Training Log Archive: PG

With Phil from his house. The weather forecast was a bit grim, dark green moving in on the radar within 30 minutes, but it never did more than sprinkle a little.

One good climb, up the Lake Bray road, the legs seemed to have some life in them. And one summit, Mt. Nonotuck, the northeastern high point on the Mt. Tom ridge, control #6 on the 2010 Billygoat. That was pretty ratty, lots of rock, unrideable for me at times. Hike-a-bike maybe 100 yards on the way up, 50 on the way down. But a totally respectable summit, and of course a bike selfie for evidence. And no, the tower isn't tilted, but I'd backed up as far as I could and to get the top and the bike in the photo.... :-)



The rest of the ride was just plain enjoyable -- no rain, pleasant temperature, little traffic, good legs, excellent company. As good as it gets.

C • Tilted 1

C • Tilted 1

Event: WCOC Summer BBQ, Sprints and Meeting
 

Easy ride, Montague Center area, except for the ups, which always get the heart going. Enjoying the scenery and the lack of traffic.

A really nice loop a little bit to the north of here -- Bernardston to Vernon, VT, the easy way, gently rolling roads with little traffic, back the hard way, over Huckle Hill. Still struggling a bit on the hills. The last pitch on Huckle Hill is real steep but only for a two or three minutes, and I was thinking, hmmm, if it was a little steep and I had to do it for 30 minutes that could be a problem.

Nice day, minimal wind, and way more pleasant now than later in the day.

C • E-Bike 6

Didn't get out early, but still early enough to not be hot, maybe mid-70s. Going to have to start getting out earlier.

Flat/flattish. No need to head for the hills today. Ended up putting in a decent effort, just about right.

Up in the hills a bit more, starting a little past Charlemont where the road to Monroe leaves route 2. The plan was (1) to see if I could get up Kingsley Road, heads straight up from Monroe, the first half at 20% or so, (2) then traverse over to Rt. 2 at Florida, with a nice climb (and then drop) on Tilda Road, and (3) a long downhill on route 2.

Of course, before I could start #1 I had to get up to Monroe, so I had an hour to think about it. And based on how I was feeling, I was not optimistic. Possibly even pessimistic. Possibly even very pessimistic. There is a difference between something that will be hard work and something that will be hard work and you will fail, and this seemed quite likely to be the latter.

Just as I got to Monroe there were orange signs, Road Work, and then lots more signs at my turn, the main one being Road Closed. Seems they were in the process of repairing a bridge, right at the start of the road. Several trucks, one of them blocking the road pretty completely. But as I looked up, past the 100 yards of mud and past the trucks, the road, other than being very steep and ratty pavement, looked fine.

I could have done it, or at least started.

But it didn't seem to take but a moment to start thinking about what my options were. One was to do a 180 and head back the way I'd come. Nope, boring. Another was to do the climb on the other side, Monroe Hill Road, and loop back to the car that way. Nope, done that before, and I wanted to do Tilda Hill. And another was extend my route a little, there was another way to get to the top of Kingsley Hill, longer, still climb, but not nearly so steep.

Decided on that, and within seconds I could feel my mood improving. And so it stayed for the rest of the ride. The hills got done, slow as always but no real suffering and no fear of failure. And then route 2 was a nice long wheeee.

Got to my car thinking, that was a satisfying ride.

Worked harder the first three miles to catch up to Gail, and then the rest was perfect, just the right amount of effort.

Nice day, getting warm. General Pierce bridge, Old Deerfield.

Over a little southeast of Quabbin, the various Brookfields. All new to me. Nothing particularly adventurous or demanding, but lovely countryside and not much traffic. Thought I had a rather undemanding route mapped out, but by the end my legs were shot. It was a warm day, and the modified heat index* reading in the mid-150s may have had something to do with it.

* MHI = temperature (F) + age

Bike ride up in the hills, starting/ending in Charlemont. I actually had planned a route with another 6 or 8 miles and a serious hill, but the route also came by my car first. Not good planning. It was way too easy to quit.

But it was still a good adventure. The lion's share of it was all on a route I had done before, just in the other direction. And that makes it quite different. Started with a not quite 10 mile uphill, with plenty of time to look around and enjoy the scenery. Then another 10 miles of ups and downs, fast where I only remembered going slow, hard where I remembered it being very easy.

And then, because every good ride needs something new, time for a summit. In this case, Mt. Institute, top of the Berkshire East and, in recent years, the Thunder Mountain Bike Park.

It is a summit Phil would love. At 1,525' it is respectable enough for around here, and for skiing/biking it has a vertical drop of about 1,000'. But the actual summit is little more than a bump, with higher ground off to the immediate south. Since that was the direction I was coming from, most of my summit approach consisted of going downhill. Of course there was the final pitch to the summit, but I think that was no more than about 60'. As I said, Phil's kind of mountain.

