Ride # 43: Mt Wachusett and the Summit Road

Tuesday afternoon, 4:00
63 degrees

I wish I could link to the strava.com details of today's ride but apparently I accidentally hit the stop button as I handled the phone putting it in my jersey pocket as I set out so I didn't capture anything. I'd be curious what the elevation would have been because it was another full day of Big Climbing.

My intention had been to ride to the base of Mt. Wachusett to see if the Summit Road was clear of snow yet. When I got there and found out that it WAS clear, that the snow cover from the ski slopes had all melted and that you could now ride to the top, I happily ascended. Best of all, the Summit Rd gates were closed so I didn't have to worry about cars on the road, it was still closed to traffic.

I essentially had the entire road to myself (I passed two hikers going up, and a runner coming down). I felt really good today, strong. Still some nagging lower back discomfort but that seems to become less painful as I warm up and notch a few miles. Plus, I'm more conscientious of position and often shift around and stretch on the fly.

On top, I was alone. That was weird, never experienced it before. Great visibility - Boston and Worcester and mountains off to the north. Just after I snapped the photo below, a hiker strode into view and said hello and wished me a good ride. I wished him a good hike, and was off.

First summit of Wachusett 2014

Spring is hear, despite the chill in the air (note the long sleeved retro wool jersey). At one point, passing a couple reservoirs, I ran through a bloom of small gnat-like insects that smashed against me in clouds and got in my mouth and hair and down my neck.

The road sides and gutters are greening too.

Ride Summary: 27.66 (44 K), 13.2 mph, over two hours.

Road Kill: one small garter snake that I couldn't stop and photograph because it was at the top of the last long climb of the day.

Ride # 42: Turkey Vultures

Sunday Morning 10:00
Backyard Style
56 degrees

Yesterday I attended a Kentucky Derby party in Brattleboro, VT and availed myself of the mint julep station with abandon and drank an unusually large amount of bourbon and as a result I am not feeling my best today, Sunday, but I muster the energy to gear up and ride, in fact that's the best hangover cure I know, a hard ride in honest weather.

But here's the thing. It was a real ride, no bullshit, no slacking. I pushed it as best I could and relished the spirit pulse. Unfortunately, my lower back is still problematic, still on the edge of skitching out. I almost feel like I should buy a new bicycle, one with a frame and a geometry that fits me like a tailored suit.

Turkey vultures soared overhead waiting for me to expire on the road side. I did not oblige them.

This turkey vulture won't dine on me today

Birds spotted: blue jay, crow, flicker, chickadee, red-winged blackbird, sparrows, turkey vulture, hawk, mallard duck, Canada goose, nuthatch, mourning dove, house finch.

No road kill today, hooray!

Part of today's ride was stopping by my childhood house (I inherited it, no one is living there) to make sure everything continues to be okay, the house not broken into, the integrity of the structure intact, etc.. A few weeks ago I began to stack the beer and soda can collection I amassed as a teenager against the living room wall.

Can Collection!

Everything was copasetic so I didn't linger. The wind blew, the clouds rolled across the sun, the sap rose in the hardwoods. Flowering shrubs flowered. Daffodils and crocuses bloomed. I rode with the Niceness, my whole being focused on the motion of the spinning circle.

There's still a chill in the air. May 4th and I'm in tights with a long-sleeve fleece top over a regular biking jersey and a windbreaker vest over it all. Full finger gloves. Every plant every animal knows that spring is happening, it's just happening in cool temperatures and limited sun.

The point is that today was a utilitarian ride, a must-do, a determined foray onto tarmac. The knotty & fragile lower back notwithstanding, I felt surprisingly good and enjoyed riding along mostly empty roads, very few cars to contend with. A fine day to be alive and pedaling a bicycle across land you know.

Jack-in-the-Dub

Ride Summary: 24.8 miles (38 K), 13.8 mph (lame), an hour and forty five minutes spinning.

Ride # 41: This Is The Moment After Which Comes The Next Moment

Backyard Style
Friday afternoon around 4:45
64 degrees

The return of GREEN. Green came to Lemonstar like Hemingway's description of bankruptcy; gradually, then all at once. We're not quite at the "all at once" stage but we have reached the Point of Inevitability. The maple leaves are coming, they're a wan lime green hint on the branches.

Still experiencing some back/hip discomfort though at diminishing levels of intensity. Wednesday I had a Qi Gong session with Master Yang and I felt great that evening. But yesterday, Thursday, I was in pain again, the back tentative, at the edge of freaking out if I moved the wrong way. Today, Friday, after some stretching, I feel pretty good again.

