On the Eve of the D2R2

May I prove as stout and resolute on tomorrow's ride
as these venerable pines in Shutesbury

Humid in the Woo tonight, the sky is trying to clear. There's water in the air. I'm glad not to be camping at the D2R2 campground, though on a clear cool night that sounds like it would be fun. The vibe would surely be festive & friendly, respectful, and no doubt a little weirdly intense. Probably a lot similar to race day itself.

As mentioned in yesterday's posting, this will be my fourth time participating in this extraordinary event. Huge PRAISE to the organizers and the Franklin Land Trust, you've created a fantastic tradition.

Here's an indicator of why this event is so special. In an email to all the riders (approximately 1,160 riders) concerning the food, the hosts wrote:

First, at breakfast, we were surprised that, far and away, the biggest request was oatmeal. Ladies and gentlemen, we have added it to the menu. You guys are too easy ...

Lunch is getting the biggest overhaul. Last year things were too bland. This year, the caterers will be making sandwiches on-site. You will have more stuff to add to your sandwich as it is made, and then a choice of four condiments from simple mustard to garlic aioli. We have also adjusted the numbers of turkey and ham, and there will be way more gluten-free bread available....

Dinner will be largely the same based on feedback; however, people seemed to ask for more veggies, so there will be grilled veggies available.

What, no wine list?! Outrageous.

My experience has been that there's way more food available than you can possibly eat, even though you have to eat a lot to stay fueled. I'm only going to pack some energy gels and shot bloks from home. Instead of eating at 4:00 AM when I get up as I've tried to do in the past, I'll eat a banana and a double espresso and then gorge on eggs and peanut butter bread smears and more bananas when I arrive at the starting fields. Probably take an egg and an energy bar for the road.

And this, specific to the 160K and 180K:

On the 180K and 160K, your second stop will offer more substance because lunch is a ways off yet - bananas, PB&J, Fig Newtons, and such. 160K riders in particular, I think I underfed you at this point last year, so this year I'm upping the offerings for you. 

Underfed us?? I admit that lunch last year wasn't that good (slapped together sandwiches of unremarkable meat and bland sliced cheese, or something), but abundance wasn't the issue as far as I recall. Let 'em eat Fig Newtons.

As for my own dinner tonight, the eve of the Big Ride, I'm chowing a small sirloin filet and a large bowl of tortellini with light creamed tomato sauce. And drinking as much water as I can. And NOT drinking any alcohol. And going to bed by 8:00 PM.

I want to avoid what happened last year when I drank three or four beers the night before, only got like six hours of sleep, and then didn't eat enough or drink enough water before setting out on the 180K. About 45 miles into the ride I started cramping - my quads and my calves. I thought I would have to abandon but I grimly pushed on. That was when I learned that not only can you ride with leg cramps but you can actually recover from them, get over them. But it sucks doing so.

Finally, check out the "official" D2R2 2015 promotional video, it's pretty cool.

Lead Up to the D2R2: Rides, August 13 - 18

A little Greek Orthodox style on Cedar St, Woo City
August 15, 2015

Another quality stretch of riding, it's summer, the heat booms, the sun shines, the skin stays slick with sunblock.

Tonight, Thursday evening, it's a sticky 80 degrees in the Woo, I'm just back from eating roasted broccoli and poutine (with bacon gravy and local cheese curds) at the Armsby Abbey, Woo City's preeminent farm-to-table gastro pub. I've been watching the weekend forecast nervously because Saturday is the D2R2*, my third in a row and fourth overall. Earlier predictions had been an 80% chance of rain (including thunderstorms) but that forecast has changed and now they're predicting light rain possible in the early AM followed by partial sun through the rest of the day. Irie! Dampen those dusty farm roads and let us have our go.

In anticipation of cloudy, damp morning weather (and by "morning" we're talking a 7:00 departure) I bought arm warmers. Also bought two new bike bags, one for under the seat (more commodious than the one I have) and one for the top tube.

Looking back to the last week or so, I notched some good efforts including a Thursday 24 miler up into Paxton via the Kettle Brook Reservoirs (which included the cat 4 Woo City Airport climb).

