Last post for a while, back to VT!

yup. it is over. Done with the New Hampshire job, just have to pack up the car, visit family and then head home. Rainy, nasty day, so not much for riding, but I hope to do something active. I got into the VT 50 again, and Bear brook is this weekend. Then I get to start work for the summer, and look forward to the new job in the fall.
I hope it all works out!

Coyote hill

I love the Coyote hill course. I hate the fact that you need a license to race there. I am, admittedly, a "wicked noob" when it comes to racing, but I feel like I am physically capable of racing in the expert class. Unfortunately, I am only allowed to race cat 2 at "official" events. I showed up early after carpooling with a friend who was bringing his cousin down to race in the beginner class. His cousin started well, but broke his chain halfway through the lap and had to walk out of the woods. Mike (my carpool buddy) and I got dressed and pre-rode the course way before our 11 o'clock start time. Then we got nice and cold in the rain, and while waiting for the start which was pushed back half an hour. I wanted to race in the open/cat 1 single speed class, but I can't because I have never done a "norba" race before and because there are lots of rules to follow to race bikes with the big kids. Oh well, live and learn. I rode my two laps in the greasy, rooty, mucky, pump park that is the Coyote hill race course. I had a lot of fun riding, and if I ever race there again, I will put my suspension fork on my single speed. My arms are a little sore from riding it rigid. Mike crashed early in his lap and may have broken his arm, so I got to drive home. I had a pretty good day and might actually get more serious about this whole bike racing thing.

Back on the Road

So today I got to get back on the pavement for a two and a half hour ride.  It was hot, and the wind was fierce.  I have a bad habit of mistaking a tailwind for a headwind when I set out, probably because I am usually slow to warm up and I feel like I am working harder than I need to.  This makes the ride back home a better workout and much more demeaning.  If you are damaging your self confidence, then you aren't really training, right?  Anyway, the weather was actually really nice today.  I believe I increased my freckle count exponentially today riding around in the afternoon sun.  My loop followed a big river for the majority of the ride, and views like this are very tempting when it is ninety and humid.  

I felt pretty good after warming up (do you really need to warm up on a ninety degree day?) and was able to make good time for the second half of the ride.  Just a few more short rides and hopefully a good day down at Coyote hill this Sunday.  

World Cup sh*tshow

Yesterday I went up to Plymouth to get my crankset tightened up and to ride some single track.  Plymouth is a cool little town with an inordinate amount of trails for small town in Northern NH.  I asked the guys at the LBS about some trails further North.  They told me about some logging roads that I tried to check out, but they were still wet, so I headed back to town and rode a super, double secret trail that may or may not be called world cup, as rumor has it.  It is super tight, Eff you single track with rocks that eat tires and do funny things to tubeless tires.  It has steeps

And a very scenic view of the local thoroughfare.  

The first part of the trail runs right along the highway in between the deer catching fence and the pavement.  At times, you pop out right next to the trucks and tourist zipping South at 75 miles and hour.  After the first part, it gets gnarly and runs along a stream up some old logging roads.  It has some very cool rockwork. 

I like to ride the trail as an out and back, heading uphill and then coming down.  The climb is really technical on the way up, topping out on a rocky section with some cool bridges.

  I topped out and turned around back through the rock garden.  It is not a good thing when you pinch a tubeless tire between two rocks.  Air rushes out very quickly.  Somehow, I managed to keep riding after checking to see that the tire wasn't completely flat.  I hit some of the steep sections and immediately went over the handle bars, hit the leaf cover on the ground and accelerated downhill on my back.  Not fun.  I picked myself back up and continued down.  On the next steep, I turned the front wheel a little bit, and went over again.  I slammed my knee on the stem or ground (I don't remember which) picked my self up again and soldiered on.  It wasn't until the third trip over the bars that I realized my front tire was near flat.  Anytime I turned the wheel, the tire pressure was so low that tire tried to come off the rim.  Miraculously, It didn't.  I rode back to the car, refilled the tire (it had a whopping 8 psi) and heard the bead pop back into the rim strip.  I am lucky I didn't have to walk back to the car, and I think I will check my tire pressure a bit more often.  

Vermont state Single speed championships/Flower Power

(Pic borrowed from Bike29 blog, please don't sue!)
Today was the first race of the year. The Flower power race at Catamount outdoor center was a new course (much more technical) and lots of fun. I came in second for the VT state single speed championships, which is pretty good for me considering 1st place went to an ex-Sobe/Cannondale racer, who is still really, really fast. I think I rested a bit too much, and hopefully I can ride more this week and get ready for Coyote Hill next Sunday. We will see.

This week has been a rest week for me, somewhat by choice, but mostly not by choice.  I went on the Senior trip, up to Caratunk, Me.  It is beautiful up there, and there are a lot of logging roads that look like they could have been fun to ride.  We were up there and to raft the Kennebec river.  The water was nice and high and the rafting was sweet.  What wasn't sweet was staying up until 2 in the morning and then getting up at 5:30.  I love to sleep, and this did not working for me.  I was excited to ride yesterday when I got home, and I decided to try and ride with my dogs for the first time, since I was only going for a quick spin.  The spin was much quicker than I plan, as my chain decided to do this.  

