Training Log Archive: PG

Meandering on the woods roads at the north end of Quabbin, visiting several bays to see what I might find. Seven loons (one calling loudly) was the highlight, along with an extraordinarily peaceful and beautiful late afternoon setting.

Figured I should take advantage of a relatively warm day (upper 60s) and go for a little longer ride, which was a good idea except for the fact that the rain showed up a couple of hours earlier than predicted. But at least I was dry for the first hour. After that it was mostly light rain, still ended up getting pretty soaked, though not really unpleasantly so given the warm day.

Nice loop -- South Deerfield, to Greenfield via Upper Road, into the hills in Shelburne (where there is fresh pavement just in front of Cosby's house and horrible "pavement" not far to either side), then Conway, West Whately, down out of the hills to North Hatfield and home.

Saw a few other bikers out. I figured the cars going by would think I was nuts (given the weather). But they all seemed to be giving me even more room than usual.

And my tires grip really nicely. :-)

Lake Wyola and Shutesbury, back via North Amherst. Gloomy this morning, but it brightened up in the afternoon and I figured I had better get myself out the door for a decent ride.

Almost all the climb is in the first 12 miles, with the steepest part leaving Lake Wyola. Hadn't been that way for a year or two, and it was sort of nice to look up at one point, see what was ahead, and think, This isn't as bad as I remember. :-)

Note that my standard LW/S loop over the years has come back through Leverett. I went a different way today on purpose, just so I couldn't compare times in the past with today. No point in getting depressed. :-)

It started to rain around when I was thinking I probably should get out and do something. So I decided a day off was called for...

With Walter and Gary in the Conway hills, from Gary's house. Lots of hills, lots of dirt roads. Low 50's, windy when we were out in the open, which wasn't that often. Really beautiful out, still some colors left, though at times when clouds blocked the sun there definitely was the feeling that winter is come.

Hard work. Essentially a long set of intervals, no way to really avoid it with all the ups, with decent recoveries in between. Legs pretty beat by the end, but had a fine time.

A lot of rain in the last 24 hours and the river is running fast and high. Around noontime the sky started to clear, the wind picked up, and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. Time to get some exercise.

About 50F, wind out of the west 15-20 mph and gusty, but the roads were dry. Has a route that had me often with a crosswind, perfect conditions for echelons, and I was certainly an echelon of one, no shelter at all.

But good to get out, even if it felt like hard work the whole time and my thoughts afterwards coming up the stairs from the garage were -- I am tired.