Ride # 69: Testing the Crux

Thursday, August 14. The D2R2 being less than a week away, I knew I had to do a ride on the Crux Elite. I haven't ridden it since early June at the Tour de Heifer so needed to assure myself that everything is in working order.

So it proved to be. Meandered out of town via a couple different neighborhoods, then wound up into the hills. Eventually I reached Lemonstar State Forest and Parmenter Rd, the wood road that bisects the Forest and that empties out a couple miles away on rt. 31. Parmenter Rd is rocky, a surface of glacial deposit stones, loose and rough. I used caution and that made for slow going.

On the climb up to the Forest entry, I saw numerous dead orange salamanders and a few frogs. Yesterday it rained so that must have brought them out of their forest floor hiding spots and onto the tarmac. One salamander I passed I thought was alive so turned around and went back to save it. Wrong. It wasn't squashed but it had dried out on the pavement, a parched stiff shell of itself, with something half-swallowed sticking out of its mouth. I picked it up and wedged it onto my handle bars; it rode with me quite a while but fell off of a super fast downhill. Adieu!

The ride was good overall and the Crux proved comfortable and smoothly dependable as always. Though at 23 miles, not exactly a real test of endurance. Try 23 x 5 or so. That will be the D2R2.

Transecting Lemonstar

Crossing town

Clear and dry

Dried out salamander

Tag a long

Parmenter Rd
Lemonstar State Forest

Ride Summary:  About 23 miles, 12.2 mph (slow in the forest), almost two hours. Strava stats.

Ride # 61: A Week Later; Part III: Last Thoughts on the Tour de Heifer

The General's blessing at the outset of ride # 61
Sunday morning, June 15

The Tour de Heifer was a week ago today and I haven't ridden since then. Interestingly, my weight went up a half pound or so following the pounding of the heifer, and then over the course of the (non-riding) week it dropped two pounds. Without trying, I went under 144 lbs for the first time since ... a long time ago. The point being that I'm confounded and psyched at once. Despite ice cream, beer, and sea salt caramel chocolates. 144.5 three days in a row. As if my body came up shocked in the wake of the Tour de Heifer and after a couple days of recovery took stock, regrouped, and decided to cinch up a little tighter. Inhaled. Decided to settle at a lower-than-usual weight. Under 145 lbs is gravy, the Lack of Heft.

I digress.

Today was the perfect weather on the perfect June Sunday. I was completely pumped riding. Which is interesting because as this last week went along and I didn't ride my back and hips became progressively sore, the proverbial 'tightening up,' and I wasn't all that comfortable. Yet in no time after setting out I began to feel really good. I took pains to shift around on the bike, stretching my back and my legs, gulping huge breaths from the largess of the planet, imagining myself a low weight insect husk with sinewy muscle astride aluminum geometry. A flesh concept hurtling along on tangible circles.

But let's finish off The Heifer. Last images and impressions.

A challenging ride! Not one you want to undertake if you're not pretty fit already. The relentless climbing was to my advantage and to my liking. It's amazing to feel light on the bike and not get thrashed by the hills.

The Virginian taking his ease

Forward

Dubstoevsky
Photo by The Virginian

Tour de Heifer summary: 66.88 miles (106 K), 12.4 mph, about 5 hours. Road kill included five or six chipmunks.

Ride # 61: Sunday, June 15, 2014

A real pleasure to get back in the saddle, to stretch tightened muscles after a week of not-riding, to SOAR (inasmuch as one can soar while anchored to pavement by two rubber wheels, and gravity). Felt great getting out of the saddle, was able to get into a rhythmic pedal turning meditation, an ease, a dancing almost, no weariness go UP. Except today the ride was rolling and involved only moderate climbing. Strava stats indicate 1700 feet of climbing.

Regardless, the day was utterly stellar - low 70s, brilliant sun and blue skies, soft breeze, the epitome of classic New England June weather. Wafts of sweet air perfumed with the scent of flowering trees, shrubs, plants. Sun-dappled roadways.

I saved another turtle. This time a small, timid fellow, a painted turtle with little drive.

Mr. Docility

In a better place

This is how the ride goes on an ordinary ex-urbia Sunday morning when the weather is perfect and the only thing you have to do is pedal.

Snapshots from the meander.

The running of the bulls

With the Niceness

Arrow of Jah

Ride Summary: 30.35 miles (48 K), 14.9, 2 hours+2.

Tour de Heifer Part I
Tour de Heifer Part II

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.

Ride # 49: Riding to Overcome the Asparagus Party Debauchery

Sunday Afternoon, 1:00
Fine Tuning before the Launch

Another awesome weather day. No humidity, bright sun tempered by huge puffy clouds on a deep blue background. Low wind. With the Niceness!

