Orny's Cycling Journal

Follow this link for my full 2013 Pan-Mass Challenge ride report, including writeup, photos, and GPS logs.

Prelude

Epic rides deserve epic ride reports, so here’s the tale of the 2012 Mt. Washington Century…

The story begins with last July’s Climb to the Clouds ride. For at least the past three years, my Pan-Mass Challenge training culminated with that century ride up Mt. Wachusett a couple weeks before the PMC. But that ride isn’t well run, and last year my buddies and I reached the breaking point (ride report). As we sat around recovering from a brutal ride, all four of us concluded that we never wanted to do that ride again.

So this year I proposed a different ride that occupies the same spot in the New England cycling calendar: the Mt. Washington Century. It took very little convincing that a different ride would be more fun than yet another disappointing Climb to the Clouds.

The bonus is that this isn’t just another ride; it is an epic 108-mile ride over three named passes in the White Mountains. The route accumulates more than a mile of vertical by traversing the well-known Kancamagus Highway, Bear Notch, Crawford Notch, and Pinkham Notch. Billed as “New England’s most challenging century”, it circumnavigates most of the Presidential Range, including Mt. Adams and, of course, Mt. Washington, which is the highest peak in the northeastern US.

Preparation

In anticipation of the most difficult route I’d ever attempted, I spent a couple weeks doing hill repeats on the biggest hills in the area. On July 3rd I did four ascents of Great Blue Hill… and, of course, four high-speed descents, which I would also need to be ready to tackle. And on July 8th I did six trips up Eastern Ave to Arlington’s water tower… again with six screaming descents down the Route 2 on-ramp. While I wasn’t sure I was ready for 108 miles of mountains—especially after my self-destruction on my attempted Harvard century two weeks earlier (ride report)—I figured I was as ready as I was ever going to be.

I also wanted the Plastic Bullet to be ready, and it needed help. After a recent cleaning, my shifting had started skipping around. It had been more than a year since my last tune-up, so on Tuesday I brought it in and had them true the wheels and replace the chain and cassette. Seemed like a wise idea, right? Let the shop make sure everything was in good order for the big ride.

On Wednesday I biked to work, and the shifting was just as bad, if not worse. It was bad enough that after work I rode directly to the shop and asked them to fix it up properly. But as soon as the tech touched it, the shifter cable snapped at the shift lever: a problem that has happened to me two or three times in the past. When it happens, your shifter locks into the hardest gear and there’s nothing you can do about it. In short, had that happened during the Mt. Washington ride, I would have been absolutely screwed. I had really lucked out.

Getting There

The day before the ride, I left work at 4pm and met my buddy Noah drove me from my place out to Jay’s in Waltham. Rather than try to fight Friday rush hour traffic, we followed the first of several insightful suggestions I offered: get Thai from the restaurant around the corner. Everyone loved that idea… even me, who’d already eaten Thai for lunch for two days in a row. Hey, I figured it was good veggies and carbs! So that was my first good call.

Hanging at Jay’s, the sandbagging began. It was clear that each of us had some level of anxiety about the ride. Paul hadn’t ridden in a while. Noah hadn’t ridden much all year. Jay was surprised to learn that the ride’s site had lied about how much climbing was involved, proclaiming 4800 feet of vertical instead of a more realistic 6000'.

We also took a moment to acknowledge that this would be our last major ride together as a group, with Jay moving to Florida next month. We’ve had a great run together, and I think everyone’s sad to see it pass. On the other hand, doing the White Mountains would be a fitting and memorable way to go out!

The 3-hour ride up was pretty uneventful, and we arrived at the hotel Jay had booked at 10:30pm. That’s when the fun began: the woman at reception couldn’t find our reservation. Jay whipped out his laptop, but all he could come up with was some followup spam that Marriott had sent him. Apparently their central booking agent had added him to their spam list, but never bothered to make our reservation! Thankfully, by the time all was said and done, the local manager gave us a two-bedroom for a ridiculously low price; another crisis averted!

Departure & the Kanc

After grabbing some stuff from the hotel breakfast, we hit the road to the start: the Tin Mountain Conservation Center just outside Conway. We were already running later than Noah or I wanted, since it promised to be a very hot day. We signed in, got all our stuff together, and finally rolled out at 7:30am. The first mile featured a screaming descent which we all knew would be a kick in the teeth on the way back.

Within a mile, we turned left onto the Kancamagus Highway, arguably the most famous road in New Hampshire. It was a bright, beautiful morning. The road was smooth and steady. The mountains towered above us, the evergreens covering the hillsides offered fragrant shade, and the granite boulder-strewn bed of the Swift River ran along the road, keeping us company as we climbed toward its source.

