Last Road Ride of the Year

I haven’t blogged for nearly a month and now two blogs in less than a week. I thought you might enjoy my last road ride of 2006

I had two long rides on my RAAM training schedule this weekend, 11 hours on Friday and 7 hours on Saturday. I was really hoping to get 300 miles between the two days, but Mother Nature had other plans. To be more specific – Winter.

Just as planned, I was on the road early Friday morning and it was cold. As I started out the temperature was only in the high teens. I was on my way to Conway, planning to ride over the Kanc and Gonzo’s pass. Did I mention it was cold?

About an hour into the ride my food bottles had all turned to slush (maybe Hammer slushies will be the next big thing at 7-11, flavor plain.) Within another 30 minutes they were solid. As I peddled north, the roads were getting slicker, and the Sherpas were urging me to turn back. So I decided to do just that, instead of lugging a gallon of frozen Hammer up to the White Mts, I made a loop back home to reprovision.

This first loop took about 3 hours; I got home had a hot cup of coffee and a snack, and then headed out for a 5 1/2 hour loop. This time with my food bottles tucked into my jersey pockets to keep them from freezing. I returned from that loop, had some more coffee and some soup, and then headed out just as the sun was going down for my final 2 1/2 hour loop. I finished the 11 hours, completing a painfully slow 172 miles and am pretty sure the temperature never got above freezing. Welcome to NH - Live, Freeze and Die.

On Saturday the weather people (gotta be politically correct) predicted a cloudy day with an occasional snow shower. Wrong, it snowed. Now I know that a couple of inches of snow in New England are no big deal, but when you’re an hour from home on 700x23c tires and there are a couple of inches of snow on the road, it’s a big deal. After a slow and slippery ride home, I threw the studded tires on my mountain bike and headed into the woods to finish up my 7 hour training day.

Happy New Year and a RAAM 2007!!!!

Return to: http://teamwalker07.com/

Return of Pinky and Chief

Well it has been a while since I updated my blog. So I thought I had better take a minute and let you know how things are going. So here are a few of the highlights and lowlights from the last month:

Dave Wentworth (aka Pinky) and Terry Roach (aka Chief) were in town over the Christmas holiday. I was able to get together with both of them and take a couple of rides before Terry headed back to Texas and Dave returns to California. It was just like old times. (Ask me sometime about the jackass that tried to run us off the road in Dunbarton and then stopped to let us know that cyclist don’t belong on the road. I wanted to rip his head off.)

RAAM training is progressing very well, although last week was a struggle. I had a small cold and I didn’t feel really sick but it did take a toll on me when I would go out for a ride. Last Friday I rode from my house to Conway, over the Kanc and Gonzo’s pass. It is a 174 mile loop that in the past I have done in just over 10 hours, but this time because of the cold it took me over 11 hours to complete the loop. It was a long slow slog and I was happy to get home that night.

I am feeling better and plan on riding the same loop this weekend. If I’m not riding/feeling any better it may be a sign of over training and I will need to adjust my training plan.

The Y-foil is together and tuned up. It is a sweet ride and I think it will be the perfect addition to the RAAM arsenal. I have included a picture. It is not the clearest pic and when I get a chance I will post some additional shots on the pic page.

I went over the 12,000 mile mark for the 2006 calendar year. I think only 6,000 of them count, those are the ones going up hill. The other 6,000 are all down hill.

I saw three moose on one of my trips over Gonzo’s pass. That is only appropriate as Gonzo goes over Mt. Moosilauke. I was descending at about 30 mph and passed a bull and two cows standing next to the road. I didn’t really notice them until I was right next them. It gave me a little scare; I slowed down a bit (not too much) and decided to keep a better lookout.

There are just over five months left before the start of RAAM. Plans are progressing well. Most of the crew positions are filled; I have reserved the rental vans, hotel rooms and a camp site at the start line, and submitted my application.

The weather has been great and I haven’t missed a single scheduled workout. I have only ridden the trainer twice and both times it was raining and 40 degrees out. I don’t mind riding in the cold; I don’t mind riding in the rain, but I hate riding in the cold rain.