I've been tracking my food intake religiously for over a year (via www.livestrong.com/myplate) and have lost about 22 lbs in 14 months. I've actually reached a certain point of stasis whereby I fluctuate by a few lbs depending on the recent few days of eating/drinking and riding or not riding. Last night at the asparagus party I ate and drank with abandon. Instead of (gulp!) trying to itemize my vast consumption, I just recorded a ballpark number of calories consumed (I went with 2200 given the beer, lamb, jerk chicken, rice & vegetables, corn bread, challah bread pudding, cupcakes, and chocolate peanut butter balls I consumed). This morning I note that I gained two lbs from yesterday, logging in at 148.2 lbs (67 KG).

All the more reason to go BIG.

Today, I manage to leave early enough to have time for a reasonably long ride (though not early enough to do the proverbial 60+ miles ride that every weekend I imagine myself doing). But feeling slightly taxed from last night's indulgences, I am not up for a lot of climbing so eschew the western route and the Princeton Hills and instead head northeast into the semi-rural commuter towns of Lunenburg, Shirley, Groton, Pepperell, Devens. I conceive of the course as I pedal. Part of it, I decide, should take in the Nashua River Rail Trail. I generally avoid community rail trails on nice weekend afternoons because they are busy with weekend bikers, inline skaters, dog walkers, etc., but today it makes sense to incorporate about seven miles of this trail to provide a car-free passage between Pepperell and Ayer and the last leg of the ramble.

Rail Trail Style

Bubble It Dub
In the scruffy town of Ayer

Ride Summary: 40 miles (64 K), 16 mph, 3,062 feet of elevation according to strava (and I thought I was avoiding climbing), two and a half hours a-spin. Lemonstar - Lunenburg - Groton - Shirley - Pepperell - Groton - Devens - Shirley - Lemonstar.

Road Kill: A bad day road kill. I arrived too late to save the big water snake I came upon dead on its back near a culvert.

Water Snake, West Groton

A large fisher buzzed with flies and the stench of decay (it had been dead more than a day for sure).

Fisher, all dignity gone

Finally, I happened upon what I thought was a dead monarch butterfly. However, it turned out to be alive but on its back upside down and struggling mightily. I gave it my finger, it grabbed on and righted itself but when I let it go, it fluttered but couldn't stay aloft. I left it on the road side, off the tarmac at least. But I doubt it lived.

Butterfly that probably didn't live

Ride # 44: Lemonstar Wachusett Loop Style

Backyard 
Thursday 4:00 PM
75 degrees

I Shad and the honey cherry tree halo

The Goal
Mt Wachusett on the horizon

On the way to the top

Summit Style

Ride Summary: 31.3 miles (49 K), 13.4 mph, two hours and change of hard climbing. 3,285 feet.

Finally, a warm day! 75 degrees (23 C) at departure. Shorts and short sleeves and it felt great. I felt great. Strong, loose, energized, light on the bike. InI offer thanks and praises to the Most High! Climbing was a joy. Ride to Climb as the imaginary bumper sticker in my mind reads. My cycling mantra.

I didn't see any road kill today. But I did see (or hear) cardinals, crows, a red tail hawk, some Canada geese, a mockingbird, some red-winged black birds.

My Strava data for today's ride.

Ride # 35: Mostly Pavement but Plenty of Miles

Sunday, April 15, overcast, rained earlier
damp roads, cool, 48 degrees
11:00 AM

A weird one today. Yesterday was warm, I rode in short sleeves. Today? Rain earlier in the morning, damp, everything cool, no sun, could rain again at any moment. 40s. To ride? Or not to ride?

RIDE!

Back to the limon heavy duty top layer, booties, gloves, skullcap and bandana. Back to the edge of winter. Threat of rain or sleet. Or not. A fake weather pattern. A falsity, a feigned aggression. Nothing develops. Nothing, except moderate clearing, skies become lighter, the temperature goes up a few degrees. I'm dressed perfectly once again, secure in my dauntless garments.

As if I woke to find myself in Ireland

From Cork to Donegal County

Lemonstar to Lunenburg to West Groton to Townsend to Pepperell to Shirley to Lancaster and back to Lemonstar. Old haunts, a quick jaunt down a forest road to the edge of the Squannacook River where I swam as a youth.

Token off road jaunt
To the river and the childhood swimming hole

Many summer days spent swimming here

Laborious pedaling on pavement. I am so ready to be done for the season with the Crux Elite, I am READY for the road bike and the long ramble on thin, snake-like tires. But first things first. There's un-tended-to business near at hand. The Northeast Kingdom on Friday. Newport, Vermont.

