Memorial Day Weekend Denouement: The Trifecta, Ride # 54, Shad Roe A-Plenty

Monday, May 26, 2014
Memorial Day
1:00 PM

Yes! A long weekend trifecta. Coming into the weekend I'd had my doubts about riding possibilities (forecasts of rain for Saturday) but I'm heading out the other side with three rides, a lot of climbing, and almost 100 miles under the wheels. Spankin' it!

After yesterday's ferocious snarl in the rain and the 3,000+ feet of climbing, I considered not even going out today. Especially when around noon the skies clouded over with thickness, thunder echoed from the horizon, and spattery rain showers ensued for 30 minutes or so. But eventually higher thinner cloud cover rolled in pushing out the moisture-holding puff buckets and by 1:00 it was obvious that I could ride, fatigued legs notwithstanding. The streets dried out. A balmy wind arose, it was warm, almost tropic-style. Sweet!

I felt predictably leaden and sluggish at the outset but after a few miles I loosened up and started feeling BIG. I like when that happens. Uncooperative muscle groups stop protesting and join the fun. The road unwinds ahead. Shad goes.

Lunenburg hill top

Consider the options

So in the end, after a stoppage at the railroad tracks for the freight train to pass in Shirley Village, after I photographed the mileage sign waiting for the gate to open, after I'd thrashed my way across the last five miles when I was feeling the weekend's cumulative trifecta effort and after I struggled through the last few suburban neighborhoods of outer Lemonstar, I arrived back at the headquarters of Team I Shad where the Kitchen of Plenty awaited.

And here I digress. The food of the cycling warrior matters. There can be no cutting corners, either in the quality of the provisions or in the imagination of the chef. Organic only, please (meat, fruit, vegetables, everything). Absolutely fresh.

Further digression. I went provisioning early this morning during the cloudy, rainy time. Loaded up for the week with the Healthy Bounty. Meaning that post-ride the larder and fridge were full and that sating the ravenous shad was simply a matter of cooking.

Yes, cooking. The art of preparing food for consumption. If I do anything more than riding, it's cooking. Imbibe the irieness! "Eat food, mostly plants, not that much."

Cooking with imagination is more important than riding with a Dali heart and a Jackson Pollack pedal stroke.

So tonight's post-ride repast included sauteed shad roe with lemon, parsley, and a lemon caper butter baste. Grilled wild Panamanian swordfish. Grilled Hadley asparagus and grilled Vidalia onions heavily dusted with smoked Spanish paprika. Grilled Yukon gold potatoes. Cold potato salad (with red onions, chives, a moderate amount of mayo). And Heady Topper, that rare and near-unobtainable elixir from the state of Vermont. A pint of the canned goodness.

A note on eating shad roe: As leader of Team I Shad, it's incumbent upon me to manifest the zeal of the shad. How better prepare for that responsibility than by consuming hundreds of thousands of shad eggs? All those potential future shad rolled into one Shaddy Dubstoevsky. One human shad with the power of the Deep Ocean and the eclectic pull of the freshwater river.

A further note on the shad roe preparation (see earlier post "Performance-Enhancing Shad Roe"). Today's iteration eschewed bacon (a usual ingredient) and went for simple, straightforward flavors: lemon, capers, butter, garlic, salt, white wine, parsley. I also painted the lobes with an egg wash before pan frying.

The Transformation of Shad Into Shad

Shad roe lobes, before par-boiling
Heady Topper

Pour boiling water down the side of a bowl
until  the water subsumes the lobes
and seals the sacs

With the Niceness!
Butter, garlic, lemon, white wine

Team I Shad Training Meal
(From top, clockwise) Shad roe, swordfish,
Hadley asparagus, yukon gold potato,
Vidalia onion, potato salad
in the middle

Ride summary: 30 miles (48 K), 15 mph, rolling exurbia roads, houses, neighborhoods, little commuter towns (the "exurbs") 35 and 40 miles west of the Boston metropolitan area; orchards, woods, fields, houses, town commons. At the apex of the ride, when I turn and start the return route to Lemonstar, I'm riding into a considerable headwind. I deal with it. At various points of tired aggravation when the wind buffets me with what seems like spiteful force I shout "Fuck You!" to keep me focused and relentless.

Strava Details: Loop Through the Exurbs

Road Kill: Nothing fresh today. Occasional flattened grease spot crime scenes from days past.