My buddies stopped to stretch for a while, but I was eager to keep moving, so I went on ahead alone. The Kanc climbs gradually but steadily, but I kept a comfortable pace, knowing that I’d need lots of strength in reserve for the peaks that lay ahead. Still, I kept my buddies at bay until shortly after making the left turn onto Bear Notch Road. The Kanc had ascended about 800 feet in 12 miles.

Bear Notch

On the course’s elevation profile, Bear Notch looked like the easiest of the three ascents, with more gradual, easy climbing. And that’s pretty much how it turned out. It never seemed to get steep for any sustained period of time, and I climbed alongside my buddies, who had finally caught me. It was cool that three of us were together when we passed the event photographer, who captured us.

The climbing we’d done on the Kanc (800 feet over 12 miles) had put us more than halfway to the top, so the actual climbing on Bear Notch Road really only amounted to another 600 feet over 4 miles.

Then, without really expecting it, we were over the top and coasting at 35 mph down a winding, wooded road. Thankfully, the road surface was beautiful, and we zoomed down almost without touching our brakes, admiring the mountain and valley vistas that opened up on our left.

After a long descent (over 1000 feet in 5 miles)—but still too soon—we were dumped into a little village called Bartlett, where the first rest stop sat in a public common. We all had big grins on our faces as we recounted our experiences to one another. So far it had been a wonderful day, and the temps were still in the low 70s.

Crawford Notch

We rolled out and turned left onto Route 302, a somewhat busier road. Paul and Noah caught and passed me, but Jay hung with me as we fought an unexpected northwest headwind—the only time that happened all day.

Again, the ascent was long and gradual but very manageable (550 feet over 12 miles). As we got close to Mt. Jackson, we stopped for a photo opp at the Willey House pond, close to the source of one of my favorite rivers (the Saco).

We caught a slower paceline just as the road started kicking up at the summit. Jay and I debated passing them, but that soon sorted itself out, as some of them distanced us while others went backwards. The last two miles or so was a real struggle, gaining another 550 feet, but that made it all the sweeter when Jay and I crested Crawford Notch together, yelling weightlifter Ronnie Coleman quotes at each other (“Yeah buddy!”, “Whoooo!”, “Lightweight baby!”, and the ever-popular and slightly-modified “Everybody wanna be a cyclist; nobody wanna climb these big-ass hills… I’ll do it tho!”). It felt like a victory worthy of celebration, and thus it was nice to share that moment with Jay.

The problem with Crawford was that there wasn’t any real descent afterward. The road leveled out and angled down just a hair, but not enough to really make a big difference. The road was also barren, having emerged from the woods, and the temperatures were into the mid-80s.

Fortunately, the second water stop materialized in a convenience store parking lot. Surprisingly, the organizers had run out of sports drink, and we had to go buy our own from the convenience store. That was the organizers’ one obvious shortfall: we shouldn’t have to pay for Gatorade out of our pocket on a ride we’d paid to do!

Going Round the Mountain

Jay and I left Crawford and continued north on 302. I pulled him for a few miles as we turned east by cutting across Route 115 to Route 2. Here there was a mix of rolling climbs and a few long descents, but nothing like that off Bear Notch. Jay pulled away but Paul caught up and rode with me for a while before he too moved on.

Then, shortly before we reached Gorham, I rounded a corner to find myself facing an immense wall known as Randolph Hill. In the distance, the road looked like it took off like a jetliner, soaring into the sky (in reality it climbed 200 feet in less than a mile). By this point, temps had climbed to 90 degrees, and there was little if any shade along the route. I poured the last of my Gatorade over my head and plodded up the brutally steep climb.

Fortunately, the third water stop was at the top of the hill, where I collapsed in the heat. Thankfully, the organizers had cold drinks on ice in coolers, and I shoveled ice into my water bottle for the next segment. I also had a couple sips of Coke, which certainly went down nicely.

It was at this point that my stomach started doing flip-flops. At the rest stops, I felt bloated and queasy, full of too much liquid, which I’d been pouring down my throat; but on the bike, I felt pretty good for the most part. This would continue for the rest of the day.

Mount Washington and Pinkham Notch

Jay and Paul left the rest stop shortly after Noah showed up. Noah was pretty cooked, but I rested for a few more minutes and we left the stop together. The good news is that the road continued to descend (650 feet in 4 miles) after the rest stop, and Noah and I rode together through Gorham, where we finally turned south onto Route 16 for the climb up to the base of Mt. Washington.

