A week off from riding: Excuses, excuses.

It all started with a rainstorm Monday morning. I was supposed to lead a CT NEMBA ride after work at Huntington but the morning rains put a damper on that notion. I felt bad because then it actually cleared up by midday and was quite pleasant.

Then every day after work there was something going on where I needed be home early or pick up a kid from some after school program. However, with all the down time, I spent some quality time with my Eccentric Bottom Bracket. While the bike was really creaking with the old crankset, it only creaked with the new one. So, I went back to old one as a test. The one thing I did differently this time was to carefully position the EBB and then tighten it down.

Test ride in the yard resulted in very little creaking, almost silent but deadly! I don't think it's the Crankset, rather the way I am tightening down the EBB. So I am going to ride awhile with the old crankset before going back to the new one.

While I haven't been riding, I have been busy. I fixed the crank on the Stinson and I started to rebuild the Qball. Also cleaned up the garage and my work area. Next week, it's back to the grind: Mountain Bike training/Tandem Riding and hope to work in a commute or two.

Another Bloomin Metric Tandem Training Ride

Katie and I went out for another tandem ride on Sunday, in the oppressive heat no less. We still had to walk the one hill on Hanover Rd just past Pond Brook headed north because I blew the shift by down shifting too early. We headed back down to the Town Boat Ramp on Lake Lillilohnah where quite a few people were picnicking.

We are starting to get the hang of riding together. Of course, she doesn't like the fact she has to stare at my big behind the whole time but that's basically her only complaint. The bike is a little small for me but perfect for her.

After the boat ramp, we headed back up Hanover, climbed to the top of Bramble trail and during that climb I found that if I pump the shifter a few times and wiggle it a bit I can get it to catch and down shift. From Bramble we continued up Echo Valley and back down Tamarack to home. On Tuesday, we are going to try 10 miles and hope to have ridden 15 miles by the weekend. The following weekend we might try to ride back roads to the Monroe Rail Trail and then take that all the way down to Trumbull and back. On MapMyRide, that is a 40 mile round trip. If it's not too hot in the coming weeks, that could be a great ride.

Viva La Nassa'rica

I headed up to Burlington, CT on Sunday to drop off some trail tools with the CT NEMBA Regional Trails Rep for the Nassahegan State Forest. We met at Lamson Corners off of Rt 69. Apparently, the regular riders of the Nassahegan are known as Nassa'ricans contrasting to those who ride offroad motorcycles and ATVs here, all illegally of course, are called the Hessians, famed German mercenaries from the Revolutionary war. Later during the ride we just missed encountering one of these bastards.

Mark led me on a 10 mile tour starting from the Cemetery Twisties, up Stony Hill Road to the Kitchen Bypass. There is another trail nearby called the Devil's Kitchen which is insanely technical, fall line climb. We were doing quite a bit of climbing on the Kitchen Bypass and I was cursing myself for not putting on the 22t. From there, we picked up a trail called Rob Halford named by an atypical mountain biker from Bristol. Along this trail we came across where a turkey hunter got lucky on opening day. Eventually we got to the Soccer Fields and crossed over George Washington Turnpike.

On the other side of the Turnpike is a dense pine forest with a big mix of fast dual track and winding, flowy singletrack. Some super, long assed climbs, and some really crazy descents. We rode by the Burlington Trout Hatchery and then crossed over Punch Brook Road on our way back to Lamson.

At the seven mile point we stopped for some Gu and that's when we really started to notice the heat. By this time it had to be nearing 90 degrees but you didn't feel it because you were in the shade of the forest most of the time.

From here we popped onto a dirt road called Stone Road where we passed this old jailhouse on the side of the road. According to Mark, during the Great Depression there were transient camps set up in the area and if one of the inhabitants went on a bender they wound up here to sleep it off.

We continued down this dirt road until we picked up another trail that took use to the impassable section of George Washington Turnpike and while heading back towards the Kitchen we heard a Hessian and saw evidence of his recent travels on the trail.

What initially was supposed to be a two hour jaunt in the woods turned out to be more like 3 hours and 10 miles. By the time we got back to the cars, it was pretty damn hot, when I got home the thermometer red 91 degrees and it's only the second day of May! I noticed something while riding in the heat and that was my heart rate tended to stay higher and came down slower. Something to think about if I am going to race in warmer weather, especially if I do the Landmine. I don't think my gearing choice helped much either.

Above is a 3d representation of today's ride (in red) and the ride we did last fall to give you a sense of the enormity of the Nassahegan State Forest. Apparently, there are 50+ miles of trails here and I have only scratched the surface. Can't wait to come back for more fun.

On a Bicycle Built for Two

I borrowed this Burley Tandem from a friend today because my daughter and I will be riding in charity ride come May 23rd called the Bloomin Metric. Originally, we were going to ride on the trail-a-bike but she has out grown it. I had to give the bike a little tune up prior to our first test ride and it looks like we'll be riding it as a 3 speed because the shifter pod is messed up and won't up shift. We'll have the big, middle and granny gears to choose from.

Katie and I took a 5 mile test ride this evening. After one descent she got over her fear of going fast down hills and just wanted more. We rode down our street to the lake, turned around and came back and then did a loop in the other direction. We are going to do 10 miles on Tuesday and we'll keep working our way up to 25 miles before May 23rd. Hopefully, I can find a used Thule tray to carry this so that Katie and I can go ride so of the longer rail trails to get ready. Might try to do the North and South County Railtrail next weekend.

You can never ride too much

Compared to the rest of this year (so far) my riding in April has dwarfed previous months. It's largely due to two things: warmer weather and racing. In order to train for these races I have making a double effort to get out and, whether before or after work has really paid off in increasing my ability to endure much longer rides.

My professional career seems to overlap my love for riding in that not only am I out for the pure joy of riding trails or commuting to work on my fixed gear bike, but I am also compiling data into a database for further analysis. Yes, not only am I a computer geek, I am a bike geek or data whore, too. My goal this year is to hit 1000 trail miles and after 4 months I am 1/4 of the way to hitting that goal.

Yesterday, I got some bonus miles at Huntington yesterday. I didn't have to ride but it was such nice weather out and I happen to have the bike on the car anyway so I went out after work, or what we call here in Southern New England, RAW - Ride after Work, and did a lap at Huntington but varied my route just a little bit and got an extra half mile out of it to be an 8 mile lap. The new course does a singletrack section the other way, which is harder to ride and there is one section that I have to walk. I think my training regimen will be two laps on this course each week until the race in Ware.

I will have to find another course to prepare for the Landmine Classic (one lap: 25 miles). I am thinking a 12 mile course that will encompass much more singletrack. I think the Massasoit race had the least amount of singletrack in it's course and I feel that Winding Trails had a lot more, or maybe it seems that way because you had to do three laps to the two at Hop Brook.