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.