So I got myself to the summit, the last couple of miles having been on dirt and mostly downhill, and not having passed any "Keep Out" signs (though I did pass a couple of "No Unauthorized Motor Vehicles" signs, which clearly did not apply to me). And at the summit, things were hopping. The chairlift was running, and bikers of all sorts were getting off, and where "all sorts" should not imply that there seemed to be any who were not male, and young, and on mountain bikes.

Well, I was certainly not in my element, even with my 1 out of 3.

I looked around and debated my options. They have built all sorts of bike trails in the past few years. I had a rough sense of the lay of the land, having skied there a few times, but no sense of the bike trails, nor any sense of what condition the ski trails might be in.

Of course I could have gone out the way I came in, back out to East Road and then continuing down that steep dirt road. But the lure of doing something different is sometimes so strong....

Time for a consultation. There were a couple of middle-aged guys at the summit, maybe biking's equivalent of the ski patrol. I pointed to what I remembered as the easiest ski trail going down and asked how that was, could I do it. Just like a road, came the answer. About 4 miles. Only a bit later did it become clear that they were talking about the bike trail that went in the same direction as the ski trail, but was at least twice as long because, well, that's what bike trails do.

I started off. It was pretty nice. It would have been better if my bike had had shocks, but it was still totally manageable. It was just that there seemed to be a u-turn about every 50 yards, and as I was trying to not be stupid and was going rather slowly, it wasn't clear I would get to the bottom before dark.

It shortly crossed a road of sorts, so I hopped on that, but all that did was lead me on a dead-end journey to a man-made pond, presumably built for winter snow-making.

Back from there, back on the twisty but totally ridable trail. Noises behind, and pretty quickly 4 folks pass me, go just a little farther, and then stop at a junction with a ski trail.

And one of then, neither male nor young as it turned out, started to chew me out for riding without a ticket. And I needed to leave.

I assumed she was an instructor or some such.

She asked how I'd gotten in there. I told her, in from the top. Well, I couldn't ride there without a ticket, so I'd have to go out the same way. I'd come down a bit by now. I looked back up. Not very appealing.

She was pretty unhappy with me.

So I said I talked to the patrol guys on top and they said it was fine to come down this way.

That threw her.

But not too much. She still didn't want me on the bike trail, because there were a lot of people using it. And I really didn't want to be there either, if faster kids were going to keep coming by.

Can I go down the ski trail?

She thought about that a bit and came up with no objection, and shortly she was gone. And I was heading down this really ratty excuse for a service road. Certainly steeper and rougher than I cared for. After a little while I came to the top of a lift and chose to go right. I think left must have been better.

It now got muddy too. At some point the mud swallowed me up, or at least swallowed up one foot and one arm and parts of one side of the bike. At another point, no longer muddy, it was steep enough that I was descending in basically a controlled slide.

But eventually the bottom came.

And in the meantime, I had seen a bear. Not a big bear, those aren't the scary ones. This was a little one, size of a largish dog but much rounder. Scary because mama is probably around and mama would be pissed if she felt junior was threatened. Junior had disappeared in the bushes to my left. I heard some rustling in the bushes to my right. It didn't take much thinking to lay off the brakes for a bit and get out of there.

The bottom was close to my car. Further away was one more serious hill (and a summit!). Easy decision.

One loop of the Mt. Warner single-track, done with some enthusiasm, plus mellow trips there and back. Upper 70s, S 5-10. 17:40, parking lot to parking lot.

Passed 10,000 miles on the dark blue bike today, about 3 weeks short of having it for 2 years. :-)

Although this year is going to come up woefully short of the last two unless I pick it up a lot.

My life on Attackpoint, so far.

C • RGR 7

Real nice ride over to and in the lower Whately and Conway hills. Attractions included:

-- Went by two guys parked on Conway Road as I was climbing up to West Whately. They had on waders, so I assumed they were going fishing. Got closer and I saw there was a laptop open. Got about 100 yards past them and decided I really should go back and see what they were up to.

Turns out I had met them before! One morning in Montague Center about a month ago, a small wildlife management area, I was there with my binoculars, they were there collecting data on stream temperatures and flow rates.We'd chatted a bunch then. I had occurred to me that they were doing similar stuff to what Alex was doing several years back.

So I asked if they were on the faculty at UMass. Nope. How about their boss. Yup, sort of, he was an adjunct prof, Ben Letcher, Department of Environmental Conversation. Don't expect she worked for him, but maybe she knew him? At least what they were doing seemed much like what she was doing.

