2010 Totals 2011 Goals

I finished 2010 with just under 1700 miles ridden, which by the graph above, year over year, was a huge increase.  Attributing to the increase was much more trail riding in preparation for races and commuting.  

My goals for 2011 are to ride 1000 miles of trail and 1000 miles commuting.  Commuting will be easier to attain because all I have to do is ride 200 miles per month for five months, which I could start in April and end in September.  Of course when gasoline hits $4 a gallon I plan on riding a lot more to work.  Also, given the fact that if the rest of winter stays mild, I plan on riding anyway.

The trail miles might be tougher to come by but this year I plan on training harder for races which means riding longer and harder.  Everything else in between: Gravel Grinders, Greenway riding with the kids, and road riding on the Tandem is the gravy.

Here's to a new year and new goals!

Insanely Great Snow at Fairfield Hills

Met up with some friends whom I know through mountain biking and rather than trying to ride in the snow we went Cross Country Skiing at Newtown's Fairfield Hills Campus, which happens to be a former mental hospital that the Town took over after it's closure.  There were some tracks already made that we used and we busted some of our own.  The Green Trail up by the water tanks was awesome because quite a few people had already been through there.

We met at the cul-de-sac at the end of Cochran St took off skiing through all the fields counter clockwise with the intention of heading up towards the water tanks.  Since the Town Trail was plowed we skied through the woods on both sides of the trail and actually found an old trail that paralleled the town trail near the top of the hill.

There is a trail marked with Green Blazes that goes to the end of the ridge and then circles back.  I think this trail is a horse trail or used by horses.  It comes back to the water tanks and then it appears to fork and head down the hill towards Wasserman Way.  There were three different markings on this trail including more green blazes spray paint blazes, orange engineer tape, and reflector tabs (but not enough for mountain biking at night if that is what you are thinking).  We followed this trail till we hit the fields and then headed back up towards the tanks.

Getting back to the car the first thing I checked was my GPS to see how far we had gone but found that it had turned off.  I was pissed!  I knew I should have brought my Garmin Edge.  I am going to have to go back and redo what we skied with the Garmin to see how far it is.  Also, the next time we get a big dumping of snow, I am definitely coming back here to cross country ski!

Here is the approximate route we took.  I used MapMyRide to map it out.  There are, however, two road crossings and you also have to cross over the paved trail heading up to the water tanks.  In order to minimize the road crossings it will cut out some of the big fields that are fun to ski through.  I hope, at some point in the future to create a marked XC Ski course here.

Green Addiction: Grün ist Geil!

Photo Courtesy of ECTRR.com

After the pounding we took here in Western Connecticut earlier this week my riding plans for the week that I have off were literally blown away.  However, a buddy of mine who lives in Eastern Connecticut offered to sell me his Velocity Blunts so I drove to Old Lyme to pick up the new wheelset and to try the front wheel out.  Turns out the eastern part of Connecticut got much less snow than we did in the western part of the state and seeing that this is probably my last opportunity to ride in 2010 I was pedal to the metal!  What I didn't expect was how close the color of the rim would match the Dillinger.

Snow depths ranged from three to six inches of snow, some places were deeper due to drifting, but what made riding the hardest was transitioning between where people walked and the loose powder.  Still, it was a lot of fun and a great workout.  Thom and I met another mountain biker out on the trails, John W., but he was having a hard time pedaling and was walking more than riding.

This was also the first time riding with my new HD video camera, the Drift Inovation's HD 170.  I shot some ski vids the other day with it but I was out of power on Monday and couldn't edit any.  The files, however, are huge!  Above is an edited (shortened) clip that I loaded to YouTube.  It turns this unit takes DVD quality videos at a resolution of 1280 x 720, and that's just the medium setting!  The data file has a lot of overhead data in it, like stereo sound, and it's uncompressed, that I found from talking to Thom, if it were compressed it would be a much smaller file.  The other thing I need to ensure is that my helmet is on my head really tight.

We started riding around 3:45 pm and as you can see the sun was starting to go down but there was plenty of light for riding.  Still, it was really cold with the wind.  Initially, I was going to ride with my CT NEMBA Trail Ambassador Jacket, however, the wind was so strong I felt that wasn't going to keep my warm enough, so opted for a polar fleece North Face jacket that also acts as a zip in for another jacket.  I got pretty hot in the jacket but was able to vent most of the heat through a combination of zip pits and the main zipper.  I also had on Bib tights, and over pants.  That was a bit of overkill but combined with my lobsters, skull cap, and winter riding booties I never got cold.