The logical thing to do is ride. Late afternoon, the clouds have rolled in from the west but the day is still mild, especially in comparison to how chilly it's been lately. I yip around about what to wear and settle on tights, a short sleeve jersey with a long sleeve jersey over that and the high vis windbreaker vest. It proves to be the right combination.

I spin with purpose trying to keep my self in the Moment. The moment is pedaling, is spring afternoon air, is new growth, is the reminder that This Is The Moment After Which Comes The Next Moment. This is the moment where I am who I am, a man on a bicycle in the state of Massachusetts on a Friday afternoon in May. Everything that is yet to come can wait for me to finish being where I am.

In the Green Moment on Lucas Road

Where I am is the Justice Hill Cuttoff climb where I enjoy turning the pedals over with deliberation. I hear birds - a cardinal, crows, a blue jay - but I let their sounds come and go. I try to make myself light on the bike, I imagine I am filled with air, that my skin is the sinewy skein of a jubilant balloon, that I am free to Be and float and go with the whim of chance. Or the whim of two thin wheels and an aluminum frame.

For a while anyway, I win life's gamble.

At Speed 

Ride Summary: 16.33 miles (25 K), 13.7 mph, an hour and twelve minutes. My back and right leg, including the knee and below, didn't feel that great for the first three miles or so, I was concerned but then I seemed to loosen up and I felt better and that feeling persisted through the end of the ride. I'm hopeful, even though this was just 16 miles. With the Niceness.

Road Kill: One garter snake, though the kill might have happened yesterday. It was a big snake, a survivor. Until recently. Going too fast to stop and photograph it. OM AH HUM

Ride # 40: Spring is a Dog From Hell

Looks can be deceiving
Tuesday afternoon, 3:15, gray, dour
45 degrees

Sure, the snow is gone. Hasn't hailed or sleeted in a while. But it does not feel like spring. I paraphrase the classic Bukowski book for the title of this post. And it's true. This year. Snarl and spit, fume and pout. Where's the love? Where's the lamb? It's almost May and on only one ride so far have I been able to wear short sleeves.

The good news is that I did 22.5 miles today and now these several hours later my back and hip don't feel bad. In fact, everything feels better than yesterday. I stretched before and after riding today. I also moved my seat forward a quarter of an inch or so before setting out. And twice in the first few miles I stopped and adjusted the seat height, raising it each time. I'd lowered it too much after Sunday's ride and I felt squat and bunched as soon as I got going today, like a teenager too big for his bike. On the second adjustment though I nailed it. Or so it felt for the rest of the ride.

The thing is, I want the pedal stroke distributed mostly through my quads and calves; but at the height I'd had my seat at, the burden fell on the narrow band that stretches from the glutes around back, over the hip arrow, down across the groin valley and onto the plain of quad. Now it felt better, I could feel the thighs working, could feel the calves doing their share; I did not feel an excess strain at the bridge over the river thigh.

When I felt good after the first few miles I thought "With the Niceness!" and hoped for the best. Turned out to be a reassuring ride. No need to turn back.

Gray, overcast, very much a  forbidding day. Poe-like. Cold. 45 degrees (7 C). Nothing soft or happy. Just a craven, crow-spackled, elocution of spat.

A year or so ago I might not have gone out on a grim day like today. But that was before riding through the winter and riding through all the various extreme weather situations those months presented. A moderately T.S. Eliotian cruel April day did not displease me.

Wondering about the four horsemen of the Apocalypse

Yet there are unmistakable signs of spring. Wan green buds. The first probing shoots of growth in the debris-ridden roadside; fern thickles, vine tendrils, poison ivy nipples. Nubbins of green on sumac stalks lining stonewalled fields. Occasional blooming shrubs and ornamentals.

Shadsythia

Ride Summary: 22.5 miles (36 K), 13.4 mph (slow, cautious in the sand and in the rough conditions of the western hills; oh, and yeah, the HILLS). I wore full winter garb today: under armor, zippered fleece, thick outer Pearl Izumi limonade winter thick top. 43 degrees when I got back. Not a beam of sun all day.

Have started to track my rides at strava.com. More on that later.

Parting Shot

The road to Hobbiton
East Farthing

Ride # 39: Quilted Hubris

Sunday morning, 11:00
45 degrees
it rained earlier this morning

Awesome! Back to booties and tights, under wear, over wear, layered gloves, skullcap, talismanic scarab broach (perhaps), it's cold and vaguely raw, like early March. Except it's the end of April. It should be warmer. The capricious wiles of New England. Allez!