I was not very pleased.  The icing on the cake was my dog, (the one that was hit by a car two weeks ago) decided to chase a porcupine.  Again.  I was a little perturbed when, after calling him for five minutes, he showed up with a face full of quills.  He got a porcupine about 3 months ago, and apparently his memory is a bit fuzzy.  Last time he went to vet, this time I removed them myself.  Hopefully, the removal of the quills sans-anesthesia will help him remember that porcupines=bad.  I am not going to bet on it, though.  

The best part of the ride is that afterwards, the dogs did this

And I did the same.  Fell asleep on the floor at 6:30, got into bed at 8, and woke up at 6 this morning.  Hopefully I will be nice and rested for Sunday, first race of the year!

Bike porn and bald eagles.

Today's ride was a repeat of Sunday's ride, only faster and less daudling.  I brought my phone so I could take some pictures of the sunny day, and the new ride.  It is sweet steel niner that is built up nice and light in hopes of a good result at this weekend's race at Catamount.  This has been my first race of the year for three years now, and I think I am in pretty good shape for this year.  It is also the VT state Single speed championship, so we will see how that will turn out.  

This is the new ride, which is cool, but not nearly as cool as my wife.

The shakedown rides have gone well, and the bike fits like a round peg in a circular hole.  It should be fun to ride all summer.  The ride was a quick road warm up, then 45 minutes of trail (almost all of the local trail network at Franklin falls) The cool part is riding below the dam.  I look almost celestial. 

The dam has been our salvation while at school.  A very compact area of trail that is a ten minute ride away.  It is where I run all winter with the dogs, and where I brought the mountain bike team for most of the fall.  We had a lot of fun.  The ride back across the dam is unlike any riding I have done in the East.  It is almost a moonscape with a big river right down the hill.  

On the ride back I got to scare some locals blowing the dope on a logging road that I take to get back to school.  Then I saw a bald eagle under the power line commute.  Not quite Epic wilderness, but it is cool to see any way. 

Not quite so sucktastic

Got the new bike together, after two days of running around getting all the little parts that were needed, and putting them all in the right places. Thougth I was going to ride early today, motivated and went for a quick spin with Jason who was right, ramped cogs do not work well on a single speed. Then I went to the in laws for an all pig breakfast. Bacon, hash, ham, sausage and some hash fries (they were like garnish for the pig products) After doing my part to save the world from future swine flu outbreaks, we headed home and then left for school. I figured I wasn't going to get to ride again as the weather was crap as we left, but as well pulled into Tilton the sun burned through the clouds and everything cleared up. I got a quick dinner and then headed out for a two hour tempo ride, mostly on single track. I even found a new loop at the local trails. Things have been getting a little better, but it still sucks that the woman has mono. She was training hard and working hard, and I guess she went a little too hard. Hopefully she gets well soon and can still do the 100.

Sucktastic.

Second day of duty in a row, lots of year end goings-on at school (lots of formal dress and pomp and circumstance and important people making themselves feel more important) Not my cup of tea.  The woman might have mono again.  I might have it.  Won't know for a few weeks, but the plans for the near future may be drastically altered.  

Silver lining is we get to go home this weekend because there is no racing with the sickness.  I get to build my bike, go for a ride and hope that I am not sick.  That should be fun.  

A random collection of stuff

Yesterday my wife convinced me to go and do the "stairmill" with her for an hour.  She is very fit, and she says the stairmill is hard.  I was very, very scared.  It turns out my fear was completely justified.  We set the stairmill for an hour on a ridiculous level, and we were off.  15 minutes into the hour, I was ready to be done.  I was sweating so much it looked like someone had wrung out a sponge of salt water on my stairmill.  My wife was just bopping along to her music, looking like she just started.  I suffered through an hour, and now I never have to do it again.  

The best part of the stairmill is that afterward, I ate one of these 

They are the best tasting bars, ever, period.  No ifs, ands or buts.  I would eat these things everyday if I could.  The only downside is they don't do too well in the heat (anything over 65 degrees and they get MESSY)  

Enough about my sweet tooth.  In other randomness, my dog got hit by a car about a week ago. The car was going about 40mph, and it hit him in the rear end.  He was not happy (I was pretty pissed at him for being so stupid) and we took him to the emergency vet, fearing that he was done for.  But, he is special.  The vet picked him up off the emergency gurney and he walked across the room.  The x-rays showed no broken bones.  The only change we have noticed is that he farts a lot now.  He also scares himself when he farts, getting up to see what is going on with his rear end.  

He is very special.  He looks sweet here, but he is mostly evil.  

In more relevant news, I went for a bike ride today.  I successfully avoided the rain and got in some good tempo work and some climbing with legs that were really funky.  They felt okay to start, then heavy, then springy, then dead, then heavy, then springy, and then okay but tired at the end of the ride.  Very weird, but maybe it means I am getting stronger.  Or my legs are going to fall off. 

