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.
Gorgeous and busy weekend, which included a 40m ride on Friday, 65m on Saturday, and 75m on Sunday, giving me a total of 180 miles for the weekend. Links go to the Garmin Connect maps.
Friday was a bee-line out-and-back to Kimball’s ice cream in Carlisle. A strong west wind made the outbound leg a slog, but the return was fast and easy.
Saturday’s Quad ride was pretty standard, except I was the only person to do the Dinosaur hill. I still beat the riders who took the shorter, flatter “Mod-a-saur” route through Great Brook Farm. Stopped on the way home in Cambridge for Roopa’s picnic on the Charles.
Sunday a few others joined me on the Dinosaur, then back up 225 to Kimball’s, then Strawberry Hill backwards. Hence the extra miles.
Looks like I ought to be ready to undertake the mid-May CRW Spring Century this year if the weather is favorable.
I started riding with Bobby Mac and the Quad Cycles crew in July of 2002. The rides go every Saturday and Sunday, and have been a mainstay in my PMC training regimen for the past eight summers.
In that time, I’ve grown as a cyclist, memorized every inch of road around Lexington and Concord, become friends with a number of people, and helped and encouraged a number of budding charity riders.
It’s natural, therefore, that they are frequently mentioned in my writing here. But it’s difficult to really share the experience in mere words. So on our Memorial Day ride, I brought my camera and captured the footage for the following clip.
It still doesn’t fully capture the personalities or the camaraderie or the beauty of the ride, but it’ll give you at least a little flavor of what my weekends are like and why I am so passionate about riding. I hope you enjoy it.
It’s May, so things have started happening.
A week ago Sunday I did the full/long Quad Cycles ride for the first time this year, rather than bailing at Northside (Gammy’s) in Bedford. It only added 10 miles to my day, but it was my first 75-mile day of the year. It being May, I returned home with eyes that were absolutely encrusted with pollen.
While standing at our lunch stop at Ferns in Carlisle, we ran into Billy Starr, the founder of the Pan-Mass Challenge. We exchanged a few words, and he encouraged us to see if we could flush out any more riders for this year’s event. So if you’re on the fence this year, please sign up. There’s many options as far as length and fundraising commitment, and the classic Sturbridge to Provincetown route is still open!
Last Monday I went to the official Bay State Bike Week kickoff ride and press conference. The ride was a bit silly—just from City Hall to Columbus Park, about as far as you could throw a baseball—but the press conference was a bit interesting.
In the photo at right you get to see Mayor Menino (speaking), Mass Highway Commissioner Luisa Paiewonsky behind his shoulder, next to Boston Bike Program Director and former racer Nicole Freedman, lifelong bike advocate Doug Mink in the back, and MassBike director David Watson at right.
Apparently the Metro newspaper also carried a photo of the event that included me! I haven’t seen it yet (I hope to get a copy), but it must be a prominent and recognizable likeness, because both a former coworker and a fellow Quad Cycles rider both commented on it to me.
Amazingly, as I biked back from the press conference, I stopped in a line of traffic at a red light at Commercial/Causeway/No Washington. What’s that on my left? A spuddy-van Zipcar all painted up in 2009 Pan-Mass jersey colors! Last year Zipcar Saran-Wrapped a van in PMC colors, and apparently they did so again this year. Quick like bull I whipped out the camera and took the accompanying snap.
The amusing bit is that about fifteen minutes after I got home, David Hellman, the PMC’s Director of Operations, tweeted the following: http://twitpic.com/4ziqi Zip Car is doing it again in 2009 for the PMC http://twitpic.com/4zish zipcar.com/pmc
Then Wednesday was such a beautiful day that I decided to go even longer, making it my first (100 mile) century ride of the year, something I’m not usually ready for until June or July. And I cranked through it, too, finishing in seven hours clock time, which includes a 30-minute ice cream stop at Kimball’s. I got through it with relatively few complaints, although both my knees and leg muscles required some time to recover.
And yesterday I did the Quad ride, which did 62 miles, giving me a day’s total of 77 miles, although I took it very easy after Wednesday’s stressor. The ride featured a return to stopping at Kimball’s for ice cream. Although a group of over 50 riders began the ride, by Kimball’s it was down to four: Bobby, Paul, Michael, and I. Bobby wanted a reprise of his photo feeding Buff the Powerbar-Eating Goat, so I took care of that for him. Another good day in the saddle.
As I indicated, this is also Bay State Bike Week. They have a mileage challenge this year, and I pledged 150 miles and rode 184, between the kickoff “ride”, the solo century, and yesterday’s Quad ride.
And I’ve just completed editing my first video fundraising appeal for my Pan-Mass Challenge ride. It’ll be up and announced shortly, as I kick off this year’s fundraising drive. I hope it goes over well!