-- Onward. Up Poplar Hill Road for the first time ever. Nice little climb, paved, then turned to dirt and then that ended at a gate, lots of signs, land owned by Smith College, various research activities done there. Kept going, the road now a woods road. Shortly came upon a bunch of student types, seemed to be doing some research project in the woods. As I rode slowly by I asked one young woman what they were studying. Molecular Biology. Didn't see a need to chat her up, out of my league.

-- Onward. Poplar Hill "Road" was now quite scruffy, but still rideable, though I had to stop a couple of times to dislodge branches from my wheels. Totally enjoyable, of course, because I'd never been there before.

-- Onward. Eventually out onto Roaring Brook Road, dirt, a few hills, and then turned on Whately Glen Road for the descent back to the valley. Delightful, enough mud holes and other obstacles to make it interesting, but they could all be avoided, which I did.

And then back home across the flats. No hurry. And mighty fine.

C • Ben Letcher 1

Upper 60s, N 5-10, sunny. Wanted to do some sort of shortish climb at a hard effort and settled on Eaglebrook. Headed out to it, steady effort for a few miles into the breeze, then hard effort (about 6:30) up the climb, then taking it easy heading home.

Breathing and heart rate seemed to recover just fine. Legs feel tired.

Wasn't raining when I got up, and not supposed to until mid-morning, so I had some breakfast and then headed out. It was dry when I got out of the garage, but the first drops were already falling by the time the Garmin had found enough satellites. Oh well, just do it.

Mid's 60s, modest breeze from the south. Up to Leverett, no ambition on any of the ups. My mood perked up when the route stopped going up and the rest of the way was fine, though wet. Raining steadily by the time I was done.

Not so many riders out today (yesterday there had been lots).

Feeling tired, but wanted to get out because rain is forecast for tomorrow. And didn't feel like going up any hills.

Down the west side of the river, over the rail trail bridge in Northampton, and back on this side. Steady breeze out of the south. Low 60's when I started so I put on a long-sleeve shirt. Was regretting that choice for about the last 20 miles.

Time to visit another fire tower. Decided on the one at the top of Moore Hill in Goshen, since I hadn't ever been there (even though I'd been real close), and the 40 miles needed to get there and back seemed a reasonable distance.

Upper 60s, bit of sun, some clouds, got rained on several times but never hard. Wind from the SW to W, about 10 mph, but in the hills things really vary. It did mean a headwind for much of the way out, and then a tailwind for the last bunch of miles, always a pleasure.

Only the last little bit of the climb, less than half a mile, was not paved, and it was pretty straightforward. Not that I was complaining at that point, as I'd been going uphill for what seemed like a long time. I did stop for a few minutes at the tower -- take a selfie, send it to Gail to let her know what part of the world I was in, have a bit to eat, and swat some black flies. The BFs don't bother you if you're moving, so before long I took the message and headed home. Forgot to climb the tower.

Legs were getting tired the last hour. The best indication is when you look at some little uphill, have a good idea of what gear you should be in given the slope, and then look down and find you are in a gear or two lower. And struggling a bit. Fortunately there weren't many ups in the last hour, and I made it home without any significant distress.

And having really enjoyed myself. :-)

C • Selfie 3

Perfect day. I was thinking about possibilities for where to go, not really sure, when Mt. Grace popped into my mind, and in an instant I knew where I was going.

Last (and only) trip there had been last December. A fair bit of snow and ice. Made it up but only by walking quite a bit. Time from the gate to the tower was 26:33, right about one mile, a little over 600' climb. Lots of walking.

So Phil showed up a week later, by then most of the snow and ice had disappeared, and he did it in 16:45. He was clearly younger, fitter, and smarter, the latter referring to his feeling no need to drag a bike all the way to the top. I was clearly old, slow, and stupid.

Six months later I am at it again. Even older, still stupid. Also still slow, but not so horribly slow. 18:51 this time.

Made it all the way up without getting off, but it wasn't easy. The average grade is about 12%. That's OK. But the grade varies a lot and there are a lot of shorter sections in the 15-20% range, I'd guess. That's mostly OK. If it were paved.

It's not really dirt either. Dirt would be better, it compacts nicely, gives you a firm surface with good traction. There's usually a bit of loose sand and gravel too, but it's mostly avoidable.

This had a bunch more of the sand/gravel stuff. Often it was packed enough that it was no problem. Other times, well, when they coincided with the steep pitches.... Came close to losing it several times, but didn't.

Not sure I need to do this again. No way I am going to threaten 16:45.

But I should point out that the time that matters in these summiting efforts is not the ascent but the round trip. And in that regard, Mr. Phil has some catching up to do. :-)

C • Thank you ... 1

Tour de Heifer, a tour of the hills of southeast Vermont. Almost entirely on dirt roads. At most maybe 5 miles paved and about a mile of much worse than dirt, the latter to add a little spice. Minimal traffic, gorgeous scenery, lovely day.