Route 16 was a really long, steady climb, but a bit steeper than the easy slopes we’d taken to approach the other notches. It was grueling, but I found it manageable, so long as I kept pouring water on myself. On the other hand, Noah was still struggling and fell behind quickly, although he stayed within sight of me much of the way up.

Eventually I pulled into the gravel parking lot at the base of the infamous Mt. Washington Auto Road. Again, no shade was to be found, but with the temp peaking at 95 degrees, I loaded up on ice and headed out with Jay and Paul, who quickly gapped me as the climbing continued for another 4 miles to the top of Pinkham Notch. Overall, that climb had ascended 1200 feet over 11 miles.

Then came the final payoff: a 15-mile, 1500-foot descent down from Pinkham Notch, into the woods and down to Jackson. My legs were so beat that I didn’t push the descent, but just rolled with it. Just as I was thinking I could go wade in a mountain stream, Noah caught up with me and left me behind, so I plodded on.

I eventually reached the town of Glen, where 16 rejoins 302 and again becomes a major thoroughfare. As I looked left, I saw a moderately-sized hill that just wasn’t going to happen. So I pulled into a Dairy Queen parking lot and rested for a few minutes before finishing the final two miles to the last rest stop. That was the only unscheduled stop I made during the ride; I hadn’t gotten off on any of the hills, but I needed to gather my strength before attacking that one just before the rest stop.

The Final Countdown

The last rest stop was a grassy lawn—essentially someone’s yard. I laid on my back and just gasped due to the heat. It was only 13 miles to the finish, so I would certainly finish it, but I needed another good rest first. I downed half a can of Coke, filled up with ice, and poured ice water over my head before following my buddies, who had left five minutes earlier in hopes of finishing within eight hours.

Again, once I was back on the bike things settled into place, and I made okay time. I wasn’t strong, but made steady progress. With all the climbing behind me, it was just a question of closing it out, and surviving that final mile.

The final segment—West Side Road—was a long but nice ride, although it felt like I was still climbing a false flat. Finally I came back out onto Route 16, and half a mile later passed the point where we’d turned onto the Kancamagus. I marshaled my strength and made the turn onto Bald Hill Road that led up a punishing ascent up to the finish at Tin Mountain (officially it gains 300 feet in 1 mile). It was as steep and difficult as anything we’d done, but I finally drifted into their driveway and hung gasping over the bars for a minute before signing in and meeting up with the guys.

Final tally: 108 miles in 8:15, with 5800 feet of climbing and an average speed of 16 mph. For the mappy junkies, here’s a link to the GPS log.

The After-Party

I tried to eat a bit as we sat outside the Tin Mountain cabin, but really only managed to down a couple chocolate milks. It was still too hot to let our core body temperatures drop, and we all were feeling the effects. But this is where my second grand pre-planning idea paid off in a huge way.

I knew it was going to be hot. I knew we were going to be near lakes and streams. I knew we were going to be four stinky, grimy, sweaty guys stuck in a car for three hours. So one of my pre-ride emails suggested that everyone bring swim trunks, and they had. We briefly discussed where to go, then went back to the truck and exchanged our sweaty kit for trunks and drove to the nearest possible water: the Swift River we’d ridden by on the Kancamagus at the start of the ride.

We quickly found a swimming hole others were using, pulled off the road, and picked our way down to the torrent. As I said earlier, the whole area was just a pile of granite boulders: the smallest being the side of a dog; the largest being as big as a tractor trailer. The water was absolutely blissful: cold yes, but not blisteringly frigid. We dunked in the deeper parts, then sat in the middle of the rapids and let the cold water flow over us. Jay clambered around and found a way to swim underneath a huge monolith in the middle of the river. Everyone agreed it was the perfect way to relax and cool off.

At this point, I saved the day again. Jay jumped into the water and lost his sunglasses in the torrent, but I was able to spot them, so that was gratifying. Less gratifying was learning that Noah had stolen a towel from the hotel, when we had earnestly promised them we wouldn’t incur any incidentals. That was the one sour note of the trip.

The road home included a stop at a donut shop that featured (for me) more chocolate milk and a blissful rest in a big overstuffed armchair. Then we hit the Wolfetrap, a restaurant in Wolfeboro, Paul’s home town, so that was kinda cool, and my huge burger and cornbread were precisely what the chirurgeon prescribed. That was also where I saved the day yet again, pointing out to Paul that—despite his claiming otherwise—he really was about to leave his credit card behind with the check.

We got that straightened out and hoofed it back to Boston, where I was anxious to begin my next task: recovery! It was still Saturday night, and I had all day Sunday to shower, relax, fuel up, and rehydrate.

