Shad Rides, November

We're entering the dark period. The days are shorter, the light fades early on an overcast day and a rider, to keep riding, must increasingly settle for short forays stolen from wan afternoons and frigid weekend mornings.

But we're not quite there yet. In central Massachusetts, in early November, remnants of autumn remain. Classic New England landscapes, glaciated, a tumult of granite. Old worn down mountains covered in maple, oak, white pine. Orchards, dun fields, farms with leaning out buildings.

Princeton, Ma, Ride # 82, November, 2013

These are fantastic roads for cycling, they climb through forest, spill down hillsides, roll across farm land. They pass cows, rivers, ponds, village greens. Soon all the leaves will have fallen and a sense of Bruegelian peasant somberness will spill across the land.

Ascending Mt. Wachusett, November, 2013

A note about this blog. The American shad is a short tenacious fish that lives most of the year in unknown regions of the Atlantic Ocean but then rushes up freshwater rivers along the eastern seaboard to spawn. Shad do not ride bicycles.

But Shad is also a nickname, one I acquired from another piscatorially-moniker'd rider, Scrod. In New England, a scrod is another name for cod and while the rider Scrod spent plenty of time on Cape Cod, and though he and I came to know each other in western Massachusetts, he currently lives and pedals in Frankfurt, Germany. In fact, it was his blog, Ventoux Calls, about training to climb the fabled Provencal giant, that provided inspiration for this effort.

My intent is to chronicle my cycling practice for the year 2014, though I'm beginning almost two months early. Consider these first few entries a sort of wind-down of the present biking season. And a fine season it's been. Eighty-three rides to date. I managed to get out the first time on January 15 but then not again until March 16, the day I bought my first cyclocross bike, a Specialized Crux Elite.

The Crust Atop Mt. Wachusett, May, 2013

I rode the "Crust" (as a friend dubbed it) until late into May when I got out my road bike and that's taken me through to the very latest ride two days ago (Nov. 5th), a 24.95 mile late afternoon jaunt through local towns Lunenburg, Shirley, Groton, and Devens.

Final note. For variety's sake I'll define the term "cycling practice" quite broadly so that anything cycling-related that interests me, as well as personal fitness notes, health stuff, food & diet topics are all fair game for the entries ahead. Bon velo!