Gearing Up for Cohutta

And I mean that literally. Both bikes are somewhere in Virginia with Tom right now, but I’m riding the 29er.  If Namrita says use gears, I’m using gears. My “training” for this race has been haphazard at best, so my only goal is to finish the thing. I’m training through it. Plus we’re taking the week off after the race to wander around the south and ride. We were originally thinking of heading to Asheville via Tsali, but  now we’re thinking we’d like to try places we’ve never been before. Or someplace flat 😉 In any event, we have the car, the bikes (SS and geared for each of us), no reservations and 6 or 7 days to get back to Mass. We’ll have a laptop too, so if anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

Good luck to Kerry and her team in Leesburg!

A Four-Hour Tour

Word of advice – if Andy invites you on a 40 mile ride and says it’s going to take “about 4 hours,” don’t make plans for the afternoon. Last weekend Andy did invite us and a few other on such a ride on the SS Minnow the Andover to Hamilton section of the Bay Circuit trail.

In four hours we’ll be drinking beer… or will we?

I’ve done variations of this ride a couple of time, so I knew we’d be out for more like 7 hours. In the end, it turned out to be more like 50 miles in 9+ hours. Besides the inevitable slinky effect of a large group – you know how it goes, you stop, then one person opens their pack and takes out a bar, then someone else does, then everyone does, then, just as everyone’s almost ready to go again, someone has to pee – the beavers were busy all winter turning ridable bridges into floating, or submerged ones, and ridable trails into swamps.

No worries though. The words “training ride” were never involved in the description and stops and swamp walks just meant more time to socialize. Plus, I was riding the rigid SS, so the breaks gave me enough rest to keep me off the Pain Train (tm Jon).

I managed to keep my feet dry for the first seven hours or so, but I had to give up when we got to Georgetown. After that we were either riding or walking through swamps every few miles it seemed.

Is the trail under the water or under the ice?

Did I mention it was below forty degrees and drizzling? And windy? There is remarkably little road for such a long ride through the suburbs, but riding into a cold, wet wind was torture. I just kept my head down and tried not to think. Despite all that, the first 8 hours were lots of fun. Crappy weather and waterlogged trails are no match for a great riding crew, and most of the trails were dry, or at least ridable. Mostly.

For the last hour or so though, everything I was wearing was wet and I was cold. Really, really cold. So cold that I wasn’t even thinking about the delicious food and beer I was going to have when we finished. I was only thinking about dry socks. MMmmmm dry socks. Even after we finished, it took another frigid half hour to load up the bikes and drive back to Kerry‘s house for showers. If it weren’t for the fact that Kerry and Tom were waiting for it, I’d still be in Kerry’s shower right now. But I’m not in Kerry’s shower right now. I’m sitting at the kitchen table trying to figure out a clever way to wrap this up, so I can get out for another all-day SS ride out to another section of the Bay Circuit Trail (midweek vacation day!). But I can’t! Gotta ride. See you later.

Extreme Makeover: Singlespeed Edition

You may (or may not) have noticed that I haven’t mentioned riding my singlespeed for a while. That’s because I haven’t been riding my singlespeed for a while… It’s an older, Brodie-build Spot frame that I got used on ebay for $250 a couple of years ago that’s ridiculously perfect for me – it fits great and I love the handling. The only thing I didn’t love about it was the lack of a rear disc brake. Chris Igleheart said he could easily add a disk brake mount, so I dropped it off with him back in December. Between the small bike builder’s show and other work committments, it took him a while to get to it, then I decided I wanted a rigid fork painted to match, which added a few more weeks onto the process. I finally got it back two weeks ago, and it is awesome.

In addition to adding the disc brake tab, Chris removed the brake bosses and added some different cable guides. I love how the purple looks with the pink hubs (my main consideration in picking a color, of course). It looks good on the trail too.

The only bad part is, I’m completely out of SS shape. I’ve been riding a single-speed on the road/commuting, and trying to push bigger gears on the geared bike, but I’ve ridden it twice now and It feels exactly like I haven’t ridden a single speed since September (when I switched over to the 29er for LaRuta). I can get good power when I can sit and pedal, but I fall apart fast once I have to stand up and stomp hard. Even though I feel like an out-of-shape newb, I love having my SS again.  I still can’t decide whether to do Cohutta on the SS or the 29er. We’ll see how it goes this weekend.