All good in Kettle Brook
August 13, 2015

Then, on Saturday (August 15th), with time in the coffers, I ventured into the heat for a gigantic ramble up into Rutland and Princeton, 46 baking miles. I say "gigantic" because it was hot as hell and it involved 2800+ feet of climbing (including the Airport climb again), and took 4+ hours. I poured sweat and sopped my gloves and loved the whole thing.

Somewhere in Rutland, MA
August 15, 2015

Sunshine daydream

That was all well and good, visceral challenges in the Luciferian Crucible, but it was all pavement. I was never tested on gravel, though I was in fact turned back by deteriorating pavement on Brigham Rd in Rutland (I'd intended to use Brigham Rd as a cut-through to Brooks Rd and on to route 56). The off road work had to wait.

Brigham Rd not suitable for the road bike

Until Tuesday, anyway, when things changed dramatically. The weather remained absurdly hot and humid but the time had come for Team Shad to coalesce and get in a grueling pre-D2R2 training ride, a test ride of sorts to make sure the bikes (and ourselves) were ready to go.

Actually, only two thirds of Team Shad assembled, Dubstoevsky and The Virginian. I Ward is, alas, about to undergo surgery to repair a shoulder injury suffered when he was hit by a car backing out of a driveway over 10 months ago, so he was unavailable and will not be at the starting line of the D2R2. (Everyone even remotely connected to Team Shad wishes you, mighty I Ward, a swift recovery.)

Nevertheless, The Virginian and I rendezvoused in the hills of Montague, Massachusetts on Tuesday, August 18th for a humid ramble through the back roads, the dirt roads, the forest roads of the Pioneer Valley hills.

The Virginian prepping for the D2R2

We covered 46 hot miles and, though knackered by the time we returned to base camp (Chez Hotar), we were both encouraged. We felt ready for the 160K on Saturday.

Here's the thing. You huff and sweat and groan and hurt and struggle to turn the cranks but ... every time those wheels turn 'round, you cover just a little more ground.

Onward!

The D2R2 is special and definitely not to be taken lightly. The Virginian to his credit has ridden every iteration so far, 10 years and counting. I've completed a modest three by comparison, so while I remain the self-professed leader of Team Shad, I defer to and bow before The Mighty Virginian for his accomplishments. He is the George Hincapie of the D2R2, whether it's the 160k or the 180k. The Virginian rules and I simply try to keep in contact.

Tech Notes: I bought, and used for the first time on the D2R2 warm up ride, a Garmin Edge 200. I've since seen it described as:

"The Edge 200 is a basic GPS computer for cyclists wanting accurate maps of their rides."

Suits me.

It's intuitive to use and easy to see. It's slightly larger than a normal bike computer and it attaches easily to your handlebars.

One drawback is that, when you first turn it on to get started, it doesn't prompt you to set certain important parameters. For example, there's a setting for what to do when you stop during the ride, when you're no longer moving. I assumed the default would be to stop the timer but I was wrong. The default is that the timer keeps running. That skews the mph stat (the computation of which I assume is tied to the timer).

Another problem arose when I tried to upload the ride data to GarminConnect. The software I'd downloaded a day earlier was apparently out of date. The uploads error'd out and directed me to repetitive pages that were not helpful.

Eventually, after successive tries, I uninstalled the software and downloaded & installed the proverbial 'latest version.' After that, I was able to upload the ride data. To my pleasant surprise, Garmin automatically propagated that data to my Strava account. I'm not sure how that happened because I don't recall filling in any settings/parameters that would have made that connection.

The D2R2 will be a test of this device's ability. In the course of 95+ miles, we're in woods, we're in the hinterlands, we're stopped, we're way out in the freakin' country ... and we're out there for 10 hours or more. The battery life is supposed to be 14 hours. I will make sure it's fully charged before setting out. Me too, I'll be fully charged as well.

Parting Shot

Which way would you go? This way?

Morrow's Golden Hills, Paxton

Or this way?

The Road to Riches, Paxton

* If you followed the link to the D2R2 Homepage, that's Dubstoevsky anchoring the lead graphic (as of August 15, 2015).

