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/