Das Ende

I really enjoyed the Mt. Washington Century. I think it lived up to its billing as a very challenging ride, but it was also just an awesome day all around. The scenery—the rivers, the mountains, the woods—was just breathtaking. The climbs were long and steady which made them very manageable but they still packed some challenging sections, and the descents were long and smooth. Sure, with a newer bike I could have pushed the top speed on the descents, but it was just as nice to let gravity do all the work.

The Plastic Bullet once again did its job admirably for an old bike with more than 20,000 miles on it. After the cable was swapped out, I literally didn’t once think about the shifting problems I’d had earlier that week.

This was my third complete century of the year, which puts me about on pace with my previous two years, and it certainly puts me in good shape for the PMC, which is only two weeks away (as of this posting). I’d love to do this ride again, but I’m not sure whether that will happen, with Jay moving away and the group likely to fragment.

Which brings me back to the idea that this was the last major organized ride for Jay, Paul, Noah, and I. From the ride to the post-ride swim in the Swift River, this was a perfect day and a fitting way to honor our friendship and our mutual encouragement. It was epic.

And I’m so glad I was able to convince them to go for Mt. Washington instead of the Climb to the Clouds. After last year’s CttC, we were too exhausted, overheated, and demoralized to even stay for a post-ride swim in nearby Walden Pond. The contrast between that and this year’s relaxing dip in a wild mountain stream just underscores what a truly awesome time we had on the Mt. Washington Century, making memories that we’ll take with us for years and years to come.

Chapeau, boys!

Time for an update on all the news since the PMC.

First was Jay’s annual Labor Day BBQ and ride up Mount Wachusett (GPS log). The ride was pretty fun; after the hill climb, we rode out to Comet Pond and back, but we didn’t stop because Jay was (as usual) stressed to get home before his party guests started arriving. The downside was that I started feeling horribly sick toward the end of the day, which was made all the worse because I was dependent on Jay for a ride home.

The following weekend was the Flattest Century, down in southeastern Mass. While okay, it’s never been my favorite ride, and this year it was made worse because I was sick again: this time *before* the ride. Despite a completely emptied stomach, I managed to finish the ride (GPS log), but it was a titanic struggle. Like CttC, I’m not sure whether I’ll be back for this one next year or not.

Then came Hub on Wheels, the city of Boston’s big organized ride. The weather was almost perfect for this 50-mile ride (GPS log). I only wish some of my friends would come out for this one, since it covers a lot of the parts of Boston that I love riding in, and most of my buddies never ride in town.

And a week after that was my final big ride of the year: a 115-mile jaunt with Paul and Noah that began in Wellesley, then ran southwest into Rhode Island, then crossed over into Connecticut before returning home again (GPS log). The upside was that I realized two longstanding desires: to do my first tri-state ride, and to visit the place known as Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg. The downside was that we had sporadic rain, and my GPS ran out of juice toward the end and stopped recording data. But overall it was a good way to get in the mileage I needed to close the year.

Details of that can wait, as I’ll do a whole separate post summarizing my 2010-2011 season.

One odd thing was how the last two rides ended. After Hub on Wheels, I came home, passed out on the bed for about an hour, then got up and went into the living room. I was doing something at my desk when I heard the characteristic sudden hiss of an inner tube bursting. When I investigated, I found a puncture near the valve stem. Thankfully, it hadn’t let go during the ride, but waited until just afterward, while the bike was just sitting idly in my apartment.

Then, after our tri-state ride I loaded my bike onto Noah’s car and we set out toward Boston. We hadn’t left the parking lot when we heard that same noise. Another tube burst, and again it was at the valve stem (although my rear tire, rather than the front). And again, it was just after I’d finished an important ride, when the bike wasn’t being used or even touched. Ironically, only five minutes earlier Paul had observed that we’d gotten through a 115-mile ride without anyone flatting…

So that’s how the last bit of summer trickled away. Stay tuned for my end of season summary coming up next!

Well, May’s rain finally ended, and the season’s upon us, so it’s time to get you caught up on every little thing.

First off is a happy update to my cycling website—specifically the Charts & Statistics page. Instead of a long page full of static images, now it’s all interactive and prettified. Check it out, it’s very cool.

It’s also much easier for me to maintain, since it’s updated automagically, but that’s not anything you care about.

Another big piece of news is that I managed to sneak into one of the most memorable events in the Pan-Mass Challenge’s history: the dedication of the PMC Plaza which fronts the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s new Yawkey Center for Cancer Care. Rather than dive into that here, I’ll point you to the article in my main journal for a full writeup and pictures.

Aside from that, we been riding! In addition to the regular commuting, I completed my second century of the year. Like the first, it was a regular weekend Quad ride that I extended past all normal dimensions. This one went out to Framingham to stop by my buddy Paul’s housewarming.

The other big ride I’ve done was an epic excursion up to Vermont with my buddy Jay. We rode a great 70-mile loop over and back the gigantic Jay Peak (no relation), which in pro cycling terms means two Category 2 climbs.

Jay captured a lot of the action in his blog post, which I strongly encourage you to read, but I want to underscore a few things he passed over. First is my GPS data; check it out, if only for the ride elevation profile! I don’t think he captured how ridiculously high/long the ascents were, or how much the rain/cold sucked. He didn’t mention his flatting a tire, or our quick trip to the bank, or the fact that we were both sleep- and food-deprived at the start. And I think he overlooked my glorious post-ride hot tub dip and our Thai food extravaganza that followed. It was indeed an epic trip!

And I should note that another milestone occurred during that ride: the Plastic Bullet’s odometer tripped 16,793. That means it has finally surpassed my old Devinci hybrid as the bike I’ve ridden the most. Chapeau to both of my reliable old steeds.

In the way of a preview, on Saturday is another of my major rides: Outriders. I’ll be pedaling my way from Boston down to Cape Cod and out to Provincetown, then taking the ferry back. At 130 miles, that will almost certainly be the longest one-day ride I’ll do all year. I’m really looking forward to it, even though my riding buddies will all be elsewhere that day.

You might note the lack of any mention of PMC fundraising; that’s because I haven’t even started yet. The one thing I can say is that I did finally complete my 2011 fundraising video, which I hope you’ll peruse. That frees me to start sending out emails; look for yours to appear soon, or get a jump on me by bringing your underutilized credit card to http://ornoth.PMCrider.com/

Since I’ve always calculated my cycling season beginning and ending in mid-October, it’s time to look back and review my 2009-2010 cycling year.

In many ways, this was one of my best years ever, with lots of noteworthy accomplishments, but it also had its disappointments, which seemed to cluster at either end of the season.

2010 started with a bang. On my first outdoor ride of the year—a short shakedown cruise to make sure the bike was working properly—a female Asian student crashed into me head-on on the Charles River bike path. I was left with a permanent scar on my left hand and a $300 repair bill which the girl responsible for the crash bluntly refused to help pay. (blog post)

Despite that setback, I managed to do 60-70 miles on each of my first three training rides of the year, which is double what I can usually handle in March. Despite the injuries I received in the crash, my early season fitness and endurance were surprisingly strong.

My biggest disappointment of the year also took place right at the start of the season. In 2009, Paul, Jay, and I had formed a solid riding group, and in 2010 we wanted to add a few more people to it. In order to bring people into the fold and build some enthusiasm for the coming year, I invited 13 prospective riders to a pre-season planning dinner. Only six people accepted the invite, and in the end only four people showed: Paul, Jay, and I, plus Jay’s friend Mary. It was a truly pathetic showing. (blog post)

Although we tried to expand the group throughout the year, we were never successful. Mary, who was the most active addition, became known for bagging out on us. We added a girl named Suzanne, but she really only showed up for one ride and her riding style was actually downright dangerous. But toward the end of the season we added Paul’s friend Noah, who hopefully will stick with us next year. And our regular Quad Cycles buddy Lynda was probably our most regular riding partner all year long.

As the season progressed, I took advantage of my unemployed status to lay down a lot of miles, setting a new yearly record of 5,000 miles, a 400-mile increase over my previous record and more than double what I rode in 2007 and 2008. That took me to a total of 33,500 miles over ten years, and 15,500 miles on the Plastic Bullet, my Specialized Roubaix. I set monthly mileage records in October and December of 2009, as well as June, July, and September of 2010. (charts)

In 2009, I was impressed that I’d done five 100-mile rides, but in 2010 I actually did eight full centuries. We ticked off every major goal we had, including my first-ever 130-mile Outriders ride from Boston to Provincetown (blog post, GPS log, video), the Climb to the Clouds century (GPS log, video), my first 93-mile pre-PMC ride from the New York border to Sturbridge (GPS log, video), the Pan-Mass Challenge itself (ride report, GPS log 1, video 1, GPS log 2, video 2), and the Flattest Century (GPS log). On top of those explicit goals, I also did my first-ever CRW Spring Century (blog post, GPS log, video), my first Hub on Wheels (blog post, GPS log), and three ad hoc centuries (GPS log 1, GPS log 2, GPS log 3). I also did my first training rides with the Green Line Velo group that meets at Cleveland Circle on Tuesday nights (GPS log).

Looking specifically at this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge, it was probably the best year I’ve ever had. In addition to a great experience on my first “Day 0” pre-PMC ride from the New York border to Sturbridge (GPS log, video), it was also my 10th PMC ride and my 5th year in a row reaching the esteemed Heavy Hitter fundraising plateau. I raised over $10,000—my second best fundraising year ever—which brought my lifetime cancer fundraising to over $63,000. I had over 140 donors, more than doubling my previous record of 71 sponsors. And none of that does justice to the fun and personal satisfaction I experienced during the event. (ride report, GPS log 1, video 1, GPS log 2, video 2)

After the PMC, things wound down, and the year ended not with a bang, but a whimper. The Flattest Century (GPS log) was cold and overcast, and I spent the whole day riding alone, having flatted and let my buddies get far ahead of me. Then I had to forfeit my registration money for the CRW Fall Century because no one was willing to give me a ride to the start. And I had to cancel my entire San Francisco trip for the Buddhist Bicycle Pilgrimage when my buddy Mark bagged out and finances got tight. So the end of the year was pretty disappointing. Still, looked at as a whole, this was arguably my best year.

One thing that helped make it memorable was the series of video ride reports that I created after the CRW Spring Century, the Outriders ride, the Climb to the Clouds, and PMC Day 0, Day 1, and Day 2. I think they all came out pretty well and will be wonderful mementos of those rides. The next step for me in doing these videos is to apply some more creativity to ensure that they don’t all wind up looking the same, using the same visual techniques. I think it’ll be fun to spend the off-season thinking about how I can continue to improve on them.

I also started putting GPS track logs of all my significant rides online on my Garmin Connect page. In addition to serving as a place where I can go to review my own rides, hopefully they will be of some use to other riders, as well as any of my friends who are curious about the places I ride through.

So despite some disappointments, I really did have a tremendous year. It’s well within the realm of reason to say this was my best biking year ever. But it’s also quite possibly the best year I will ever have on the bike. Being unemployed, I’ve had two summers off to build up to peak conditioning, and I probably won’t have another opportunity to devote that much time to cycling until I’m well into my fifties and feeling more of the slowly-accumulating effects of aging.

But if this really was the best year I’ll ever have, I can still be quite happy with that. I spent a lot of time in the saddle, knocked out a bunch of new personal records, did a whole slew of interesting new rides, raised all kinds of money for cancer research, had a ton of fun, and was able to share it all with my two great riding buddies Paul and Jay.

That ain’t bad.

Here’s a quick post to get you caught up on things since July’s Climb to the Clouds ride.

This year’s Pan-Mass Challenge was exceptional. I celebrated my tenth year by taking an extra day and riding 93 miles from the New York border to Sturbridge with my riding buddies, making it my first true “pan-Massachusetts” ride. For the full story, see the writeup or view the three videos for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, or the GPS logs for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

I took it easy for a couple weeks after the PMC, but got back onto that horse on Labor Day weekend, with an unorganized century out to Dunstable with the Quad Cycles crew (GPS log), followed the next day by a 36-mile Mt. Wachusett hillfest and cookout with Jay and Paul (GPS log).

I did another century a week later, as we all went down to Dartmouth for the NBW’s Flattest Century (GPS log). I fell back early to ride with Jay’s friend Mary, then flatted on glass as I tried to catch up to the guys. It was a hard, painful effort chasing them all day, and by the end my legs were tighter than I ever recall. Unfortunately, the weather was cold and overcast, with a wind out of the southeast. It was okay, just very challenging.

I was supposed to do the CRW Fall Century a week after that, but both of the friends I knew who were registered and whom I could beg rides from bagged. So I forfeited my $20 registration fee and wound up missing an event I was really looking forward to.

Instead, I did a solo century in an effort to get that eighth century of the year in, and to get a bit closer to this year’s mileage goal. I did the first 50 miles of the Outriders route as an out-and-back (GPS log). The turnaround point was Plymouth, so I stopped briefly (I thought) at Plymouth Rock for a rest, but wound up getting stuck while Liam’s Run (a charity 5k) ambled past. Weather was good, so it was a pretty nice ride, tho I would rather have closed the year with the CRW ride, which I’ve never done before but looks rather challenging.

That brings you up to date. There are only two and a half weeks left to my cycling year, so you can expect a year-end summary around the middle of October.

The Fourth of July weekend is usually a big milestone on the way to August’s Pan-Mass Challenge, and this year was no different. I led into the weekend with a 50-mile solo ride on Thursday and a 12-mile kayak trip up the Charles River on Friday; both perfect, gorgeous days just before a massive heat wave hit Boston.

Saturday saw me joining a group of six other Quaddies for an extended ride out to Littleton, Harvard, and Sudbury. We did a nearly-identical ride last year, which was my second century of 2009, while this would be my third century of 2010.

Last year’s Fourth of July ride is also particularly memorable as the ride where the Plastic Bullet first developed the ticking noises that would doom it to ridiculous a three-month stay in the bike shop, as documented here.

Ironically, I was 70 miles into this year’s edition when my bike suddenly shifted into its hardest gear and wouldn’t shift out again. I’d broken the rear derailleur cable, which I knew in an instant because I’d broken the exact same cable last May.

I nursed the bike back to Quad Cycles, where I hoped I could get it fixed. Given that it was a sunny Saturday on Fourth of July weekend, I expected the shop to be too busy to help, but the store was completely empty except for two service guys watching television. However, when I told them what the problem was, they told me it was a very involved repair requiring them to disassemble the whole shift lever, and they couldn’t fit such a lengthy job in at the moment. When I asked whether I should wait for them to fit me in, they told me they had to fix two bikes that were ahead of me, and that would take them more than the two hours and eight minutes before the shop closed. It was obvious they had no intention of helping me, so I thanked them and left. Yes, I verbally thanked them; I didn’t “storm out” as they later told another friend who came into the shop later.

I was eager to get the bike repaired because I had major rides planned for both Sunday and Monday, so on the way home I tried my local bike shop, Back Bay Bikes. They’re usually way too busy to accommodate walk-ins, but this time they surprised me by putting the bike right up on the repair stand, despite being considerably more busy than Quad Cycles had been. After I took fifteen minutes to rest, drink a Coke, and eat a Klondike bar, that “really involved” repair was complete, the derailleur was shifting as good as new, and my whole holiday weekend was salvaged. Back Bay Bikes: 1, Quad Cycles: 0.

Sunday Jay, Paul, and I went out to Sterling to do a very hilly ride around Mount Wachusett. Since the park’s access road was closed, we couldn’t get to the mountaintop. Although the ride was only 35 miles, I did convince the guys to do the ludicrous Mile Hill approach road, which was particularly debilitating after doing a century the day before. We rounded out a fine day by getting ice cream at Meola’s, canoeing and swimming at Comet Pond, then fulfilling my Fourth of July tradition of Indian food with an amazing meal at Surya in Worcester, which is right near the always infamous Liscomb Street.

Then on Monday Jay, Kelly, and I did a very easy, short 32-mile ride around Cape Ann, which included wading at Wingaersheek Beach and swimming at Singing Beach in Manchester, followed by steak tips and ice cream. Another great day, closing a really superlative Fourth of July weekend.

Despite my aspirations, Saturday’s century took an awful lot out of me, and I wound up only doing 170 miles over those three days, when I’ll need to be able to do about 285 miles in three days for my Pan-Mass Challenge ride four weeks from now…

On the fundraising side, I think I’m doing well. I’m on the verge of having 50 donations, with a large number of donations still outstanding from people who said that they would help. That still won’t get me all the way to my goal of 100 sponsors, but it’ll put me in the neighborhood, from which I can make a last-minute push toward the target. Please visit ornoth.PMCrider.com to donate.

Next big event is the Climb to the Clouds century up Mount Wachusett, a traditional warm-up for the Pan-Mass Challenge. I am skeptical that they will open the access road, because the road resurfacing project is supposed to last until next summer! So this may be the second year in a row where the Climb to the Clouds doesn’t actually go to the summit, with maybe a third year happening in 2011! Very disappointing!

However, that can’t change how much I enjoyed the rides we took on this year’s baking-hot Fourth of July weekend.

Lotta news in the cycling world.

First, it’s Boston’s Bike Week, which meant a brief ride from city hall to a press conference somewhere where the mayor gave a speech. This year, the ride ended on the Commonwealth Avenue mall, two blocks from my house, so that mayor Menino could unveil the new bike lanes on Comm Ave (more on those later). In addition to enduring the obligatory advertising and self-congratulations, I obtained a cowbell that I might use on the PMC, and the email address of a guy at Bikes Belong who might be able to get me their team kit, which I find quite attractive.

Those new bike lanes on Comm Ave showed up a few days ago, and I haven’t made up my mind whether I like them or not. Rather than being at the right of the roadway, where people have always traditionally biked, they are at the extreme left. For me, that’s a very uncomfortable place to be, and it presents traffic flow problems both when I turn from Mass Ave onto Comm, and where I turn right to leave Comm by my house. The biggest benefit of the lanes is that they give cyclists a dedicated lane in the underpass going beneath Mass Ave. I’ll be interested to see if the general public adopts these unexpected left-hand lanes or not.