Well I guess that is about it. I have an 11 hour ride and a 7 hour ride scheduled this weekend. It looks like it will be a little chilly but dry so I am going to head back up to the White Mts.

Return to: http://teamwalker07.com/

Just Call Me Sisyphus

Only 6 months until RAAM (5 months to train and 1 month to taper.) Training is going well; I am right on schedule and feeling strong. Although winter has not even started, June 10th is just around the corner.

I officially started training for RAAM 07 on October 15 th. Below is a chart showing my mileage for each of the past 7 weeks. (This pic is a little hard to read so here are the numbers: week 1- 205.7, week 2-234.8, week 3-260.9, week 4-191.5, week 5-278.3, week 6-300.3, week 7-317.9) Total for the 7 weeks: 1,789.4 miles.

Looking at this chart, I can’t help but think of Sisyphus, the character in Greek mythology who was forced to endlessly roll a huge bolder up a hill, only to reach the top and have it roll back to the bottom. I work through each training period, increasing my hours from the previous week until I can cut back and recover in the 4th week, only to have it start all over.

At least Sisyphus didn’t have to roll the bolder up a hill in the pouring rain. This past Friday I had a 9 hour ride on my training schedule and a 5 hour ride for Saturday. When I went to bed Thursday night, they were predicting showers all day Friday, so I decided to flip my Friday and Saturday rides. Five hours in the rain sounded like less misery than 9 hours in the rain.

When I got out of bed on Friday I was surprised to see that it wasn’t raining. I pulled up the radar map on my computer, and it looked like I might just be able to get in my long ride without drowning. The storm was passing north and south of the Concord area, and it looked like if I headed south/southwest I could avoid much of the rain. Besides it was going to be in the 60s!!! Doesn’t this radar map make you want to ride your bike for 9 hours?

I headed south, to Dunbarton, over Mills Hill and into Goffstown (via Gorham Pond Rd.) My plan was to take route 13 over to New Boston, but I must have missed a turn, and I ended up on 114 in Bedford. The nice thing about being on a 9 hour ride, when you’re only a couple of hours into the ride and you’re lost, you don’t need to panic, you have plenty of time to adapt. Besides, I wasn’t lost, I just wasn’t where I had planned to be.

I didn’t have a map of the area with me, but I roughly knew where I was, so I just kept going. As I heading south on 114, I spotted New Boston Rd; Figuring it would take me to New Boston (made sense to me) I took it. It was a nice road with some really nice climbing and it did go into New Boston, but then it wound south into Antrim and dumped me out on 101, probably the busiest road in the state. Now I decided my best bet would be to ride to Milford and take 13 north up through Mont Vernon to New Boston, then head west to Bennington and Antrim. This is a really nice area for cycling, lots of rolling hills and old New England towns.

After about 6 ½ hours of riding, I had worked my way back up to Henniker. I still had 2 ½ hours to ride, so I decided to head up to Bradford, through Sutton, to New London and then Finally east and home. This is just about the time that my pleasant 60 degree ride, started to get ugly.

On the way to Bradford, it started to rain. No big deal, I put on my rain jacket and kept on keeping on. I have ridden in the rain plenty of times. Then the rain turned into a down pour. No big deal, I pride myself on being tough and little rain wasn’t going to stop me. Then it happened, my chain broke. There I was, standing in a puddle by the side of the road, with rain running down my neck, trying to fix my chain.

I got my chain back together and continued on my way just as the sun was disappearing. As the sun went down so did the temperature. The mild 60 degree day turned into a chilly, soggy evening in the mid 40s. To add icing to the cake, my light wouldn’t work. Every time I hit a bump it would turn off, and thanks to the NH DOT that was about every 10th of second. Cold, wet, and blind I finished the ride at 8 hours and 55 minutes. I know I was 5 minutes short but I just didn’t care. My average speed, which had stayed around 17 mph during most of the day, plummeted to just over 16 mph. Another 147 miles in the bank.

To date we have raised $3,555.00 for Special Olympics.

Return to: http://teamwalker07.com/