This is the first ride of the season that I wore an actually kit for.  I feel goofy any time I wear a matching outfit and I am not racing. 

Can you tell?  

Even my helmet and sunnies match.  This is a monumental milestone in my cycling habit/career/infatuation.  I didn't plan it, but everything matches.  I know the vest isn't part of the "kit" but the colors match, so I am going to say it counts.  

The ride was one of my usual out and backs, although I added on some exploring at the end.  I got to a road I had looked at on google maps before, and I decided to see where it went.  It runs along a river for a while, and then up the side of a mountain. 

 Lots of private land, and some interesting snowmobile trails that I could see myself exploring. I went out for a while, climbed until the road started descending.  I turned back and headed home at this point, and made it home just in time for dinner in the cafeteria.  It is very nice to get home and just role into the dining hall with all the food I can eat ready for me.  I will miss that part of school, but I think I will get over it quickly.  

Waiting Game

Still waiting, not patiently, for the end of the year.  Or, at least to build up my new-to-me frame.  Pete had a frame that was too small, and I was done dealing with horizontal drops on my Soma.  It was a great bike, fun to to ride and race, but the two flats I had while I owned it were not fun.  Walking two hours out of the woods in carbon soled shoes is not a good time.  So, now I have to wait to get the parts from Vermont here to the frame so I can build a mountain bike and ride it for the remainder of the time we are in NH.  

Anyway, today Aliza and I went for a run at the dam.  We escaped the rain and made it through the cold.  The trails look to be in great shape, with a lot of raking done for a nice, tacky base.  Yesterday was a great set of intervals on the road bike.  I limped home after 8 sets, and I am trying to avoid going upstairs at all costs today.  Not easy to do when I live on the third floor.  

I am hoping to have the bike built at least for the 17th of May.  George from Five hills bikes has a really cool race going, which validates the property taxes we have been paying for the past two years while living in New Hampy.  

Hope it goes well. 

Longest post ever

The end of the year is rapidly approaching, which means three things.  We are done with our "real jobs" soon, we get to go home soon, and we get to start racing/participating/hanging out soon.  I am very excited for the summer and the new job next year, but I am also on the verge of soiling myself at the prospect of so many things being able to go wrong or not work out.  I know that worrying won't help, but it doesn't mean I am not going to worry.  

Anyway, Last week we headed down to Bear brook, a 10,000 acres state park in New Hampy that has a bunch of trails for running (Aliza) and biking (me).  We can both leave the car at the same time and be out on trails for 3-4 hours and meet back at the car.   The big bonus is there is a really good burrito and smoothie restaurant on the way home, so we can stuff our pie holes before returning to school.  

Aliza is very excited to have her picture taken. 

My last trip to Bear Brook ended 2o minutes in with a broken chain.  This time I was ready to ride.  I headed out on the fire roads and snowmachine trails, and then hit one of the best trails in the park, hedgehog ledge.  It is built under a huge boulder, with smaller boulders that the trail winds through and a lot of flakes that are used to step the trail up and down the hills.  Lots of fun on a rigid single. 

 After the rock maze, the single track is tight and flowy, with lots of rocks to fling yourself over and ride off of.  After the single track, you head past Bear Pond, which is quite picturesque.  

I usually head out from the main parking lot to the end of the main road (I believe it is called podunk road, but I am not sure) past bear pond, past the 4-h camp to the best section of single track in the whole park.  It is rocky, rooty, twisty, turny, fast, flowy and about seventy more adjectives that I don't have the patience to write out.  It is a lot of fun and climbs steadily to a nice rock outcropping that is the end of the trail.  I could ride out, stop and eat at the rock, and then bomb back down the single track back to the car for a nice 3 hour ride.  Much to my dismay, the majority of the trail now looks like this. 

Some of the best single track is now lost under slash and stumps from the recent logging.  I know that the state uses the park for logging and research, but this ruined my ride.  You can also see the winged harbingers of death, the black flies.  I stopped long enough to take this pic and then jumped back on the bike to head home, rather pissed that this section of trail is done. 

In happier news, I found a new favorite trail near my house today.  There is a certain hill, with lots a very techy climb, to a techy ridge trail, to a very techy descent near my house.  Part of the trail was shut down because of a land owner, but new trails have been springing up on top of the hill, and they are fun.  I spent three hour riding back and forth, getting lost on top of this hill.  I found this

which is one of my new favorite trails.  Although, any new trail can easily become my favorite.  I am easily entertained and have a very short term memory, so I can be easily won over with shiny new things.  Or even just shiny things.  

I also found this.  

Although it is neither shiny nor new, I thought it was very interesting to find an old tractor on top of a mountain.  (I told you I was easily amused)  The ride ended with a sprint home to get ready to help out the father-in-law with yard work, and left me tired and excited to get back to VT and be surrounded by killer trails right out the door.  Hopefully the end of the year will come quickly, my new-to-me frame will get here soon, and I will have something to entertain myself with for the rest of our time in NH.