Monte had made notice; he was a bachelor for the weekend and willing to travel. Perfect opportunity to show him some of the best trails in CT.
The sensible thing to do would be have a nice leisurely spin on Saturday and save some matches for Monte's tour on Sunday.
But Neal was riding Case.
Must resist...
urge too strong...
After a crumby night of sleep and not committing to it until 1/2 hour before ETD I found myself in the truck heading over the river. Of course this was after the frantic scramble that usually accompanies such last minute decisions.
Neal had planned an early start so the trails would be firm.
He also planned on making it count.
Case drains well, but after a 1/2 foot of snow a week ago, and rain Thursday to Friday it was hard to believe how good the conditions were. I know my local haunt would have been one big soup bowl. Only on the second lap of the new trails in the deforested section did things turn a little soft and slick. Everything else; solid as a rock.
Sunday Sunday Sunday!
After the mad dash to make it to the ride on Saturday I had everything laid out for me. I was so on time I even stopped at the bank. But as I drove up to Nassahegan I was noticing more and more snow on people's lawns.
Snow?
After mild temps reaching into the fifties all week?
James, Josh and Monte were waiting for me in an icy parking lot.
Maybe there'd be less snow in the woods.
Nope.
Not only was there still snow, there were frozen ruts from people riding in the snow and the flowing singletrack I was so excited to show was a luge run.
After less than 2 miles we decided sliding around pontooning across ice wasn't going to be fun.
We could go to the res and do a TdT, but who knows if there was snow and ice on the Northern sections of it?
We went for the sure thing.
Back in the truck and heading over the river to Case.
About 30% of the time I wasn't sure we were going the right way, but we had time to make it work and hit some good stuff. Made it back to the trail head as everyone was just about to run out of food and water.
This is what it's all about; great rides with good friends having fun.
(so much fun there was no time to take pictures; I tried once but those fookers were too quick for me to get a shot off)
Monday, January 30, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Cheap Fooker!
Is it me or has bike racing gotten really expensive?
It looks like your standard XC race is still about $25-$35, but anything longer seems to be astronomical.
I skipped doing a road race with my team because it was $80 and I didn't want to use up that much of the budget on a secondary interest.
Well it looks like if I want to do any longer format races I better get ready to sell some blood.
Hampshire 100 = $100
Pat's Peak is $80-$140 depending on how many hours you choose to race.
Darkhorse 40 is $75
and VT50 is $125
Iron Cross is a veritable bargain at only $60.
It seems the dollar goes further in PA as there are some 50 milers there for only $60 as well.
Is it just what the market will bare, or does it really cost that much more to run these longer events?
I'm off to roll pennies and collect some cans.
It looks like your standard XC race is still about $25-$35, but anything longer seems to be astronomical.
I skipped doing a road race with my team because it was $80 and I didn't want to use up that much of the budget on a secondary interest.
Well it looks like if I want to do any longer format races I better get ready to sell some blood.
Hampshire 100 = $100
Pat's Peak is $80-$140 depending on how many hours you choose to race.
Darkhorse 40 is $75
and VT50 is $125
Iron Cross is a veritable bargain at only $60.
It seems the dollar goes further in PA as there are some 50 milers there for only $60 as well.
Is it just what the market will bare, or does it really cost that much more to run these longer events?
I'm off to roll pennies and collect some cans.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Geeking Out w/ Metrics
I was reading Friel's Total Heart Rate Training last night. In it he discusses a way of quantifying workload call TRIMP.
Basically you multiply the minutes you spend in each zone by that zone, add the numbers together and Viola! You've got your TRIMP.
Any chance to play with numbers is a good time in my book so I started looking back through workouts where I wore a HRM.
First thing I found is I didn't wear a HRM very much last year.
But here are a few of my results. I also includes Strava's "Suffer Score" as a comparison.
On a snowy ride over the weekend my TRIMP was 308, Suffer Score (SS) was 93
One of my first hard efforts of the year TRIMP=471, SS=135
LSD ride TRIMP=593, SS=140
another LSD ride TRIMP=530, SS=122
and at a mtb race, Hodges Village Dam, TRIMP=521, SS=201
The thing that just doesn't jive for me is the value the LSD rides hold. How do they have the highest value, when afterwards once I've had something to eat I'm pretty much good to go?
I've always felt Strava shafts mtb rides by using a speed metric in their equation, but at least they rate a race effort higher than a ride out to Red Riding Hood's Basket for treats. Still 2 1/2 hours in the snow, or 2 3/4 hours of hills on the fixed gear take a lot more out of me than LSD.
Right about now is when I'm expecting Mookie to chime in telling me to get a powermeter. Maybe I should be thankful I don't have the fiscal liquidity to make such an investment.
Basically you multiply the minutes you spend in each zone by that zone, add the numbers together and Viola! You've got your TRIMP.
Any chance to play with numbers is a good time in my book so I started looking back through workouts where I wore a HRM.