I was clearly not prepared for this, having done not so much riding this year and certainly nothing of much duration. But I managed. I like to think I am pretty sensible in such matters, though that may be open for debate. Got an early start, about 7:20, when it was still chilly, low 50s, and downright cold the first couple of downhill miles, but the first uphill took care of that.

Then it was just a matter of pacing, which I think I did just right, and eating and drinking, which I also think I did about right. Never pushed too hard on the ups. Never got competitive. And the one time I suddenly felt really tired legs, at the start of a climb at just over 50 miles I quickly drank more and ate and the remaining hills were no worse than any others.

My Garmin, on the other hand, did not pace itself so well, dying at 57.5. Reasonably annoying, but easy after the fact to add the remaining time and distance, if not the track, pace, and heartrate.

By now, and particularly as I slow down more and more, I am used to getting passed by lots of folks, and only passing ones who are standing still (at aid stations, where many linger but I don't). Today I think I actually passed four people who were moving. An uncommon experience.

Finished, went to get some of the advertised lunch, and what was available was beer and salad. Neither appealed to me in the slightest. So I packed up and headed off, first stop in West Brattleboro at a pizza place, got a slice of pizza and a Coke. Not really very appealing, and I though I might manage just a bite or two, but 25 minutes later my plate was clean and the Coke mostly gone. And in the meantime a guy had come in to collect 4 pizzas, and then another guy had come in to collect 4 more pizzas. Turned out they were for the ride, food having run out. So they were making an effort. My timing just hadn't been good.

Overall, quite trashed, especially my quads. When I got back home, parked in the garage, collected my stuff and headed up the stairs, well, it was only on the third attempt that I made it more than one step, on the first two attempts having had not enough momentum to keep going. A precursor of the future perhaps. Who would have thought, having already climbed about 7,500' that day, that the last 10 would be the hardest? But I managed, and as was true all day, no falls. :-)

C • nice 2

And after a nap, and then a little more nap, it was time to head out for a nice dinner with Gail, because 46 years ago we got married.

C • Happy Anniversary! 3

Lake Wyola, Wendell, Millers Falls loop. Legs were tired until I reached (which happens to be the top of the long hill), so I didn't bury myself. Down to Millers Falls was just fine. And then back home from there, well, when I'd started out there was a very light breeze from the north, now it seemed a bit more of a breeze from the southwest, the direction I happened to be heading. So the last few miles were not as mellow as I had been expecting.

Low 80s, sunny, but not humid.

Pretty tired, so next was nap time....

Started out not so bad, but started feeling feeble after a few miles. Downed the CliffBar I had with me (might have helped to bring water too) and moseyed home.

Feeling tired, so an easy pace for the first few miles, but then seemed to work pretty hard the last few.

I've been having a good time ever since I saw this guy at the local airport yesterday morning --

C • this guy 7

Up to the Turners Falls airport, where I stopped for a snack, then spent a little while talking to the guy who runs the airport, then spent a while longer talking to a local pro. And then rode home. Just fine.

C • local pro 2

To the Montague Plains and back. 70s, S 5 to 10. Sweating a bunch.

Event: Return to the Ridge
 

Brown course at Pound Ridge, 4.0 km. Enjoyed myself.

Just walking, no running. Orienteering technique was excellent except for when it wasn't, the latter fortunately being not often. Forest, map, and course were all about as good as it gets. Thanks to HVO for the event, Geof for the leadership, and Niels for the courses.

And perhaps I have done another life adjustment in a good way. This is not orienteering the way it used to be for me. But I think I have moved on from that and am finding that it can still be enjoyable. This is the third time I've been out recently and each has been a positive experience.

There are still some competitive instincts. A little of that is good, gives something to strive for, but just a little. I think I am pretty close to that.

Drove down with Phil and Steve. Excellent company! And saw a few folks at the event, enjoyable too. Just a really nice day.

And no falls, The left butt hurt much of the time, so perhaps I will investigate options. Hurting a little less would be very welcome. Back was a little sore when I got home, just from a few hours in the car I think. Felt fine on the ride and feels fine now. :-)

C • Lawn care ... 2

A short ride, because there was still some of the nice afternoon left, and I thought it might be a good idea after being in the car for quite a while. And while I was at it, did not quite half in semi-mountain bike mode, ratty jeep trails. Because if I'm planning on some longer rides on such stuff, it's probably a good idea to do a little practice.

No hurry. A little effort on the couple of steeper ups, just to make sure I had sufficient momentum. No problems. :-)