There are heroes, and then there are superheroes.
I first started riding with the folks at Quad Cycles in 2002, seven years ago. Even back then, the ebullient guy who led the rides was already a living legend. The name Bobby Mac will evoke a smile from anyone who has ever ridden in the exceedingly popular triangle formed by the towns of Arlington, Lexington, Bedford, Concord, and Carlisle.
Although Bobby’s rides can be whatever you make of them, they’re primarily oriented toward charity riders, and Bobby does an amazing job encouraging novices. He passes on his cycling wisdom by routinely barking out phrases such as “Ride with love in your hearts and smiles on your faces,” or “Be nice to everybody you meet out there”, as well as gems like “If you’re gonna fall, do not fall on me!”.
He is a charismatic leader who never speaks ill of anyone, and his demeanor is always oriented toward fun. Despite riding the exact same route hundreds and hundreds of times over the years, he still finds the enthusiasm to sing a modified version of a 1987 Was (Not Was) song in tribute to his favorite hill, “The Dinosaur”, so named because of a sculpture at the mini-golf course at its summit. Bobby has also named the statue “Sarah”, because he’s Bobby: he can do that.
Bobby barks a lot, but it’s all out of love for the sport and his fellow man. While he casually tosses out aphorisms like “Indifference to the plight of others is a sin”, he backs that up with action, participating in rides that benefit causes from AIDS research to cyctic fibrosis. He even helped organize the Massachusetts Red Ribbon Ride, which carried on the tradition of the former AIDS Rides after Pallotta Teamworks’ criminal mismanagement came to light. Several magazines and newspapers have run features on him and his work.
As you might imagine, Bobby’s an amazingly strong rider, too. But to hear him tell it, it wasn’t always like that. He came to biking when he was over 300 pounds and unable to make it more than a couple miles without collapsing from the effort. Biking helped him lose weight and recover his overall fitness, which he maintains despite his off-season job as a chef for one of MIT’s fraternities. It only adds to his mystique that although he works with food, no one has ever seen him ingest anything but Cytomax.
Bobby’s been our leader for so long that it’s difficult to think there could ever be a day when he won’t be there at the head of our pack. But as much as none of us want to face it, that day is inevitably coming. Bobby has macular degeneration, which causes a loss of vision in the center of the field of vision while leaving most of one’s peripheral vision unaffected. As you might imagine, this isn’t good for a cyclist, especially considering Boston’s monstrous roads and notorious drivers. It’s something Bobby has worked around, but who knows how long that will suffice?
In addition, last week Bobby celebrated his 60th birthday. While 60 is hardly ancient, and it’s not difficult to find 70 and even 80 year old riders, it again raises that question in one’s mind of how much longer Bobby will be able to ride.
On June 17 2006, we held an emotional ride in appreciation of Bobby’s tutelage, and called it the Tour de Mac. Last weekend we held another celebratory ride to observe Bobby’s 60th as well as the grand reopening of Quad Cycles, which has moved into new digs about a half mile closer to town. Although the early April morning was cold and the forecast promised rain, the sun came out and provided a fittingly beautiful day for an early season ride with good friends, and perhaps fifty people turned out, including former US Professional Road Race Champion Mark McCormack.
Bobby Mac deserves recognition for the inestimable amount he has done for cycling in the region. He inspires everyone he comes into contact with and is the undisputed and irreplaceable center of our cycling community. He’s nurtured hundreds of new cyclists, and mentored nearly as many charity riders, and done so with gentleness and flair. Like scores of others, I’ve grown as both a cyclist and as a person in the past eight years as a result of my contact with Bobby Mac and the community he created. He is truly one of the greatest heroes I’ve had the pleasure to meet, and I’m thankful for every day I am able to ride with such an inspiring examplar.
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!
Although we’re still in February, there’s actually a heck of a lot to report.
For the past two months, I’ve been training exclusively indoors, thanks to the resistance trainer I mentioned borrowing from a friend. It’s given me the most regular winter workouts I’ve had since I started riding.
I’ve used a number of videos to drive my training. Three are Spinervals fitness and climbing workouts, and one is a basic workout from Charmichael Training Systems. All of those are from professional trainers. I also have three more from the Sufferfest, which is just some guy who sets current and classic pro bike racing footage to pop music from the 80s and 90s.
These are all interval workouts, so they’re shorter (45-60 minutes) but much more intense than my usual road rides. They emphasize strength through high resistance training and low-resistance, high cadence spinning.
I’ve been training every other day, which has been a bit much for my knees, but not too bad. So far the numbers add up to 27 sessions totaling 22 hours and a bit over 300 “miles” on the trainer.