Plenty of birds these last two days. Flickers spotted twice, lots of crows, robins, sparrows, nuthatches, a few hairy woodpeckers, mourning doves, pigeons, a big hawk being harassed by two crows, four geese low flying overheard.

Not exactly a great training day for the Rasputitsa because I only rode about a mile on dirt roads. But much spinning anyway, a fitness ramble, that counts for something.

This report just in from the founders of the Rasputitsa. Posting on Facebook, they say:

"We know you have all been eagerly awaiting course conditions updates. 

In general, things have been warming up in the Northeast Kingdom. With expected temperatures, this week, in the 60s and 70s, we are thinking a 23mm or 25mm width tire will be sufficient but cross tires aren't a bad idea either. There will be mud but things are drying up and roads are looking perfect.

This applies to most of the course but excludes Cyberia. Cyberia is a 1.5 mile section of Class 4 roads. This section, which is changing daily due to the weather, will remain a secret until race day. Though we will share with you the following: be prepared to shoulder. This portion will be epic but we promise good things to get you through."

Mystery. But also the affirmation that conditions might not be that grim. It's going to be a mad ramble, that seems certain. Great vibes, great energy so far. A wild leap of faith into the void of reason.

Ride Summary: Began in cloud cover post-rain, ended in sun and clear skies. From the high 40s to the upper 50s. 42.40 miles (67 K), 14.1 mph, almost three hours in the saddle. Too much pavement!

Road Kill: One rabbit squashed into bloody & furry pancake smear (no photo), and one porcupine.

Porcucpine

Ride # 32: The Physical Exam

April 8, 2014 around 5:00 in the afternoon, 60+ degrees

I had my semi-annual physical yesterday. Like most health care visits of any kind in America, I was kept waiting in the waiting room (today, 25 minutes past my appointment time). Par for the course. When I was finally ushered into the inner sanctum, a nurse took my blood pressure (123/70) and I was told to strip completely and put on a tie-in-the-back threadbare cotton hospital johnny that was sized more for an NFL offensive lineman than the lost-20-pounds-since-the-last-visit Shad. And of course it was freezing in the examining room so, johnny-be-clad, I huddled in a chair, my socks kept on lest my bare feet come in contact with the icy tile flooring.

At the time of my last physical, in 2012, my cholesterol levels had been alarmingly high and caused her, my PCP ('primary care provider'), to fret aloud and remonstrate with me about seeing a specialist in cholesterol and cardiology. With reservations, I complied though I knew in advance what the specialist, Dr. B, would say.

After looking at my numbers he all but got on his knees and BEGGED me to go on statin medication immediately. Why? Because my total cholesterol count was 310 (68 good 219 malo). That's like when the strongman at the circus hefts the hammer and smacks the launching pad and sends the metal weight rocketing toward the pole top where it hits the bell and goes BING!

I resisted. Rejected the statin regimen. Told Dr. B that I wasn't convinced that cholesterol was even a viable marker of cardio health. He insisted on a carotid artery scan. I consented to that, curious to know what it would reveal. Thick artery plaque? One lane dray track? Another round of emergency bells and whistles?

The results clearly disappointed. Though my carotid artery was no more occluded than could be expected of anyone my age, he STILL insisted on statins based on my cholesterol levels alone. I cancelled my follow-up appointment.

Fast forward two years. Some personal demons have since abated, I've lost 20+ lbs, and I am riding again in earnest. The result?

"In ten years of practice, I have never seen a cholesterol reduction of this magnitude without medication. It's astonishing." My PCP could not stop remarking on it.

I dropped 70+ points, to 238. Just like that the examining room was filled with the sounds of chirping birds and babbling brooks. Butterflies fluttered in the corners.

"Whatever you're doing, keep doing it," she advised.

At last! Medical counsel I could embrace.

Within the hour I set off on ride # 32.

A balmy, overcast, blustery, but warm day. Hard to dress for. I yipped wildly & repeatedly and delayed my departure by twenty minutes. I changed my upper body wear three times. Pathetic! But in the end, I got it right and had an excellent ride in the soft, vaguely humid, definitely fecund, spring air.

Lucas Rd., Sterling

Celestial Shad

"I kissed goodbye the howling beast on the borderline that separated you from me."
The dividing line between the Princeton and Sterling Hills.

Shad control center

Up ahead

Ride Summary: 19.82 miles (30 K), 13.4 mph, about 88 minutes in the saddle. A warm, breezy, overcast day of spring. Almost all the snow is gone. At the outset, I didn't feel that strong but after a few miles I felt much better. Tried to power hard on the hills, tried to ignore the protestations from my quads. Oh, and a few rides ago, I slightly upped my saddle height and I think that has made a positive difference vis a vis the nagging groin/hip soreness that has been chronic all year, my "repetitive motion" aggravation. That area no longer bears the brunt of the exertion required throughout the ride and particularly on long, difficult climbs. An adjustment of about a quarter inch seems to have made a huge difference. Time will tell.

