Back to OOF

It's been almost a month since I have ridden to OOF (Ovens of France) and Friday morning, the Lunartics were headed out at 6 AM to ride the Trampy's route, which is over Purchase Brook.  It's not a bad climb but one member in the group is not a fan.  It was cold, though! Everyone was wearing at least arm warmers. I decided to test out my new United States Military Endurance Sports kit (USMES). 

If you ride Zwift you might have seen their group rides on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Over the winter, I rode them religiously and even led a few rides myself. Which prompted me to join the organization since I am a veteran.  I wore my long sleeved jersey this morning because I am still waiting for my short sleeved one, it was back ordered.  The jersey was perfect for this ride, as was the rest of the kit.  It was 46 degrees at the start of the ride and the descent down to the river is always a cold one.

On the ride up Purchase Brook my rear wheel was making a noise. I had just gotten it back from the Bicycle Center where it was trued and had a new tire put on it. The trueing was a must but I was shocked to learn the Maxxis Re-Fuse tire that I bought at Outdoor Sports Center in Wilton on clearance was damaged. What I was feeling since the start was a bulge in the tire that I took for a flat spot in the rim.  Having another Sefas SECA tire, though, will last me quite awhile, though.

Catching the sunrise at the top of Spurce Brook was glorious! The fog in the valleys belied the fact thats where the cold air lies.  

Seeing the cows at the top of the climb, in addition to the sunrise, is also part of the fun, although they were just waking up and one in the fore ground was pissing.

Then we bombed down Spruce Brook, which is a really steep descent and you can pick up a lot of speed. However, it was recently chip sealed with the new top coating and the gritty surface adds a lot more resistance and thus keeps the speeds down. It was foggy riding up Route 172 and finally lifted by the time we hit Route 6 in Woodbury.

It was glorious to sit outside and enjoy our pastries and coffee

As we were leaving the parking lot Gavin noticed his tire was flat so we watched him change it. Steven broke out a CO2 because Gavin didn't. Good thing because we would have been there for another 30 minutes waiting for Gavin to pump up his tire.

Heading back, it got foggy again after Route 172 as you got closer to the Housatonic River. Scott and Steve pealed off before the highway to take the bike path over the river and head to there homes over behind Fairfield Hills. Paul split off at Walnut Tree to do the same and Gavin and I climbed up Glenn Road back to Cover 2, where we parked our cars.

Rail Trail with Elliot

It was such a nice day on Sunday that I asked Elliot if he wanted to go riding and he gave me a waffled response.  At lunch time instead of asking him again, I told him we were going riding. With my daughter off to college I now have my Highlander back so I loaded it up with our bikes and we headed down to the Monroe Rail Trail. 

Off we went and despite him following a bit too close at times and other times he would half wheel me a bit he did really good for someone with a visual impairment.

He's been riding this summer with his mother but little did I know their rides were really limited. My wife can't let her heart rate get too high and therefore has to walk any hills that they may ride. Additionally, it seems they don't ride very far, either.

Today, we rode nearly 20 miles and by the end of the ride I think he was in awe of himself after having no trouble riding this distance. Hopefully, he'll want to do it again next weekend and maybe we try and go farther.

Arm warmers in August?

My first day back on the road and it was 52 degrees Saturday morning!  The original plan was to do right the Haute Dog route to OOF (Ovens of France) but the Lunartic that I was meeting decided to go back to bed for more beauty sleep. I headed out from Chez Cyclesnack and did one of my Ride Before Work routes, instead.

My back is still tight on the left side and when I got home I could feel some additional soreness in my lower back. As with every ride last week I am icing it afterwards.  Still, it felt good to be back outside again.

The Sufferfest - trying something other than Zwift

After a week off the bike I decided to ride indoors for a week. I thought about different ways to amuse myself while riding indoors and then I thought I would try something other than Zwift. In case you don't know this, I rode Zwift all winter but right now I am on a hiatus until it's too unpleasant to ride outdoors.

I looked at Rouvy but it only worked with an iPad or iPhone when it came to iOS.  Zwift is Mac Compatible.  I found that The Sufferfest is compatible with the Mac, so I signed up for the 7 day free trial. I couldn't figure out, initially, how to get it started so I ended up doing a light spin watching a YouTube cycling video somewhere in Austria the first day.  Second attempt, I got it to work but it wouldn't come out of ERG mode and it wasn't really challenging.  Granted I was just doing a free spin event. I was still expecting it get harder for hills. It didn't.

My next attempt was was a more vigorous training session but again it wouldn't come out of ERG mode so basically when you were supposed to be on a hill, I didn't feel the hill. It also seems limited and the second video wasn't even rider footage and it was very disjointed. It reminded me of Yaks pissing in a stream, which is one of the screen shots I took from the last ride.  I am going back to Zwift.

 

Scratch that off the D2R2 Bucket List

I had to get up at 4:30 AM because my shift at the Registration Tent started at 5:00 AM.  Bob, pictured below sitting down, told me what to do and at 5 on the nose, people started flooding in.  However, it appeared that half the riders had checked in the night before.

At one point we had 5 people working and we finally shut down at 10:30 and yet there were still a few stragglers!

It was amazing to be at the fest tent and not see a single bike

There were some threatening clouds coming our way.

But we didn't get any rain.

I took a short nap on Jason's hammock.

For lunch, I headed over to Berkshire Brewing Company.  They now have a Tap Room but you have to bring in your own food, which I did.  

I had the Kolsch Shandy. It was light and lemony and perfect for Saturday

While I was on the tour, I got a call from Rob saying that needed SAG support as he broke a spoke on his rear wheel and couldn't ride anymore.  I left the brewery tour and headed out to the location he sent me. I stopped in at the registration tent to see if they needed any more help and it turns out there was crash near the covered bridge and someone might be needed to drive up to Brattleboro to pick them up once they were discharged.

The hospital was only 25 miles away and I offered to go.  I got some dinner and met Will as he returned from his ride and he told me about the course.  At 4:30 I headed north and picked up a woman, who was the one who crashed and broke her clavicle in two places. She was in a lot of pain so I drove slow.  

When I got back to the camp the weather was heading in a nasty direction and when the wind whipped up we decided to lower the canopy and get underneath in our chairs and hold on to so it didn't blow away.

After the wind then came the rain but with the canopy lowered we resumed our party

We stayed this way until the rain subsided

And finished the night with some Karls Sausage!