Some more bad news. I'm experiencing A LOT of lower back & hip pain, right side. The same old irritated places, except magnified. Really uncomfortable. As soon as I got on the road bike two rides ago I found myself having to stretch forward to grip the handlebars. Over distance, this proved to be exacerbating. Or so I now conclude after road ride # 3. My fucking parts hurt! First time in a long time.

So today, thinking that I should RAISE the seat (as I had with the Crux), I upped it a half inch and set out. Felt great. For a while. Eventually I noticed that my quads and calves didn't seem to be exerting too much energy or having much impact in the pedaling. The pull and push centered in the hip and pelvis, the lower back. And while one side (the left) could handle it, the other side, the ever cranky right, rebelled. I rode on.

Eventually, in the center of Harvard some twenty miles into the ride, I stopped and lowered the seat. D'oh. That seemed better. But was it? By now the whole muscle band was irritated. I improvised riding positions that offered temporary relief. I relished the chance to stand up and power up hills. Stamina-wise, I felt great, ready to do some mileage. Ah well.

I was going for the high note. The extrapolated breath of Oneness that your body offers up into the void of our imaginary selves. Praise to the enthusiastic embrace of What Come Next!

What Comes Next

Then, riding out of Bolton toward Harvard, I passed the giant sycamore tree that's grown there by the roadside for ... 150 years? 200 years? A massive testimony to gentle perseverance.

Sycamore Looming

Trunk of the venerable giant

I Shad and the limbs of history

Rainy mist at one point, some westerly wind, billowy gray & white ghost skies. A quilt of muted hubris.

Flirting with the void of reason

Ride Summary: 35 miles (56 K), 14.9 mph, two hours twenty minutes. Felt great except for the nagging right-side freak out.

Road Kill: Bad day for small mammals. A red squirrel, a chipmunk, and a gray squirrel (not photographed).

Red Squirrel

Chipmunk

Ride # 38: Utility

3:00 Thursday afternoon, April 24 

I always feel good when I can combine biking with something I have to do which, in today's case, was to meet a conservation committee member at the property I inherited in Shirley, about 10 miles from Lemonstar. Instead of driving over there, I got the road bike out.

I also donned tights, a long sleeve fleece jersey, and a high vis windbreaker vest. Yes, tights. Yes, fleece. So much for summer-like weather! A strong NW west combined with temps in the mid-40s made it seem like early March all over again. But well-dressed as always for the conditions, I didn't mind the cool. The wind sort of sucked and at times buffeted me around a bit more than was comfortable but no harm resulted.

Because today's outing was a mission with a set meeting time, I had no chance to stop and photograph the two separate snacks that had quite recently been squashed by cars. Garter snakes. Dead before they could even enjoy the warming weather and the long days.

The thing is, I felt great today and wished I had more time to extend the ride after my meeting. The legs were strong, I had power on the climbs, the wind didn't exhaust me. Road biking season bodes well!

Except the transition from the Crux Elite to the Allez Comp might be impacting my hips and butt. The slight change of position, the minor elongated extension I have to adopt on the road bike, perhaps resulted in the increased soreness I felt the night of the ride and the day after. I'm not sure if it's just a matter of adjustment, of getting used to the change, or if I have to tweak the position of the handlebars and/or seat on the Allez Comp. Hard to say yet.

Ride Stats: 20 miles (32 K), 15.7 mph (at least half of the ride into a 20+ mph NW headwind), 75 minutes. Two dead snakes.

Rasputitsa Coverage Around the Internet

In the wake of last Saturday's inaugural running of the Rasputitsa bike race in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, some online articles & videos about the race have appeared.

Text

The Newport Dispatch

The Chronicle (Vermont's Northeast Kingdom Past and Present)

Recovery Poutine (from www.Iamtedking.com) - Ted King, a professional cyclist fresh off a little spring ride called Paris-Roubaix joined the legions of riders at the Rasputitsa.

Like It's Your Last (CouchingTiger Blog) - The author finished 6th overall.

Video

Some good video posted here - Cyberia, the Lanterne Rouge, the start, Tim Johnson

2014 Rasputitsa Newport, VT - a collage of photographs by Patrick McCaffrey

Dirty 40 and Rasputitsa Gravel Road Race in Coventry, VT - 11 minute posting of the racers ascending a long dirt climb in Coventry. Posted by Donald P. Hunt.

Brian Nolan's - Rasputitsa Gravel Road Race: