getting on the bike of course is always a great stress reliever, so I headed to the Hills (Blue that is)....
I managed to ride for 2 hours on and off the yellow arrow loop, with a one-time diversion up the length of the access road. Roadies do repeats on this almost-one-mile-of-pain. I rode alongside a guy on a road bike and finished 10 seconds behind him, in about 9 minutes. I don't really have any data to go on or what to expect from myself, but that seems like a respectable pace. After all , we both have the same wheel circumference... The goal as mentioned in my last post is to be able to climb Mt Mansfield in less than an hour, at the end of the month.
This week's training sessions are blown with the work situation, but I'll try to ride to work two days. At least it's a big uphill ride there. And coming down at night flashing like a christmas tree is one of the best ways I know to shake off a long days work.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Apples to Apples?
So I dusted the cobwebs off the ol Ted Wojcik yesterday and took er for a spin. Aired up the tires and hit the regular marsh loop. I was gonna take it easy and 'get used to it again'. Right away realizing remembering that this bike likes to go fast, about 90 seconds into the ride, I blew my first stop sign and didn't look back. My first lap blew away the 29er time by 2 minutes. How could this be? The first ride around on the 29er blew away the Ted by 2 minutes....so, the old brown bike has gained 4 minutes in 3 months?
I guess pedalling that piggish Redline is paying off--I've become stronger by pushin that thing around. I mean, it must be at least 6 pounds heavier, nevermind the rotational mass of the big'guns with regular tubes and such...
Which gets me to thinking, maybe I should race the Teddie at the Race to the Top of VT next month....I've been hemming and hawing about whether the 29er would make me faster or slower up the hill this year. Just thinking about not having a granny though is makin me tired...But I don't need a slower time this year, I'm at the top of the age range and don't want 30-something place or worse this year. Next year I'll be sandbagging though, up into that next age bracket.....
Time to do some beta-testing so I have some real stats to go on.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
All Uphill from Here
In anticipation of the end-of-August 'Race to the Top of Vermont' , the 4.3 mile slog up Mt Mansfield on the toll road, I've been trying to focus on doing as many uphills as possible. Trying to work on my diet as well to reduce lactic acid and muscle fatigue as well. Never having really 'trained' for anything in particular, I'm learning as I go.
Last week's Ride of the Week was one where I found M Ramponi on the trail and we hammered out some great hill climbs in the hour and a half I had before going to work..I somehow managed to shake off most of the mud, sweat and dirt before entering the kitchen for my shift.
This week's Ride of the week has to go to a road ride with a good friend yesterday. We ground out close to 50 miles with lots of hills on another hot day, before again crawling into work for another 10 hours...
Sometimes work just gets in the way...
Summer
In June, we had a few notable events at Wompy: Railbed clearing to connect key trails--a quick easy project with the great crew that we had, which included The infamous tandem-riding Schows
with their newborn(weeks-old) Ellie in a frontal sling, helping with sawing and lopping limbs...
SEMass NEMBA and FoW hosted the First Ever P
an Mass Challenge Kids Ride Mountain Bike Loops! A drizzly day with a huge turnout, I was very impressed with the organization of the PMC in general. Parking, registration, marshalling, vendors, lots of good free food for the volunteers, including Hingham's own Red-Eye Roasters with made-to-order french press coffee! We put together two loops for younger and older kids, and the best thing was that they all learned something along the way, and they were all ridin' and smilin'!
Another couple of Trail Care Days(TCD) resulted in at least 3 more bridges being slip-proofed with wire mesh...
I actually held an 'every friday morning' ride at Blue Hills for about 6 weeks straight,until the kids were done with school for summer. One morning there were 6 of us!
Early July, we went on vacation and stayed up in Laconia, which is of course the motorcycling capital of the east, but not the most bike-friendly place around. Off-roading in that area is limited to a few dirt roads and housing-construction sites. At least within minutes riding from the condo at Weirs beach. I did find a cool park within a 6-mile road ride on the hottest day of the century which left me close to heatstroke by the time I got there to enjoy it. Most notable of that week (besides water-body hopping from the pools to various lakes and rivers) was the ride with Matt and Kevin from CNH NEMBA at Franklin Falls Dam. Swoopy cape-style riding with hardly a rock or root, and a Sidewinder-style ravine ride to top it off!
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Found this relic at a blueberry stand on Rt 28 and Province Road, near Barnstead...not sure how old it really is, thinking it's one of those later generations chopper similar to the Walmart StingRay's. Probably real heavy and hard to ride, especially with the cranks bent inward past the chainstays...
Looks like the kid bolted on some galvie pipe to make it look like an exhaust...