Thom at the start of the Ridge Ride

Here is a slightly shorter clip of riding down the ridge towards the Pavilion at Rocky Neck State Park.  It's a really cool descent there are many rollers and rocks to roll and huck.  Of course I took it easy because of the conditions but looking forward to coming back here again when all the snow is gone.

Giant's Neck

We rode the board walk along the beach over to Giant's Neck where I will be renting a house this summer with my family.  Looks like I will be hitting Rocky Neck every morning and then doing the bike trails with my boys and daughter in the afternoons, besides lounging on the beach and building sand castles.

Photo courtesy of ECTRR.com

We tried to find the house that I will be renting but had the wrong address.  Thom took this picture of me and you can see the camera atop my helmet.  I originally tried mounting it on the side of the helmet but it was too heavy.  Whereas with my skiing helmet, the fit is more snug and I barely noticed it there. On the Mountain Bike helmet, however, it doesn't fit as snug and I could feel it pulling to one side.

Sunset at Giant's Neck

For these kinds of conditions, the Qball would have been perfect but it's still in the process of getting rebuilt.  The Dillinger performed beautifully in the snow.  Climbed just about everything and got a tremendously good workout!  Of course the snow softened a lot of the trail and the new wheel performed beautifully.  I might have to consider some Orange Blunts for the Qball.  Below is a little 3D map of the single track riding area of  Rocky Neck.  It's not a huge place but according to Thom there are many more trails in there to ride.  I am going to try to get back here in the spring to try them all and to familiarize myself with the area better so that when I am spending my week here, I know exactly where to find the goods.

Fme!

I think I found the perfect Monster Cross (MCX) bar with all the fun of drop bars but made for mountain levers.  They are Misfit Pyscles Fme bars and I got a great deal on them during a black Friday sale last month:

A cyclo-style dirt drop bar for off-road use.  The FME was NOT designed for use as an exclusively roadie type bar.  Despite the flaming skull, you will still look ridiculous in spanx.  

The FME was NOT designed for use as a pure CX bar.  The purpose of this bar is to run DISC brakes, the worms at CX HQ do not like disc brakes.  They would also rather it if all CX competitors pedalled using only components of French origin...and we believe fries make for terribly limp cranks.

The FME was NOT designed for use as a pure XC bar.  While testing was completed as a primarily XC bar it was done so in the interest of science and morbid curiosity.  By our obvious calculations a bar with such extreme angles offering such a large amount of leverage would not only be uncomfortable for exclusively XC use it would likely have a reduced useable life...meaning what?  Not sure, lawyers for someone else made them say something so we did too.

I still plan on using the Qball as an MCXer because it's also my kid puller so these bars are perfect.  In fact, next month, I will be picking up another wheel set for rail trails and commutes but with these bars I will have the shifters and lever all in one place which will make riding off road a lot better.  Also, I think I will get better positioning, too.

I have new grips and matching cables that will give me a Halloween effect with the colors but I think it will look awesome.  That is going to me my project this week.

The Grinch pays a visit!

A quick Christmas Eve ride with Rick at Upper Paugussett State Forest, perfect lighting and temps.  We headed out on the Poly Brody and I was feeling really good after yesterday's ride at Pequonnock River Valley.  Temperatures are still below 32 degrees but still no snow.  Ice over the forest road in one section still makes it sketchy but we got off our bikes and walked around it.  I attacked the big hill and went right up it.  At the Gussy trail head we stopped for break.

Perfect day and time to be riding.  The days will start getting longer and longer which means more afternoon rides.  Rick took off leading the way and every pedal stroke just felt better and better.  I did struggle up the rock ridge but I shrugged it off and we started moving quicker.  Hit the two up-and-overs going into funnel with ease.

Hit the up-and-over coming out of the funnel nicely and then into the quick technical descent as I always do, only this time a little faster and at the bottom I discovered a new hole, or rock or both because I stopped short, went over the bars but rolled into it with practiced ease.  Picked up the bike and started to move forward but felt something rubbing the wheels.  Thinking it might be a stick but couldn't find anything and then I noticed my front wheel!  Taco'd.  Merry effing Christmas.  Tried to flatten it out so I could at least ride out but that didn't work.

I told Rick to finish his ride and that I would hoof it out.  I told him to meet me on Hanover Road but I figured I would be halfway home before we met up again.  I bushwhacked over to the blue trail and took that down to the Brody and onto Hanover Rd.  Someone driving a pickup stopped and asked if I needed a lift but I told him I lived nearby.  I met up with Rick just past Bramble Trail.  

Well the great ride Christmas Eve ride ended with a little visit from the Grinch.  Oh well, good thing I have another wheelset to fall back on!

Merry effing Christmas!