Road Kill: A porcupine. The evidence of trauma was disconcerting, a horrendous scrapping-away of spikes, fur, and flesh along the back, possibly a broken spine. Its corpse straddled the pavement and the shoulder as if it had been hit and then crawled toward the forest in anguish, only to collapse at the road's edge. To honor its spirit and prevent desecration of its corpse by more automobiles, I used a large stick to move its body off the edge of the road and into the trees.

Porcupine on the edge of the road

Parting Shot

Hey drivers, watch out for the fuckin' animals, eh?

Nor'easter!

Yes, it is February in New England.

Another day, another snow storm. I'm not sure even a Fat Bike would be of much use in this snowmageddon.

Today's nor'easter (raging as I type this) will certainly dump a foot of snow on us, possibly more. Ugly business.

Nor'easter Style
February 13, 2014

So how many days will it be before I can ride again?

The positive thing is that the days are getting longer, inexorably so. The rotation of the earth is in Shad's favor, even if winter itself conspires to defeat my training.

Ride # 12: The Sun Gauze Days

February 8, 2014, around 12:30

Let's get the details over with quickly. Saturday. Sunny. Warming by the half hour. I rush into Wheel Works in Belmont and have them put on a new chain. Those guys are great. Big shout out to Scott. On the way to rt.2, stop at the Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont center for Belgian-style ales in the big bottles. Then drive home with urgency, passing slow Saturday drivers and trying not to let them annoy me. There's a ride to be had! New gloves! A new chain! The second ride on my new rear tire! And it's February - there's a foot of snow on the ground. Allez!

That's the stage.

Still Sunny At the Start

Road pedal imaginings. An imitation Harry Crosby diary entry, Shadows of the Sun.

The Sun Gauze Days

And the pattern has been that the Sun shines in the morning and in the early afternoon the Sun Gauze rolls in from the west. The high, flat, gray-white cottony enmeshing of the Sun; the thickness of atmospheric pillow. And I have set out with High hope for a fine ride and the roads are dry but streaked with salt and narrow and the inevitability of cars accompanies me. I am in stride. I am accompanied by the Sun. And I am warm and dry and my mind is comforted by the rhythm of the wheels and my thighs are strong and I have reason to believe that I am capable of bicycling excess.

This is how one must approach the Cosmos, with humble intentions, with delicate balance, with certainty of the Sun. The train rolls into Terrapin Station and off it goes again. And half way through the ride (which hovered around the freezing mark) I began to think of the Belgian ale and I began to think of the herb-crusted pork loin and the garlicy-spinach, and I thought of Popeye and Olive Oil and the Great Meditational Herb of Plenty and I took solace from these thoughts and pushed my thighs and calves and shoulders on to greater effort and the road obliged and unspooled before me sometimes damp sometimes sand-strewn sometimes pot-holed and frost-heaved but always Onward just as I remain on a trajectory to the Sun.

Ride Stats: 34 miles (54k), 14.2 mph, 2 hours 25 mi-newt-os.

Wildlife Notes: In Shirley, just passed the President Building, I take a right onto Catacunemaug RD and shortly thereafter ride alongside a wide slow-moving creek tucked into the base of a sheltering ridge line. For whatever reason, that spot's prevailing micro-climate ensures open water for the hundreds of mallard ducks that have gathered there. They are a prodigious sight. A short while later I hear squawks overhead and look up in time to see another six ducks coming in to join the gathering. A Colloquy of Ducks.

Elsewhere, robins. It seems that they've all chosen to over winter here. On every ride I see them by the flocks. Today, for example, one flock I saw had congregated in two cheery trees on a suburban front yard. On the white snow in a concentric ring around each tree lay the detritus of their cherry foraging, the stems and pits and little broken branches, a scattered Zen-like rim of discard.

No road kill espied.

Addendum

Lemonstar - Lunenberg - Shirley - Groton - Ayer - Devens - Shirley - Lunenberg - Lemonstar

Riding from Groton toward Ayer, the road descends alongside wide open pasture, the view across which runs away to the west and unveils Mount Wachusett on the horizon. This is the view from the farthest point of this ride's wide circle.

Mount Wachusett  from 30 Miles Away
Not Going There Today

Shad Rides

OM AH HUM

~ With the gratitude of Niceness and the honor of Moment. Inity in a dichotomous world. ~