I love the old rusty farm machinery too
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
La La No Mo
I have been notified that the music service 'LaLa' will be shut down May 31st. I'm sad about this, since I really liked the way I could embed a song here for free, and you could go to their site and listen to a whole album once for free. And the mp3 prices are much better than iTunes...
I'm sure that those three features themselves contributed much to the early demise of LaLa, though I really don't know the details.
So the face of this blog (and my other blog, 'thoughts on food' )will change slightly without the music players to entertain while you read. Oh well, thats progress...
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
End of April
Looking forward: the 'rainy month' is almost over...the floodwaters have receded, the peepers are real happy, trees are budding, it's almost bamboo season, saturday is Fells opening day, and right now it's not raining so I'll get something of a ride in.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Back in the Saddle
The Blue Hills long 'seasonal' Dec-April ban on us is lifted next Thursday, April 15th. That's all fine and good but the trails WILL waste away without some attention. The state and the DCR is making it increasingly difficult to do work in there with all the paperwork and habitat restrictions. And those trails NEED work, and/or rerouting. There are alot of good ones, too, but most of them include at least one fall line not unlike this:
Friday, February 5, 2010
Winter Buzz
So yeah I've been off the outside bike since sometime in December--since I returned the 29er....
Since getting outside is still a priority since most of us spend the majority of our lives indoors, I've made it a point to start enjoying winter again. With the warm toes thing down to certain formulae, hiking, sphiking, snowshoeing, and xc-skiing are a priority. Seems that more friends are doing the same. The Big Three Letter Adventure Stores and Maine-Based Catalog Stores have alot to do with promoting these trends, and provide the equipment necessary to increase comfort levels to those who previously would spend most of the cold times indoors. Not sure where I'm going with this, but....
Winter Buzz is now a Facebook page "for friends who are genuinely interested in hiking, biking, XC-skiing, Snowshoeing and Spike-Hiking in New England winter........
Yeah, winter is cold.....catch the Buzz!"
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Extreme(ity) Cold
My toes are damaged. I rode in the cold one too many times without the proper shoes/protection from cold and wet....
Now I suffer from 'chilblains' a medical term used to describe the condition brought on when the toes are really cold and are warmed up too quickly. This results in the tiny capillaries bursting. The blood has nowhere to go so it pools just under the skin surface, and feels uncomfortable. The toes look bruised red, blue, and blackish. It's not something you want to have happen to your toes(or fingers). Under 45F I will feel it again if I don't take the proper care of my toes, and then I'm fighting it all winter....
Here are some of my observations/theories/remedies in my personal quest to keep my toes warm.
I have a pair of SealSkinz socks--neoprene--combined with very thin poly first layer, my toes stay warm and dry. The funny thing is they do feel moist, but not uncomfortable. So far it works down to about 20F, even when my boots get wet or leak.... The other thing that works in drier conditions ( not when my boot leaks) is charcoal toe warmers, in between the (same)first layer and wool socks. You need to wear a shoe size larger than normal, otherwise, neither will work.I have yet to really test in colder than 20F
With clipless pedals, there's the problem of the metal cleat and plate right under your feet that conducts the cold....the only real way around that is to commit to flats for winter. I've never been able to do that, but I suppose in deep snow it would make sense anyways. The one major thing that I learned is that your body(core) has to be warm. I used to think that it was OK to feel a little chilly in the parking lot, before the ride. My toes/hands would never warm up 'cause your body needs to keep itself warm. But if your core is warm to start, your extremeties will get more blood right away and if you get too hot, you can strip off a layer. I now find that I can even take my gloves off once I get going(hiking not biking). My toes now get so much circulation that I still get a a mild 'chilblain effect' --that is, the extra blood pools in the damaged areas at the ends of my affected toes and results in some of that uncomfortable feeling I associate with chilblains, but the symptoms seem to resolve much quicker.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
DSCN5708
That's what real Maine mountainbikers look like. Really.
(one of my favorite t's, part of my Flickr set)
(one of my favorite t's, part of my Flickr set)
Monday, January 11, 2010
Leave the Bike Inside
The wintry conditions have me off the bike, outside that is....
When I'm not on the trainer in my free time, I've been enjoying some of my favorite biking trails (and some I never ride due to dumb restrictive park policies) on snowshoes. With a $99 pair of high-tech shoes, I can get out there for 2 hours, breathe the fresh air and get away from it all. Even better with a group or a couple of friends, as long as I'm dressed for it, and my toes don't get cold, I'm good....
Layer clothing in the same way as for a ride, but add an extra easily removable layer just in case...gaiters and neck wrap help...... same food/hydration......same camelbak
No helmet.
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