First thing I found is I didn't wear a HRM very much last year.
But here are a few of my results. I also includes Strava's "Suffer Score" as a comparison.
On a snowy ride over the weekend my TRIMP was 308, Suffer Score (SS) was 93
One of my first hard efforts of the year TRIMP=471, SS=135
LSD ride TRIMP=593, SS=140
another LSD ride TRIMP=530, SS=122
and at a mtb race, Hodges Village Dam, TRIMP=521, SS=201
The thing that just doesn't jive for me is the value the LSD rides hold. How do they have the highest value, when afterwards once I've had something to eat I'm pretty much good to go?
I've always felt Strava shafts mtb rides by using a speed metric in their equation, but at least they rate a race effort higher than a ride out to Red Riding Hood's Basket for treats. Still 2 1/2 hours in the snow, or 2 3/4 hours of hills on the fixed gear take a lot more out of me than LSD.
Right about now is when I'm expecting Mookie to chime in telling me to get a powermeter. Maybe I should be thankful I don't have the fiscal liquidity to make such an investment.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Playing in the snow is fun.
But it can be hard work.
That's all I got.
It got a couple few inches deeper, but by Sunday the trails were seeing a good amount of traffic, and when it was virgin snow, it was too nice to stop and take a picture.
New sealed cables on Mary Jane. I don't know if the flawless shifting helped or not in the snow (as apposed to SS)
Wait!!!
I just remembered, checkout how sick Blu.2 looks with the Waltworks fork!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Damn Cell Phones!
No some idiot didn't almost hit me talking on the phone; the idiot who almost hit me didn't have any excuse other than being an idiot.
I had to pick up LB from school midday.
Of course my first thought was this was an excellent excuse to get in some riding; hardly worth driving back to work for just a couple hours. Right?
But then a customer called and needed me to fax them some information.
I'll ride back to work, send the faxes, then ride until dark!
I figured I'd do something like this.
Well, as I'm getting close to the shop my phone starts going off.
Mrs CB2 wants to know if I'm meeting the bus for QB.
The thought of pretending I had my phone on "silent" and carrying on my merry way crossed my mind.
But the conscious got the better of me.
Instead of one last LSD before the snow, I tried to make up for time and mileage and jumped the gun on intensity a bit.
Oops.
I had to pick up LB from school midday.
Of course my first thought was this was an excellent excuse to get in some riding; hardly worth driving back to work for just a couple hours. Right?
But then a customer called and needed me to fax them some information.
I'll ride back to work, send the faxes, then ride until dark!
I figured I'd do something like this.
Well, as I'm getting close to the shop my phone starts going off.
Mrs CB2 wants to know if I'm meeting the bus for QB.
The thought of pretending I had my phone on "silent" and carrying on my merry way crossed my mind.
But the conscious got the better of me.
Instead of one last LSD before the snow, I tried to make up for time and mileage and jumped the gun on intensity a bit.
Oops.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Don't you hate when you get the theme to "Alice" stuck in your head?
One of the occupational hazards of riding w/o earbuds.
Usually the sound track in my head cooperates pretty well.
Sometimes though, it doesn't play nice.
Small price to pay for not being completely oblivious to the world around me.
One of the occupational hazards of riding w/o earbuds.
Usually the sound track in my head cooperates pretty well.
Sometimes though, it doesn't play nice.
Small price to pay for not being completely oblivious to the world around me.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
I was psyched.
The trails would be frozen solid, yet the temps had climbed into the mid 20s °F.
I had planned my day right, and I would be finished early enough to hit the CB1 Birthday climb in honor of CB1's birthday.
Then horror came over me; did I forget a jacket?
Yes, but fortunately I had both my team wind breaker, and the ironic Rockshox windbreaker in the truck.
In the bathroom changing, standing in legwarmers and a heartrate strap, very S&M looking, I reach into my bag and pull out a jersey, then a polypro t-shirt, and then another jersey.
Then a sock.
No shorts.
I must have mistaken the black jersey for shorts when I was packing my bag.
I didn't even have my phone with me to take pictures for a fetish magazine.
At least that freed me up for a few hours of frustration working on training spreadsheets (excel is new to me).
The trails would be frozen solid, yet the temps had climbed into the mid 20s °F.
I had planned my day right, and I would be finished early enough to hit the CB1 Birthday climb in honor of CB1's birthday.
Then horror came over me; did I forget a jacket?
Yes, but fortunately I had both my team wind breaker, and the ironic Rockshox windbreaker in the truck.
In the bathroom changing, standing in legwarmers and a heartrate strap, very S&M looking, I reach into my bag and pull out a jersey, then a polypro t-shirt, and then another jersey.
Then a sock.
No shorts.
I must have mistaken the black jersey for shorts when I was packing my bag.
I didn't even have my phone with me to take pictures for a fetish magazine.
At least that freed me up for a few hours of frustration working on training spreadsheets (excel is new to me).
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