Today I put all that indoor effort to the test with my first lengthy outdoor ride of the year. The temperature was unseasonably in the upper 50s, although the wind was crazy: 32 mph sustained, with 45 mph gusts!
The first item to note about today’s ride is the value of my indoor training. The wind may have thrown me off, but I really felt strong throughout the first hour of the ride. The indoor training has clearly paid off in terms of strength. I didn’t suck too much aerobically, either. What I lacked was stamina, both for long, sustained anaerobic efforts, and over time once the ride extended into a second and third hour. But overall I think the trainer has really helped. I have to say, tho, it felt *very* strange when I first got on the bike outside and it actually moved forward underneath me, rather than staying stationary! It actually took me a couple miles to feel comfortable on the bike again.
The other thing to note was the route I took, which was a slightly different 36-mile loop, but one that was pretty scenic and provided quite a challenging workout. Basically, Minuteman path out to Arlington Center, up the east side of the Mystic Lakes on Mystic Valley Parkway, up Washington in Winchester, over godawful Blueberry Hill and across to 3A and back down the west side of the lakes to Arlington Center.
From there, I made quick stops at both old and new Quad Cycles bike shops. Quad is in the process of moving from its old store in Arlington Heights (1346 Mass Ave) about a mile down to Brattle Square (1043 Mass Ave). It’ll be interesting to see the new place once it’s fully set up and stocked.
I took the painfully long hill on Park Ave up to the water tower, and from there took unfamiliar (and more hilly!) roads (mostly Common Street) through Belmont to Watertown Square. After a very quick snack at the Watertown Dam, I followed the river home via Charles River Road, Greenough, and the PDW bike path.
And, finally, I should note that the PMC has begun using the Intarwebs a bit more. There’s now a PMC Twitter and a PMC Blog, which is celebrating the 30th anniversary ride by summarizing each year with a post every Monday. Look for my rides—which started in 2001—to start appearing at the beginning of June.
Big weekend for cycling, even if I didn’t do any long rides as such…
First, Saturday night was a party for all the Quad Cycles riders who participated in the Mass Red Ribbon Ride and the Pan-Mass Challenge. Graciously hosted by Jeff Ichikawa at his loft, it featured a barbecue and good conversation with Bobby Mac and a dozen or more riders. And we also got to see lots of photos taken during the two rides, some of which will appear shortly on my cycling photos page.
We also had a viewing of the three hundred photos that Joseph Santos took during a Quad Cycles training ride on August 19th. Joseph has a sweet Nikon D70 DSLR isn’t afraid of using it, and so the photos page will also be graced with one or two of his shots soon, as well. The updates are coming fast now!
The photo you see at right, however, came from the official Pan-Mass Challenge photographers. It’s the first close-up shot they’ve taken of me in my five years of participating in the event, but it was really worth the wait. You can click on the photo for bigness, or you can just head on over to my newly-revised cycling page, where it’s the featured element. Verra snazzay, I must say!
You can also get to my 2005 PMC ride report from there, although I didn’t tell you that! The writeup is complete, but I’m still adding and arranging the photos that go with it before I announce it to the public. So feel free to check it out, but come back again later to see the additional photos I’ll be adding!
But wait! There’s more!
I was in the bike shops this weekend, and one of the things I did was finally replace my five year old Shimano cycling sandals. They’ve served me very well—about 12,000 miles worth!—but they’re getting a bit stinky, rusty, and worn, so I picked up replacements, which I’ve actually been looking for since before the PMC. They’re almost identical to my old pair, but I’m having a bit of difficulty with the new cleats, which are being obstinate about clicking in and out. That’s okay, though; they’ll work their kinks out soon enough.
In addition, last week I thought about the list of big-ticket items I’ve been jonesing after since getting a steady income: a new laptop, digital camera, GPS, bike, iPod, cell phone, CD player, speakers… You get the picture. When I thought about it, something became obvious: I can buy any of those things during the winter except for the bike. Bikes you have to go test ride, and you can’t get a decent test ride in January, so…
This weekend I started out test riding the two bikes I’ve had my eyes on. I’ve long wanted a light, fast road bike that also had a more relaxed fit and more supple ride than a racing bike. Racing bikes are twitchy, skittish, rough, and not even remotely ergonomic. I found two bikes that made a good compromise between speed and smoothness, climbing ability and all-day comfort. And this weekend I tried them out.
I tried them both out at two different dealers. I did a 9-mile loop around the crater-strewn roads of Belmont that include Park Street hill via Spring Street on Saturday, and a 12-mile loop in town that included Summit Ave today. Both were good tests of the bikes’ ability to deal with flats, wind, climbing, insanely rough roads, urban traffic, descents, and so forth. I put each bike through about 21 miles and nearly two hours of riding.