But the biggest news for me is last Sunday’s CRW Spring Century ride. In addition to being my first 100-mile ride of the year, it was the first time I’d done this particular ride, which runs around northeastern Mass and southeastern New Hampshire. The weather was fabulous, and the route, which goes through Harold Parker State Forest and along and over the Merrimack River, was surprisingly very scenic.

Not that there weren’t any glitches. The route directed us with typical “CRW precision” over a three-mile stretch of stripped road. This was followed by a mile of closed road along the Merrimack that was partially washed out. And none of the rest stops had any bananas, which are a staple of endurance athletes.

I shared the ride with buddies Jay, Paul, Lynda, and Suzanne, which made for a great day, which we ended with sammidges at Kelly’s Roast Beef. You can find the GPS report here.

I also used the opportunity to practice collecting and assembling video footage, which will come in handy for other major rides this season. Here’s my first attempt at a video ride report: (click through if the player reports an error)

This’ll be just a quickie, since I’m in the throes of final PMC preparations.

Yesterday I led a 50-mile ride for Jay, Paul, and Mark that took us from Mark’s home in Beverly up 127 to Gloucester, around Cape Ann, and back.

The weather threatened rain, but wound up being partly sunny and oppressively humid. This was more of a scenic ride than a hammerfest, and I think it all went very well. The most difficult part of the ride was not jumping into the water as we crossed the wooden footbridge in Annisquam! GPS track log is here and photos are here.

Despite having only ridden a couple times all year, Mark kept up admirably, and seemed to hit it off well with Paul and Jay. Jay’s trying to get a group of us to do the Flattest Century in September, which is highly probable.

That was my last major ride before the PMC, so now I’m all about sleep, eating, and frenetic packing. So I’m posting this so that I can check it off my to-do list, add the relevant pointer to OrnothLand, then moving on to the rest of the list. Ciao!

We’re now into that time of year when you get about one day per week where the temperature breaks 50 degrees, so I’ve done that 36-mile Blueberry Hill loop I mentioned in the last post two or three times. I like it; it’s a nice ride, not too long, but a good workout. The roads are a bit rough in places, though.

Saturday Jay dragged me out for a ride, which wound up being a 60-mile exploratorium. There were two sections of road that were new to me. From Waltham, we went down South Street past Brandeis, then back up to Route 20 via scenic Summer Street. That really didn’t accomplish much, but then we went out 20 to Weston, where we took Concord/Tower/Lincoln roads to the Lincoln 5-way. From there, instead of doing Baker Bridge, we took Bedford Road to Hanscom.

The familiar bit was taking Virginia Road to Concord Center, then Strawberry Hill and both Cross and Curve streets and back to Ferns in Carlisle. There we met up with Paul D., who tagged along as we followed the Quad ride route down Lowell Road, Virginia Road, and Mill Street, where we forked off for the day’s second divergence.

To get back to Waltham, we cut across Shade and Spring to get to Wyman Street, which brought us back to Totten Pond and home.

It was a good day out, and at 60 miles nearly doubled my longest ride so far this year. I had good legs for most of the ride, as noted by Jay, who said I didn’t have “little Ethiopian girl legs this year”. And since it was Paul’s first ride of the year, he lagged us a bit, which made me feel better about my winter training, since last year I found myself lagging more often than I’d like.

I’m really hoping for good weather next Saturday, which is the grand opening of Quad Cycles’ new location, and also a ride celebrating Bobby Mac’s 60th birthday, so I’d hate to miss that. After that comes the annual tune-up, I think.

I checked out a couple cycling movies this winter. “The Flying Scotsman” is the story of Graeme Obree’s hour record, and was pretty decent. “The Triplets of Belleville” was a fairly amusing animated film, though cycling wasn’t the focus of the movie. And I tried watching “Breaking Away”, which is presumably the classic cycling movie, but I just couldn’t stand it and only lasted about 15 minutes; the whole redneck teen angst thing just irks the hell outta me.

I’ve also been working on putting together a short video for this year’s PMC appeal. I think I’ve got the script set, and I’m just putting finishing touches on it before I sit down and record it. Hopefully it’ll turn out well. It’s nice to have the time to devote to something like that.

And I should mention that I’ve moved just about all of my PMC fundraising database onto php and MySQL, and hotwired it to the Excel spreadsheet that does all my data visualization. That was rather a lot of effort, but hopefully worthwhile.

So things are starting to pick up, and in two days it’ll be April, when my average monthly mileage nearly doubles from March’s 125 up to 230. So begins the ramp-up for my ninth Pan-Mass Challenge!