A Stretch of Summer Riding

Bancroft Tower, August 8, 2015

A good stretch of riding just past. Bancroft Tower visits, a racing fast Monday ride with the Barney's Crew, me innocuous and unaligned and happy to ride for myself in the break away. A one way ride from Harvard to Worcester, the point of launch being Carlson's Orchards, a venerable producer of peaches, nectarines, and apples. Big sun, big puffy clouds, big blue radiant New England skies, back roads bounded by stone walls. Long climbs with the new gearing. Explorations, missed turns, meandering afield in Rutland, Sterling, Princeton, Lancaster, category 3 and category 4 climbs.

Dexter Drumlin, Lancaster, MA
August 8, 2015

But what of the compact 50/34? For inconsequential starters, this Ultegra set-up is noisy when coasting, it produces a whirring spinnicky-clicking sound that, at speeds, sounds like a host of meth-fueled cicadas going off under my seat. The pronounced drone makes listening to other errant noises that the bike might make difficult to hear so that audio troubleshooting might prove challenging. But the important thing is how it performs. And that, I'm happy to report, is excellent.

The second lowest gear (i.e., 2nd easiest to peddle) is now what my lowest gear was before. That's good as I can now get out of the saddle and hammer in that gear and still have a fallback option. However, the lowest gear is almost powerless. It's so easy to turn over that I find myself pumping staccato-style, jabbering almost, like someone stuttering, firing up and down rapidly but ineffectively. Except on the steepest grades. Then that low gear shines.

Mason Rd, Princeton
Aug 8, 2015

Yesterday's ride with the Monday night group was uplifting. I'd gone there tired and a couple weeks removed from the last time I rode with them when I did not acquit myself well (missed the break away that night and then dogged it on the hills, as I recall). But last night went much better. I rode 4+ miles (including a climb to Bancroft Tower) before getting to the ride rendezvous so I was warmed up. Then I made sure I stayed in contact with the front.

Racing along the newly paved section of Reservoir Rd at 22+ mph, we were a speeding train of ten or so guys. I didn't go near the front. I hung at the rear, alternately last or second to last, until we hit the climb. The group hammered onto the slope, as did I, feeling pretty good. But I had miscalculated. With the new compact gearing I'd figured that I'd be able to out climb guys but when I dropped to the lowest gear, I sacrificed momentum for ease of pedaling. That proved costly as I was only able to pass two guys; the rest of the group powered off ahead of me as I thrashed myself upwards, panting.

That's the good thing about the group ride versus the normal solo ride - you get to test yourself against stronger, better, and more experienced riders than yourself. And the competition is earnest but friendly; no one's a dick. There's nothing at stake, not even bragging rights. You're riding solely to test yourself.

I also did a short ride in town Sunday morning, August 9th. With plans for hiking later in the day, I opted just to get out on the quiet city streets for some local hill climbing. Green Hill Park, for example, George Street, Bancroft Tower. All good climbs. A beautiful morning. Very little traffic.

Main St, Woo City, Aug 9, 2015

Crossing Highland Ave Sunday Morning

Dubstoevsky at Bancroft Tower
Sunday, Aug 9, 2015

New Wheel

Wachusett Reservoir, West Boylston, MA
August 6, 2015

First ride on the new Easton rear wheel and first ride for the combo new wheel & drive train and it's an amazing thing - the trusty six year old Allez Comp feels like a brand new bike. The shifting is smooth, swift, responsive, and the light weight rim and taut spokes of the Easton hurl me forward like an arrow. Jah's arrow. Dispatched into the magnificent sunny void, the technicolor zone of spinning meditation.

34.1 miles into Sterling and the Wachusett Reservoir area and back, just 1800+ feet of climbing, 2+ hours in the saddle.

Second ride with the bib. I'm a total convert to this piece of equipment. Though now I learn that the Mighty Scrod has been a devotee for quite some time; why he never extolled the bib's virtues to me I can't say. Perhaps he seeks a competitive edge.

Road condition update: There are still patches of scraped & grooved road surface on Holden and Brattle Sts. heading out of the Woo to the northeast.

Tech: New chain, new chain rings, new crank arm and bottom bracket, new rear wheel. Ka-CHING.

Irie Tally: 1 thumbs up & chest tap from a motorcyclist responding to the Steal Your Face jersey.

Developments

Tour de France, July 2015

What a week, and then some. Travels to the south Jersey shore, the end of the Tour de France, a major restructuring of the Allez Comp's drive train, and the arrival of the Bib. In Cape May, NJ I rode a single speed fat tire beach cruiser about six miles round trip to Cape May Lighthouse State Park but I neglected to activate my Strava connection so have no chart of that unusual ride.