Months ago, I was pretty sold on the Specialized Roubaix. It’s really the first bike of its kind, that intentionally tries to produce a softer ride and more relaxed position within a bike that still can cook. But in the weeks leading up to my test ride, I discovered the new Cannondale Synapse, which has received great write-ups that make it sound as compliant as the Roubaix. It also is a much prettier bike. But the more I rode them, the more I was sold on the Roubaix.
The Synapse Ultegra isn’t a bad bike, and I might well choose it in the absence of the Roubaix. It was definitely more responsive and faster off the line and in sprints than the Roubaix, but it also transmitted more road noise to the rider. As I say, it’s a beautiful looking bike, but ultimately looks are secondary to comfort and fit, and neither shop I went to could provide me with a test bike any larger than a 56cm frame, which is kinda like putting me on one of those tiny bicycles you see clowns perform on. The final negative is that the wheelbase was so short that in a turn the front tire could hit my toes as I pedal, which is something I really want to avoid.
The Roubaix Comp Double, on the other hand, rode a bit like an Oldsmobile. It was plush and absorbed road shock, almost to the point of having a bit of boaty bounce as you ride along a straight, smooth road. It sure didn’t want to sprint or shoot off the line, but once it was spun up, it felt like it just wanted to keep going. The seat was far superior, but the clearcoat carbon finish is a bit ugly. The position is much more upright, and I tested the 58cm model. There was plenty of clearance between my toes and the front wheel when cornering, and the Roubaix had a little display of what gear you’re in on the shifter-cable, a nice design feature that the Synapse lacked.
So I’m very much leaning toward the Roubaix right now. Of course, I have to let Rustem at Quad Cycles have a crack at me, but I really don’t think he carries a bike that’ll knock the Roubaix off the top of my list. And I’m out of town next weekend (on a trip you’ll no doubt hear more about), so it’ll be a couple weeks before I jump, anyways. I might also wait a few weeks to see what Specialized says about the Roubaix for 2006.
But even if I can’t jump just yet, it’s nice to have some time to think the decision over, and it definitely was a blast trying out some new, happy wheels.
I know some folks are anxious for an update, so here’s a little debrief on how this weekend’s Pan-Mass Challenge went.
I think the defining feature of this year’s ride was my friends.
In my previous four PMCs, I always rode alone; I didn’t know any of the other riders at all. But for some reason, this year I ran into all the people I’d met at my weekly training rides at Quad Cycles in Arlington. So instead of riding by myself, over the course of the weekend I ran into no less than eleven people I already knew well: Charlie, Jeff, Tony, Steve, Julie, Caitlin, Elena, Maria, Joe, Ed, and Stephanie! It made the ride feel like more of a celebration, and it was awesome to be able to share it with people I know, many of whom were riding in their very first Pan-Mass.
And now you can go see several of the Quad Cycles crew enjoying their rides, because for the first time ever I took some photos during this year’s PMC. You can check those out at the URL:
http://users.rcn.com/ornoth/bicycling/pmcphoto05.html
The other big thing to observe about this year is the dramatic contrast between all the crises I’ve had to deal with in the past two months versus how amazingly well the ride went.
In June and July I took a new job, had a close friend hospitalized for over a month with life-threatening medical issues, had a gushing water leak in my ceiling from my air conditioner for about a week, had to get the ceiling repaired, took an incomplete in a class due to all that, and had a big dispute with a bike shop that had done incompetent repairs. On top of that, just a week before the ride I was having significant “seat issues” with my bike, and then capped it all off when I threw my back out helping a friend move. The eight weeks leading up to the PMC were just one implausibly long string of emergencies and problems.
However, all that bad luck nicely reversed itself for the PMC weekend—so much so that I’d say it was my most pleasant ride of them all.
I had absolutely no physical problems. My “seat issues” didn’t return, and my back pain went away completely except for when I was sitting up in the car. My wrists, which bothered me in previous years, were fine, and my neck also was much better than in previous years. My legs were great, and I finished strong, with very little of the usual fatigue. I could have easily gone much further on Sunday than we did.
And there were no mechanical problems this year, either: not even a broken spoke or a puncture! Not bad, for an aging cheap hybrid bike with 15,000 miles on it!
Unlike previous years, I was supported this year by my friend Sheeri, and her presence was both helpful and very welcome. She put herself and her vehicle at my disposal, and made a big contribution to seeing that everything went well for me, so no problems there, either!
And the weather was just incomparable for riding. It was sunny and warm without being hot, and even the wind cooperated. I understand that it was only the second time in the PMC’s 26-year history that there wasn’t a strength-sapping headwind blowing down the long, exposed section of Cape Cod as we approached Provincetown.
And, of course, after finishing I indulged in my regular post-ride ritual of spending the afternoon at Race Point Beach, which really helped me relax and put all those lingering crises behind me. So not only was this year’s ride a wonderful experience, but it also gave me a great opportunity to step back and recharge my batteries a little, which I desperately needed after so much turmoil.
Of course, the real reason for the ride is to raise money for cancer research, treatment, and prevention, and even there I have good news. Over the weekend, a number of large donations came in, and I’m happy to report that if all the employer matches come through properly, I will not only meet my minimum, but quite possibly set a new personal fundraising record this year! While the ride’s fun, the cause has a great deal of personal meaning to me, and having a successful year raising money is a real cause for celebration.
So let me take this opportunity to once again thank you for helping make all of that possible: both my own ride as well as the important contribution we make together to eradicating cancer. This was an exceptionally good ride, and I very heartily appreciate the support you’ve given me.
A travelogue full of anecdotes will follow in a week or two, hopefully including some additional photos taken by the PMC organization (this year I’m very hopeful that I’ll be in a couple). And you can also look forward to a final email from me after the PMC presents its annual check to the Jimmy Fund in November.
Thanks again, and I hope you had as great a weekend as I did!
Back in 2003, shortly before the PMC, I did the 60-mile version of the Charles River Wheelmen’s “Climb to the Clouds” ride, which goes up 2006-foot Mt. Wachusett and back.
This year’s ride was scheduled for Sunday July 17th, and I was planning on doing the 105-mile version of the same ride. I’d even gotten a friend to agree to drive me out to the start in Concord and pick me up afterward.
The day before—Saturday the 16th—rather than staying off the bike, I decided to do my usual 60-mile Quad Cycles training ride. I had an afternoon barbecue to attend out in Lexington, so it only made sense to ride out that way in the morning and stop at the BBQ on the way home. Of course, I would take it easy, to ensure that I’d have plenty of energy left for the century ride the next day.
As the miles went by, however, I noticed that I was getting more and more uncomfortable in the saddle. In fact, it was getting downright painful! By the time I got to the BBQ, my butt was thoroughly chafed and very tender.
Now, I’ve never been prone to “saddle problems”, although I did have some normal bruising at the start of the season due to my singular lack of padding for my sit-bones. However, this problem was in a completely different area, and it really stung anytime I put weight on it. So I called up my friend and reluctantly canceled the Sunday ride.
That was most of a week ago now, and things seem to have improved. I just got back from Maine, where I bought a couple new pairs of Sugoi cycling shorts, and I plan on putting those shorts (and my backside) through their paces in this weekend’s QC rides. Hopefully everything’ll be in full working order soon, because the PMC ride is only two weeks from now!
Okay, I lied. The photo in my last post was actually taken on May 28th. It actually goes with the previous post, which was dated 5/29.
The following two photos were taken on last Sunday’s Quad Cycles ride, on my second of two consecutive 94°, 87-mile days. The one on the left shows me following my friend Sharona as we approached Concord’s Old North Bridge historical area. The photo at right shows me later in the day, relaxing at Kimball Farm ice cream stand in Carlisle.
As always, click for bigness! And if you’d like to see more QC ride photos, you can find them here.
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Finally, things started coming together over the past month.
First, after nearly two months of uninterrupted cold and rain, the sun came out! We’ve now had about three nice weekends in a row, during which I’ve been doing back-to-back rides with the Quad Cycles crew.
Speaking of the QC rides, Johnny H. has finally resumed putting up his Quad Cycles ride photos. My favorite is the one shown here, where I’m hanging out at left while ride leader Bobby Mac can be seen barking at the other riders. As always, click for bigness.
Speaking of the weekend rides, that’s been the only time I’ve been able to ride, because after three years I’ve finally rejoined the working world. It hasn’t been bad, but it sure cuts out those long weekday rides! On the other hand, there’s an opportunity to commute. Right now I’m working at a client site that’s only two miles from home, but I could lengthen that, and the ride out to our real office is about 12 miles each way.
Weekends have also been the only option because my friend Inna has been in the hospital, and I’ve been visiting her every evening. I haven’t gotten much sleep or eaten regularly for the past two weeks, so I’ve been concerned about my training, and made sure to take advantage of the weekend rides.
And speaking of the weather having turned, this weekend was hot! It was 96 degrees on Saturday, and 94 on Sunday, although Sunday felt much worse due to the humidity. Despite the heat, both days I did 87 miles, taking the extra-long Quad Cycles route, plus a trip down to JP to see Inna. Boy, is my butt sore!
On the other hand, just about everyone I rode with made effusive comments about how strong I looked (irrespective of how strong I felt). As someone else said this weekend, muscle memory is a wonderful thing, and I’m feeling pretty good about where I am in my training right now, just four weeks after complaining about it in my previous post. It’s nice that it’s turned around, and over such a stressful period.
The other problem this has caused is that I’m more than a month late in starting fundraising for this year's Pan-Mass Challenge ride. I’ll be posting more about that soon, but if you’re chomping at the bit to make a donation, you can bring your credit card here.
Well, things didn’t get much better after my last rant. The rain continued until yesterday, which was only the third day of sun all month. It has been, in fact, one of the four coldest Mays in recorded history.
Last week the Garage de Velo, a messenger-oriented bike shop near South Station, went out of business, and I swung by to see what I could scavenge. It actually wound up being pretty profitable, as I picked up a “compact, ultra-light” CarbOne mini pump to replace my hated Blackburn frame pump (saving 140g), as well as some minimalist SPD pedals to replace my bulky SPD-and-resin-platform ones (saving another 115g). I haven’t had occasion to try the pump yet, but the pedals seem to be solidly functional, despite being beat up and one-sided. Well worth the twenty bucks.
A few weeks ago I also broke the frame on my very pricey Rudy Project sunglasses. Not having the spare cash to replace them, I followed a pointer in a MassBike posting to http://www.safetyglassesusa.com/, which sells, as you might expect, industrial safety glasses. Now, safety glasses have come a long way in recent years, and I wound up buying a pair of polarized Radians Revelations ($10), a pair of Revelations with clear lenses for nighttime riding ($5), and a pair of stylish Crews Tremor with a blue frame and mirrored blue lenses ($6). Three pairs of glasses for about one-sixth of the purchase price of my old Rudy’s, and these, too, seem to do the job pretty adequately.
While I was at my writers’ summit I also had the bike in the shop, which included replacing the headset.
Of course, none of these purchases have helped my riding any. Friday I went out and did 40 miles, which was probably my first decent ride in a month. I was checking out a potential new commute, and I was really impressed by our Massachusetts roads. Having lived here for sixteen years, I understand the road system, but I swear I got lost a half dozen times by trying to follow a road (the Mystic Valley Parkway) which occurs in at least four distinct, non-contiguous segments in different areas! That’s gonna take a bit more scouting.
Then, yesterday being the only nice day of the month, I went and joined the Quad Cycles group ride, which went well enough until my legs simply gave out approaching Carlisle. From there on, I was the slowest rider in the group (and there are some real slow people on that ride). It was pure lack of muscle power and excess lactic acid buildup, undoubtedly because I haven’t been able to start my training yet. Very discouraging, but at least I don’t have to peak until August.
Yesterday nearly became another 100-mile day.
I began the day doing the first two legs of my usual Quad Cycles ride. It was a bit odd, since a few PMC riders were there to share their post-ride stories, yet a few more riders (including ride leader Bobby Mac) were absent because this weekend is the Mass Red Ribbon Ride, the inheritor to scandalous Palotta Teamworks' Boston-NY AIDS Ride. I rode with the QC folks as far as Concord, where fellow PMC'er Tony and I forked off and headed to Waltham via Baker Bridge Road. Before we went our separate ways, Tony showed me a shortcut on Weston and Silver Hill Roads in Lincoln.
I had come back to Waltham to meet up with some BRC folks who were planning a leisurely ride of their own. After starting in Waltham, the route looped through an area west of Waltham and south of Concord that I'd never ridden through much: Weston, Wayland, and Sudbury. It was pretty relaxing, and a good ride overall. Sandwiched between two rainy days, it was beautiful weather, and even got a bit hot. I even got to show off the Silver Hill shortcut I'd learned from Tony mere hours before!
I'd planned to return home and catch some sleep before heading out again for the annual midnight architectural tour of Boston ride, which I missed last year due to the injuries from my PMC crash, but again it just wasn't to be. I hadn't gotten much sleep this week, and I was really fatigued ofter the 76 miles I'd already done. On top of that, I still had a house guest, and felt what might be just the beginnings of a sinus infection. As if that wasn't enough, the remnants of Hurricane Charley were supposed to hit us in the midnight-to-dawn period, so all things considered, I opted to sleep instead of ride throughout the night. A pity, but it would have brought my day's mileage over a century, and I don't need to be riding those kinds of miles anymore!
It was, however, really cool to be able to just ride for the pure enjoyment of it, while still being at my peak strength and endurance, without pushing myself to train, It made today's 76 miles, replete with hills, a pretty effortless and magical thing. It's always a delight to be able to easily do rides that had been immense and painful challenges only a few months before.
Well-o well-o! The PMC is a two-day, 190-mile event; If there’s anything that’ll prove that I’m ready for it, it’d be riding 190 miles in two days, which is just what I did this past weekend.
On Saturday, the usual 40-mile Quad Cycles ride expanded into a 70-mile ride (that also concluded with some massive hills on Trapelo Road and Park Street). Add the 20 mile round trip from home to Quad Cycles and back, and you’ve got a 90-mile ride.
Sunday’s QC ride was the same 70 miles, but instead of going home, I wandered around a bit. I went to Davis to visit ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
iniren (and shower) before riding out to Lexington for a party. Then there was the 15-mile midnight ride home, which I opted to do on the completely deserted bike path. By the time the clock struck one, my odometer read 190 miles.
Yep. Although I didn’t plan it that way, this weekend I wound up doing the same distance that I will be doing on this year’s Pan-Mass Challenge. Of course, the PMC is broken up 125/65, rather than 90/100, so it’s a little different, but I don’t think there can be any question that I’m in great shape for it!
And yes, that was a three-digit number you saw for Sunday. Although it came in three slightly distinct chunks, I did a century yesterday: only the third one I’ve ever done, and the first that wasn’t part of a Pan-Mass ride. That’s pretty cool, too!
But after all that, my butt is pretty bruised (yes, literally), and my legs are tired. The real question now is how quickly I can recover, because I’m going to be facing one of my biggest cycling challenges ever later this week, and certainly also setting a new all-time one-week mileage record in the bargain.
Stay tuned for that story next!
Last year I crashed out of my PMC ride when I was at the tail end of a paceline and hit a pothole that no one had signaled. Today I was in a paceline on a Quad Cycles ride approaching Carlisle when the guy in front of me lost it. He’d been daydreaming and touched wheels with the guy he was following, which is a recipe for instant death.
It’s like having the car in front of you lose all his tires when you’re travelling 80 miles an hour; there was nowhere I could go but over him. Cyclists call it an “endo”; not because you need an endoscopy afterward, but because you go “end over end”, or over the handlebars. The guy behind me also went down.
We all got up and inventoried our bodies (first) and our bikes (second). No one was seriously hurt, and I think I was the worst off. I had a patch of road rash on my right hip, slightly higher than where I hit in last year’s PMC crash; a good-sized road rash on my right knee that swelled up prodigiously; plus a few assorted other cuts and bruises. The worst is the knee, which will take a bit of time to heal, but it isn’t all that serious. That’s good, because I’ve been uninsured since earlier in the year.
Fortunately, the PMC ride is still a month away, and I should be fine by then. Of more concern is my west coast trip, which is in two weeks. Still, I imagine things will be fine by then, since after icing my knee and hip I managed to make the 22-mile ride back home. It’s more frustrating that I had been planning to spend over 160 miles in the saddle this fine weekend, and now I’m reduced to sitting at home and eating. But I’m thankful it wasn’t any worse, because it was a lot like those really messy first-lap pileups that you sometimes see in auto races.
Oh well. At least Le Tour will be on!
Mmmm. Last weekend: 125 miles. This weekend: 132 miles. Those are pretty prodigious numbers, even for me.
Actually, this weekend would have been higher, if the weather had cooperated. Saturday was the usual Quad Cycles ride. Although the forecast said 70 percent chance of rain, it looked like the sun might break through, and the radar showed rain mostly to the northwest, so I saddled up. Besides, since it’s rained part of every Pan-Mass ride I’ve done, it would be good practice, no? Stupid.
Oh yeah, it poured, but at least it was reasonably warm. The ride was foreshortened (by all of a mere 10 miles), so I only did 50. If you combined the amount of grit and gravel in the bottom of my shower with that on the floor after I cleaned up the bike, it would easily amount to more than a cup. I swear, there’s nothing worse than rain.
Sunday, however, was a perfect day, and I did not just the usual Quad Cycles 60 miles (which is only 40 miles for those folks who don’t have a 10-mile commute to the shop), but I was one of just three people who did the full 60-mile route (which for me winds up in excess of 80 miles by the time I get back to Boston). Quite a lengthy ride, but good training.
Clearly, I’ve got the miles down. Now it’s just a matter of tweaking my form, while riding enough so that I don’t lose any conditioning.
And, of course, there’s that big trip to the west coast coming up. But that’s a story for another day…
Yesterday was quite an interesting day for me, so I thought I’d share.
Having already put 125 miles in this weekend, I decided that my goals for the day would be some hill climbing and a bit of exploring new routes.
After riding out to Alewife, I began my first exploration. Instead of taking the exceedingly popular Minuteman Bikeway, I turned off and took the less well-known Fitchburg Cutoff, a short stone dust path that runs parallel to the commuter rail line, from Alewife to Belmont Center. The path has been narrowed by encroaching vegetation, but it’s quite passable if you’re not focused on speed.
