September mornings still can make me feel this way

I’ve already had two noteworthy rides this month, so here’s a quick update.

On Laborious Day, my buddy Jay tricked me into going out to Princeton MA and riding about 50 miles to the summit of Mt. Wachusett and back. At 2000 feet, Wachusett is the highest point in Massachusetts east of the Connecticut River, and the only other time I’ve climbed it by bike was on the CRW Climb to the Clouds back in 2003… five years ago!

It really was a nice ride, and quite a workout. In 2003, I approached the mountain from the north, and the ride up to the park gate seemed much more difficult than the actual climb from there to the summit. This year we came from the south, and the approach wasn’t quite as bad. However, the climb up from the gate seemed more challenging, which means the approach from the north must be even more of a beast than I remember!

We hung out at the summit for a while, and then rolled out for a nice zippy little descent back to Jay’s mom’s place. It made for a really nice day.

Then yesterday Jay and I did the Narragansett Bay Wheelmen’s Flattest Century in the East, which is in his old stomping grounds of southeastern Mass and eastern Rhode Island. It almost didn’t happen, as the remnants of Hurricane Hanna blew through overnight, but by morning it was surprisingly clear and warm. The only weather-related complications were a gusty residual breeze and a ton of windfallen branches from the storm.

I really wasn’t up for the ride. My legs hadn’t recovered from the Wachusett ride six days earlier, and I hadn’t trained at all since the PMC, a month ago. On top of that, I was overtired, headachey, and too nauseous to eat anything for breakfast. That all showed in my performance on the bike, which was okay, but lackluster.

On the minus side, by the end it was a bit of a slog, as I started to feel the effects of not eating anything beforehand or on the bike. Both Jay and I were pretty exhausted by the end, but we felt a lot better after a shower and some ice cream at his friend Steve’s, then a big meal (fajitas for me) at Healthy Grille before returning to Boston.

On the plus side, it was nice to do a long supported ride where I felt no pressure to finish early. Unlike the PMC, we took our time at the water stops, even picking up some lemon ice cream at the 50-mile stop in Tiverton RI (they were out of sorbet). The day was glorious and the ride really pretty, especially where the route touched the Atlantic coast in Tiverton and at Elephant Rock.

But I think next time I’ll plan to keep my training up and get a little more food into my body, rather than doing the ride undertrained and undernourished.

Links in the Chain

Two linky links for your linky linking pleasure.

First, for those of you who didn’t know it yet, this is the link to this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge ride report.

Next, a link to an article about another prominent PMC rider: John Kerry. The article was written by Jonathan Vaughters, a popular former pro cyclist, and he gives a great and entertaining assessment of Kerry’s cycling prowess.