More importantly, three giant developments have occurred since last we checked in with Dubstoevsky.

First, a new crank set and drive train. Much research into the pros and cons of a 50/34 set-up, a compact, vs the typical racing set of 53/39. Having had trouble with my crank's compression nut for a while and being unable to adjust it to satisfaction, throw in the need of a new chain and a replacement of the considerably worn chain rings, and it seemed a no brainer. I went with the compact. Six days in the shop while I was at the Jersey shore. Return to a whole new drive train world. More on this in a subsequent post.

Second, the arrival of The Bib. Why I have ridden all these years and never worn one is beyond me. This changes the game, comfort-wise.

Yesterday being a case in point. A hot day and long in the saddle, over 50 miles and lots of climbing. The Bib alleviated the midriff bunching & pressing that comes with regular biking shorts. The Bib doesn't put pressure on your bladder, but it does, corset-like, keep your belly tucked and your form tight.

Saturday, out by 9:00, another hot and dry weekend, though setting out I encounter more clouds than were predicted. The first hour proves to be under puffy gray overhang. Eventually, the day rises into being and the sun takes over the sky, the cloud cover dissipates and the full heat of the 90+ degree pulses.

My goal? The Wachusett summit. Via the Worcester Airport and Paxton & Rutland. A category 4 and a cat 3 climb on today's route. The entire ride, though taken on many 'main' roads, proves to be traffic-free, a real long pedal and grind through extraordinary New England landscapes, including, when all was said and done, over 4,000 feet of climbing. Allez!

Mt. Wachusett Summit, August 1, 2015

Sterling Airport, August 1st, 2015

It was a great ride, though arduous. A piping hot day. This time I rode in the correct direction, starting out in the morning and riding northwest so that the sun was behind me, and when I returned near noon, though the sun was above me it was also slanted slightly from behind, so the sun wasn't in my face. The last time I did a similar version of this ride, leaving the same time (roughly 9:00 AM), I went in reverse and rode into the sun the entire way, going and coming.

Sterling, Ma

But I digress.

Despite a stellar ride yesterday and a real excitement about the new drive train - climbing was incredible, considerably easier - I come now to the third development.

This afternoon, eager to set out once more and further put to the test my new drive train, I discovered a loose spoke in my rear wheel. It being Sunday, I wasn't sanguine about finding a bike shop open that could help me. But I did.

Unfortunately, the 'one loose spoke' revealed a greater problem - two evident cracks in the rim. And just like that, today's ride was cancelled and now I'm looking at another week or so to get a new set of wheels and get back in action.

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. I have been suffering from 'tennis elbow' (in my case 'biking and driving elbow') and another week's rest might be beneficial. Given how good I felt on the 50+ miler on Saturday after a week's lay off, I don't worry about jumping back into the thick of it after a lay off. Plus, new wheels. That might be exciting.

The Recovery Elixir

Juice it up after a big ride

Strawberry, peach, carrot, apple, beat

With the Niceness!

A NAD Half Century and the Hermeneutics of 'fucknatty'

Three good rides in a week of sweltering mid-July. During a week in which the Tour entered the mountains and then rode across the scorching south of France, I rode across the scorching roads of the Greater Woo. Fantastic.

Today in particular. Sunday. A heated boomer. I got out reasonably early, by 8:50. It would have been nicer to hit the road by 7:30 but that wasn't in the cards this morning. It was 72 degrees when I set out, the sun was rising steadily into a sky scattered with thin clouds, and I knew I was due for a hot one.

Getting toward really hot early

Interestingly, I had my attitude well-adjusted both toward the heat and toward more philosophical matters. Just after setting out and cycling happily through the quite empty Sunday morning neighborhood streets, and flushed with the good vibe of a hot July weekend day, I decided this would be a NAD ride.

Drifting past Becker College, heading for the hills

NAD stands for No Animosity Day. I forswore feeling or expressing animosity toward anyone or any thing. I would sing the praises of competent drivers when I encountered them, and forgive the morons, do-gooders, and general inconsiderate & blithely unaware car-driving bastards that on any given ride are legion; instead, I vowed to manifest nothing but Positivity and Acceptance. I would embrace the Empathetic Response. No matter how provoked or righteously aggrieved I found myself, I would take the proverbial high road and let it all go.

Dubstoevsky in a state of grace

And it worked. The entire ride was incident-free. No one shouted at me, no one cut me off or pulled out in front of me, no one hovered behind me afraid to pass or broke the flow of traffic trying to be nice and let me go when they shouldn't. For fifty miles I sailed along in a state of irie acceptance. Only once did someone lean out their window to shout at me as they sped by, and that person only wanted to compliment my "Steal Your Face" jersey.

"Nice shirt, man!" he shouted as he leaned halfway out the passenger window. I gave him the thumbs-up.

Aside: I don't think a ride has passed that someone hasn't complimented, or remarked approvingly upon, the Dead shirt when I've worn it. A fraternity of Dead Heads, a tribe of kindness. 

Early in the ride I came upon stretches of Forest and Holden Streets that had been scraped over in preparation for re-paving; they were rough, and corrugated, and unpleasant and my reaction upon encountering them was to utter a spontaneous expletive - "fucknatty!" I immediately caught myself, thinking that I was breaking the NAD Dictum, but then I wondered if, in fact, I was engaging in animosity. I came to believe that I wasn't.

Picking my way carefully but steadily up the ascending stretch of un-Belgian pavé, it occurred to me that sometimes the meaning of an utterance depends very much on the emotion behind the outburst. By shouting "fucknatty!" in this instance I was not expressing animosity for the road (which would be silly anyway), nor did I feel any particular antipathy toward the Department of Public Works for leaving the road in a state of disrepair; indeed, this was evidence of an improving situation, one that required time, and one that shouldn't be subjected to the animus of a temporarily inconvenienced rider. Indeed not.

So what I was actually expressing was the emotion of frustration. That lead to the realization that the utterance of the oath "fucknatty" in this context meant that the term was actually multi-dimensional. Of course I accepted the verity that in certain circumstances "fucknatty" might clearly be invoked in a fit of animosity, but I also concluded that the term was not necessarily used for that purpose. In fact, contextual circumstance must be considered when evaluating the hermeneutics of spontaneous expletives. One cannot codify an expressive outburst by a narrow interpretation of the verbiage deployed.

A further use of what I now realize to be a very versatile expletive emerged later on in the ride. The specifics of the incident escape me but I found myself yet again barking "fucknatty!" aloud, but without animus or frustration. This time I used it as a means of expressing incredulity, as if to say "are you kidding me? this again?!"

Wachusett Reservoir, near Sterling

Whatever it was, it didn't matter. I was sailing along. I was sweating profusely, baking in the sun, ecstatic to be alive and in moderate discomfort (the discomfort reminded me that, being healthy, I had nothing to complain about). I was turning the pedals - "the wheel is turning and you can't slow down" - I was living the cycling life.

At one point, I whizzed by a painted turtle, its head peaking quizzically from its shell on the side of the road. I braked to a halt, turned around, and went back to steer it off the road and into the shrubs.

The compass always points to Terrapin.

Or perhaps to Rome.

Roman ruins excavated by Dr. Dubstoevsky

The point is that we drift far and wide and that, under the best of circumstances, we disavow our animosity and embrace the incredulity of Life itself. The circle is wide. The planet spins on its own tumultuous gyration. We're just along for the ride.

July 6 - 12: Hot Summer Days

The long gruel, a hot and pulsing summer week, hard rides on heated tarmac. Hard non-training off the bike, the growlers of beer, the meat wagon, the ice cream flagon, did I mention beer? champagne? the hubris of birth? the raucous carouse in baking July?

Still yet to notch a 50 mile ride, but this week managed two 45+ rides, hard ones too, culminating in Saturday's epic 3500 ft of climbing, a Wachusett summit, the furnace of mid-afternoon returning to the baking Woo. Allez!

Not to mention an airport climb, Bancroft Tower, and a cursory Sunday city meander. Not a bad week over all, 118 miles.

July 9, 2015

Princeton, July 9, 2015

The bike conducts itself

July 11, 2015 Holden Reservoir

On the move

Heading toward Wachusett July 11, 2015

Summit, July 11

Dicey Woo, July 12, 2015

Bancroft Tower, July 12, 2015