Suck it up, princess

That’s my advice to me lately. Somehow in the past few weeks I became a total weather wimp. I’m sick of being cold. Sick of it! Sick of booties and toe warmers and bulky gloves on the commute and not being able to stop on a trail ride without freezing to death. Sick of having my head frozen by wind on a run. 30 degree days I would have been thrilled about two months ago have me whining about the wind. Or if it’s 30ish and cloudy, I whine about the lack of sun. I already declared this the Trainer-Free Winter, but if I was riding the trainer, I’d be whining about that too.

So I’m sucking it up and trying not to whine so much (except for right now…). I got my wussy butt out on the road yesterday for a 3-hour ride on the fixed-gear. It was 30s, cloudy, and windy, but I was fine once I stopped making excuses and actually got out there. I haven’t ridden the fixie since the last (and first) time I rode it a few weeks ago, but I must have learned a lot that day because it was a lot easier this time. I only tried to not pedal in times of stress – riding through the snow patches on the bike path (when will it ever melt?) and trying to manage a 90-degree turn with toe-overlap to squeeze around the car parked in front of the bike path exit (dickheads can be dickheads even when they’re not driving).

I did a double suck-up this morning – I rode to work even though it was only 21F when I left and I rode the fixie on the Commute of a Thousand Stops. It wasn’t too bad. The hardest part is figuring out how to manage the almost-trackstand I’ve perfected for stops and turns, where I just stand up on the pedals and balance there for a while until traffic clears or it becomes obvious I’ll have to put a foot down. (If I could really  trackstand, I’d never have to put that foot down.) I haven’t figured out how to do that without standing. I also have to get the habit of clipping out with my left foot sometimes. And figure out how to bunny-hop while pedaling. I did develop an interesting hopping technique when I had to start quickly with my foot in the wrong place.  When my left foot started pedaling up behind me, I hopped on my right foot to until the left foot was in front again and I could use the force of the downstoke to get up on the saddle. I’m sure this is not recommended, and totally uncool, but it will have to do until I better at positioning myself. There will be a lot more traffic on the ride home, so I’ll have lots more opportunities to practice. Wish me luck!

It Wasn’t Broke

After 5 days of no riding at all, and except for a 13-mile jog, not much other activity, I jumped into riding with both cleats. Tuesday I rode to work, then to the rock gym, then home. It was only 26 miles or so total, but I was on my 30lb CrossCheck with studded tires. And there was a headwind. Both ways – I swear! And I only used one gear. Between all the riding in snow, slush, salt, mud, sand, etc. the drivetrain was completely goobered and I was afraid if I shifted up or down I’d never get back.Wednesday, I rode to work and then to spin class. Again with the headwind! I was already toast when I got there.

Thursday I slacked off and drove, so I could get to Redbones in plenty of time to grab a bite and a coupla beers with Kerry, Andy, Chris, Tom and Tim before heading over to Somerville theater to catch Klunkers. And more beer. I’m so psyched Somerville theater serves beer now. They already have ice cream! I don’t know what else you could ask for in a theater. The movie itself was excellent – very funny and interesting. Even if the movie had totally sucked, it would have been worth it just to see all the MTB people we saw in the theater. Old friends, new friends, Gary Fischer, people I saw yesterday, people I have seen in a year… Good times!

Friday I rode into work again. It was already snowing when I left, but it wasn’t windy and there was just enough snow to hide the toenails-of-a-thousand-poodles noise of my studded tires, but not enough make things tricky. Coming home was a different story.There was already 6 inches or so on the ground and there was slush, if we were lucky, or a packed-down surface too soft for the studs to catch and too hard for the knobs to grip if we weren’t. 90% of the ride was fine, but that compacted snow took a few minutes off my life. The rear tire would suddenly change direction, then change to the other direction when I corrected. Fortunately, traffic was light and I could ride in a squiggly line for a few second at a time without bumping into any moving traffic. I followed that workout with a core workout in the driveway. By the time I figured out Tom wasn’t coming out to help me, I was too tired to go in an hit him over the head with the shovel.

All that snow made for unridable trails, even on the Cape, so we did house stuff and errands all day Saturday and headed out on the road Sunday. Since my CrossCheck was already a defacto SS, I figured I’d not only make it a real SS, but go all out and make it a fixed gear too (of course, by “I” here, I really mean “Tom” – there’s another reason I didn’t hit him over the head with the shovel…)

That ride was interesting! It took less than 10 seconds for me to try to not pedal while the bike was moving (at the top of the driveway) and have the bike slap me upside the kneecaps. It took 11 seconds for me to realize that it’s really hard to get started when you can’t backpedal the pedal into position. Once I figured out how to stop and start without fighting the bike (too much – I have a ways to go yet), I started to dig the fixiness of it. It certainly makes road riding a lot more interesting. I had to be thinking at all times. I suppose eventually it will become more second nature. The wheel with the fixed hub has a bad rim, so Tom threw a regular freewheel SS hub on the Xcheck for the ride in this morning and I’m glad for that. I’m not so sure I’m ready for commuting with a fixed gear. There are so many street crossings, stop signs, left turns and stop lights – not to mention the innumerable unpredictable dickheads in cars – that my head might explode from all the thinking. We’ll see.

Life’s a Beach

As I mentioned, I headed down to Myrtle Beach last Thurs with my sister for a long weekend with my Dad and stepmom. Myrtle Beach is special kind of hell for anyone who’s idea of an outdoor sport does not include a golf cart or a surf board. Any piece of solid land that doesn’t have a condo development or shopping center on it has a golf course on it. There are, however, lots of bars and restaurants. As much as I adore adult beverages and food, you can only eat and drink so much, so I figured I’d join my sister in running the Myrtle Beach half-marathon to occupy a few of the hours between pints and meals.

We got up at 4am to make the 6:30 race start. A year ago, the 4am wake up time would have been torture, but between last season’s 100 milers, La Ruta, and numerous 6am flights out of Logan, it didn’t bother me too much. Been there, got up then. I wasn’t too worried about finishing the race. I started training with a “long” run of 3 miles in late November (after La Ruta), and my biggest worry was getting injured beforehand (been there, pulled/bruised/inflamed/overused that). I made it to race day with no injured parts, so 90% of the battle was over before I got there.

Yes, it was dark when the race started.

The race went as well as it could have. The weather was perfect – high 40s to start, low 50s at the end. The scenery was interesting if not always beautiful. The course went along the beach, but you could only see the water in between highrises. The race organizers had things down pat – there were 3000+ people in the 1/2M, and I was in a pack the whole time, but there was plenty of room to pass and be passed. I like that. If I’m going to suffer, I want lots of company – but not too much.

Throughout the race, various things would start to hurt, first my shins, then my back, then my left knee, then my left IT band, but they never hurt at the same time and, with the exception of the blister on my right foot, they all went away. After 10 miles, all the separate pains reunited in my legs and stayed there. It was a struggle to keep up my pace (slow as it was), but I wanted to get it over with. The mile between 11 and 12 was especially difficult, mostly because I completely missed the 11 mile marker and thought I was still heading for 11. It wasn’t until I actually saw the 12 on the mile marker that I realized I was mile further than I thought I was. That was nice. I finished up strong with a 2:17 – pretty much smack in the middle of the field. And only 3 minutes behind my sister. I decided I had a 3-minute handicap for being 3 years older.

Thursday at dinner, I had this conversation with my father. I’m sure you’ve had one just like it:

Me: Are tattoo parlors legal down here?

Dad: Yeah, there’s one right down the street. You want a tattoo?

Me: Yeah.

Dad: I’ll take you there after the race.

So, after a humungous breakfast at IHOP and a shower, we made a family outing to the local tattoo place. I knew what I wanted and where, so it went pretty quick.

Easy to show if I want, and easy to hide if I want – related to my ancestry, but not a leprachon or shamrock 😉

My sister went with us “just to check it out” and ended up with a pretty blue butterfly on her hip. I won’t post the pic here, but if you see her, ask her to show it to you 😉 I like it so much I might get one myself next time I go back to MB. I suppose I could just go over to the tattoo place 5 blocks from my house, but then there would be nothing to stop me from getting one every week.