As I approached the end of the path, up ahead where it intersects with Brighton Street I saw three cyclists go by: one with a red, white, and blue helmet, and two others in blue and green Quad Cycles jerseys. I caught up with them and verified that the leader was indeed Bobby Mac, the guy who leads the Quad Cycles weekend training rides that I often take part in. That was really surprising, because I‘ve never known Bobby to ride in Belmont, and being there at just the right time—midday on a Wednesday—is just ludicrously improbable. We chatted for a bit, and I followed them back to the store, where I peeled off.
That was convenient for my interest in hill climbing, because Quad Cycles is right at the foot of one of the best climbs in the area: a 380-foot hill with an MWRA water tower on top. So I rode my usual route up Park Ave. to the top.
But I wasn’t through exploring. There are many roads that ascend that hill, but I’d only ever done two of them. So the next thing I did was try coming up the other side of Park Ave., from Belmont. Unfortunately, that side of the hill wasn’t much of a challenge, and the road was busy and in poor condition, so that’s been permanently taken out of consideration.
Then I went down Eastern Ave., which turns into Spring Street. My friend Jeremy had said that was a better challenge than Park Ave., and he was indeed right. At just shy of a mile, it’s the longest side of the hill, and because it starts at a lower elevation than the other roads—just 85 feet above sea level—it also sports the most altitude gain.
I was timing myself on each ascent I did, but I’d gotten no more than a quarter of the way up Spring Street when my cell phone rang. I pulled aside, turned off the stopwatch, and talked to my friend iniren for about 15 minutes. As I did, I saw a woman cyclist ride down the hill, and climb back up past me. She was wearing last year’s Pan-Mass Challenge jersey, the one with the Boston Red Sox motif; amusingly, it was the same one I had on at the time, and I waved and gave her a thumbs-up as she passed me.
After iniren hung up, I went back down Spring Street (seeing that PMC rider climbing the hill a second time), reset my stopwatch, and began a second ascent. But only six minutes after I hung up with iniren, as I was about a third of the way up Spring Street, my cell phone rang again! This time it was a consulting company I’d been interviewing at, calling to let me know that they were turning me down. That certainly didn’t help my mood any.
Then it was back down once more, for a third attempt to climb Spring Street. This time I made it to the top. It’s quite a climb, a great discovery, and is now one of my two preferred routes up that hill. If you’re familiar with Route 2, Spring Street parallels the long hill that climbs through Arlington and Belmont.
From there, I decided to explore yet another route. I’d recently seen an article about a Boston bike courier who used Oakland Ave. to train on. As Oakland goes over the hill, I first tried the west approach, but that, like the south approach of Park Ave., is barely a hill at all. Then I went down Oakland’s east approach, which is a bit of a hill, but it’s neither as long as Spring Street’s ascent, nor as steep as School Street.
Oakland did, however, dump me off near the foot of School Street, which is my other favorite approach. While Spring Street may be the longest climb and have the most elevation gain, School Street (which turns into Kenilworth Road) is by far the steepest and most monotonic grade. It’s death on a stick; that’s why I like it so well. So I timed myself going up School Street, as well.
After that, I made two more trips down and up Spring Street again. As I climbed one time, I again saw that woman cyclist. Judging by the number of times I saw her going up and down Spring Street, I became convinced that she’s a machine—probably one of those Fembots used by the villains in the Austin Powers movies. Though on one trip up, I did pass her as she stood at the side of the road, fuming at her chain which she said unshipped every time at that point on the hill.
By then I’d put in about six trips up that hill, and added about 20 miles to my weekly total, so I decided to head home. I took the Fitchburg Cutoff again on the way home, but had some difficulty approaching it via Channing Road, because the commercial landowners had fenced off the connecting property.
Once home, I had a couple surprises in the mail. One was a PMC donation from one of my aunts, and every donation is worth celebrating these days! The other was the pack of ten “LiveStrong” bracelets that I’d ordered from the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I figure that, as a symbol of support for cancer victims, it’d be a good thing to wear during my PMC ride, but I can also wear one every day in the hopes that someone might either recognize it or ask about it, giving me an opening for talking about my PMC ride and potentially gaining another sponsor for my ride.
Oh, and in writing this article, I also discovered that John Hirtle has put his most recent shots up on the Quad Cycles photo page. He takes snapshots during the weekend rides, and he got a pretty good solo photo of me on June 20th at Concord’s historic Old North Bridge, which is one of our rest stops. A cropped version of the photo illustrates this journal entry, and the original can be seen as picture #9 on this page.
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