After the running and ink diversions, it was back to our usual activies – down to the clubhouse for a beer, over to the race party at Hardrock Cafe for a beer and some food, over to the local steakhouse for a couple of beers, and some food.

Sunday we took the party south to Charleston, since my sister and I have never been there. We were blessed with the third warm sunny day in a row and got to stroll around in short sleeves and capris. I like Charleston. They have big margeritas.

And ponies in the streets.

And gum trees.

It was a lovely trip, but I was happy to get back to rainy Boston Monday to my own house and husband, bikes, and furry critters.

Ceiling cat is watching you put on 19 layers of clothes so you can ride to work. Silly human.

Nice Hat!

That’s what everyone would say if you were wearing this.

At least that’s what I’m assuming everyone will say to me when I wear it somewhere other than the living room. I got this from Laura, an accomplished singlespeed enduro racer and a great knitter to boot. You should get one too! Check out her site.

My awesome hat arrived Thursday, but I left Thursday afternoon for sunny Myrtle Beach to visit my dad and stepmom and run the half-marathon. More on that later – all the pics are still on the camera at home.

Rocks, Road, Rocks, Road, Rocks

Still mixing it up.

Fake Rocks
A few weeks ago, my friend Michelle sent out email to see if any of us girls wanted to go to the local rock gym and take a climbing class. I need another activity like I need a hole in the head, so naturally I agreed to do it. We took the class two weeks ago and went back to the gym last Friday, to get tested to make sure we could tie ourselves onto the harness in a manner that would not cause us to come crashing down, and to make sure we could belay another person in a manner that would not cause them to come crashing down. I’d like to say we passed with flying colors, but it was more by the skin of our teeth. The tying on was not a problem, but the belay technique the instructor said was fine, was not fine with the tester. So we basically learned to belay and got tested at the same time. We did eventually pass, but it took a while. We spent the rest of the night on some easy walls, just getting used to the tying on/belay process.

Riding the Road
Saturday, the trails were too wet and/or snowy to ride, so we hit the road despite some serious wind. I haven’t ridden the road bike in a long time. I realized just how long when I got on the bike and looked at the odometer. This is the mileage from the Climb to the Clouds last July.

One of the reasons I don’t road ride much, is that Tom and I are not compatible on the road. Even if I draft off him, it’s faster than I want to go. I also have a bad habit of forgetting to pay attention and drifting off the draft- if I wanted to pay attention to what I’m doing on a ride, I’d hit the trails. Saturday worked out well though. Tom rode his heavy, newly-fixed Xcheck and I rode my fully geared and delightfully light Seven. I stayed in one gear the whole time, which worked out perfectly. It was easy to keep together, and I even did some of the pulling. The terrain on our out-of-the-house routes is rolling at best, but there are still some good hills, especially Monument road in Concord, aka, Roadie highway.

Real Rocks
Sunday, we went to Foxboro state forest for some real rocks with Michelle, Keith and Curt. The conditions were pretty good considering all the snow/rain we had earlier in the week. We took way too many breaks to talk to other riders, and each other, to call it training, but there are some good climbs there and plenty of rocks to keep the technical skills sharp.

Riding the rocks

Snacking on the rocks

Running the Road
Monday I did my last long run (12 miles) before the half-marathon on Feb 16. As usual, I ran to work, but this time the weather was finally warm and calm enough that I could run a route around Fresh Pond and along the Charles without getting frozen. It was a nice change of pace from my usual route to the end of the bike path through Somerville (which is pretty much the same as my bike commuting route – zzzz). I felt pretty good – at one point, about 5 miles in, I was just grooving out to my ipod and forgot I was running. I think I’ll be fine (if slow) for the actual race. I also think I’m addicted to my ipod.

Fake Rocks Again
Tuesday night Michelle and I went back to the rock gym. We were a lot more adventurous in our wall choices this time. So much so that we both fell off the wall unexpectedly. Neither of us crashed to the ground, so I guess it’s safe to say we have the belaying down now. I don’t see myself climbing El Captain any time soon, or climbing any actual rocks for that matter, but I like the rock gym. It’s a good challenge and a fun way to get some upper body strength. After two climbs up the outslanted wall, my forearms were killing me. That has to translate to some SS bar honking power!

Giant Heads

I don’t think of myself as a TV person. We had the same 20″ TV for 9 years and it was fine. Then we started noticing that the big TVs other people had were a lot nicer, but it wasn’t enough to motivate us to go out and buy one. Then we started noticing that all the text on our perfectly fine TV, like basketball scores and the cable menu, was getting harder to read, because the TV stations assume everyone has a big TV. Finally, a few weeks ago, I saw a Celtics commercial that displayed a changing phrase in the middle of the screen:

Where blah blah blah happens

Where etc. etc. etc.happens

Where yada yada yada happens

It wasn’t until the third time the phrase appeared that I figured out the first word was not “whore.” So we went out and bought the biggest TV that would fit on our stand. Turns out that’s a 40″ TV. Turns out that on a 40″ TV, close-up shots of people’s heads, like newscasters, are life-sized – or maybe even bigger. That was a few weeks ago, and the giants heads still freak me out a little.

Last week, the Verizon FIOS guy kicked us all the way into the 21st century with an HD/DVR box. Now we see giant heads in high def. with no commercials and it’s bringing out the inner couch-potato in us (not that it’s buried very deep).

Tom mentioned on his blog that we started to drive to Otis last Sunday and turned around halfway there when it started blizzarding and people started to forget that cars are supposed to stay on the road. With the wheels facing down. He also said that when we got home (2.5 hours later, BTW), we decided to just stay in and watch TV, which is not actually true. We got home, sat in front of the TV, started fiddling with the DVR, and could not leave. I kept thinking of things I could do – run, go to yoga, ride the trainer, but eventually I turned up the heat, made a big batch of popcorn, and yielded to the magical power of the pixels. Right now we’re watching the second coming of Christ superbowl, and the pic is so good, I’m actually paying attention some of the time. (9 to 7 NYG, 11:10 left in the 4th quater. I can’t take the stress!)

Edit: AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH! SO. FREAKING. CLOSE.

One of the things we like to watch on the DVR is the Dog Whisperer. It has cute dogs, and always a happy ending. Our cat Gidget likes to watch it too. At first she put her paws up on the TV stand and tried to get the dogs through the TV, but it’s too far off the ground, so now she just sits and stares at the TV until we start watching something else. That’s as close to exercise as she gets. She usually does this.

Zora just thinks the TV goes well with her fur.

Same Old Different Stuff

This is the off season, right?

I have been riding, but it the same drill every week:

-Ride the rigid 29er on the Cape Sat or Sunday

-Spin class Thursday

-Commute to work a few times a week

The one exception occured two weekends ago when the snow finally melted enough to let us ride somewhere besides the Cape. Saturday we road at Dogtown. Mallie, to answer your question: “So…have you had a chance to check out the rigid fork on trails where you get bumped around a little more?” – Yes, and it kicked my ass. Dogtown is a glacial moraine – that’s a fancy word for “really rocky”. Most of the ride was fine, if slower than normal, until I ate it hard coming off a rock wall. Did you ever wonder what you look like on your way over the bars? In my case, it’s not pretty, but in the interest of public education, I’m posting this unflattering picture of me preparing for departure.

If it looks like I’m sticking out my tongue, it’s because I am. I always do that when I’m concentrating on a technical section. Someday I’m going to bite it off.

That Sunday we also rode at Foxboro, which is also really rocky, but not so much so. I started out stiff and sore from Sat. Whenever I got on the bike from the right side, my lower back siezed up. and I thought it was going to be a death march, but I loosed up and rode pretty much everything I normally do. Definitely slower on the downhills though.

My carbon footprint is growing bigger (along with the rest of me). Between the cold and dark, I don’t have the will to ride to yoga or in the rain, or snow, or heavy wind, so I’m only riding in two times a week. Then there’s the training for the 1/2 marathon on Feb 16. In addition to one long run a week, I have to run two more times a week to keep the long run from being more painful than it already is. I have to confess, I like running (oh the horror!). II don’t like it as much as riding, but I’d rather run in any weather than ride the trainer (which is still exactly where it was when I put it away last winer. Where exactly that is, I don’t even know.). So when I crap out from lack of training at Cohutta, at least I can run up the hills…